Saturday, October 17, 2009

It's a day job. I just don't get nights off.

So I’ve come out to the capital again to do some work with our Burkina Peace Corps AIDS committee. We’re gearing up for World AIDS Day, and trying to encourage other volunteers to get motivated for side projects involving AIDS.

After our meetings, I solicited a fellow volunteer to cut my hair, as it’s been a few months since my shortest-ever buzz back in training. Today’s cut was a success, and it compliments nicely the beard I’m cultivating—possible only because it’s starting to cool off. We’ll see how long it lasts as it grows, and the hot season approaches.

Teaching is going well. A little bit of a rough start, but the students pay attention, seem to learn a thing or two, and can’t help but laugh at the non-verbal antics of their absurd, mad-scientist-looking Physics/Chemistry/Biology teacher. With lesson planning, I’m trying to think of new and creative ways to present the material to the students—not always effective with the heat, language issues, and jam-packed days.

But it feels just like your regular day job. I get up in the morning, make coffee, feed the dog, brush my teeth, grab the chalk and head for the classroom. I say hi to my boss (trying not to look like too much of a befuddled, wordless mute), shake hands with my colleagues, and think about what I’ll do for lunch. I look forward to the weekend, when I can sit in my hammock with a book, or perhaps visit another volunteer.

The trouble here is that all the while—waking up and going to work and writing lesson plans in my off hours—I need to be assessing the other needs in my community, trying to find ways that I can use my experience to improve things on a grass roots level. It’s sort of easy to just get up and go to work. It gets harder when I know I need to look for things out my door to improve upon, be creative about, take chances with. In any case, I feel like two years might go by pretty quickly. In a way that’s nice—I wont have to fight much boredom. On the other hand, non-education volunteers have more freedom when it comes to planning vacations, visits to other people, etc. But also more potential to really make a difference.

But, in case you were wondering, I’m quite alive. The care packages have all been wonderful (thanks to all), though it’s hard to take such volume back to my site! There are plenty of fresh veggies to get in my market, and with all my new imports, I think I’ll be able to last a good year or so on my SPAM and other canned goodies: