17/3/2012
So it has been 2 weeks since I have taught a class. Second term is
“sport” term here. Sport is a 2 day competition between the school
houses. There are four houses (think Harry Potter and how they are
sorted into houses) that compete against each other in track and field
events. You may be thinking if it is only a two day competition then
why is there no school for about 2 weeks?? Well the answer is simple.
The children have to spend 2 weeks making the track, building a fence
around the track, and then building little pavilions inside the track
for each of the houses. So all this work adds up and leads to very
little effective schooling for the two weeks prior to sport. Also,
sport is mandatory since in addition to being graded based on their
cognitive aspect (i.e. test scores) they are also graded on
psycho-motor (athletics) and affective (attitude). Anyways, while I
do think that sport is a fun activity with plenty of its own merits, I
do not fully support the sport setup, i.e. the whole missing school
for 2 weeks even though all the kids are struggling their way through
all their classes.
Overall though, I must admit I did have fun at sport the past two
days. It is nice to see everyone so excited about something and
working together towards one common goal. Also, I do enjoy cheering
on the kids as they participate in the track and field events. Oh and
some of the events here are pretty funny. I can’t wait to put up
pictures but the events include: musical chairs, egg on a spoon race,
sack race, filling a basket with mangoes race, etc. Haha I just love
that they include these events among all the other track and field
events and take them just as seriously as any of the normal running or
jumping events. This year White House won in a major upset that left
many participants displeased. White and Red were neck and neck the
whole competition but white pulled through with the victory. However,
Red won the all-house relay worth the most points so they had prepared
themselves for the victory and lined up for the awards ceremony
expecting nothing less than first place. Well as the announcer called
out “Second place goes to Red House” many of the red house
participants become quite disgruntled and after the initial shock wore
off the whole house (under the direction of the House Master - aka
teacher in charge of the students) stormed off without even watching
the presentation of the first place trophy. Haha so much for good
sportsmanship and remembering that sport is for the kids and just for
fun. Oh well everything else went off smoothly (aside from starting
at least 2 hours late both days) and I thoroughly enjoyed sport at my
school. Oh and I forgot to mention I was on the Sport Committee so I
helped organize it (kinda, I really just did whatever they told me to
do since it was my first sport and I wasn’t actually super supportive
of the whole 2 weeks preparation process. But I let them store all
the food and money in my house so no one would steal it so I guess
that’s a decent contribution on my part.)
Okay moving on.. Well on a completely different note, I have found
through my time here that I am much more passionate about human rights
than I had ever realized before. I guess I just had to go someplace
where many people are living without some rights that I feel are basic
and belong to everyone to really get charged up and interested in
them. This applies mostly to women and children’s rights as they are
often marginalized here, doing a good portion of the labor yet being
without money or food quite frequently. I especially feel for the
children since I look back at my own childhood and see now how good I
had it. We are so spoiled in America. Children here learn to work at
the ripe old age of 3 and continue until they leave the house
(although this also applies much more to the girl children than the
boys). And I’m not talking about little chores like sweep once a week
and you’ll get $5 for your allowance. No this is cooking, cleaning,
childcare, washing clothes by hand, etc. all without receiving a cent.
Also, it is much more a tough- love mentality here. Children aren’t
coddled or held or hugged too much and I cant help but feel that all
they need is a little love to really perk up their lives. But I
suppose love is shown to them in a different way because I do believe
that the parents genuinely love their children they just don’t show it
in the way we are accustomed to. Anyways I find myself getting heated
about issues I never used to consider at all and makes me want to work
towards making real change.
Okay moving on again.. My life is pretty much the same old routine.
School and just hanging out with Keba and all the kids. Mohamed is
still here in Fadugu with me so obviously things are still going on
between us and are good. He just got hired at the other secondary
school in town and will be teaching there starting tomorrow so that is
exciting. In about two weeks we will be getting ready for final exams
for this term and then we have a short break between terms. I hope to
do some travelling at this time in addition to attending a workshop on
life skills training and teenage pregnancy. So all in all things are
going well. I hope all of you are also well. Keep on sending the
emails, I really do love reading about your lives even if I don’t
always have the time (or a fast enough internet connection) to reply.
Also, for those of you sending letters and things I absolutely love
that!! It is like Christmas/ my birthday every time I get a mail drop
and see a letter or package from my family/ friends.
Okay well I love and miss you all!!
Also some of you have requested my address again so here it is:
Sara Metzler
C/O Peace Corps P.O. 905
Freetown, Sierra Leone
25/3/2012
So the internet wasn’t working last week so I couldn’t post the blog
so I decided I would just add a bit to it. Sorry this will now be a
super long post. Anyways I can update the last post to “its been
approximately 3 weeks since there has been any effective schooling at
my school.” Its not just my school though this seems to be pretty
common among most of the volunteers I talk to here so apparently March
just isn’t a great time to be teaching.. I guess. More kids (and
teachers) should show up next week though considering finals for the
term start on Monday. Despite the low number of students and school
closing every day after 2 hours I tried to do some review exercises
with my students so we’ll see if that actually helped anyone (probably
not considering most students weren’t paying attention since I was the
only teacher crazy enough to actually try and teach.)
Lets see, there isn’t much else new to discuss. Next week for my
birthday I am planning on going to Makeni to with some other
volunteers to swim at a hotel’s pool and then go eat at a restaurant
that serves Western food. So I am excited. It should be a fun time.
