Catching Up, Part 2

Hello again and welcome back. This is part 2 of ‘Catching Up’, a series delve into what Mr. Filip has been up to these past few months. If you haven’t read the first post yet, that would probably be a good place to start.

On our way to Senegal

Part 2:

Senegal

In early June, Mary (a fellow volunteer) and I traveled to Thies, Senegal for a malaria boot camp. STOMP puts on a tri-yearly boot camp that volunteers involved in malaria work can attend to learn more about the disease, to share ideas with other volunteers, and to interface with those who are directly working on malaria eradication.

Banjul's airport - not a fun place for a layover

First off, Senegal is paradise (when compared to Sierra Leone). While I’m sure it is very different once you get outside of the major towns, Dakar is a world apart from Freetown. The place is clean and much less chaotic than Sierra Leone’s capital. There is artwork all over and we even found some working streetlights… Needless to say, it was a bit of culture shock for Mary and I.

We had some trouble getting there however. Our trip there included a 10-hour layover in Banjul, the capital of The Gambia. Peace Corps was supposed to set us up with a hotel, but that never happened. Instead, Mary and I spent the entire night hanging out in the airport lobby and were exhausted by the time we got to Senegal. We weren’t allowed to sleep because Banjul’s airport makes you recheck-in after you arrive. Unfortunately we had arrived too early to check in for our next flight and had to wait until the morning when they would let us through the gates. We asked around if there was somewhere we could get some sleep but they all agreed that we would need to stay awake until we could check-in. Thankfully, there was an awesome staff member on duty the entire night who hung out with us and gave us some drinks.

Fishing outside of Dakar

When we finally arrived, we didn’t get to spend too much time in Dakar as we were pretty quickly shuttled off to Thies where the training was to be held. We stayed in a Peace Corps training center in Thies which has untold amenities – running water, electricity, internet – it was impressive.  We didn’t get to spend too much time to catch up on sleep as we jumped into our first day of work the next day. Days lasted from 8am to about 7pm every day with the exception of one day off (which was still packed with other activities).

While it was long and grueling at times, we covered a ton of information from the biology of malaria and prevention, to the role of NGOs, to the application of technology towards the end goal of eradication. In between this, we also took time to discuss best practices within our respective Peace Corps programs to facilitate idea sharing between countries. Throughout we were able to talk directly to experts in their fields in person or through Skype. We heard from PMI, USAID, the CDC, and a number of start-up NGOs just to name a few. 

                    The slave trading port on Goree Island                       

One negative aspect of the boot camp (which really had nothing to do with the boot camp itself) was that very few malaria actors seemed to be operating within Sierra Leone despite the country’s extremely high rate of malaria. This significantly hinders our possibilities of collaboration between partners, but on the bright side, it means that Peace Corps can have a large impact here with respect to malaria.

Beach acrobatics on Goree Island

We thankfully got our flight back changed (it included a 15 hour layover this time in Banjul…) and were able to spend a few extra days hanging out in Dakar. On our last full day there, a few volunteers and I traveled to Goree Island, a World Heritage Site known for its “Door of No Return.” The island was a slave trading port and has been visited by both Obama and Mandela which is pretty neat. It was definitely a bit surreal being on the other side of the ocean to see where a large portion of slaves were shipped through (though there is some contention as to whether Goree Island was a final destination for slaves on the way to America).

Overall, the boot camp was an amazing experience. It was extremely motivating and gave us a ton of new ideas that we hope to implement within the coming year. If you’re interested in a more visual representation of the boot camp, Mary and I threw together a quick video about the boot camp which can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oN8kNfHK7G0

Inquisitive child on Goree Island

Maile’s Malaria Program

A student group's skit

After getting back to Sierra Leone on the 16^th, I hung out in Freetown for a few days. On the 20^th, Maile – the recently anointed head of STOMP for Sierra Leone – held a desensitization on malaria in her community which I was lucky enough to attend. The program lasted a few hours and involved a short, visual demonstration on how malaria is transmitted followed by a skit competition between two local schools and ended with the smashing of a piñata in the shape of a mosquito. The program drew a large crowd who seemed interested and who were active in learning the material. As mentioned before, having school children create skits is wildly successful as both the kids creating the skit and those watching it are much more engaged in the learning process – those creating the skit learn through hands on application of malaria knowledge and those watching learn though relating to their peers. The program as a whole went really well and is something I hope to eventually implement within my community at some point next year.

