Still Out Here: Life Updates and The Education System

Hello all!

I feel like I don’t have that many updates since last post so this will probably be a short one! So here’s a few glimpses into life lately as well as the realities of working in the Lesotho education field.

My role at school has changed a little bit so I’ll speak on that! Per our Peace Corps project framework, education volunteers are supposed to be mainly teaching grade 4 while helping with English in lower grades and life skills lessons in upper grades. Obviously, based on the village and school you are placed at, our roles as PCVs look a lot different. Some schools don’t have enough teachers for each grade, so a volunteer might have their own classroom and grade. Others have enough teachers, but don’t want help solely in grade 4, so the volunteer will bounce around a lot in different classrooms.

Personally, I’ve loved being in grade 4. I have gotten to know each of my students and love all their quirky little 9 year old personalities. I’m continuing teaching English and numeracy lessons in this class while adding teaching conversational English in grade 7. This has been fantastic and discouraging, more on that in a minute! On top of classroom lessons, Im running 3 different Grassroots Soccer clubs - one of grade 6 and 7 girls, one grade 6 and 7 boys, and one for grade 4 and 5. This program teaches life skills using soccer games and it’s just so fun. The kids really look forward to club days and get super excited to participate. I have 4 teachers who are trained in this program and are doing most of the work for these clubs - I’m just overseeing and helping out here and there making sure things are running smoothly!

grade 4 classroom!

I’m also writing a grant right now to get funding for a water pump at our school next to the already existing greenhouse so that we can use that resource year round! The previous volunteer at my site built this gorgeous greenhouse and it hasn’t been in use for a bit due to water issues. So hopefully we can get some funding for that and get this greenhouse up and running. My goal is for it to be led by community members and an agricultural club at the school so that the teachers don’t have as much responsibility. The community will keep that project going, but the school might not prioritize it as much. I just want these kids to eat some veggies here and there! Produce production will be used for school lunches, given to community members who help to maintain the greenhouse, and a small portion sold to create a fund for future expenses such as seeds, repairs, or other materials to ensure financial sustainability here. So, I am looking forward to working with the community, school, and learners to see this project to completion.

Anyway, just plugging along at school and looking forward to some fun weekends and trips I’ve got planned for the future!

So the education system here is wildly different than the US. Primary schools are all free, students just need to buy their own uniform. High schools are expensive and often times kids coming from rural primary schools drop out because they don’t learn enough English to succeed in a high school conducted all in our wonderfully complicated English language. This is definitely the case for my school! The teachers at my school also have a habit of “teaching” by making kids just memorize their English lessons instead of ensuring that they know material in both Sesotho and English. My fourth graders can tell me in English that the 4 seasons are summer, autumn, winter, and spring but then I learned this week they didn’t actually know what the corresponding Sesotho word was for each of those. This is an issue that I run into a lot at school and am trying to encourage teachers to adopt some different teaching practices as we are currently failing our kids. If learners want to remain in the village and live a traditional rural lifestyle the rest of their lives, fantastic! But, I want to make sure they have the opportunity to choose further education and currently many don’t end up with that option which just breaks my heart to be honest. These kids are so incredibly and wonderfully smart but are denied opportunities because the primary school system fails them. Often.

I am in a pretty rural village. So these issues of teaching and lack of English speaking aren’t necessarily a country wide issue. Many volunteers have kids who speak incredible English and schools with teachers who are passionate about facilitating learning rather than reciting information. Every school has drastically different standards here, so the inconsistencies and emotional effort it takes to work in a more rural environment without many resources or motivated teachers can be a challenge. My lessons trying to teach grade 7 kiddos more conversational English have been incredibly telling for how little they actually learn throughout primary school. I’ve appreciated their efforts to learn more English with me, but it is incredibly discouraging knowing I’m teaching them English vocabulary and grammar things they should’ve learned in grade 2. And, I am not a certified ESL teacher by any means! So I’m learning so much too as I dive into the role of trying to teach more conversational English lessons. All I can do is show up and try my best! It’s always fun when one of the kids uses a vocabulary word I taught them last week or helps another kid out with the spelling of a new word they learned. Watching kids learn is just the coolest thing!

All that said, I really do love the teachers at my school! They are great people and receptive to new ideas. I’ve been proud of them for working on trying alternatives to corporal punishment lately and helping me out with getting Grassroots Soccer clubs going and the information I need for this grant! The frustrations I face about the school system are systemic and ingrained in the school and rural culture. So obviously change doesn’t happen overnight.

pizza cooking class!!

These challenges are expected things to run into when working in development. When you’re in it, it can just be hard! But no worries, I find my little wins when a struggling kid gets a hundred percent on a spelling test or my learner that struggles the most with math can successfully sing one of the multiplication songs I’ve taught her. Culturally, fun moments always come up too. I taught my host sister how to make pizza the other day (on the stovetop and with limited ingredients mind you) and she was so excited. We had a great bonding day just chatting in her kitchen while the dough was rising or as I was hoping and praying we could actually cook a pizza in a pan! And then even though I’ve been here 11 months, I still am surprised when a kid brings a dead bird into my classroom to show me, a preschooler gets stuck in the latrine, or my neighbor hands me a raw piece of pork (no plate or nothing) from the pig she just slaughtered in her kitchen. Always something to keep me on my toes! I’ve been finding joy in the quiet moments lately - running in the morning before the village is awake, journaling or painting after a long day of school, and lesson planning or drawing classroom posters on my host sister’s porch. My friends here are awesome and I love the relationships I have - we’ve been bonded for life to say the least! Life is sweet and challenging. Tearfully joyful and shockingly hard. Showing me how to be grateful for little things and recognize my incredible American privileges. Giving me an entirely different perspective on the world. Love the tears and laughter and challenges and joys and experiencing things in such raw and full forms!

DISCLAIMER: you know it’s me! no US government or Peace Corps thoughts or opinions reflected here!