The title here means 'What are you doing?'
I realized recently I had not posted in awhile. Also, my mom just came to visit. Before I get into that visit, a quick update on what I have been doing. I am still doing teacher observations and some direct work with students. Also, the school building project is still progressing slowly, slowly. Though we are a lot closer to getting the roof up and are a lot closer to having spent all the funds, so here's hoping everything comes together. Through another volunteer's health mural project I recieved training in painting murals-especially health related-and painted a proper handwashing mural at Kwinella Lower Basic near the kitchen where students get fed from World Food Program rice.
I also recently completed a small donor project through the organization FROGS, Friends of Gambian Schools. A few of Kwinella's chalkboards were pretty much unwritable. Through funding, I purchased plywood and paint and replaced 5 chalkboards. We also had a carpenter cut the plywood into mini chalkboards/slates for students. A version of the individual dry erase boards you may see in American classrooms. When I go back to site next week, I will model lessons with how to properly manage the boards as well as ideas of how to use them. I hope it all works out.
In January, I had the chance to be a part of Camp GLOW: Girls AND Guys Leading Our World. It is a general camp model that several Peace Corps posts follow. However, we were the first to include boys at the same time as the girls. Most places just do Girls Camp as far as I am aware. Burkina Faso was the first to incorporate boys, but had them come a different week from the girls. The camp is a leadership and empowerment camp for girls. The amazing health volunteers that organized, raised funds through grants and planned the entire camp felt that just empowering the girls was not enough. If we want to achieve or get closer to gender equality here, boys would have to be on board too. Even though we covered sensitive health topics including teenage pregnancy, HIV, FGM and more, the grade 10 campers came together in discussion and participation in a very mature way. The students we had at camp were and will be leaders.
My role at camp was teaching a few sessions and running activities and games. I was on the "Gender Equality" team of the curriculum planners. Other sections included Life & Leadership Skills, Community Engagement and Healthy Lifestyles. I sat in on most sessions but directly taught only one, Cultural Roles, and helped with the Working as Equal Partners session. I also helped another volunteer, Cat, run sports. As activities coordinator, a lot of the time I felt lost and unsure of what to do because the camp was so well planned that down time was minimal. However, I did lead a few games and one everning busted out some of my favorite campfire songs from Camp Wildcat and CCSC. Overall, it was a fun week and the students took a lot away and will be leaders in their communities wherever their lives take them.
M BAAMA NA TA (MY MOM IS COMING HERE!)
A week after camp, my mom came to visit. It could not have come at a better time, as now that my time here is winding down I am freaking out about "what's next": Where will I go? Will I ever get my own classroom?? Time will only tell. But that's not what's important right now. Let's talk about the amazing three weeks where Nancy Budde saw The Gambia and a small chunk of my life here.
The first few days we did some market trips and saw places in Kombo. Serekunda market on the first full day may have been a bit much, but it was how the schedule worked out. I also got to go to some of my favorite restaurants that I don't usually hit up. It was a perfect way to begin the visit. We also ventured out to a Kombo village, Sukuta to see some family relations that have moved down to the city (my host brother Lamin, and sisters Wanta and Nyima. As well as an older sister, Fatou and her baby Sarjo) It was a lot of fun to see them and to show mom a 'fancy' village. They had furniture and one compound has TV!
On the Sunday after she arrived, we headed up to village. In village, we were greeted by the entire village and a traditional cultural masquerade, the Conkoron. (Okay I had been talking about the visit for awhile, but I didn't ask for any of that). It was extremely overwhelming, even for me! Sorry mom! Once things settled down, we took a walk around the village.
Having her there gave me the unique chance to see things as new again, in a way. For instance, she immediately noticed the trash and litter everywhere and wanted to pick it up in a big garbage bag. This threw me off. Why didn't it phase me anymore? I know it did at the beginning, but it's one of those things I don't even see anymore. What would you do with the big bag? The garbage truck doesn't come and cart if off every week. What little trash and waste there is, kids sometimes find things that they turn into toys or school project. (One teacher was doing a building car project for speed and velocity -KUDOS, teacher, KUDOS. Interactive lessons like that are not the norm.) Other than that it is just littered or burned. Anything I can't save to use for something at school, I burn or throw down my latrine. I don't like the idea of the children rooting around in my garbage. It makes me too sad. I do, however have a stash of cleaned out cans that I will give them when I go. They like to tie a string on and drag it around. The little joys. I used to think of myself as moderately environmentally aware, trying to make postive decisions for the earth. Now, I will probably be more likely to analyze every piece of trash. Where will this go? Can I use it somehow? Will my one-day kids' toys be empty cans? Maybe. Jokes. Just some thoughts about clean living.
