Here are a few more pictures of little James. He's starting to develop a personality. It's a fun thing to watch. Last Sunday, I took him with me to the crowded "Lumo," or weekly market, in Fatoto. I carried him on my back, African style, which certainly attracted a lot of attention, but it was amusing. As I often as I wish that I could avoid contstantly being in the spotlight, sometimes, I just have to embrace it and have fun. I will never "blend in" to my African village, and while there are definitely days that I just feel like hiding from everyone, I'm learning to be more comfortable with all of the extra attention.

naming ceremony pictures

Finally, here are some new pictures:




Here is Samba Njie, looking especially handsome for the naming ceremony of his new baby boy. Samba is the second eldest brother in the Njie family and the head of my compound.












Baby James... isn't he cute?












































Teachers and staff from my school (and that's my house in the background)

Sorry

Just read through my blog for the first time in months and realized that I have been awefully repetitive lately... sorry! It just takes so long to get from one screen to the next, I never check to see what I wrote last. And then I forget about it. I'll do better next time!

Day to Day

Here are some things I typed up a few days ago...

I am sitting on the island of Janjanbureh, which is a small, historic island on The Gambia River. I am here for a short break from school visiting some other Peace Corps Volunteers and exchanging ideas for science experiments and community projects. It is quite peaceful here. I have been very busy for the past month. It’s nice to relax and reflect on some of the things I have been through lately. When I am in village, I often think of things I would like to type on my blog, but then when I travel to Basse or to somewhere with internet, I loose the inspiration, or I get so frustrated with the computer that I am working on that I give up and just type something quick or nothing at all… so now that I am borrowing a friend’s computer, and I am not feeling rushed, I would like to share some of my every-day experiences…
This is my daily routine in village. I wake up before sunrise and go for a run. It’s the best part of the day for me. Half of the village is still asleep, so I don’t feel rude about not stopping to greet all of the people that I pass along my way. It’s also much cooler in the mornings. Now, when I say cool, I mean it’s in the low 80’s, or maybe even just under 80 degrees if I’m lucky. But at this point, that’s cool, crisp weather for me! When I begin my run, it’s still rather dark outside… I run westward towards and up the big hill (“big” is also a relative term… what I once thought was tiny, is now a large hill to me!), so by the time I turn around and run eastward home, I get a nice view of the sunrise. After a quick bath and a cup of instant coffee, I ride my bike to school. In between classes, we take a 25 minute break, and local women come to the school to sell breakfast to the students. The most common food item sold is beans and bread. You can order a whole loaf of bread or a half loaf of bread. The bread is pretty much the same everywhere in The Gambia. It’s a white loaf about 6-8 inches long which looks something like French bread. They cut the loaf open, put beans inside and top it with “sauce.” The sauce is usually onions and small pieces of pasta cooked in oil with spices. Gambians love oil, so if I don’t specifically ask them not to, they pour some of the oily sauce over the beans, then add a couple extra spoonfuls of plain oil. Sometimes, my bean sandwich is dripping in oil… I’ve tried to explain that this is too much… my favorite bean sandwich lady usually knows I don’t want the oil, but sometimes she forgets. Other women sell just plain bread with sauce (no beans), fish on bread with sauce, or a bowl of something called ebe, which is a fish and cassava soup (cassava is kind of like a potato or a yam). Breakfast usually costs me about 5 dalsai (that’s roughly a quarter).
The morning shift ends at 1:15, but I teach after-school classes on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, so I on those days I leave at about 3:00. On Thursdays and Fridays I leave earlier. Right now, the weather has gotten very, very hot… so by the time I leave from school, I’m usually covered in sweat and ready to cool off. One of the best things that has happened in my life recently is that my favorite bitik owner (bitiks are small, local shops) just bought a refrigerator. He now sells bags of cold water, but the degree of coldness is unreliable. The areas of Fatoto that are wired for electricity only get current at certain times of the day, and on some days, there is no current at all. But even so, the water inside his refrigerator will still be cooler than my own warm (or just plain hot) water at home. So I’ve been leaving my water bottle in his fridge, and I go to pick it up after school. I drop it off again in the evening so that it can cool again for the next day. It’s amazing how much of a difference it makes in my day to have a little cool water.
