January, 2013

Well it was great to see everyone over the holidays! I hope all of your New Years are off to a phenomenal start!         Things are going pretty well here.  School got up and running much more quickly than expected.  We had a decent turnout the first week, effective classes the second week, and by week three we a record number of students showing up! haha So school is off to a pretty good start.  I’ve gotten back into the groove of teaching.  I have decided that for the rest of my time teaching I am going to try and focus more on problem solving in math class and reading comprehension and writing in language arts.  I feel like those are skills that will be useful for a lifetime while what I try to teach from the syllabus is forgotten within a week of learning it.  So more or less I am trying to impart as much wisdom to my students as I possibly can before I leave them.         The more I think about it the sadder and more sentimental I get.  I have even toyed with the idea of extending and staying a third year but I think deep down I will be ready to go when the time reaches.  I still have so much to do in life and what always seems like so little time! ha  For those of you that don’t know, my current life plan is as such: next year live at home with mom and dad, try and find any work that pays while also giving me plenty of time to make up for lost time with my friends, and applying to law school.  I am currently thinking I would like to focus on International Human Rights Law which would allow me to continue to help those in need while also providing me with the opportunity to continue travelling.  Finally, after working as a lawyer and making some money I want to open my own school here in Sierra Leone supported by a non-profit organization I will start before going. haha So well see which if any of those goals is accomplished.         My desk project is still chugging along.  Its really like the “Little Engine that Could.”  We just keep chugging away and eventually, one day, everything will be completed.  All the desk sets are completed they just need to be polished and then we are still left with the tables, chairs and cupboards.  Hopefully within a month it will all be done.  I know I keep saying that but one of these months it has to be true, right? Just like one of these days we have to move to the new school, right? They’ve only been telling me that for the last year and a half.         Soo in addition to that I have been helping my principal with another project to make a school library.  I have had to type and try and email any documents or pictures they need.  Obviously here that is not as easy at it sounds… Last night I spent about 2 hours online trying to send 2 emails.  Friday night I spent another hour or so sending 1 email.  And now tonight I am back at trying to send one of the emails from last night because the connection dropped after I had been trying to send the 1 email for about 45 minutes.  So yes while I can access internet from my house, now you can see why the emails and blog updates are so infrequent… I literally want to through my computer across the room every time I attempt to use the internet.         Alright well on that happy note, I think that is all I have to say. Things are well here, hope they are well there too!  Love and miss you. Sara

Holidays

Well I'm home enjoying the holidays for two weeks so I have nothing new to share about Salone but I have finished my video.  So here is the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHTrLC1BvxE&feature=youtu.be
Enjoy!

Home for Christmas!

So this is going to be the last blog I write before I come home
because I should be home in less than 2 weeks at this point! Yay!
haha

So as you all should know December 1st was World AIDS Day and I had
some events planned in my village to raise awareness.  First, my girls
club performed two skits and a song at the two secondary schools in
town.  That was more of the educational side of the day.  The next
event was a football match between my girls club and Chelsea's girls
club.  Unfortunately we lost but the game went well.  The girls had a
good time playing and it was the first time the schools did something
together without an incident occurring so thats good.  I also made
AIDS ribbons and passed them out to all the girls and some of the
spectators.  Finally, that night we put on a dance.  The dance didnt
really have an educational component but was more just a large scale
event to make people know it was World AIDS Day.  So hopefully
everyone in Fadugu at least knows approximately when World AIDS Day
is.

Now it is exam week at school.  The exam committee decided (excluding
myself who just so happens to be chairman of said committee) that the
students should only have one exam a day and we should save some exams
for after the break to try and ensure students will come back on time.
 First, having one exam a day means we are only at the school a
maximum of 3 hours and after the students leave I am pretty sure they
arent going to study all day for the next exam which was the
committees hope.  Rather the students will just walk around town idly
or their parents will just put them to work all day. Second, I am
fairly certain that no students will study over the break so they will
probably forget everything before sitting the exams that come after.
Also, even though we have exams I still expect only 20 or so kids to
come the first day after break.  But I have decided to pick and choose
my battles and didnt feel like arguing with the committee about the
exam schedule. I would much rather focus on making sure all the
results come out fair this year and students arent promoted that
failed all their subjects.

