Week 6
The most exciting news I have for everyone is….are you ready!? We got a baby, well a puppy that is! He is the cutest thing ever and we went with a good ol’ San Antonio name; Ginobli. A few weeks ago, we had told our host mama that we wanted to get a dog before we went to our permanent site; part for protection and part because we just wanted a dog. We didn’t expect to get him so soon, but our host mom found one for us a few days after we told her we wanted one. He is only a month old and now sleeps on a towel in our room. He’s a whopping 1.5 feet long, is tan with white paws and a white tip on his tail. He keeps us up at night by crying when he wants to play just like a really baby probably would….but he’s so adorable that the annoying whining is quickly forgotten. We tell everyone here he is our “Pikin” or child and they laugh when they see us carrying him in his towel to the training center. Animals are not coddled here like they are in the states, but it’s a cultural exchange experience all the way! We are definitely planning to bring him back to Texas with him when our service is over! Can you tell how attached I am already!? I will try to email pictures if I can ever get the attachments to load fast enough!
These past two weeks have been wonderfully exhausting, with the puppy, teaching summer school, and all the other new experiences that come with living in Sierra Leone, West Africa. I had very few expectations when I came in because I did not want to be overly disappointed, but instead I find myself pleasantly surprised. The summer school teaching is awesome and I am so proud of my students. It is so awesome to see my host brother and sister come home and actually WANT to study. They ask so many questions and make sure they are getting everything right. Most nights they are up until 1am studying or doing their homework. I gave one of my classes a writing assignment about what they wanted to be when they grew up and I could not believe some of the answers. My favorite was from a girl who said, “When I grow up I want to become the president because there are many suffering children and people in my country, who I want to help.” Another great one came from a boy who said “I want to become a doctor so I can help eradicate diseases and help people who are ill.” Mind you these kids are 13 years old, but set such high goals because they know they have to have to if they want their country to move forward in a positive direction. I cannot even begin to explain how much joy teaching these children gives me. I am also very excited to get to our permanent site because there will be lots of opportunities for secondary projects. I hope to start a service learning club so that students are self empowered to help in their community. We are only weeks from moving to our new home and about a week away from finding out where this will be.
I would like to share one more experience that really moved me. We went to the market to get a leash and make shift belt/collar for Ginobli. We were planning on making the hour trek back to our house so to not have to pay for a taxi. As we were walking someone approached us and asked us if we remembered him. We have met so many people that it was really hard to recall who he was. A couple of weeks ago we were in the mini super market and met this guy, (Victor,) who shared his own experience with a Peace Corps volunteer more than 30 years ago. The woman who taught him in primary school paid for his entire education and he could not emphasize how grateful he is to God for putting her in his life. She is an elderly woman and he wants to reconnect with her to thank her, so he had asked us for Our help. Of course, it would be almost impossible for us to do so, but we said he would try. Well he saw us again at the market and greeted us warmly. When he saw we were going to walk home in the rain, he offered to give us a ride home. His wife and beautiful kids were in the car and he told us that he tries to help Americans every chance he gets because of the difference this woman made in his life. This almost brought me to tears. It is an incredible thing to see such strong faith instilled from one person to another. I only hope that I can have the same impact on the people I come across here; as they have already had on me!
One last bit of exiting news, we found out where we will be living for two years! The name of the town (of 4000) is Magburoka and its in the northern part of the country. If you are looking at a map look for McKenny and it is a little south of there. Apparently our house has electricity, in indoor bathroom, and four rooms! We will also have access to internet fairly regularly so we are very excited. We are located on the Rokel River, not far from mountains, and only 2 hours from the capital and some sweet beaches. We will be learning a language called Temne and visiting our site and house this weekend, so look for updates next week!
The most exciting news I have for everyone is….are you ready!? We got a baby, well a puppy that is! He is the cutest thing ever and we went with a good ol’ San Antonio name; Ginobli. A few weeks ago, we had told our host mama that we wanted to get a dog before we went to our permanent site; part for protection and part because we just wanted a dog. We didn’t expect to get him so soon, but our host mom found one for us a few days after we told her we wanted one. He is only a month old and now sleeps on a towel in our room. He’s a whopping 1.5 feet long, is tan with white paws and a white tip on his tail. He keeps us up at night by crying when he wants to play just like a really baby probably would….but he’s so adorable that the annoying whining is quickly forgotten. We tell everyone here he is our “Pikin” or child and they laugh when they see us carrying him in his towel to the training center. Animals are not coddled here like they are in the states, but it’s a cultural exchange experience all the way! We are definitely planning to bring him back to Texas with him when our service is over! Can you tell how attached I am already!? I will try to email pictures if I can ever get the attachments to load fast enough!
These past two weeks have been wonderfully exhausting, with the puppy, teaching summer school, and all the other new experiences that come with living in Sierra Leone, West Africa. I had very few expectations when I came in because I did not want to be overly disappointed, but instead I find myself pleasantly surprised. The summer school teaching is awesome and I am so proud of my students. It is so awesome to see my host brother and sister come home and actually WANT to study. They ask so many questions and make sure they are getting everything right. Most nights they are up until 1am studying or doing their homework. I gave one of my classes a writing assignment about what they wanted to be when they grew up and I could not believe some of the answers. My favorite was from a girl who said, “When I grow up I want to become the president because there are many suffering children and people in my country, who I want to help.” Another great one came from a boy who said “I want to become a doctor so I can help eradicate diseases and help people who are ill.” Mind you these kids are 13 years old, but set such high goals because they know they have to have to if they want their country to move forward in a positive direction. I cannot even begin to explain how much joy teaching these children gives me. I am also very excited to get to our permanent site because there will be lots of opportunities for secondary projects. I hope to start a service learning club so that students are self empowered to help in their community. We are only weeks from moving to our new home and about a week away from finding out where this will be.
I would like to share one more experience that really moved me. We went to the market to get a leash and make shift belt/collar for Ginobli. We were planning on making the hour trek back to our house so to not have to pay for a taxi. As we were walking someone approached us and asked us if we remembered him. We have met so many people that it was really hard to recall who he was. A couple of weeks ago we were in the mini super market and met this guy, (Victor,) who shared his own experience with a Peace Corps volunteer more than 30 years ago. The woman who taught him in primary school paid for his entire education and he could not emphasize how grateful he is to God for putting her in his life. She is an elderly woman and he wants to reconnect with her to thank her, so he had asked us for Our help. Of course, it would be almost impossible for us to do so, but we said he would try. Well he saw us again at the market and greeted us warmly. When he saw we were going to walk home in the rain, he offered to give us a ride home. His wife and beautiful kids were in the car and he told us that he tries to help Americans every chance he gets because of the difference this woman made in his life. This almost brought me to tears. It is an incredible thing to see such strong faith instilled from one person to another. I only hope that I can have the same impact on the people I come across here; as they have already had on me!
One last bit of exiting news, we found out where we will be living for two years! The name of the town (of 4000) is Magburoka and its in the northern part of the country. If you are looking at a map look for McKenny and it is a little south of there. Apparently our house has electricity, in indoor bathroom, and four rooms! We will also have access to internet fairly regularly so we are very excited. We are located on the Rokel River, not far from mountains, and only 2 hours from the capital and some sweet beaches. We will be learning a language called Temne and visiting our site and house this weekend, so look for updates next week!
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