PC Wanderlust

Interviews

In the past few weeks since I have been here, Peace Corps has had two “interviews” with all the trainees to ask us about our preferences in where we want to be placed and in what type of school we want to work. The first interview was after just one week of being here, so I really had no idea what sort of preferences I wanted. Everywhere you turn there are just tons of people, so my concept of big and small cities does me no good. Even a “small” city might have 50,000 or more people. I did tell them there were certain types of things that I would like to have though, and it was pretty much up to them to decide what size of city that means sending me to. I told them I would like fairly regular internet access (as in I don’t want to have to travel 2 hours to the next biggest city any time I want to check my email), but I would like for the city to be small enough that I can actually get to know my neighbors. This is one of the things that they have been teaching us in our safety and security training sessions – that you really need to get out and put in face time in order to ensure your safety. Get to know your banker, post office people, internet café guy, fruit salesman, next door neighbors, etc. That way if they see anyone messing with you, or even trying to charge you too much in the market, they will look out for you.
The second interview we had wasn’t so much about what sort of city we want to be placed in as what sort of school we want to teach in. They asked us if we would prefer a secondary school (think middle school-ish age) or a college (think high school age), and if we wanted to teach more theory and complex ideas or basic straightforward lessons. I told them I would prefer college because I want to do more complex lessons, such as holding debates and discussions, as opposed to just teaching grammar. Peace Corps told us they would be sending 10 of the trainees to colleges, and they announced the very next day who it would be. I’m in!! This is a brand new program that they are trying, so the 10 of us will be the first ones to ever try teaching in colleges in Bangladesh. They are trying the program based on reports on the overall better satisfaction level of previous volunteers who have worked with older students (in their secondary projects that is). So, it sounds like we are going to be the guinea pigs a little, but I am pretty excited. I am really looking forward to incorporating lots of debates and discussions to get the students really motivated and thinking about new concepts and ideas that they just don’t seem to get from the standard lecture style of teaching. I’m so happy!! There have been rumors flying about where the ten of us will be placed (the northeast part of the country has been mentioned), but we won’t find out until later this month. Everyone will find out what city they will be going to on September 30. I can’t wait!!

posted by Kathryn @ 9/09/2005 11:42:00 PM