Smashing the pinata

4th/GBV

After Senegal and Maile’s program, I tried to spend as much time as possible at site as I had been away for over three weeks. Sadly, this only lasted about two weeks as I was asked to attend a gender based violence (GBV) workshop in Freetown with a one of my community members. I believe I’ve mentioned his project here before, but as a refresher I’ll outline it briefly here again.

Sunset at the western most point in Africa

When I first got to site, a community member who used to work for the NGO Concern approached me about the possibility of doing a project centered on gender based violence. He had been trained in creating workshops around the idea and wanted to start a three-day training centered on the role men play in GBV. Instead of just coming to me with the idea and expecting me to take on the project, he typed out an extensive, nine page grant detailing all the specifics of the program he hoped to implement. On top of this, he has been actively working with the police over the past few months here in my village and the district capital to modernize their records in order to provide up-to-date statistics on how prevalent GBV is within our district and town. Because of all of his hard work, I mentioned him to our training manager back during the BCC training and he eventually was invited to the program this past week in Freetown. His GBV program is currently looking for funds and while our post may be able to fund it, I might have to put up a grant that you can all donate to (if you’re so inclined) to get the project off the ground within the next few months.

                

Cute kids at the malaria program

Anyway, because my counterpart and I were invited to Freetown, I decided to get an early jump and head to Bo for the annual 4^th of July celebration with the new volunteers. A large number of the Salone 3s (the group before ours) and Salone 4s (our group) went and it was fun getting back together with a large group of volunteers after not seeing some of them for quite some time. The 4^th celebration also served as sort of last-hurrah for the Salone 3s as most are finishing their service this month or in early August. On top of that, we got to meet some of the new group of volunteers which was fun as well. It was interesting to see what we likely looked like to the Salone 3s just a year ago. The new group is big (I think 57 volunteers?) but the few that I got the chance to talk to seemed like they’ll get along just fine in Sierra Leone.

Goree Island's beautiful streets

After the 4^th a group of us headed out to Freetown to prepare for the GBV conference. I didn’t have too big of a role – in fact I was the only one invited who isn’t on the gender equity committee (thanks counterpart!). I helped out where I could but spent most of the few days in Freetown enjoying the delicious food and occasionally fast internet. As for the program itself, it went really well. Besides PCVs and three counterparts, a representative from Concern, PLAN, and the Ministry of Education all attended and had great things to add to our discussion. The program was much more of a conversation than a lecture and it allowed the counterparts to really get involved and provide some great input.

A window across the ocean

After the end of the program, we said our goodbyes to our guests and headed to the US Embassy for a quick meet-and-greet with the 2^nd lady – Dr. Jill Biden. Apparently she has been traveling with the US ambassador of women’s issues and the director of USAID to a few African countries to talk about GBV and we were somehow invited to attend. Meeting them was rather anticlimactic as we waited a good hour and a half just to take a picture with her, but it was an interesting experience nonetheless. I also spent some time talking to a member of USAID’s Guinea team who came for the visit and happened to be a RPCV who had a lot of good advice on life after Peace Corps.

Last night in Dakar, Senegal

Since then I’ve been back at site hanging around for the closing of school (which officially happens on the 18^th). School is largely functionally over, we’re just compiling grades, but 8^th grade is still in attendance due to the fact that their high school entrance exam has been pushed back to sometime in August because of Ebola. In about two weeks we have our MST (or MSC or whatever acronym they’re using now) and from there I’ll be headed out to Paris, France to see my sister and eventually back to the States for the majority of August. Definitely going to enjoy my site as much as possible before heading back, but looking forward to seeing you all once I’m back in the US. Again, thanks for reading! See you all soon!

Back at site

Catching Up, Part 1

Hello again Mr. Blog, it’s been quite some time since we last talked… no, no – it’s not you, it’s me. I’ve been busy… Well, not too busy, but too busy to blog anyway. Still, I’m sorry, I’ll try my best to keep you updated more often in the future.

Anywho, there is a lot to catch you all up on from the past few months, but I’ll do my best to update everyone on what’s been happening in Sierra Leone since the holidays.

Part 1:

View of Tokeh Beach from across River No. 2

Term 2 Break

After Christmas break, I didn’t do a whole lot of traveling. Instead, I tried to focus on teaching and staying at my site. I love my site – it’s a great place to spend time, but sadly it doesn't illicit stories that are interesting as leaving site which will be most of the focus in the post below.

