September

September has proved to be a very interesting month for Sarah and myself. Each day brings it's own challenges, joys, and frustrations. I find myself falling in love with the children more and more everyday. The pictures we take do not even begin to capture the true essence of their personalities and character. However, as we are being immersed into this culture, we face many challenges of knowing how to deal with certain situations and how to properly communicate with the people. Everything I thought I knew about education and children, I'm finding that I really know nothing at all. One of the biggest challenges I see, as far as school goes, is taking what we know and changing it so that it will fit this culture. For example, the children just don't respond to our way of disciplining and managing a classroom. One little boy was slamming his slate on the desk and so, responding in the way that is natural to me, I took it away from him. He looked at me, so confused, and then asked for it back.

Sarah and I are also having a difficult time having authority with the children. Adults don’t interact with children in Sierra Leone the same way they do in America. Children are expected to be very submissive, seen and not heard. So when we come in desiring to build relationship with the children and to interact with them in the way we would interact with American children, in a sense we are giving up our authority. In America we have this thought that, “you have to give respect in order to receive it,” but here, respect is not a choice, it is an expectation. For me, I would rather play and interact with the children the way I want to, than have them listen to me in school, which is okay because they have their teachers to discipline them. Let me just say, that we only face this problem with the little ones, the older children recognize that they still need to treat Sarah and myself with respect.