Friday, March 28, 2014
Monday, November 25, 2013
Reflections
If
you had told me one year ago that…
1.
…I
would return to West Africa…
2.
…I
would feel wasteful using more than six scoops of water in a bucket bath…
3.
…I
would be teaching high school physics and chemistry…
4.
…I
would celebrate over the day we found a (sub-par) $10 bottle of wine…
5.
…I
would argue with a shopkeeper over buying a big bag of coal for more than $4
US…
6.
…I
would light a coal pot with a piece of plastic and one match in ten minutes…
7.
…I
would eat half of a 25-kilogram bag of rice in three months…
8.
…I
would be so excited to see real tomatoes or potatoes…
9.
…I
would lead an almost exclusively vegetarian diet…
10.
…on
the days we did find chicken in the market, we’d take it home and cook it,
never
minding the fact it was once frozen and is now warm from the heat…
11.
…I
would be “cold” on nights when it hits 75 F or so…
12.
…one
of my best friends would be a girl from Ohio with a completely different
upbringing, musical taste, and interests than me…
13.
…we
would laugh over the time we literally scooped the poop out of our toilet…
14.
…I
could brag I helped someone kill a mouse with a shoe…
15.
…I
would kill a cockroach I found in my room without screaming or freaking out…
16.
…I
would survive without Diet Coke…
17.
…I
would look forward to days we ate burnt garlic bread and spaghetti with okra…
18.
…I
would get so excited over tuna salad sandwiches for lunch…
19.
…I
would walk to school in the pouring rain to ensure my students had some classes
on a rainy day…
20.
…I
would learn to embrace my crazy mefloquine dreams…
21.
…I
would regularly wake up at 5:30 or 6:00 am without an alarm clock…
22.
…I
would grow to love my site so much that I dreaded coming to training…
23. ...I wouldn't be able to handle thinking about leaving the students I have already
grown so close to...
…I
would have called you crazy. Instead,
here I am. It’s still hard for me to
believe that I’m a Peace Corps Volunteer in one of the most beautiful countries
on this planet. Mama Liberia has
embraced me with open arms, and I am so grateful for the opportunity that this
has provided me.
Wheelbarrows – Versatile & Convenient
Sally,
Liberia would be a haven for you. Every
time I remember digging through the bins at the Goodwill outlet in Hernando, I
then flash-forward to myself digging through a wheelbarrow for whatever it is I
am buying that day.
For
those of you who are not my sister, here’s an update. Anything that you want to buy in the market
that is not tomato paste, onions, sugar, rice, or beans is found in a
wheelbarrow. In fact, I’m guessing there
are more wheelbarrows per capita here than in the United States. Everyone uses one, whether it is for hauling
their goods to the market to sell, pushing one around selling
pepper/peanuts/palm oil/footballs and mirrors around town, hauling jugs of
water from the well to their house, or filling it full of dirt and hauling it
to a construction site, wheelbarrows are a normal site in Liberia.
While
in Monrovia, we made sure to check out Waterside Market, the biggest market in
the capital city. There, we were crazy
people, digging through wheelbarrows as fast as we could – buying t-shirts,
tank tops, skirts, pants, whatever we could find, really. The sellers are excited to sell their goods,
obviously, and they will do all they can to help you out. If they see you digging through, they will
start showing you items that are your size or close to it. If you tell them you need long skirts for
teaching, they will dig through the pile of skirts, showing you all the long
ones they have. At the end of the day, these guys and gals know what they have
to do to close a deal.
 |
| Emmanuel, a student in 10B, with his wheelbarrow. |
I’m
grateful for all the wheelbarrow sellers in town. Some of our favorites in Pleebo include the
guy we buy our clothes-washing soap from (all we do is walk up to his barrow
and he gets two bars of soap, in a bag for us, ready to go), the boys who sell
oranges for cheap out of a wheelbarrow, and the guys who sell hangers (which I
need more of, now that I’m going to be getting more things made of lappa). All in all, it makes shopping fun. It’s portable, convenient, and easily covered
when it rains – what else could be better in the world of markets?
