Being I hadn’t really posted since being at site I was attempting to catch everyone up on life in Africa, hence why last time I blogged I posted at least 4, but the idea of always playing catch up is massively tiring, so the last month will just remain a mystery to everyone as I am going to start from this week and not attempt to fill in the blanks of the last month or so.
Monday was officially the start of the second marking period for school! That means everyone gets to start fresh this period/ we moved onto a new set of topics! I had a little anger from my students about the grades so I offered a 10pt (to be added to 1st marking period) all or nothing quiz. This means they either got all the questions correct, proving they mastered the information, getting 10pt added, or they got one wrong getting zero points. I had 2 students of 20+ earn the 10pts. One 11th grader in math named George (he already had like a 90%) and one 11th grader in Physics named Marcus.
Tuesday was Halloween- Halloween is one of my favorite “holidays” it’s an excuse to hang out with friends, dress up, and eat a lot of candy (WHAT I WOULD DO FOR A REECES CUP). Halloween here is like any other day, no one celebrates it or even knows what it is. I explained to my 10th grade class what it was (as they LOVE learning about America) and was looking forward to explaining it to my 11th grade class, when one of the teachers interrupted my class (in the middle of class) to tell me he needed my students for his exam. I told him no, that I wouldn’t have them leave the middle of class to take his test, we went back and forth on why he needed them, he gave me his story about the printer, why he couldn’t give his test on his appropriate day and bla bla. After a 5-min discussion with him, I told him to give me 5 min and begrudgingly gave him the kids. This also meant he was interrupting my 11th grade class, as I teach them after 10th grade (I occupy the first 4 hours switching between 10th and 11th on M/W/F and first 2 hours on T/TH) and his exam would be at least an hour and a half, meaning he was taking my entire time slot for 11th grade that day. This concept was even more annoying being I hadn’t seen him the entire first period, now he came to interrupt my class, and give a quiz that he never taught or prepared the kids for. I left for the day (angry still) and decided since it was still so early that I would go into the market.
I visited to one of my friends’ houses (her name is Musa, her son Reece) and got into an interesting conversation with her and her family/friends about America. The topics varied from rent cost, sales tax, being gay, car insurance and how everyone wants to visit America but not everyone realizes how expensive things can be/ how difficult it can be to find a job. One woman was saying her sister is in American and she asked her to send her a new suit and purse, her sister was saying money isn’t just falling from the trees to buy a suit with, and she was saying she thought her sister was being wicked to her and how the money is plenty on that side. I explained that the same suit here would cost 10USD that in American it most likely cost 100USD and she would have to pay shipping and tax. After explaining it all to her she swore she would never ask her sister for another thing again ha-ha. The concept that America has money is everywhere, everyone in America is rich, no one struggles, and everyone farts rainbows…these are all true facts. Even as an American explaining that it’s not true, you run into people telling you that your wrong. The conversation was eye opening in the fact that everyone wants to go America but no one thinks past that statement. I tried to explain that in Africa people struggle and in American people struggle, the struggle is different, but they both can still struggle.
As you probably know I eat the same thing almost every day, so I went on a search to find something new to make online and found bean burgers. This consisted of potato, beans, onion, corn, flower, and egg. For desert, I had bought garie (dried cassava). WELL... my new favorite meal betrayed me bad. I woke up around 4:30 on the 1st and felt horrible, I was miserably nauseous, was running a small fever, and couldn’t sleep. Around 6:45am I called 3 of my coworkers to inform them I wouldn’t be coming to school (to which no answer) so I went outside and gave a note to my neighbor to deliver. I felt like shit, which immediately reminds you that your stuck in a cement house, with no tv, no couch (or comfortable bed in my case), air conditioning, canned soup, and saltines (that’s like the feel better bundle). Long story short (including throwing up the most amount of garie ever – gross) I’m pretty sure I gave myself food poisoning. I’m thinking it was the egg/garie that did it. The moral of this short story is once you find something you like don’t eat it every day, because you CAN vomit it up, and it WILL ruin it all for you for a long time.
