A Few Pics

This is what my students make when we have time to work on the whiteboards! Our class does love each other… we just still need to work on spelling a bit 🙂

Anna and Megan love to make me cards all the time… this is the one I got this week. How cute is it?! I think I might have to keep it for my whole life…

Normal view outside of the window at school- aka window washing day. FYI it is creepier when the day workers are at eye level and looking into the classroom.

Please note the location of this hand-sanitizer dispenser. It is RIGHT in front of the door handle and I can barely get my key in the door… and when it dispenses and the kids move their hands (always!) it gets all over the floor, where then they step in it (which is a safety hazard!). Out of ALL the places for it to be put I just still can’t handle that that is where it was placed… it is removed now, not to worry!

Patchwork sail that passed by my classroom this week. It was so neat looking!

Two of my roomies (Sarah and Kayleigh) eating breakfast in our “living room.” Love them!

TIA

TIA is an acronym that gets a lot of use here on the ship. This has affected my immediate thought process greatly because I used to think of Tampa International Airport… which, clearly, nobody is EVER talking about here. TIA is commonly used as a shortened and more convenient version of “this is Africa.” I think the best way to describe how this acronym is used would be to give a few recently/consistently occurring scenarios where the only appropriate response is… TIA.

• The water on the ship has been turned off for an unidentified about of time. 
• When the water is turned back on… it is coming out with a serious brownish tint. 
• The meal at dinner is rice with some sketchy, unnamed sauce. 
• It smells weird. Everywhere.
• There is a HUGE truck stopped in the middle of the road with no plans of moving.
• While walking down the street every African child wants to touch everyone’s’ hand. 
• Everything must be negotiated… even if it only costs 500 leones. (=12 American cents)
• Look! There is a goat tied up on the side of this super busy street. 
• Don’t fall in the open sewer/trash river/outdoor bathroom/home for creatures/ only covered by unattached, non-fitting, cement blocks. 
• There is a fire in the poda-poda and it is causing 18 people (not an exaggeration) to frantically try to climb out.
• Watch out for the rats as you are trying to walk on the dock!(speaking of rats.. on a walk today I totally witnesses a small rat clothesline itself in caution tape. Kayleigh and I were hysterically laughing/way grossed out about it.)

The ship is full of all kinds of unique noises. I don’t really know how to describe it… but people who have been here for a long time are not really phased by any noise at all unless it is a ship alarm or announcement. The evac system (which is the plumbing system onboard) in particular has a complete set of sounds that strictly belongs to it. In my cabin in particular, the bathroom has the weirdest noises coming from it pretty much always!! I keep waiting for the time that Kayleigh and I will get used to it and not make a face at each other when it is sounding so ridiculous- but that day has yet to come and we have discussions about it pretty much every night. The two of us have a nickname system where we like to name things on the ship that we talk about frequently (I have NO idea why we started to do this… but it is super fun and it is like our own little language!) and we then always refer to it by the nickname. The toilet has gotten the name Maximus (pretty clever- based upon the scientific muscle name!! We didn’t even know that at first… it was pure subconscious geniousness!) At nighttime when it is sounding crazy we tell Maximus to calm down and be quiet.

Two weeks ago was the end of the first quarter at school and was the first time doing report cards and parent conferences with the Academy. It was a success! The end of the quarter was followed by a Friday ship holiday and Monday teacher work day. A small group of Gateway friends spent the night at a hotel off ship and on the beach. It was a really nice weekend to catch up on sleep! We each got our own queen sized bed, which is like royalty quality since our bunks on the ship are super narrow. I slept diagonal just because I could and it was glorious! We ate dinner out at a restaurant that had a patio right on the beach and we spent our time there just catching up about life on the ship. It was so nice because we just kinda sat at the outside for a long while after we finished eating. This is something I have loved about going out with my European friends because they always embrace the “dining experience” and spend a big portion of evenings out enjoying time in company with one another. This is so different because us North Americans typically leave right after a meal is over. I am never opposed to just sitting around in fellowship for a little extra time! Overall, I have to say, most days life is good here.

**Pictures are refusing to upload… so this weekend I will try again! Who knows what is going on… I guess I am living on a ship, in Africa… slow internet should be expected, right?

Spirit Days Are My Fave

Okay so one of my favorite things about my profession is that some things are acceptable just because I am an elementary school teacher. It is like a trump card to things that people would typically think were maybe… ridiculous. Dressing up with thematic bows in your hair for holidays, using stickers for pretty much anything that you can, coloring for fun on the weekends, watching disney movies consistently by choice… are all things that come with judgement… until you say, “But I am an elementary school teacher,” to which the response inevitably is “Ohhhh, I would have guessed that.” (I am not sure if this is a good or bad thing!) Another one of these activities would be what we like to call Spirit Day in the Academy. We have a school-wide spirit day about every two months where the school is given a theme to dress up to. This past week was 80’s day and it was SUCH a fun time. The days of preparation were stress filled (I mean… of COURSE- who knows how to find costume things on a SHIP) but followed by a completely fun time when all of the staff (who I think enjoyed it more than the students) was decked out in 80’s gear. Please note the picture below. 

There are not very many historical sites near Freetown to visit. I think that it is because the government is consumed with so many other problems that preserving landmarks is not high on the priority list. There is a small island about an hour and a half boat ride from the port called Bunce Island which is, I think, the only recognized landmark near the city. The island was used as the base of the Sierra Leone slave trade and the remains of the English-run fort are still on the premises. Our group of 15 got a very unofficial tour (given by the driver of the African boat/canoe that we took to get there) where we viewed what is left of the fort and holding areas for the slaves and the small cemetery. It was a really eerie experience since the whole island is deserted now (duh! who would want to spend time there??). We traveled to and from the island by an African boat/canoe (I feel forced to call it this because I am not really sure what it was!) which we loaded onto right by the port. We walked from the ship outside the gates and climbed down a small slope of stones to the shore in a small sandy space between the port wall and the slums. The area was completely and indescribably covered in trash of every kind. Against the port wall is an area (I would like to call it a river) where all of the sewage, from what seems like the entire city, dumps into the river. It flows out at such a rapid speed, I am not ever sure that you could walk through it because it has its own current. You can imagine the disgusting things (I will spare you the description) that pours out into the water. I think that the saddest thing about it, in addition to the massive amounts of trash, is that people live right by this water and children were playing all around it. I just don’t think that I can ever get used to seeing things like this… even if I lived my whole life here. I have to get pics of this little trip from a friend (this little boat you all NEED to see) so they will have to come later… 

Kayleigh and me on spirit day at school 🙂

I know our God is a God of details… and partially because I think about wishing I had orange juice and it is delivered to the ship shop the next day!!!

It was the best day ever when I looked to see where the orange juice was from… and it was from Florida! A bit of me felt like I was at home!