If you want a short one, go down one post (the next one's from her, and she doesn't babble as much as I do).
The honeymoon stage is officially here.
We started our jobs this last week, the beginning of September. School has begun. Well, kinda. We were mistakenly called to the regional capital on Monday, so we missed the first day of school; then Wednesday we were off again, checking out possibilities for our secondary projects. I can’t remember if we’ve explained this yet, but we’re assigned our primary project before we ever come to the country; we’re then encouraged to start a secondary project, which sometimes becomes really more primary than anything, once we’re on site and get to know the community, its needs, our abilities, etc. So there was that.
But yes, we started our jobs last week. She’ll tell you about hers, but I’m at the secondary school, grades 7-11. I teach computers and do guidance and counseling. The reasons for these are, respectively: The school has a brand-new computer lab, donated by a businessman who made it in the States and is now giving back to his childhood home. Keep in mind that this area just got electricity for the first time 9 months ago, and now they’re using flat-panel monitors, with DVD burners and 140-gig hard drives, etc etc etc. It’s really sick; in college, grad school, and teaching at a high school in the States, I never worked with a set of computers this advanced. I’ll be teaching through a digital projector(!) which will be attached to the laptop(!!!) that came with the rest of the computers. Yes, folks: I had to go to a developing country to be handed a laptop by an employer. And my cell signal has 5 bars for the first time ever, thanks to the huge tower just up the road. Development ain’t what it used to be. This isn’t the ‘60s: Countries don’t need roads, power lines, and so forth. They have all that. And their cell grids are better than ours. What they need is knowledge: Technical skill, academic expertise, and so forth. If you come visit, you might as well bring your laptop: The wireless signal in the capital city is clear as day. Can you wander through your own hometown and say the same?
The reason for the second part of my job (G&C) is the suicide thing, which I think I explained earlier. So I’ll be seeing each class (class grades 7,7,7,8,8,9,9,10,11 – a total of 9 classes) 3 times a week: 2 for IT, 1 for G&C. And maybe working with some fish farmers for my secondary, if it works out (or maybe something else – I love ambiguity). Even if the fish thing doesn’t go through, I have a super-double-secret plan, just between you and me, to train all my graduating students, into developing and using Microsoft Access database projects to track… you guessed it! Fish farming! Maybe they’ll get lucky and earn a job as a business or operations manager for some of the farm-owners here, or be able to do it themselves, for profit or just to feed their family. I don’t know if the students graduating this year will be ready for it (we’ll probably be spending most of our time just learning Windows, typing, and Microsoft Word), but definitely the students in Form 5 (11th grade) next year will be ready to run one of those farms. The 7th graders are the most fun – for many of them, this is their first time touching a computer, *ever*. Remember how crazy it is to use a mouse for the first time? I get to watch that every day now. :-) I find that using Microsoft Paint helps some with the mouse skill.
I’d also like to say, right now, that for my primary project, I have The. Best. Supervisor. In. The. World. Supportive doesn’t even begin to describe it. “Do you want to do this? Oh, great. Do you want to do that? No? Great. Oh, you want the keys to the room? Here. Take the laptop home? No problem. Room open in the evenings to do an adult class? Sounds wonderful.” The guy isn’t just The Best Supervisor In The World™, he’s also one of the best members of any community he’s in. He supports everything I do, not because I’m so great, but because he sees how it might be able to help the people in the community. And he could have easily (and reasonably, too, for upkeep purposes) decided to charge a fee for the adult computer course I’ll be offering, but absolutely refused to do so. If miracles start getting ascribed to him, then he’s definitely up for sainthood.
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