Counterpart Workshop

It’s been a few weeks since I’ve given an update. A lot has happened since practice school. The following Wednesday after the practice school award ceremony we departed for Mamou to participate in our 4 day counterpart workshop. Here, each volunteer met with the person from there village who they will be working with on secondary projects or any other projects related to the village. In most cases it was the principal of the school or another colleague. I was fortunate enough to have the only woman counterpart at the workshop who happens to be the principal of the college (middle school) I’ll be working for. Before we were all introduced I remember seeing her from across the room and thinking to myself, that would be so cool if she was my counterpart. And I was ecstatic to when I found out that she was. We’re going to be the only 2 woman that work at the school. It’s rare in Guinea to find woman in positions of authority. Like many countries this is a society dominated by men. Within my 2 years of service I want to begin something that involves better education of women. I have to do a lot of research to figure out exactly, the who, what, when and how of what I want to do. Anyway, other than being fortunate enough to have a woman as my counterpart there aren’t too many exciting details to share about the workshop. Each day of the workshop was comprised of various information sessions describing the goals, roles, and expectations of those involved in Guinea’s Peace Corps Education program. C’est tout.