Lucky for me November 2nd is Thanksgiving here in Liberia, so after being sick the previous day I got an extra day to rest before having to go to school. I asked around on what they do here for Thanksgiving and I was told that some may attend church, but mostly they just eat plenty, and maybe go to the video club. Not quite sure why/how it happened, but Surprise’s Auntie and Uncle (Erin and Sumo) have been sending me food lately and on thanksgiving it paid off big, because they sent over rice and potato greens, which is my absolute favorite. This food thing has been confusing me though, let me explain: one day I sent them dry rice to cook for me, they cook their own rice every day and can add it to theirs, so I wanted them to add the extra and just send some over, but ever since that day they send me rice and soup. I tried asking Surprise/ JoJo why they keep sending “my own” and they told me it was because they (Erin and Sumo) thought I wasn’t eating enough, but Surprise was acting strange, like there was another reason, but wouldn’t say. This sounds like complaining but my favorite soups are cassava leaf and potato greens, I’ve gotten that now 3 times, so I’m not really complaining, I’m more just confused/ don’t want them to feel obligated to send me food. As of right now I have a good system with the boys, they ask if I want food and I say yes or no, then they do or don’t send it ha-ha (pretty basic I know). This way they don’t send food while I’m already cooking or something and I can control how often it gets sent and what I need to buy to “repay” them, for example for thanksgiving I bought them a loaf of bread- cost roughly a $1.20, yet no one buys bread for themselves, so it’s a nice treat.
Friday, I didn’t go to Sukako, reason being, we are on a travel ban from Peace Corps due to the election. All that really means is we need to stay at our sites and can’t travel around. I can’t wait for this election stuff to be over. We were supposed to have a runoff election on the 7th of November, but it has been postponed due to a claim of fraud from the Liberty party. The supreme court has ruled that the national election commission (NEC) must conclude its investigation into fraud and irregularities before they can hold the run-off election. NEC has until November 22nd (or earlier) to finish its investigation. Once NEC announces its finding they must wait seven days before proceeding with preparations for the run-off election, until the Liberty party decided to appeal or not appeal NEC ruling to the supreme court. If Liberty Party appeals then the Supreme Court has seven more days to rule. The court can also call for new elections if nullifies the October 10th election. I’m hoping this gets cleared up ASAP and we can continue with the peaceful election that has taken place so far.
The weekends are filled up with a bunch of nothing. I had guys come to the house a fix a gap I had at the bottom of my door. Surprise and I started a garden, we planted kale, zucchini, and cantaloupe. I say Surprise and I because when it comes to planting it in the ground I need him and JoJo to be heavily involved because its hard work that I don’t want to do alone ha. I spent most of my time however (*sarcasm ahead*) just miserable, drowning my sorrows, missing Rachael Turner and Annalise Bui (that is officially your shout out). Surprise and I have an inside joke now, we will obnoxiously and annoyingly say sorry yeah, again, and again, and again, until we laugh. This all started because I was chatting to Brian Gormley (officially your shout out too) and he was trying to give his best Liberian English and decided to say, on repeat, sorry yeah, well I played it out loud in front of surprise and ever since that moment it has been our inside joke that we say at least 5 times a day at any point of the day.
Spider update:
I almost died. But really.
It was about 10:30pm (I don’t know the day) and I walked into my room and went to my little vanity area, then walked back outside to the hallway, came back in to the vanity to head out again, and I see on my door frame a spider THE SIZE OF MY HAND. I’m not kidding it was massive. I stopped moving and just stared at it, then I continued to look around my room for something to kill it with. I had nothing, you can’t kill a spider that size with a flip flop so I had to walk past him to go get something from the house. I came back with a bucket and my Chaco’s. I then continued to stare at him in utter panic. I realized that the shoe wouldn’t do because I would have to get my hand too close to him, if I touched him in any way I would quite literally shit myself, or if he jumped I would die, so I needed to keep a greater distance from him. I then took the bucket, this is the same trusty bucket I killed my last big spider with so I hoovered it over him and BAM STRIKE… well... half striked… I think I clipped his leg or something but he still managed to crawl under my vanity area. I set the bucket down, went to the kitchen to grab this death in a can that Liberia so nicely sells, I bent down and sprayed under the vanity for at least 30 seconds, long enough where there was a pool of spray on the floor. I then just stood there, I wasn’t going to move the vanity in case he started to make a mad dash, I couldn’t leave the room in case he left that spot to hide in another spot. So, I stood and stood, periodically bending down to make sure he was in the same spot. I stood there for about 30 min until the one time I bent down he was laying on his back, dead. Now I had another dilemma, what to do with him. I was still too scared to move the vanity, I didn’t want to throw him in my waste bin, nor did I want to throw him outside (it was super dark outside). So, I stayed up an additional 30 min (got to make sure he was dead) checked again and he was still in same position on his back. I decided I could go to bed now, leave the spider, and chunk him in the morning. Now most are thinking... how could you sleep with him there… well.. I was pretty certain he was dead, if I happen to wake in the morning and he wasn’t there I WOULD HAVE BURNT THE ENTIRE HOUSE DOWN. Just as a reference to how big he was, earlier I said I hit it with my bucket, now I sat that bucket down and I had spider blood that dripped off my bucket onto the floor. SPIDER BLOOD. I would like to say Rachel 1, Spider 0, because I killed him... but that spider, although dead, has given me mad PTSD, so although he perished in the end, I must give spider the point for this battle.