Thank goodness for hard drives…
While
Sarah and I love Pleebo, we also love to escape a little by watching something
terribly mindless. This has translated
into a lot of things as of late, some of which I’d like to share with you
below. During our time at site, we have
watched the following:
1.
Seasons
1-3 of Sex and the City
2.
All
of the Friends series
3.
Seasons
1-3 of Workaholics
4.
The
Human Planet series, produced by BBC
5.
The
Planet Earth series, produced by BBC
6.
Pretty
Woman
7.
Erin
Brokovich
8.
The
Wedding Singer
9.
50
First Dates
10.
Fight
Club
11.
Reservoir
Dogs
12.
The
Butterfly Effect
13.
Mr.
& Mrs. Smith
14.
The
Jungle Book
15.
The
Hunchback of Notre Dame
16.
Tarzan
17.
He’s
Just Not That Into You
18.
Definitely
Maybe
19.
Eternal
Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
20.
Lord
of the Rings – Fellowship of the Ring [extended edition]
21.
Lord
of the Rings – The Two Towers [extended edition]
22.
Lord
of the Rings – The Return of the King [extended edition] (to be watched very
soon)
23.
Date
Night
24.
Baby
Mama
25.
Flubber
26.
Space
Jam
27.
The
Family Stone
28.
The
Break Up
29.
Sleepless
in Seattle
30.
An
Affair to Remember
31.
When
Harry Met Sally
32.
One
Day
33.
P.S.
I Love You
34.
The
Big Lebowski
35.
Religulous
This
list is non-exhaustive, of course, as we’ve had many nights when I know we
watched something ridiculous and I just can’t think of it. Needless to say, I still have 3 TB of movies
to watch, so if anyone has any ideas of good movies for us to watch, please let
me know! The hard drive is full of older
stuff, so don’t be afraid to go back a ways :)
As
always, thanks for your advice!
Musings on the first marking period
With
the first marking period come and gone, and the second one almost completed, I
find myself marveling at the fact that I have successfully taught over 250
students for over two months. If you had
told me one year ago that I would be a high school science teacher in Liberia,
I would have laughed at you. And
instead, here I am!
Though
we have finished the first marking period, my work is far from over. Many of my students failed that first marking
period, and many of them are looking to be on their way to failing the second. In my 11A Physics class, I passed only 7 out
of 64 students. This was discouraging,
but I know it’s because they do not try.
Many of them have stepped up their game this marking period, after
realizing the level of work that I expect, and they are on track to pass my
class. Between all of the examples,
homework problems, quizzes, and review for the final exam, there is no reason
anyone should be failing my class.
Part
of the problem, I think, comes from the fact that their other classes are very
different from the way that we run our classes.
Sarah and I don’t put up with any crap from our students; if you make a
fool of yourself, we will call you out on it.
If you are being rude or disrespectful, we are not afraid to move you to
the front of the classroom or to send you out of the classroom altogether. Another favorite of ours has been to lecture
our students after class – either in the classroom or in the hallway, where
everyone can watch and get the hint that we are serious about providing them
with a quality education.
My
tenth graders are showing the most progress this marking period, and I could
not be happier about that. My 10C and
10D classes are my favorite two classes, and they are picking up our new
Physics material very very well.
Teaching them every day is enjoyable to me, and on the days that I don’t
want to go to school, thinking about missing their class makes me want to
go. My brightest students are in those
two classes, and I am excited to see what we can accomplish by next summer. Who knows – maybe I am teaching a future
president of Liberia? One can never
know… All I know is that it is my duty
to provide them with the best educational experience I can find within myself. Here’s to the next two years.
 |
| 11A |
 |
| The ladies of 10C |
 |
| The ladies of 10D |
 |
| Some of the guys from 10D |
 |
| The trouble makers of 10D. |
We are still bizarre…three months in.
