Life in the Peace Corps, Part 3, The Beginning

After completion of our training in Senegal, we traveled to Guinea to see our host country for the first time. As the rains had been late in Senegal, our time there was mostly marked by sand and heat and more of the same. The brilliant green lushness of coastal Guinea having already seen months of rain, was a beautiful sight in spite of the humidity. A couple quick weeks of training, and we would finally be on our ways as volunteers at our posts. A healthy dose of nervous excitement permeated this period. By this time we knew exactly where we were assigned to live and work for the next 2 years. Some were mildly disappointed or mildly excited by what we imagined these new homes would be and what experiences we would have there, but most of that was based on ignorance. Still, having a specific place to put in our questions as we met the other volunteers already serving in Guinea made everything more real.

We spent most of the last two weeks studying the local languages. While most of our work would be conducted in French, that was only the official and business language. Most people spoke their native tribal language around the home, and many people did not have enough schooling to speak French adequately. In the region where I was posted, Pulaar or Fulani (same language) was the native tongue. In sessions less intense than our earlier French training, volunteers posted in the same region learned the greetings, vocabulary, and grammar of this complex language. [ad name="Adsense Small Horz Banner"] With the last bits of information handed to us, we prepared ourselves as much as we could for finally striking out our own pretending that we understood what to do. At the end of training, there was a swearing-in ceremony. We all took the same oath "to uphold and defend the constitution of the United States against all enemies..." that other government servants take. We had the chance to meet more volunteers from the class ahead of us, who had already been there a year, and have a bit of a party saying farewell to those we had been in training with that we would not see again for months.

After we were sworn in as official Peace Corps Volunteers (no longer just trainees), we headed off to the regional capitals to gather essentials to making our new homes. We hit the markets with a small pile of money to purchase sheets, cooking gas, utensils, buckets, jugs, and other containers, clothing, soap, tea, bleach, candles, water filters, batteries, and mosquito coils. Now carrying what seemed to be 200 lbs. worth of gear per person, an experienced volunteer accompanied each of us to our posts. We piled in a bush taxi, a Peugeot 505 Wagon, and drove off down a dirt road for a few hours to reach our destination, dropping off other volunteers along the way.

[ad name="Peace Corps In Line Banner"] We met the local dignitaries exchanging pleasantries, and saw our homes for the first time at last dropping off our gear in a place it would stay for more than a couple months. The photo shows my house as it appeared when I arrived there, a large but very simple space for a single man (no electricity, no running water). I toured the school where I would be working and the village where many of the people would become friendly and very helpful acquaintances even when we could not communicate all that well at first. And after all of the moving place to place, and training, training, training, I finally had a quite moment to think about my new life for the next two years teaching Math to Guinean students.

The challenge before me at that point was difficult and exciting, and I was extremely aware that my learning had just begun.