CCS

       Africa was in my heart for some reason.  I didn't know why, but when I decided to come here, my first thoughts were that of, a little bit of excitement and a large dose of fear.  How would I even begin to know where to start? I saw all the same news clips and media about Africa that everyone else saw, and I had the same limited and scary visions of what it might be like. I decided it would be best for me to go in initially with an organization, rather than show up on the huge continent traveling alone, as a woman.  I would start with an NGO (non governmental organization) to help me get acclimated to the culture,  learn the language, and begin to see where I could be of service.
       Ibra picked me up from the hotel the next morning in an older, but clean, 15 passenger van which had seen its fair share of use, and drove me to Moshi.  He is on the staff at Cross Cultural Solutions, and was sent to bring me to base camp, which would be my home for the next two months.  He honked the horn as we pulled up to the gate, and from inside a security guard opened the doors.  As we drove through I caught my first sight of the compound.  It was meticulously groomed with hedges and green grass. I later discovered they keep it this way with machetes.  Yes, that's also how they "mow" the lawn. Their power here is human, not motorized. But I've gotten sidetracked.
       CCS houses thirty people at a time.  They feed us, shelter us, and send us out into the community to work for other organizations every day. Our placements range from orphanages, to schools, hospitals, women's groups, centers for street children, HIV testing clinics and so on.  They also educate us about African culture, the traditions of the Kilimanjaro Region,  give us  Kiswahili lessons, and completely immerse us in Africa. The cross culturing is that we learn from them and they learn from us. The first two days were orientation about how to live in CCS and Moshi, our job assignments, and how we could all live together in harmony as we navigated our way through volunteerism in some very difficult areas.   Each of us has a different story of how we got here and why, and all are fascinating.
       Our days start in the open-air dining area, where our cook prepares delicious meals of rice, meat, spinach, and the sweetest fresh fruits.  We wash our dishes, jump in the van and go to work.  In the afternoons CCS has guest speakers come in to educate us on things such as Gender Roles, Education in Africa, Traditional Healers, HIV/AIDS epidemic here, and Kiswahili lessons.  They also take us on trips to different villages and areas which you will be hearing about in detail soon. At times, we go into town to run errands and spend time getting to know people in our community.  Then in the few spare moments we have left, there are the details of life to attend to, such as laundry. We wash it by hand, hang it out on the line, and then iron every item.  Yes, every single article, which includes, (and especially) the underwear, because the ironing kills a certain bug that attaches itself to the clothing and lays eggs.  And maybe this is too much information but, have you ever tried to iron a bra? Not to mention that your personal items are out on the line for everyone to see. It was a little uncomfortable at first, but living in such close quarters with so many people, we "got over" having any personal or private space very quickly.
       In the evenings you might find us across the street.  CCS has a very strict policy against having any alcohol on the premises, and this is a good rule.  A very resourceful and clever African woman named Grace, lives across the street, and has turned her side yard into the Mzungu Bar.  Mzungu technically means "foreigner", but really it means, "white people".  She provides local beer, brewed in Tanzania because she's brilliantly figured out that she has a captive audience of 30 people who may need a place to debrief and share experiences.
       After a full day we find ourselves back in our rooms.  We pray that the electricity stays on so our fan will run through the night.  It usually doesn't.  It's not enough that we climb into short bunk beds, in the stifling heat, but then we basically wrap ourselves in plastic with our mosquito nets.  We are usually awakened around 4:00am by roosters, and prayers being chanted at the mosque nearby.  We eventually climb out of bed, decide we wouldn't want to be anywhere else, and start all over again.

our new,best friends, the cooks

CCS - My home away from home

dining area

washing our dishes

we look out for each other

laundry day for Sarah

the sun dries everything really quickly

ironing a sock seems pretty hilarious

no malaria for us!

