Strike Update...and Future Plans

We are now in the middle of the third week of the lecturers' strike against Njala University and the prospects for reconciliation continue to look exceedingly dismal.  Since I last wrote, the union has met twice, a huge logistical feat in and of itself since the two campuses are two hours apart so transport of some 70 to 80 folks to the host campus requires numerous buses and taxis and lots of patience.  Both meetings (yes, I went to both as a mouse in the back corner of the auditorium) were mostly informational but the intent of the union was and ever remains clear; they will continue their job action until ALL of their concerns have been resolved.

Last Friday, there was a large meeting here in Mokonde and according to the union president, the administration has yet to even respond to any proposal tendered by the union not to mention acknowledgement that there had even been attempts.  During the question and answer part of the meeting, a few lecturers voiced concern over how this was adversely impinging on our students.  One professor offered an idea to have us go back to work with the idea that negotiations would begin immediately and last for a one-month period at which time the union would walk out if no significant progress had been made.  Despite the impassioned entreaties of the naysayers, the vote was clear; 127 lecturers voted to continue the strike while only 16 wanted to go back to work.

This resounding show of support creates a great conundrum for me.  I am totally in support of the lecturers and their cause.  Heck, they are doing, as I mentioned previously, what we at WCU could never do.  However, if I stayed here in the bush to wait this out, and even if we settled this today, I will already have to extend beyond my current Close of Service date which takes me at least into the first week of September while we were expected to end the school year somewhere in mid-July.  

On top of that, I asked myself, why would I WANT to extend my stay? Because I owe it to them?  Put bluntly, I started off on the wrong foot.  The job I was given when I arrived here in Salone was not the position I signed up for.  I was recruited stateside to teach much the same curriculum here in Africa as I did in the U.S.; methods in teaching elementary school reading and writing as well as children's literature.  Remember all those books I sent here and the snapshot of the groaning coffee table in my living room beleaguered with titles including books from the likes of Lois Lowry, J. Patrick Lewis, Rebecca Stead and academic literacy texts from Cramer to Cooper and many more?  Not one of them has been of use to me because I was assigned to another campus to teach adult literature courses and basic English skills classes. Sadly, I am nothing more than a substitute lecturer...one that teaches five courses and they don't have to pay me.

If I stayed, there's another issue that is bound to rear its ugly head before the would-be spring term arrives which is "what else can go wrong to extend this school year even further?"  By our track record, I could be here a long time.  We started the school year a little more than four weeks late in the fall, took off three weeks for the election, had two and one-half weeks off for Christmas, and are now well into our third week of the strike.  We still have three weeks of final exams to complete along with a two-week break so we can grade the exams and students can vacation.  In all, we have literally taught less than 8 weeks in what was to be a 15-week semester.  Given that it makes me wonder what else is going to go wrong?

All this has led me to my next step.  After discussing this situation with my Country Director last Saturday on the phone, I was relieved when she asked me to come to Freetown to discuss my concerns with her face-to-face, to potentially look for other options of service, or (worst case scenario) to pursue terminating my service altogether.  

She and I met first thing this morning and though she said she could offer me a position at a university here in Freetown (Are you kidding? I'm scared to death here in this city!) or I could go to one other institution out in the country (hmm, start over again?) I decided immediately that I wanted to return home. Sure, I could spend time during the strike visiting schools and getting to know the strengths and limitations of the present state of education here in Sierra Leone, I could begin working on developing a curriculum for future use, but it all smacked of "make work" to just keep me busy and had nothing to do with what and why I'd come here in the first place.  

I came to Sierra Leone because I wanted to "make a difference" which almost every seasoned Peace Corps volunteer will swear "ain't gonna happen!"  But in the same breath, they will also testify to the rich relationships they've nurtured in-country, the wonderful changes they've seen take place and that could only be credited to their efforts, and of the continued contact they've had with their friends and host families since they returned back to the United States.  That is what I call making a difference and when I looked back at what I've accomplished here I know that all of this is true for me as well.  Without blinking an eyelash, I thanked my Country Director but told her to proceed in what is known in Peace Corps lingo as "Early Termination" or E.T. I've done all that I can do here and to stay would not significantly make any difference.  

As it stands at this writing (and I'll continue to add more to the blog once I'm returned), I am slated to leave Freetown on Wednesday evening and arrive home Thursday night via Dakar, Brussels, and Newark, and on to Philly International.  

My friend, Jessica, the Peace Corps Response Volunteer in Bo asked me what I was going to do when I got home.  I said that I'm going to drink some whiskey (Jack Daniels, of course) and Luke and I are going to grab a Cheesesteak Stromboli at New Haven in West Chester!