All,
I hope everyone is doing well. Peace Corps life in Sierra Leone is much what I had in mind when I applied. “Classic” Peace Corps, as the outgoing Country Director referred to it. Toting buckets of water on my head from the well is routine and easy. Washing my clothes, also in the bucket, gets quicker and quicker as do the daily bucket baths and weekly hair washings. Sometimes I go several days without a trip to the well because we’re still in the rainy season and catching all the water I need is usually possible by setting the buckets outside in the storms. Buckets are a major theme of my life in Potoru, as you may have noticed. Another theme is rice, rice, rice. I treated myself to a sardine sandwich for lunch the other day and was amazed by how wonderful and different it tasted.
I swore in as an official Peace Corps Volunteer on August 17th along with 43 others. I was transported to Potoru with “all” my belongings on August 18th, kindly enough by the PC Land Cruiser. I have a two-bedroom, mud/plaster house with a zinc roof and pit latrine inside. It is extremely nice by local standards. My school, Barri Islamis Junior Secondary and Senior Secondary, is right beside me and the town center only about ten minutes away. Two weeks ago we interviewed students who had just graduated from primary school and were trying to enter JSS Class 1, which is the equivalent of our lowest middle school grade. No one was turned away, but the interviews were helpful in demonstrating the incredible disparity between the abilities of those coming in. With that in mind, I’m starting all my incoming students with the ABCs and the basics of handwriting.
About two weeks ago, I was knocked over, for the first time, by a bacterial stomach infection. It started with night sweats, a 104 degree fever, and a complete loss of bowel control, which is not a place I ever expected to find myself at this age. But the worst of it passed in two day and I’m fine now.
To end on a more positive note, the people in my community seem to like me a lot and I feel as though I’ve become a regular part of the village, not a novelty, shockingly quickly. Most days are good, not withstanding the sickeness I already mentioned, and I plan to hold onto this feelings as long as I can.
So sorry for the sporadic communication. My site is more remote than a lot of others, and it may be two more months before I am back on the internet. I think about and miss you all. Thank you for the well-wishing. More soon.
Love, Meredith
Meredith Meadows 