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

March 5, 2012

So its been a few weeks now so I figured it was about time for me to
update the blog.  Things are pretty much just chugging along same as
usual for me.  Just teaching and hanging out.  The past two weeks have
been a bit rough though.  Not too bad its just that all the little
things have been adding up to make me a bit frustrated with life here.
 I mean I've gotten used to the whole no electricity or running water
thing but some of the cultural differences can be a bit aggravating to
say the least.  Our lives in America are just so different from their
lives here and while I understand that different things are priorities
here when just feeding your family is hard to do sometimes, it is
still difficult to see children pulled out of school to work, or
people just accepting that corruption is a way of life here.  I guess
that's what always having food on the table and money in the bank does
but I still cant help thinking that it doesn't have to be that way.
And that's not to say people here don't want things to change but as I
said it is more difficult when simply surviving isn't a given.
So as I said I had been feeling a little down and a bit homesick for
America but after a nice weekend at the beach two weekends ago and a
fun night out with some friends this last week things are looking a
little better.  Plus I think all my physical ailments are finally
healing up (knock on wood) so hopefully I am well on my way to being
healthy and happy in Africa.  Which Mohamed told me is not too much to
ask for. (haha I told him I just wanted to be happy and healthy in
Africa, is that too much to ask for? And he took my question quite
literally and replied "no sara that isn't too much to ask for. In fact
you could ask for more."  Haha sometimes I love how literally he takes
everything me and fellow volunteers say)
       Two weekends ago I finally made it to a beach outside of Freetown.  A
small group of volunteers went to Bureh beach.  It was absolutely
gorgeous.  Nice white sand and a beautiful blue ocean that was perfect
for swimming.  Also, the best part was we were the only ones there.
We had the whole magnificent beach to ourselves!  Mohamed ended up
meeting some friends of his from his community in Freetown so we
stayed in a nice room by ourselves very near to the beach and very
near to where the other volunteers were.  And not only did we save a
little money but we got to sleep in a bed rather than in a tent on the
sand.  Overall, it was a nice mini vacation full of sunbathing,
swimming, and chatting with fellow volunteers.  The only problem was
after travel time and everything it was a bit too short for my taste.
       It has started getting super hot again.  And apparently it only gets
hotter as we move towards the end of March and enter into April.
Considering I am already in a full sweat just by moving from laying on
my bed to sitting on my back stoop I don't know if I can handle the
weather getting any hotter. (Good thing I just got the cold-weather
clothes my mom sent for me this past week.)  Yup so its getting hot
and all the water is drying up.. I'm not sure what exactly happens but
I hear getting water becomes even more of a chore than it already is.
Also, it is definitely too hot during the day for my poor little dog
Keba as I found out when I tried taking him for a walk yesterday.  We
got almost halfway when he just turned around looked at me and started
crying.  He must think I am absolutely crazy or super mean for
torturing him in that way.  But don't worry we found some shade to sit
in and some water for him to drink so we could make it home without
anyone passing out.
       We just finished with midterms in school.  While I absolutely love
some students and I can tell they actually study and try in math, a
lot of my students still seem to be in a mindset that math is just an
impossible subject that they might as well not even attempt.
Sometimes it is incredibly frustrating to stand up in front of the
class and ask a question I literally have just said the answer to and
only receive blank stares.  Its as if what I say really does go in one
ear and out the other.  But then there are other times when the kids
are just so cute or try so hard that I absolutely love them and love
teaching.  I really do like working with children and really do want
to see some of my students do really well on their external exams but
sometimes it is really hard.  While I am now able to see that teaching
is a rewarding career I also have to say I have earned new respect for
my former teachers.  This job isn't easy to say the least.

My life at 22.
~ I go sleep by 9 at the absolute latest pretty much every school
night (and most weekend nights too).
~ I wake up at the latest around 7 every day. And yes that does
include weekends.
~ My best friend is an 8 year old boy. He does everything with me.
~ Its been a good week when I have washed my hair twice and maybe even
shaved my whole legs once if I'm lucky.
~ I eat rice literally every day.
~ This past weekend I had water that was almost so cold ice could have
been in it.  I almost couldn't drink it because it felt so cold.  My
normal drink of choice is nice lukewarm water from my filter.
~ I also slept on a bed with bedsprings for the first time in 9
months.  It felt incredible.  My normal mattress is foam and has a
clear indentation of my body.
~ I make approximately $250 a month doing a full time job.
~ I'm a local celebrity.  Everyone in town knows my name and all the
kids scream it whenever I pass.  Also, at any event in town I will be
given a seat at the high table with all the other VIPs.