When I get home, I eat the lunch that has been prepared by my family. This is always rice and usually fish, with some sort of peanut-based, or oil-based sauce (once again, more oil). At this point in my day, I usually just look at my watch and count down the hours until the sun begins to set. It’s the most difficult part of the day for me. It’s too hot to do much at all. I’m usually quite tired, so my first impulse is to lie down and take a nap. This is what most of the Gambians do between 2 and 5… is lie around and nap. I can’t blame them. But when I do try to nap, I’m so uncomfortably hot that I just get annoyed and have to get up again. The winds are still strong, but unlike the winds in December and January, these winds are very hot… it’s like opening an oven door. So they offer no relief from the heat… and often make it worse. I find myself experimenting with different ways to sit or lie that may facilitate heat loss from my body. Any surface of my body touching another surface will soon be soaked in sweat, so if I am trying to lie down, I have to switch positions constantly to allow myself to dry off a bit on whatever side I was just lying on. The best position seems to be lying on my back with my legs stretched out and my arms over my head. Any part of my body touching another part of my body generates too much heat, so I try not to rest my arms next to or on my body… I realize this may seem like a pretty pathetic way to spend my afternoon… but it’s what I do… it makes the hours seem pretty long indeed. I often just get fed up with it all and go for a walk. My family thinks this is crazy, but at least if I’m standing, I may get a bit of a breeze on all parts of my body. Bucket baths are my saving grace. I try to wait until as close to 5:00 or 6:00 as possible for my afternoon bath (so that I won’t just continue to sweat as soon as the bath is finished), but sometimes I just have to cool off earlier than that… I can always take another later (and often do).
Once the sun begins to set and it cools down a bit, I can actually focus enough to start doing some work… grading papers, planning lessons, etc. This may take only an hour, but often much longer. I now do most of my work in my backyard. It’s too hot in the house. I bring my small desk outside and sit and work by candlelight. At some point, I take a break to cook dinner, then hang out and chat with my family. Also, students sporadically stop by for extra help, so sometimes I spent a good bit of my time with them. I also spend a good bit of time with little James, the baby who was named after my father. Sometimes, if I have been working for too long and haven’t gone to sit with the family, they just bring him to me. He sits in my lap or lies beside me while I grade papers, or do other work. He seems to like my music, so sometimes we listen to music together and I’ll bounce him around my hut for a while. When it’s time for bed, I sleep outside on a small wooden bed that my carpenter friend built for me. If it cools off enough in the early morning, I get up and move inside, but lately, I’ve slept just fine in my back yard until it’s time to get up and start the day over again. So that’s my day… it’s not the most exciting life, but it’s a good routine for me.
Little James’s naming ceremony:
It is tradition here to hold a naming ceremony a week after the birth of a new child. When Samba (my brother) and his wife, Susana had the new baby, I was leaving for my trip to Dakar… and since the baby would be named for my father, they put off the ceremony until I returned. This was my first real naming ceremony in Africa. Our training village put on a small ceremony for us trainees, to give us our African names, but it was just for fun. James’s naming ceremony was a fun and exhausting process to be a part of. I think the most amazing thing about this experience for me was that how much work was involved in the process. There is no way one family alone can accomplish all of the work required for an event like this. I think about the big celebrations that families in the US have: weddings, graduations, etc. Think about trying to accomplish the same amount of work that is required for one of those events: cooking food, arranging for entertainment, preparing the place that the event will be held to hold hundreds of people… but it is all done African style. All of the food is prepared the way everything in Africa is prepared: from scratch. Chairs and equipment needed for music are all hauled in by foot or donkey cart (we borrowed chairs from my school, and many of the students pitched in to carry them to the compound). There is no such thing as hiring a cook or a caterer. And there is no such thing as buying food in bulk at Sam’s club to be cooked. We slaughtered three goats for the occasion. Women from the community gathered at my compound for two days before the event, helping to pound grains for the breakfast porriage that would be served, and cooking sweets and snacks that would be handed out to guests throughout the day. I watched over 30 women taking turns pounding grains for the event. Even with all of the women helping, it still took several hours to do. It’s also something of a social event and a way of showing that you are happy for the new family by coming and helping with preparations for the ceremony. Like everything else, it is tradition, but it is a truly inspiring thing to watch. The entire community does whatever they can to help. And it all came together beautifully. The ceremony started in the morning and lasted until about midnight. There was traditional fula music as well as a D.J. with a huge sound system (the speakers were sitting right next to my hut… lucky me)… all powered by a generator. There was breakfast and a large lunch/dinner meal. The family had borrowed a donkey cart to haul in dozens of bidongs full of drinking water for guests. Guests from out of town slept on the floor of my family’s hut or with neighbors. Most of the villagers stopped by at some point in the day to show their respect, as well as all of the teachers at my school, the police officers, and many of my students. I was exhausted by the time that it was over, and I barely did anything to help. Overall, it was a lovely event… I felt inspired to be a part of it, and honored that my American family is now forever a part of my African family.

