Begrudging (but healthy) Resolve

I have been home in Canada for the holidays with my family, though you may not have known this because I have been MIA since September. I have been asked a few time over the Christmas break if I have posted recently and have had to sheepishly admit that my blog has fallen by the wayside.

Upon my return to Dakar in August I resolved to be consistent in posting a blog entry every week. I had even determined that Tuesday afternoons/evenings in the dorm would be the perfect time to compose my thoughts, but as with many resolution this one was, unfortunately, short-lived. I don't know if you'd believe me, as my track record has been dismal, but I even have the first entry of a 3-part "Lost in Translation" series mostly written from the beginning of September. It's just waiting for a conclusion and editing, but when I lose momentum it's hard to get back in the groove. 

I am not a huge advocate for New Year's resolution. Don't get me wrong, I am big on goal setting, list making, and enjoying the sense of victory and productivity when overcoming a challenge, but I don't see much sense in making a resolution just because "it's that time of year". I firmly believe that a setting goals will be most effective when you reach a point in your own personal journey when a change is necessary and you are intrinsically motivated to pursue that objective. 

That being said, I wouldn't go so far as to admit that I am "intrinsically motivated" to be more faithful to this blog, but I would say that it's an important habit and a good way for me to process and remember my experiences.  It's good to know that I will be held accountable, to myself and to you, if I put all of these thoughts down in writing. And so, contrary to my better judgement, I am resolving at the beginning of this new year, to be consistent in posting blog entries. 

Any teacher knows that the key to successful goal setting is making your goals SMART: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Trackable, blah, blah, blah. So, to make my students proud, my SMART goal is as follows...

I am committed to writing at least once a month (to start) for the rest of this school year. (More is obviously better, but the experts say "attainable", so there you have it.)

As an added bonus, so that you can really judge me for being a hypocrite after what I wrote about New Year's resolutions, I am also resolving to read 50 books this year.  You may have noticed on the right side of this page a montage of the books that I am reading or have read. This goal started three years ago, but my record has been worsening with each passing year. The optimist in me says, "this is a new year." Besides, for this particular goal I need a full year to make it realistic.

I suppose in the end, you can't achieve OR fail to achieve a goal unless you start by setting one, whenever it is you happen to feel the impulse.

**This post was inspired by my friends Andrew and Kate for whom I am very grateful.

Rain, rain, go away. No, for real, go away!

I am a big fan of lazy weekend afternoons curled up in an armchair, a good book in hand, an overcast sky and rain providing the backdrop. When it comes to overcast, rainy days, Senegal definitely has it's share between July and October aka rainy season. While we occasionally experience those lazy, gray, rainy days, Senegal's rainy season manifests itself more commonly as an impressive display of forceful winds, lightening and torrential downpours accompanied by mighty thunder sound effects. I have woken up more than once thinking the entire apartment building was falling down.

Have you heard of the Butterfly effect? The chaos theory, not the movie. The theoretical example often used to demonstrate the theory is a butterfly flapping it's wings which consequently causes a hurricane weeks later in a far off destination. Though I can't offer any expert opinions on the theory, I can say that it's almost inevitable that our monster storms here in Senegal spin off the west coast and turn into tropical storms heading towards the north american coast. We had a crazy storm here about a weak before hurricane Isaac made landfall.

Sadly Senegal's infrastructure isn't always up to the challenge of handling excessive amounts of rain. Dakar experiences some flooding every year, but this year we've experienced more excessive rain levels than usual. This past week we had 6.1 inches of water in 2 hours. Most of the city's neighbourhoods experienced severe flooding and the president came home early from a trip abroad, ordering a full emergency response.

Though my apartment is on the the main floor I escaped the floods unscathed. Our campus was not so fortunate, but did recover quickly with the help of some masterful bailers. As much as we like the cool relief of the storms and the lush greenery it supports, suffice it to say that for the city's sake I don't pine for romantically rainy days.

Our blue top (outdoor sports court) which is also the school's main thoroughfare.

The soccer field. Kids love to play american football in the rain.

The staff parking lot.

A few of our dorm girls who heroically bailed out main floor classrooms.

Photo credit to Mr. E-M, DA Staff.

10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1...Happy New Year!