Interesting/Different Things in Salone (Sierra Leone)

·      Sport is part of the curriculum in schools here.  That doesn’t mean students are required to play on after school sports teams.  Here it means that during second term at least a week is taken to play sports between the houses (think Harry Potter and all students split into 4 houses).  Some Peace Corps said sport takes up to a month because they give the students time to practice and construct little huts for each house.

·      Witchcraft and devils are not just a good plot line for movies here.  They are taken seriously and people fear and respect them.  Also, it is a common belief that witches and devils are part of American culture too but they put their knowledge and magic to good use to help scientists build airplanes, helicopters, computers, etc.  I had to tell them that I had never heard of this in America but since I’m not a scientists perhaps I was just never privileged enough to learn these secrets. 

·      Corporal punishment is very common here.  In school and at home it is common to see children being flogged for their misbehavior.  They like to quote “spare the rod, spoil the child” or tell me that African children are different than American children and wont learn unless they are flogged.  I keep insisting that all children are the same but alas that idea just doesn’t seem to take hold at my school.  Just last week the teachers and principal tried to make me flog a student that had been very bad just to show the seriousness of the offense he had committed.  I politely declined and said I just couldn’t hit anyone regardless of what they had done.

·      Being chubby or stout is considered beautiful here.  People think it is a compliment if they tell you you are putting on weight.  It would be like someone in the U.S. saying “you look good, have you lost weight?” Except that here people say “you look good, you’ve been gaining weight.” haha it takes some adjustment to say the least. 

·      Two of the most common questions I get here are “are you married?” and “do you have children?”  I always respond that I don’t yet because I am too young.  They then proceed to ask my age and laugh.  I would estimate about 75% of girls my age here have children and are engaged to someone if not married. 

·      People think it is weird that I could ever desire to eat anything besides rice and sauce.  Most people eat rice morning, noon, and night.  They joke that if they haven’t eaten rice that day it is like they haven’t eaten anything at all.  

Life here

So the festive season is done and, after a Christmas and New Years like none I had ever experienced before, school is up and running again.  As expected, school got off to a slow start again this term.   First, the start date was pushed back a week from the originally scheduled start date and when school finally did start the turnout, for both students and teachers, was pretty dismal.  But now after what was technically the third week of school for the term (2^nd actual week of teaching) the students are starting to come back in numbers.  Don’t take this commentary as a complaint from me though because I thoroughly enjoyed the extra week of break to rest and recover from a very busy term break.  I have to admit though I enjoy keeping busy and have actually discovered I really enjoy teaching and interacting with the students.  Despite the still abysmal test scores my students get (don’t worry its not only my students but all volunteer’s students, actually maybe all students in the country) I do feel like I am making a difference in people’s lives here just by showing up to work everyday and interacting in the community.  Our presence is as much about giving the people here hope and providing an opportunity for a cultural information exchange as it is about teaching students math, English, or science.  So overall, the experience has been a rewarding one for me thus far although it has caused me to completely rethink what I want to do when my service is done, and I am back at square one as far as future plans go.  So far one of the most enticing options is opening a guest house on a beach here since Sierra Leone is destined to become a tourist hot-spot again as soon as the infrastructure rebuilds itself at least a little. 

