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Most of the time, when I get into my Yango, there is complete silence. Silence is not a sound I am familiar with. It might be normal for people taking cabs to be completely silent, but I wouldn’t know because I’m not a usual cab taker. The silence in the Yango may also be because…

As expected, my first friends in Côte d’Ivoire have been an eclectic mix of people. The group at this point mainly consists of a couple of Americans who are in similar positions to mine and a group of Ivorians who are very confused/intrigued by me. I also have a group of future friends in the…

This blog post needs nearly no words. Here is a game I found at the store. The game involves a blowup doll and is called: Play with Fred! It is definitely not built for the American market. I almost wanted to buy it.

The Women’s English Club! When you are an English teacher living in a country where virtually nobody speaks English, but everyone wants to learn, the odds of personal success are excellent. Also, when you are a native English speaker, you may find yourself suddenly in charge of nearly everything that even remotely relates to the…

In any case, he is the president of the English Club at his church and invited me to come and speak to the group. Since I’m generally free on Sunday mornings, I agreed to attend the English Club, hoping to avoid recruitment to the church. Before arrival, I had read that Côte d’Ivoire was about…

It feels wrong to write about my travels without at least mentioning the orange elephant in the room. He is the last person I want to waste my time thinking about, but I know many people do not have the privilege of disregarding him like I can. It is easier for me: I am not…

When I was in college, my 21st birthday evening ended when I was dropped on the curb by two burly bouncers at a bar named Kilroy’s after pounding a shot called a Mind Eraser. That Mind Eraser went down really smoothly but quickly bounced out of my stomach like a basketball. I’ll let you imagine…

If there is anything that my time living in France taught me, it’s that simple stuff takes 10x longer when you don’t know what you’re doing. In comparison, the start of my time in Côte d’Ivoire has been made slightly easier because at least I am fully aware of how much scrappiness it takes to…

Before moving to a new place, it’s a good idea to research the place that you plan to live. Positives vs. negatives, etc. The downside of research is that it can insert fear (or at least mild trepidation) where there previously was none. For this reason (plus my dislike of information overload), I usually operate…

When I went to DC this summer for the State Department training for this position, the main takeaway was that flexibility would be the key to my success. Arrive in the country with no place to live? Be flexible! You think you know what you will teach, but then you arrive and are teaching something…