Through my pre-service training I am getting to know some pretty terrible facts about Guinea. About 10% of the babies here die before age 5. 99% of girls are victims of female genital mutilation. 85% of the population lives on less than a dollar a day. Despite all of this, the people in Guinea are the most friendly in the world. It takes a while to get anywhere here because you have to say hello to everyone. Hello is not just hi. It is did you sleep well last night? Was the night without evil? How is your health? How is your family? That is what you say to a stranger as you walk by. In case you want to know what that is in local language, the closest I can get on an American keyboard is… “Tana Mu xi? Xeri xi? A nere fe? Denbayago?”
Some examples of how amazing the people are here…
My host brother is 15. He knows only a little bit about me. From the fact that I celebrated Christmas, he knows I am Christian. From the fact that I have shown him a ton of pictures of Louie he knows that I love dogs. He was in the capital this week and he brought me back a glow in the dark Rosary, a stack of puppy stickers, and made a sacrifice for my health and safety. The way the sacrifice works is you purchase a blessed object so for my sacrifice, I have a ring. I have not said the rosary since Holy Child, the ring has turned my finger green, and what am I going to do with 25 puppy stickers, but think about it, how many 15 year old boys that you know would be that thoughtful?
The other day, we ran a discussion session on volunteerism with local youth. We were talking about what you can personally gain from volunteerism. One girl said, You get a ‘merci’ and a merci is worth more than a dollar.
The people are also funny without realizing it. They all wear goodwill leftovers from the US but have no idea what their t-shirts say. DARE t-shirts are popular here and I saw a girl wearing “Irish Girls Have More Fun” and a boy wearing “I love my Brownie Troupe”. There is also a 8ish year old who always bathes at the time I walk home. He jumps up and down naked and soapy when I walk pass and yells “Hello Meg hat! Good bye!”
Unfortunately, they are also very open in their marriage proposals. I think I am in the lead for most prospective husbands. One guy was pretty serious about marrying me, but I eventually told him that I had a husband and since then he has not been waiting for me when I come home to tall me all the reasons why we should go dancing together…
Hopefully you have a picture of me handy when your Guinean suitor asks about your American husband.
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