This is my first blog ever!
I guess most bloggers create a new blog when they begin a new chapter or season of their life. Well.... I'm just doing it to see what this blogging business is all all about first hand and yes, in the process, update and inform all of you about my life in Benin! Don't worry I won't update you on the last 20 months of my life in Benin all at once.
I'll give you a very brief synopsis first though:
My name is Sarah. I'm a Peace Corps volunteer in French speaking Benin (West Africa). I arrived in July 2006 and will be leaving this year sometime. I teach English (as a at least a third language) to secondary school students in a village called Lobogo, in Southern Benin.
This has indeed been THE hardest job I've ever had for many reasons. Just think about what it must be like to be the only Western teacher at your school, a female, who does not always have a classroom to teach in (but rather desks under trees) with over 60 teenage highly unmotivated and very low level (and slow) students for a two hour class session twice a week. Then on top of that imagine this educational system being totally foreign to you, the teacher, who has little or no resources or materials in which to teach effectively. Nothing but a chalkboard and chalk and your students. (In between the lines: no photocopier, no reasonable textbooks for students, reference books, visual aids, multimedia equipment for practice in listening skills - not even electricity in your school).
I had no idea that only one week after I arrived in my village (Lobogo) that I would be teaching in this totally foreign educational system. Only one week before I had moved into almost stark empty 2 room house (with latrine and area for a bucket shower) . On top of all this I was still learning the official language of Benin - French with the eventual prospect of needing to learn Sahoue, the local language in my village and immediate surrounding area. In addition, to thow into the mix, I had to cope with finding things in the outdoor market (every 5 days) and figuring out what I could cook with what I found meanwhile trying not to get ripped off too badly after bargaining for every little thing I had bought!
Talk about a dull life, huh? You're tellin' me!
I was completely and utterly overwhelmed and felt as if I had been thrown in the deep end and was drowning in just making it day to day. Also, my first year of teaching (because I was just learning the ropes at the same time as having over 200 students do what I told them to do on those same "ropes") was miserable and I enjoyed very little of it. My main problems were (and still are!) classroom management and discipline. I no longer hate teaching and its become bearable. However, that's not to say that I love it. I far from love it. But... that's also not to say that I don't enjoy it (to some extent).
The summer after I finished my first year when I finally had a chance to get a breath of air above water, I resolved to figure out how I could totally revamp my teaching strategies and approaches to be a more effective teacher the coming school year; start writing what would be my students' textbook that would serve as a resource for class and at home (that I provided free of charge for them); organized and started to facilitate a year long HIV/AIDS peer educaator team to educate Lobogo and surrounding communities on HIV/AIDS prevention; started to meet weekly with people for English Club; taught for one week in summer school at a different TEFL volunteers' post; and after the school year started, I was approached by students to start what turned out to be an American culture club.
So all this, in addition to teaching 16 hours a week, attending a 2 hour a week faculty meeting, doing lesson plans, grading 500 exams each school year and at least 500 quizzes - keeps me busy!
So where do I go from here? One of three options: 1) Go home to the States in September, 2) go home to the States for one month sometime this year but then stay a third year in Benin as a health volunteer, or 3) go home to the States for one month but then transfer to an Eastern or Southern African country as a health volunteer to do HIV/AIDS related work (hopefully with those infected by HIV).
I will know by late May what my next step will officially be!
For now though, I'm just bloggin' (and blabbin') in Benin.
I guess most bloggers create a new blog when they begin a new chapter or season of their life. Well.... I'm just doing it to see what this blogging business is all all about first hand and yes, in the process, update and inform all of you about my life in Benin! Don't worry I won't update you on the last 20 months of my life in Benin all at once.
I'll give you a very brief synopsis first though:
My name is Sarah. I'm a Peace Corps volunteer in French speaking Benin (West Africa). I arrived in July 2006 and will be leaving this year sometime. I teach English (as a at least a third language) to secondary school students in a village called Lobogo, in Southern Benin.
This has indeed been THE hardest job I've ever had for many reasons. Just think about what it must be like to be the only Western teacher at your school, a female, who does not always have a classroom to teach in (but rather desks under trees) with over 60 teenage highly unmotivated and very low level (and slow) students for a two hour class session twice a week. Then on top of that imagine this educational system being totally foreign to you, the teacher, who has little or no resources or materials in which to teach effectively. Nothing but a chalkboard and chalk and your students. (In between the lines: no photocopier, no reasonable textbooks for students, reference books, visual aids, multimedia equipment for practice in listening skills - not even electricity in your school).
I had no idea that only one week after I arrived in my village (Lobogo) that I would be teaching in this totally foreign educational system. Only one week before I had moved into almost stark empty 2 room house (with latrine and area for a bucket shower) . On top of all this I was still learning the official language of Benin - French with the eventual prospect of needing to learn Sahoue, the local language in my village and immediate surrounding area. In addition, to thow into the mix, I had to cope with finding things in the outdoor market (every 5 days) and figuring out what I could cook with what I found meanwhile trying not to get ripped off too badly after bargaining for every little thing I had bought!
Talk about a dull life, huh? You're tellin' me!
I was completely and utterly overwhelmed and felt as if I had been thrown in the deep end and was drowning in just making it day to day. Also, my first year of teaching (because I was just learning the ropes at the same time as having over 200 students do what I told them to do on those same "ropes") was miserable and I enjoyed very little of it. My main problems were (and still are!) classroom management and discipline. I no longer hate teaching and its become bearable. However, that's not to say that I love it. I far from love it. But... that's also not to say that I don't enjoy it (to some extent).
The summer after I finished my first year when I finally had a chance to get a breath of air above water, I resolved to figure out how I could totally revamp my teaching strategies and approaches to be a more effective teacher the coming school year; start writing what would be my students' textbook that would serve as a resource for class and at home (that I provided free of charge for them); organized and started to facilitate a year long HIV/AIDS peer educaator team to educate Lobogo and surrounding communities on HIV/AIDS prevention; started to meet weekly with people for English Club; taught for one week in summer school at a different TEFL volunteers' post; and after the school year started, I was approached by students to start what turned out to be an American culture club.
So all this, in addition to teaching 16 hours a week, attending a 2 hour a week faculty meeting, doing lesson plans, grading 500 exams each school year and at least 500 quizzes - keeps me busy!
So where do I go from here? One of three options: 1) Go home to the States in September, 2) go home to the States for one month sometime this year but then stay a third year in Benin as a health volunteer, or 3) go home to the States for one month but then transfer to an Eastern or Southern African country as a health volunteer to do HIV/AIDS related work (hopefully with those infected by HIV).
I will know by late May what my next step will officially be!
For now though, I'm just bloggin' (and blabbin') in Benin.
4 comments:
I love your blogspot, Sarah. It's informative, fun, and attractive. It's great!
Love, Mom
Bloggin' in Benin to
dancin in the kitchin
Don't forget we have a date!
Aunt Nancy
You'll make it work Sarah! rah!
Sarah, I've said it before and I will say it again. You are amazing!!! And your pictures are gorgeous (both of you and the lovely Beninese scenery!). Miss you!
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