some pictures

It has been a while since I have been able to access internet. I began this blog on February 18th, when I was in Dakar. I had access to high speed internet, so I decided to post some pictures, but then I ran out of time to type anything to go with them. When I returned to The Gambia, I went back to Fatoto and that is where I have been for the past 4 weeks or so (I had planned to come sooner, but was delayed by several things, which I'll describe later). I was quite excited to get to Basse so that I could do some shopping and finally finish this blog. Since these things required money, however, I needed to go to the bank first. I had been living off the travel money that had left over from my trip to Dakar, but it was running very, very low. So on Thursday when I arrived in Basse, I came to the bank first thing. And wouldn't you know it? The bank was closed for a holiday. Thursday was the Prophet Muhammed's birthday. And then, as it turns out, Friday was also a public holiday because of Good Friday. And Monday will also be a public holiday because it's the day after easter. On Saturdays the bank is usually open, but who knows? Perhaps they will take another day off to celebrate the fact that they have three holidays in a row surrounding a work day... I swear, Gambians and their holidays. It constantly amazes me. The country is 90 percent Muslim and they need to close schools and buisnesses on Good Friday and Easter. So on Thursday, I realized that I only had 9 dalasi (that's about 45 cents) and no access to any other money for 5 days. Even in a developing country, it's tough to live off of less than a dime a day. Luckily, I ended up finding a buisness that would cash my check for me (which is why I can afford to come to the internet tonight).

So here are the pictures that I posted from Dakar last month. Dakar is the capital of Senegal (the country which surrounds The Gambia). The event I attended is called WAIST (West African International Softball Tournament). It is a softball tournament for whoever would like to particiapte, but Peace Corps volunteers make up most of the participating teams. It's a great opportunity for Peace Corps Volunteers from different West African countries to gather and let loose, or just relax. Some people are there to play serious softball. Some people are there to meet with volunteers from other countries and share ideas for projects and plans in their communities. Some people go just for fun. I was there for a little of all it all, I think. It was my first opportunity to take a trip out of the country since I came to Africa, and that, in itself, was a good enough reason for me to be there. I played on the "social" team for The Gambia (we also had a competitive team, but due to my lack of talent and experience in softball, the social team was just fine for me). Here is our group picture. Our "uniforms" are mesh shirts in the colors of the Gambian flag. The mesh shirts are supposed to mimick what we call "bumsters." These are the guys you can find on the beaches of The Gambia. They wear these tank-tops and lots of large, glittery necklaces. They are there to meet tourists with the hope that they may either get some money from them or, if they are very lucky, trick them into marrying them and bringing them to the UK or the States. Bumsters are one of the things almost all of us volunteers hate about The Gambia since we are all mistaken for tourists and therefore prime bumster targets. Since it feels good to laugh about it instead of getting too irritated, this year, we were the Gambian bumsters.

I also had the opportunity to do a bit of site seeing. Dakar is huge and historic. We took a boat trip out to an island that was originally a major hub in the slave-trade. It was an interesting trip and the island quite peaceful. Here are some pictures....

Dakar is a huge, bustling city (about the size of Washington D.C.), so it was quite a change from village life. In many ways, it was culture shock all over again. I've become so accustomed to my life as a peace corps volunteer that it was a little disorienting to be reminded of the life I lived before I came here... citys with tall buildings, highways, houses with mowed lawns, inernational foods, etc. Housing accomadations for all of the Peace Corps Volunteers were provided by the staff members of the US embassy. They were kind enough to open their homes to a burly group like us. The man I stayed with, Craig, not only opened up his home to us, but also allowed us to use his internet, washer and dryer, and anything else we needed... he even treated us to several delicious meals! He was interested to hear our stories. He seemed amazed that anyone would willingly live for two years without electricity or running water (especially air-conditioning). He certainly made me feel welcome and gave me a different perspective of life in an African country... so if you are reading this Craig... thanks again for everything! It was a wonderful experience!

