Vlog# 22 A day in my life

Making friends

 

I've found it very difficult to make friends here in Ethiopia. Other than the kids that come around to watch movies, play games and act silly with me, I spend most of my time alone.

Sometimes I wonder if my lack of friendships stem from my behavior and hesitance at "putting myself out there", but most of the time I think its due to these 3 things.

The Language barrier. 

Cultural differences.

And my own skepticism.

  With the language barrier I find myself doubting the ability to build a real solid friendship. If we cant communicate, how can we ever get to know each other? Although I know plenty of volunteers who have managed to make friends, boyfriends, and family, despite the language, its just something I don't think I'm capable of.

Regarding cultural differences,  most women my age are married with children, they do not hang outside of their homes, and its considered inappropriate to befriend and hang out with a man one on one. So this again limits my options.

And with my own skepticism....

There are just TOO many people here who are only interested in "befriending" me, because they want something from me.

I met this fellow female teacher within the first few months that I moved into Wolisso. She was OVERLY kind, always asking me questions, always smiling and very polite. I liked her, but I knew something was off. She invited me to her home several times, and I couldn't make it for various reasons. She started calling me obsessively, getting upset when I told her I couldn't go to her house for dinner and then she started offering to wash my clothes, asking me where I lived and it was just soo weird. At first I thought her behavior was normal for the culture, maybe her desperation to befriend me & offers to wash my clothes and find out where I lived didn't mean anything significant... but after talking to another Ethiopian woman about the situation, I found out that her behavior wasn't normal at all.  I was told to steer clear from her.

This wasnt the first time I had met someone who only wanted to get to know me because of what they thought I could do for them. Other people have come up to me acting nice, offering to help, only to ask for money after or for my help with their American Visas.  I find it so hard to trust adults here, you never know their motives or true intentions. At least with the kids you get it up front because they are yelling out "Money! Money! Money!"

But to SOOO many of the adults here...

This one guy took the cake as he sat me down for 20 minutes to convince me of how he had made the cure for cancer and needed my help to bring it back to America... *sight* just spare me please.

Vlog #21 Ethiopian Culture

Vlog #20 Being black in Peace Corps Ethiopia

The fight

My kids bring so much laughter and joy into my life here. I really don't know how my service would be if I wasn't teaching / working with such wonderful kids.


One thing that I loveeeee to do here is to give test / quizzes.

Because class sizes are so overwhelmingly large, when I give out one of my weekly quizzes I send half of the class outside to sit, while the other half completes the test for 20 min or so, and then they switch.

I think I have a problem.. because I have wayyyy too much fun watching my kids intently and searching for cheaters while they take their quizzes. And there are always cheaters.


My senses heighten, my eyes dart around the room in hopes of locating the cheater. I feel like superman with extra sensitive hearing and vision and my imagination goes into overload as I search for this weeks cheating culprit.

I usually catch at least 1 student glancing in their notebook under the table, keeping pages between their legs, passing papers to their friends or bringing in strips of papers with notes written on it. I always give the cheaters I catch a second chance... or tell them to come after school to finish or retake the test, but boy do I have fun snatching those papers up and watching the kids squirm for just a teeny bit lol


One thing that absolutely makes me crack up is when its time for my students to switch places with the other half of the class that is waiting outside.

I announce that their time is up and there are always, ALWAYS protestors begging for a few more minutes

"Please teacher, I'm not done"

"Koy" wait

"just  little time..." they always say.

I usually give them 30seconds or so but after I can no longer wait I begin grabbing up papers. Some students willingly hand their test too me, others continue to beg and they even hide the test under their desk as they see me approach them!

It is also very common for students to refuse to let go of the papers. I grab the top part of their test and pull, and they hold onto the bottom half with this pleading look in their eyes, begging for more time. They chant

"please teacher, please teacher, please teacher..."

and I cant help but laugh at the scene.

The students refuse to hand over their papers without a fight, I pull and they pull, their faces full of worry and fear while they beg, and mine full of amusement. I just cant help but laugh out loud and when I do I always feel like I'm pure evil for enjoying their anguish... but I cant help it.