Peace Corps Ethiopia Literacy Projects Nationwide

BOOKS!

That's what we're talking about today.  Books.  Why?  Because across Ethiopia, intrepid Peace Corps Volunteers have taken initiative and used their supportive friends and family back home to help provide these life-changing literacy supplies to their students.

If you follow Ferengi No Habesha, then you're probably familiar with my own Better World Books Project to help supply my Read-Aloud Program at a local school here with my director friend, Belay.  My goal is to obtain a modest amount of juicy picture books that are rich in content and can be used to model good reading practices.  I'm looking for books that I can use to help young students practice making predictions, making inferences, and make text-to-self, text-to-text, and text-to-world connections.  Books that have repetition (good for predictions!), books that imply points through pictures and words (inferences!) and books that are relevant to my students lives (connections!) are what I'm primarily going for.

But I'm not the only one collecting solid picture books, and the idea is not new.  The first couple to start a book donation program was Daniel and Danielle up in Adwa back in December of last year.  They ended up with about 100 books, which they used "to jump-start a Reading Raffle once a month at three schools (like Book-It, but without the pizza)," according to Danielle.

Here's what their initial blog post says about their project:

"Adi-Mahleka, a school where I have English Club every Friday, has not a single children’s book in their library. Not in Tigrigna, not in Amharic, not in English. Zero. They’ve got textbooks galore, but what child is going to read those? Adua, another of my schools, has maybe 10 children’s books: a feat I nearly jumped and sang for.

Betterworldbooks.com is a website that works much like Toms shoes: you buy a book online (free worldwide shipping!) and they donate another to someone in need. We know firsthand that this donation process is legit; just two months ago, a handful of our volunteers received 500 boxes of books from this donation program (some of which were given to us for Adwa schools, when they had overflow). Daniel and I have created a wishlist for the schools in Adwa: which means, if you buy one book (average cost 5-7 dollars, again no shipping!), another is still being donated. That’s two books for children who have none, for the price of two Starbuck’s drinks.

In other words—pretty please?"

The idea was so simple, it was rapidly picked up by other volunteers.  Sarah and Aaron Arnold started their own book donation project in Bahir Dar in October of this year.  They mentioned the Books for Africa project that was done by the education group before us, G5.  Many of us were lucky to get some spill-over books from that project, but I found the books to be of lower quality (and therefore not as much use) as I was expecting.  Still, I'm always grateful for books, no matter what, and I've put them to good use.

According to their wish list they've received 65 books, although Sarah says it's around 70 now.

Inspired by the Arnolds, Emily S kicked off her own book drive and received "around 300".  The project really took off from there, with nine other PCVs including myself launching their own projects and appealing to the goodness of their friends and families hearts.  Here are the current book projects happening in Ethiopia and the numbers and success they have found so far, in no particular order:

PCV	Location	Purpose of Project	Date Started	Number of Books So Far
Daniel and Danielle	Adwa	To get books in the hands of students.	Dec 29, 2012	About 100
Sarah and Aaron	Bahir Dar	To expand a take-home library for primary OVCs.	Oct 4, 2013	About 70
Emily S	Dangila	To stock a library and foster a reading culture.	Oct 7, 2013	About 300
Emily C	Dilla	To help students improve their English in fun, creative ways.	Oct 23, 2013	6
Lacy	Yirgalem	To stock a library and foster a reading culture.	Dec 3, 2013	37
Jackie	Durame	To stock a library and foster a reading culture.	Oct 23, 2013	87
AJ	Chagni	To stock a library and foster a reading culture.	Nov 2, 2013	53
Erin	Adet	To stock a library and foster a reading culture.	Nov, 2, 2013	350
Ashley B	Hawassa	To supply a reading program with read-alouds and independent reading.	Nov 9, 2013	75
Julia	Wonago	To create a reading culture and increase literacy in her community.	Dec 8, 2013	136
Mellissa	Debark	To stock a library and foster a reading culture.	Nov 12, 2013	133+
OhnSoon	Leku	To build a mini library and foster a reading culture.	Dec 1, 2013	47
Alicia	Ambo	To stock a library and foster a reading culture.	Apr 3, 2013	120
Nicolette	Aleta Wondo	To stock a library and foster a reading culture.	Dec 4, 2013	34
Carlin	Hossana	To supply a read-aloud program for students and teachers.	Oct 23, 2013	40
Totals: 17 PCVs	15 Communities	9 libraries, 6 programs and literacy activities	12/29/12--12/8/13	≈1588 Books

For more about these projects, please click on a volunteer's name to visit their blog or document where they request books.  And because a picture's worth a thousand words, here's some photographic results of some of these projects (photos borrowed with implied consent):

From Ashley in Hawassa:

A quote celebrating reading at Adare Primary School in Hawassa

Students reading at Adare Primary School in Hawassa

From Emily in Dangila:

Before...