My friend Suzi loved the poet Rainer Maria Rilke. I never would have heard of him (yep, it's a him don't let the 'Maria' confuse you) if Suzi hadn't introduced me. She found a lot of inspiration in his words and I'm impressed with how often they echo my own thoughts, though in a more philosophical, artsy, and poetic way. So to quote a great poet and simultaneously honour a friend, Rilke wrote, “And now we welcome the new year, full of things that have never been." I'm sure he was referring to midnight of January 1st, the party hat, streamer, and noise maker kind of New Year, but for me fall is the New Year. Well, here at Dakar Academy it's actually early August...but you know what I mean.

This is the beginning of my third year at DA, crazy isn't it?!? By now returning to the familiarity of my apartment, my classroom, my friends and colleagues is comforting at the end of a long journey. This year though, I am most excited about "things that have never been". Of course these things are likely to be anything unexpected, but I am also thrilled about several anticipated changes.

For the past two years I have been privileged to be a Mid-termer with the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada, but alas, when I joined the program it was a 2 year position and I have expired my status. When I made my decision to return to DA in the spring I didn't want to leave the security and support of the PAOC so, with a few meetings and e-mails, I have been graciously accepted as the first ever PAOC Global Professional. This means I'm a professional (teacher) employed overseas (in Senegal) that lives missionally and maintains a relationship to PAOC. I also hope to volunteer with local ministry opportunities.

It's not a secret that I spend most of my time with middle schoolers. Between teaching middle school, sponsoring the middle school senate, and sponsoring middle school youth group I sometimes find myself thinking and acting a little too much like a middle schooler myself! Some people find 6th, 7th, and 8th grade to be a scary place, but it's my niche and it's for this reason that I accepted the role of overseeing our new 6th grade transition program. I have observed 5th graders struggle through the move up to 6th grade for a couple of years and so, together with the school counsellor and our administration, we are implementing a number of strategies to help our newest middle schoolers adapt to the challenges of multiple teachers and classes in a day. Between lockers with combination locks, moving around the campus each period, stretching their minds, and learning to help themselves, middle school is a BIG deal! In addition to facilitating various orientation opportunities, I am teaching a new 6th Grade Study Skills class for the first quarter. Even these first couple of weeks I'm loving the extra time to get to know, encourage, and support my class of young grasshoppers.

Finally, I have been most excited to have been asked to act as dorm relief for our on-campus girls dorm. The school itself accommodates the children of diplomates, non-profit organizations, business people, etc. but the dorm program is exclusively missionary kids from West Africa. Every Tuesday I get to hang out with a group of 16 exceptional young ladies between the ages of 12-18 so their dorm mom can have a night off. It's a fairly easy gig, they pretty much manage themselves. However, I love having the opportunity to hang out with the girls, get to know them, learn from them, and offer them some extra support along the way.

And so I look forward with anticipation to this new school year and all the things that have never been...yet!

Politics and Spring Break

Senegal has a new president and the people are happy. There was a celebratory atmosphere in Dakar Sunday night when it was announced that Wade (the current president) had conceded the win to his opponent, Macky Sall. Our street was peaceful but we could hear cheering and fireworks in the distance. We rushed up to the roof to watch the fireworks from nearby neighbourhoods. My friends and I have been watching the news closely as we are scheduled to leave for London tomorrow, and have been concerned that if there were any protests/demonstrations they could jeopardize our travel plans. However, democracy has prevailed and we are now in full vacation planning mode.

Our spring break at DA started Friday at 3:30pm. After the gauntlet of grading, report cards, standardized tests, and parent-teacher conferences in the preceding week, my household looked like a battlefield Friday night; bodies strewn about, moaning, and very little movement...but without the blood. We had weathered the 'war' but were a little worse for wear. I went to bed embarrassingly early, but woke refreshed and ready to embrace the break. Some of the highlights thus far include:

Saturday Market shoe purchases for my upcoming London trip (3 pairs for 11, 000cfa=$22CAD)
Technological triumph (recovering/transferring music from my iPod to my computer)
Skype chat with Jenn
Eggs benedict from scratch
Monday morning sleep-in
Thai chicken wraps with peanut sauce
Banana milkshakes
Downtown adventure
Haircut
Fresh pain au chocolate and tarte au chocolat

It seems that a lot of my spring break happiness is connected to food, but I enjoy culinary adventures as much as any other type of adventure. I am mostly excited because it's Tuesday, spring break has only just begun!

Miss Black in the Middle

Have I mentioned that I am the Middle School Senate sponsor? Well I am, and it's a lot of fun. We have very official meetings, and plan (what I would consider to be) awesome activties for the Dakar Academy Middle School.

