When you join the Peace Corps, you have the idea that you
will be dropped in the middle of nowhere for 2 years, made to live in a mud hut
and poop in a hole in the ground, and stay there for your entire service. While this may be true for some Volunteers,
this is not what I have experienced, especially since April of this year.
I am just now coming
to the end of a very stressful period of about 8 weeks which were full of tons
of work, loss, and stress. I attended a
week long training that focused on using soccer to teach about HIV, attended and
co-facilitated a pilot training for an new HIV Model at the school for the deaf
in the capitol, attended an education committee meeting, worked for 2 weeks
editing training videos and running other errands, and also worked on editing
the HIV manual for a national-level project.
All of this together seems like a lot, and it was. I was totally fine with the work load because
I was able to take about a month of time for work in the capitol to finish
everything. But somewhere near the end
of all of this work, my computer crashed.
I lost just about every important file for many national-level projects,
including my dictionaries, and my productivity came to a screeching halt. With deadlines looming, stress began to kick
in. I was able to find another computer
from an Embassy worker and finish editing the videos I was charged with. But instead of simply editing a large manual,
I had to start from scratch and completely recreate it. Not fun.
Fast forward a few weeks and I find out that my computer loss is not covered
by my insurance so that was great news.
Once all of my work in the capitol concluded, I finally
headed home after a record stay of 26 days, the longest stay anywhere for me
since April. But the work didn't stop
there. I still had a lot of work left in
editing the HIV manual and had to find other computers to work on.
While all of this was happening, school finally reopened and
I also had to tack on those responsibilities.
I started repairing the sewing machines at my school to use in vocational
education at school. This turned into me
tailoring many of the students’ tattered clothes, which became a small entrepreneurial
endeavor to support the vocational club.
I also proposed a discipline adjustment at school and held meetings for
that, and sent proposals to local organizations to help fund our struggling
vocational program. So the 2 weeks I was
finally able to be at site were just as busy as the holiday from school.
My neighbor ate my cat while I was away from school. I was actually more upset that I didn’t get
to eat him; cat has been on my To-Eat list for a while now and I had big plans
for Biggie. ButI was gifted a puppy from
one of the prefects at school. His name
is Pito, which is the local millet beer, and he is shown here in a calabash,
the vessel in which pito is consumed. He
is way cooler than Biggie ever was and now I just have to find a way to keep
people from killing him.
Lights were also out at my place again during those 2
weeks. The electric company has shut off
our meter due to a long overdue bill from a previous tenant. But with the loss of my computer, I no longer
feel the impact of living off the grid.
Just as I was getting back into the swing of things at site,
I received a call from my supervisor informing me that I was selected as this
year’s winner of the Best Teacher Award!
This has been one of my goals since I came to Ghana and it really feels
great to be recognized.
 |
| Even the trees had a hard time |
So looking back over the past two months, so much has happened
and I have pushed through all of it and made it to the other side. The one thing that I have learned about
myself through this experience is to take everything in stride. Yes, your computer may crash, your electricity
may be turned off, your pet may become someone’s super, but in the end, the way
you handle all of those things at once says a lot about your character. One year ago, all of those things piled up would
have killed me, but Peace Corps has shown me how to deal with the impossible
and ride out the storm. This may be the
toughest job I have ever had, but I am so ready to see it through!
No comments:
Post a Comment