Working Conditions

Gearoid and I, for the most part, are really enjoying our work here in Sierra Leone. However, we have both experienced some things that have had us scratching and shaking our heads in amusement and/or confusion.

·        It is perfectly acceptable to pick your nose in public here. Gearoid and I have laughed with other expats about who we’ve been talking to when the nose excavations begin- priests, colleagues, kids, the mayor. It’s distracting in conversations but in my workplace it’s worse. With a background as a preschool teacher I am predisposed to tell people to stop picking their nose/get a tissue/etc. As a lecturer at a university I’ve noticed that it is extremely difficult to talk about 18^th century poetry (of which I am an expert thanks to Wikipedia) when a 50 year old gentleman in a very nice suit is sitting front and center digging for gold. Words literally stopped coming out of my mouth and tried to reform into a response I would give to a 3 year old. Somehow, I managed to distract myself and return to the rhyming scheme of the poem. 

·        National power has recently arrived at UNIMAK (the local university) but before power became 24/7, the generator was used during set times. It was not unusual mid-lecture for the power to come on. As soon as the lights came one, no matter what I was doing or saying, at least half the students rose and battled for the handful of plugs in the room in order to charge their phones and laptops. There were no apologetic looks or gestures. Why waste power for common courtesy?

·        Perfectly acceptable excuses not to come to work or university lectures in Sierra Leone: being sick, it’s raining, my mother’s brother died, my mother’s brother really didn’t die but he’s dead now (this is actually a very common excuse), having another job, televised trial of a war criminal, knowing that if you get a grade of 45% in the class you’re still able to pass, being a teacher who hasn’t been paid for 4 years by the Ministry of Education, being a teacher who is paid by the Ministry of Education and the paperwork takes years to get adjusted so he/she can still get paid even if he/she doesn’t show up to work, being at work yesterday, etc. Some of my students at UNIMAK actually decided to attend class and on not one, not two, but on five occasions were kicked out of class by the finance office because they hadn’t paid their school fees in entirety.  One day, my class of 30 plus dwindled down to 4 students.

·        Logistical matters are often not considered. With the blessing of the head of the school, I started offering weekly trainings to the teachers of St. Joseph’s. The trainings took place once a week during the last hour of school. I found out several weeks later that when the teachers were coming to visit me, they were sending the students home instead of covering for each other. Students were losing out on education so the teachers could play educational games with me. It was my own fault for assuming everything was taken care of.

·        I know I lecture at a Catholic University but it’s difficult not to be stumped when discussing poetry, Shakespeare, or grammar and the students make comments such as “the devil never asked for forgiveness” and “the Almighty decides what’s best for us all” in response to  a question or comment. I just don’t see how comments like these are relevant when discussing how many sentences should be in a paragraph.

·        In addition to my trainings, it appears that teachers can get out of teaching if: it’s raining, they don’t have enough paper, they want to take a nap on the floor, something more interesting is happening elsewhere, they have a classroom with a window, etc. This isn’t the rule but it has happened and there are unfortunately repeat offenders.

·        First year university students at UNIMAK get the pleasure of reading the Merchant of Venice. At first this was surprising to me because in the States most people read this play early in high school but the other things I’ve had to teach to “university” students here makes this play look like complex physics. While teaching this play, our focus was more on the literal aspects of the play rather than symbolism. For example, who are the characters and what do they do. After reading the play, we showed the film version of the play to the students. While watching with them, they interrupted the movie to ask for an explanation. I was confused because we had just read the play and discussed in detail what happens. It turns out that they needed me to point out the characters to them. The white people blended together in the film and they couldn’t tell who was who.

·        The other day I was approached by a teacher who attends my trainings. She told me she was angry because she had missed the last four weeks of trainings and I hadn’t come and found out why. She told me she had had surgery then pulled down her shirt, took out her breast, and showed me a scar. Bewildered, I apologized and all was forgiven.

Gearoid’s work includes him travelling to various villages outside of Makeni and conducting interviews. He bought a motorcycle (his mom’s worst nightmare) and his assistant drives him around. During the course of his work he has come back with many interesting non-research related stories.

·        Someone tried to sell him an 8 inch scorpion. They were promptly told they had the wrong white man.

·        He’s had to remove his shoes and roll up his pants to wade through marsh land. One day some women were giggling that if the water got any higher, he would have to remove his pants.

·        He was propositioned to be a woman’s second husband. Thankfully for me he deterred.

·        To the delight of the elders and the intense fear of the children, Gearoid was the first white man ever to visit this 55 year old village. His research assistant teased a pair of 6 year old girls staring with open mouths at Gearoid that the white man was there to pick his second wife and was trying to choose between one of them. They didn’t enjoy this revelation.

·        Sadly one interview was interrupted when a man came to tell the woman being interviewed that her son in another town had died. The woman promptly lifted her shirt up and ran out of her house wailing. Meanwhile, her other son continued to sit with Gearoid calmly smoking a cigarette. Gearoid asked about his dead brother and the man shrugged it off and made a statement saying they couldn’t even be sure he was dead.

·        Gearoid gives all of his interviewees aliases to maintain their anonymity. He offered one man the option of picking his own alias, thinking the man would choose Ali, Abu, Mohamed, or another common name. The man chose Rambo and now when Gearoid quotes this man in his research publications, he’ll have to refer to him as a famous Sylvester Stallone character.

·        One day, Gearoid and his assistant stopped the motorcycle when they saw a half dead black mambo snake in the road. It was trying to protect itself while the lower half was colorfully smashed on the road. Of course pictures had to be taken.

·        It’s rainy season here which means that occasionally Gearoid and his assistant get stuck driving in inclement weather. Imagine this- a black man in a yellow raincoat has a white passenger. The white passenger has a thin plastic yellow poncho on over his body and his giant book bag. He’s put a bicycle helmet on over the hood of the poncho, which is billowing behind him, as well as aviator sunglasses to protect his eyes. He sits hunched and huddled behind the driver but occasionally looks up and notices the surprised open mouthed stares of local people who have never seen a white man look so ridiculous. True story.

Despite the long drawn out Sundays with no electricity, life is rarely dull here and unlike at home, we’re quite ready for Mondays to arrive. 

Giant Scorpion

Kids following Gearoid

Gearoid, a man with directions, and his assistant