And After!  Look at those smiling faces!

From Lacy in Yirgalem:

The Ras Desta English Club in Yirgalem

From Jackie in Durame:

A student grins over a book in Durame

Students read in Durame

UPDATE Dec 15: A fancy map showing the locations of all these communities, and a pie chart showing each volunteer's contribution.

This post will be updated as new numbers come in and new projects start.  But I would like to thank everyone right now, volunteers and donors alike, for your hard work and generosity with all of these projects.  Together, we've managed to bring in 1,588 books and counting to this great nation.  Thanks so much, to everyone!

Peace Corps According to Ron Swanson

Those of you who follow my posts on Facebook may have noticed some quotes cropping up sporadically attributed to one Ron Swanson.  That's because I find his wisdom and guidance particularly helpful in my time as a PCV.  Though Ron was giving general life advice with his random maxims, or Swansonisms, I feel that many of them are specifically appropriate for the Peace Corps and I will proceed to explain why in this post.

For those of you who do not watch TV, or for some reason do watch TV but have never seen an episode of Parks and Recreation, Ron Swanson is the brilliant character on the show played by actor Nick Offerman and is depicted below:

Also, here, when he got a little drunk and decided to wear April's hat.

This pinnacle of masculinity and wisdom has said some of the most insightful gems on the whole show, and they have truly been an inspiration to me in the Peace Corps.  Allow me to explain why.

Ron Swanson Words of Wisdom #1: "Don't half-ass two things.  Whole-ass one thing."

When you first get to site, it's easy to become overwhelmed.  Even though you've been in country for three months already, everything is still new, and you've just moved to a new location in your host country where you're expected to stay and work for two years.  On top of that, you have to work on completing a needs assessment for that community so you can see what projects will be most helpful and most well-received by the community members.

This is where the trouble can start.  Talking with colleagues and community members can spark all sorts of ideas in your head, but the reality is that most of those projects will either never begin, or fail rather quickly.  The important thing to remember in Peace Corps is not to spread yourself too thin.  Focus on one project at a time, and work really hard on it.  Even if it ends up falling through, odds are you'll have accomplished something, even if it's just catching the attention of someone else who wants to work with you.  I know my friend who lives near me had an English club that none of her teachers attended, but the biology teacher came.  They ended up getting along really well, and she found a new ally in her community outside of the English teachers.

So Ron Swanson really has this one pegged.  When it comes to projects in your community, find something you really care about, and do that.  I may not have gotten much done in my first year here, but at least what I have completed has been successful.

Ron Swanson Words of Wisdom #2: "Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day.  Don't teach a man to fish, and you feed yourself.  He's a grown man, fishing's not that hard."

This one may sound harsh, especially as the original "give a man a fish" quote is very inspirational and relevant to Peace Corps without alteration.  However, this new Ron Swansonized version captures something that I want to stress: Don't try too hard.  Like with the first Ron Swanson Words of Wisdom, if you try too hard, or stretch yourself too thin, you'll burn out and exhaust yourself.  Pick your battles.  Don't try to fix every problem in one fell swoop.

For example, one of my "projects" involves teaching a full-time class, as you know.  I could choose to micromanage my class and nitpick everything from spelling and grammar to always getting the right answers.  I could hover and always be there to make sure they're not cheating.  But I prefer to let them learn and grow on their own, at their own pace.  Also, I don't like to assume that just because we're doing something new that they are going to need extra assistance and hovering.  I also focus on one thing.  Last semester, it was content accuracy.  This semester, I've learned a bit more, and have decided to focus on effort and discouraging cheating.  As a result, students have been working harder, learning more, and the incidences of cheating in the class have declined.  Inadvertently, this has also caused a decrease in tardiness and an increase in students coming to my office for extra help.  So I guess when you focus on one thing and give students the opportunity to prove themselves, you may be pleasantly surprised.

After all, it could be they already knew how to fish, but everyone was too busy trying to teach them to figure that out.

Ron Swanson Words of Wisdom #3: "It's always a good idea to demonstrate to your coworkers that you are capable of withstanding a tremendous amount of pain."

It's hard living in a host community where you are constantly viewed as an outsider, especially for young female volunteers like myself.  Many things can work against you in the workforce that you have no control over, including your skin color (especially for non-white American volunteers), your gender, and your age.  If you are young, especially if you are significantly younger than your colleagues, some people may assume you are inexperienced and have nothing to offer.  If you are a non-white foreigner, some may not see you as being as impressive as if you were white.  And if you're a woman, some people (especially men) will not take you very seriously.  This can be frustrating, which is why I turn to this quote.

