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