Rachel 0, Spider 1
Monday was officially the start of the second marking period for school! That means everyone gets to start fresh this period/ we moved onto a new set of topics! I had a little anger from my students about the grades so I offered a 10pt (to be added to 1st marking period) all or nothing quiz. This means they either got all the questions correct, proving they mastered the information, getting 10pt added, or they got one wrong getting zero points. I had 2 students of 20+ earn the 10pts. One 11th grader in math named George (he already had like a 90%) and one 11th grader in Physics named Marcus.
Tuesday was Halloween- Halloween is one of my favorite “holidays” it’s an excuse to hang out with friends, dress up, and eat a lot of candy (WHAT I WOULD DO FOR A REECES CUP). Halloween here is like any other day, no one celebrates it or even knows what it is. I explained to my 10th grade class what it was (as they LOVE learning about America) and was looking forward to explaining it to my 11th grade class, when one of the teachers interrupted my class (in the middle of class) to tell me he needed my students for his exam. I told him no, that I wouldn’t have them leave the middle of class to take his test, we went back and forth on why he needed them, he gave me his story about the printer, why he couldn’t give his test on his appropriate day and bla bla. After a 5-min discussion with him, I told him to give me 5 min and begrudgingly gave him the kids. This also meant he was interrupting my 11th grade class, as I teach them after 10th grade (I occupy the first 4 hours switching between 10th and 11th on M/W/F and first 2 hours on T/TH) and his exam would be at least an hour and a half, meaning he was taking my entire time slot for 11th grade that day. This concept was even more annoying being I hadn’t seen him the entire first period, now he came to interrupt my class, and give a quiz that he never taught or prepared the kids for. I left for the day (angry still) and decided since it was still so early that I would go into the market.
I visited to one of my friends’ houses (her name is Musa, her son Reece) and got into an interesting conversation with her and her family/friends about America. The topics varied from rent cost, sales tax, being gay, car insurance and how everyone wants to visit America but not everyone realizes how expensive things can be/ how difficult it can be to find a job. One woman was saying her sister is in American and she asked her to send her a new suit and purse, her sister was saying money isn’t just falling from the trees to buy a suit with, and she was saying she thought her sister was being wicked to her and how the money is plenty on that side. I explained that the same suit here would cost 10USD that in American it most likely cost 100USD and she would have to pay shipping and tax. After explaining it all to her she swore she would never ask her sister for another thing again ha-ha. The concept that America has money is everywhere, everyone in America is rich, no one struggles, and everyone farts rainbows…these are all true facts. Even as an American explaining that it’s not true, you run into people telling you that your wrong. The conversation was eye opening in the fact that everyone wants to go America but no one thinks past that statement. I tried to explain that in Africa people struggle and in American people struggle, the struggle is different, but they both can still struggle.
As you probably know I eat the same thing almost every day, so I went on a search to find something new to make online and found bean burgers. This consisted of potato, beans, onion, corn, flower, and egg. For desert, I had bought garie (dried cassava). WELL... my new favorite meal betrayed me bad. I woke up around 4:30 on the 1st and felt horrible, I was miserably nauseous, was running a small fever, and couldn’t sleep. Around 6:45am I called 3 of my coworkers to inform them I wouldn’t be coming to school (to which no answer) so I went outside and gave a note to my neighbor to deliver. I felt like shit, which immediately reminds you that your stuck in a cement house, with no tv, no couch (or comfortable bed in my case), air conditioning, canned soup, and saltines (that’s like the feel better bundle). Long story short (including throwing up the most amount of garie ever – gross) I’m pretty sure I gave myself food poisoning. I’m thinking it was the egg/garie that did it. The moral of this short story is once you find something you like don’t eat it every day, because you CAN vomit it up, and it WILL ruin it all for you for a long time.
Lucky for me November 2nd is Thanksgiving here in Liberia, so after being sick the previous day I got an extra day to rest before having to go to school. I asked around on what they do here for Thanksgiving and I was told that some may attend church, but mostly they just eat plenty, and maybe go to the video club. Not quite sure why/how it happened, but Surprise’s Auntie and Uncle (Erin and Sumo) have been sending me food lately and on thanksgiving it paid off big, because they sent over rice and potato greens, which is my absolute favorite. This food thing has been confusing me though, let me explain: one day I sent them dry rice to cook for me, they cook their own rice every day and can add it to theirs, so I wanted them to add the extra and just send some over, but ever since that day they send me rice and soup. I tried asking Surprise/ JoJo why they keep sending “my own” and they told me it was because they (Erin and Sumo) thought I wasn’t eating enough, but Surprise was acting strange, like there was another reason, but wouldn’t say. This sounds like complaining but my favorite soups are cassava leaf and potato greens, I’ve gotten that now 3 times, so I’m not really complaining, I’m more just confused/ don’t want them to feel obligated to send me food. As of right now I have a good system with the boys, they ask if I want food and I say yes or no, then they do or don’t send it ha-ha (pretty basic I know). This way they don’t send food while I’m already cooking or something and I can control how often it gets sent and what I need to buy to “repay” them, for example for thanksgiving I bought them a loaf of bread- cost roughly a $1.20, yet no one buys bread for themselves, so it’s a nice treat.
