Sarah with an H

I have been asked multiple times in the past couple of weeks why I haven’t been writing in my blog. Honestly, life to me here is pretty normal. I didn’t write a blog in America because everyone else was doing the same things I was and who was I to think that I was special? Well, I moved to Ethiopia with the Peace Corps and thought that was special so I started a blog. 

The first couple of months were exciting and I loved noting all the crazy differences between America and Ethiopia but now those differences are my every day and are no longer differences. They still annoy me. Like, when the bus boy collecting all the money snaps in my face because he wants to be paid or when the waitress is in the back of the restaurant watching television and I have to get up and get her because we are ready to order. All these things provide daily laughter for us volunteers but that hardly provides exciting or moving tales for people back home.  So, today I thought I would write about my very special friend, Sarah. While talking about Sarah, maybe I can highlight the difficulties with the Ethiopian education system and how despite a lack of opportunities, this incredible young woman refuses to give up. Maybe she’ll help me to never give up on anything.

Sarah is a regular 15 year old girl who happens to live in Ethiopia. She loves her cell phone (or her mobile as all the kids call it) and inevitably loses that same cell phone about every two weeks. I used to not answer numbers I didn’t know for fear that it would be some random Ethiopian who dialed the wrong number and in finding out that I was a foreigner would repeatedly call my phone after I initially hung up. Now, because Sarah constantly loses her mobile and calls me from someone else’s phone I pick up in the off chance that it’s her. Sarah also loves clothes (even though her wardrobe is very minimal) and she loves being called beautiful, which she is. The one thing Sarah does not love about being an Ethiopian teenager is that she can’t go to a private school where the quality of education is obviously and painfully better. She would love to go to a school where she can exercise her skills with capable teachers and converse with fellow students with equal talents.  I don’t know any kid in America who says that.

I first met Sarah when she was assigned to my Green Team for Camp GLOW Mekelle 2013. When I first met her, among the craziness that was orientation, I assumed that she was another “Mekelle Girl”. We had girls from all over Tigray but the only kids who had access to a larger city (with an airport) were the Mekelle kids. We called the teenage girls “divas” because they wore lipstick and giggled- a lot. (I am starting to realize as I’m writing this, that this doesn’t sound so bad compared to what awaits us back in the U.S. Apparently, Miley Cyrus is “twerking” on sports mascots and kids are crying because they can’t have a BMW for their 16^th birthday. Maybe some kids wearing make-up and chatting too much isn’t such a bad thing.)

I was easily impressed with this young woman once she opened her mouth. Her English was excellent and she was more than willing to help me out with all the kids. Most of my kids did not speak English and my Tigrinya is not on the level of explaining what a summer camp is and what I expect of my team. Sarah jumped for the opportunity and I was grateful.

Throughout camp Sarah quickly became a favorite among the counselors because she was able to help translate and she was a good teammate. She never broke the rules but still had fun being a girl. It was weird how professional she was while we were in session because she seemed like a counselor herself but then session would end and she would be gossiping with the other girls. Without Sarah I would not have found out whom One Direction is (although I’m still a little foggy on what songs they actually sing that I would actually listen to).

Camp ended and Sarah got the Camp Leader award which she well deserved and she cried along with everyone as they were saying their goodbyes. Before camp ended I knew I needed to work with Sarah again but I needed to give her a better opportunity to showcase her talents as a leader. That’s when Grassroots Soccer provided that opportunity.

                Grassroots Soccer is a global HIV/AIDS education program that is also a partner with Peace Corps. Who better to run GRS than Peace Corps Volunteers and their counterparts? We had used the program during camp and gave the campers certificates for completing the program so Sarah was a graduate. I had to write to the GRS and Peace Corps staff and explain that even though Sarah was only 14, she could easily learn the material and facilitate it in a successful program. After some debate Sarah was allowed to accompany meet as my counterpart to the GRS training in Mekelle.

                For one week Sarah and I were trained in the program (which Sarah had already participated) and performed a “teach back” to the group (that Sarah led by herself) where we performed one of the activities as if we were running our own program and then we were ready to have our first intervention at my primary school with my English Club of 8^th grade girls. During the training, the GRS staff from South Africa found out that not only was Sarah only 14 but that she also graduated from the program. They asked her and another GRS graduate, Lilly, to present what they learned from GRS in a 15 minute presentation in front of the whole training group. I beamed with pride as Sarah and Lilly talked about Camp GLOW and GRS but did it with such enthusiasm and ability. Everyone looked at me with wild eyes, mouthing how incredible Sarah was and how well she spoke for someone so young. I couldn’t help but feel pride in the fact that I not only knew this remarkable young woman but that she was working with me.

                After our training Sarah and I organized and facilitated the GRS program at Adi Haki School. For four weeks we met with my English Club and Sarah led 12 girls through the program to completion. She did everything and I literally did nothing except oversee that we were hitting all the required marks. At the end I did all the Monitoring and Evaluating junk and she was ready to start a new program at another school.

                Now, Sarah is looking forward to applying for a junior counseling position at this year’s Camp GLOW Mekelle 2014 and she is finishing her first year of high school. Sarah’s dreams include earning a scholarship to an American University and not getting in trouble for correcting her teachers for their many English mistakes. Sarah lives in a small two bedroom house with her mother, brother, a new baby brother.  She prepares coffee every day for her family, helps with household chores, studies English everyday (not homework), and plans for her future. Sarah does all of this in the hopes that because she works so hard she will be given better opportunities. Sound familiar America? Unfortunately a lot of those opportunities will not be available to her because she is in a government school in Ethiopia.

                Private school students and students who live in Addis Ababa, the capital, are more likely to earn scholarships elsewhere. Hopefully, Sarah’s skills will get her to University in Addis where she can earn her Ethiopian undergraduate degree (which won’t count anywhere else in the world) and become a doctor in Ethiopia. My hopes for her are that she gets whatever she wants and if I had more influence in the world I would get her a scholarship to any school she desired. But the one thing I have learned (and hope I am wrong in this) is that in Ethiopia some things are just not possible even for a girl as talented and wonderful as Sarah. Still, Sarah works harder and keeps smiling and I am thankful to know such motivated and capable young woman.