Patience

I wrote and submitted this a while ago and since I searched through other peoples to give me clues about mine I figured I would spread the love.

Aspiration Statement
Mauritania
June 2008

A. Professional Attributes:

During my service in Mauritania I plan to use a variety of professional skills that I have at my disposal. Namely, the skills I hope to implement are: patience, listening, resourcefulness, determination, my content expertise, and the teaching methods I have found that mesh with my specific teaching styles.

I have full faith that my resourcefulness and patience are going to be the skills that will be tested to their limits. In my experience, people are apprehensive about trusting outsiders until they prove themselves through a series of tests. I am willing to undergo these tests and put my all into the tasks at hand

My aspirations for the service are lofty goals. I would like to teach a usable skill set that will help my students lead a richer and fuller life and to exchange cultural information and ideals without either participant losing their cultural identities.

As a classroom teacher, I know that all the planning in the world does not ensure that you will be able to execute your planned lesson. As a human being I have experienced the rollercoaster ride that goes along with the differences between what I would like to happen and what actually does. The way that we look at what has transpired colors our experiences. A positive attitude can make a detour or an unexpected lesson an adventure that was worth the while. The fact that we are actually doing something is almost as important as what we attempt to accomplish.

B. Strategies – Expressed needs:

I think that honoring our host countries wishes are extremely important and that the Peace Corps places people that are hopefully able to improve upon the tried and true methods that are implemented in the system to execute the countries wishes. I hope to be able to listen, watch, learn, and try a number of strategies. I am a team player and feel that the more that people work together, the more they can accomplish. I know that the program that I am entering has been around for a couple of years and I hope to be adding to its successful implementation while adding my own unique flavor. I respect authority and I expect that authority will respect my abilities and grant me a level of autonomy so that I can accomplish the requested tasks.

C. Strategies – Culture:

I find that I am fairly open-minded when it comes to most things. I handle situations as they come. I feel that American culture lacks uniqueness and this facilitates my acceptance of things that are foreign to me. I want to watch, listen, taste, try, ask and answer questions, dance, sing, smile, laugh, cry, meet people I will like and people I dislike. In life, I try things, weigh them against my own likes and dislikes, and make a personal choice based on that.

I know that I will be able to hold on to my own sense of self, through the support I receive from my wife, fellow volunteers, and my support system back home. My wife and I keep each other sane at home, often dealing with individuals and groups that exist outside of our comfort levels; together she and I can thrive in any situation. I will write, email, take pictures, send and receive care packages, and call the people I care about back home. I have heard that there are ample opportunities to meet with other Americans within Mauritania in order to hold on to American holidays and I plan on taking advantage of them.

D. Pre-service:

I hope that the pre-service training will give me some helpful hints about the country that I am about to enter. I want to be able to live in the culture that I am going to enter, not as fly on the wall, but as an active participant. I want to be able to speak the language of the people that I will live among. I hope that I can gain some clues about how my students are going to test me when I get to the classroom. I would like to be shown a glimpse of what I can do to help the people of my community, what they need, and what has been done before.

E. Influence:

Out of all of the uncertainties that I have about the Peace Corps experience, of one thing I am certain: it will change my life for the better to give some of myself to people who can only offer me their friendship.

I did not become a teacher to become rich with money; I did it to become rich with experiences. I will never know material wealth the way many people do here, yet the people of Mauritania will never know the luxuries that I have here at home. This will be an experience that will not describe me as many things in our lives do, it will define me. It will push me harder and leave me more fulfilled than anything that I have ever done before. It will ignite in me a drive to reach new levels in all aspects of my existence.

As a teacher, I can only ever gain from teaching more students. The longer I teach the more enhanced my abilities will become. As a social studies teacher living in another culture, in a country that so few I know have ever heard of, is an experience that will be a highlight of my life’s calling.

If I Ever Leave This World Alive

I don't want to do work all night after I spent all day having to work. I have to finish up study guides and write tests for all of my classes. I am so lazy and just want to curl up on the couch and nap until have to go to bed. I am even slacking on my French class that I am taking.

BLARG!

I have grown to accept the loss of my friend Isis, she is dearly missed, but we change many times throughout existence and all things happen for a reason, I have to be ok with it, so I am. I do not have time to mourn my loss I have to do work and get ready to leave.

I have recently connected to some future Peace Corps people via email and I already treasure their friendship. I feel like Kristy and I finally have people who understand exactly what we are going through because they are going through the exact same thing as us. It's such an exciting and scary part of our lives its good to know that others are right there with us thinking and doing very similar things.

Lonely Day

So Peace Corps, so many good things: adventure, career, college, travel, exotic food, a new continent in my list of life goals. I am so excited and awaiting my blissful, terrible, uplifting, cynical adventure that I know I am going to have.

The bad things; career on hold as it begins, packing up my whole life into a few boxes, selling everything I cant take or pack, giving away things I cant sell, throwing away what I cant give, leaving the people that I love, leaving our pets - yeah about that its why I am blogging. I have to put my cat Isis down, I have to murder her. She sprays, its not like she pees on stuff, she destroys things. Destroys them until they are gone destroys them, rusts metal underneath paint, makes everything sticky and stinky and orange. Seriously its fucking gross. We cant have people over because its so horrible. I can not ask anyone to foster her, she will destroy their stuff too. Its cost us thousands (thats right plural) of dollars we have thrown out heirlooms, keepsakes, all kinds of stuff. The other side of me says meh its just stuff, I would have thrown it out anyway, or its just money, I would have spent it anyways, or its just company, they would have gotten on my nerves. But that does not change the situation. I can not ask anyone to deal with that, considering how much I hate it.

On Tuesday I will have to have her murdered. It will be quick and painless, and she will be around the people who love her, but it sucks and it makes me cry and I want to smoke and drink and cry and it sucks.

Thats it. I am sad, it sucks


bleh

Mic Check

I have decided to start my blog and be used to posting before my journey starts. I have time to do this now because of the snow and ice that covers the Ohio landscape. School closed @ 6:20 this morning and I am glad.

Although I know that I am fighting the good fight and trying to bring a bit of education and well reasoned citizenship it is a constant uphill battle for me at Robinson. How are my students supposed to care about history and government when they have little of the basic amenities that average American students are blessed with? The answer is, that often that they do not. I see so many beautiful minds in my classes every day and they seem to be more bent on distracting and discouraging me then accomplishing the goals that I pose for them. I know that I sound a bit cynical at present but, I do not know if I am meant for the middle school mind.

On a positive note I truly feel that they have finally accepted me as their teacher, something that I had been struggling with for 2 months is done. I no longer feel that I am being chased away and the taunts that I receive are different then they once were. Sometimes they are good natured friendly jabs and sometimes attacks on the system that I as an educator and authority figure represent.

I can live with and will encourage the rebellion but I merely want it to be more subtle, better planned, and done with finesse. As a white man in a school that is dominated but minority students I know that I am from a place that is mysterious and hated because of my gender and complexion, regardless of the paths that I have walked and the similarities that I may share with my students. I hope only the best for them, and that they will find the balance and structure that they crave.