Friday, I didn’t go to Sukako, reason being, we are on a travel ban from Peace Corps due to the election. All that really means is we need to stay at our sites and can’t travel around. I can’t wait for this election stuff to be over. We were supposed to have a runoff election on the 7th of November, but it has been postponed due to a claim of fraud from the Liberty party. The supreme court has ruled that the national election commission (NEC) must conclude its investigation into fraud and irregularities before they can hold the run-off election. NEC has until November 22nd (or earlier) to finish its investigation. Once NEC announces its finding they must wait seven days before proceeding with preparations for the run-off election, until the Liberty party decided to appeal or not appeal NEC ruling to the supreme court. If Liberty Party appeals then the Supreme Court has seven more days to rule. The court can also call for new elections if nullifies the October 10th election. I’m hoping this gets cleared up ASAP and we can continue with the peaceful election that has taken place so far.
The weekends are filled up with a bunch of nothing. I had guys come to the house a fix a gap I had at the bottom of my door. Surprise and I started a garden, we planted kale, zucchini, and cantaloupe. I say Surprise and I because when it comes to planting it in the ground I need him and JoJo to be heavily involved because its hard work that I don’t want to do alone ha. I spent most of my time however (*sarcasm ahead*) just miserable, drowning my sorrows, missing Rachael Turner and Annalise Bui (that is officially your shout out). Surprise and I have an inside joke now, we will obnoxiously and annoyingly say sorry yeah, again, and again, and again, until we laugh. This all started because I was chatting to Brian Gormley (officially your shout out too) and he was trying to give his best Liberian English and decided to say, on repeat, sorry yeah, well I played it out loud in front of surprise and ever since that moment it has been our inside joke that we say at least 5 times a day at any point of the day.
Spider update:
I almost died. But really.
It was about 10:30pm (I don’t know the day) and I walked into my room and went to my little vanity area, then walked back outside to the hallway, came back in to the vanity to head out again, and I see on my door frame a spider THE SIZE OF MY HAND. I’m not kidding it was massive. I stopped moving and just stared at it, then I continued to look around my room for something to kill it with. I had nothing, you can’t kill a spider that size with a flip flop so I had to walk past him to go get something from the house. I came back with a bucket and my Chaco’s. I then continued to stare at him in utter panic. I realized that the shoe wouldn’t do because I would have to get my hand too close to him, if I touched him in any way I would quite literally shit myself, or if he jumped I would die, so I needed to keep a greater distance from him. I then took the bucket, this is the same trusty bucket I killed my last big spider with so I hoovered it over him and BAM STRIKE… well... half striked… I think I clipped his leg or something but he still managed to crawl under my vanity area. I set the bucket down, went to the kitchen to grab this death in a can that Liberia so nicely sells, I bent down and sprayed under the vanity for at least 30 seconds, long enough where there was a pool of spray on the floor. I then just stood there, I wasn’t going to move the vanity in case he started to make a mad dash, I couldn’t leave the room in case he left that spot to hide in another spot. So, I stood and stood, periodically bending down to make sure he was in the same spot. I stood there for about 30 min until the one time I bent down he was laying on his back, dead. Now I had another dilemma, what to do with him. I was still too scared to move the vanity, I didn’t want to throw him in my waste bin, nor did I want to throw him outside (it was super dark outside). So, I stayed up an additional 30 min (got to make sure he was dead) checked again and he was still in same position on his back. I decided I could go to bed now, leave the spider, and chunk him in the morning. Now most are thinking... how could you sleep with him there… well.. I was pretty certain he was dead, if I happen to wake in the morning and he wasn’t there I WOULD HAVE BURNT THE ENTIRE HOUSE DOWN. Just as a reference to how big he was, earlier I said I hit it with my bucket, now I sat that bucket down and I had spider blood that dripped off my bucket onto the floor. SPIDER BLOOD. I would like to say Rachel 1, Spider 0, because I killed him... but that spider, although dead, has given me mad PTSD, so although he perished in the end, I must give spider the point for this battle.
Rachel 0, Spider 1