Day 15 (7/2):
It’s interesting the kind of affect certain discussions or topics can have on a person. For example, today in class, we were discussing the empowerment of the poor in developing countries, and practical implementation tools to empower the people. Specifically, we were talking about ways to show governments that their poor populations are the vehicles of development, without taking advantage of them and exploiting them for cheap labor. The conversation turned towards what method we thought was best in terms of stimulating a third world country into development. Someone brought up education as the most basic way to stimulate a government or society into beginning development. Without educated people, a country does not have the basis or foundation for any kind of growth.
I’ve never wanted to be a teacher. Ever. It has never crossed my mind that I would be good at it or that I would even enjoy it. I don’t think I’m meant to be a teacher and I feel very strongly that only those who have a knack for it should train to be teachers. In any case, this discussion about education in developing countries brought out a passion for education as a system. I found myself raising my hand over and over again when someone would try to argue for other methods of stimulating development, arguing that, as always, development leads back to the education of the people. Without it, the people have nothing for themselves. I don’t know if my career will ever take me into education, I surely hope not, but I’ll be interested to see how my passion for good education systems in developing countries will manifest itself in my goals.
On the one hand, I am sort of against the idea of untrained foreigners going into third world countries and teaching English. It rubs me the wrong way. Half the volunteers who do that are not even trained to teach. They just decide they want to go and “help the needy”. That’s nice and all, but you’re not helping the children of whatever rural village you decide to grace with your presence and completely interrupt whatever style of teaching they’d been exposed to previously, and changing things up on them. I feel like not enough attention is paid to the quality of education that teachers receive, which in turn affects the quality of education the students receive. Not only are there not enough teachers in third world countries, but there is also a stigma against becoming a teacher here. Specifically, if you got bad grades in primary school and high school, you were really smart enough to go to the University, so you just go through a 6-month crash course for teaching. It’s kind of like a fall-back when you find out you’re not really good enough to go to college, here. How sad is that? That the only people becoming teachers in African countries are those that are stigmatized as the bottom of the barrel? I don’t know.
I know I’ve been ranting for a while on one topic, and whoever is reading this probably doesn’t care about my views on the faulty education system in this world, but it really got me going today. I feel like my initial reaction is to get a masters in education, and open quality teacher’s schools in African countries, but then I hit a roadblock…well, several actually. First, I don’t want to teach! Second, who am I, as a white female from the United States, to come in and reform the education system of an entire country? Like, who do I think I am? The education system should be reformed by the people of whatever country. By the people or the government, so that cultural norms, traditions, holidays, and nature of the children should be taken into account. That’s the other thing that’s bothersome, these 6-month “crash courses” for teachers more than likely do not have any kind of extensive subject matter on different learning styles. So not only are they training teachers with low morale to begin with, they are then putting them in a classroom with only one teaching style for however many children there may be in the classroom. The entire system sucks. It needs to change.
I think I’m done ranting for now, but like I said before, I am interested to see how my passion for education will manifest itself in future goals. I like that I’m learning these things here. Things about myself, for sure, but also about what I want to do with my life. It’s nice to have an environment where I am not only forced to, through experience, narrow down the paths my life should take, but also what I can take and my own sense of self. The experience here is definitely teaching me a lot.
After the incident with Hurepi yesterday, and after reporting it to Frida, our program directors set up another meeting with the guy who coordinates it to try to figure things out. We had Albert take the group of us in two cabs over to the offices. After hearing the story from the two girls that had gone the day before, the place where the offices ended up being was nowhere near where the guy said it was. Aside from the distance it was, it was back from the road and in no way identifiable from the other buildings around it. The man who runs Hurepi, Peter, came to meet us when we pulled up. He apologized profusely for what happened the day before and said that we wouldn’t have to go to the offices from then on. He was glad we came to see where the offices were, but he would prepare work for us to do at the Center and he would meet us there several times a week to discuss our progress. We finished talking to him about a schedule for the next week and then Frida directed us out of the office onto the road. We had our first experience with the Dala-Dala which are the local form of public transportation. They are these little buses that are rickety and have their own names appliquéd on the windshield. Names like, “No Good Intenshions” or “Glory 2 God” or “Speedy Bullettt”. It’s pretty interesting, to say the least, but also a super cheap way of getting around town.
They dropped us off a ten minute walk away from where we live. We had to pass the local market on our way back, and I realized something sort of important. I think it marks the growth I’ve made and the trust I’ve cultivated with the people here, but I didn’t feel anxious at all, like I did the first time we went to the market. I think it also helped that I had literally nothing valuable on me. So added to the fact that I have become more comfortable with the language, I have also taken to only having a bag when I really need it, so when I go out I don’t feel like I have anything to lose because I have nothing of value on my person. It’s weird, but good.
We got back ok and Libby and Emily decided to watch Harry Potter. I worked on my computer and puttered around. When 5 o’clock rolled around, our friend Amran came over and we watched the soccer game.
We showed up to dinner to be served this delicious carrot and potato soup, followed by, get this, spaghetti and meat sauce. You literally have NO idea how happy we all were. They must have heard us saying that we wish we could have had an American style dinner for 4th of July. Whether they heard us or not, dinner was amazing.
Right now I’m skyping and just answering emails. More tomorrow!
Love and miss you all!
Colleen
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