“Mi yay de watch-o, eh-eh-eh mi yay de watch-o, i de watch-o”

This was written at the end of October...just fyi:

Ok so for the first time I’m starting you off with a song in Krio rather than English. It means “My eye is watching, my eye is watching, it is watching”. I’m pretty sure it’s by a Sierra Leonean artist called Innocent, so if you get a chance go check out the song (it’s an awesome and really politically conscious song). Anyway I chose that song today because it pretty much sums up the beginning of the school year for me. Basically the beginning of the year has been me trying things and then watching the students to see if anything I do is actually working.

I knew there would be challenges going into the school year, but I think the challenges are different than I first expected. Or maybe put another way, I thought I would be able to settle into a routine and teaching style quickly that would help me deal with teaching in Sierra Leone, but each class is having unique challenges, and I have to learn what works for each class individually. Let me try to explain. I have a 3 student SSIII Physics class (that have to sit their secondary school exit exam this year), a 25 student SSIII Core Science Physics class (also sitting the exam this year), a 50 student SSII Core Science Physics class (not sitting this year) and a 85+ student SSII Chemistry class. The SSII students are fantastic at sitting and taking notes quietly (in a way that no American class would ever be) because that is the normal class routine here (students don’t have textbooks so class usually consists of taking notes). While they are great at taking notes, they have very little practice actually using their notes to answer questions or solve problems. They also are very difficult to control if you do anything with them at all besides note taking, which is basically all the activities that lead to any real learning. The SSIII’s surprisingly couldn’t be more different. They are bored quickly by note taking and complain often. They are more accustomed to answering questions and will usually try to solve problems, although their math is definitely lacking. They also don’t come to school exams because they think the only score that matters is their exit exam, while the SSII’s have more students on exam day than any other day. So I’ve been spending most of my time revising my teaching ideas and styles to try to fit each class’s needs and capabilities.

I decided on a few areas to focus on with all of my students. I want to get them to understand how to use their notes to answer questions and solve problems, then with time show them how to write their own questions to help study for exams. I want to spend time with them on strategies for reading and understanding exam questions. Finally I want to find a way to get these kids to understand how to use textbooks. We just opened a library this school year that has fantastic physics books and also some decent chemistry books. I was excited at first that students would have books to use and was encouraging them to supplement class with these books, until I realized almost no one has ever used a textbook before and they literally don’t know how to use them. So anyway now you have an idea of my changing school strategies and how things have been going.

The last month and a half has been mostly busy with school, so there isn’t much of an update besides that. I am continuing Mende lessons (oh so slowly making progress there) and continuing to build relationships with community members. I also decided to pay my neighbor to cook for me because cooking is just too much work here, and have really been enjoying eating and spending time with the 3 families that live next to me.

On to more serious issues. First off, just to keep you all updated, we lost 2 more Peace Corps Volunteers to Early Termination, leaving 35 here. As always I wish them luck and hope all is well with them. It is known throughout the Peace Corps that the first 3-6 months at your site are often the most challenging and frustrating, and full of big emotional swings. This is the time many volunteers find it difficult to get anything done and start to wonder why it is that we are really here or what we can honestly accomplish. I have definitely experienced all of those frustrations, and have spent much of my first few months at site thinking about what it is that Peace Corps Volunteers and aid workers in general can actually hope to (or should be striving to) accomplish in Africa. I am far from any sort of answer or even interesting insight on that front, but what has come out of this time is a greater understanding of what characteristics I really value and respect in people (across both cultures). To spare you the details, let me just give you the short list as it stands now: tolerance/open-mindedness, integrity, self-reliance (or at least striving to be able to take care of yourself without relying on others), compassion, and something that I struggle to find a good word for but is basically the opposite of feeling entitled. Something like being able to appreciate the good things in life and the good others do for you. If anyone wants to hear the long winded version of this just let me know and I’d be happy to share :)

To close out today’s update, last time I promised to tell you how I got the travel name “Paradise”. Back during September, the volunteers took a trip to Number 2 River near Freetown. Everyone was discussing travel names that they use outside of their villages just for fun (like Lady Gaga and Iceman just to give some examples) and because we are all tired of being celebrities and hearing our local names yelled at us by children all the time so we welcome using other names when outside of home. Anyway I was still without a travel name when we were heading home from our fantastic 3 days at the beach. We were riding in public transport with 2 Sierra Leoneans and I think 10 volunteers. One of the Sierra Leoneans met one of our volunteers named Evan. He (the Sierra Leonean) turned to me and said “his name is evan [he was thinking Evan’s name was “Heaven” because that’s how you say Heaven in Krio], so my name is el [hell], and you must be paradise?” Later on in the journey the fumes from the car were bothering my eyes and the same Sierra Leonean broke the silence (that is so common in public transport) to say “Paradise is crying”, which in that moment seemed a strangely poetic thing to say. Anyway, that solved the problem of me not having a travel name, and I became Paradise from that point on. I also forgot last time when I gave all my titles to include the Peace Corps Sierra Leone superlative “Lyrical Gangster” I received during training as voted by my peers, so you can add that to the list from last time.

That’s all from Blama, Sierra Leone for now. The next time you hear from me we will have completed the first term of school and I’ll be meeting up with all the remaining Peace Corps Volunteers for In-Service Training (IST), hopefully followed by some sort of outing at some beach somewhere in Sierra Leone…until then I hope all is going well and take care. -A