The meeting between the CEO, (only one came, the DEO was sick), principle, commissioner and landlord happened on Saturday. The landlord wants his original contract signed by the minister of education. When that happens, he will move the bricks from the garage (I’ll tell my rat story later) and the stuff he has in the house. I was told that the CEO along with PC was going to Monrovia on Tuesday to meet with legal and have the contract signed by Wednesday (10/10). There was of course delays. The most recent news I have is that the landlord has been advised on his behavior and that his money for the house will be available by Tuesday (10/16) and he will come move everything from the house and we will finally be done with all house business. This should in theory be the last time I have any house related issue. I talked with my principle this week and told him that any issue the landlord has moving forward should go through the school and PC should be contact immediately. That there shouldn’t be any issues that come straight to me, and I shouldn’t have any visitors to the house informing me of anything. The stress of all this is crazy, I still feel awkward every time I walk by the landlord gas station.
The principle and PC have really gone out of their way to make sure the issue is being settled as quickly as possible and that I’ve been okay during all of it. It’s really appreciated, if I’m being brutally honest with myself I think a part of me wanted to be kicked out of the house for the chance they would just send me back home. All of this happened, then Ernlee passed, and then more things happened, there was so much at once that I had just accepted or almost hoped that if I got kicked out they would just send me back to America. I just felt like how many times do you have to feel unwanted in a place before its too much. I acknowledge that the community, the school, basically everyone appreciates me being here and doesn’t want me to go, that I would upset a lot of people. That doesn’t mean the feeling didn’t/ doesn’t sweep across me. Looking at everything that has happened in the past month just makes you feel like a big pile of bla. I think this is a feeling a lot of people probably stumble across during service, all for different reasons. The house issue has taken a positive step forward, so now I just need to move my mindset out of this negative space and remember all the people who want me here and not feed into any awkwardness I’m sure I’m the only one feeling.
Example of my kids loving me- I was sick and didn’t go to school (like a weeks ago or something) and all my students came to my house and prayed for me to be well again, so I could come to school and teach them. It was cute.
The rat- I was getting ready to walk out the door for school, I was putting my shoes on, I look out of the window that faces my open garage and see a huge rat. My window is pretty large, I have a metal triangular gate, then big square metal bars, then chicken wire, and lastly 2 layers of mosquito net. The rat had climbed through the triangular gate, found the one spot where the chicken wire had been cut, was sitting between the chicken wire and the mosquito net. My first thought was shit, I can’t leave yet because if he chews through the net he will be inside. I took the logical next step which was to hit him with my flip flop haha. Then I realized if I killed him then he would be stuck there, almost impossible for me to get him out, that and I hit him like 2 times (not even hard) and felt bad. I finally realized I had to find the spot of entrance and coax him to go back through the spot. This took like 15 min. He ran around and passed the spot probably 2 dozen times. Finally, I was able to get him to see the opening and he hopped through and ran away. I then went to the garage and saw an enormous amount of rat shit and realized that they are all probably living in the bricks that are stacked inside. I told PC this when Sam and Gus came to visit, hence why moving them and the few things he left inside are on the list of things to do.
This last week has been review week for period 1 exams. This year I am teaching 10th, 11th, and 12th grade math and physics. Review week is always hard for me because we review so much while we are learning a new topic that an entire week of review seems like overkill for me. It ends up being a week full of assignments and notebook quizzes. My 12th graders this year seem to be constantly mad at me because we are not doing the same thing that their friends are doing at other schools. They think what I am teaching them isn’t good enough or something. They have had 2 conversations with me telling me this. I am at a loss what to tell them, it’s like sure I want to teach you the quadratic formula. But you need to know all the pre-information to be able to solve it. So, we have to start at step one to get to step 12, they hate it and are very vocal this year about it. Last year in 11th grade we started with place value/ addition, they said nothing, yet this year we are graphing and doing more advanced math and they are always angry. With all the complaining they are doing I am expecting perfection on the period 1 tests from them. I’m interested to see how my 10th graders will do this period. I know with y accent and way of teaching there is a learning curve, so It will be interesting to see how they do. If its anything like last year they may not do well 1st period but by 2nd period they are used to me and grades will pick up.