At the end of March, I headed to Bo to participate in a behavior change workshop put on by STOMP Out Malaria. The workshop focused on how those around us shape our behaviors and what prevents us from changing said behaviors. While it was specific to malaria, the program applied broadly to all types of behavior change that we might pursue within our communities. In addition to being an interesting topic in general, the structure of the program was rather unique. Instead of simply having one person lecture the entire time about BCC, we worked in small groups to develop our own programs based around the concepts we were talking about. In doing so we immediately applied these ideas and concepts which helped to concretize the abstract elements we were discussing. In turn, making these ideas much more memorable and applicable to our sites.

"Picturesque" Bureh Beach

After the behavior change conference term 2 had ended so I headed out to Freetown to celebrate a volunteers 30th birthday. The celebration was ridiculous but a ton of fun. It was interesting to see the nightlife in Freetown which obviously is a bit different than the nightlife in the smaller villages… A few friends and I decided to head out to Bureh beach the morning after the party. I’ve written about Bureh beach in the past on this blog but the place still blows me away every time I go. Anyway, we took a different way around to get to Bureh beach this time which gave me the chance to explore some of the other beaches along the Freetown peninsula. First stop was in River No. 2 which is one of Sierra Leone’s better known beaches. It’s a beautiful white sand beach but it seemed a bit touristy (as touristy as a place like Sierra Leone can get). The place was mostly full of people from abroad. Likely because of this, the place was also far more expensive than some of Sierra Leone’s other beaches. From River No. 2, we took a boat across the river to Tokeh beach, which is basically just a long extension of River No. 2. It too is a white sand beach and was a bit more reasonable in terms of prices. The place was largely empty however. Beaches here are a bit different than they are in the US in that they’re typically empty outside of big holidays. Anyway, we walked the length of Tokeh beach to a village where we got transport to Bureh beach. While at Bureh, we spent a good amount of time playing jenga with the local surf club guys and hanging out with friends who also decided to spend the holidays at Bureh.

Enjoying a Star beer as the sun goes down at Bureh

After Bureh I was convinced to check out a friend’s site out in Kono. If you don’t know, Kono is the region in which the vast majority of diamond mining took place before and during the war (and were some still takes place today, though on a much smaller scale). My friend’s site was a rather stark reminder of the war and the effects of the diamond trade. The place was a ghost town as the vast majority of the diamond mining had dried up. The one bright spot of the village was an extremely nice school, which I later came to learn was actually a RUF training ground. Sadly, I forgot my camera at home and thus couldn’t take any pictures. I only spent a couple days out there and then returned back to my site to spend some time with my friends here. Overall, it was a nice, relaxing break from school, but I was ready to get back to classes for term 3.

Chris (our helmet specialist) and I getting our bikes transported after the tour

Bike Tour

Term 3 turned out to be much busier than I expected. In early May, the STOMP Out Malaria committee organized their yearly sensitization bike tour in a number of towns in the south. The idea was to put on a number of skits and informal talks about malaria in an effort to dispel some of the persistent rumors and misconceptions about malaria. Malaria is by far Sierra Leone’s biggest killer – 40% of child mortality in Sierra Leone is attributed to the disease. In addition, malaria has untold effects on cognitive development and missed workdays that continue to hinder economic growth throughout the country.

Sean, Kim, and Gibbs acting out the malaria skit at school

Within many communities in Sierra Leone, malaria is largely seen as a mild annoyance. Many adults have been exposed to the disease numerous times throughout their lives and thus have built up a limited amount of resistance. Whereas their parasite load may kill a small child, elderly adult, or those not previously exposed to the disease, adults tend to develop mild to severe symptoms that they typically overcome with a few days of rest. Malaria is treated much in the same way that the common flu is treated America in terms of severity. However, this is a huge mistake as it results in adults going untreated who then pass the disease onto children, the elderly, or the otherwise immunocompromised which can have serious consequences for them.

A group of JSS girl (and Sean) during the tour

Regardless, the bike tour went well. While there were definite missteps in our approach that we will improve upon next year, communities seemed to genuinely enjoy our presentations and asked thoughtful questions throughout. We also had a few schools put on their own skits which turned out great. The kids really got into their acting roles and were much more effective at spreading the message than we could ever hope to be. Overall, we traveled about 50 miles on bike over the course of 6 days, stopping and performing in seven different volunteer villages. I attempted to bike the whole way down but only made it about a third of the way until my bike broke down which quickly became a consistent theme for me (and many others) throughout the tour. Thankfully, there are a number of skilled bike mechanics within our group who were able to keep the bikes up and running. Definitely looking forward to both improving the tour and next year’s trip.