I am pretty much done with my World Map Project! I just have to label
the countries and maybe give a few one more coat of paint so they
really show clear.  I will have to take a picture to show all of you
my new found artistic talents.

Now I am preparing my girls for the Girls Conference the Peace Corps
are putting on.  For the session I am co-leading we have some skits in
it so both of us leading the session have to teach our girls the
skits.  So I am meeting with two girls to work on that everyday.
Other than that I have been pretty free so I have been charging my
computer a lot and watching a lot of tv shows. ha And by a lot I mean
max 2 hours worth but that seems like tons to me now! I just started
watching the Game of Thrones.  It is really good!

Okay well this is long enough for now. I will see you all soon enough
to tell you everything in person!

Thanksgiving

Well the election results were just announced and the current President, His Excellency Ernest Bia Koroma was reelected for his second term.  Everything seems to have happened peacefully with no disturbances in or around Fadugu.  So hopefully everything continues to go well! 

            The election didn’t disturb school nearly as much as people had predicted in the beginning of the term.  A lot of people were saying we would have at least 2 weeks off for the election but luckily we only took off 2 ½ days and continued with classes the Monday following the election.  So I have just been teaching as per usual.  Which is good considering I have so much I want to cover with the students and soo little time! The first term is already almost over.  That means I only have 2 terms left with them.  Wow! Time flies! Before you know it I will be back in America for good.  It is kinda sad to think about.  I mean this really has become my home over these two years and I really do love a lot of my students and neighbor kids.  It will be hard to leave them.. And don’t even get me started on leaving Keba! ha

            Okay so moving on before this blog post gets too depressing.   Well despite not having turkey or mashed potatoes or pumpkin pie, my Thanksgiving weekend wasn’t too bad.  On actual Thanksgiving I didn’t do too much.  I taught all day and for the extra classes after school but that night I made salsa and Mohamed and I had a drink and watched some episodes of Game of Thrones.  Friday after school my girls club came over after prayers and we cooked together.  It was a lot of fun and I took a lot of pictures and video of them.  I am trying to take pictures and video of everything so I can make a movie about my Salone experience.  It isn’t too shabby so far I must say. ha Hopefully a rough version will be ready by Christmas time so I can show everyone.  Anyways, we cooked and then practiced our World AIDS Day songs.  Today (Saturday), Mohamed and I cooked a nice breakfast of eggs with onions and tomatoes.  I also experimented with making different kinds of fried dough.  So here they sell fried dough rolls with a small amount of fish and tomato inside so I bought the dough and made my own filled with cheese and tomato paste (i.e. pizza flavored) and a breakfast variety with butter and cinnamon sugar.  They were actually quite delicious! When I get home I will be quite the chef!!  So all in all a pretty good Thanksgiving Weekend.

            World AIDS Day is December 1^st so my girls club is preparing for it.  We have a couple of skits about AIDS prevention and causes that we will perform at the two secondary schools in Fadugu and a World AIDS Day song written by yours truly.  Also, on World AIDS Day we are playing football against Chelsea’s Girls Club and then making a dance to raise awareness about the issue.  Hopefully, everything goes well and in addition to having fun playing football and dancing, people actually learn something too!

            The last thing I’ve been working on is the World Map.  I am getting pretty far along on it.  I have painted 5 of the colors so only 3 colors are left to paint.   Then I just have to label it and it will be completed.  And I have successfully tricked everyone here into thinking I am a phenomenal artist.  It is going to be hard going back to America and not having everyone automatically think I am a genius and gifted in nearly every endeavor I undertake.  I guess I will slowly readjust to life as an average Joe but it was kinda nice to be treated like a celebrity for a few years.  Although I now have a better understanding and empathy for celebrities when they complain about their complete lack of privacy.  It really can be obnoxious at times. 

            All righty well that’s about all I’ve got.  I am super excited to come home and see everyone in just a few more weeks!

Year 2. Go.

