Sid passed out on my shoes. Awwww.
My parlor/kitchen room
Looking out my front door
My sleeping haven!
View out my front door
Neighbor girls: Effie and Gbassay (pronounced Beshey)
Saturday, October 29, 2011
Friday, October 28, 2011
She Did What?!?
There are many things I do here that completely baffle Sierra Leoneans (and to be fair they do many a thing that baffle me, it's all part of the cultural exchange). I've already mentioned that I spend copious amounts of time reading, for fun, which is a relatively odd activity here. This is not a reading culture; partly, I would assume, due to the lack of materials--functioning libraries and bookstores are few and far between. Whenever a Sierra Leonean refers to my reading they call it studying, which is indicative of the fact that when they read it is usually to study notes from class (although from the blank stares I get at school they're not reading notes from my class).
To further confuse people, I do not get cold. Somehow they can't understand how I'm never cold, even though the temperature never drops below 80 and is generally in the 90s. Apparently December and January get cold from the Harmattan, winds off the Sahara, which causes people to walk around in winter hats and snow suits. I will be interested to see if 'cold' means 50s-60s, or if it will actually mean cold as I know it.
Baffling activity #3: I pet/kiss/dote on my kittens. Granted, in the states I probably coddle cats more than I should (feed them too much, don't kick them off my bed, etc.) but here it's a community event to watch me pick up a kitten and cuddle it. People literally stop in the street and watch me if I do this on my front porch. To give you and idea of how Sierra Leoneans, in general, view pets, a couple weeks ago one of my neighbor girls asked me if I was going to eat my cats. The answer, for any of you in doubt, is emphatically 'no.'
Another thing I do that confuses Sierra Leoneans is eat pitifully small amounts of food. When I say 'pitifully small' I mean by their standards. I can't eat 5 cups of rice in one sitting. I've gotten several lectures from my neighbor, Pa Kanu, about how Africans love rice. For another example, I had Nana (Pa Kanu's wife) boil a bunch of plantains for me, with the intent to share most of it with them. About an hour later I got presented with a plate with the equivalent of 3 boiled plantains. These plantains were not small, and I had already eaten a healthy portion of rice, so I only at about 2/3 of a plantain before I foisted the leftovers back on to Nana. Nana's puzzled looks led me to explain that I was full, promptly followed by a round of raucous laughter from Nana. For those of you who know me I by no means am a shy eater, so being told I don't eat enough is a new experience for me.
Baffling activity #5: I'm white. This is not so much an activity as a state of being, but it will never cease to amuse the children in my community. Last week I was walking through town when I had a heard of children run up to me, furiously rub their arm with one finger, then wipe it on me. Pretty sure they were trying to turn me black. Also, whenever I get a sunburn I tell people I'm trying to turn black like them, which is highly entertaining. Sunburns in themselves are baffling--my host sisters in Makeni were very upset the first time they saw my sunburn. Oh, to be a pale white girl in Africa.
Teaching update: I finally have a time-table with a schedule of classes to teach! Some semblance of structure is very exciting for me. So far my classes have been ok. I have assumed the first term will mostly be an adjustment period--the students getting used to me and me figuring out how to most effectively teach. Students in Sierra Leone learn differently than how we're taught in America. Mostly they learn through rote memorization--teachers put notes up on the board and they memorize it word for word. However, in my experience, they rarely understand the concept or the words they are repeating. Whereas in America we are hit over the head with analyzing and processing information. Teaching, here, for me, will have to be a compromise between giving them information to memorize and coaxing out some analytical thought or brainpower. Although, after years of being taught to learn this way I've got my work cut out for me. Should be fun! I will at some point (hopefully soon) do an entire blog update on teaching: what the classes are like, what I'm learning, what the environment is like, etc.
A shout-out to Annie and Keri: you guys are the best friends a girl in Africa could hope for! Your packages are manna from the bowels of God himself. (Bowels may not be where you want your manna to originate, but it's the first thing I thought of, so bowels it will stay. Plus, God's bowel's can't be that bad, right?)
