Update--Liberia and Myself!

Liberia’s really beginning to wear on me. I need a break. Luckily, I can say that I should be back stateside by the end of June! Yay! Less than one month. Get excited. I know I am. I’m looking forward to real grocery stores with real produce sections (I had a dream the other night I went grocery shopping in the states and forgot to buy produce because I’m so used to not being able to here), drinking water out of the tap (again, I had a dream about this a few weeks ago too), Mexican food, good restaurants, being able to cook at home with quality ingredients and an oven, ohhhhh…the joys of first world countries.

In the meantime, I am still living here in my favorite third (some say fourth?) world country. I sometimes feel like it’s harder for me now than it was at the beginning of my trip here. Basically, all of those creature comforts I don’t have here were easy to give up for the adventure. Now I’ve been here for going on ten months and the adventure’s over and I want a freaking oven again. Okay, that sounds negative. If I didn’t like it here I wouldn’t be coming back for another year, though, right? It’s true, I do like it. I am ready for a chance to see my friends and family and eat some good food though.

So I went out downtown this weekend and saw an amazing thing—a stop sign! It’s true ladies and gentlemen, Monrovia has its first official stop sign. I find this incredibly exciting. They also painted some crosswalks on one of the main streets when they painted lines on the roads. A few weeks ago they put up people crossing signs. It’s amazing! Who knows what could be next? Maybe a few more functioning stop lights? Maybe they’ll repave Broad St. downtown so you don’t have to dodge the massive potholes while driving? More stop signs? Oh the possibilities are endless!

Make Believe

First graders are fun because they still believe in everything that adults don’t anymore. Think Santa Claus, the tooth fairy, and various other characters. This week one of my students lost her first tooth. She had been talking about how loose it was for a week. To be honest, I was somewhat relived when it finally fell out. I had run out of ways to react to seeing the loose tooth and things to say about it. Now I just hear about how weird it feels and how strange it is to eat an apple without it. She told me she received a $2 bill for her tooth, and I, of course, replied with something about the tooth fairy. She promptly told me that she knew the tooth fairy was mom and dad. Then I had to try to have a very quiet discussion about how many of the other kids still believe in the tooth fairy, so we can’t tell them otherwise. I always catch myself on the verge of revealing earth shattering secrets, including the secret of Santa as well. I almost said to the little girl, “It’s like Santa Claus, yes he’s your parents, but most kids still believe in him, so let’s not ruin it for them.” Fortunately I always realize what I’m about to say, but then I have to step back and go, “just because she doesn’t believe in the Tooth Fairy doesn’t mean she doesn’t believe in Santa.” It’s hard to keep up with what’s real and what’s not in a first grader’s mind. I remember around Christmastime the kids kept asking questions about Santa and how this or that happens. “How does Santa fit in the chimney?,” “What if our house doesn’t have a chimney?,” “How do the reindeer fly?” They are super cute, but the kids ask some really great and difficult questions that I don’t always feel prepared to answer. It requires some quick thinking and creative responses. I’ve also been able to convince the kids that I’m magic sometimes. When they can’t figure out how I know certain things or have caught them doing something I just tell them, “I’m magic.” It’s fantastic and so much fun. It also reminds me that it’s okay to not have the real answer for everything. Sometimes it’s better to believe and leave things be rather than try to overanalyze and make sure there’s a reason for everything. Just another reason why first graders are awesome. Life’s simple and fun.