Well even though I still have about 9 months here my time is slowly coming to an end.  On the one hand I will be very sad to leave what has been my home for the last 2 years and all the people I have come to know and love, but on the other hand I think by the end of my two years I will be ready to move on.  But first, I'm trying to get as much work done as possible before I go! Here's some of the things I've been up to:

Soo schools started and its off to a solid start.  Last year we had a pretty slow open to school but this year most of the teachers came the first week and by the second week we were having effective classes.  I have been really happy with how well my school has been functioning.  Despite being a community school that receives no government funding, my school has been performing better than a lot of other more well established schools.  The teachers have been really dedicated this year and have taken the initiative on a lot of projects.  A lot of them just want to be more involved and in charge of something.  So that has been a nice change this year.

I have a pretty heavy teaching load this year but I really do love teaching the kids so that is fine with me.  It is better than just sitting around the school all day even though I do end up pretty tired after 6 hours of teaching.  Some of the kids are just so dedicated and really want to learn that it makes me want to do everything in my power to help them! Haha I just really love some of my student and will definitely miss them when I go.  But hopefully I leave them at least a little smarter than they were when I met them so my time went to good use and they actually learned from me!

In addition to teaching I am still running the girls club.  This is a chance for me to help some students in ways other than academics, ways that will hopefully help them to learn valuable life skills that will be with them forever.  Unfortunately I have come to the realization that a lot of my students wont continue to senior secondary and almost none will make it to the university so I am trying to leave them with more than just random math notes and English lessons.  Anyways the girls club has been going well.  We made tshirts for the girls which they love and are a good way to make them really feel like they are a part of something and is good for when we have events so people know who is an actual member.  We did a cholera/ handwashing sensitization to kick things off this year.  Due to the recent cholera outbreak here we thought it would be good to go to the schools in the area and teach them a little about sanitation and what to do if you get cholera.  Now we have started learning about STIs and HIV/AIDs in preparation for World Aids Day. 

Also, I am currently in Freetown for a Girls Conference meeting.  Most volunteers are bringing girls to an annual girls conference started by the first group of volunteers.  It is a 3 days conference/camp for the girls to learn about important female health issues, career/educational opportunities for women, and just to meet with other girls from around the country.  So in my last girls club meeting we selected the two girls that should go.  I was really proud of my girls because they actually unanimously chose the two girls that they wanted to go and represent them.  I was excited to see them working together and not fighting over who gets this opportunity.

Okay well I dont want to bore everyone too much but thats more or less what I have been up to.  I havent done much travelling lately (other than coming to Freetown this weekend) because it is more relaxing to just stay in Fadugu and way cheaper! ha But we have had a couple of fun gatherings in Fadugu with volunteers.  The most recent being for Mohamed's birthday.  Other than that I havent been up to too much other than trying to stay happy and healthy in Sierra Leone! (fyi happy is much easier than healthy but dont worry I havent been too sick either!) 

Okay well miss you all and cant wait to see you and explain to you all in person what life is like in Sierra Leone!!

                                                 Working on the school. Plastering the walls.

                                      Girls Club doing the cholera/  handwashing sensitization

                                                      My students hard at work!

So school officially starts tomorrow after our nice long holiday
break! Yay! Hopefully in a month or so we will be able to move into
our 2 new school buildings.  

Just thought I would share what I wrote for my most recent Volunteer
Reporting Form.  Its kind of long but I thought some of the
information they ask for might be interesting for you all to read too!

Community Integration
I feel well integrated into my community.  I am able to communicate
well with almost anyone in Krio and have learned to greet and form
simple sentences in Mandingo and Limba which are the dominant tribes
in Fadugu.  Everyone is very friendly and always happy to have me come
and keep time with them.  I feel as though this last term, especially
during the holiday period when I had more time, I became closer with
people in my community and really feel as though I belong and am a
member of the community.

One thing I have learned about integrating is that people really
appreciate the efforts you make and your presence and involvement in
the community.  I realized this through my language learning and by
attending more local events and gatherings.  While I am not able to
say too much in either Limba or Mandingo people enjoy what I am able
to say and are glad I have taken the effort just to learn the small
things like the greetings.  Additionally I have learned that people
really respect and enjoy my presence at events and gatherings.
Whether it is for a wedding, burial, football match or religious
holiday, people notice your presence and are appreciative of you
making time to come celebrate, commiserate, or cheer with them.  At
first I wasn't sure if it was appropriate for me to go to these events
but eventually I realized I was more than welcome at these events and
that attending would help me to become more a part of the community. I
think it would be helpful to mention in training that it is mostly
okay for volunteers to attend any gathering at their site and that the
community will appreciate seeing the volunteer taking part and
learning how things are done here.

