Bienvenue à Dubréka!

Dubréka, Guinée

After making 27 new friends and traveling 30 hours, I finally arrived in Guinea! 

The first week of Pre-service training just ended, and I'm slowly adjusting to a new lifestyle. During training, since my cohort is all education volunteers, we all learn how to teach the subjects we've been assigned in the Guinean context as well as strengthening our language skills. French is the official language in Guinea and is the language that's spoken in schools as well, but here in Dubréka Susu is the local language. Since I already speak French, in my language class we have discussions about different social issues as well as grammar revision. And, in my technical training classes, since I'll be an English teacher, we go over useful expressions to use in class, classroom management strategies, and effective lesson planing methods. As for my cohort, it's be great getting to know people and everyone is really nice. We're a relatively small group, so we've all been able to become friends with one another and seem to get along quite well. 

After the first few days in Guinea, we all moved from living at the training center to living with host families. My host family, the Baldés are incredible people. My host mom, Maïmouna (I call her maman) and my two host sisters Nenegalé and Hadja are three of the most generous and loving women I've ever met. They've welcomed me into their home with open arms and treat me like family. Polygamy is really common in Guinea, my host Dad who unfortunately passed away a few years ago, had three wives, all of whom live in the compound with their children. It's a huge family, which means I get to meet and talk to new people everyday! Since I'm now part of the family, I have new name, Sabana Baldé. Sabana, is the month before Ramadan in the Muslim calendar, so Sabana, who I'm named after was born then, so she was given Sabana as her middle name. It's been an interesting experience having to remember and respond to an entirely different name, but it definitely makes me feel more part of the family/community than an outsider. 

Aside from a new name, I've also been slowly adjusting to the climate here, which during the rainy season is hot and very humid. I also don't have a fan, so I've become very appreciative of the breeze that comes through my window as well as the night-time rainstorms that cool things down a bit. The food in Guinea is also very different from anywhere I've traveled before, they eat a lot of rice and fish or rice and sauce, but luckily my host family is very understanding of my veganism, so I've been able to try some surprisingly good food thus far. I'm looking forward to the next three months and am exciting to get to know Guinea and Guinean culture better as I move through my service.