School has "officially" started (September 4th). I wore my first day of school outfit, walked the (roughly) mile to school, and waited, and waited, and waited. There were no students, and the staff was not plenty. I was told the students aren’t "serious", we only had 3 students registered in all of 10th and 11th grade, so, the decision was made that school would be pushed a week. I had agreed to teach 10th/11th grade math/physics and was crossing my fingers that students would get of their butts to register for school. Every kid I passed or met that week I asked if they were in school, or if they had registered yet. I was told the school would make announcements on radio Gbartala getting people to register hopefully drumming up some activity. The biggest issue with school business has been the election, students are waiting until after the election to come to school. They think that because they are running around with a candidate doing rally’s, it gives them a good excuse not to come to school (which in case it’s not clear-it doesn’t).
I spent that week much like I did the first two weeks of school. I realized in that week however the error of my ways. By that I mean I spent the first 2 weeks outside almost 100% of the time, only going inside around 7pm to make dinner. While that was great and I feel it helped me, it was also a curse. The reason being everyone expected me to sit with them (because I did that previously), the kids expected me to be outside, everyone in the market gave me their seat and wanted me to stop. I never gave myself any time to do things inside, I never set any parameters for myself. So, when I didn’t sit with someone, or when I didn’t come outside, or if I didn’t visit as often as they wanted, I would get a lot of: why you never visit, you can’t visit us anymore, you can’t sit with us anymore, or my least favorite was kids banging on my door asking for me to come outside. I would then explain what I was doing, tell them I would be out later, to which they would respond, "for why", then I would explain again and they would say "for why". For why has to be my least favorite words ever muttered by anyone in the history of the world. I blamed being inside on working on school stuff, and preparing things for school, and that seemed (for the adults) to be a fine reason.
Every Friday Sukako (Rachels site) has a big market. This market is far pass our own (its better). The market in Gbartala has 5 main things: rice, eggplant, bitterball, okra, and pepper- meaning I eat a lot of eggplant (can’t really cook the rest)! Sukako has everything I ever wanted, cabbage, kale, passionfruit, and doughnuts! She also has something that I don’t have/ can’t find anywhere- good network coverage! At first, I thought I was going crazy, I have two towers in my town so my data should be wonderful, I have full bars, yet can’t make data calls to anyone. Until finally I noticed that I have E internet, meaning first generation, Rachel has H / H+, meaning she can make as many data calls as she wants! I also got to see Rachels house which was fun and a huge improvement from when I had first seen it. At first it was all cement even the floors, since then she had painted, put floor mat down (which made it adorable) and so blue! It also helped me realize that my white wash was gross and I needed to commit to painting the inside of my house. I ended that trip at her local business store buying my lime green and blue paint so I could paint my house!
I got back to and decided I would ask some of my "porch kids" to help me paint the inside. I asked my little friend Surprise, Lucky, Gormu and JoJo. There are my "regulars" and Surprise and Gormu had become two of my little best friends in town. They came over the next day to paint and let me tell you, there is no sense of being clean when painting for them, paint was flying everywhere, it was getting on everything I owned, it was covering the tile, the entire thing stressed me out to a point where I was like guys stop, I’m going to paint this room by my one (on my own). Oh boy where they mad, It was not okay that I wanted to do it by myself, they kept telling me it was not fine, that they wanted to work, I tried to tell them I would just do this room (started in the kitchen) and get help in a different room. I ended up letting them help (after the kitchen) until we ran out of paint. The next day I got 2 more cans of paint to finish the job. I didn’t however ask my friends to come help anymore because the entire thing was chaos the first time. Once they got bored of painting they started touching everything, Jojo found the markers and started coloring on shit, giving himself tattoos all over, and coloring on all my things. But the topping of my chaos pie was when I walked outside and saw that Surprise had taken what was left of the blue paint and written his name HUGE in blue on the side of my white house. Oh boy, I almost lost my shit on him, I was so angry, here is a house that isn’t mine, that the ministry is paying for, and he has written his name marking my house for all to see with Surprise on the side of it. After a long conversation of me being angry at him, I told him he would scrub the side until I was happy with the outcome (which he did). The next day I went to painting alone and the boys came over and saw I was painting and stayed outside all day, banging on the door, yelling my name, peaking in the windows, they wouldn’t leave me alone, they begged to come inside, being I had let them come inside (one day) they felt it was there right to come inside whenever they wanted, it was infuriating! When I didn’t let them come inside or said no, I heard my favorite words, for why, muttered again and again and again.
