52 Days and Counting

Today marks 52 days in Nigeria. In some ways it feels like I just arrived and in other ways it feels like I’ve been here forever. We arrived in Nigeria at a really awkward time due to the visa delays.  The school is year round, so they have three trimesters. When we arrived all students in the nursery, primary, and secondary schools were taking their final exams for the trimester, so basically all we could do was grade exams. I was able to do a couple “Get to Know the American” lesson, but I wasn’t able to get started with my regular role here. Easter Break was essentially the whole month of April. I was extremely bored, homesick, and felt very isolated behind the walls of the compound.  Many days started with tears and most ended with tears. It has been so much harder and so much different than I expected it to be. I feel like I’ve learned more about myself and what’s important to me in 52 days than I have learned in 25 years.  My expectation of the year, the school, the country, and the sisters is very different from how the experience has actually been. This is a public blog, so I won’t go into detail about all these things. I mentioned some of the struggles in previous posts and some just shouldn’t be written here.

On a more positive note school did start Monday. The students and teachers have returned and I am very grateful for this. It helps with the feelings of isolation and loneliness. I’ve made friends with a couple teachers and find myself spending free time throughout the day talking to them. I am working mostly with the Nursery 3 students, which is equivalent to Kindergarten in the states. I teach math to small groups in each of the four classrooms. Teaching to the whole class is just about impossible. I tried and failed. The students struggle to understand me and so do the Nursery teachers. I find that in the small groups I am able to do interactive math lessons and the students can understand me. I am also working with the reading teacher. She is responsible for teaching reading to approximately 380 students, so she can use all the help she can get. I don’t really understand the reading program they use here, but right now I feel like the only thing I can do is support the teacher. Hopefully in time I can introduce some new ideas to the reading program.

Kaitlin and I have also started working with the students that board. There are approximately 80 girls in middle and high school that live in the compound. We have spent a couple nights this week doing tutoring there and will continue to do so in the coming weeks. We have some exciting things planned for them that I will share at a later date.

Things are improving here.  Obviously the boredom has decreased significantly. I still miss home and all the people there more than I could ever have imagined possible, but staying busy helps. All the emails, comments, or text messages have helped. Thank you for your support!

Finally, I have had several people ask me about the recent kidnappings of the girls from their school and bombings in Nigeria. I just wanted to let you all know that as of right now all of these things are happening north of the state I live in. I feel safe here, but am following the stories carefully.