Bridging Culture. Working Together.

I spent much of my time in Kabala teaching. When I began teaching in the U.S, that is when I began to feel the brunt of culture shock.  When I first walked into the classroom in Kabala, Sierra Leone, that was when I realized that the students always write in pen.  I had assumed they used pencils, because I grew up using pencils in school. You would be surprised how many challenges came up with the use of pens: my students sticking broomsticks into the ink because it was blocked, ink exploding all over their face as they try to blow into the pen, students "stealing" other students pens.  When my students would come in from break time, after eating fried fish, their oily hands often prevented the pen to write on their paper.  Every day, not having a working pen was the popular excuse to not write in the classroom. My first day of substitute teaching was with a lively group of kindergarteners, all telling me they needed to sharpen their pencil.  It's a simple n...

Leaving Sierra Leone, on my way to the U.S. The first month of being in the U.S, I had everything planned out.  I was able to talk about my experiences in Sierra Leone and share what I had learned, so in a way, it hadn't really felt like I left.  Yes, there were things that bothered me, like the woman that took two car-seats for her children on the airplane and ended up not using either of them.  A car seat is not going to save your children if the plane crashes.  Unnecessary. But as I began to face the reality that I was going to be in the U.S for longer than expected, I realized that I had to somehow "fit" back into life here in the U.S.  I couldn't live like I was living in Sierra Leone.  As soon as I realized I didn't have a plan, probably the least planned my life has ever been, I began to feel culture shock.  I cried myself to sleep for a week, feeling lost, trying to figure out a way that I could go back.  My heart was somewhere else,...