Another picture of Bureh because, why not?

Temne Training
Towards the end of May, a number of volunteers and I organized a small weekend training focused on our mutual local language. The sessions lasted two days and involved a counterpart from our communities. Thankfully, here at site, I have an awesome teacher who sets aside a good amount of time to offer me informal classes in Temne. The program itself turned out to be a bit different than what we expected, though not necessarily in a negative way. We were hoping to really dig into the grammatical “meat” of Temne but instead we focused on how to use Temne to talk about issues within our communities. We covered HIV/AIDS, malaria, teenage pregnancy, and sanitation. While this threw a lot of the volunteers off, the counterparts really got into talking over the issues and discussing the correct way to pronounce things in Temne. It was great to see them so involved and committed to teaching out and preserving their local language. Hopefully we can organize something similar again in the near future that will focus more on grammar, but overall it was a good training and it got my counterpart really excited about teaching more Temne.

Sunset Soccer at Bureh

Marathon

Immediately after the language training, Street Child – a NGO in Makeni – put on a marathon to raise funds for their cause. The British NGO was founded to help children affected by the war but as slowly transitioned to making sure kids can go to school by paying for their school fees, uniforms, and books. The marathon draws runners from all over the world and is known to be particularly grueling due to the heat and humidity. Despite this, over two thousand people showed up to run. I chose to keep it simple and ran the 5k with some other volunteers. Two volunteers did run the full marathon (and a handful ran the half) which was really impressive. It was fun experience. Hopefully next year I’ll be so bold as to run a 10k or a half, but we shall see where I stand on that as time approaches.

Regardless, thanks for reading. Looking forward to seeing you all in a few short weeks! Stay tuned, I’ll post part 2 later today. 

The Holidays

It has been quite a while since I’ve posted something new on here, so I thought I’d take some time and update everyone interested as to what I’ve been up to these past few months. Sadly, I misplaced my camera for most of the holidays which means this post will be a bit light on relevant pictures, my apologies in advance.

My running companion walking home after a long run

Site has been – and continues to be – great. Each day I feel more and more at home here. There are still things that I need to adjust to, but things continue to get easier as time marches on. Teaching in particular is quickly becoming more and more second nature. While I still can’t say that teaching is the most enjoyable profession, nor do I think I’ll pursue it after Peace Corps, I do enjoy seeing students “get it” and get excited about learning. My older classes in particular seem to really be getting a hang of the way I teach and are slowly showing the ability to apply what they learn to new and unique situations. There are still a ton of hurdles to overcome, however. After doing some popcorn reading in my 7^th grade class, I quickly learned that many of my students either have a tenuous grasp on reading or don’t yet know how to read. This is particularly disconcerting considering they had to pass a written examination to get into secondary school…

A primary school girl  from the health fair

Where the first term was mostly getting grounded and comfortable at the school, this term I hope to tackle some of these issues by starting a few secondary projects. I’m currently lesson planning a remedial English class for after school to shore up the language skills that were somehow glossed over in primary school. I’m also hoping to start a computer class at some point soon, starting with the teachers and working down the grade levels. In addition to school projects, I’m also working with a community member to start a gender violence camp aimed at educating teenage boys on the role they can play in preventing violence against women, as well as thinking up project ideas around malaria now that I’m a member of the Peace Corps STOMP out malaria team. Despite the amount of work, things here at site are good. The pace of life is relaxing and slow which leaves plenty of time to get things accomplished. Most days are spent at school teaching, working on projects, or attempting to fix the myriad of technological problems that Sierra Leoneans seem to have. Evenings are typically spent with my neighbors discussing cultural differences, world news, cooking, or whatever other topic presents itself over a few cups of poyo (palm wine). So far all my neighbors have been extremely welcoming and accommodating. It is difficult to find any real complaints.

View from a bridge in Freetown

As for the holidays, they were extremely hectic. They started a bit early as I went to Freetown around the 11^th for a medical checkup. I had some stomach problems and a number of wounds on my feet that didn’t seem to be healing, but thankfully I was given a clean bill of health. I spent my few days there enjoying some American proxies that I’ve definitely missed here, namely decent internet speeds (60kb/s woo!), hamburgers, electricity, and running water. The only issue was that the tests took a bit longer than expected to complete leaving me with little time to get back to Makeni for our in-service training (IST). 