Since I've been back in The Gambia, I've been very busy with school and family events. I believe I mentioned the birth of Samba and Susana's son in one of my last blogs. (Samba is my brother and the head of our compound). The baby was born before my trip to Dakar, and it tradition to hold a naming ceremony one week after the child's birth... but my family delayed the ceremony until after I returned to Fatoto. The new baby is named James, after my father, and in honor of my family. The naming ceremony was quite an experience. It was held on Saturday, March 8th, but the preparations for it began two days earlier. After school one day, I was taking a nap to escape the heat when I was woken up by the sound of pounding. This is not an unusual sound since all families use large morals and pestals to pound their food, but this was A LOT of pounding all at once. I left my house to find a group of at least 40 women gathered around, taking turns pounding the grains needed for the ceremony. This was just the start of the preparations... for the next two days, my compound was full of people helping with various tasks. It's incredible and inspiring to see how the whole community contibutes time and resources to an event like this. There were hundreds of people at the ceremony. I had a wonderful time. There was traditional Fula music and a DJ (equipped with a generator to power his huge speakers and system) providing entertainment. My family slaughtered 3 goats and dozens of women sat around all day cooking for for the mass of people gathered. I socailized and danced all day. All of the staff from school came, as well as many of my students and two of my toubab friends from Basse (Liza and Sarah, a VSO). I have many pictures, some of which I hope to post next month from Kombo.

The other thing that's kept me so busy has been school. I helped teach at a teacher workshop in Fatoto on March 1st, which I found to be fairly successful and very rewarding. I did a session on lesson planning and another on teaching and learning aids. Thanks to Bess Adcock, my old mentor teacher from the states, I was equipped with a bunch of useful materials for creating teaching aids. Thanks Bess! There are 3 school terms in The Gambia, and we just finished the 2nd term. The end of the term was supposed to be April 4th, but, at the last minute, they decided to change the end of term date to be March 20th, so that the break could fall over the easter holiday (once again, Gambians and their holidays). The best part of that decision was that we were notified with about 2 weeks left in the term, and all of us had to change our teaching plans, schedule last minute tests and make-up work, and deal with all of the usual things that come along with the end of a school term. In addition, I've still been teaching extra classes after school, and trying to continue science club events.

And on top of all of this, the hot season has begun. For the sake of curiosity, I put my thermometer directly in the sun the other day... the highest reading is 124 degrees F, and after only a few minutes, it soared above that mark. It's too hot to sleep in my hut, so I've been sleeping outside in my back yard. I had a special "bed" made and I just bought a sponge to put on it. It's quite nice, really. the mornings have still been cool enough to go running, so I have still been able to exercise, but I'm starting to get worried that they won't be cool enough for long. The true heat hasn't even come yet.

The good news is, mangos are on the way. They are getting bigger and bigger on the trees... they should be ripe in just a few more weeks! I'm very excited.

Well, that's it for now, I'm going to finish before I get kicked off this machine... more to come later!

Salaam Malaekum... it has been a while since I have been able to update my blog, I think. The weather is beginning to get hot again. In fact, we're heading right into the "hot season." I'm not looking forward to it. The heat is worse as you get farther up-country (like say... Fatoto and Basse). One peace corps volunteer who lives in the Kombo told me that when he visited Basse last hot season, he was wearing a new hat. After walking outside in the heat for a few hours, the glue melted right off of the rim, ruining his hat. I rode my bicycle to Basse yesterday after school (I left around 11:00 am), and by the time I arrived here (about 1:15), anything that could melt in my bag, did melt (deoderant, soap, etc.) And it's not even close to how hot it will get, from what I've been told over and over again now... so enough of that talk...
Good news!!!
My "sister-in-law" just had her baby. It's a little boy. We are naming the baby "James," after my father. I think I've now officially become part of my family here. It's quite an honor to have someone named after you. The whole village is excited as well. Everyone is talking about "Tokara Baba Maimuna" (or "Maimuna's father's name-sake.") It's definitely been a happy week in Fatoto. He is such a beautiful little boy! We will be having a naming ceremony in a few weeks, when I return from my trip to Dakar. Right now, I am at the beginning of my travels. In a few days, I'll be heading to Farafenni, then on to Dakar from there. My first trip out of the country since I arrived. And I hear that Dakar is an actual city... I'm curious and excited to see it. Hopefully, I will have more pictures and updates soon...

Here is something that I wrote in my journal about a week ago, and decided that it was a blog-worthy entry. So I typed it up and posted it along with this message.

