Work

My work is totally different from what I was used to in Enschede. There, I was working so many extra hours, so many nights. Here, my working days are from 9 till 4. Also work load is not comparable, I really feel like a civil servant here.  The first few weeks I was pretty bored, I am not so good in sitting in the office doing nothing. Fortunately, I have some more things to do now.
 
 
In the past two weeks, we did two trainings. The first one was for the National Volunteers in Kwara.

I always enjoy working with our National Volunteers. The training we did was so nice again. We did sessions on motivation, communication and inclusive education. Besides this, we encouraged them to share their experiences, their challenges and solutions. This worked out very well, their discussions are very lively.

Who would you save? Session about inclusion

Inclusive education is an important issue for VSO. UNICEF is defining inclusive education as the 'recognition of the need to work towards 'schools for all' - institutions which include everybody, celebrate differences, support learning, and respond to individual needs’. You might immediately think about education for children with a disability. But inclusive education also means that you pay as much attention to the girls in your classroom as to the boys, or that you enable also slow learners to keep up with the class instead of leaving them behind.

Most volunteers have experienced somehow that girls were not treated in the same way as boys. Also, I can very well imagine that if you teach eighty students, it is not easy to give enough attention to slow learners. So I was very excited to read in many evaluations of the day that our volunteers are more aware of this now and will at least try to be more inclusive in their teaching. This raising of awareness is the first step to improvement I would say!

 

Special session for the NGO volunteers

The second training was in Abuja for VSO desk officers. There is a similar NGVP program in Kano. But Kano is too dangerous for us as International Volunteers to travel to. Therefor we had to train the staff so they can cascade the training to the volunteers. My partner Moshood did also take part in this train-the-trainer session.

In Nigeria, a teacher is a lecturer. They can easily talk for hours. In our trainings however, we expect the trainer to facilitate, to enable sharing among participants and let them think for themselves. This is a totally different technique which is not easy for them. But hopefully they learnt something. We will most likely have another training for NYSC volunteers in 1,5 week, so Moshood and I can do a session together to get some real experience as well. I am sure it will work out totally fine, especially because he is willing to learn.

 

NGVP Kwara
 

Oyibo and excitement

As a white person (an Oyibo) I am quite an attraction for the people of Ilorin. The kids in the streets are still going crazy every time they see a white person. When I walk through the neighbourhood I constantly hear children shouting Oyibo! Oyibo! Sometimes you don’t even see them, but they see me! It feels like being the queen, you just wave to everyone.



My new haircut

Recently I had my hair cut at the neighbour’s house. This was the event of the year for all of them I think. Before she started there were five adults and about fifteen little girls, all touching my hair and saying that my hair is so soft and straight. Then the neighbour started cutting and all the little ones were just watching, holding the hair that was falling down. They were extremely excited, an Oyibo in our house!

This weekend I (finally) bought a bicycle. Might be very Dutch, but I love the idea of freedom the bike gives me. For the first time in my life I now own a kind of mountain bike. Something different from my ‘omafiets’ back in the Netherlands! But Ilorin is pretty hilly, so this bike seems to be fine. Even the gears are functioning.



There is water!

As an Oyibo I am an attraction. But an Oyibo on a bicycle, that’s even a bigger attraction! I am afraid the number of traffic accidents in Ilorin might rise in the next few weeks. So many motor bikers and drivers don’t pay attention to the road because they are looking (or better, staring) at me.  

For Nigerians, a biking Oyibo seems to be the most exciting thing ever. For me, different things are becoming exciting. For example; having power for a few hours after each other, or the possibility to take a real shower (don’t even think about a hot shower) instead of a bucket shower. You learn to value the small things overhere!