This is Africa (TIA)

 This is Africa moments

1.  Mayonaisse sandwiches are not only considered delicious but nutritious and are regularly eaten (bread and mayo = mayonaisse sandwich)
2.  Children yelling "opoto" (white person) every time I walk past is considered normal and okay.  Swarming me and asking fro money is also okay.
3.  You need to bargain for everything, especially if you are white. Immediately upon seeing that a white person is interested in their goods the price will be automatically doubled. So learn to talk price and learn to do it well.
4. Most students wont show up to school for the first 2 weeks just because.  It is common and expected for them not to be there.  Also, school will be canceled for sporting events or on Mondays after an eventful weekend so people have a chance to rest..
5.  People have monkeys as pets. People also eat monkeys.  My neighbors had a monkey but they sold it a few weeks ago. I strongly suspect it ended up in someones stew.
6. There are spiders the size of my hand here. I asked my neighbor to kill one for me and after she did I heard her telling my other neighbors that she had to kill a tiny spider for the white girl next door.  If that was a tiny spider I may be back in America sooner than expected.
7.  My favorite food here is called acheke. It consists of spaghettie, gari, pepper sauce, ketchup,fish, mayonnaise, a little lettuce and some cucumber.  Mmmm sounds delicious right?? Haha the first time I saw someone eat it I thought it was incredibly disgusting.  Now I am hooked.
8. We did superlatives for all the trainees. I won most likely to marry a Sierra Leoneon. In high school I won most likely to marry for money. My life is ironic.
9. Another my life is ronic moment.. As a child my one request while my family was camping was that we could spend one night in a hotel so I could take a bath. I am now living in a country without running water or electricity and I regularly pee in a bucket. I also need to sleep under a mosquite net, not because of mosquitos but as a protector from mice, rats and cockroaches.  What happened in my life that led me to this pioint?? haha

Hey everyone,

Life here is still good.  Hmm what is there to update you on... I get boku new things to say (boku = a lot)

Umm first of all, only 2 more weeks and training will be done. Which means I will have no more classes (honestly its like I'm back in high school but with an 11 pm curfew on the weekends) and I will officially be a Peace Corps volunteer!! Yess you read that correctly.  Although, I have been living and working in Sierra Leone for 2 months at this point I am still technically not a volunteer.  But that will soon change and I will move to my site and my two years of service will officially start!! 

Training has gotten much better, although much more tiring, with the addition of summer school.  So summer school is a way for all of us volunteers who have absolutely no teaching experience to learn to teach and manage a class of 50 students here in Salone.  It has gone pretty well and I have found that overall I do really enjoy teaching (lucky considering that will be my job for the next 2 years).  Learning to plan lessons, keep control of the classroom, and explain math to students that not only dislike but fear the subject has definitely had its challenging moments though.  Especially the classroom management. I have never really been able to instill fear into anyone and considering all my students are taller than me it probably wont start here.  So instead I'm just hoping they like and respect me enough to behave.. haha But to all my friends that are teachers I have new found respect for you and the work you do every day. If you have any tips please send them my way :) However, keep in mind that here we use chalkboards, class sizes are regularly around 50, and students' textbooks consist of the notes they take in class every day. 

Learning the local language (Limba) has definitely been challenging.  Yes I have moved on from learning Krio and am now learning another new language.  Krio was pretty easy since it is a blend of English with other languages but Limba is definitely a challenge. Oh well, everyone here speaks Krio anyways so I can always fall back on that when my Limba fails.  And Fadugu, the village I am going to, is pretty evenly split between 3 tribes (Fullah, Madingo, and Limba) so learning Limba is not essential to my integration. 

Umm what else is there to say.. umm well my internet time is running out so I guess that is it for now but check the blog because I posted some "This is Africa" moments on there.

Love and Miss you all!!  Keep the updates coming!
Sara