Et Le Navire Va: School Presentation

Tuesday, November 6, 2012 – School Presentation

We had our presentations in the schools today. They went pretty much how I expected them to. I was with two other people, and we had 15 minutes to discuss something to do with Youth Development – basically, either a life skill or something to do with sexual and reproductive health. We decided to go all out and talk about a real problem in Cameroon: students having sex with teachers for grades or school fees. Apparently this is a real problem here. School fees and test fees are so big here, and tests are required to move onto other grades, combined with the fact that parents are a lot more willing to worry about the education of the son and spend more money on them, gives a lot of pull to the teachers. Plus having sex with teachers is not taboo here like it is in the States. Not only is it not taboo, but sometimes it is even encouraged: people think that if they get pregnant from a teacher, they will have a smart child because the father is educated.

It was quite a big topic to cover, especially considering that there is not really a right answer. I know that we immediately want to say of course, don’t sleep with your teacher, but a lot of times it’s not that simple. In a lot of cases, the choice is between something like this and not getting an education. The family will not always help, and in a lot of parts of the country, having a well-educated girl is not really an advantage – men don’t like being less educated then women here. Kids are seen as a sign of wealth, so having the more, the better, and a lot of times that’s what they view girls as good for.

Having 15 minutes to cover this topic, along with 83 – count them, 83 – students in the class, was pretty difficult. Back when I was teaching I thought the difference between 31 and 34 students was huge; 83 is even worse. Plus we were in one of the higher grades, when students can go well into their twenties. My role was basically as muscle – I helped a bit with the presentation itself, but mostly walked around and made sure that students weren’t talking and were paying attention. I honestly didn’t think it was that useful of an activity, at least for me. The idea was to give us experience working with students – something that I have a lot of. Really, students are not that different wherever you are, you just have to find a teaching style that works with them. Considering that the culture in the Grand North, where I will probably be stationed, is so different from here, finding a style here wouldn’t help. Plus I won’t be able to really start projects for another 3-4 months, so 15 minutes here doesn’t help.

Just two more days and I’ll finally find out where exactly my post is. I really can’t wait.

Tonight is the election. My sister said she is going to text me the results when they finally hit. I know by the time I post this tomorrow, they will probably be out, but if you don’t want to hear my political two-cents, just skip to the next paragraph. I really hope Obama wins. The economy has continually improved since he’s been in office, and he at least made steps to improve the health care system. Really though, I mostly am voting for him for civil issues. He is not as liberal as I want him to be, but he supports civil rights like gay marriage and a woman’s right to choose. No matter what, I don’t think that that economic issues should trump social ones. Plus I honestly don’t see why people would think that Romney would be better with the economy. If there’s anything that economics of the past few decades proves, it’s that trickle-down economics don’t work.

Alright, off my soap box. I really just hope everyone voted, and did some research first. One thing I can say is that I’ve never just voted on party lines, I always look up whose policies I agree with the most. It’s especially important to vote if you live in a swing state. Alright, really done this time. Next blog I’ll be able to say where my post is! Miss everyone!

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Obama won! Four more years! Hopefully he can get some more crap done this time. So did Perlmutter, and Colorado made some great amendments to its consitution! I'm very happy!

Happy birthday mom!

Also I had a dream that I will be posted in the beautiful island city of Kribi, so I have that to look forward to.

Thursday, November 8, 2012

Couldn't upload yesterday, today I find out my post!