Sunset from Signal Hill in Freetown

Our IST lasted just over a week and was incredibly fun. It was great seeing everyone again after three or so months at site.  We were housed in a pastoral center in dorm style housing which brought back some collegiate nostalgia. Hard to believe that college ended almost two years ago. Anyway, the week consisted of sessions on grant writing, security, best teaching practices, and much more. The last few days we were each joined by a counterpart from our sites. Their role is to be someone in a position of authority in the community who is interested in pursuing projects. I chose one of my fellow teachers who I’ve spent a lot of time with the first term. During the conference we worked on developing a project for introducing child-centered teaching techniques to the school. All in all it was a great training. The only real negative was that during one of the nights out after training my smartphone was stolen out of my hands. I tried chasing the thief down and ended up cutting up my feet and injuring my toe all for naught as he got away anyway. Thankfully, one of my friends here let me use her smartphone that she had brought but wasn’t using so I could get back online.

Bureh Beach

Training ended on the 21^st and I didn’t have any real plans until Christmas so I ended up following some friends out to Bureh beach, which is far and away one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been. It feels like a place completely removed from Sierra Leone. I spent the two days there at the Bureh Beach Surf Club, which apparently got its start, in part, due to Peace Corps Volunteers. The Surf Club has a volleyball net, surfboard rentals, and fresh caught barracuda to eat every night. Needless to say, I was glad I spent the time between IST and Christmas there. 

Sunset at Bureh beach

On the 24^th I headed out to Bo to spend Christmas with my host family that I had during our pre-service training. It felt nothing like Christmas in the States with it being 90 or so degrees during the day but it was nice to see the family again. The volunteer who had the same host family a year before myself also came out and it was nice to spend some time hanging out with him as well. After Christmas, I went back to my site for a few days to get some things done before I headed up north to Kabala for New Years. 

Another view from Bureh beach

Kabala is one of the bigger towns in the north of Sierra Leone. It is currently experiencing a bit of a boom as the government is investing heavily in order to make Kabala a more attractive tourist destination. Since it is up in the Wara Wara hills, it is always around 15 or so degrees cooler than the rest of the country. It is also home to a sizable group of Fulas – the ethnic minority known for cattle rearing in Sierra Leone – so things like beef and other vegetables rarely found thought out the country are plentiful in Kabala. My short visit there left me with a heavy dose of envy for the two volunteers who call Kabala their site. Each year the town hosts a huge New Year’s Day celebration on one of the bigger hills overlooking the town. My first few days there were spent attending some pre-New Year’s Day festivities. Sierra Leone’s president attended as well and he invited us to sit in the honored guest stands. In addition, he apparently requested some one-on-one time with the volunteers who were there but it unfortunately never came to fruition. Regardless, we hiked up the hill overlooking town on New Year’s Day and spent most of the afternoon relaxing and enjoying the celebration. After the festivities I had planned to head back to site to get everything set before school started back up on the 6^th but instead I decided at the last minute to spend my remaining days of break back at Bureh beach.

Another sunset at Bureh

 Overall, the holidays were incredible, but the slower pace of life at my site was welcome change of pace. School here has officially gotten back into swing and I’m now teaching an additional class of English to the equivalent of 9^th grade students. The volunteer before myself taught them last year so they seem to have a decent grasp on both the way I speak English and the language in general. Site has been rather uneventful compared to the hustle and bustle of the holidays but I’m glad to be back. You don’t really realize how comfortable you are in a place until you leave that place for an extended period of time.

Another inquisitive student from the health fair

As always thanks for reading. Hope everyone is doing well back home, I miss you all dearly. I would love to hear what you were all up to over the holidays (or anytime for that matter, not just the holidays) if you get the chance.

The First Month at Site

(Written on 9/24)

Hard to believe that it has already been near a month that I’ve been at site. The pace of time has steadily increased since the first week or two here where it seemed to drag a bit. I’m sure as I continue to feel more comfortable here time will continue its expedited pace.