After that day, I had to find a solution, part of this was my own fault, I had not made rules and had allowed myself to be too much of a friend, not enough of an elder, but I couldn’t allow kids to make my own house feel like a prison. I talked to John, I told him that kids would sometimes come over just to ask for things, that they can peak through the windows, and yell my name when I’m inside. I asked him if there was a way to tell them to stop that they would understand that I wasn’t expressing correctly. He asked for names, I wouldn’t give them because I felt bad, I just told him the issue can be the older kids (10+) and I just wanted a way that wouldn’t be outright rude to tell them to leave. He said he would talk to Amos (PTA chairman / huge help) and he would know how to handle it. Well, he talked to Amos, and they decided the community chief would know how to handle it…handle it they did haha. The chief ended up walking house to house telling every family in my area not to bug me, and he was going to make an announcement on radio Gbartala not to bug me. The only reason I even found out they did this was because I went outside for an entire day and didn’t get a single porch kid, not one person stopped to say hello. I summoned Surprise over, asked what happened, he said, "they laid down the law that no one is to come here" and told me what happened, I was mortified! The idea that they went house to house and they might make a announcement on the radio was horrible. It is not what I wanted at all, I just wanted solutions on how to handle the kids. I tried to explain to Surprise that I didn’t tattle on everyone, that the outcome of my problem is not exactly what I wanted, but I needed him to understand that when I’m inside I’m not to be disturbed, and when I’m outside he can come over. I told John that by no means should anyone make an announcement on radio Gbartala (and they never did) and that walking house to house was a little severe for what I wanted. I knew I just needed to wait it out, kids are resilient and I knew in time things would go back to normal. Some of my little friends (Lucky and Gromu) stopped coming over, even when I asked Surprise to bring them they wouldn’t come (in fear of their own parents being angry or of seeing the chief) and some of my neighbors would yell at the kids if they were getting rowdy (which I don’t entirely hate). There was nothing I could really do about the situation, minus walking house to house, and I wasn’t trying to negate the authority, "law”, the chief put down. This did however give me a chance to lay down my own law, of if I’m inside you don’t bang on the door or bug me and if I’m outside you can come over.
I spent that week much like I did the first two weeks of school. I realized in that week however the error of my ways. By that I mean I spent the first 2 weeks outside almost 100% of the time, only going inside around 7pm to make dinner. While that was great and I feel it helped me, it was also a curse. The reason being everyone expected me to sit with them (because I did that previously), the kids expected me to be outside, everyone in the market gave me their seat and wanted me to stop. I never gave myself any time to do things inside, I never set any parameters for myself. So, when I didn’t sit with someone, or when I didn’t come outside, or if I didn’t visit as often as they wanted, I would get a lot of: why you never visit, you can’t visit us anymore, you can’t sit with us anymore, or my least favorite was kids banging on my door asking for me to come outside. I would then explain what I was doing, tell them I would be out later, to which they would respond, "for why", then I would explain again and they would say "for why". For why has to be my least favorite words ever muttered by anyone in the history of the world. I blamed being inside on working on school stuff, and preparing things for school, and that seemed (for the adults) to be a fine reason.
Every Friday Sukako (Rachels site) has a big market. This market is far pass our own (its better). The market in Gbartala has 5 main things: rice, eggplant, bitterball, okra, and pepper- meaning I eat a lot of eggplant (can’t really cook the rest)! Sukako has everything I ever wanted, cabbage, kale, passionfruit, and doughnuts! She also has something that I don’t have/ can’t find anywhere- good network coverage! At first, I thought I was going crazy, I have two towers in my town so my data should be wonderful, I have full bars, yet can’t make data calls to anyone. Until finally I noticed that I have E internet, meaning first generation, Rachel has H / H+, meaning she can make as many data calls as she wants! I also got to see Rachels house which was fun and a huge improvement from when I had first seen it. At first it was all cement even the floors, since then she had painted, put floor mat down (which made it adorable) and so blue! It also helped me realize that my white wash was gross and I needed to commit to painting the inside of my house. I ended that trip at her local business store buying my lime green and blue paint so I could paint my house!
