Good afternoon, everyone! Yes, it’s afternoon here right now. I just got back from the market, where I bought a few things that I’ll need for my house is Kamakwie. I got a bucket, bowl, spoon, wooden spoon, cup, plate, and amazing thermos that can keep water hot for like 3 days. I don’t know how it works, but everyone has one here, and it’s amazing… not as amazing as simply turning a knob and getting hot water, but that seems like something from another planet at this point. I also got a universal power strip to plug into the wall at my host family’s house, so I can charge all my electronics. It doesn’t convert the voltage (or whatever), but it fits an American-style prong. Apparently, most modern electronics are rated to withstand the 250 volts. Who knew? I’ve charged my stuff at the town hall a few times, but I haven’t been able to charge it at home until now. My house in Kamakwie does not have electricity, BUT the school has solar panels, and about 15 computers with only a couple of outlets, so I’m going to give it to them when I move there. I also checked the prices of several things (coal stove=30,000 Le; mattress=280,000 Le). Everywhere I go, I get the Oporto (white man) price, and have to haggle the hell out of them. Consequently, going to the market can be quite tiring. Also, you have to carry everything back home, unless you pay someone to carry it for you. I haven’t gotten that desperate yet, but those coal pots are awfully heavy…

For a mere 5,000 Le (strangely, the same price as a meat sandwich…), I bought a little puppy friend. His name is Bob Marley. He’s a purebred African Shepherd, or mutt, and I think he’s about 7 or 8 weeks old. He was a pain in the butt for the first week, as was to be expected, but he’s settled down a bit. He loves playing my pant cuffs and eating fish bones. He also likes peeing on my bed, but I only let him do that sparingly—you have to set boundaries with children.

Speaking of children, Summer School is going well. I’ve only got one more week left… Na so di taym de flay (Krio for “time flies”). I’ve been having a blast, and all my evaluations have come back with excellent marks. It’s been great practice experience for me—I get to learn how to most effectively teach the students, and they get to learn things from the magical white man, who sometimes brings lollipops when they do particularly well on review days. I’m still trying to figure out how to best test the students. In my youngest class, they sit about 3 or 4 to a desk (about 80 students in all), so cheating, or “spying”, is a big problem.

The other volunteers have been quite envious of my internet accessibility, but some were just able to get the modems today. Many have tried, few have succeeded. Someone needs to give Airtel a lesson in business management.

I just finished eating a papaya (they call it popo). They are AMAZING here. Tastes just like ice cream. I could eat them til I get sick. Sitting here staring at some fresh bananas and a pear… Seeing how long I can manage to avoid devouring them. The fruit here is pretty damn good. Pineapple, mango, oranges (you suck oranges here, you don’t eat them), and a bunch of fruits I’ve never heard of. One of the coolest kind of tastes like an apple—Star fruit. When you slice it, it looks like a star! Cute. Oh, also, the avocados here are fantastic.

For all the delicious fruit, the meals here leave something to be desired. Rice and “plasas,” which basically means “sauce you put on rice.” Some plasas is good: granat (groundnut), binch (beans), and cassada lif (cassava leaf) is ok. If someone ever offers you kren-kren, though, you throw it in their face. I will starve before I eat that crap again. Haha.

We are finding ourselves eating street food more and more often. My personal favorite is the binch ball sandwich. They make these little balls out of mashed up beans, fry ‘em (everything is fried), and serve them on bread with onions, pepper, and oil. We call binch balls “African chicken nuggets.” They’re the bomb. I saw a man with an ice cream machine in town today. I didn’t have a free hand, but I fully intend to find him again tomorrow. Ice cream sounds like a good idea when it’s ridiculously hot outside.

The other day, we learned how to make what I’ve called “Peace Corps Pizza.” It’s a recipe that uses local ingredients to make something that tastes enough like pizza to move a volunteer to tears. I can’t wait to start experimenting with cooking in Kamakwie…

Sorry for talking about food so much… I’d say about half of the conversations here end up talking about food at some point. “Remember hamburgers?” “Shit, don’t talk about hamburgers… Remember tacos? What about turkey sandwiches?” It’s pretty sad. I think that’s literally what we talk about every day right after summer school, before we go to lunch at the town hall and eat rice and plasas. If anyone has been considering opening a fast food franchise, I hear Kamakwie, Sierra Leone is lovely this time of year…

My computer is about to run out of battery, and electricity doesn’t come on for a couple of hours, SO I’m going to end this post, but I promise to update again later.

Love you guys!!

Sam

Hello from Africa!

Hey everyone! Sam here. Sorry I haven’t been able to update until now! As you can imagine, internet can be hard to find in a third world country… Unless you know where to look! Yesterday, I bought a mobile internet modem from one of the cell phone providers in Sierra Leone, called Airtel. For a mere 390,000 Le (that’s about $100 after exchanging money) I can connect to the internet anywhere that I have Airtel coverage. It’s pretty amazing. All the other trainees are jealous, and also quite eager to pay me so they can check their messages. Haha. I’ve decided not to make a profit, since they are all in the same boat as I am.

Anywho, I’ve been in Makeni, Sierra Leone for nearly two months now. It’s a pretty interesting town- the 5^th largest in Sierra Leone. Every day I walk about 20 minutes to get to the town hall, where we hold our 8-5 training sessions. Sessions tend to ere on the tedious side, but all-in-all I’m having a good time. We started Summer School for children in Makeni this last Monday. They were hesitant to participate in a class led by a strange “Oporto,” (Tribal slang for “white man”) but after the first couple of days, they were active and rowdy just like kids back in America. We did some fun exercises with planetary bodies and constellations, an awesome “basketball review” class on Thursday, then had a test covering that material on Friday. Moooost of the students bombed the test, which is unfortunate, because they were the EXACT questions from the review that they did so well on. I think next time I will make the test multiple choice, as I don’t think that many of them have the necessary English language skills to complete a fill-in-the-blank test. It’s a learning process for all of us, and every day we learn a lot about how to better convey information to our students. For example, where one might say that “Science” is the systematic study of the natural world (or something), my definition ran along the lines of “a process we use to get answers by asking questions that can be tested with facts that can be proven.” It’s kind of a mouthful, but we’re all trying to figure out ways to explain things to students who don’t have a vocabulary equivalent to the material being taught (always open to suggestions from all the teachers out there). A special challenge here is that students (and adults) don’t really understand the concept of communicating by analogy. This makes not only the language barrier significant, but also complicates teaching methods…

Sometimes it’s hard to adequately describe what Sierra Leone is like to people back home. I’ve been immersed in it so long now that it doesn’t seem so strange. In fact, the idea of driving down an interstate that’s not populated by daredevil motorcyclists or walking through a clean neighborhood with no one outside is what really seems weird. Haha. I’m staying with my host family (the Kabba family) in Makeni for the remainder of training. I’ve been getting along with them alright, but I think they don’t like how much I have to work. They seem to get annoyed when I come back late and go to my room to write lesson plans/grade papers. Oh well. Only 3 more quick weeks left of training! I get sworn-in on August 12^th, Nicole’s birthday! She graduated from HSU on mine, so it’s only fair ;).

Hmm, I think I’m probably stretching the patience of my lovely readers. In summary, I’m having a good time. Sometimes things are hard; sometimes they’re really hard, but I’m happy to be here. I love teaching Integrated Science so far, and I’m excited to move into my own house and stop being babied J. Thanks for making it to the end of this post! Feel free to ask questions or give input…

Love, Sam