Permanent site, Kombo District

Well, I've moved to my permanent site. For safety reasons, we;re encouraged not to write the name of our community in our blogs, but if you want to shoot me an email, I can tell you right where I am. It is indeed in Kombo district, but that covers a lot of the south bank, coastal region.

Anyhoo, my host family is very different from the one I was staying with in Bumari. For one, it is much smaller—my host father, just one host mother, their five children aged 14, 12, 7, 4, and 11 mos., and my host father's younger brother. They all seem very nice and I think that my host mother and I will be friends. The the four-year-old is a hoot. I'm pretty sure that he would be diagnosed with some sort of hyperactivity disorder if he were in the states, he's always moving. He runs around the yard stacking all the chairs, then re-stacking them somewhere else, he runs around with a bucket on his head, and he just runs circles around me. We play until I'm tired and then I just watch him run. He's my BFF. The eleven-month-old is very healthy, he's getting ready to walk, but in the meantime is just standing up, doing a bunch of fast knee-bends, then sitting back down on his huge behind.
The compound itself is much bigger, and they use the space to grow cassava and oranges. Both my parents work, my father as a police officer, and my mother as a cleaner, and all the kids go to school, so originally I was shocked at how quiet things were. In training, there were always lots of people around, and lots of animals roaming willy-nilly, and here thats not the case. I think in the long run, I'll be glad for the peace and quiet in the mornings.
My house itself is great! Its has two rooms, both get lots of sunlight. My back yard/latrine area is very spacious and sunny. There is an orange tree back there that is giving fruit! I'm anxious to get a garden going back there. One of the former volunteers who stayed here wired the house for solar electricity, so thats a blessing. Also, the food is a lot better here, I'm very happy about that.

As of yet, I have not done a lot of exploring. I don't know what it is that I'll be working on, we don;t get a direct assignment as such. I'm encouraged to use the next 3-6 months for making relationships and assessing the needs as well as the strengths of the community ONLY, and not start any major projects. Without a thorough understanding of the community, and without their involvement, any project that I begin would be doomed to fail. I think at times, this will be difficult. I get antsy to get started, but also sitting and talking to people in another language for hours is exhausting, so whether it seems like it or not, it is hard work. There are a few schools in the area, an NGO that one that PC country director is super excited about, a hospital, and a women's group. I'm just going to hang out for next few months and explore what these groups are doing, and seeing in what ways I can be of use.
And now for my own small tangent. The longer I am here, the more I wish I were an education volunteer. Health is great and all, and very important, but I get really incensed about the rate of illeracy, and it just makes me angry at the British style schooling that these kids get which emphasizes rote memorization in place of actual learning and application of knowledge. An example: I would be sitting around outside my old host fam's, studying my notebook, and one of my host sisters would come to me and start reciting what she “knew.” It went like this “A-N-T! Ant! B-O-Y! Boy! C-A-N! Can! D-O-G! Dog!” but if you put anything in front of her, she couldn't read it. I was irritated both because I was trying to study, and also because she didn't actually know anything about what she was saying, but because she could parrot all that out, no one might question her ability. My new host sisters(ages 14 and 12) were doing exercises in a Mandinka school workbook, and were having trouble matching vocab words to pictures. They would get stuck and have me read words to them. They kept saying how well I knew Mandinka for only being here two months. They are both fluent speakers, its not that I know the language well, its that I know how to read, and the rules for pronunciation.
I guess after writing all that, I do realize that this happens in the US as well. Kids get passed grade to grade, even if they have not mastered the material. There are plenty of kids who can't read. It pisses me off just as much in the states as it does here. But still, I'd like to work with the schools here, or work with teachers to become more effective, I'm just not sure if I'm “allowed” because its outside my sector. We'll see. Maybe it will be a side project.

Anyhoo, tomorrow I'm back to the capital for one last language test, some few classes, our swearing in ceremony, and shopping for household goods (this concrete floor is not soft for sleeping on), then I;m back here for the next number of months. I love you all very much!