I got back to and decided I would ask some of my "porch kids" to help me paint the inside. I asked my little friend Surprise, Lucky, Gormu and JoJo. There are my "regulars" and Surprise and Gormu had become two of my little best friends in town. They came over the next day to paint and let me tell you, there is no sense of being clean when painting for them, paint was flying everywhere, it was getting on everything I owned, it was covering the tile, the entire thing stressed me out to a point where I was like guys stop, I’m going to paint this room by my one (on my own). Oh boy where they mad, It was not okay that I wanted to do it by myself, they kept telling me it was not fine, that they wanted to work, I tried to tell them I would just do this room (started in the kitchen) and get help in a different room. I ended up letting them help (after the kitchen) until we ran out of paint. The next day I got 2 more cans of paint to finish the job. I didn’t however ask my friends to come help anymore because the entire thing was chaos the first time. Once they got bored of painting they started touching everything, Jojo found the markers and started coloring on shit, giving himself tattoos all over, and coloring on all my things. But the topping of my chaos pie was when I walked outside and saw that Surprise had taken what was left of the blue paint and written his name HUGE in blue on the side of my white house. Oh boy, I almost lost my shit on him, I was so angry, here is a house that isn’t mine, that the ministry is paying for, and he has written his name marking my house for all to see with Surprise on the side of it. After a long conversation of me being angry at him, I told him he would scrub the side until I was happy with the outcome (which he did). The next day I went to painting alone and the boys came over and saw I was painting and stayed outside all day, banging on the door, yelling my name, peaking in the windows, they wouldn’t leave me alone, they begged to come inside, being I had let them come inside (one day) they felt it was there right to come inside whenever they wanted, it was infuriating! When I didn’t let them come inside or said no, I heard my favorite words, for why, muttered again and again and again.
After that day, I had to find a solution, part of this was my own fault, I had not made rules and had allowed myself to be too much of a friend, not enough of an elder, but I couldn’t allow kids to make my own house feel like a prison. I talked to John, I told him that kids would sometimes come over just to ask for things, that they can peak through the windows, and yell my name when I’m inside. I asked him if there was a way to tell them to stop that they would understand that I wasn’t expressing correctly. He asked for names, I wouldn’t give them because I felt bad, I just told him the issue can be the older kids (10+) and I just wanted a way that wouldn’t be outright rude to tell them to leave. He said he would talk to Amos (PTA chairman / huge help) and he would know how to handle it. Well, he talked to Amos, and they decided the community chief would know how to handle it…handle it they did haha. The chief ended up walking house to house telling every family in my area not to bug me, and he was going to make an announcement on radio Gbartala not to bug me. The only reason I even found out they did this was because I went outside for an entire day and didn’t get a single porch kid, not one person stopped to say hello. I summoned Surprise over, asked what happened, he said, "they laid down the law that no one is to come here" and told me what happened, I was mortified! The idea that they went house to house and they might make a announcement on the radio was horrible. It is not what I wanted at all, I just wanted solutions on how to handle the kids. I tried to explain to Surprise that I didn’t tattle on everyone, that the outcome of my problem is not exactly what I wanted, but I needed him to understand that when I’m inside I’m not to be disturbed, and when I’m outside he can come over. I told John that by no means should anyone make an announcement on radio Gbartala (and they never did) and that walking house to house was a little severe for what I wanted. I knew I just needed to wait it out, kids are resilient and I knew in time things would go back to normal. Some of my little friends (Lucky and Gromu) stopped coming over, even when I asked Surprise to bring them they wouldn’t come (in fear of their own parents being angry or of seeing the chief) and some of my neighbors would yell at the kids if they were getting rowdy (which I don’t entirely hate). There was nothing I could really do about the situation, minus walking house to house, and I wasn’t trying to negate the authority, "law”, the chief put down. This did however give me a chance to lay down my own law, of if I’m inside you don’t bang on the door or bug me and if I’m outside you can come over.