Skeptical child is skeptical

A lot has happened within this month despite how quickly it has flown by. The first two weeks or so were filled with lots of downtime and a myriad of small frustrations as I adjusted to the community and they adjusted to me. It was quite a change of pace as PST was filled with a perpetually busy schedule and by the time it was over, I was rather comfortable with the pace. Leaving my host family and Bo to come to a much smaller village with a lot less accommodations and things to do was a big transition. However, as I developed a routine here things got easier. I started going to the market on a near daily basis to get things to cook, I've spent much of my time with Mohamed – a teacher’s nephew who is also new to the village – who has been extremely helpful in navigating my integration, and I've spent some time hanging out with my fellow teachers.

A typical bag of groceries

At first, school was scheduled to start the second week at site but the government for some odd reason decided to push it back a week. When that week rolled around, as is typical in Sierra Leone, students and staff showed up sporadically and there was little in the way of teaching going on. The students that did show up mostly spent the day cleaning and preparing the classrooms while I helped with what I could (but mostly passed the time by browsing the internet and reading Game of Thrones). This week has been the effective start of school though it is still quite chaotic. The principal has been quite busy and has yet to come up with the time table so we as teachers don’t have defined times for when we are to teach. Instead we are to introduce our subject and ourselves this week to the classes we will be teaching so real teaching can begin next week. The problems of the Sierra Leone education system are definitely becoming more and more apparent as time goes on. In addition to attendance issues, one of the classes I’ll be teaching – SSS1 (or the equivalent of 9^th grade) – has yet to show up to school. This is due to the BECE; the entrance exam to high school that the government takes an inordinate amount of time to officially grade. The test is extremely tedious and, in my opinion, a terrible judge of where students should be in terms of their education. I’m not sure exactly where the blame lies but the fact that grading the exam cuts into the precious little time that students do have to attend class seems a bit ridiculous.

Mohamed messing around with my camera

Rice paddies at my site

Things aren’t all bad though. During this first month, many people have approached me about potential projects in which I could pursue in my two years here. This has been a major relief as I falsely believed that Eric’s prolific body of work had left me little to accomplish here. The ideas have ranged from animal husbandry, building a clinic and latrines, expanding the teachers living quarters, helping the school expand into SSS3 and SSS4, bringing internet to the library, helping to restore the nonfunctioning hydroelectric dam in town, and a lot more. I hope that in my two years here I can help the community realize some of these dreams.

A rice paddy after a storm

There is still a long way to go however. While the village is starting to grow on me, I still feel a bit like a museum exhibit at times. Largely I feel like I'm glanced over as a serious member of the community as I haven’t grown up in this environment my entire life. Hopefully as time marches on and I develop relationships with the community this will change. As for now I’m trying to take it one step at a time and enjoy the small successes. Hard to believe it’s already been 4 months in Sierra Leone… Hope everyone is doing well back home. I would love to hear from you all if you get the chance.

A sunny day at site

Rice paddies in a nearby village

Summer School and Swear-In

(Written on 8/31)

SUMMER SCHOOL

Ms. Finda and some of our SS1 students

The last three weeks of PST, at least in Sierra Leone, are spent teaching and I thought I should touch on a how it has gone so far. As I mentioned to a lot of people before leaving, teaching wasn’t exactly my first choice in what I wanted to do with the Peace Corps. It seemed like it would result in a less impactful service and didn’t really compliment my skillset/what I had learned in college. So when I got my invitation, I was understandably a bit disappointed. Regardless, I obviously took the invitation and am here in Sierra Leone, poised to be an English teacher for the next two years.

One of my favorite students in JSS3

We all taught at a huge Ahmadiyya school just outside of downtown Bo. We were placed in to groups of three people and we rotated teaching two separate classes a day. Since I will be teaching the equivalent of 8^th-10^th grade at site, I taught 8^th and 9^th during summer school. I focused on grammar for the younger class and poetry for the older class. Since it was summer school (and grades didn’t really matter), students showed up relatively sparingly and those who did come were usually the smartest of the bunch. This combined with a well-functioning school in a major town meant that these students likely know significantly more than what my students will know at the same level once I get to site. Regardless, it was great practice. I didn’t expect to feel comfortable at all in front of a class but it has gone surprisingly well. While teaching has been a bit tedious and it has been difficult to lesson plan between spending time with friends and the frantic pace of PST, I think it is (hopefully) going to be something I enjoy for these next two years of my life. A lot of volunteers that I’ve talked to here in Sierra Leone say that teaching loses some of its luster – especially when you are with students for a whole year and see little progress – but at this point I’ll enjoy my blissful ignorance.

