It took me a while to post my third week and now I also have a post about my fourth week.

My students are good kids minus all the noise they love to make. But I'm still disappointed with how little they know in social studies and government. I did a revision with my govt students and  the same 3 people were answering my questions only about 30% of the time. This class has almost 40 students. I also gave them a quiz that had 10 multiple choice questions. My highest scores were 4. I've started punishing the students, I wish I didn't have to but they wouldn't keep quiet. Wall sits are currently a favourite.

My JS1 boys are so cute. All the girls are much bigger, obviously this is the phase where they grow faster. The boys are tiny, there's one that's a little above my waist and that is small cause Lord knows I'm short.

So there's this special woman that works here as a cleaner. Apparently, she was once a student at the school and she was even very smart but one day she just went off and she hasn't been the same. She seems pretty lucid sometimes and you'll have decent conversations with her, other times, she's having one of her phases and she's reading to us in the staff room or staring to the point that it makes you nervous. Oh well, I wish she could get better cause she's actually really nice. A teacher said someone in the village did "voodoo" or what Nigerians will call "juju" for her.

Oh and I got into a little argument with a teacher. I wore a dress and he commented that I look much better. Don't I feel better? Emmmm, no I don't. Anyway, he went on to tell me that female teachers shouldn't wear trousers and apart from that, it made me look loose and wayward. I said maybe in the village but definitely not in a place like Lagos. He told me my location doesn't matter, a typical Yoruba girl shouldn't wear trousers because it's unacceptable in our culture. I wish you would read this but I'll tell you that the only thing constant is change. If Yoruba culture found that unacceptable before, guess what honey? In Lagos, it's 2012 and we don't consider women wayward and loose for wearing trousers. Maybe I should wear my body hugging dresses to school. After all, it's a dress. Also, I hypothetically asked him if a student should emulate a "wayward and loose" teacher in a skirt or the upstanding woman in the trousers. You know what this man said? He responded that any woman that decides to wear trousers already has a little bad character in her but of course, he's not passing judgement on me. He's just telling me the right way to do things. I will tell you this, remain in your small village with your small thinking and of course, your small progress. Ok that sounds childish but I was angry.

But I guess it shows how we sometimes focus on the things that don't matter and ignore the deeper stuff. Because I'm not wearing an A-line knee length skirt with a long sleeved blouse doesn't mean I'm a terrible person. Rather than calling them close minded (even though I know they really are), I'll just say that's their way of life.

Oh and of course, I have to add this. I had a little incident in my government class. I taught SS2 last week because their teacher travelled for a little while. Anyway, I caught a couple of girls sleeping in my class so of course, I had to wake them (a guy accused them of sleeping because they're pregnant which they didn't confirm or deny, not my business). A third girl was kneeling and I thought she was also sleeping so I tried to wake her and this was the beginning of "possessed madness." She fell to the floor so the students rushed her outside and she started crying and telling us she had a confession to make. Now honestly, I didn't know what to make of all this but I knew I wanted a video but another corper stopped me.  Apparently she goes to a cele church and their spirit was "disturbing" her. Anyway, the school administration called her family and they came with their pastor to take her away. I haven't seen her since and I was told she might be out for seven days. Good luck child.

So I have more photographs that go with this post but I have taken forever uploading it and my internet situation isn't the best right now. I will try to upload them tomorrow. Thanks for reading.

A former student's work. 

Her work continued

This is how the female teachers dress and I am expected to follow suit. Sorry darlings, not happening.

So this post is coming right after my 2nd week post but I thought it'll be best to separate both. We have our weekly community development (a time when we're supposed to serve our community or neighboring communities by teaching them stuff about HIV, personal hygiene etc) on Thursdays. There are about 6 or more villages under my local govt that corpers are serving in and they're probably within a 45 min to an hour long drive from one another.

Now our inspector wants all of us to come together every Thursday in one village for our CD. And apparently, she's doing this because many corpers in my local govt travelled over Easter which annoyed her. This is where my rant begins. What sense does it make for corpers who are serving as teachers in such villages to stay behind because of their CD once a week? We're adults and I'm sick and tired of them treating us otherwise. Stop trying to monitor every move we're making and that nonsense of corpers entitled to only a 7 day vacation throughout the year is nonsense cause I'm assuming other govt workers get more time off.

Also, people need to stop telling me that commuting from Osogbo to Otanile is far. Welcome to the real world, honey. 20 mins is not far and people in Lagos do much worse. What about people that live in Ikeja and work in VI? Please! Walking to work is most likely not going to happen if one lives in Lagos and trust me, I did a much longer commute last year when I worked at a bank in Minnesota. I was even told by the principal I'm not allowed to live outside the village and I had to tell him very nicely that wherever I live isn't his business. As long as I show up to school, that's what matters.

