January 27th to February 2nd 2024
Hello everybody! This past week was filled with programs at the American Corner, teaching at school, and a visit from my Fulbright mentor. Being here in Madagascar keeps me busy which is good because when I am busy, I do not miss home, my family, or Sophie as much.
This week started off with a very busy Saturday. First, I helped lead a program for English teachers in the Majunga area. It is called Community of Practice, and it was set up by the Embassy to help English teachers learn from one another. It is a cool program and the three main leaders for the group are very good English teachers that I am also learning a lot from. To help with the CoP, I led a session on time management and how to best structure English classes. I am always willing to help, but I do sometimes feel unqualified to lead sessions such as this. I have no real teaching experience in the U.S. other than substitute teaching and here I am being called upon to lead sessions for teachers. While I sometimes have some imposter syndrome, I do try to remind myself that it is okay that I do not know everything, and I am here to share my culture with them and then learn from the Malagasy teachers in return.
Saturday afternoon was also packed with programming. I helped create a STEM club at the American Corner, and we had our first meeting on Saturday. I was not sure what to expect, but we had a great turnout for our first meeting with close to 40 people showing up to participate. I was also happy to find that there were three Malagasy people who volunteered to help lead the club. Each of the leaders had a background in a different field of STEM, including programming, robotics, and physics. I am excited to meet with them more to discuss ideas on how to run the club and what topics to cover.
For the first topic of STEM club, I selected the construction of bridges. I gave a little presentation on the different types of bridges that can be built and the engineering that goes into each bridge. After that we went right into a bridge building competition. I set it up so that everyone had to buy toothpicks, marshmallows, tape, and other materials from me. The bridge that could support the weight of a water bottle at the lowest price would win. All the groups got super into it, and I felt proud to see so many people participating and having fun in a program that I helped to set up. Overall, the first session of STEM club was successful, and I am excited to do more.
This week my Fulbright mentor Johanna also came to visit me for a few days. She finished one year of Fulbright teaching in Uganda already and extended for another year to be a mentor. It was nice for her to stay for a couple of days and talk about and learn from her experiences. While she was here, we also had some fun and went to the beach one day. At the beach there are many Malagasy women who run businesses and sell food, drinks, do hair styles, or give massages. We made the mistake of coming to the beach during the week when no one else was there. Because of this the Malagasy women did not have any other customers other than us, and we were instantly surrounded by women trying to sell us things. At one point we had eight Malagasy women trying to give us a massage. Eventually, I paid them all to not give us a massage and just leave us alone. Anyway, it is all part of being in Madagascar and every week, including this one, is a challenging but rewarding adventure.