Some girls from my JSS3 class

Another thing that cropped up in these discussions with other volunteers is that PCVs in different project areas have a much less structured service. For example, I really wanted to be place in community/youth development. However, these volunteers usually have little to no job lined up for them in country – they usually have to carve their own path. While that actually sounds pretty awesome, it is nice to have something to fall back on as an education volunteer. I have a job that I can count and focus on if secondary projects fail to get off the ground. Again, this is all glass half full at this point. I’ll be sure to report back a bit on this further into my service. Regardless, I think the summer school teaching portion of PST was one of the best components as I feel it truly prepared me for what I will be doing once I get to site. Unlike theoretical lessons on cultural adaptation, this was much more practical, hands-on experience that I think will benefit me immensely once I start teaching at site. Though I guess that time will tell.

SWEAR-IN

View from the hostel of the sun setting over the ocean

After summer school ended we headed back to St. Edwards in Freetown for 3 days to swear-in as volunteers before heading out to our respective sites. We spent the first day getting to know the hostel and the Peace Corps office in Freetown which is beautiful. Afterwards we headed out to a western restaurant on the beach to enjoy some American food.

A view from Signal Hill just outside the hostel

The actual swearing in took place in a big hall and was supposed to be attended by the Sierra Leonean president but he couldn’t attend. Regardless, the acting country director, current ambassador to Sierra Leone and number of high ranking members of the Sierra Leonean government all were in attendance. In addition to speeches by a lot of these officials, each of the language groups had a representative from the training group who was elected by the class to deliver a speech in the local language that we spent the last few weeks learning. I was nominated to give the Temne speech and despite stumbling through a bit of it, it mostly went off without a problem.

My Temne Speech

After swearing in as volunteer, we had a free day to head out and explore Freetown. Most of us headed out to the beach and spent the day relaxing before heading out to site in the morning.

Lumley beach in Freetown

The next morning the car bound for site was left at 7:30 am which was far too early the day after swearing in as volunteers. The trip out to site took around 5-6 hours despite the road being paved most of the way largely due to heavy traffic in Freetown and the terrible last stretch of road. Regardless, I've arrived safely and am looking forward to spending the next two years here at site.  

The car all packed for site

A lone flower outside of the Peace Corps medical office

On Lucidity

(This was written around 8/31, about two weeks or so after the events described below)

Downtown Bo

Walking back from the internet café the other day I encountered a strange feeling that I've never experienced before. Sure, it has occasionally made an appearance throughout my brief tenure in Sierra Leone, but it was usually fleeting. This day was different. The day was a busy Saturday in which I went into Bo and spent the majority of the day at the internet café. I ended up staying there way longer than I had intended – as I usually do – pursuing the usual fair that I tend to read on the internet. Due to my extended stay at the café, I ended up being the last person there and thus had the long walk home to myself. The majority of the walk was filled with a peculiar mixture of serenity, homesickness, and isolation. I felt otherworldly – as if I didn’t quite belong is Sierra Leone. The stares that “pumoy” typically receive in Bo seemed to have intensified and I felt oddly self-conscious.

A mosque in Kenema

As stated above, this feeling wasn't fleeting – it lasted the majority of the 40 minute walk home and left me largely at a loss for words. I wasn't sure what the reasons were for feeling this way. After thinking about it for a few days I eventually settled on the belief that it was an attempt to reconcile cultural differences heightened by my extended stay on the internet observing American culture followed quickly by being thrown back into Sierra Leone culture as I left the café. Regardless, it left me taken back. Did I belong in Sierra Leone? What can I actually hope to accomplish here? Why did I come? Was it worth eschewing time with my family and friends back home for this? It left me questioning a lot about my service up to that point and in most cases, I didn't have sufficient answers. Instead I reframed my thoughts – I had only been in country for perhaps 5 or so weeks at that point – what did I truly know about Sierra Leone? I hadn't even moved into my site yet and still had a good chunk of PST left to undertake. Despite my inability to come up with answers to all the questions about, I responded to this self-searching with an open ended plea for more time. Time will tell if these things work themselves out and slowly disappear or if these instances come more and more frequently as I progress in my service.

More downtown Bo

EDIT

Thankfully this feeling has largely been non-existent after this anomalous event. It was an important experience though as it served as a poignant reminder to reframe and reassess my situation and the reasons for why I've joined the Peace Corps in the first place – something that I should be doing on a regular basis anyway. I shouldn't need a melange of disparate emotions to trigger this self-reflection. Hopefully as time moves forward, this introspection becomes a bit more second-hand.