Pomp & Circumstance

Fun fact about Liberia: graduations are almost a bigger deal than birthdays (does it make more sense to commemorate milestones achieved by more than just not dying? Yes and no in a country where daily life can pose no small threat to life and limb...). And summer is graduation season. Hair is plated, lappa suits are sewn, giant speaker sets are rented, and goats are slaughtered for all-night parties celebrating completion of twelfth grade on down to pre-k. Thanks to the speakers, even those neighbors within a two-mile radius who do not receive invitations get to enjoy second-hand sonic bombardment. It's like two months of non-stop block party for all of Kakata.

In the spirit of the season, then, it seems only fitting that I examine the last year of not-dying I have accomplished. So here, in no particular order, are some of my highest highs and lowest lows for the year, and some future hopes and dreams thrown in for good measure:

1. I am ridiculously proud of my first full year of teaching in my own classroom. I only cried in fromt of students twice, I learned more than I taught, and I am humbled and inspired by the efforts of my students, who work harder in a day than I do in a month. I will hopefully get to carry them to eleventh grade next year and puck up right where I left off but with 100% more after-school tutoring and learning all their names before the end of the year.

2. I love this place so much, but it is REALLY hard to live in a country where basic systems barely function on their best days. Where to make plans is to guarantee that they will fall through. Where your support system is your neighbors and for all that I love mine we are often on totally different wavelengths, sometimes at the worst times. 

3. I love the person I have become here, the people I am surrounded by, the family I've made here and the sense of peace and purpose I have every day. I want to keep living in the moment for as long as it lasts. And I'm grateful every day for my amazing, inspiring roommate.

4. Cinnamon rolls got baked on a coal pot. 'Nuff said. (Actually, I love food and cooking here in general. So satisfying in so many vital, fundamental ways)

5. We were cool enough to play this awesome board game, Pandemic, even in the midst of an Ebola outbreak. Because if you laugh at things they are less scary, and it's an AWESOME game.

6. I sewed a lappa quilt. By hand. 

7. I am part of our post newsletter, "No Bad News," and I'm rediscovering how fun and exhausting journalism is.

8. I walked back into the classroom after yelling and crying in front of my students. And had a miraculous teaching day.

9. This year's PST is gonna rock, and I had the incredible opportunity to be part of making that happen.

10. I'm going to miss some people who are leaving, but I just got 50 new friends delivered to my door. I hope I can be to LR-5 what LR-3 has been to me. Big shoes to fill...

I can only hope that the coming year is half so rich and strange. Let the good times roll!