March 28-April 6
Literacy in this country is something I have a serious love hate with. I love it because it’s so massively necessary and I hate it because it’s the most frustrating thing you will ever do ha-ha. For example: I was reading Surprises biology notes with him one day (his own notes), well we got to the word plant, which he knew how to read, great, but we would get to a word he didn’t know, and he would just insert plant there. I would then say wait, that word starts with a C, and plant starts with a P so it can’t be plant. He would then agree, then say plant again as if we didn’t just establish the word wasn’t plant. I kid you not at one point he read: A plant eats meat, and the plant, that eat meat are plant, and plant. Translation: A carnivore eats mean, and the animals that eat meat are cheetah, and lion. That being said, I figured there must be an easier way to teach reading, so I decided to go to the Literacy training in Kataka.
I heard really great things about this training from LR6 who did it the previous year so I decided it could only be beneficial, so I signed up. This was the only training where you had the choice on if you wanted to bring a counterpart. I decided to go alone, which I regret because it would have been beneficial for our ABC principle to come and learn all the skills/material we covered. Most of the training was going over a manual the literacy team developed to streamline the process/ steps in teaching someone how to read. They trained us on how to use the material they made, along with other comprehension techniques we could adapt into our lesson plans. The comprehension information PCV (peace Corps Volunteers) had already been taught during PST (Pre-service training), it’s crazy though how much of it was forgotten. PST is such a crazy time where we are flooded with so much information that it was really great to be introduced to that information again. The training included two practice sessions, one where we practiced a lesson from the learning to read manual and the other day we practiced a comprehension technique. The sessions were at different schools with different age groups. The comprehension day I taught it to 9th grade and the learning to read lesson we taught to 1st grade (the manual is meant for any age group though).
The day of the comprehension practice, the first group finished so we were all just sitting down when there was chaos in the corner, 10 students come around the corner carrying a passed-out girl to the main office. Instantly we asked what happened and they all responded asthma. This girl was passed out and they were trying to pump her inhaler into her mouth while fanning her. She was being swarmed by 20+ people so we went over and made everyone move from aside her and tried to get more information from the girl who was hold her. They said this had happened before and it was just asthma. As her body is convulsing trying to breathe, still passed out (out cold for 1min+ at this point) I reached down and asked what this jacket is doing tied around her (under her breasts). I go to touch it and this thing was so tight I could not shove my finger under it. We instantly told them to undo it, that it was blocking her from getting air and they told us her mom told them to do it when she was having an attack. They were putting something around her so tight that I couldn’t even get my finger in it and are wondering why this poor girl is convulsing from lack of air still passed out 2 min later. Finally, they untied it and she came to within a couple seconds. At this point they had a car there ready to take her to Phoebe Hospital and we tried to ask again the reason for the thing they tied and if the doctor said to tie it or if her ma just did it to help move her, no one could actually answer so we begged them not to tie something like that again when she is fighting to get air and they left.
Situations like that are so scary here in Liberia because there is no immediate medical care that is offered, you just pray things aren’t so serious that they have time to be treated or carried somewhere for help and pray that once the destination is reached that they have the proper tools to even help.
The training was super helpful, it gave me confidence to teach phonics while giving us the steps on how to teach reading. Teaching reading can be really overwhelming, constantly wondering where to start and how to do it and the manual takes out all of that confusion for us. A lot of people talked about doing adult literacy classes and Melissa had the idea to do a mommy and me class, being the manual is meant for all ages, it would be a great thing for mothers and kids, which is an excellent idea. For me I’m taking a much smaller step forward, I decided to work on comprehension first, applying some of the techniques we learned in the classroom first.
Training's are always a lot of fun because people from all over come together to participate, so you get to see a lot of other PCV you don’t otherwise get to see. The last couple have been to have been really game oriented and I have learned how to play a bunch of cool games like: Avalon, Citadels, and Coup. I highly recommend all three! I also highly recommend for any future PCV that you bring games with you. I didn’t bring any card or board games and I’m always jealous that people have all these fun games they can play at site with locals or with other PCV when they come and visit. We also played with sock puppets (yep, a literacy tool) and did face masks!
