A Sense of Purpose

I have tried not to make the mistake of jumping into projects here before I get the lay of the land. I tell each school that I visit or organization that I meet with that right now I am here to learn. I need to learn what is going well, what the challenges are, what their scope or vision is, and how they think I may be of assistance. Peace Corps has been absent from Ethiopia for quite some time; consequently, I spend a lot of my time explaining the role that a Peace Corps volunteer could play. In the long run, I believe that this strategy will serve me well, but in the mean time I often feel like a ship without a rudder.

I’ve also learned that being a health volunteer assigned to an NGO providing services to OVC through the school venue is tricky. It is tricky because in the past the majority of PCVs to Ethiopia taught in the school system. When I visit these schools they regal me with stories of Ms. Patty the English teacher or Mr. Anderson the science teacher and wonder why I haven’t just been assigned to their particular school to take over a classroom.

With all that being said, I’ve decided that having purpose, even if it is not necessarily what I was brought here to do, is better than being purposeless. Hannah, Belete’s wife, is a kindergarten teacher at a private school. When I was at their home for Tseyion’s birthday party, she asked if I would be willing to come to her classroom just once to allow her students to practice conversational English. This past week I went and had such a great time that I will be making this a part of my weekly program.

Deep down, I’ve always wanted to be a teacher. In fact, I would often come home from kindergarten and play school. Mimicking the commanding voice and unique mannerisms of my own kindergarten teacher, Ms.Williams, I would conduct class. I would carefully write homework assignments on the blackboard and issue the occasional detention for an unruly stuffed animal student. When I went to school this past week, I didn’t really know what to expect or what Hannah expected of me. When she handed me the chalk, I must admit that there was a brief fluttering of panic. What do I do with a classroom of 30 children ages 5 to 8? But then I paused, thought of Ms. Williams, and charged ahead. I wrote on the board, walked up and down the classroom, called on kids (and not just the ones frantically waving their hand in the air), and truly lived in the moment. Two hours passed by in the blink of an eye and a flurry of chalk dust.





I was so exited to discover that two of my little neighborhood friends are students in Hannah’s classroom. Here Tesfye reviews the letter “u” with his classmates.