Feb 2nd, 2008
I think the strangest thing about my life here in Africa is the feeling of duality… the mixture of “new” and “old” ways of living. I admit that one of the reasons why I wanted to come to a place like Africa was because of the appeal of living a simpler life – no running water, electricity, car payments, etc. – having to fend for myself and, in the process, hopefully finding a deeper connection to the earth and all of its basic processes… In many ways, I have found this, and I am happy in that sense. But what I didn’t expect was the side that “development” brings to the duality. The Gambia is an “undeveloped” nation… this is true…. But it has been in the process of development for decades now. The Peace Corps just celebrated its 40th year anniversary here. This means that well-meaning philanthropists and volunteers like myself have been working with people of The Gambia for a long time now. One of the results I see from this is that “development” here is viewed as a process of “catching-up” to the rest of the western world. The Africans see what the westerners have from the news, music, and travelers like myself – and they want these things – but they don’t understand the processes that developed nations went through to get to this stage. When America and Europe were developing, they didn’t see it as “development.” They were just searching for ways to improve their lives and at some point in the process, they became “developed.”
As a result of this difference in how development is approached, my “peaceful return to the simple life” is often disrupted by moments that seem out of place or just plain strange. Picture this: I am sitting with my family members who are singing and dancing to Fula music. Goats, donkeys, and chickens pass by at random. Someone walks over to the well to draw water for cooking dinner – then a cell phone rings to the tune of “Jingle Bells” (I once sang the words to jingle bells for them after hearing that cell phone ring. It struck me as absurd in the 100 degree heat. My sister had chosen the ring for its upbeat tune… she had no idea it was a Christmas song).
Or how about walking down a dirt road, passing women in brightly colored “compolets” with trays of bananas stacked high on their heads. A boy on a donkey cart passes me, going in the opposite direction. The sun is bright and the birds are everywhere (The Gambia is lacking in the kind of wildlife that makes us think of Africa due to hunting and loss of habitat, but birds are still in abundance)… then, a BMW comes pummeling past us, American “gangsta” music blasting.
These are the strange and slightly disorienting experiences I find myself in often. Some of them are just plain funny. I have often run to fetch my camera, hoping to catch the ironic moment on film.
Like the picture I took once in training village. Everything was new and funny then… Liza and Josiah called me out of my hut to show me a scene: The boys in my host family were in the process of attaching a medieval-looking plow to a large, underfed bull. Behind them was the village with all its different huts. Between the huts and boys with the bull, a shiny new American SUV had just pulled up. “Which of these things does not belong?” they asked me. We had a good laugh. I snapped a picture, and just shook my head.
Sometimes these dualities make me laugh – sometimes they make me want to cry. When I was first told that I would be teaching science, I pictured myself in a primitive classroom, teaching things to students that could, hopefully, improve their standards of living – like health related issues or the importance of environmental cleanliness. I have been teaching these things and more, but not in the way I would have imagined. I expected certain difficulties, like a lack of resources, but what I didn’t expect was the task of teaching students a western style curriculum without any of the resources provided in a western-style classroom. I have all the familiar trials a new teacher in America might experience: learning the “ways” of a new school and a new group of students; planning and teaching new lessons – many of which are topics I have never taught before; grading papers and dealing with absent and sick students who have to make up assignments or tests… but I have to do these things without a computer, an overhead projector, a photocopier, or resources to consult when I can’t remember the details of the topic I need to teach. The chalk board is my only means of teaching my students. They have no science textbooks, so they come with blank notebooks, and I give them whatever information I can, knowing perfectly well that I don’t have enough time to give them all of the topics they are required to learn… even if we did nothing but copy notes all day, with no explanation (which is what many teachers do here)… we still wouldn’t have enough time to cover it all. So I am thankful for the chalkboard, although I feel as though I am constantly battling with it. It is a concrete slab that has been painted black. The surface never gets completely clean, no matter how hard I try to erase it (I discovered early that using water will also eventually wipe some of the paint off of it too, so I quit that method). A while back, the school was given a shipment of chalk that was never meant for a chalk board… it was too hard, so it scratched the surface when you used it, and the writing was too light for the students to read. It took me twice as long to write anything, and since I had to press harder with this chalk, it actually made my hands tired by the end of a class! Now we have regular chalk again… thank god… but it’s still a battle sometimes… you can tell when the chalkboard wins, because I’m covered in chalk from head to toe by the time I leave school…