After literacy training I had a 2-day gender committee meeting to discuss the upcoming PST for LR8. The gender committee has been given a lot of time during PST because of the importance of gender topics in this country. The gender committee is broken into different sub committees: sexual reproductive health, women’s empowerment, pregnancy, engaging boys and men (my subcommittee), and gender-based violence (hopefully I’m not forgetting one).
We spent most of the time revising the club schedule for LR8. When I say club, I mean, during PST we are told to go to the community and get a group of kids together of a certain age range and hold club sessions based off a topic/lesson plan that PC provided. Our job was to revise lesson plans that fall under our subcommittee, to take out the bad lessons and revise anything that needed corrections.
Spare time when we were not meeting in a large group was spent in our subcommittee. Engaging boys and men are trying to put together a Liberia specific camp manual, sort of like the GRS one I mentioned before. The idea is the camp will be 2 days long and touch on varying topics/ issues that are faced/specific to Liberia. The first step is Carson is writing a grant so once the manual is finished we can go around and teach it to PC and Liberian counterparts. This first step will be about perfecting the manual, once its perfected we will move to phase two... which you will have to wait to hear about once it gets closer to that stage. This entire thing would be much easier if I wasn’t in a black hole of no network coverage at site ha-ha. I’m so close to so many big cities and yet.. nothing.
The evenings of gender committee were spent cooking, at Kems, and playing games. Yes, I said cooking, for this training we didn’t have Yamah cooking for us so each night we planed a meal, and all came together (well like 1 or 2 people ha) and cooked it for everyone. The first night was spaghetti, which I cooked and #crushedit, the second night was beans and rice. Its crazy to cook in Yamaha’s kitchen because although she has some of the modern appliances, like a stove, its still so massively different then an American setup where you would have blenders, food processor, all the utensils you ever needed, a dish washer, and all that good stuff. Even when we use the “American appliances” like the oven, it tales so long to heat up that it is literally easier to just use a coal pot if your cooking plenty things, and when Yamah is here cooking that’s exactly what she does.
Literacy in this country is something I have a serious love hate with. I love it because it’s so massively necessary and I hate it because it’s the most frustrating thing you will ever do ha-ha. For example: I was reading Surprises biology notes with him one day (his own notes), well we got to the word plant, which he knew how to read, great, but we would get to a word he didn’t know, and he would just insert plant there. I would then say wait, that word starts with a C, and plant starts with a P so it can’t be plant. He would then agree, then say plant again as if we didn’t just establish the word wasn’t plant. I kid you not at one point he read: A plant eats meat, and the plant, that eat meat are plant, and plant. Translation: A carnivore eats mean, and the animals that eat meat are cheetah, and lion. That being said, I figured there must be an easier way to teach reading, so I decided to go to the Literacy training in Kataka.
I heard really great things about this training from LR6 who did it the previous year so I decided it could only be beneficial, so I signed up. This was the only training where you had the choice on if you wanted to bring a counterpart. I decided to go alone, which I regret because it would have been beneficial for our ABC principle to come and learn all the skills/material we covered. Most of the training was going over a manual the literacy team developed to streamline the process/ steps in teaching someone how to read. They trained us on how to use the material they made, along with other comprehension techniques we could adapt into our lesson plans. The comprehension information PCV (peace Corps Volunteers) had already been taught during PST (Pre-service training), it’s crazy though how much of it was forgotten. PST is such a crazy time where we are flooded with so much information that it was really great to be introduced to that information again. The training included two practice sessions, one where we practiced a lesson from the learning to read manual and the other day we practiced a comprehension technique. The sessions were at different schools with different age groups. The comprehension day I taught it to 9th grade and the learning to read lesson we taught to 1st grade (the manual is meant for any age group though).
