The Job part 2

Happy Super Bowl Sunday everyone! Personally I won’t be watching the game this year because of the time difference. Benin is 8 hours ahead of Arizona, so the game would start at like midnight here. Luckily the final match of the African Cup of Nations is also being played today (Nigeria vs The Ivory Coast), so I will be watching that with my neighbors. This last week has definitely been a lazy one for me. With the weather being so bad, I was sick for a few days, and I never got my motivation back. Hope this week will be different because I have so much work to do. Speaking of work…

In part 2 of “The Job”, I want to share with you all about my work with the local schools. The Beninese school system is again set up to model the French by having primary and secondary schools. My work is mainly done at the secondary schools. In US terms, secondary school is like a combination of middle and highschool. In my arrondissement, Kpédékpo, there is one secondary school. These schools are called CEG. The CEG is funded by the government and therefore is a public school that anyone can attend. Although the CEG is funded by the government, there are still school fees that the students must pay to attend. These fees are affordable and necessary for the schools to function. Fees must be paid by all male students from the moment they are enrolled, but for female students, school is free up until about the end of middle school. The government put this rule in place in hopes of making education more accessible to young girls. Along with public schools there are also private schools. In my area there is one private school that is luckily located right next to my house. Because attending private school is a choice, all students pay, no matter their gender, but the school essentially functions the same way. There are two different diplomas you can get during your time at the secondary level. The first is called the BBC and it is a test taken at the end of middle school. If you pass this test, you are able to continue to get your BAC which is at the end of high school. By getting these diplomas you can open so many doors for yourself. 

Now let’s talk about the work that I do with the schools. As I said before, I mainly work with the secondary school students. One of Peace Corps objectives is to improve youth health in our communities, so the way they suggest approaching this is through a health club. My first year, I tried to set this up, but it was a big failure. Although it was a failure, I learned so many valuable lessons like always having a reliable co-facilitator, consistency matters, and always expect the unexpected. So anyways working at the schools didn’t really start going well until I got my bearings. 

For my first year I participated in an already established English Club at the CEG that was started by the volunteer before me. The club is led by local English teacher Oliver, and he is amazing. The club gave me the opportunity to make relationships with the kids while not feeling overwhelmed to plan and lead a club by myself. Like I said before, I tried to start a Health Club during my first year, but it didn’t really work out. I wasn’t able to be consistent with it, and it was very overwhelming especially because 200 kids showed up for the first session. So during my first year, I focused on making relationships with the teachers and school directors. I visited the school a lot, participated in activities, observed classes, joined the students for holiday parties and even played a little football on the weekends. Because of the time I took to grow my relationships I was able to introduce my neighbor, Chantal, to the private school director which in turn helped her to get a job as their new English teacher. Now this worked out great for me because we started working together and she is now one of my best friends here. 

Second school year hit, and I was feeling much more confident about setting stuff up at the schools. Because the private school is much closer to my house, I focused on creating a club there. My friend and neighbor, Chantal, who is now working at the private school, was committed to co-facilitating the club with me. After many talks with the director of the school we decided on creating a biweekly English Club and a biweekly Girls Club. I really wanted to focus on girl empowerment, and the director really wanted his students to benefit from learning with a native English speaker. This way we can meet two needs. So that is where we are at right now, every week I am at the school for either English Club or Girls Club. It’s been a little rocky, but I think we are getting the swing of things. This week Chantal, the girls and I will be talking about the female reproductive system. 

Besides the clubs I do my best to take any opportunities to involve my students in Peace Corps programs. For example, next month I will be participating in a Young Leaders in Professionalism program with 4 students from my village. OMG I can’t believe I almost forgot about my favorite activity that I did with the girls. Over the winter break Deirdre (another PC volunteer) and I hosted a Girls Camp. We talked about all things girls, and if you wanna know more, go back and read my blog titled “Girls Camp”.

If you know me at all, then you know I love working with youth. Activities at the schools have been some of my favorite things that I have done so far during my service, and I can’t wait to keep working with them!