In village, we modelled reading lessons and PE lessons for teachers at Wurokang the first week and Kwinella the second. I'll leave the details and stories and perceptions for her to tell. She also has all the pictures.
We also went up country over the weekend to a place called Baboon Islands. We stayed at a small camp that can only host 8 people, in a safari tent. Each evening, we went out on a small boat ride (kind of like a janky pontoon type boat) around three islands that house rehabilitated Chimpanzees. The famous chimp, Lucy, was one of these chimps at one point. Yes the chimps were interesting but for me, it was more just a quiet, peaceful and amazing break from village in beautiful surroundings. It didn't feel like the Gambia anymore.
I'm sure she has more stories and I do too, I just wanted to give a brief overview from my perspective. It was fun to see things as new again, to show someone else my life here, and to have my mom at a time a girl just needs her mom.
I still miss all my family and friends dearly, and I'll see you in a few months :) Also, because everything is now just life for me, please tell me if there's anything you want to hear more about. I would be more than happy to explain.
Sunday, 17 February 2013
Sunday, 30 December 2012
cemento
The Walls Go Up!!
Universal Construction Requirement: Break time
Mixing the Cement Paste
Building A future for access to education, brick by brick!
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Working Hard!
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Getting there, almost?
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Stay tuned for more pictures as we continue to build!
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Because he's cute.
Sunday, 7 October 2012
naata karangbuno dokuuwo (come work on the school!)
Laying out and digging the foundation! (September 2012)
Helping dig! Yes, I did it too :)
A student, Salifo, from my favorite class (Wurokang grade 4) out to help do small boy tasks!
Host brother and I helping by brewing attaya.
Stay tuned for more pictures from the ongoing building process and other cultural musings!
Saturday, 25 August 2012
Ali be san na! Let's go shopping!
A bit ago, I posted in an effort to raise money for a school project, building a classroom! Thanks to everyone who donated so quickly!
In many of the thank you notes I just sent out, I wrote that we hoped to have a meeting and plan the next steps soon because I was unsure of when this meeting would take place. However, it took place the very next day and I can happily report that the project is officially under way!!
At the meeting, there was much discussion about whether to build at the current school site, or at a new plot of land that they have secured for the school. Good reasons to build at the current site included that there were already temporary classrooms in place and one class wouldn't have to be going to the other site with the rest at the current location. Good reasons to build at the new site included that there was much more room (more conducive to a full on school than the other site), no baobob trees (these are all over at the current site making a school layout difficult and they are also unsafe because they are old, hallowed out and could fall down). A decision was made to check with the regional department of education on their opinion. At this point, I think the village is leaning towards building at the new site. This makes the most sense to me because eventually, many classrooms will need to be built. The current site will remain as the nursery school until that can be moved as well. Also debated at the meeting was when to shop. We decided to shop THE VERY NEXT DAY, as the village worked their connections to get a truck that was only available that week to transport the materials to village. After the long day of discussion, my host dad, two other men from village, and I went down to Kombo to shop for building materials at all of the whole salers. After a long day of negotiation, all the materials we needed to begin building were bought on-budget. Future purchases will have to be made, but a good chunk was spent.
I go back to village tomorrow to check in what the plan is for a building/construction timeline. They were eager and the materials have been transported, so maybe something has already begun!! At this point, it feels like 'slowly, slowly' has become 'quickly, quickly'.
I'll continue to post here (and include pictures!) with all future progress, so keep checking in! It was you who made this possible!
In many of the thank you notes I just sent out, I wrote that we hoped to have a meeting and plan the next steps soon because I was unsure of when this meeting would take place. However, it took place the very next day and I can happily report that the project is officially under way!!
At the meeting, there was much discussion about whether to build at the current school site, or at a new plot of land that they have secured for the school. Good reasons to build at the current site included that there were already temporary classrooms in place and one class wouldn't have to be going to the other site with the rest at the current location. Good reasons to build at the new site included that there was much more room (more conducive to a full on school than the other site), no baobob trees (these are all over at the current site making a school layout difficult and they are also unsafe because they are old, hallowed out and could fall down). A decision was made to check with the regional department of education on their opinion. At this point, I think the village is leaning towards building at the new site. This makes the most sense to me because eventually, many classrooms will need to be built. The current site will remain as the nursery school until that can be moved as well. Also debated at the meeting was when to shop. We decided to shop THE VERY NEXT DAY, as the village worked their connections to get a truck that was only available that week to transport the materials to village. After the long day of discussion, my host dad, two other men from village, and I went down to Kombo to shop for building materials at all of the whole salers. After a long day of negotiation, all the materials we needed to begin building were bought on-budget. Future purchases will have to be made, but a good chunk was spent.