Our favorite getaway

Anticipation Africa

        Leaving Costa Rica was bittersweet.  I was excited to move on to the next phase of my journey, but I had fallen in love with the country of CR.  I felt good about accomplishing my goals during my stay there, immersing in the culture, learning spanish, living on my own in a developing country, starting a blog,  and getting certified to teach English as a second language. The time flew by quickly!
        I stopped over in the United States for a month to say good-bye to family and friends. It was a whirlwind tour on the continent, couch surfing along the way, enjoying time with my loved ones, and eating everything in site. (I'm going to be starving in Africa, right?) I checked my storage locker to find my recliner still in the front section near the door where my sons had placed it, just in case I ever needed a place to sleep. It's my tiny piece of real estate on the planet, and it gives me a strange sort of comfort to think of it as home. I checked in with my CPA, my broker, and my estate planning lawyer. I went to visit my doctor one last time and we went over the list of immunizations I had gotten last spring; Typhoid, Hep A, Hep B, Tetanus, Rabies, Malaria pills, and the biggie that gets me into the country, Yellow Fever.  She gave me a flu shot, wrote me a script for Cipro, just in case... and cleared me to go.  I shut down my Iphone (really painful I might add), and made plans for my car to be sold.  My monthly bills would consist of 1) health insurance, 2) storage locker, that's it. I am completely untethered from trappings.  It's liberating, exciting, and scary all at the same time.
       My parents were amazed at the items I had laid out all over the floor of their spare bedroom; a mosquito net, water purifying tablets, toilet paper, my asthma medicines which filled half a bag, and two knee-length skirts for modesty at work, which I did not own and had to purchase.  My father shook his head with fear at the thought that all I would have with me for the next two years, could fit into two bags.
        My biggest concern at the moment was how to survive the 16 hour leg of my flight from the Dulles airport to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Armed with reading material and a fully charged ipod loaded with new music, I entered the airport and went straight to first store I found to buy one of those circular neck pillows. I would like to take this moment to personally apologize to those pillow owners all over the world for whom I smirked at, in airports, before this day.  Those pillows are the most comfortable things ever and it saved me on that long, long flight! I get it now. I'm a believer, and I am sorry.  Ethiopian Airlines gave me a packet when I sat down on my seat. It was full with a blanket, ear plugs, an eye cover, a pair of long socks, and a disposable toothbrush.  I felt so taken care of.
       With all the preparations finally behind me, I settled in comfortably. Before long the gravity of my situation rose up in my mind, and I began to feel anxious.  When I was in Costa Rica, my purpose was to decompress and attain certain goals. In Africa I am looking for a new purpose in life. Before now, my main focus in life was to be a good wife and mother, and I feel very accomplished in those areas. But now both of those are over.  So who am I now? If I strip it all away, what will I find?  For all of my adult life my decisions have always included the welfare and concerns of others, my children and my husband.  What will determine that now? What will my voice sound like when it is my own? A sudden lack of self confidence, and by that I mean panic, welled up in my heart.  Twenty-six hours later I landed in Tanzania, Africa.

addis ababa, ethiopia

Tanzania, Africa

KIA Lodge, where I stayed the first night, near the airport

Moshi is located at the base of Mt Kilimanjaro

the ride to Moshi

Mt Kilimanjaro

good bye costa rica

    

      Sad, sad, sad.  It came time for me to leave my beloved Costa Rica.  The voice in my head was refusing to be ignored.  "Why are you voluntarily leaving this paradise? No one is making you leave.  There is not one reason you have to leave. You are just now really getting a handle on the language, you're settling into your community, you could teach English here. Even your salsa dancing has improved. You love the sun, the food, the people, the jungle, the surf, the animals, even the rain. You love this place with every fiber of your being.  Everything about it suits you. You are leaving to go live in a village in Africa?  WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!?"    Shhhhh.  Just shhhhhh.

       I don't have an answer.  There really is no explanation other than I have been called in my heart to Africa.  I don't know why. All I know is that if I don't go now, I will never go.  The third "speak" is on the horizon and now it is time to give. 

my roommate

sunrise from my terrace

sunset over Quepos

       

Graduation

      One day I went to TEFL early to make 45 copies of small pictures as part of my materials for my lesson that night. As I stood at the copier with my first set of copies ready to go, the power went out! In fact the power was out in ALL of Quepos for the entire day. Not a single copier was in operation anywhere. I evaluated my situation.  It had taken me four hours to plan the lesson, an hour assessment for approval, another hour for revisions and second approval, and the rest of the materials were already made. There was no way I could alter the plan.  I had no choice but to draw all 45 of the pictures.  Thank goodness I had come in early. (Of course my hope had been to get my copies made and go to the beach for the morning.)  My lesson theme was all about relationships such as dating, engagement, marriage, etc.  Consequently, I spent 5 hours that day drawing stick people in love.  We hadn't brought our own lunch because we had planned to call and have lunch delivered.  With no power, we had no phone lines to call and no time to walk to town, which meant no food. Hungry and grumpy at the end of the day I vowed to take an art class when I settled back into the USA, so I'd never have to draw another stick figure again.