I bought a small coal pot this week and have been cooking on it almost every night. I have a big standing one, but to take it out every time I want to cook is such a hassle. The small one is perfect for me. It allows me to cook outside/ be social/ give me something to do. I love it. I’ve become a pro at lighting it myself. I use rubber to start the fire, and although it takes me like 5 matches to get it going, I am able to do it! I’ve also become overly paranoid that my gas tank is going to finish, by cooking outside I can keep my tank longer. I heat my coffee water on it and then everything else is done on the coal pot.
Friday I went to Suakoko market and with Rachel we met 2 other NGOs who came from Europe to live in Suakoko for 6 months. They are here to help with the radio station. We didn’t get the chance to chat that much because we were just walking around the market where its crowded /loud. Looking back, we should have just met for a drink and then market after, good thing we have 6 months to try again ha. Meeting 2 newbies made me so grateful of the training PC gave us when we first arrived. I can’t imagine just being dropped off without training. Like that uncomfortable new place feeling lasting weeks until you figure out the system instead of having PC and a host family show you how things work.
I saw my auntie at the market and I told her that the boys and I have been talking about buying a bag of rice (25kg bag) but I was concerned (because of Rachels horror stories) that rats would get inside and eat my rice. She said she would give me gallon jugs I could pour the rice into. I got home, and the boys came to the house with the jugs and we bought our massive bag of rice. True integration if you ask me. The bag cost 2,215LD, the idea is that the bag is cheaper than buying rice every time we cook. I told the boys to break even we had to cook 22 times, being we buy 100LD rice every time we all cook.
The boys and I are also on the search for a box. We have (I have) decided that I am going to get a guinea pig. I considered a rabbit, but I’ve ever had one before and I’ve had a guinea pig, so we settled on that. We (Surprise and Auntie) have an understanding that they will take over care when I leave Liberia. They sell them 2, typically male and female, for $10 US here, our only hold up is this damn box. You would think a box would be easy to get but the first guy I commissioned got called some place and left, now it only leaves the carpenter and I hate using him. I am going to try and make one myself, we will see how that goes haha. I told the boys I was going to buy a wash tub and put him in that and they said I needed a lid because of the rats. BECAUSE OF THE RATS! Wtf huge rats eat a guinea pig, and what huge rats do they have inside where that is a concern. The goal is by next week to have a box. Well the goal was by this weekend to have a box, I clearly failed at that, so now next weekend ha.
The principle and PC have really gone out of their way to make sure the issue is being settled as quickly as possible and that I’ve been okay during all of it. It’s really appreciated, if I’m being brutally honest with myself I think a part of me wanted to be kicked out of the house for the chance they would just send me back home. All of this happened, then Ernlee passed, and then more things happened, there was so much at once that I had just accepted or almost hoped that if I got kicked out they would just send me back to America. I just felt like how many times do you have to feel unwanted in a place before its too much. I acknowledge that the community, the school, basically everyone appreciates me being here and doesn’t want me to go, that I would upset a lot of people. That doesn’t mean the feeling didn’t/ doesn’t sweep across me. Looking at everything that has happened in the past month just makes you feel like a big pile of bla. I think this is a feeling a lot of people probably stumble across during service, all for different reasons. The house issue has taken a positive step forward, so now I just need to move my mindset out of this negative space and remember all the people who want me here and not feed into any awkwardness I’m sure I’m the only one feeling.
Example of my kids loving me- I was sick and didn’t go to school (like a weeks ago or something) and all my students came to my house and prayed for me to be well again, so I could come to school and teach them. It was cute.
