Malaria is one of the biggest health challenges here in Liberia. It’s the leading cause of death in Liberia and young children and pregnant women are at an even higher risk than the rest of the population. (Some statistics are in this post that I shared last year.) But malaria is preventable! So we’re working…
Category: Liberia
Life in Liberia: Yard Names & Porch Kids
Here in my community in Liberia, the houses can be close together in a way that to my American eye seemed disorderly at first — not all the houses are on an actual road and they can be built just feet away from another house. Unlike in neighborhoods in the US, you can’t distinguish which…
A Day in the Life of a Peace Corps Volunteer in Liberia
What does a typical day look like for a Peace Corps education volunteer in Liberia? While every volunteer’s experience is different, here’s what a normal weekday looks like for me… My alarm goes off at 6:30, though I’m often awake sooner, hearing the roosters crowing and my neighbors at the well right outside my window,…
Life in Liberia: Living without Running Water
In Liberia, outside of the capital city, Monrovia, most people do not have running water – including the Peace Corps volunteers! Here’s how I live without running water in my community…. Most communities usually have either a pump or a well, or both. At my site, I have a well right outside my house that…
Where my Christmas?
December was a busy month so I wanted to share an update about where I spent the holidays! The last week of school before Christmas vacation was a pretty slow week. Attendance was low as many students (and teachers as well unfortunately) decided to begin their breaks early. But the students who were there kept…
Vacationing in Liberia: Libassa Ecolodge and Wildlife Sanctuary
While we were in Liberia for almost two weeks we were busy almost every day, from doing engineering activities with Kim’s students to shopping in the enormous Waterside Market in Monrovia. For our last full day in Liberia we decided to relax by visiting the Libassa Ecolodge, about an hour away from Monrovia and not…
A Little Motivation from my Students
Teaching is hard work! I recently posted about starting my 2nd year of teaching here in Liberia and some of my challenges. From classroom management issues to figuring out what’s most important to teach, there are days that are really frustrating. But I recently had a conversation with some of my 12th grade students that…
Reflections on Teaching: Starting Year 2
With one year of teaching under my belt, I’ve started my second school year here in Liberia! We’ve finished the first of 6 marking periods and about this time last year I wrote my first post about my experience so far teaching in Liberia. So it feels like a good time to write an update,…
Visiting Kim’s Classroom: Marshmallow Structures
For our second day helping Kim teach at her school, our lesson was all about structures. For anyone who missed the estimation activity last class, Mom and I reintroduced our selves. We explained how we are both engineers and a little bit about all the different types of engineering. Since we are engineers, we wanted…
Visiting Kim in Liberia: A Morning in Kakata
Since Kim lives relatively close to the larger city of Kakata, we decided to take a morning to visit and see the Peace Corps training center and to meet her Liberian host family who she lived with during her initial training in Liberia. Instead of trying to hail a cab on the side of the…
It's a Schmahl World 