Be The Change

"Be the Change You Want in the World" -
I referenced this in my last blog...and feel that it has been a theme this week.  I was proud of some of the students in my after school program who reconfigured my "Be the Change" speech into their own speeches to their peers about keeping the school clean. I was proud of the neighborhood kids who took initiative with me to make a better football field down our little road.  And, I'm thankful to those that have reached out and helped me in my mission--whether volunteering to design a logo for the Pikin Padi Network, offering a nonprofit to take donations, connecting me with the Rotary Club who announced they will be giving a gift, or offering donations directly or fundraising for the kids and social work students in Sierra Leone.

Wednesday, October 16

This morning, I was scheduled to meet three of the boys from the program to go to town to buy cleaning supplies/trashcans/etc. for our school clean-up project. Only one showed up, but we were able to pick up another who lived nearby and the last one surprised us in town as he went straight there.  I soon realized this clean-up project was going to be more expensive than anticipated between the trash bins, varnish, sandpaper, and so forth.  But, we made it back to school on time. 

I asked them if the boys eat anything at school and the older grades do not get fed lunch.  So, I could not imagine these guys lasting the whole day until 6PM without eating.  So, I told them I would get them a snack.  They chose chicken feet sandwiches as their treat.  And, then, insisted that I have one as well to share “fellowship.”  So, I went ahead and bought an extra one for me from the women sitting at a table outside of the school.  This setup was pretty much everything you get warned about when you don’t travel.  A bucket full of chicken feet in the African sun that are pulled by someone’s hands onto a bun soaked in sauce…all wrapped in newspaper. But, when in Rome…

So, we go upstairs and the guys taught me how to eat chicken feet.  It was one thing to eat the cartilage in feet, but they ate the foot bone.  I could not do it.  I said I would break a tooth and they responded by saying “our teeth are made of iron.”  So, they literally ate the whole foot to my amazement.  Then, one of the guys ate my leftovers (the foot bone)…it was one of the moments where I wanted to say “no, no, you’ll get my germs” but then I realized that sanitation has a different standard here…and food waste is unacceptable.  On a side note, it was quite an affordable snack… less than 2 dollars to feed all 4 of us.

Program then was set to begin at 11:30…and we had serious attendance issues again.  7 were late and I had to suspend them all.  It was really hard for me, but this problem has been chronic and they need to learn a certain level of responsibility. It was a terrible day to have to suspend them because in two days we are going to do our presentations to all of the classrooms on keeping the class clean.  The students so needed to practice, but alas the show must go on.  Luckily, there are some really outgoing and gifted youth that were able to compensated for their missing peers.

Thursday,

Today, I had another meeting at the Embassy with the Public Affairs Officer. Although short, it was fruitful.  I think I’ll be able to have a policy representative from the Embassy come to my after school program at some point and found out about a few small grant opportunities through the Embassy.

Afterwards, Fredline, the other Fulbrighter, took me back to her place so I could meet her family and they prepared a lovely lunch for me. Fredline and I tried to piece together our understandings of the happenings at the university as we each have our own sources of information, but still the picture is quite murky—which is problematic since classes supposedly start in about two weeks.

After lunch, I came home and today was the day I embarked on the football field cleanup outside of my compound.  The neighborhood boys were eager to play football again and as we were playing I was soon fed up with the ball always getting stuck in the weeds that were about as high as my knee…and then I was so distracted by the kids running around barefoot with rusty metal cans lying around in the field.  So, we put the game on pause to do some weed removal and clean-up.  The kids were actually eager to help and we even made a game of who could grunt the loudest as they pulled out the weeds.  We tried to pick up the litter in the area as well, but there is not really a garbage bin in the vicinity, so we just kind of piled up the garbage.  In the end, we were successful and able to continue with the game minus weeds and garbage getting in our way. 

Anyway, the sun set so we had to go home.  But, I was left thinking about how this situation is a microcosm of so many of the world’s problems.  For all of this time, these kids are playing in weeds with dangerous items lying around as they run with unprotected feet.  No one has taken the initiative to make the situation better--neither the kids nor parents.  Again, this field is far from optimal even without the weeds, but our activity today increased the quality of that field greatly.  And, it literally took about 15 minutes with 6-7 of us pulling weeds.  I’m not sure how to explain this.  It takes more effort to kick that ball out of the weeds than it does to pull the weeds.  I feel people just adapt to their social circumstances and sometimes do not even reflect on how they can improve their situation.  They accept suboptimal living conditions.  Whether it is the quality of a football field, or the existence of homelessness or violence, I think it’s all part of same problem our world has.  This inertia…this lack of movement.   Again, it’s my point—my core belief—that if everyone ‘pulled out some weeds’ or as Calvin taught us ‘gave some peanuts’, the quality of life for so many people could be improved.