If every day you persevere and endure and come back, you are proving your seriousness, woman or not.  If you discuss your qualifications, including relevant trainings and degrees you have, then you are showing that no matter how old you are you know what you're talking about.  And if you refuse to take bad treatment from anyone, you are showing that your skin color doesn't determine your worth or your nationality (many non-white Americans here get accused of not being American).

In other words, show them you are capable of withstanding anything they have to throw at you.  If nothing else, at least a few individuals may learn that you're a force to be reckoned with.

Ron Swanson's Words of Wisdom #4: "One rage every three months is permitted. Try not to hurt anyone who doesn’t deserve it."

This one is essential for anyone who has gone a little crazy from being at site or even just in country for too long.  Being a Peace Corps Volunteer is a highly stressful experience.  From dealing with daily harassment to having all your projects fall through, some days you just want to break down and cry or lash out at something or someone.  As Ron says, it's OK to feel that way and go a little crazy sometimes, just remember who and where you are, and try and keep the collateral damage to a minimum.

Ron Swanson's Words of Wisdom #5: "Capitalism: God's way of determining who is smart and who is poor."

This one is more about accepting the state of things.  There is a lot of poverty in the world, regardless of where your site is, and often this is something that's a result of much bigger systemic inequalities that you are incapable of fixing on your own in two years (like capitalism, among others).  Just remember to do the little things you can at your schools or partner organizations and it's more than enough.

Ron Swanson's Words of Wisdom #6: "America: The only country that matters. If you want to experience other ‘cultures,’ use an atlas or a ham radio."

This is actually one of Ron's quotes that I have incorporated ironically, in that as a PCV it's impossible, or at the very least a very bad idea, to act like America is the only country that matters.  Still, the image of atlases and ham radios draws up memories of Peace Corps' roots, before there was such a thing as internet and cell phones to keep us in touch.  And if Ron Swanson ever did Peace Corps, you know he'd be the one to go off the grid - even from his own community.

Ron Swanson's Words of Wisdom #7: "I like saying 'no.' It lowers their enthusiasm."

Learn to say no.  I cannot stress this hard enough.  I got roped into teaching classes (which is fine) alone (less fine) and being responsible for grades (disaster) because I wanted something, anything to do that felt like it needed to be done.  I wanted to help out with a project initiated by a local so I said yes a lot, but what ended up happening was a lot of it never got done.  Again, this goes with RSWoW #1.  It's important, sometimes, to just say no, even when people are enthusiastic and excited.  Don't worry.  Have them work with you on your current project, and then see if you can get to their thing later if you're already overloaded.  Or if you don't know if it's a good idea, say that outright.  Don't beat around the bush or make excuses, or worse, say yes to be a positive people pleaser.  A bad idea won't get better just because you agreed to "help" with it.

Ron Swanson's Words of Wisdom #8: "Of all my coworkers, he is one of a small number of whom I do not actively root against…uh, there I go again gettin’ all sappy."

Just like in every other job, you're going to work with people with whom you do not get along, or find unprofessional, but this can be more difficult when you're also living a million miles from where you normally call home.  Because you're so out of your comfort zone, your colleagues could also be your biggest pool for potential friends.  So when you find a solid colleague, who's not just professional but a congenial person that you find yourself not actively rooting against, seize the opportunity.  Ask her to coffee to discuss family and work life, and how you are adjusting to your life here.  As for those coworkers you do find yourself actively rooting against, that's OK.  Just do it quietly.

Ron Swanson's Words of Wisdom #9: "Breakfast food can serve many purposes."

I eat eggs frequently, because they are easy for me to buy and easy to prepare.  This is perhaps very specific to me, but I take Ron Swanson's words to heart as I find every way possible to prepare eggs for a meal.  Fried eggs, scrambled eggs, deviled eggs, egg salad, I've done it all.  And when I'm not eating eggs, it's pancakes and nutella.  These are my two easy go-to meals if I really don't feel like cooking.  It's not like you could just hit the drive-thru or pick up some take away.  I think it's important to find one meal that you enjoy and that's easy to prepare so that when you're tired, you can always rely on that.  For me, it's breakfast food.  And now that I've gotten cinnamon from my COSing site mate, and plan to pick up some vanilla, I can make French toast too, and I look forward to it!

Ron Swanson's Words of Wisdom #10: "When I eat, it is the food that is scared."