            So enough self-reflection.. some of you may be wondering what my daily schedule here in Africa is like.  So I will enlighten those of you that care to read about it.  Everyday, regardless of whether it’s a weekday or the weekend, I wake up by 7 or 7:15 at the absolute latest.  Monday through Friday I go to school.  Monday thru Thursday I am at school from approximately 8:00 am until 2:30 p.m.  On Friday we have a shorter school day because the students and teachers have to go to the Mosque to pray so we end school around 1 or a little earlier.  When I first get up I go and take a quick bucket bath, most of the time I’ll just watch my face and then go and get dressed.  After dressing I check out the market to see if bread is ready before I go to school.  Then I head to school around 7:40-7:45.  I am usually the only one there until about 8 and assembly wont actually start until 8:15-8:30 despite the fact that the first period is supposed to start at 8:20.  Oh well. Then I teach between 4-6 periods a day which ranges from 3-5 hours a day.  Mondays after school I teach extra classes for form 3 from 3-5.  The other days I normally go home and rest for a while before jogging around 4 or 5.  After jogging I take another bucket bath and sit down to eat the rice prepared for me.  Then I kill time until around 7:30 or 8 at which point it is acceptable in Africa to go inside and lay down for the night.  So needless to say I am normally sleeping by 9.  So yes in the past 7 months I have gone from 22 to 72.  On Friday, Saturday and Sunday I cook for myself which is a solid hour or two activity if I actually cook.  Sometimes I am lazy and just buy street food or eat a peanut butter sandwich.  But on ambitious days (or whenever Mohamed is around) we will cook pasta or rice which takes quite some time. 

            Okay so new topic. The weather.  Overall, I must admit I find the weather here in Africa much more agreeable than the 5 to 6 months of cold and wet and gross weather we got back in Michigan.  Here there are only 2 seasons: the rainy season and the dry season.  Currently we are in the dry season and I love the predictability of it.  In the dry season it hasn’t rained once and in the rainy season it was pretty much guaranteed that it would rain at least once every day.  Forget the weather forecast, you just know rainy season means rain and the dry season means no precipitation.  Currently the Harmattan winds are blowing a nice cold breeze across Northern Sierra Leone so I am enjoy comfortable weather in the 70s every day/  At night and in the morning it gets a little chilly sometimes but as soon as the sun comes out the place starts warming up and by 11 am it is warm enough to sit out in the sun in a t-shirt and shorts.  From what I hear though in a month or two the water pumps will start drying up and then getting water will be kind of a pain.  Also, I hear it gets hot even by the standards they have here, which means I will absolutely sweat to death.  But all in all I enjoy the heat much more than the cold so the weather change is one adjustment that hasn’t caused me too much distress.

            Now on to the subject of food.  Unlike the weather, I enjoy the food in America much more than the food here.  Don’t get me wrong I have really come to enjoy some of the rice and sauce combinations but really you can only eat so much rice and in my opinion that amount has been far passed here. haha Rice morning, noon, and night everyday is just too much for me.  Oh how I miss fresh fruits and vegetables.  Only having things seasonally is quite a change for anyone used to growing up in a place where supermarkets provide everything imaginable at any time of the year.  Oh well, I guess this experience will just make me appreciate life in America that much more when I return.    

Overall though I really am enjoying my time here and could actually see myself staying and starting a business or working with an aid organization.  It is a relaxing lifestyle and everyone really is quite friendly.  At the very least I think I will have a retirement house here. haha

more This is Africa moments

Okay so a few funny moments from my life here in Africa..

1.  If someone doesnt eat rice in a day it is like they havent eaten at all. They just aren't satisfied unless at least one meal is rice and plassas and are also perfectly content having rice and plassas for every meal of every day. Most adults wont even taste spaghetti when I cook it because they are disgusted just by looking at it.
2.  Many people are terrified of dogs biting them because they think their teeth are poisonous.  I spent one entire school period talking to the other teachers about how the teeth arent poisonous but sometimes they do have diseases they can spread to humans that are fatal.  But this belief has caused many children to react quite strongly to Keba (my dog) except most of them call Keba over to them and then run away terrified when he comes. haha
3. At clubs here people go just because they love to dance. People dont go to meet with people or dance with anyone else, they just go to dance. It is actually a lot of fun just watching them because most of them can dance really well, it is just very very different from the club atmosphere in America.
4. I was talking to another teacher at my school about taking Limba lessons and he directed me to a man that he said would make a good teacher. His directions: "Just go to that black man that lives down the road. He will teach you Limba really well."  I just stood there looking at him for a minute before slowly saying "But you're all black..."  We had a good laugh over it. Apparently when people here say the "black man" they mean the person with very very dark skin.  haha
5.  Keba comes with me to school everyday. One day we were in the classroom and I had just given an assignment to my students so I sat down to relax for a bit. Then I look over and see Keba slowly start to lick the wall. I let out a small laugh so Keba looked over at my while slowly continuing to lick the wall with his tongue out the side of his mouth as though to say "what mom? The wall tastes good.."
6.  I was walking with a kid one day when he got really really excited from seeing a big grasshopper. He had his friend catch it for me and then proudly showed me. I asked if he was going to keep it as a pet. His reply "No. I'm going to eat it." And he did. He ate it. He didnt even cook it first. haha