Challenges Faced
One of the main challenges I have faced as a teacher is dealing with
false promotions in school.  It is incredibly frustrating to see the
majority of students being promoted to the next form when I know they
did not deserve the promotion and are not up to the level they should
be.  It is challenging because I know it is only detrimental to their
education and also makes teaching more difficult because it is hard to
teach when half the class is struggling with the subject material and
the other half is suffering because the material is not challenging
enough for them.
It is also a challenge for me because I discussed it with the exam
committee this third term and everyone agreed that we should be strict
and only promote students that have really performed well.  However,
when report cards were distributed I noticed that almost all the
students were promoted and that some grades had been inflated on the
report cards.  I have struggled with how to address this problem as I
don't want to create problems with other staff/teachers by insinuating
that the process was dishonest but I also dont want students to be
able to reach Form 3 without being able to compose a simple letter or
solving simple arithmetic problems.
This is one challenge I would like to really work on this academic year.

Peace Corps Goal 2: Sharing information about the American people to
peoples served
I primarily share information about the American people through
informal talks and discussions with my friends and neighbors.  I enjoy
sitting and keeping time with them and discussing the differences and
similarities between our cultures and countries.  It is a nice way for
me to hear their own thoughts and opinions and also to dispel any
incorrect, preconceived notions they have about America and the way
people live there.  Just sitting down and answering any questions they
have about America seems to be the most effective and enjoyable way to
share information.

Furthermore, I hosted my family in the beginning of August.  Seeing my
family gave my community an opportunity to know other Americans
besides myself and fellow volunteers.  It was nice for the community
to meet my family and have the opportunity to talk with them and hear
about what they do in the United States.  I think seeing my family
helped people here to realize that Americans come in all shapes and
sizes.  My family also brought some gifts such as sweets and books for
the youth which will further help the youth to learn our culture while
reading and looking at the pictures.

Finally, I have been participating in the World Wise Schools program
and have been giving my students letters from students in America.  I
think this helps them learn about America from a fellow students
perspective and leads them to ask questions about what school and life
are like in America.

Success Story
This past term I began work on addressing girls education and
empowerment.  I realized that girls are often overlooked or denied
many of the opportunities boys have.  I decided that in order to
effect change I would organize a Girls Club at my school.  The club
would meet once a week and discuss different women's issues and womens
health as well as organize events and activities.
Before starting the club I discussed the idea with my principal and
other school authorities.  After getting their approval we had a mass
meeting for any girls interested in joining the club.  Forty-one girls
attended the meeting but I was only looking for 15-20 to be a part of
the club.  At this meeting I gave information about what the club
would be doing and when and where we would be meeting as well as what
would be expected of the girls.  I decided that since such a large
number came to the mass meeting we would require that any girl still
interested in joining would need to write an application letter to
become a member of the club.  Eventually we received 17 letters and of
the 17, 15 girls were present at our first official meeting.  We held
elections to choose the Executive Board of the club and then discussed
with the girls what activities they would like to do and which topics
they would like to discuss first.  The girls decided they would like
to put on a play for the community and we started our weekly sessions
with talks about family planning and teenage pregnancy.
The club, in my view, was a success.  The girls were active members
and almost all girls contributed to the weekly conversation.
Additionally, the girls were very excited about having the opportunity
to perform for the community and worked very hard to get the play
ready.  I think through these activities the girls learned invaluable
life skills.  Aside from just learning about family planning, the
girls learned to take responsibility for their own activities and
learned leadership and communication skills.  Through the election the
girls learned how to peacefully and fairly vote for leaders and the
Executive Board members learned how to be leaders among their peers.
Additionally, through the classroom discussions in which everyone was
given an opportunity to talk and through their work on the play, the
girls learned how to communicate clearly and effectively. Furthermore,
the club helped the girls form a network on which they can trust and
rely on.  I am happy with the work the girls did last term and am very
excited to continue working with them this school year.  I think they
are not only gaining knowledge in our weekly discussions but are
learning important life skills such as communication, decision-making,
and leadership.

