We had been tortured (okay not really) by Becky and Sam for weeks leading to the announcement of our sites! They posted a map of Liberia on the wall next to the training center at Doe, and had added colored dots to represent all the sites. Red dots were the available sites they were going to place all the LR7 (us), yellow dots were response volunteers, green dots were current LR6 volunteers, and blue were health volunteers (GHSP). We were told that before picking our sites Becky and Sam would watch us teach, we would have a site interview, and fill out an online questionnaire. The questionnaire was sent out first and asked us to rank issues from 1 (don’t want or not comfortable) to 5 (want or very comfortable) on topic such as: riding a motorbike, site size, class size, being next to another volunteer, being a banking site (meaning lots of visitors), and subject preference. I filled out the questionnaire and was later told that there was an algorithm (made by Eugene- he did all site development for us) being used to help place us in our sites. This concept didn’t make me uncomfortable being I had answered the questionnaire to my preferences. Apparently, others didn’t fully understand how to do a questionnaire, and were stressing that it was being used to help place us, so Becky spent an hour during afternoon sessions going over every question to us, explaining how and what each ranking meant, and resent it for us to fill out. After finishing the questionnaire for a second time, I felt even more confident that it/they would place me in a great site based off what I said.
We were one of the first groups to have Sam watch us teach, I received decent feedback so now it was just the long wait to have Becky watch us. For some reason, the idea of Becky watching us was way more nerve-racking then Sam watching us, not entirely sure why that was. Sam started watching 7th grade and worked his way to 12th grade and Becky started with 12th grade and worked her way down to 7th grade. I was going off the assumption that I wouldn’t be interviewed until they had both watched me when Sam called me to the back. I sat down and immediately realized that he was calling me for my interview with him and Becky. I sat down and they started asking me questions, questions that were almost exact to the questionnaire I had previously filled out. They asked me how often I wanted PC to contact me, how I felt about motorbikes, what I wanted my secondary project to be, what I wanted to teach, how big of a class, how big of a site, how close I wanted to be from another volunteer, and if there was anything I wanted to tell them/had any questions. I told them that as much as I loved being crammed into a small hot car with like 6 other grown adults for travel, that I wanted to be as close as possible to Kataka, and have a direct (meaning preferred no dirt roads) route to site. I told them I would bend on almost everything else, if they could accommodate travel. I left my interview feeling once again confident that they would place me at a great site.
The day had finally arrived, towards the very end of model school, for Becky to observe us. I was confident in my lesson plan, was not nearly as nervous as I thought I would be, until... I put up on the board my daily we are smart, strong, successful, ready to learn thing, and spelled successful wrong... But not once, twice ha-ha!! All I thought was damn that’s a good way to start the class. Other than that mishap (on successful... I mean come on!) the lesson went fine and my only real feedback was to watch my spelling (smh).
Two days before we found out our sites Becky was talking to the group about site stuff, and I raise my hand, ask if all sites in the southeast (can be 2+ days travel to Kataka) were all motorbikes sites (I said NO to motorbikes), and she said no! The fear of everything in the world overcame me, because I did not want to travel that far to site, I went to Becky after session and was like Becky, lets just remember the most direct route for me. She looked at me all confused, I was like let’s keep it on the coal tar for my site, to which she said, you never said coal tar, so I asked, do we need to talk again (nerves rushing throughout my body). I went to the back with her and Sam and was like I do not want to travel far at all, and in the funniest (well not at the time) fashion ever, she said, “remember your core expectations”, which was not reassuring. One of the core expectations for Peace corps is that I (we) will serve where peace corps needs us to serve. Needless to say, I was basically shitting myself with nerves the 2 days leading to finding out our sites.
The day had finally arrived, we had model school that morning, and once we got back to Doe we saw the map of Liberia on the grass. They had done the same reveal with the LR6, so we all knew what was going to happen. They all called us outside, blind folded us, slowly (but really took like 15 min) started placing us into our counties, and handing us flags. Once everyone was placed, they told us to take our blind folds off, I looked down at my flag, it said Bong, on the other side Gbartala (community). After taking a few pictures they handed out a packet with information on it such as: the school, how many students, a picture of my house, the subjects they needed me to teach, population size, how close to the next volunteer (15 min drive from: Rachel C, LR6 Myriam, and 1 response volunteer), and a 20-min drive from another group of people in Gbanga. The LR7 volunteers who are in Bong county with me are: Crawford, Rachel C (there are 4 Rachel’s here), Kerry, Madeline, Taylor, Brianna and Mena. I was so relieved and excited, Bong was where I had gone for site exposure (Gbanga to be specific), I knew it wasn’t too far, that it would have everything I needed, and cell service. The biggest take away was that I am only a few minutes from the coal tar, and only about an hour and a half from Kataka!