To further confuse people, I do not get cold. Somehow they can't understand how I'm never cold, even though the temperature never drops below 80 and is generally in the 90s. Apparently December and January get cold from the Harmattan, winds off the Sahara, which causes people to walk around in winter hats and snow suits. I will be interested to see if 'cold' means 50s-60s, or if it will actually mean cold as I know it.
Baffling activity #3: I pet/kiss/dote on my kittens. Granted, in the states I probably coddle cats more than I should (feed them too much, don't kick them off my bed, etc.) but here it's a community event to watch me pick up a kitten and cuddle it. People literally stop in the street and watch me if I do this on my front porch. To give you and idea of how Sierra Leoneans, in general, view pets, a couple weeks ago one of my neighbor girls asked me if I was going to eat my cats. The answer, for any of you in doubt, is emphatically 'no.'
Another thing I do that confuses Sierra Leoneans is eat pitifully small amounts of food. When I say 'pitifully small' I mean by their standards. I can't eat 5 cups of rice in one sitting. I've gotten several lectures from my neighbor, Pa Kanu, about how Africans love rice. For another example, I had Nana (Pa Kanu's wife) boil a bunch of plantains for me, with the intent to share most of it with them. About an hour later I got presented with a plate with the equivalent of 3 boiled plantains. These plantains were not small, and I had already eaten a healthy portion of rice, so I only at about 2/3 of a plantain before I foisted the leftovers back on to Nana. Nana's puzzled looks led me to explain that I was full, promptly followed by a round of raucous laughter from Nana. For those of you who know me I by no means am a shy eater, so being told I don't eat enough is a new experience for me.
Baffling activity #5: I'm white. This is not so much an activity as a state of being, but it will never cease to amuse the children in my community. Last week I was walking through town when I had a heard of children run up to me, furiously rub their arm with one finger, then wipe it on me. Pretty sure they were trying to turn me black. Also, whenever I get a sunburn I tell people I'm trying to turn black like them, which is highly entertaining. Sunburns in themselves are baffling--my host sisters in Makeni were very upset the first time they saw my sunburn. Oh, to be a pale white girl in Africa.
Teaching update: I finally have a time-table with a schedule of classes to teach! Some semblance of structure is very exciting for me. So far my classes have been ok. I have assumed the first term will mostly be an adjustment period--the students getting used to me and me figuring out how to most effectively teach. Students in Sierra Leone learn differently than how we're taught in America. Mostly they learn through rote memorization--teachers put notes up on the board and they memorize it word for word. However, in my experience, they rarely understand the concept or the words they are repeating. Whereas in America we are hit over the head with analyzing and processing information. Teaching, here, for me, will have to be a compromise between giving them information to memorize and coaxing out some analytical thought or brainpower. Although, after years of being taught to learn this way I've got my work cut out for me. Should be fun! I will at some point (hopefully soon) do an entire blog update on teaching: what the classes are like, what I'm learning, what the environment is like, etc.
A shout-out to Annie and Keri: you guys are the best friends a girl in Africa could hope for! Your packages are manna from the bowels of God himself. (Bowels may not be where you want your manna to originate, but it's the first thing I thought of, so bowels it will stay. Plus, God's bowel's can't be that bad, right?)
Saturday, October 1, 2011
Ants in my Pants
This morning I literally got ants in my pants (which is not as bad as the time Allison got a cockroach in her pants, but that's a different story). I was sitting on my veranda with a bag of roasted granat (peanuts) on my lap. Unbeknkownst to me the bag had been infested with ants, who then promplty migrated from the bag of granat to my pants. It might seem odd that I didn't notice the ant infestation until I felt them crawling on my legs, but these are really tiny red ants--so tiny in fact that they infiltrated every can/jar/container in my kitchen. I now, for the most part, have the ant problem under control, but I first noticed them on about night 2 at site. It took a little innovative thought, but I have now outsmarted the ants that are about the size of one of my neurons. Here are a few unsuspecting places I have found these ants:
-My mayo jar. I assumed that a water-tight container would also be ant-tight. Apparently I was wrong. My solution: I add an extra layer of plastic bag between the jar and the lid, and that seems to do the trick.