        At 4:15pm we started setting out small candles all over the room because it would be dark half way through class.  At 4:30 my students arrived and class began.  At 4:35 the power turned on!  My class was a success with no grammar bombs at all.  A few of my fellow teachers were suspiciously amazed that the power had been out during our exact work hours that day. They accused the staff at TEFL of pulling the switch so we would learn to make materials the old fashioned way, and be able to teach in third world countries with no resources.  They laughed and said one day we just might be grateful for the experience.

              So after numerous hours of 
             lesson planning with no sleep,
     teaching, evaluating, creating a final exam,
           and bouts with the copy machine,

                      we graduated.

TEFL threw a beautiful pool party and dinner for all of the graduates and our students.  With tears in our eyes we said our goodbyes.  We wished our students well in their continued quest to master the language with the next round of student teachers. Then we wished each other well as we would soon be spread out all over the world, teaching the power of the english language.

Casey A. and I give our final exam

death to the tefl copier hahaha

celebration time!!!

Casey S. and some of our students

Stacy, Darcy and Mark exhausted but happy

Woohoo, we made it!

The best part

       I think it has become fairly obvious that I am in love with the Ticos as a people group.  When I began to teach them English and really get to know them, my affection grew even stronger.  They were eager to learn English and earnestly tried their best to grasp what we were teaching.  When it works and a student learns a new word, or they understand the concept of the grammar, it's like a lightbulb turns on and you can see it all over their face.  It's the greatest feeling to be a part of that learning process. TEFL provides free English lessons to anyone in the community who wants to attend, because we student teachers need to practice.  So, yes, those classes are free, but they might just get what they pay for. We are rookies, and although we try our hardest to be good teachers, sometimes things don't go as planned.
       The very first time I taught classes on my own, I was given the upper intermediate class two days in a row.  The lessons were very complicated and the grammar for both days was very close to each other.  I had my class plans laid out, and had practiced numerous times.  During the second day, in the middle of the lesson, I somehow switched back to the grammar from the day before.  They were so confused!  They finally figured out what I was trying to teach them, and they were very gracious about it, but I made it ten times harder for them!  I felt horrible and inadequate.  At my teaching assessment with Drew, I went in and told him what he already knew. "I had a grammar bomb go off in my class today." He consoled me and gave me tips on how to avoid it in the future.
        Not all classes were as serious as that one though.  As part of our learning process, in addition to teaching our own classes, we had to observe and fill out forms, assessing six classes taught by our peers.  We were instructed to sit quietly in the back of the room and "disappear".  The teacher and the students were supposed to forget that we were even there.  We observed in stillness as we watched the effectiveness of our peer teachers.  Part of our technique for teaching vocabulary was to show pictures related to the vocabulary word.  We would then ask concept questions about the picture to draw the word out of the students.  It gave them a chance to generate new speech on their own and let you know what prior knowledge they had about the subject. After doing this 7-10 times, we would have our bank of vocabulary words for the class. One friend's theme for her beginner class, was teaching about fitness.  She was trying to teach them about muscles and had drawn a picture of a huge, buff guy standing on a beach.  She held up the picture and asked, "What do you see?"  A student who was normally shy about speaking english, yelled out..."Steroids!" In the back of the room I looked over at Casey. Our eyes went wide and we looked at one another, trying to contain ourselves, as we wondered how he even knew that word!  We clasped our hands over our mouths, but it was no use, the noise of our laughter spewed out from between our fingers.

me teaching english.  check out the view from class

    

my beginner lesson about gerunds

Darcy captivates her students, as Heidi observes

I taught a conversation class to the upper intermediates
and got to ask ten questions
about living in Quepos. Fascinating!

Rated ML for Mature Language

       Several days into TEFL our heads began to spin. They crammed so much valuable information into the curriculum that we were afraid our heads were going to explode.  They taught us things like classroom management, effective correction, the nine different intelligences of learning styles, how to teach grammar, and so on.  During the last two weeks of TEFL we would actually be teaching Ticos from our community, so it was important that we get this information down pat, especially in regards to lesson planning.  Heidi emphasized that in order to reach a second language learner, one should always consider using meaningful dialogue that is relevant to each particular class, in our lesson planning.  We should be teaching vocabulary with topics and language they can go out and practice using immediately such as, playing a sport, interviewing for a job, dating, etc.   If our lesson plans are meaningful to their lives then their interest level, motivation to learn, and retention will be higher.

