Update on life

Probably one of my favorite things I’m now doing in village is teaching at the high school, or lycee. I am teaching four grades: 6eme, 2^nd, 1ere, and Terminal. The 6eme is the first grade at lycee and terminal are the seniors. I’m teaching roughly one hundred and fifty students and have been given free reign from their principal, or provisor, to arrange the class how I want. The course covers the two manuals that are the bread and butter of the GEE program, which are the Life Skills and MAP (Men as Partners).

It’s a bit of a rush for me to stand in front of forty students and teach in French. It gives me a lot of pride that I am able to keep control of high school kids in a language that is not my own (trust me it’s not easy). It makes me realize how far along my French has come since my arrival at Lome six (almost seven) months ago, and also how much I’ve grown as a person.

The students are great and eager to participate and learn which I find remarkable. My 2^nd class can be a bit high energy and hard to rein in, but overall they are great. The boys can be bit of a handful too (I’ve had a lot of proposals from them). I plan on continuing next school year as well with teaching this class at lycee. 

Life in village is finally starting to pick up for me. Asrama has been a challenge and full of bumps along the way, but that’s pretty normal. I feel that I am well integrated with my community. People now know my name, which is a vast improvement from being called yovo everywhere I go. I’ve come a long way and am eager to meet this to the finish line.

This summer I am going to be a part of Camp Unite up in Pagala. Unite is a Peace Corps operated camp where volunteers are trainers and nominate local students and apprentices to be a part of a weeklong Life Skills crash course. There are four sessions in total: girl apprentices, boy apprentices, girl students, and boy students. I have nominated several apprentices and students and hope that several of them will be selected to go to Pagala this summer. I will be a trainer for the apprentices boys week.

I’ve got more training coming up as well myself. I will be going to Pagala with the lycee teacher I work with Mr. Bikore the week after the next. I will be going again in June for Mid-service training (Peace Corps loves training). I also would love to be a trainer for the new stage coming to Togo this July.    

As hard as it is living here, in Africa, I think making the decision to do Peace Corps and to come here was the best decision I’ve ever made for myself. Here I  learn so much and experience so many remarkable things.