Spelling successful wrong didn’t screw me after all- aka shoving me far into "the bush".
We were one of the first groups to have Sam watch us teach, I received decent feedback so now it was just the long wait to have Becky watch us. For some reason, the idea of Becky watching us was way more nerve-racking then Sam watching us, not entirely sure why that was. Sam started watching 7th grade and worked his way to 12th grade and Becky started with 12th grade and worked her way down to 7th grade. I was going off the assumption that I wouldn’t be interviewed until they had both watched me when Sam called me to the back. I sat down and immediately realized that he was calling me for my interview with him and Becky. I sat down and they started asking me questions, questions that were almost exact to the questionnaire I had previously filled out. They asked me how often I wanted PC to contact me, how I felt about motorbikes, what I wanted my secondary project to be, what I wanted to teach, how big of a class, how big of a site, how close I wanted to be from another volunteer, and if there was anything I wanted to tell them/had any questions. I told them that as much as I loved being crammed into a small hot car with like 6 other grown adults for travel, that I wanted to be as close as possible to Kataka, and have a direct (meaning preferred no dirt roads) route to site. I told them I would bend on almost everything else, if they could accommodate travel. I left my interview feeling once again confident that they would place me at a great site.
The day had finally arrived, towards the very end of model school, for Becky to observe us. I was confident in my lesson plan, was not nearly as nervous as I thought I would be, until... I put up on the board my daily we are smart, strong, successful, ready to learn thing, and spelled successful wrong... But not once, twice ha-ha!! All I thought was damn that’s a good way to start the class. Other than that mishap (on successful... I mean come on!) the lesson went fine and my only real feedback was to watch my spelling (smh).
Two days before we found out our sites Becky was talking to the group about site stuff, and I raise my hand, ask if all sites in the southeast (can be 2+ days travel to Kataka) were all motorbikes sites (I said NO to motorbikes), and she said no! The fear of everything in the world overcame me, because I did not want to travel that far to site, I went to Becky after session and was like Becky, lets just remember the most direct route for me. She looked at me all confused, I was like let’s keep it on the coal tar for my site, to which she said, you never said coal tar, so I asked, do we need to talk again (nerves rushing throughout my body). I went to the back with her and Sam and was like I do not want to travel far at all, and in the funniest (well not at the time) fashion ever, she said, “remember your core expectations”, which was not reassuring. One of the core expectations for Peace corps is that I (we) will serve where peace corps needs us to serve. Needless to say, I was basically shitting myself with nerves the 2 days leading to finding out our sites.
The day had finally arrived, we had model school that morning, and once we got back to Doe we saw the map of Liberia on the grass. They had done the same reveal with the LR6, so we all knew what was going to happen. They all called us outside, blind folded us, slowly (but really took like 15 min) started placing us into our counties, and handing us flags. Once everyone was placed, they told us to take our blind folds off, I looked down at my flag, it said Bong, on the other side Gbartala (community). After taking a few pictures they handed out a packet with information on it such as: the school, how many students, a picture of my house, the subjects they needed me to teach, population size, how close to the next volunteer (15 min drive from: Rachel C, LR6 Myriam, and 1 response volunteer), and a 20-min drive from another group of people in Gbanga. The LR7 volunteers who are in Bong county with me are: Crawford, Rachel C (there are 4 Rachel’s here), Kerry, Madeline, Taylor, Brianna and Mena. I was so relieved and excited, Bong was where I had gone for site exposure (Gbanga to be specific), I knew it wasn’t too far, that it would have everything I needed, and cell service. The biggest take away was that I am only a few minutes from the coal tar, and only about an hour and a half from Kataka!
Spelling successful wrong didn’t screw me after all- aka shoving me far into "the bush".