Otherwise, its just finals for two weeks and then we get a 2 week
break before the start of the next term. Okay I really don’t have
anything else at this point so keep on enjoying America and don’t
forget about me, I’ll be back in a year or so! ha
So it has been 2 weeks since I have taught a class. Second term is
“sport” term here. Sport is a 2 day competition between the school
houses. There are four houses (think Harry Potter and how they are
sorted into houses) that compete against each other in track and field
events. You may be thinking if it is only a two day competition then
why is there no school for about 2 weeks?? Well the answer is simple.
The children have to spend 2 weeks making the track, building a fence
around the track, and then building little pavilions inside the track
for each of the houses. So all this work adds up and leads to very
little effective schooling for the two weeks prior to sport. Also,
sport is mandatory since in addition to being graded based on their
cognitive aspect (i.e. test scores) they are also graded on
psycho-motor (athletics) and affective (attitude). Anyways, while I
do think that sport is a fun activity with plenty of its own merits, I
do not fully support the sport setup, i.e. the whole missing school
for 2 weeks even though all the kids are struggling their way through
all their classes.
Overall though, I must admit I did have fun at sport the past two
days. It is nice to see everyone so excited about something and
working together towards one common goal. Also, I do enjoy cheering
on the kids as they participate in the track and field events. Oh and
some of the events here are pretty funny. I can’t wait to put up
pictures but the events include: musical chairs, egg on a spoon race,
sack race, filling a basket with mangoes race, etc. Haha I just love
that they include these events among all the other track and field
events and take them just as seriously as any of the normal running or
jumping events. This year White House won in a major upset that left
many participants displeased. White and Red were neck and neck the
whole competition but white pulled through with the victory. However,
Red won the all-house relay worth the most points so they had prepared
themselves for the victory and lined up for the awards ceremony
expecting nothing less than first place. Well as the announcer called
out “Second place goes to Red House” many of the red house
participants become quite disgruntled and after the initial shock wore
off the whole house (under the direction of the House Master - aka
teacher in charge of the students) stormed off without even watching
the presentation of the first place trophy. Haha so much for good
sportsmanship and remembering that sport is for the kids and just for
fun. Oh well everything else went off smoothly (aside from starting
at least 2 hours late both days) and I thoroughly enjoyed sport at my
school. Oh and I forgot to mention I was on the Sport Committee so I
helped organize it (kinda, I really just did whatever they told me to
do since it was my first sport and I wasn’t actually super supportive
of the whole 2 weeks preparation process. But I let them store all
the food and money in my house so no one would steal it so I guess
that’s a decent contribution on my part.)
Okay moving on.. Well on a completely different note, I have found
through my time here that I am much more passionate about human rights
than I had ever realized before. I guess I just had to go someplace
where many people are living without some rights that I feel are basic
and belong to everyone to really get charged up and interested in
them. This applies mostly to women and children’s rights as they are
often marginalized here, doing a good portion of the labor yet being
without money or food quite frequently. I especially feel for the
children since I look back at my own childhood and see now how good I
had it. We are so spoiled in America. Children here learn to work at
the ripe old age of 3 and continue until they leave the house
(although this also applies much more to the girl children than the
boys). And I’m not talking about little chores like sweep once a week
and you’ll get $5 for your allowance. No this is cooking, cleaning,
childcare, washing clothes by hand, etc. all without receiving a cent.
Also, it is much more a tough- love mentality here. Children aren’t
coddled or held or hugged too much and I cant help but feel that all
they need is a little love to really perk up their lives. But I
suppose love is shown to them in a different way because I do believe
that the parents genuinely love their children they just don’t show it
in the way we are accustomed to. Anyways I find myself getting heated
about issues I never used to consider at all and makes me want to work
towards making real change.
Okay moving on again.. My life is pretty much the same old routine.
School and just hanging out with Keba and all the kids. Mohamed is
still here in Fadugu with me so obviously things are still going on
between us and are good. He just got hired at the other secondary
school in town and will be teaching there starting tomorrow so that is
exciting. In about two weeks we will be getting ready for final exams
for this term and then we have a short break between terms. I hope to
do some travelling at this time in addition to attending a workshop on
life skills training and teenage pregnancy. So all in all things are
going well. I hope all of you are also well. Keep on sending the
emails, I really do love reading about your lives even if I don’t
always have the time (or a fast enough internet connection) to reply.
Also, for those of you sending letters and things I absolutely love
that!! It is like Christmas/ my birthday every time I get a mail drop
and see a letter or package from my family/ friends.
Okay well I love and miss you all!!
Also some of you have requested my address again so here it is:
Sara Metzler
C/O Peace Corps P.O. 905
Freetown, Sierra Leone
25/3/2012
So the internet wasn’t working last week so I couldn’t post the blog
so I decided I would just add a bit to it. Sorry this will now be a
super long post. Anyways I can update the last post to “its been
approximately 3 weeks since there has been any effective schooling at
my school.” Its not just my school though this seems to be pretty
common among most of the volunteers I talk to here so apparently March
just isn’t a great time to be teaching.. I guess. More kids (and
teachers) should show up next week though considering finals for the
term start on Monday. Despite the low number of students and school
closing every day after 2 hours I tried to do some review exercises
with my students so we’ll see if that actually helped anyone (probably
not considering most students weren’t paying attention since I was the
only teacher crazy enough to actually try and teach.)
Lets see, there isn’t much else new to discuss. Next week for my
birthday I am planning on going to Makeni to with some other
volunteers to swim at a hotel’s pool and then go eat at a restaurant
that serves Western food. So I am excited. It should be a fun time.
Otherwise, its just finals for two weeks and then we get a 2 week
break before the start of the next term. Okay I really don’t have
anything else at this point so keep on enjoying America and don’t
forget about me, I’ll be back in a year or so! ha