Happy 2008

Here I am, in January already. It is a new year… it’s strange to think that I’ll be here in Africa for this entire year... School is still on break, and I am back in Basse, after a short trip back to Fatoto to see my family and gather a few things to work on here while I’m waiting for pay day (which should have been at the end of December… but oh well…). Also, Josiah should be coming to visit later today, so I wanted to stick around and catch up with him a bit. Our Christmas Terdukin was very successful. I did not get to help with the slaughtering and de-feathering of the birds, but I did get the interesting job of de-boning the duck and helping to put the entire thing together. The finished product was delicious! We also had garlic potatoes, fruit salad, salad, stuffing, and various sweet things. I helped make a rice-pudding type thing that had pumpkin in it… it was no pumpkin pie, but it was good. The transit house was decorated with Christmas ornaments, we listened to Christmas music… it was as close to Christmas in Africa as we could get (even though it was especially hot that day… possibly in the 90’s).

For New Years Eve, we did a “tour” of different Basse establishments. Daniele, one of my Basse PC friends, had received a box of glow bracelets from America, which she gave to me as a Christmas gift because I had told her once that I love glow sticks… so I brought these along and handed them out to everyone in our group. As if the toubabs don’t stand out enough already, now we were glowing toubabs! But the Gambians loved them as well… we ended up sharing them with various characters we met along the way (and we did meet some interesting characters!). The retired VSO couple from England, David and Sarah, joined us as well. We had a fun night. On the last stop of our Basse tour, we ended up at a place called “Mike’s”. The owner had put up a bunch of balloons and bought a bunch of fireworks. At 12:00, he set off the fireworks… some of which were set off inside the building, and some outside… I found myself running for cover more than once. Gambians and fireworks… it’s a good thing New Years only happens once a year!

Now that I’ve had my little “vacation,” I’m looking forward to getting back to school. Looking back on the semester, I feel as if I’ve learned quite a bit about working in a Gambian school that I didn’t know before. For example, I learned that I can’t count all the school days as “learning days.” Between the various last-minute holidays and the “cleaning days,” It seems that I have even less time than I thought to teach my students all of the information they are required to learn for the WASSCE (West African Senior Secondary Certification Exam) . So I’m going to start offering classes after school to my 12^th graders who want to catch up on WASSCE material. I’m afraid I’m still not going to have time to cover it all, but I’ll do the best I can. I’ve also learned that I desperately need more resources to teach from. So if anyone is thinking of sending school-related materials, any sort of resource materials would be helpful. Especially text books (Chemistry, Physics, and Biology).

Before the end of the term, my grade 12 students took “practice” WASSCE exams in all of the subjects. Unfortunately, the school is not intending for these tests to be for practice alone. The school wants to use these test results to determine whether the students will be allowed to take the WASSCE at the end of the year… If they didn’t pass at least 3 out of the 7 subjects, they cannot take the WASSCE and will have to repeat grade 12. The problems with this scenario are numerous… for starters, the students haven’t even finished grade 12 yet… they still have more material to learn. Also, they were lacking a science teacher for a large portion of grades 10 and 11, so they are missing more material than they should be. Not to mention the fact… and I’ve probably said this before, but I’ll say it again… that the information these students are expected to learn is not realistic for the time spent in the classroom and the resources provided to Gambian students. Here are some statistics:

West African Senior Secondary Certificate Examination, WASSCE 2006

6358 candidates did 9 subjects

25 candidates got credits in 9 subjects 0.4%

66 candidates got credits in 8 subjects 1.0%

71 candidates got credits in 7 subjects 1.1%

158 candidates got credits in 6 subjects 2.5%

210 candidates got credits in 5 subjects 3.3%

(This totals to 8.3% who got credits in 5 subjects or more)

3239 candidates got credits in 0 subjects 50%

To explain these results a bit further, “getting credits” means achieving a score of 50% or higher. “passing” is a 40%. Also, these results are from those students who tested in 9 subjects… my students only have 7 subjects, due to lack of teachers (which is another whole problem in itself)