In October we hosted our main event of the year: Lock-In! I think I mentioned the lock-in in a previous post. I somehow found myself encouraging the hyperness and insanity of 30 middle schoolers until midnight, and then attempting to calm them down to watch movies and "sleep" all night. Imagine with me, the "aroma" of 6th, 7th, and 8th graders after running around for 3 hours outside (during hot season) and then being locked in a science room for another 7 hours. Ahhhh Middle School!

I feel compelled to brag about the senate, they planned all the activities, chose the movies, provided breakfast, set-up and cleaned up ALL with very minimal help from me. I simply made sure they had their bases covered and they ran with it.

Settling the Crowd


Costume Contest: Superhero Theme


Charades: Chloe


Charades: Caleb and Isabella


McComb Twin



Big Booty


Grace and Miss Lee


Big Booty


Teachers


Food line


In December we had our second annual dodgeball tournament and added a movie night afterwards: Home Alone...classic! More recently, in February we hosted our first ever Middle School Progressive Dinner. Most of the kids weren't sure what a progressive dinner even was, so we welcomed them by explaining that a progressive dinner is when you enjoy each part of the meal in a different location and progress from one locale to another (see how I casually explained 'progressive dinner' for those of you who were sheepishly asking yourselves what it was?).

The Senate girls served appetizers and fancy drinks with sugar-rimmed cups in the science lab. We had covered the counters with poster paper and the kids loved being able to draw and write.

Our main course was a pasta dinner with garlic bread and shirley temples served on the petits poteaux, our soccer 'rink' usually used for soccer, handball, and occasionally volleyball. After we had eaten groups were given a bag full of random items and had to create a 'skit from a bag'. A spin on dinner theatre.

The middle schoolers then progressed to the dorm rooftop for twilight brownies and ice cream. We finished our evening with s'mores around a bonfire in the sandpit. Is your mouth watering yet?

In addition to being the Middle School Senate sponsor, I am also a Middle School Youth Group sponsor. I love me some middle schoolers. I'm scared to consider what it says about me that I am so comfortable with 10-13 year olds. It really feels like my niche.

On Thursday nights a typical youth group starts with singing, followed by a 15-20 minute talk, and then chat time in small groups to discuss what we have just heard, or how our weeks have been. We used to start with a game, but have learned that it's best to end with the game. By Thursday nights even the best-behaved middle schooler has some 'crazy' just waiting to be unleashed.

Story Time with Miss Black


Small groups






What would you do for a coke?


Minute-to-Win: It Set-Up


Minute-to-Win-It: Ta-Da



Minute-to-Win-It: Chloe


Minute-to-Win-It: Luke M




Life in the 'Middle' is anything but boring!

Sister Alicia's Musical Debut

Senior Café is a classy talent show hosted by the senior class each year in February. Staff, students, and parents sign up with acts showcasing their talent, comedy, and creativity. Last year I spectated, this year I could not be prevailed upon to sit idly by, I wanted to be a star, a superstar!

I was enlisted as the novice nun for the Sister Act-inspired lip sync "I Will Follow Him" (I am front, left). So without further ado, for your viewing pleasure...



We placed third and second on Friday and Saturday nights respectively. Check out the following link for other acts. "Epic Rap Battle" and "Why Spain Won the World Cup" were the first place winners...and personal favourites.

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=dakar+academy+senior+cafe+2012&oq=dakar+acad&aq=3&aqi=g6&aql=&gs_l=youtube.3.3.0l6.1303l4968l0l8319l12l12l0l0l0l0l338l1084l2-3j1l4l0.

Miss Black Presents...Politics for Dummies Part II

The February 26 elections passed without incident. In our house the evening was spent monitoring various websites as the results in different areas became available. We were concerned that the situation not become volatile but we all secretly, or not-so-secretly, wished for a day off school...just to err on the side of caution. Monday morning we, teachers and students alike, were dragging ourselves around campus.

As it turned out a majority vote was not reached, so the run-off election will occur this coming Sunday, March 25.

In the month that has passed I, a relatively sheltered foreigner, have heard next to nothing about the political situation. Things have been quiet, business as usual. We were excited to venture out of our own cozy neighbourhood for ice cream and a beach day...the simple pleasures we have been missing.

I would ask that you continue to pray for Sénégal's government as the second vote occurs this weekend between the two front runners. I am not aware of concerns about safety or unrest, but we do continue to hope that democratic decisions will be reached for the benefit of the country.