I have always been an adventurous eater, and I will try everything once.  I've found that Peace Corps is an excellent place for an adventurous eater.  Despite warnings from our PCMO about certain cuisines here, I have at least sampled every one I have come across and have avoided most illnesses.  I would suggest the same to any other PCV.  Don't be afraid to try anything once.  In addition to that, when I go back to the West where delicious food is available everywhere I turn, I become a ravenous monster.  I expect such a transformation soon enough when I go back to the States in a few days.


So there you have it.  Ten succinct maxims that sum up my experiences in my first year as a PCV in Ethiopia.  I hope that by painting the tale through the words of Ron Swanson I can better get my point across, and I also hope that Ron's words can inspire other PCVs like me.  I hope you enjoyed this blog post as much as I enjoyed writing it.

So in conclusion, allow me to leave you with ten more wise words from Ron: "Honor: If you need it defined, you don't have it."

Top Thirty Things They Don't Tell You About Being a PCV

So I am coming up on my one year anniversary here in Ethiopia.  It's not my one year of service, just my one year of being in country, but it's important nevertheless.  To celebrate, I have asked my PCV and RPCV friends to confess at least one brutally honest no-holds-barred truth about serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer.  Most of these come from current or COSing volunteers in Ethiopia (G5-G8), but some come from a friend I met before Peace Corps, who served in Ghana.  Despite the fact that these have been contributed by mostly PCVs in Ethiopia, I feel that there is a certain universality to their confessions.

This is the challenge I gave my fellow PCVs:

"I was just thinking of writing a blog post (with your input) about all the things they don't tell you about being a PCV. You know, the nitty gritty, dirty, embarrassing, frustrating, make-you-wanna-cry moments, but also the funny stuff, things you never thought you'd get used to but have, things you never thought you'd miss but do, that stuff. So, name all the things no one told you about being a PCV that you learned the hard way. Aaaaand go."

So here they are, presented to you with some minor editing and additions on my part, so if you are a contributor to this list and weren't quoted directly, please don't take it personally.  From my comrades in arms to your monitor, here are:

Thirty Things They Don't Tell You About Being a PCV

1) You have an 85% chance of shitting your pants. How bad you have to shit versus the distance to the bathroom will become like a math problem you don't always know how to solve. Especially when you're on a bus and the distance has to factor in km/h, rain, likelihood of an accident or detour, probability of cow traffic, etc... - Nora, Debra and Dan, Ethiopia

2) It’s almost impossible to escape PST without getting bed bugs or fleas. - Ashley, Ethiopia

3) If you are a woman, integration with people your own age is nearly impossible. The men will hit on you and because of that, the women will mostly keep a good distance from you. - Ashley, Ethiopia

4) If you are a female education sector volunteer, you will have to plan your days strategically so as to handle the bathroom situation. What do I mean about bathroom situation? Well, there may be no bathroom, or there may be the most frightening bathroom you have ever seen, which explains why College and University students prefer to use the woods. I'm not joking. - Anonymous, Ethiopia 

5) You will eat dirt, rock and/or bone and you will tell yourself that it is salt. You will be so accustomed to terrible food that you will eat something, bite on something hard, spit it out, and find that you had almost ingested a bolt. (The screw, not the crossbow ammunition.) Then you will continue to eat after you return the bolt to the waiter (it probably held something important together, after all.) - Chad and Dustin, Ethiopia

6) You will have a cockroach crawl across your food and you wont care.  It's also possible that someone will be murdered the same night in the restaurant, but you'll still go back. - Carla, Ethiopia

7) You will boil rice with bugs in the grains and try to pick them out as they float to the top. - Karley, Ghana

8) Peace Corps medical staff will tell you that the best food is off-limits, but you are definitely going to eat/drink it anyway, and wind up naming your tapeworm. - Dan, Ethiopia 

9) You will be terrified to search your house for what is making that mysterious sound.  Your heart starts to pound as you search and search. You are terrified to pick anything up, so you poke everything with a stick or a shoe. As anticipation climbs, you become more and more jumpy.  Sometimes, it turns out to be a mouse or a rat (worst case scenario), sometimes, a cricket, sometimes a roach, and sometimes your stupid water filter dripping water on your plastic floor (best case scenario).  But even if it turns out to be nothing too bad, it will still keep you up at night, like the monsters under your bed you feared as a child. - Breanna, Ethiopia

10) You will get awful cravings for things you can't have, like crab dip, and this will haunt you for months at a time until you try and find away to send crab dip, or other perishables like a whole roast turkey for Thanksgiving, through the mail from America despite your friends and family telling you how impossible this is. - Jenny and Carlin, Ethiopia

