Well it’s been a while but I’m still here. Over a year in and with less than nine months to go. I keep looking for pregnant women in my village so that my time will correspond with their pregnancy. Is that wrong? I find that how I feel about my village now, versus how I felt about it over a year ago has changed. This is neither good nor bad. I came to village optimistic, ready to integrate and change everyone’s life. A year later I believe that I have changed more than anything or anyone in my village and my optimism has mutated to realism. My philosophies on development have greatly been altered a year after arriving in Wangala (my village).

I find that my village is somewhat resistant to working. This does nothing short of make my job as a volunteer more than difficult. Those villagers who are ready to work and understand why I am here live in the smaller villages that require me to bike pretty far out. So I gave up on the idea that you can make people want to change. I also realized that I do not agree with the development philosophy that we learned during training. In a sense, it groups all developing communities into one category and does not account for villages such as mine. I also realized that we are inculcated with the idea that we are here to develop people—a phenomenon that I do not believe exists. A year later I realized that it is highly unlikely that anyone in my village will come to me with some grand idea for a community project. And I am ok with that. I now understand that they will always view me as a “white” woman who has come into their lives for a short time and will soon leave them as they were. And even this, I am ok with. Despite the numerous upcoming projects and the amount of haranguing I was forced to do to get the projects started, I know that this is not community development and I am not sure that such a thing can exists if it does not come from those who control the resources. But all of this is neither here nor there. I am sure you would all like to hear about something more concrete?

I recently started teaching English at the village middle school. The school was short staffed with only one English professor….who doesn’t really speak English….and so I volunteered my services. I wanted to teach last year but it didn’t turn out that way because I was trying to hard to work closely with the village clinic. I ultimately spent last year giving health lessons at the primary and middle school. But now, not only do I have a constant malleable audience, I can do more profound work with the students. I have begun teaching English in a way that will help my students read and understand English literature. Around February, I plan to begin teaching using different literature from across the African Diaspora. Of course some of it will have to be diluted because of complexity; yet I am sure they will take something away from the readings. The point is to introduce them to the fact that there are people of African descent who live and have been living outside of Africa for centuries; and their contributions to society are tantamount to the accomplishments of the Europeans that they learn about every year. Does this seem to ambitious? Even if it does, nothing beats a failure but a try. Moreover, I have always believed that pedagogy is the best form of development and so what better way to “aid” in the “development” of my village? For those of you who know me, I am sure you are aware of the impact I aim to have on my students. So far my classes have been going well. The hardest part of it all is getting them arrive at the correct pronunciation. There is nothing more frustrating than repeating a hundred times that the word is “day” and not “dye”. Nevertheless, I am beyond optimistic about this teaching experience…even though I have over 100 students in one class….because I have already noticed some of my students really understand and enjoy the material. And so such is my life at the moment.

I have been eating and cooking a lot lately. And I don’t mean like just eating and cooking a lot of village foods either. For instance, tonight I made chicken fried rice. I swear it was better than what I use to order in America. Every morning I make either banana and peanut butter wheat pancakes or I am french toast with french bread and I eat them both with honey. I recently made curried chicken and rice with plantains that had my counterpart begging me to make more. Sometimes I make donuts or funnel cake with cinnamon and honey. I know this may not sound like much to those of you who have 24 hour access to any and everything you want to eat. But when you live in a village where you can’t find any dish outside of rice and to, the ability to eat anything resembling American food is more than a big deal. Food has become a major part of my day. I spend a large part of my day thinking about what I’m going to eat….kind of like when I was in college. I think the only time I’m not thinking about food is when I’m teaching. And as soon as that’s finished I ask myself, self…what do you want snack on while you make lunch.

Other than all of the above, life in village has continued pretty much uninterrupted. There were a few major events over the summer but nothing worth sharing with the rest of the world. I look forward to these last eight months and hope to get the most out of them. They have also just built a cell phone tower in my village, but of course they haven’t turned it on yet. Once it is turned on I think I’m going to buy an internet key so that I can have internet access while in village. But god knows when they will completely finish with the tower and turn it on. I end up buying the key as I’m getting ready to peace out this country. And that is all I have for you after such a long hiatus. To my family and friends, I love and miss you and thank you for all of the love and support. Until next time. Oh and Happy Belated Birthday Brandon

Peace and Blessings

Passion Pit- The Reeling