After my family left from Liberia I went straight to Doe Palace for a gender meeting before MST started (mid service training). Gender had a ton of prep to do. We are getting inner and outer male/ female anatomy posters made for the volunteers, so for 2 days we laminated and cut all the anatomy words for each poster. Each poster consisted of like 10 words, eggs, and sperm, we had to cut those out, laminate them, and then we had to cut those out, for every person, for every poster. It took forever ha. The posters however are sweet, all the words we spent time cutting /laminating have Velcro on them and stick to the poster, making presentations super easy. After gender I stayed at Doe for MST. MST only lasted a few days and was supposed to be a sort of checking in with you making sure everything was going well, helping you cope with any issues or stresses that may arise, and just a time to hang out with everyone. I was just coming off a vacation where I had already forgotten all the stresses of Liberia, so all MST accomplished was reminding me all the issues I had to face in the upcoming year/ what little butts students can be ha. Post MST we are at 44 volunteers, we started at 56 volunteers.
After MST I went back to site, the first real time id been back in 1+month, and just tried to get back into the swing of things. School “started” shortly after my return. I say “started” because the first week is a massive waste of everyone’s time. We were “holding” session Monday- Wednesday and the rest of that week was clean up or something. No students showed up, the schedule wasn’t finished, and other teachers didn’t show. Yet did I have to come every day because they couldn’t just officially close, yep. There is a teacher who made a comment to me that he came to school because he went into the office and signed in, then went on the road, I told him it didn’t count then, but to him he was there because he signed a sheet of paper, same thing, right?
During the first week of school we had our first teachers meeting. It was basically an hour-long meeting listing all the things that needed to be done, which is fine, we just don’t have funds to do any of it, which would be fine if there was a list made of how to accomplish all our goals, but no list was made. I felt like most of the things were said at me as if I was holding out the first year and my second year was when I was going to start giving all this money haha. It was productive to say the least (sarcasm). I did agree during the meeting to help John clean up the Library. We have a super nice library with a ton of books, they are all just scattered all over the floor or in boxes. We spent hours that first weekend cleaning up the library. News started spreading on what we were doing, and kids started coming to peer through the one door/only source of light the library has to see what we were doing. I made the mistake one day of sharing books with the kids. HUGE. MASSIVE. MISTAKE. I tried getting everyone to stand in line, saying the books were plenty and I would share the books one one. NO ONE would line up and those who did would be elbowed or shoved by some kid who already got a book/ was just trying to get two. I mean honesty it was like hyenas at dinner time. I had finally had enough, I told everyone since they couldn’t follow directions/were being mean that I would no longer share books. I had a MOB of kids follow me home yelling how they wanted book now, give me book now, I want book now, bring it now... bla bla bla bla. I got back to my area and after being yelled (now followed) at for the last 30 min, , I went straight over to my neighbor’s house and told Sackie to deal with it, and deal with it he did.
I got some weird/sad community updates once I was settled back in: My neighbors brother, James, was the “crazy” guy in town, and he passed while I was gone. He had a crazy story, the chi chi on him is: some time ago he worked for Firestone rubber plantation and made a lot of money. A friend of his gave him some lappa to watch over, he agreed. The friend who gave it to him told him he was not to share the lappa with anyone he was just to hold it, well James didn’t listen and gave some to his mom. His mom not knowing it wasn’t for her decided to wear it and soon after wearing it his mom passed (some sort of curse or something). After that happened a “sickness” went over him, because of the betrayal that killed his mom and ever since he was “crazy”, all day every day he would walk up and down Gbartala talking to himself. I asked how he passed and Surprise told me that someone had beat him for something (unknown reason) and the next day he was on the road, his head down and a car hit him. Crazy, the entire thing, crazy. My ma also left for a few days because her pa passed away, so that was sad news. I realized that like 10+ of my kids left or decided not to come back to school or were sent to a different area. This was sad. I was one of like 2 teachers who regularly came to school last year, and I was surprised that they just left with no words. Like the idea that I may never again see them was really sad to me and the fact that I felt like there was no thought or care that they wouldn’t see me again really made me sad/pissed me off. I understand that it’s a vast cultural difference, but it doesn’t mean it didn’t bug me. Here in Liberia someone can send for you and the next day your gone. You could have been with a family years, or even be with your born mother/father, but once someone sends for you, you are almost always forced to go to that person for at least a duration of time. I had a conversation with my friend Musu before I left, she mentioned she was going to go to school in another town, apparently, I didn’t really realize what that meant. When I arrived back from vacation I went to her area and asked for her, her friend said she left for school. Left for school. Like she was gone, I had no contact info for her, no way to reach her, I was just to wait until I maybe saw her again in Gbartala when she visits next. That was sad news/realization too. Now I didn’t expect to come back to Gbartala after a month and get a lot of good news and shit, but I mean, damn, I didn’t get any good news ha. It was all death, sickness, and people leaving.