Sarah
and I are the only two white women living in Pleebo, and though we have been
there for three months, we are still shiny new toys to many of the children
here. That being said, walking by our
house every day on the way to school is a must for any child in the near and
not-so-near area. While this is fine, it
is also obnoxious. They will walk by our
neighbor’s homes, and then once they reach near ours, they start screaming
hello at us. You may think I am
exaggerating, but that could be further from the truth – they are quite
literally screaming at us.
We
have become very good at ignoring them, and this seems to work most of the
time. Some still do not get the point,
though, so we have to go through our spiel with them. “Move from here” or “We are not your picture
show” have become sayings that our neighbors hear from us plenty. Some children, or pekings as they are called
locally, do not get the hint, and we have to resort to “I will flog you-o!” or
something equally as threatening for them to move. Sometimes, we’ll even act as if we’re going
to come after them off the porch before they move.
Some
children think that they can just walk circles around our house and we will not
notice it. That is the most amusing,
simply because it is as if they think we are absolute idiots who do not notice
them walk by, screaming hello, fifteen times in fifteen minutes! For these times, our neighbors come to our
rescue.
First
of all, there is Regina’s husband. He
spends a lot of time on their front porch, which is very near our back
porch. I can only imagine his inner
dialogue when these kids are around; before our arrival, his life was quiet and
calm…now, it is noisy and full of kids screaming at the white women who live
next door to him. When he is finally
tired of the situation, he will come off his porch and yell at them, asking
them if they’re stupid or if they cannot hear.
Sarah and I just laugh when this happens, because, really, what else can
we do?
One
of my favorite memories, though, has to do with Robertson. One day, these girls would not leave the
corner of our house, continually spying around the corner and laughing at
us. Robertson was doing some carpentry
work in his shop in front of their house, and I yelled over to him, “Robertson,
the children are being foolish!”
Immediately, he dropped his tools and started running over to where they
were. “Move from here!” he shouted. “I will tell your mother and she will beat
you. Leave the women alone!” Shocked, Sarah and I again laughed about the
situation. I told him thank you, and he
just shrugged it off. It’s obvious he
thinks the same thing – we have been here so long… Why are they not used to us by now?
The
entire situation just reminds me again and again of how we have the best
neighbors in all of Liberia. PCVs here,
you can argue that sure, but we will win time and time again :)
Sarah’s adventures with the tailor, Youssouf
One
of the only ways that anyone gets clothing in Liberia is by buying lappa, or
African fabric, and heading to your local tailor to get a wide variety of items
made. Though the used clothing market is
booming here, plenty of people still wear traditional African clothes (or use
the fabric to get something very contemporary made). Sarah has jumped right into this trend in
Pleebo and found herself a pretty awesome tailor.
Youssouf
has a shop right on the main road near our house, and we pass by it every day,
whether we are going to school or reaching to the market. She has a good eye for lappa that works well
with her style, and she is also really good at finding designs or styles that
look great on her. Since our arrival in
Pleebo, she has had three dresses made, and all of them have been phenomenal.
One
dress was an exact replica of a dress that she brought with her from America
(which her friend, Tressa, actually gave her from South Africa) and it seems to
be the comfiest dress she owns. Another
was this great dress made with a very unique lappa that, again, looks
great. And finally, there is the shining
gem of any dress ever made. She found
this beautiful blue lappa, which she intended to get made into a really full,
long skirt. Instead, after picking it
up, she found it turned into a 80s prom dress.
Youssouf made the skirt, sure, but he also made a bright blue satin top
to go with it. On that, he added a very
prim collar and a big black button.
Overall, the dress was just obnoxious, but like the trooper she is, she
wore it confidently for a month or so.
Just recently, she took it back to him, however, and had him take off
the top, leaving her with just a really great skirt :)
When
I get back to site, it is my goal to get more things made. Youssouf and I are going to become best
friends, and I can’t wait to bring back some awesome things to wear in
America. Before, I was very conscious of
what types of patterns or styles I wore.
Now, however, I could care less.
I’m going to rock my Liberian-wear in America, doing whatever it is I
decide to do when I return. It’s gonna
be great.
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