I had grand plans for Peace Corps Week. I was going to post
here several times related to the various themes for the week to share with you
all back home. Perhaps it’s apropos, in the ironic sense of how things seem to
go in Peace Corps, that those plans all but crumbled. First, there was the
issue of electricity and internet; the former was intermittent at best and the
latter ran out at the beginning of the week. Then there was the issue of
motivation, which was thoroughly bruised by some personal/emotional speedbumps
and continued frustrations with my assigned school (not uncommon, but amplified
by my personal state). In the end, I did not stick to my Peace Corps Week plan.
But that’s OK. The themes will provide a springboard for future topics.
Equally apropos was how the frustrations and challenges of
the week were all but wiped away with how the week came to a close. I showed up
at the school on Friday with plans to observe one section of grade 8 English,
but the teacher was nowhere to be found. I decided to improvise. Since Friday
was officially “Peace Corps Day,” I figured I’d try and teach the kiddos a
thing or two about the good ole Corps. I wasn’t really prepared, exactly, but I
grabbed my Peace Corps handbook, a bag of colored chalk, a few pieces of
printer paper, and headed toward the class with my “wing it” attitude.