Once school actually started I noticed 2 senior high students not attending, even though they said they were coming (I basically stalked down the ones who stayed and told them to get their ass to school). One day I saw them passing, called them over and asked why they weren’t on campus. They said they were still hustling for school fees. I offered to give them a contract for some yard work to help. They came and brushed my grass and I paid them both 600LD (crazy high price). I also told them if they told a sole I paid them for yard work I would be vexed bad way, I didn’t want all the students coming to be begging for me to help them with their own fees. Luckily, it didn’t backfire, they didn’t tell anyone and the following Monday they were in school. I also noticed my little friend Elijah wasn’t going to school this year. I asked him and his brother Lucky (they are 2 of the boys in my crew) if they wanted to go to school and they both said yes, so I said I would talk with their mom and if she agreed I would send both of them to Feju. I went to talk with their mom and she also agreed, that following Friday I bought the boys nice clothes in Suakoko market and they came with me to school on Monday to talk to the Bridge principle. The principle agreed to let them come to school, after a haircut (because that’s whats important), he said because Lucky was 16 that he would place both of them in 3rd grade. I stood there and argued with him for like 5 min. Lucky and Elijah had never been to school before, can’t read, write, can’t even spell their name, nothing and he wanted to place them in the third grade, he told me science says that the older kids pick it up faster (eye roll). Eventually I agreed and told the boys I would help them after school to catch them up, that they would have a hard time, but I would try and help. The next day they went to school and sat in the 3rd grade. That was Lucky’s first and last day of school. He didn’t even last an entire day before leaving the school. I asked Lucky what happened, he said he told his dad and he said that he needed him to help in the field for dry season, so he wasn’t to go to school. I think that’s true, I also think Lucky just felt shamed sitting in a class that was too advanced for him. Can you imagine your parent saying no to a free education, or agreeing to letting you not go to school because its more convenient for them to have you help at the house. This did allow me to take Elijah back to the principle and beg to let him sit in a lower class. I asked for 1st grade and he kept at 3rd, so finally we agreed on 2nd grade. The first day of sitting in the 2nd grade the teacher kicked him out because he couldn’t read and told Elijah not to return. First, who does that to a kid, like really, second who does that?! After he told me what happened I told him just to sit in 1st grade (where I wanted him all along) and if there was an issue they were to talk to me. 1st grade has been okay for him, his teacher is actually my GRS counterpart Roselyn, however the Bridge program/Roselyn is hella picky. He got kicked out for an entire week because his shoes (had to wait until market day to find damn black shoes), then got kicked out because his socks weren’t the right color, and once because he wasn’t wearing a belt. These kids wear color clothes to school, it’s not like some uniform they are disgracing. Its insane the shit they kicked out for.
After MST I went back to site, the first real time id been back in 1+month, and just tried to get back into the swing of things. School “started” shortly after my return. I say “started” because the first week is a massive waste of everyone’s time. We were “holding” session Monday- Wednesday and the rest of that week was clean up or something. No students showed up, the schedule wasn’t finished, and other teachers didn’t show. Yet did I have to come every day because they couldn’t just officially close, yep. There is a teacher who made a comment to me that he came to school because he went into the office and signed in, then went on the road, I told him it didn’t count then, but to him he was there because he signed a sheet of paper, same thing, right?
During the first week of school we had our first teachers meeting. It was basically an hour-long meeting listing all the things that needed to be done, which is fine, we just don’t have funds to do any of it, which would be fine if there was a list made of how to accomplish all our goals, but no list was made. I felt like most of the things were said at me as if I was holding out the first year and my second year was when I was going to start giving all this money haha. It was productive to say the least (sarcasm). I did agree during the meeting to help John clean up the Library. We have a super nice library with a ton of books, they are all just scattered all over the floor or in boxes. We spent hours that first weekend cleaning up the library. News started spreading on what we were doing, and kids started coming to peer through the one door/only source of light the library has to see what we were doing. I made the mistake one day of sharing books with the kids. HUGE. MASSIVE. MISTAKE. I tried getting everyone to stand in line, saying the books were plenty and I would share the books one one. NO ONE would line up and those who did would be elbowed or shoved by some kid who already got a book/ was just trying to get two. I mean honesty it was like hyenas at dinner time. I had finally had enough, I told everyone since they couldn’t follow directions/were being mean that I would no longer share books. I had a MOB of kids follow me home yelling how they wanted book now, give me book now, I want book now, bring it now... bla bla bla bla. I got back to my area and after being yelled (now followed) at for the last 30 min, , I went straight over to my neighbor’s house and told Sackie to deal with it, and deal with it he did.
