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Last spring I started teaching an extracurricular English Club for students in grades 9-12. This class was only for girls and we would use half the class time to talk about grammar and the other half to discuss gender issues. I loved getting to know my girls but having to turn away boys week after week I decided to switch it up for the summer. My co-teacher and I made the decision to take the first 40 students to sign up, both girls and boys, and we set a six week schedule. We meet every Monday and Wednesday from 10am-12pm, bringing our grand total of class time to 24 hours for the summer. My co-teacher told them the first day not to waste this “day of classes with Jennifer” since I’m such a good resource for them. Pressure on! I try to live up to this expectation by making a fool of myself in front of the class for four hours each week.
I’ve come to have a love-hate relationship with teaching. There was a point in my life in which I considered this as a career, but I long ago realized that I have other callings. Teaching English is something most of the Ethiopian PCVs find themselves doing at some point during their two year service. Some teach once or twice and call it quits; others have taken on an entire course load as a real teacher. I fit somewhere in between those two, but my reasons for starting the class last spring fits in with the reasons of most of the volunteers: it’s something to do.
The curriculum for our summer English Club was going to be all about communication, and on the first Wednesday of class I brought printed out copies of the lyrics to “Wavin’ Flag” in honor of the World Cup (also because I overheard far too many people mumbling along to the song in gibberish). We went through line-by-line and discussed what it means. They loved it! Ever since, I’ve taken song requests and each Wednesday attendance numbers sky-rocket as we learn the song of the week. And honestly, I love it too. I’ve never enjoyed teaching so much; the two-hour class simply flies by! In the words of a teaching Fellow who came to talk to my group of volunteers from the Embassy, “This isn’t even what I do and I’m good at it!”
Ethiopian spring has sprung! The only big differences here are that pollen is replaced by dust, green grass is replaced with dirt, and colorful flowers are replaced by, well, the lack of anything colorful at all. Having moved to Dangila last February this was the first season I experienced here, and since then apparently I blocked that memory from my mind. I completely forgot how hot it can get here, and how dusty everything becomes. My supervisor even brought up my joke last spring about “which road is not dusty?” (see blogs from last spring) and we laughed about it in the office for a good hour this morning.
Even though the “air condition” right now is not exactly favorable (air condition here literally means the condition of the air, having nothing to do with machines that alter temperatures) I still find myself in one of the happiest states that I think I’ve been in since I arrived. Friends are always surrounding me (Ethiopian and foreign), work is good (meaning it is existent), and I am loving Dangila. Last fall I made a deal with myself to stay in site for an entire month without leaving, and let’s just say it didn’t happen. I always like spending weekends with friends and taking advantage of every opportunity that arises. But this month I’m just completely happy and content here is Dangila, and I will easily spend a month here without leaving.
The other day I was working the HIV testing event at the high school and happen to leave the compound to walk home for lunch at the shift change between 9th and 10th grade. The shift change is basically my worst nightmare; a sea of turquoise uniforms, 5,000 teenagers, all without somewhere to be for the next 15 minutes, and I found myself in the middle. A year ago, the event would have brought me to tears; I would have drowned in the sea of the harassment, feeling like an outsider. This year I swam through that sea with confidence. Not a single person yelled “ferengi,” but instead the students called my name, chatted with me as I walked, and greeted me with friendly handshakes. I’m finally starting to feel like I belong here, and I’m a part of this community.
I just finished week 4 of English/Life Skills classes with my two classes of high school girls, I have meetings set up to start a business project with those 10 boys I helped out with last fall, and there is less than a week until the big Easter celebration (and the end of fasting!). Yesterday I had a sudden urge to clean my house (a rarity) and found myself mopping my floors a few minutes later. Yenebeb (the 9-year-old son of my landlord) walked by my door and asked with a smile, “are you cleaning for the holiday?” A common Ethiopian habit is to clean everything before big holidays (I suppose Americans do this too) because they always host the neighbors and want their house to look nice. I smiled and said “yes” figuring it was easier than admitting I hadn’t mopped my house in probably 8 months. No time like the present for a little spring cleaning!
Time is starting to fly by during year 2 in Ethiopia. The countdown is at 9.5 months, which doesn’t seem like enough to finish all I want to do here. Before I know it dusty season will become muddy season, muddy season will fade, and my departure will be imminent.
I arrived back in Dangila just one week ago and have already logged more hours in the classroom than in the entire prior year. Before I left for Mid-Service Conference my counterpart from the Anti-Malaria Association, Yebeletal, and I decided we wanted to co-teach a group of girls grade 9-12. We decided upon a basic curriculum, English and Life skills, and approached the high school and preparatory school in town about our “English Club” idea. They were immediately receptive, but I still doubted the amount of work that would be done to arrange the classes while I was out of town.
To my surprise when I visited Yebeletal’s office the day after arriving back in Dangila he said we had class that night, and two classes the next day! Moreover, one session of the class had already been conducted without me! I immediately jumped onboard and began preparing my Life skills (empowerment tools) lessons. Now I am teaching a two-hour class four days a week! The schools were instructed to choose 15 female students from each grade that wanted to attend an extracurricular class, and we divided them into two groups to keep the classes under 30 students each.
In addition to teaching, HAPCO (my counterpart organization) has finally received funding for their normal activities such as VCT (Voluntary Counseling and Testing, for HIV). These events I have mentioned in the past, where the health workers go out into the community and set up a testing station for a few days at a time to allow residents to get tested without having to go to the health center. This week I’ve attended two all-day VCT events at the high school, where my job includes running around trying to recruit the 9th and 10th graders to get tested, along with trying to speed up the line of people waiting by taking student’s age and distributing identification numbers. In just two days 600 students were tested! I feel like the past week has been a complete whirlwind of events and work; In fact, I haven’t even had time to unpack my backpack from the trip.
I’ve been talking to my HAPCO supervisor about starting a project with those 10 orphaned boys I helped out late last year, and I have a couple other big project ideas swirling around in my head that should keep me just as busy for the next six months. The craziest part of all this chaos is that the months I have left here definitely feel numbered. I’m down to less than 10 months until my group can begin to COS (close service). As exhausted as I am from this week filled with long workdays, I would love to spend the next 10 months doing just that. I really want to make the most of every day I have left here, because I know it will all be over with before I know it.
Once again, I want to thank everyone for supporting me in this journey of mine. I am truly having the time of my life and slowly but surely discovering what I want to do in this world. Thank you.
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