It's a Schmahl World

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…

Visiting the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas

On our free morning in San Antonio with no Fiesta Week activities, we decided to visit the Alamo. First established as a mission in 1718, the Alamo was one of many settlements established by Spanish missionaries in an effort to convert the indigenous population. In San Antonio alone, there are five missions still standing (read…

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,…

Making Belgian Chocolates in Brussels, Belgium

During our week long trip in Belgium, we knew we had to enjoy some famous Belgian chocolates! After a little searching online we found a Belgian chocolate making workshop for 35 euros each. We signed up before our trip to reserve our spots in the class. At 11 am on the day of the workshop,…

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…

Visiting Kim’s Classroom: Estimation Activity

At our first day in Kim’s school, we were surprised when we arrived to find that it was a “working day.” That means that instead of classes, the students work to clean up the school’s campus. They hadn’t started cleaning yet, so we decided to still do our prepared activity with the students who were…