Frustrations

Today has been a tough day. I have started to experience some of the “downs” of the “ups and downs” one refers to when talking about Peace Corps. I do not want to spend time with my family today, nor do I want to study French.

AgFo works every single day. We have NO days off. Saturday we have community meeting (a time when we all get together to air grievances, make announcements, set up study groups, etc…), usually followed by a short AgFo meeting regarding the Sunday activity. Then on Sunday we have an Environmental Ed project, so far with the kids at the school where we have our pepiniere. I had a small breakdown at the beginning and a few tears were shed. I was just frustrated because Abdoul, our tech trainer, wanted us to tell the kids about what we had been doing since we saw them last and my brain just would NOT work to put together the French. Our new PCV trainer, Julie, sat with me and said it was ok, French is a hard language and I shouldn’t sweat it. I am grateful that the PCVs are so understanding and will take the time out to sit with you and help you feel better. I guess it’s because they have all been there. She said some days she cries, some days she screams, other days she punches pillows. It’s all part of life in the PC.

In the end I put together a pretty good paragraph about the mudstoves and some of the girls seemed to really understand what I said and explained it back.

In other news, I did not end up switching language trainers for next week, though my class is completely different. I am now in a class with all AgFo: Chris-Heijn, Jessica, Danyelle, and Ian. Jason ended up in another class with Mary and Sajay. The other day Danielle asked if I had had any French before coming here and then said, “You’re doing really well for only 2 weeks of class!”

Those things make me feel better about my progress but I am still worried it is not coming fast enough as we are entering Week 3 of a 9-week training period. And two weeks of it are eaten up by holidays off (Christmas Day and New Year’s Day), counterpart workshop and site visit. So really there are only 7 more weeks of instruction.

I guess I shouldn’t worry that much because in all likelihood I will never speak French at site.

Speaking of sites, the rumor is that AgFo has only 1 site in Basse Cote, 1 site in Haute and 4 in Fouta. Each region has its pluses and minuses and I’m not going to play the game about which region is “better”.

On Christmas Day we will be getting cell phones and there is good service here in Forecariah so I will be available by phone for the rest of PST. While I have enjoyed being “unplugged” for the last few weeks, it will be nice to hear voices from home once in awhile. Some of the others have had family call some of the PCVs cell phones for chats but I haven’t.

Six of us (one married couple) still do not have water filters. Traian had forgotten about it because when he was here last week and I asked him about them, he needed us to make a list of the names missing them. So hopefully that will be taken care of soon, though I don’t really mind having to go to the Bureau for water. Really I just want it in my hands so I am sure I will have it when we go to site.

Yesterday before community meeting, several of us met to do Yoga and 9-minute abs. Some of my muscles actually hurt! That’s what I get for not exercising for so long!

Today we bought some tomatoes in the market with the kids to show them how to get seeds from fruit (we also bought some starfruit and aubergines for the same purpose). We bought three small, but good tomatoes and they were 1 mil each! In American money that’s only .20 cents but here that is expensive! You can get a whole bean sandwich for 1 mil! However, tomatoes are out of season so that is part of it, too.

Also I noticed that I have spent all of my PC stipend on consumables, save for one 17 mil pagne (a rip-off, by the way, it should have been no more than 15 mil). Beer, food, soap, ketchup, water, oranges…that’s where all my money goes. When we get our next stipend this week I am vowing to spend more on non-consumables, like getting clothes made (which many others have already done) and less on food like egg sandwiches. If I am going to get an egg sandwich I need to cut it to a petite sandwich with only 1 egg and 1 cheese (should be 3 mil) as opposed to 2 eggs and 2 cheese (5 mil). Also I have stopped buying beer. Partly because Traian said it has formaldehyde in it and partly because we go to Chey Vicky’s a LOT and dropping 4 mil per beer (sometimes 5 mil when he doesn’t have change) was eating through my cash FAST. I have also stopped buying fries at Chey Vicky’s (granted, I only bought them once) because it is 5 mil for a plate of like 20 fries and no ketchup. Eff that.

It is funny how valuable a dollar has become (5 mil). Some people keep trying to convert it back to what they paid in American money so “it isn’t so bad”, but you really can’t do that here. You have to guard those francs with your life!! Well, not with your life, but with your discute (bargaining) skills.

At site, the stipend is 1 million francs/month or about $200. In training we are getting about 400,000 francs/month, or less than $100. To put that in perspective, the Guinean per-capita income is something like $500 a year. So comparatively, PCVs have a lot of money.

For Christmas, I have signed up to make mashed potatoes and Sam said she would take me to get vrai butter at a Leb Store (Lebanese store…for some reason there is a big Lebanese population in Conakry and they sell Western stuff in their stores). She also said we could get some boxed milk…so we’ll see how well the potatoes turn out!

Anyway, I’m on garden watering duty today so I am going to try and find a way to bike there without breaking my neck. A tout l’heure!

AND A COUPLE HOURS LATER: My bike’s front tire was flat when I tried to take it out to the garden. So I walked instead. No big deal, I thought, I’ll just repair the tire when I get back. So I get back and take the tire to the Bureau so Ian can help me repair it. We find the hole, patch it, stick it back in and pump it up. I ride it around the Bureau a little bit and it seems good. Mission accomplished? Not quite. As I’m getting ready to leave the Bureau about an hour later, the tire is flat again. C'est la vie in Guinea.