I came to Thies yesterday because today we had a SeneGAD conference (Senegal Gender and Development) it was really interesting and this is something that really interests me. The various sessions were inspiring, I’m excited to change my ways when conducting gender like work, and improving my ways, as well as incorporating new activities. Also, during this conference we had SeneGAD board member elections, the positions that were up are as follows: President, Treasurer, Fundraising Coordinator, and Activities Coordinator. I applied for Activities Coordinator, and I guess I was the only volunteer that did so I got the position, YAY!! I want to take this position and apply it towards a newly introduced concept as far as Peace Corps Senegal goes, “Men as Partners” this is involving the men in gender work, but approaching it in various forms, for example discussion groups but it stresses the men’s ability to come up with the problems in their society and the resolutions they feel will work. It just shows the men the issues at hand, and why the issues are there. I’m pumped to do this work, I think I do a lot of this work already when communicating with people but it’s normally me just yelling at people about how I don’t agree with something in their culture, rather than having them realize why. We all feel better when we come up with our own resolutions without others forcing us.
I had a great conversation with a bunch of men on the charrette and then it continued once we got to my destination and more men joined. The charrette driver asked me if I was married and I said I had a lot of husbands, he responded that I didn’t understand and I brought up the fact that he has a lot of wives so I have a lot of husbands- as simple as that. It brought up a large conversation and of course (as I always do) I bring up Osama (my older brother), I told them my brother is a big, and he’s got muscles cause he always works out, but he cooks…. Does that mean he’s not a man?! This always gets people worked up, I tell them he cooks for his girlfriend, and he’s a better cook than me. Obviously I’m over exaggerating, kidding he’s actually really good. But it proves my point as well, he’s not ashamed to cook, and he’s a man! So the conversation gets really heated, and I’m screaming during a large portion, then I just tell them well your life is different than mine and I don’t agree with yours, I’m not going to live my life like yours, I want to work I want to travel, etc etc etc. We all walk away knowing we’re good friends and there are no hard feelings of course, it was a good conversation even though I walked away saying you guys are cowards and you’re always scared of being ashamed (hehe, I love my work). The crowd of volunteers I was with walked away once they heard me start my ranting, so I caught up with them and we were getting on our public transportation and a man from the discussion ran to the car as I was getting in and just said “Penda (my local name), everything you said, it was very good. It was nice to discuss that with you, and it was really good, everything you said was true, thank you.” These men were much older too, but that was such a great feeling, the tactic I took maybe it worked because Senegalese people like theatrical conversations in that sort where people are getting worked up for nothing just because it’s fun, which it is, but there are better ways to continue these discussions that will be more effective, that’s what I want to learn.
I’ve never been very charismatic, and I really need to work on that trait when attempting to continue my work. Also another thing that was reverberated during this SeneGAD conference, letting girls know that if they claim they want to be in an early marriage, that’s okay it’s their culture but I can help enforce that it should be their choice, and what exactly an early marriage means to their future, I can’t pass judgment which is so complicated! So much to learn, sometimes I feel like I’m too young to have obtained this “class.”
So moving on, site is awesome, recent visitors enjoyed my site as well. I’ve just been so busy lately, I’ve got boys and girls groups going on, and I’m teaching English classes to the 2 oldest primary school kids 2 days a week (one class CM2, and one class CM1), then I’m also attempting an Environmental Club, which isn’t really going so well. It’s hard to get the kids in the Environmental Club to put in the work to water the garden, they just want to see things growing so they realize why they should be taking care of it. Right now it’s just a dry plot of land, but it’s not going to get beautiful unless they water it. It sounds like it should be easy, but I think this is something I’m really forcing onto the children. As much as they say they want to be in this group I don’t think they realize they have to put in a lot of work for this if they want to reap the benefits.
Fast Forward! 2/23/11 Waist is over, and it was glorious! I had so much fun and now I’m back in Ndioum and I’m excited to get back to site and start/continue my work. It was a great time spent in Dakar, and I saw some great people. All in all, I totally suggest coming to Senegal and visiting all of us during WAIST. Our theme was Grease Corps Jersey Shore; which even though this was an incredibly lame theme, we rocked it! We looked amazing!
Friday I will be returning to site and preparing everything and anything I have to for my upcoming projects; the Health Hut is still in the works- my brother supposedly forgot about the day we choose to go buy the stuff for the preparation of the Health Hut, so I told him he had to wait for my return, so hopefully he’ll be more motivated and take the initiative to start this process. I also have to spread the word about the Agriculture Seminar I’ll be having, an AG Trainer from Peace Corps will come to my village and hold the seminar, I’m trying to really limit the number of people who come but that’s so hard because there are so many important people to invite. But hopefully after this seminar we’ll continue the seminars so that these trainees will become trainers, and will continue this process. I really hope this will cause a spread of knowledge.
Well enjoy the pictures!
hey hadiel, it's me megan from dr. taylor's class on measurement or whatever it was. i'm one of those blog creeps that reads random people's stuff from time to times...and today was one of those nights...haha. i was looking through people's profiles from boise and i came across yours on the second page! hahaha. i'm glad you got into the peace corps and everything is going well for you!
ReplyDeleteHey Megan, hows it going?! Well, welcome to my blog I hope you enjoy it. What are you up to these days?
ReplyDeleteeverything is going good. my long-distance boyfriend of six years (four years of air force, a semester of college out-of-state) recently just moved in. i also started a grad program in english as a second language. i read that you are teaching english language learners. how do you like it? how is it going?
ReplyDeleteCongrats! That's got to be so nice having him home. I'm happy for you guys!
ReplyDeleteWhere are you attending grad school? My sister actually got her degree in linguistics and teaches English as a foreign language in Boise right now. I'm kind of teaching English, I mean it's the 4th and 5th graders in my village. The schools in Senegal are all taught in French even though that's a foreign language to each of the children; then in middle school they start taking English classes, so I'm "prepping" them. It's going really well, I'm following the same technique I learned Pulaar (the language I speak here). It's very much conversation based, and what they want to learn, grammar thrown aside. Also the classes are only Fridays and Saturdays, it's like a secondary project.
Where do you think you want to teach? I think it'd be great to work with refugees.
Woah, that's so cool about your sister. Is she in the public school system or private sector?
ReplyDeleteHow is learning Pulaar going? How long did it take you to start grasping it?
I think grammar based programs are just disruptive to the learning process.
I applied at some schools in Vietnam this summer but I was turned down. Most schools wanted TEFL or CELTA certification and I don't have either.
I've considered joining the Corps for it. I've heard teaching English is one of the highest areas of need but as far as a working job goes, I'm not too sure what I'm going to do. I'd like to work in the public school system, especially at ELL sites. Boise has 11. However, I need a teaching certificate. I used to intern with one of the resettlement agencies in town and was told my degree is "high rent" and most of the jobs are based on Title 1 money, or in other words, they wouldn't be stable. I have an orientation session at this place that I can get a teaching certificate at in 16 months on Tuesday. Its expensive, near 18 thousand but I want this sooo bad, it might be worth it.
Ok, so I've been searching for a way to email Megan (Hi, I'm Huda, Hadiel's sister who's an ELL teacher) but I can't find your email address. If you want to email me, I would love to talk to you about teaching ELL in Boise (I've taught in almost every realm of ELL here, private, public, adult...).
ReplyDeleteMy email address is hudashaltry@gmail.com
Looking forward to talking to you.
And Hadiel, I love you but more importantly I love your posts. :) Your pics were super gaudy, but you should have put a tattoo on your neck like that one guy. Mom thought it was real! hah! Ok, I love you.