An infected foot has brought me to Freetown this weekend, and thus regular-ish internet access (as regular as internet can be in this country). This plus being confined to a couch for 3+ days straight has created an ideal environment for making an attempt at a blog post. A lot's happened over the past few months, but I think I'm starting to develop somewhat of a routine. I'm amazed every by how much there is still to learn about this country and my community, but certain things are starting to become familiar. Though my skin will never turn completely black and I will always have "opoto/pumoy/white uman" (all words for a white person) yelled at me most places I go, I'm feeling less and less like a foreigner as I move about this country.
Home is now a village called Kamabai, located in the Northern Province of Sierra Leone (where the mountains are!) Though I don't have mountains within visible range of my site, I am surrounded by large, lush hills scattered with smooth granite exposures. It's one of the prettiest places I've seen in Salone, and probably anywhere I've ever been. Depending on my current view and the time of day, which determines how the light from the warm African sun illuminates the landscape, I have the soundtrack to the Lion King intermittently playing in my brain. I've already got a number of hiking parties planned with fellow volunteers once the dry season hits and things are altogether less bushy in this country. So, if you'd like me to save you a spot, book it now! Be forewarned: the devil apparently lives at the top of every hill so there is definite risk involved. I've tried to determine if he's on a weekly rotation or something to better determine how I might avoid confrontation, but this usually just results in a lot of puzzled looks from the locals. Moral of the story, this place is beautiful which is going to serve my mental health well over the next two years.
School started in September. "Started". To this day it's still difficult to be entirely sure that it's running. I'm teaching at Kamabai Secondary School, which is split into a junior secondary school (the equivalent of middle school in America) and a senior secondary school (the equivalent of high school in America). I teach Integrated Science to JSS 3's (8th graders) Chemistry to SSS 1's and 2's (freshmen and sophomores), and Biology to SSS 3's and 4's (juniors and seniors). School, for various reasons, is usually more frustrating than enjoyable. That being said I really love teaching. I have plenty of students that don't come to class regularly or are regularly late, but I also have a handful of students that love coming to class and are super involved in what I'm teaching them. Granted, their learning style (rote memorization) is more or less opposite of my teaching style (yeah, but do you get it?) but they're trying, and so am I. I'm hoping we can find a style that works for all of us, and by that I mean I hope I can teach them to think so that eventually they'll actually be able to learn :) If any of you have ideas/teaching aids to recommend, please, pass them on! I'm in the perfect environment to try pretty much anything. Unless it involves using resources. I don't have many of those.
For as frustrated as I can become during the school day with the lack of structure and participation by principals, teachers and students alike, it all flips when I return home at the end of the day. I love my community and the people that make it what it is. I have my share of frustrations in this area, too, but on the whole I feel loved and accepted by the people of Kamabai, and I love them back. I've already made some good friends, and there are always plenty of adorable pikin (children) to hang out with. The kids here are absolutely fantastic. They're self-sufficient, intelligent, helpful, and warm. Don't get me wrong, kids will be kids in any country and even if they do offer to fetch water for you it may take them anywhere from an hour to half a day depending on what they find to play with along the way. This is annoying. But they're so cute.
So. How do my days work? Here's generally how they go:
1) Wake up around 6:00am and start to boil water for coffee
2) Depending on how much water I have, go fetch a bucket or two of water. I can even carry it on my head without spilling too much!
3) Get dressed for school
4) Finish off the rice from yesterday's ivin tem chop (dinner)
5) Pack my bags for school
6) Head to the school around 7:45am. I live on the school compound so it's maybe a thirty second walk.
7) Greet/talk to the kids as they start rolling into school (principals and teachers are definitely not around yet)
8) Sit through assembly, which goes from approximately from 8:00-8:40 and consists of students singing church songs. Generally the same 4 on repeat. I say approximately because it really doesn't start until around 8:20 and doesn't end until about 9:00...20 minutes into the first period of classes. When I teach first period, I'm usually crawling out of my skin during this time.
9) I go to school and teach. When I don't have class I'm usually in the library writing lesson notes or engaging in educational conversations with students. It's great, I teach them about science and America and they teach me how to speak the local language and refuse marriage proposals.
10) After school I either stick around to talk with teachers or students. The school doesn't have a Physics teacher, so a lot of the science students enjoy any informal class I have the time to offer them.
11) When I go home, I usually like to sleep for a little while. When I grap (get up), I'll generally go keep time with someone. Usually the woman who cooks for me and is also my best friend in the community. I eat with her, and then will go do a number of things like play volleyball, go down to the market, make lesson notes, grade papers, get more water, do laundry, or drink poyo (palm wine) with a couple teachers who always have it available. I'm fortunate to live in a community of Limbas (the tribe name. No, Chrissie, not "lembas". The language does sound a bit like Elvish) who are known for being the best poyo tappers in the country, and thus the best drinkers of said poyo.
12) I wash with a bucket of water
13) I read for a bit
14) Bedtime between 9:00-10:00pm
15) Sleep, eat, repeat.
I'll finish off this post by saying that I'm really, genuinely happy here. This country has a lot of problems compounded by a relatively recent 10 years of gruesome civil war. I'm still trying to comprehend how the war really affected this country. I still don't really know which problems existed before the war, and which are a result of the war. In general, this country is rebuilding itself, and I'm here to help in what small way I can. It's no easy task and it's really difficult to see progress in this type of environment, if any is actually being made. There are some serious limitations as to what I'll be able to do here, and those limitations are going to be some of my biggest challenges. So for me, it's reassuring to feel like I'm falling in love with this country more and more every day. If I accomplish nothing in the two years that I'm here, I'll still walk away having been deeply touched by the people and culture of a country I otherwise would have known nothing about.
Miss you all and love you much. Sorry I've been so bad at keeping this updated. It's not easy, but I hope I'll get better at it. If you have questions about anything, please ask them! It's a lot easier to do this when I have questions to answer.
Lata!