When my students took their “practice” WASSCE tests, 10 out of 41 of them did not obtain at least a 40% or higher on at least 3 out of the 7 tests. These students have now been told that they cannot sit through the WASSCE this year. They will have to repeat grade 12. At least two of my students have told me that they may not return to school at the beginning of second term… or maybe not at all. Furthermore, many of the students are discouraged by the tests themselves now… while this may provide the needed motivation for some of them to study harder… others are saying “what’s the point? I’ll never learn all of this information in the next 2 terms anyways.” And perhaps the most difficult part for me is that I just do not know all of the information they need to learn well enough to teach it… and the few resources I have are only slightly helpful… oh what I wouldn’t give to have internet in Fatoto! After they took the WASSCE tests, I was given a copy of the test without an answer key and told to grade them…. But I had to find the answers myself first. I have to say, that task may perhaps be the most frustrating experience I’ve been through so far. How can I expect these kids to know this stuff if I don’t even know it some of it myself? And the hours I spent pouring through my resources only helped a little. In the end, I had to ask another teacher about a few of the questions… he is the science teacher for grades 7 and 8, and is not a qualified teacher. In fact, the only qualification he has is passing the WASSCE exams… we just really needed the teachers. But he’s young, so it wasn’t that long ago that he took these exams himself… and passed… so although I felt like he might have been guessing himself on some of the answers, I trusted his “guessing skills” better than mine. So this is how my students were scored in the end… Fair? Hardly, I would say.

The science teacher I just mentioned is one of three unqualified teachers that we have at our school. And keep in mind, my school is an Upper Basic School (grades 7 thru 9) as well as a Senior Secondary School (grades 10 -12). The teachers consist of the following: Two qualified teachers (which means they have been trained to be teachers), three unqualified teachers (they have finished Senior Secondary School and have passed the WASSCE in the subjects they are teaching), and three volunteers… myself, and two Nigerians volunteers who are both teaching Mathematics. The vice-principal has a load of classes that exceeds any of the other teachers, and the principal helps with teaching as well. Since teachers are appointed to their posts by the government… it is the districts like mine that are hurting the most for teachers. We were supposed to get more teachers than this, but they just didn’t show up. They didn’t want to leave their families and travel as far away as Fatoto to teach for the measly amount of pay that they would be receiving. This is why we have been given special permission to hire non-qualified teachers. We desperately need the help… and these poor unqualified teachers work very hard for very little money. One unqualified teacher who is teaching just grades 7 and 8 told me that he makes less than 700 dalasi a month. (700D is about $28). If he teaches both the Upper Basic and the Senior Secondary students next term, his pay will increase to just under 1000D a month (1000D is about $40). It also means he would be double-shifting, or working the morning shift (8:00 to 1:30) as well as the afternoon shift (2:00- 6:00). The qualified teachers make much more than this, but not much… I don’t know the exact amount, but I think it’s somewhere between 2000D and 4000D depending on experience and positions if they are teaching at the Senior Secondary level. It’s much less for the lower basic schools.

These are the things I have to remind myself of when I begin to get frustrated with things like the WASSCE… of course the students don’t know the information. They don’t even have text books for things like science… but even if they did… they may be missing teachers too. Despite the odds, there are still those special individuals who are working very hard to improve the quality of education for students here in The Gambia. I can give two examples of teachers at my school (I am hesitant to list their names because I have not asked their permission to do so)… these two teachers have been posted to Fatoto for the past two years. Not only have they shown up to their post in Fatoto while their families are in Banjul and the surrounding areas, but they are both double-shifting and teaching multiple subjects to students at the school to make up for the lack of teachers. They also lead after-school clubs, Saturday school for students who have to take tests at the end of the year (grades 9 and 12), and help in administrative tasks (we are also lacking some administrative and clerical employees)… I never hear them complain. They work all morning, then the second shift in the afternoon, then the clubs and organizations after school, then go home to grade papers, etc… then they do it all again the next day. The only time they see their families is when they have enough holiday time to travel, (unlike some teachers I’ve seen who leave their students in the middle of a term just to do a bit of traveling… another reason why students aren’t getting as much classroom time as they need). One of my greatest wishes is that the government could recognize the teachers like this and reward them… with much, much more money than they are currently making… it would keep these teachers in the profession (The Gambia looses hundreds of good teachers every year who leave the profession due to long hours and poor pay), but it would also justify the travel that these teachers are required to do for their jobs as well as inspire good teachers to come into the profession.

Perhaps the greatest challenge for me as a Peace Corps Volunteer is that the most simple solutions to the problems are the ones I can do nothing about… all I can do is what I am doing: Work with what I have and try to take small steps. Luckily for me, I am not alone in my aspirations, and for every frustrating experience I come across, there is also an inspiring story to go along with it… I hope to spend more time on some of these stories in the future…