11) Restaurant signs advertise everything they don't have. Don't be fooled! - AJ, Ethiopia

12) Rats can climb walls and often live in the ceiling, and some nights you'll wake up to a bump in the ceiling hoping and praying they don't fall through... Also, they can jump surprisingly high. - Lacy and Trudie, Ethiopia

13) You will become so used to days and weeks on end without power that you will find really creative ways to entertain yourself, like playing solitaire by yourself by candle light which quickly becomes more fun than any movie or video game.  Or even simply staring off into nothing for hours will become a casual pastime. - Jenny and Carlin, Ethiopia and Karley, Ghana

14) You will have no water at your site for a long stretch of time and have to resort to catching water in a rain bucket to use for cooking and bathing.  This is all well and good, until the wet season ends and you still have no water, and mosquitos start breeding in your wain bucket. - Karley, Ghana and Carlin, Ethiopia

15) Sleeping under mosquito net will be comforting and feel like a princess canopy, a fort, or a hypoallerginic bubble that nothing can penetrate - until a bug breaches your netted security. - Karley, Ghana and Carlin, Ethiopia

16) You will have a full on deep conversation with a local while they are knuckle deep in their nose and/or scratching their balls. - Sham, Ethiopia

17) Nobody in your host community will really want to work with you and they will make up a thousand and one reasons which are supposed to explain why they are so uninspired. They will hide a key from you for a year so you can't get in the room where you are supposed to work, and once they do finally give you the key, they will then start writing official letters about you accusing you of stealing a broken laminator and giving it to orphans or other such nonsense (without evidence, just because they feel like it). - Anonymous, Ethiopia

18) If you are a male volunteer, you become a secret agent in the boys' club which is both good and bad, because you will find out that local men will apparently tell you things about their sex lives that they don't tell each other. - Joel, Ethiopia

19) Most weeks, the closest you will come to showering or bathing is wiping your body down with baby wipes, and you will learn to be OK with that. - Jackie, Ethiopia

20) You will be stared at, followed and photographed, and become famous in your town, developing sudden empathy for celebrities fighting against paparazzi.  Sometimes, they will shout very rude things, sometimes they will shout things that they mean to be friendly but sound rude anyway.  You will also learn to let all of it roll off your back (most days) or imagine how you will kill them all (on bad days). - Karley, Ghana and Carlin, Ethiopia

21) You will not be be listened to. You will have an experience that wouldn't ever happen to a local, and then they're like "Aw, be strong, don't worry about it." But if the same thing happened to them as often as it happens to you, it'd be different. If that were to happen, they would probably understand that the advice "don't worry" or "ignore it" just doesn't make you feel supported. - Joel, Ethiopia

22) Something good: Your co-workers will eventually finally start to realize that you experience a lot of things that they don't. People have this cursory understanding of people being equal, but they don't factor in that our experiences are different. Sometimes, explaining that no, you can't just ignore them yelling at you because you don't feel safe, a few lights will turn on. In a nutshell, something they don't tell you about being a PCV: how much you need your alliances. - Joel, Ethiopia

23) Once you pee in a bucket, there's no going back. You break that barrier one time and it becomes a lifestyle choice. Hole-in-the-ground latrines will become obsolete for situations other than numero dos... Well unless you have a stash of plastic bags for that job. - Lesley, Ethiopia 

24) Your bus will break down.  Your bus will get a flat tire.  You will be sitting next to a vomiting person.  That vomiting person will vomit on your bag.  They will not apologize. - Jackie, Ethiopia

25) You could shake out all ants that have gotten into your things (or created full-on colonies) and reuse them still. This includes book bags, linoleum floors, bag of Fritos sent from the states. - Karley, Ghana

26) You will have worn down skin on knuckles from washing clothes, because it's a high possibility that skin is dissolved after constant contact with the detergent in your host country. - Karley, Ghana

27) You will become a fan of terrible local music, and learn all the words to all the songs in the local language. - Karley, Ghana and Carlin, Ethiopia

28) You will be forced to eat organic for two years, and when I say organic, I mean you will look your meal in the eye and say, "I am going to eat you tonight."  You will know exactly where all of your food comes from. - Karley, Ghana and Carlin, Ethiopia

29) You will come to doubt the intentions of any local who wants to be your friend, wondering if they just want a visa, or if they want to marry you, or worse.  But you will also find locals who do not have these ulterior motives.  They may be hard to find, but they are worth searching for. - Carlin, Ethiopia

30) You will become so comfortable discussing your grossest illnesses and bodily functions with fellow PCVs, you will almost forget how to talk about anything else in more polite social circles. - Carlin, Ethiopia