From Conakry before going to IST

So once again, I write from Conakry, only this time the country isn't in crisis or striking, so I can actually get out and do stuff. So far I've made a quick trip to the market to get dinner, and watched a couple of movies in the house. I'll make another - more thorough - trip to the market later today, and tomorrow I'm going "en ville" (downtown) to get food from the all you can eat fancy brunch place that's super expensive because everything is imported (but where you can get a real espresso, good fruit juices, quiche, etc) assuming they're open. If not, I'll probably get Chinese food from the place run by ex-pat Chinese people mainly for ex-pat Chinese people (the menu is in chinese and nobody there speaks very good French, so we usually need to order via sign language (sizzling beef is "boeuf SSSZZZSSZZZZSZZ" with both hands making a fire motion with the fingers)).

Otherwise, I plan on spending my time hanging out with my friends here at the house, using the internet to upload pictures and gmail-chat with friends, and hopefully cooking something for myself at some point (so far I've just been buying pre-made street food, shwarma's mostly -though, depending on who I buy it from it tastes like I'm eating a carne asada taco, a salad wrap with french fries and a little beef, or a barbeque beef wrap, not one of them tastes like a real shwarma).

I'm here in Conakry as an extended stop-over period before going to Mamou for IST (in-service training). My entire training group (minus the one guy who quit) are going to get together for a week of training at the conference compound there. This means we'll be living dorm-style 3 to a room, getting meals and tea breaks on a schedule from the compound's kitchen (hard boiled eggs, bread and margarine for breakfast, rice and sauce for lunch and usually dinner (though sometimes they make something like chicken with fries....which is great)). It will be nice to see everyone again, and to get a better quality of rice and sauce given to me twice a day, however I think I'll definitely be ready to get back to my house after this week of having my day scheduled out for me.

As far as life in Bintimodia goes, things have been ok. Teaching is a bit frustrating, but nothing too bad. I was told by my vice principal that grades are due on February 2nd (the day I get back from Mamou), he told me this the morning I was leaving for over a week...so that's not going to happen, though I'm sure I won't be the only one to have fallen behind. Our biology teacher got a job with a different school and quit mid-year, so now there's no biology classes. My principal is looking to hire someone buy I'm tempted to offer to teach it at least to 10th grade - since they have a large high-school entrance exam coming up with a biology section - if he doesn't have someone by the time I get back. However, I'm going to talk to my friend Jarrad about this since he's been teaching biology at his school along with chemistry since his school was in the same situaton as me when the school year started.

I left Barté with my principal again since things went well last time, but as soon as I dropped him off, he followed me back to the house, then fought when I was taking him back. He eventually escaped and ran across the street to the Credit Rural (some sort of government bank-like loan institution, I think, there's one in most villages) where his best friend Fodé Moussa works (an older guy who I speak with in Susu (he doesn't speak French) and who my cat loves more than me). I'll probably just ask him to look after him next time I need to leave the village since I don't think he'd mind, I just don't have the communication skills in Susu to get this request across.

Anyway, I think I'll post again before leaving on Sunday, so until then...