Some Video Update

Some answers to some American Students questions:
How is life in Africa?
Life in Africa is great but it is very different from life in the United States . It took me a few months to  get used to life here and I am still learning new things about the customs and culture everyday. So far though, living in Sierra Leone has been an eye-opening and rewarding experience.
Are the people nice to you?
All of the people are very friendly and kind and are always ready to help when I need assistance. 
Is it hot there?
The weather here is much different than I am accustomed to.  I am from Michigan, so I am used to having 4 seasons with winter being very, very cold. Here it is always pretty warm .  Even now at the end of October it is still pretty hot some days and I have yet to have a day where I didn't sweat at all.  But the people   keep telling me that the cool weather is coming so we will see what that means.. Also, there are only  2 seasons here, the rainy season and the dry season.  The rainy season is coming to an end so there are plenty of storms now. I like the rain though because it makes the place a little cooler. It is almost like temporary air conditioning.
How is your city?
I live in a small town called Fadugu.There is one main road that goes through the town.  This is one of the only paved roads in all of Sierra Leone and is the highway from Freetown to Kabala (and by highway they essentially just mean it has been paved, do not imagine American highways) Most of the stores are located on one small strip of this road that they call "the line." This area is only about 1 block long. We also have a market that comes every Saturday where you can go to buy the goods you need. I will try and share some more pictures of the town the next time I go to Freetown.
Is your home there a lot different than your home in America?
My home here is much different than my home in America. First of all, there is no electricity or running water in my house. When the sun goes down my house is very dark and I need to use flashlights to see and do work. This also means I don't have a T.V. and I can onl y use the internet when I go to a big city and pay to use it at an internet cafe.  My bathroom is outside. I use a latrine for my toilet and I need to take bucket baths instead of showers. I get my water from a community water pump just a short walk from my house. Despite all of these differences though my house still feels like home now and is very nice compared to many other homes here.
What stuff do kids have there?
Kids here do not have many toys and most of the toys they have, they have made themselves. For example, plenty of little boys have racecars they have constructed themselves from old tomato paste cans for the base of the car and pop bottle lids for the wheels. They then attach the little car to a stick and push it around. Also, toys here are strictly played with outside. Most children do not have toys to play with in their house most likely because most of the time when they are home they are very busy doing chores for their parents such as cooking, laundering, or dishwashing.  But they make the best of what they have and enjoy life greatly for the most part.
Is the school building small?
The building I teach in is pretty small  considering the number of children we have in each class.  We pack about 50 kids into each class and the classes are just divided by a wooden partition so if one class is loud everyone is distracted.
Do they all wear uniforms?
Yes. The students must wear uniforms and this rule is very strictly enforced.
Do the meals taste better than McDonalds?
The meals are very very different from McDonalds and consist of a variation of rice and sauce everyday, for every meal. It is good but oh what I would give for some McDonalds fries and a chocolate shale right now!  haha

Okay here are some pics from Fadugu

Some children in the community. I just wanted to highlight the little toy car the boy in the middle has to give you an idea of the types of things children construct to play with here.

They tote everything on their heads here. It is amazing. This is my little neighbor carrying a huge bucket of water from the pump to the house.

They have an assembly every morning before school where they say some Muslim prayers/ songs in Arabic and then recite the national pledge and anthem. I tried uploading a video but it was taking way too long.

This is my favorite food here, acheke. It is made of gari, noodles, spicy gravy/ sauce, cucumber, onion, ketchup, mayonnaise, and fish. I know sounds appetizing, right?

This is before the big football match between my town, Fadugu, and the district capital, Kabala. The match was 1-1. Mohamed is the one smiling at the camera

Okay well that is all for now. I miss all of you. Thank you for sending letters and keep them coming! It is always a pleasure to receive them and I have tried writing all of you back but unfortunately no one I know has been able to successfully send a letter home to America, but we'll see! Maybe I'll be the lucky one. haha And at the very least please email me. I always appreciate hearing from you!