Lessons Learned
One lesson I learned is the importance of communication and checking
later to make sure the message you wanted to share was conveyed
clearly.  I have slowly been learning this lesson since arriving in
Sierra Leone because it is very easy to fall in the trap of saying
something and having someone agree simply because they didn't clearly
understand you or because they have a strong desire to please you.  I
have learned that it is important to follow up conversations with
questions to check their comprehension of what we discussed.  Also, it
is important to follow conversations about future plans and ideas with
questions on how best to implement them to ensure people aren't
agreeing just to pacify you but rather are agreeing with the intent of
working on the issue at hand.

One thing I have learned about myself is how truly Western my morals
and values are.  It has been a somewhat difficult process for me to
look at people's actions and behaviors without imposing my traditional
Western judgments.  I think I have learned to be more accepting of and
less judgmental towards some of these cultural differences.  For
example, while I do not agree with the use of corporal punishment in
the home and would like to encourage parents to adopt different
punishment techniques, I try not to judge or view people negatively
that do use corporal punishment because I know it is a part of the
culture they have grown up with and most do not know any better
punishment techniques.

September 5th, 2012

        Last week I was in Freetown for our Mid-Service Training (MST).  As
usual the training inspired and motivated me to come back to site and
get started on a plethora of new activities! Ha.  While I know we can't
possibly tackle all the issues and fix every problem there is here, I
enjoy hearing new ideas and learning about what my fellow volunteers
have done or brainstormed.  Of course I always come back with way more
ideas and plans than any one person could ever imagine to accomplish
(yet for some reason I always think I can do them all). But at least
the planning keeps me busy even if the plan/ idea is never fully
realized.
        So here are some of my plans for my second and final year of service:
1.      Continue with girls club (I already printed t-shirts for them),
having weekly meetings as well as big events for World AIDS Day and
International Women’s Day.
2.      Start a health and sanitation campaign.  This would involve buying
soap and water containers for local schools to keep outside by the
latrines.  This would be accompanied by sensitization activities held
at the schools teaching them about germs and the importance of
hand-washing.
3.      I would also like to draw the world map on both my school and the
primary school I help with.  It is a common Peace Corps activity and
includes an instruction manual on how to do it.
4.      I would like to work with my fellow teachers and administration to
create and use alternative punishment techniques in order to reduce
the use of corporal punishment.

So those are more or less the plans.  Oh plus the usual teaching.
This year I am teaching both math and language arts to my JSS 2 and
JSS 3 students.  This means I am teaching 28 periods this year plus
the extra classes twice a week after school for JSS 3 and the extra
class once a week for Class 6 at the primary school.  So hopefully I
will be busy.  Better to be busy than bored!

        Anyways before MST me and 2 other girls brought our Sierra Leonean
boyfriends to Freetown for a triple date.  It was fun hanging out with
everyone and doing a somewhat normal dating activity.  It is also nice
to get a good mix of Sierra Leonean and American sometimes so everyone
feels comfortable.  This way the boys could hangout and talk about
what interests them (football) and the girls could talk about other
things.  Sometimes when it is just me with Mohamed and all his friends
I have trouble engaging myself in the conversation and the same
happens to him when we are around all Peace Corps volunteers.  So this
was a happy medium and I think everyone had a good time.  We went to a
beach bar the first night and then ate dinner and played cards.  The
next day we went to a nearby beach and ate good food and were later
joined by other volunteers.  So all in all a good time was had.
(Oh and the beaches here are amazing so I would recommend you all come
visit someday!)

And now a small success story:
So in my town there is a little girl that has always been terrified of
me and cries on sight. Well finally, she is warming up to me a little
bit.  She is still pretty scared of me but she will greet me and
answer when I greet her.  She even consented to sit down next to me
for about five minutes the other day! haha So while her threshold of
being near to a white woman is still pretty low, it is getting better
and I am slowly but surely breaking through the barrier.  Peace Corps
teaches us to celebrate all the small victories with the big ones.  I
count this as a victory.  Maybe one day she will be able to see me
without feeling the urge to turn and run as quickly as possible in the
other direction.

Okay well that’s all for now!