-My Laughing Cow. Laughing Cow is a type of packaged cheese that comes in a wheel with 8 individually wrapped wedges of cheese. Imagine my surprise when I opened one wheel to find the little buggers inside. Even more shocking was finding them inside the individually packaged wedges. Gone was my faith in the Western world's packaging ability. I used to think something packed by a machine was impenetrable. I still don't understand how they found an opening in the foil, but they did. My solution: store the Laughing Cow in ziploc bags. Somehow ziploc is able to keep them out where Laughing Cow packing procedures are not.
-My water filter. Really? My water filter!?! Now this one doesn't baffle me as to how, but why. I literally have open buckets of water on the floor 5 feet away. It's like the greyhound that jumps over the fence when there is an open gate 5 feet away. I will never understand the inner workings of an ant's mind.
-My toothbrush. I have only found about a half dozen here. Guess they like the residual toothpaste. I haven't come up with a defense mechanism for this one yet, I just kill them when I see them.
Despite the annoyance, these ants don't seem as bad as the carniverous ones found in the south. That's my 'glass half full' approach. I have also gotten to the point where I just eat them if they're on my food. I figure it's my form of revenge: you get into my food, I eat you. Seems fair to me.
School has now technically started. I have not yet taught a class, but it's on my to-do list. Right behind 'Find out what classes I'm teaching.' My future as a teacher looks bright.
I'm aware that people are also probably interested in things like the culture and the language here, but it is so much more fun to write about ants in pants. If you have something in particular you are curious about, let me know, and I'll either write you an email or dedicate and entire blog entry to you. Just imagine the honor. I'm sure a personally dedicated 'Frenchie Takes Freetown' blog entry is what most of you see in the Mirror of Erised. (Alright, I'll admit it, I'm a Harry Potter nerd.)
Sending my love to all back home!
-My mayo jar. I assumed that a water-tight container would also be ant-tight. Apparently I was wrong. My solution: I add an extra layer of plastic bag between the jar and the lid, and that seems to do the trick.
-My Laughing Cow. Laughing Cow is a type of packaged cheese that comes in a wheel with 8 individually wrapped wedges of cheese. Imagine my surprise when I opened one wheel to find the little buggers inside. Even more shocking was finding them inside the individually packaged wedges. Gone was my faith in the Western world's packaging ability. I used to think something packed by a machine was impenetrable. I still don't understand how they found an opening in the foil, but they did. My solution: store the Laughing Cow in ziploc bags. Somehow ziploc is able to keep them out where Laughing Cow packing procedures are not.
-My water filter. Really? My water filter!?! Now this one doesn't baffle me as to how, but why. I literally have open buckets of water on the floor 5 feet away. It's like the greyhound that jumps over the fence when there is an open gate 5 feet away. I will never understand the inner workings of an ant's mind.
-My toothbrush. I have only found about a half dozen here. Guess they like the residual toothpaste. I haven't come up with a defense mechanism for this one yet, I just kill them when I see them.
Despite the annoyance, these ants don't seem as bad as the carniverous ones found in the south. That's my 'glass half full' approach. I have also gotten to the point where I just eat them if they're on my food. I figure it's my form of revenge: you get into my food, I eat you. Seems fair to me.
School has now technically started. I have not yet taught a class, but it's on my to-do list. Right behind 'Find out what classes I'm teaching.' My future as a teacher looks bright.
I'm aware that people are also probably interested in things like the culture and the language here, but it is so much more fun to write about ants in pants. If you have something in particular you are curious about, let me know, and I'll either write you an email or dedicate and entire blog entry to you. Just imagine the honor. I'm sure a personally dedicated 'Frenchie Takes Freetown' blog entry is what most of you see in the Mirror of Erised. (Alright, I'll admit it, I'm a Harry Potter nerd.)
Sending my love to all back home!
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