525,600 minutes, how do you measure, measure a year?

So I spent a long time trying to pick a theme song for this entry today, probably in large part because its been so long since my last update. I apologize for that, its been a combination of some technical problems at my go to computer location and just a really strange schedule the last few months.

So first why I chose that particular song this time around. In the past few months we (Salone 1) have passed some pretty big milestones. Since the Peace Corps is around a 27 month program there is the one year mark of being in your country (early June), followed by the half way mark overall (early July), finally followed by the one year left mark (August). So obviously all of that results in a lot of reflection about how far you've come and how much you've grown in knowledge of the culture and of yourself. There are some other reasons for choosing the song also. One it reminded me of my SS1 Physics class where we spent a lot of time trying to do unit conversion with questions like How many minutes are in a year? Also Rent has become one of my main workout playlists, sadly mostly on a stationary bike as I've been trying to work my knee back into running shape...as they say here small small (little by little).

So what's happened since the last update?? Well quite a bit as I'm sure you can imagine. We had the third and final term of the school year which was really short. It was already planned to be the shortest term, but my school was also a BECE (Basic Education Certificate Examination) site (the exit exam for middle school), and the only one for like a 20 mile radius. That took over our whole school for the last 3 weeks of the term. So basically we had about 4 weeks of teaching and then cumulative final exams. Not a lot of teaching really since the end of second term. I was really impressed though to hear my fellow teachers speaking up to say that this testing schedule was making it really difficult to teach effectively. That's kind of surprising for me to hear in a place where oftentimes the teachers seem really unmotivated, so it was really great.

A few more words on motivation (why do I feel like that's all I talk about in this blog?). As I've been in my town longer just getting to know people and listening to people, I've noticed more and more the interesting story that is Blama. Blama used to be the most important town in the Eastern Province. My school was widely seen to be the best school in the Eastern Province, Blama was a center of transportation with a main road and railroad junction running through it, and there was a big Lebanese population that had stores and probably did a lot of diamond trading. So it was a pretty big and influential town. Then the railroad became one of many casualties of a government not valuing infrastructure and plagued with corruption. Then chiefdom boundary disputes caused problems. And finally the war came and hit the South-East (where I am) if not harder at least for a more extended period of time than elsewhere in the country since a lot of the conflict was a spillover from Liberia. Lebanese people left and never came back. Buildings were burned, schools and shops looted. People fled and also never came back. All not to mention the more obvious effects of war. And then after it was said and done and the country was peaceful again, all of the rebuilding went to Kenema, which became the district capital and the big town in the Eastern Province. So people from Blama saw the past get destroyed and the future focused 12 miles down the highway and still see reminders everyday of burned out buildings where Lebanese people used to stay, gas stations long abandoned, and a kind of defeated spirit for really understandable reasons. So I completely understand how crazy it is to ask someone to work really hard to rebuild their life in Blama when they feel like betrayed...betrayed by the rebels or the government or whoever, but less specifically betrayed in the way that exists inside of all of us that says really isn't that enough for one person or one town? Haven't we already dealt with enough?

Yeah so those are some of the reasons why its tough to go somewhere and say hey guys lets start building up Blama. Let's work to prepare a better future for Blama...they just can't see it and definitely don't feel like they should be the ones to do it after everything that's happened. That makes life difficult for me because people would much rather see me bring money, bring projects and do all the work then to come alongside me and work together to make things happen. And that is the only effective way to do it, to have people that support you and want to do the project themselves. Most people in Blama just want to live. They don't want people preaching to them all the time about what they should do better to develop their town or country. And there are a lot of great things about living in Blama, if you are not always singularly focused on the "development" of the town. There are football (soccer) clubs that are starting up, Salone artists that come to perform, a thriving Friday market, places to watch Premier League, palm wine "corners" or beer bars, and still the village feel where everyone is friendly and watches out for each other and you don't have to worry about the safety of your kids running around and playing wherever and you can expect random invitations to eat or watch a movie with neighbors or friends. Its not a bad place to live at all, as long as you aren't looking at statistics like how many students are passing their exams or how many thriving business we have that aren't agriculture or petty trading. I get tired of all the preaching about the life that they should be working towards or the development everybody needs to be doing to make Blama a better place. And honestly I am less and less convinced that I am in a position to be giving that advice.

What is it that fundamentally makes America better than other places, in a way that makes it so important for us to "develop" everyone on a path towards ourselves? Don't get me wrong, since being here I appreciate the life and values we live by in America more than ever before. But its been a really big question, what is the overarching goal of this development life? And in a country like Sierra Leone that's overloaded with NGOs, its an important question to ask. I understand that you can give me statistics that make life look pretty rough here. You can check the Human Development Index which will tell you year after year that Sierra Leone is one of the worst places in the world to live. But for what? I started trying to think of how to explain to Americans how ridiculous that idea is for me of measuring the worth of human life by things like average life span, prevalence of corporal punishment, etc.