I think I'm done ranting for now. I'll keep you posted about the kids.

We went to the Oba's (king) palace in Ibokun for our community development last week

The Oba (king)

An Osogbo supermarket

So I have switched blogs, that's why I uploaded two posts at the same so welcome to my new blog.

Anyway, I officially started teaching last week and it's definitely a miracle. I expected the students to be weeding for another week since they were so lazy about the whole process. We had our first assembly and there were about 200 students. I was surprised at how small the school was but I found out later that there are 600 students and most of them are skipping school until Monday.

I taught JS1 social studies and they were quite well behaved for their ages. They are so small, and I mean, coming from me since I'm 5'3, they really are small.  Unfortunately, they're academically behind and when I tried to revise what they covered last term, most of them didn't remember. Also, I asked them to draw their family tree and explain their relationship with their family members and they didn't understand the aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews or in-laws. Hopefully, they'll get everything soon.

Then I moved to SS1 for government and they were worse. Apparently, the students weren't taught govt in  their 1st term because they had no teacher so they've only taken the subject since 2nd term. Anyway, they could not define govt, the students told me a bicameral legislature has 4, 5 or 6 chambers and they didn't know the difference between socialism and capitalism. I went through their notes before I asked questions and they covered all this last term. There were 15 students in the class (it's supposed to be 40) and they thought it was hilarious not to answer anything.

I did ask the students in both classes what they'll like to be when they grow up and the JS1 students wanted to be bankers, doctors, nurses, one even said a corper...haha. I had to explain that wasn't a permanent job. The SS1 students thought it'll be funny to mess with me and said things like welders, NEPA man (whatever that means because they wouldn't explain but they thought it was really funny), electricians etc. One girl seriously told me she'll like to be a trader and I thought she cannot aspire for more? Cause I know she's probably not thinking of it on a large scale but hey, I might be wrong.

On a more personal note, my friend, Toyosi, reintroduced (yea cause I've met her once before) to her friend, Sope, that's also serving in some village and staying in Osogbo and she's lots of fun so Osogbo isn't looking so bleak. Oh and my mum got me a few dresses so that I don't seem so rebellious as a teacher...lol. Anyway, I'll still be wearing my trousers villagers.

School Assembly

Late students getting punished

The students

So my year of service with the Nigerian govt has officially started and I was posted to Community Grammar School, Otanile. I'll be teaching JS1 Social Studies and SS1 Government. The school is about 20mins outside Osogbo, the capital of Osun state.

My first week of "teaching" was definitely interesting considering that I've taught absolutely nothing. The students have to clean the school by weeding etc before school starts. I wish I had known this  because I could have stayed at home an extra week. Anyway, we (the corpers) had to supervise the students cleaning and they're naughty as hell. I have to carry a cane around and I've been told that hitting them is the only language they understand. I don't plan to use it but talking to them is like talking to rocks. And their English, goodness. In fairness to them, Yoruba is their first language. Another corper told me to dumb down long words. How am I going to dumb down "constitutional" or "sovereignty?" They even need to learn these terms. But after one whole week of doing nothing, I'm going to start teaching tomorrow. Hopefully, it goes well.

I'm staying in Osogbo with my fabulous friend, Toyosi's family and my commute is about 20 mins. I didn't come with a car for the first week because the shock absorber had to be fixed and I've ridden everything from an okada (motorcycle) to a 5 passenger sedan with 7 people in it even to the back of a pick up truck. I'm used to driving myself around in Lagos so this was definitely different.

Anyway, I have the car now and I drove out there today for the first time but again, something had to dampen my day. Supposedly, I ran the light (it was amber) so the police pulled me over. All my documents were good until they asked for my road worthiness. Now what the hell is that? Apparently, only commercial vehicles need to have that in Lagos so of course, I don't have it. Anyway, they wanted to fine me N10k ($62) but of course, with Nigerian police, there's always a way out. I am ashamed to admit that I had to give them N4k ($25) cause they wouldn't accept less.

Also, I learnt that wearing trousers makes me look "wayward." The VP explained the village is so small and all the women are expected to wear skirts and wrappers. Please! No offense but these people need me more than I need them and there's no way I'm changing my wardrobe to fit in with any village values. Anyway, we reached a compromise. I can wear trousers if I wear blouses that cover my butt.

Other news, big brother Africa has started and I believe they're 35 people divided between 2 houses. Looks like it'll be a good season. I'll try to upload my "village lifestyle" pretty often but I'll say my internet isn't the best.

On the way to the village

The Village

School Sign

School library/bookstore

Students cutting Grass

An empty classroom