I go back to village tomorrow to check in what the plan is for a building/construction timeline. They were eager and the materials have been transported, so maybe something has already begun!! At this point, it feels like 'slowly, slowly' has become 'quickly, quickly'.
I'll continue to post here (and include pictures!) with all future progress, so keep checking in! It was you who made this possible!
man moy.
Literally 'not hear'. Also, 'not understand'. A go-to phrase for me in village. Sometimes I think my language is improving, other times it's not. Recent my cluster monitor told me it hasn't because of my sister, Nyima who always helps me by translating. She moves to Kombo soon for senior secondary school. I think I'll be just as lost language wise. And I'll be bored a lot more often. But enough about language, that will be a constant strugggle. I wrote this post to tell two random, kind of funny stories, about not hearing, listening or understanding.
ONE: It was the last week of school, so nothing was happening-learning wise. We were preparing for an awards ceremony so the students were out and about and there were chairs out all over the school grounds. I was sitting, waiting for things to begin but got antsy. I got up (left my waterbottle behind) to go and try to find something to do... When I came back to the spot, I found my host brother Buba (grade 5, about 11) fighting with another boy. They were shouting a stream of words I did not understand and two I did: 'bottle' and 'drink'. The other student was shouting at me that Buba had drank my water, all the meanwhile they were fighting each other. Being scrawny 11 year old boys, I was able to pull them apart and bring them to the head master's office. I told the head teacher that I thought they were fighting over my water but wasn't sure exactly what happened. He got the full story out of them in Mandinka. In the end, they were both trying to make sure my bottle was not taken or abused in any way. Fighting each other to look out for me. I'll try not to leave my bottle around anymore. Thankfully, my headmaster is great and simply talked to them about how that wasn't a reason to be fighting.
The next story requires knowledge of my least favorite Gambian habit: hissing to get attention. Hate it.
TWO: I was down in Kombo and doing errands on a very, very rainy day. There were puddles everywhere. Gambians, in general are very helpful and friendly. However, in Kombo or bigger villages especially, there is an extent of harassment of getting attention to get something out of you, so I often have my guard up and my 'not listening ears' on. On this particular day, many Gambians were either hissing at me or trying to get my attention in much nicer ways, shouting 'hole; hole'. Sometimes, I listened and walked around where they were pointing. Other times, I didn't, inner dialogue being 'it's just a flippin' puddle, my feet can handle it'. Most of the time I was safe. At one point, I kept avoiding puddles and avoiding puddles but finally had to cross one to get to the street again to cross to wear I needed to be. It seemed there was nowhere else to go and many people were shouting 'hole, hole' at me. I went for it...
I ended up waist deep in water. I got out, kind of hung my head, but also laughed a lot and tried to maintain an "I meant to do that" face. Maybe next time I'll listen, every time.
ONE: It was the last week of school, so nothing was happening-learning wise. We were preparing for an awards ceremony so the students were out and about and there were chairs out all over the school grounds. I was sitting, waiting for things to begin but got antsy. I got up (left my waterbottle behind) to go and try to find something to do... When I came back to the spot, I found my host brother Buba (grade 5, about 11) fighting with another boy. They were shouting a stream of words I did not understand and two I did: 'bottle' and 'drink'. The other student was shouting at me that Buba had drank my water, all the meanwhile they were fighting each other. Being scrawny 11 year old boys, I was able to pull them apart and bring them to the head master's office. I told the head teacher that I thought they were fighting over my water but wasn't sure exactly what happened. He got the full story out of them in Mandinka. In the end, they were both trying to make sure my bottle was not taken or abused in any way. Fighting each other to look out for me. I'll try not to leave my bottle around anymore. Thankfully, my headmaster is great and simply talked to them about how that wasn't a reason to be fighting.
The next story requires knowledge of my least favorite Gambian habit: hissing to get attention. Hate it.
TWO: I was down in Kombo and doing errands on a very, very rainy day. There were puddles everywhere. Gambians, in general are very helpful and friendly. However, in Kombo or bigger villages especially, there is an extent of harassment of getting attention to get something out of you, so I often have my guard up and my 'not listening ears' on. On this particular day, many Gambians were either hissing at me or trying to get my attention in much nicer ways, shouting 'hole; hole'. Sometimes, I listened and walked around where they were pointing. Other times, I didn't, inner dialogue being 'it's just a flippin' puddle, my feet can handle it'. Most of the time I was safe. At one point, I kept avoiding puddles and avoiding puddles but finally had to cross one to get to the street again to cross to wear I needed to be. It seemed there was nowhere else to go and many people were shouting 'hole, hole' at me. I went for it...
I ended up waist deep in water. I got out, kind of hung my head, but also laughed a lot and tried to maintain an "I meant to do that" face. Maybe next time I'll listen, every time.
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