Letters from Volunteers in the Field

Stephanie Chasteen's Letters while a PCV - World Wise Schools letters

These are letters Stephanie Chasteen wrote home during her service.

10/98: Daily Life

Details: Category: Stephanie Chasteen's Letters while a PCV - World Wise Schools letters

Second Letter to Linda Becker's 1998-99 class at Mast Way School in Lee, New Hampshire
October 17, 1998

Hello again! I just finished my lunch of rice with peanut sauce, and I thought I would take a moment to write to you all.

You may be wondering what my daily life is like. In general, I set my alarm for 7:00 a.m. and get up at 8:00 a.m. (I'm sure you've all done that before!). I sweep my concrete floor, which gathers dust so easily, and go out to my latrine. My latrine is just outside the house - a concrete and corrugated-iron building with a tiled pit latrine. I have a two-burner gas stove where I cook my breakfast of oatmeal and tea, and I make my way to the health center around 9. At the health center, I greet all of my colleagues in turn (very important!) and chat a little while. Maybe I'll practice my Pulaar (local language) or help lead a staff meeting to discuss projects we're working on. That may sound very professional and simple, but I assure you . . . things are quite different here. We never set meeting times, and if we do, they change. Only one or two people ever speak in meetings - the educated men. When I try to ask the women's opinions, they often look at me as if I'm making fun of them. And, because this is a society where appearances and groups are very important (i.e., they are "collectivist" versus the "individualist" culture of the U.S.A.), they never tell me what they really think of my ideas. "Yes, yes, yes, that's very important," they'll agree. However, then nobody takes the idea and works on it. They just agreed so that we could all agree and I wouldn't lose face.

12/97: Food

Details: Category: Stephanie Chasteen's Letters while a PCV - World Wise Schools letters

World Wise Schools program, Letter #2
Food

December, 1997

One of my greater fears in life was realized yesterday. While making an omelette, I cracked an egg into a bowl and, mixed in with yolk and egg-white, was the beginnings of a tiny chick. Gross, right? Well the point of this wasn't to gross you out (though I probably did that, too!), but rather to show you how drastically different food is here in Africa.

In the U.S., it's highly unlikely that chick would have found its way to my breakfast table. Your eggs are laid by rows upon rows of caged egg-laying hens. Those hens are specially bred and are fed a special diet so that they'll produce good eggs. The resulting eggs are tested, sorted, packaged, and shipped. You'll find them on your supermarket shelf in those cute little boxes, stamped with an expiration date.

9/98: Intro, my house

Details: Category: Stephanie Chasteen's Letters while a PCV - World Wise Schools letters

First Letter to Linda Becker's 1998-99 class at Mast Way School in Lee, New Hampshire
September 28, 1998

Hello to all! I'm a Peace Corps volunteer in Guinea, West Africa, and I'll be writing to you this year. I hope to get a lot of letters from you, too, since life in the village gets pretty lonely.

I'm a Public Health/Community Development volunteers, which means I can take on a variety of roles. I give health talks in the Health Center on diarrhea, family planning, AIDS, etc., and train local people to do health education. According to the needs of the community, I can arrange midwife trainings, latrine building, school building, educational events, and other numerous possibilities.

10/98: Schools

Details: Category: Stephanie Chasteen's Letters while a PCV - World Wise Schools letters

First Letter to Kris Lynes' 1998-99 grade 3-4 class at Mast Way School in Lee, New Hampshire
Saturday, October 19, 1998

Hello to all! Welcome to a new year of school. Some of you who were in Mrs. Lynes' class last year will remember me. Those who are new to the class - I'm a Peace Corps Volunteer in Guinea, West Africa. Mrs. Lynes' class and I have been writing each other the past year - sharing letters, stories, and drawings. I can't wait to hear from all of you!

The school year just recently started here, and we kicked it off with a big party. We held a grand ceremony for the school opening, and gave school books to the top students in each class. School materials here are not free, and most families have a hard time finding the $3-$4 for books, plus notebooks, pens, and school uniforms. We asked some people in the capital city to help us out, and with the $100 they gave us, we were able to really help some kids out.

3/98: Water

Details: Category: Stephanie Chasteen's Letters while a PCV - World Wise Schools letters

World Wise Schools program, Letter #3

Second Letter to Kris Lynes' grade 3-4 class at Mast Way School in Lee, New Hampshire

March/April 1998

Hello to all! Thank you again for all your wonderful drawings. As soon as Easter vacation is over, I plan to show them to the children in the local school, and ask them to make some drawings for you, too. If you have questions to ask them, please send them to me, and I'll translate them into French.

Several of you asked if there are schools here. The answer is yes - there are schools and post offices and banks and stores, just like at home. The difference is that things don't work quite as well here. The stores are small. The banks are inefficient. The mail is slow. Roads are bad. Things, such as buildings and furniture, aren't built as well in general, because they don't have enough money for good cement, wood, or for power tools (carpentry and construction work is done by hand in the villages).

10/97: Intro, laundry

Details: Category: Stephanie Chasteen's Letters while a PCV - World Wise Schools letters

World Wise Schools program, Letter #1

First Letter to Kris Lynes' grade 3-4 class at Mast Way School in Lee, New Hampshire

October 13, 1997, Monday

Hi! As you know, I'm a Peace Corps volunteer in Guinea, West Africa. I grew up in Lee, N.H. You should all know my mom - Mrs. Chasteen. I studied Psychology at Bard College in upstate New York, and then moved to San Francisco. I lived there for almost 2 years before joining the Peace Corps. Now, I'm 25 years old. You should check out my web site (and drop an e-mail to my webmaster - Ulysses - my boyfriend in San Francisco). Mrs. Lynes can give you the address.

I joined the Peace Corps mostly because it's very important to me to understand the world we live in, and I feel that living in a third-world country can give me that perspective much more than any vacation. I'm very much here to learn. In the past, people joined the Peace Corps because they wanted to "save the world". We've become much more realistic about what we can actually accomplish in terms of helping the development of our host country. We hope to touch a few lives here, do what we can, and bring our knowledge of the culture home, to educate fellow Americans. That's why I'm writing to you!