The day of the comprehension practice, the first group finished so we were all just sitting down when there was chaos in the corner, 10 students come around the corner carrying a passed-out girl to the main office. Instantly we asked what happened and they all responded asthma. This girl was passed out and they were trying to pump her inhaler into her mouth while fanning her. She was being swarmed by 20+ people so we went over and made everyone move from aside her and tried to get more information from the girl who was hold her. They said this had happened before and it was just asthma. As her body is convulsing trying to breathe, still passed out (out cold for 1min+ at this point) I reached down and asked what this jacket is doing tied around her (under her breasts). I go to touch it and this thing was so tight I could not shove my finger under it. We instantly told them to undo it, that it was blocking her from getting air and they told us her mom told them to do it when she was having an attack. They were putting something around her so tight that I couldn’t even get my finger in it and are wondering why this poor girl is convulsing from lack of air still passed out 2 min later. Finally, they untied it and she came to within a couple seconds. At this point they had a car there ready to take her to Phoebe Hospital and we tried to ask again the reason for the thing they tied and if the doctor said to tie it or if her ma just did it to help move her, no one could actually answer so we begged them not to tie something like that again when she is fighting to get air and they left.
Situations like that are so scary here in Liberia because there is no immediate medical care that is offered, you just pray things aren’t so serious that they have time to be treated or carried somewhere for help and pray that once the destination is reached that they have the proper tools to even help.
The training was super helpful, it gave me confidence to teach phonics while giving us the steps on how to teach reading. Teaching reading can be really overwhelming, constantly wondering where to start and how to do it and the manual takes out all of that confusion for us. A lot of people talked about doing adult literacy classes and Melissa had the idea to do a mommy and me class, being the manual is meant for all ages, it would be a great thing for mothers and kids, which is an excellent idea. For me I’m taking a much smaller step forward, I decided to work on comprehension first, applying some of the techniques we learned in the classroom first.
Training's are always a lot of fun because people from all over come together to participate, so you get to see a lot of other PCV you don’t otherwise get to see. The last couple have been to have been really game oriented and I have learned how to play a bunch of cool games like: Avalon, Citadels, and Coup. I highly recommend all three! I also highly recommend for any future PCV that you bring games with you. I didn’t bring any card or board games and I’m always jealous that people have all these fun games they can play at site with locals or with other PCV when they come and visit. We also played with sock puppets (yep, a literacy tool) and did face masks!
After literacy training I had a 2-day gender committee meeting to discuss the upcoming PST for LR8. The gender committee has been given a lot of time during PST because of the importance of gender topics in this country. The gender committee is broken into different sub committees: sexual reproductive health, women’s empowerment, pregnancy, engaging boys and men (my subcommittee), and gender-based violence (hopefully I’m not forgetting one).
We spent most of the time revising the club schedule for LR8. When I say club, I mean, during PST we are told to go to the community and get a group of kids together of a certain age range and hold club sessions based off a topic/lesson plan that PC provided. Our job was to revise lesson plans that fall under our subcommittee, to take out the bad lessons and revise anything that needed corrections.
Spare time when we were not meeting in a large group was spent in our subcommittee. Engaging boys and men are trying to put together a Liberia specific camp manual, sort of like the GRS one I mentioned before. The idea is the camp will be 2 days long and touch on varying topics/ issues that are faced/specific to Liberia. The first step is Carson is writing a grant so once the manual is finished we can go around and teach it to PC and Liberian counterparts. This first step will be about perfecting the manual, once its perfected we will move to phase two... which you will have to wait to hear about once it gets closer to that stage. This entire thing would be much easier if I wasn’t in a black hole of no network coverage at site ha-ha. I’m so close to so many big cities and yet.. nothing.
The evenings of gender committee were spent cooking, at Kems, and playing games. Yes, I said cooking, for this training we didn’t have Yamah cooking for us so each night we planed a meal, and all came together (well like 1 or 2 people ha) and cooked it for everyone. The first night was spaghetti, which I cooked and #crushedit, the second night was beans and rice. Its crazy to cook in Yamaha’s kitchen because although she has some of the modern appliances, like a stove, its still so massively different then an American setup where you would have blenders, food processor, all the utensils you ever needed, a dish washer, and all that good stuff. Even when we use the “American appliances” like the oven, it tales so long to heat up that it is literally easier to just use a coal pot if your cooking plenty things, and when Yamah is here cooking that’s exactly what she does.