That being said, I loved this experience as well as my experiences as the school the past week.  I feel this is what being a social worker is all about.  Although not exactly like the settlement house movement, I am getting a real experience of living in a neighborhood full of social problems, and assets for that matter, and have a unique opportunity to try to find opportunities for empowering others, who have pretty much been written off, to maximize those assets.  Let’s face it – these kids have been written off.  Most people will only seem them as a statistic (i.e. percentage of kids not going to school, illiteracy rate, or crime/HIV/etc. rate).  I am digressing here, but yeah I felt this way--professional reinvorated--when I was in South Africa researching homeless refugees being brutalized by the police.  It’s what true social work is all about, I believe….and although I love teaching, that does not “feed” me like this does.

The weeds before our intervention.  On a side note, that little boy in the yellow is an amazing football player and keeps up with the big kids quite well.

The new, improved field!

Friday

Today, we had our presentations of school cleanliness bright and early.  One group put on an elaborate play about the health benefits of keeping tidy.  I am not so sure of the scientific basis of some of the claims of the play, i.e. leaving the school dirty leads to malaria and cholera, but the nursery students (Kindergarten and Pre-K) were entertained and retained the message of throwing away trash.   There was quite a bit of chaos as we moved from classroom to classroom with the school seemingly understaffed.  Of course, taking full classes in and out of the building to take pictures for the website did not help.  

However, both the group handling the little kids and the group handling senior secondary did a fine job.  I was actually surprised at how interactive the senior secondary students were and they were inquisitive about the purpose of the program as a whole and appropriately challenging to my students about there "aims and purposes." 

Unfortunately, the group handling the junior secondary students was not prepared.  They practiced before the presentations were to begin and were in utter disarray; no speeches were written down. They were lost. There was no communication between them. All of them had their heads down and looking away. And, this is after several interventions on my part during the previous days.  I was quite frustrated and pulled them aside and had them write their speeches again individually.

On my part, I definitely need to do a better job of breaking the assignments down for them and checking for understanding (i.e. having them repeat what I say).  The group, however, was successful in rewriting their speeches, but was not ready to present today so their presentations will be postponed to the following week.  I am hoping that breaking down the process into more steps and that eventually making the presentations will help them gain more confidence, as their excuse for having so many difficulties was “We did not have a strong leader.” 

This is Agape School.

The First Grade

The little people eating lunch

The Junior and Senior Secondary Classes lined up for Devotion

Presenting to the Senior Secondary Class

Presenting to the nursery (Pre-K and K) classes

I LOVE this picture...Look to the Left and see the older boy holding the little boy (third from the left up front).  The little boy would not stay turned toward the camera. 

Saturday

So, today was our big clean-up day at the school and then I was working individually with the website and documentary groups.  I did recruit one new student for the program, after having released one. The one I released was actually the Pastor’s son, who basically came to the program as he pleased; it certainly was awkward firing his son. I was actually hesitant to hire him in the first place, since he was a bit older than the rest and, of course, the complications that could arise if his performance was problematic given that he is the boss’ son.  I’ve had similar situations with my other programs where an administrator asks for his/her child to be a part of the program and that youth is just not working out.

The replacement may get me in a similar situation as he is the vice principal’s cousin.  However, this young guy came to the interview an hour early and was inquisitive about the program during the interview.  He further worked nonstop today, so I am hoping it works out.  Plus, he is in real need…his father died, leaving him to move to this area with his cousin.  He has basically just been doing “domestic work” because he does not have the money to pay for his last year of school. So, this program will help with that.

So, today, I had my frustrations with some of the youth.  Particularly the young girls. I am just not sure what to do with them.  They come to work late; they disappear when they should be working; they do not complete work unless I am prompting them to.  This “type” of student has always been my greatest source of negative countertransference—that is, when my personal feelings get in the way of me trying to help someone.  The seemingly apathetic/quiet/unengaged youth is who I struggle with.  When I try to correct them, they just shut down. One of the girls I think just does not speak good English.  But, there is the ongoing problem of her not looking at me when I am talking, which certainly does not help.  I did talk to Pastor afterwards about her in particular about how I just am not she’ll ever be productive in the group.  He then told me her story of living with foster parents, who are very, very poor living off the meager money they make from breaking rocks.  So, we’ll try to make it work.  Ideally, if I could, there would be a separate program for just younger girls, but that is just not feasible given my time constraints. So, I’ll look at this as a professional challenge to work through. 

Today, we also had time to start working on our websites—one for the program and one for the school.  Building this website has the potential to be a very, very long time due to the youth’s computer illiteracy.  Many were even hesitant to touch my laptop and it was a long process teaching to how to move the cursors around and how to do basic dragging or editing.  And, with my one computer, it’s just not feasible to teach everyone these skills, so they’ll have get a basic idea of how to do it and I’ll have to do much on my own.

I never thought I would be consulting on how to best use/apply varnish.

The students did also make a “Thank You” video for “Mr. Jeff and his helpers”—that is anyone that has provided support to me in this project and in helping the school in general.

So, if you fall in that category, then you can check out the video at: 

 

https://vimeo.com/77297791