Best day of the journey. Yours truly gave a stellar lesson on the future progressive tense (one month in and I'm a grammar dork). The kids were really engaged and seemed to grasp the material, to boot. I'm currently in a fabulous mood for a variety of reasons, but it should be noted that a main reason is probably that just yesterday I was scraping my way out of a deep dark abyss. I was miserable. I was depressed. I was hungover (more on the 4th later). Turns out the fifth of July is a terrible day for the opening session of summer school, our first live teaching experience without training wheels. But it would be unfair to solely blame the hangover. I felt overwhelmed and under-prepared, and again, just generally down. Apparently this can also be attributed to the malaria meds- good thing I won't have to take them for 2 years. Huh? It's not all rain clouds and mud though, because as low as the lows are, the highs always follow them like a family of ducks.
Tonight I hung out with the fam. I practiced Krio, learned the national anthem, and we laughed at each other. Standard operating procedure. I've been spending a lot of time away from the house on account of being at the training site all day and then hitting the bar across the street at night for lesson planning over a beer, but tonight was an awesome reminder that I need to be home more. A bit of balance is in order...noted.
The everyday encounters with the locals are usually pleasant, occasionally annoying, but more often than not, hilarious. These people just absolutely love to laugh. Usually it's at me, but their laughter is beautifully contagious and always in good taste, so I join in the fun and laugh at me as well. For example, a few days ago my friend, Meghan, showed me some puppies that are right by my house. We went over and introduced ourselves to the family, and they let me name one. We now greet each other daily, as they're on my beat; yesterday, they called me over and the father told me he had a present for me. It was obviously an animal in a make-shift carrier. I asked what it was, and they told me not to worry about it, just to take it. As I got closer and peaked inside, a disgusting giant rat hissed at me and I shrieked like the school girl that I am. They called it a “bush cat” and laughed at me until today. Charming.
A few highlights from the 4th of July and beyond:
Being 1/3 of the most patriotic trio this side of Crawford, Texas. “What's makes an American-African a patriot,” you ask? Well let me tell you- it involves a 3-man mustache race (tragic update below), cut-off jean shorts, and matching red, white (me), and blue shirts, and an American flag visor bought at the local market for $1.
Killing (by decapitation), defeathering, butchering (removing innards and cutting into pieces), and grilling a chicken. I also ate it. That. Just. Happened.
Dance party to follow at the bar across the street that's less a bar and more of an open room with tables, a not-so-shockingly useful random pole in the middle, and of course a shack that sells beer next door. By the end, shirts were missing (they're red, white, and blue, individually, and if you see them let me know), dancing was rampant, and there was a crowd surrounding the room. Call me if you ever want to know what it's like to be a zoo animal in a foreign country.
First week of summer school completed, and boy oh boy did I find my inner disciplinarian. I was really worried about this up to about Tuesday, then I began Operation Ass Kick. Adding the element of discipline to my style of teaching (teaching as performance art- all I had to do to find people who are entertained by me is move to Africa. No problem.) is certainly a work in progress, but I learned a ton this past week and gained much confidence.
Yesterday we went to a cultural fair. Basically it was a mini market day at a smaller village outside of Bo to give us a taste of what we'll be seeing in about a month. I bought a traditional African shirt (35k down to 20k [ 4 to $1] - thank you bargaining classes!) that are USC colors for football season. There were musical performers as well as a devil dressed up in costume. Weird that he picked me to come to the middle and dance with him- needless to say, we had great chemistry and knew each others moves quite well.
*Aforementioned mustache update: I was assaulted by an African barber the other day. Went in for a classic unscrewupable haircut, and came out looking like a skinhead with no mustache. I believe Shakespeare referred to this as a Tragedy.
Wrapping up pretty quickly, I want to give a quick shout-out to the PCV's from Liberia who have come to help train us. Luke and Levi were first, and were absolute God-sends. Having someone say “This is your ass, and that is your elbow” was really clutch. Jesse and Jarod were next. Their advocacy on our behalf was crucial, but two contributions stand out head-and-shoulders above all others- meat sandwiches and Zain facts (Turtles can breathe through their butts. Yeah I know, mind-blowing stuff.) Right now, we have John and Kim. Kim is a dance MACHINE and John is a phenomenal English - teaching resource. He's 95% responsible for these giant steps I'm taking towards becoming a bonafide teacher. Anyway, I hope someone sees this and let's the six of you know (as well as the PCV's yet to come), THANK YOU x INFINITY.
That's all for now, a few highlights I'll be updating on in the next few weeks. First and foremost, we should be finding out our sites (the village we'll be living in) soon. Whoa. In addition, there's a possible outing next weekend, we have the second week of summer school this week, and I'm sure there's some other riveting stuff I don't even know about yet. As always, thanks for reading, and thanks for your thoughts and prayers. They are felt.
Peace and Love,
Surba