So this is gonna seem ridiculous but try to stay with me. Since we already know about all the countries of this world here for this example we gotta use a bit of sci-fi and pull in an alternate universe for a second. Like I said, stay with me. Imagine human beings come from an alternate universe to our Earth. Imagine they decide to focus on America first since we are one of the most advanced countries around. Now imagine in their Earth everyone lives to be 200 years old. Imagine the developments in medicine that got them there. One of those developments was to delay childbearing age to begin around 50 for women. Or maybe they use a whole different system for that. They go to school for the first 50 years of their lives. They only sleep one hour a night and work 18 hour days. They spend time with friends once a month, if even that. And they come to America and see the life that we live, and decide that that life is something that should be pitied. Not only something that's different or just not as progressed technologically but something to be fundamentally pitied. And past that they see so many things that we do as ignorant or even immoral, like getting married at 20 or having kids soon after. They think we're lazy for enjoying spending time with friends and only wanting to work 8 hour days.

So the point of that exercise was just to try to get all of you into my head in terms of thinking about what makes life valuable. Nobody is going to come to me and tell me my life isn't valuable or is something that inherently should be pitied because I'm only going to live until like 80 and people still die from cancer and AIDS and things. No, my life is absolutely valuable and so is theirs here. Different yes, full of challenges yes, and there is absolutely room for change and development. But it just seems like we are starting from the absolutely wrong place. Like why is it that we applaud people that adopt children from developing countries and rescue them to America? Yes sometimes that can be a lot better of a life for them and yes I think there are so many amazing things about America and have always been excited to get back home. But we don't know everybody's situation. There are some things about living here that I think are much preferable to our lives in America. There are some friends here that I've looked at and tried to imagine them moving to America and if I felt like their lives would be fundamentally better, and often the answer is no. Not everyone would automatically live a better life by simply being in America. Some people would, but I think its something we assume far too quickly. Length of life does not equal a valuable life. And who are we kidding, everyone is still going to die anyway. Whether its yellow fever at age 40 or cancer at age 50 or a car accident at 17, its going to happen.

Anyway that's my two cents into the life we live as human beings. That said there is a huge advantage to now having spent as much time as I have here. I know enough about the culture to know when I am in a moment that I really love and appreciate and know I'll miss in America, and I can sit in the moment and just really be there. And then on the other hand I can fully acknowledge when I am in a moment that really annoys me and I can think about the fact that not too long from now in America I wont have to deal with that particular issue. So those moments become much easier to get through. And its ok to acknowledge that there are things about living here that will always be difficult or annoying or frustrating. And that doesn't mean that you aren't adjusting or integrating or all of that. It means that life isn't perfect or simple anywhere. It means that every decision and situation has positives and negatives and you deal with it and make the trade-offs and find the balance that works for you.

Ok so enough preaching for today huh? What else has been happening...Since school finished I've been traveling a good deal around the country here (unfortunately right in the rainiest part of the year when the roads are pretty bad) seeing other Peace Corps Volunteers that I hadn't had the chance to visit. I've been working out a good deal and am happy to report that my knee has finally allowed me to run again, and I actually did 8 miles like a week ago (still fighting the rice and palm oil). I've been listening to Salone music as usual, reading books and Time magazine (which I'm addicted to), listening to BBC, eating food. I swear the fact that this country has spicy food, great music, and gorgeous beaches is enough to get me through whatever frustrations I have in life.

Besides that we added 48 new human beings to our Peace Corps Sierra Leone family. The new kids (Salone 2) came in early June and had their training in the North up in Makeni (which is unfortunately a long hard day of travel for me every time I went). I visited them for 4th of July weekend and then went back to work as a Peace Corps Volunteer Resource, to help with their training for almost 2 weeks. Besides that its been medical and training trips to Freetown, of course with beach trips and nights out as is our custom.

So what happens now? School starts again in September (if there isn't a strike due to salary problems) and I'm trying to adjust school stuff to get smaller classes of more motivated students. We'll see if that works, but if it does that'll do wonders to improve my sanity. Oh one of those new Salone 2 human beings got added to my own corner of the world (actually in my town). Because of a weird housing situation I moved across town and he moved into my old house. So we are in a bit of a state of flux out in Blama, but I think it'll be nice to have a new perspective into my town.

Here's to hoping it wont be so long until the next update. I'll be starting up school again and looking forward to December when my mom comes here and then we head out to Ghana. Hope you're all doing well and miss you guys.

Take care,
-A