The rat- I was getting ready to walk out the door for school, I was putting my shoes on, I look out of the window that faces my open garage and see a huge rat. My window is pretty large, I have a metal triangular gate, then big square metal bars, then chicken wire, and lastly 2 layers of mosquito net. The rat had climbed through the triangular gate, found the one spot where the chicken wire had been cut, was sitting between the chicken wire and the mosquito net. My first thought was shit, I can’t leave yet because if he chews through the net he will be inside. I took the logical next step which was to hit him with my flip flop haha. Then I realized if I killed him then he would be stuck there, almost impossible for me to get him out, that and I hit him like 2 times (not even hard) and felt bad. I finally realized I had to find the spot of entrance and coax him to go back through the spot. This took like 15 min. He ran around and passed the spot probably 2 dozen times. Finally, I was able to get him to see the opening and he hopped through and ran away. I then went to the garage and saw an enormous amount of rat shit and realized that they are all probably living in the bricks that are stacked inside. I told PC this when Sam and Gus came to visit, hence why moving them and the few things he left inside are on the list of things to do.
This last week has been review week for period 1 exams. This year I am teaching 10th, 11th, and 12th grade math and physics. Review week is always hard for me because we review so much while we are learning a new topic that an entire week of review seems like overkill for me. It ends up being a week full of assignments and notebook quizzes. My 12th graders this year seem to be constantly mad at me because we are not doing the same thing that their friends are doing at other schools. They think what I am teaching them isn’t good enough or something. They have had 2 conversations with me telling me this. I am at a loss what to tell them, it’s like sure I want to teach you the quadratic formula. But you need to know all the pre-information to be able to solve it. So, we have to start at step one to get to step 12, they hate it and are very vocal this year about it. Last year in 11th grade we started with place value/ addition, they said nothing, yet this year we are graphing and doing more advanced math and they are always angry. With all the complaining they are doing I am expecting perfection on the period 1 tests from them. I’m interested to see how my 10th graders will do this period. I know with y accent and way of teaching there is a learning curve, so It will be interesting to see how they do. If its anything like last year they may not do well 1st period but by 2nd period they are used to me and grades will pick up.
I bought a small coal pot this week and have been cooking on it almost every night. I have a big standing one, but to take it out every time I want to cook is such a hassle. The small one is perfect for me. It allows me to cook outside/ be social/ give me something to do. I love it. I’ve become a pro at lighting it myself. I use rubber to start the fire, and although it takes me like 5 matches to get it going, I am able to do it! I’ve also become overly paranoid that my gas tank is going to finish, by cooking outside I can keep my tank longer. I heat my coffee water on it and then everything else is done on the coal pot.
Friday I went to Suakoko market and with Rachel we met 2 other NGOs who came from Europe to live in Suakoko for 6 months. They are here to help with the radio station. We didn’t get the chance to chat that much because we were just walking around the market where its crowded /loud. Looking back, we should have just met for a drink and then market after, good thing we have 6 months to try again ha. Meeting 2 newbies made me so grateful of the training PC gave us when we first arrived. I can’t imagine just being dropped off without training. Like that uncomfortable new place feeling lasting weeks until you figure out the system instead of having PC and a host family show you how things work.
I saw my auntie at the market and I told her that the boys and I have been talking about buying a bag of rice (25kg bag) but I was concerned (because of Rachels horror stories) that rats would get inside and eat my rice. She said she would give me gallon jugs I could pour the rice into. I got home, and the boys came to the house with the jugs and we bought our massive bag of rice. True integration if you ask me. The bag cost 2,215LD, the idea is that the bag is cheaper than buying rice every time we cook. I told the boys to break even we had to cook 22 times, being we buy 100LD rice every time we all cook.
The boys and I are also on the search for a box. We have (I have) decided that I am going to get a guinea pig. I considered a rabbit, but I’ve ever had one before and I’ve had a guinea pig, so we settled on that. We (Surprise and Auntie) have an understanding that they will take over care when I leave Liberia. They sell them 2, typically male and female, for $10 US here, our only hold up is this damn box. You would think a box would be easy to get but the first guy I commissioned got called some place and left, now it only leaves the carpenter and I hate using him. I am going to try and make one myself, we will see how that goes haha. I told the boys I was going to buy a wash tub and put him in that and they said I needed a lid because of the rats. BECAUSE OF THE RATS! Wtf huge rats eat a guinea pig, and what huge rats do they have inside where that is a concern. The goal is by next week to have a box. Well the goal was by this weekend to have a box, I clearly failed at that, so now next weekend ha.