I got some weird/sad community updates once I was settled back in: My neighbors brother, James, was the “crazy” guy in town, and he passed while I was gone. He had a crazy story, the chi chi on him is: some time ago he worked for Firestone rubber plantation and made a lot of money. A friend of his gave him some lappa to watch over, he agreed. The friend who gave it to him told him he was not to share the lappa with anyone he was just to hold it, well James didn’t listen and gave some to his mom. His mom not knowing it wasn’t for her decided to wear it and soon after wearing it his mom passed (some sort of curse or something). After that happened a “sickness” went over him, because of the betrayal that killed his mom and ever since he was “crazy”, all day every day he would walk up and down Gbartala talking to himself. I asked how he passed and Surprise told me that someone had beat him for something (unknown reason) and the next day he was on the road, his head down and a car hit him. Crazy, the entire thing, crazy. My ma also left for a few days because her pa passed away, so that was sad news. I realized that like 10+ of my kids left or decided not to come back to school or were sent to a different area. This was sad. I was one of like 2 teachers who regularly came to school last year, and I was surprised that they just left with no words. Like the idea that I may never again see them was really sad to me and the fact that I felt like there was no thought or care that they wouldn’t see me again really made me sad/pissed me off. I understand that it’s a vast cultural difference, but it doesn’t mean it didn’t bug me. Here in Liberia someone can send for you and the next day your gone. You could have been with a family years, or even be with your born mother/father, but once someone sends for you, you are almost always forced to go to that person for at least a duration of time. I had a conversation with my friend Musu before I left, she mentioned she was going to go to school in another town, apparently, I didn’t really realize what that meant. When I arrived back from vacation I went to her area and asked for her, her friend said she left for school. Left for school. Like she was gone, I had no contact info for her, no way to reach her, I was just to wait until I maybe saw her again in Gbartala when she visits next. That was sad news/realization too. Now I didn’t expect to come back to Gbartala after a month and get a lot of good news and shit, but I mean, damn, I didn’t get any good news ha. It was all death, sickness, and people leaving.
Once school actually started I noticed 2 senior high students not attending, even though they said they were coming (I basically stalked down the ones who stayed and told them to get their ass to school). One day I saw them passing, called them over and asked why they weren’t on campus. They said they were still hustling for school fees. I offered to give them a contract for some yard work to help. They came and brushed my grass and I paid them both 600LD (crazy high price). I also told them if they told a sole I paid them for yard work I would be vexed bad way, I didn’t want all the students coming to be begging for me to help them with their own fees. Luckily, it didn’t backfire, they didn’t tell anyone and the following Monday they were in school. I also noticed my little friend Elijah wasn’t going to school this year. I asked him and his brother Lucky (they are 2 of the boys in my crew) if they wanted to go to school and they both said yes, so I said I would talk with their mom and if she agreed I would send both of them to Feju. I went to talk with their mom and she also agreed, that following Friday I bought the boys nice clothes in Suakoko market and they came with me to school on Monday to talk to the Bridge principle. The principle agreed to let them come to school, after a haircut (because that’s whats important), he said because Lucky was 16 that he would place both of them in 3rd grade. I stood there and argued with him for like 5 min. Lucky and Elijah had never been to school before, can’t read, write, can’t even spell their name, nothing and he wanted to place them in the third grade, he told me science says that the older kids pick it up faster (eye roll). Eventually I agreed and told the boys I would help them after school to catch them up, that they would have a hard time, but I would try and help. The next day they went to school and sat in the 3rd grade. That was Lucky’s first and last day of school. He didn’t even last an entire day before leaving the school. I asked Lucky what happened, he said he told his dad and he said that he needed him to help in the field for dry season, so he wasn’t to go to school. I think that’s true, I also think Lucky just felt shamed sitting in a class that was too advanced for him. Can you imagine your parent saying no to a free education, or agreeing to letting you not go to school because its more convenient for them to have you help at the house. This did allow me to take Elijah back to the principle and beg to let him sit in a lower class. I asked for 1st grade and he kept at 3rd, so finally we agreed on 2nd grade. The first day of sitting in the 2nd grade the teacher kicked him out because he couldn’t read and told Elijah not to return. First, who does that to a kid, like really, second who does that?! After he told me what happened I told him just to sit in 1st grade (where I wanted him all along) and if there was an issue they were to talk to me. 1st grade has been okay for him, his teacher is actually my GRS counterpart Roselyn, however the Bridge program/Roselyn is hella picky. He got kicked out for an entire week because his shoes (had to wait until market day to find damn black shoes), then got kicked out because his socks weren’t the right color, and once because he wasn’t wearing a belt. These kids wear color clothes to school, it’s not like some uniform they are disgracing. Its insane the shit they kicked out for.