       During the morning break, several of my classmates tried their hand at meaningful, relevant dialogue…

day two day

       My TEFL class (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) consists of two instructors, and ten students from all over the US, and one from Australia.  For the next four weeks we would eat, sleep and breathe the power of the English language.  Heidi, the head of our school is not only beautiful but a brilliant educator.  Her favorite thing to do is to teach grammar.  It’s a little crazy how excited she gets about it.  In the beginning I thought she was just trying to pump us up because everyone hates learning it so much, but no.  She really is obsessed with grammar.

       During our second day in class Heidi said we would participate in a beginners class. We, ourselves, would be the students learning very basic English to experience what it was like to be a new learner.  Our ten vocabulary words were things you would find in a house.  The focus for the grammar was using words of location such as in, on, behind, on top of, next to, etc.   Towards the end of class she paired us up, one to one, in order to work together on the Communicative Activity.  This is the part of the lesson where the students combine everything they have learned into one activity that promotes self-generated conversation between the students.  Heidi paired me with Mark.  All I knew about him so far was that he was a really tall guy, and a stand-up comedian from Chicago.  Heidi gave each set of partners a sheet of paper with a small apartment drawn on it.  Then she gave us miniature pictures of objects one would find in an apartment.  The goal was for us to discuss and agree on where we should place these things.  For example, she said, “I’ll put the flowers ON the table.”  To check our true understanding of the words she would say, “Is that ok?”  We replied, “yes.” Then she said, “I’ll put the television IN the refrigerator. Is that ok?”  “No!” We giggled like new learners. “Now it’s time for you to set up your own apartments.

       I looked at Mark. “You know, we haven’t known each other very long. Don’t you think it’s too soon to move in together?”  Mark laughed and said, “Baby I knew the minute I met you that you were the one for me.”  “Awe Marky, you always say the right thing.” Heidi had stopped by our desks to check our progress.  She grinned and said, “Stop trying to solve your moral issues and move in. Now.”

       Five minutes into the activity she asked for volunteers to demonstrate.  Mark raised his hand.  We went forward and began placing the tiny pictures.  One was a floor lamp and Mark said, “Put the lamp BEHIND the chair.”  I said, “Put the dishes IN the sink.”  The next picture was a baby grand piano.  “Mark, you brought the piano?!? You never even play it!”  “But honey, you know I’ve had it since I was a kid.”  I said, “Put that ON Craig’s list, there’s no room!”  Heidi intervened, “You two clowns sit your butts IN your chairs.”  Under her breath she mumbled something about it being a very long four weeks.

the classroom where we learn to be teachers

lesson planning in the lounge...

for hours and hours

teaching practice

TEFL

       Although I would love to spend the rest of my time in Costa Rica doing nothing other than playing, I have another goal to accomplish.  The second “speak” of my journey is English.   Part of the original plan was to become TEFL certified,  (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) which would mean I would be certified and skilled to teach English as a second language anywhere in the world. I wouldn’t need to be able to speak the language of the country I would be teaching in, because I would be speaking English the entire time.  This new skill in my tool belt would allow me to travel anywhere in the world and earn a living teaching English.  The four week certification course can be taken in many locations all over the world, even in the United States, but aha! There is a training center in Quepos. (not a coincidence)

       I was sitting on my terrace with my laptop, filling out the application for certification.  I’d always heard this was a very intense program, with lots of homework, lesson planning, and very little sleep. There was actually a place in the application where we had to assure them that we were of sound body and mind, and all of our domestic affairs were in order, so we would be able to complete the course. Yikes, this could be scarier than a 90 ft. repel drop.

       I sat with my finger on the send button.  Hmmm…  this means I would be giving up 4 weeks; one complete month in paradise. I wouldn’t be enjoying my view, my hammock, or my peace and quiet.  I only have a short time here.  Did I really want to give it up to sit in a classroom? Could I give up trips down to the beach, and watching the monkeys come home every night?

       Now, I do realize that none of you are crying for me right now.  I know this sounds ridiculous, as I put it into print, but still, this is my time - for the very first time.  No. I must go forward.  TEFL was the plan, and it is a good plan, a worthy goal and part of a bigger dream. Paradise will still be here, but this opportunity for me, may not.

       I took my left hand and quickly smacked it down on top of that finger. Before I could change my mind, the application went out.

TEFL in Quepos

Our building with classrooms

view from one of the classrooms

another view from class, the mountains instead of the beach

OK, so this is not so bad