[I] had another conversation with “a school official” who keeps trying to wedge me out of any decision making in the library project and insists on calling the shots while having me do all the work (I want it to be a community library so we can extend it to all of Bintimodia and have the community take an interest in it which might help preserve it in the long-term – he insists it should be the school’s library and wouldn’t even hear my thoughts about getting important community figureheads (the head of the Women’s group, etc) involved in the committee, which currently consists of the school admin and one teacher (oh yeah, and me, I guess, though I’m starting to wonder if I’m just the token American whose job it is to find books and money, organize the entire system, and let the big boys call the shots))).
Guinea PCV Fed in Guinea writes: The past two weeks have been a mixed bag of sorts
Friday, January 16, 2009
Frustrations, Successes, and Exploding Batteries
[Excerpt]
Anyway, the past two weeks have been a mixed bag of sorts, I got strep throat, killed two mice, saw an ENORMOUS rat that my cat just sorta followed in a “what’s this?” sort of way as it ambled into my latrine, yelled at and walked out on one of my classes (the English lesson for the day was “you’re all wasting my f**king time!” – it was a chemistry class), had a power struggle with one of my students (he wouldn’t stop talking in class, so I kicked him out, and he just sat there and stared at me defiantly until he realized I wasn’t kidding around when I grabbed his notebook and threw it out the window (I’m pretty sure he was older than me, and was experimenting with the “petit” system where he’s higher on the food chain than me)), had another conversation with “a school official” who keeps trying to wedge me out of any decision making in the library project and insists on calling the shots while having me do all the work (I want it to be a community library so we can extend it to all of Bintimodia and have the community take an interest in it which might help preserve it in the long-term – he insists it should be the school’s library and wouldn’t even hear my thoughts about getting important community figureheads (the head of the Women’s group, etc) involved in the committee, which currently consists of the school admin and one teacher (oh yeah, and me, I guess, though I’m starting to wonder if I’m just the token American whose job it is to find books and money, organize the entire system, and let the big boys call the shots))).
On the upside, I’ve started getting out to the neighboring communities more with one of my better friends, going for walks in the afternoons and stopping by with people to chat, etc (every time I go out I end up coming home with an armful of “cadeaux” oranges (‘tis the season), and on one memorable occasion two of the best grapefruits I’ve ever had). I’ve made more friends in the village, and my cat and I are coming to an understanding about what he should and shouldn’t do (though his new little game is running to Guineans during prayer time - when they’re kneeling and bowing to Mecca - and try to get them to play…it’s not as cute after the first few times. I got some awesome cargo shorts commissioned (I just had to move the button over by an inch or so since they were a bit too large), and I finally got my bamboo closet/wardrobe/shelf thing for my room, though getting it was an adventure.
