Nomination!

"Nicole, Congratulations on your nomination to the Primary Education Teacher Trainer program leaving for the Sub Sahara Africa region in November 2008!..."

I only had my interview up at UNH last Friday so to hear back from the Boston office so soon was a nice surprise. I'm guessing that many of you are relieved to hear that I'm not being sent to Asia, as requested. The only teaching program leaving for Asia in the fall is in August and I obviously can't miss both Jill and Kate's weddings! The other Fall placements were either the Pacific Islands Sept. or Oct., or Africa in November. I sat at my computer for a couple hours with Ryan researching and reading PC journals from the Pacific region and staring at one beautiful tropical picture after another before I replied to the email with "Africa please!" Here's some of an article that helped make my decision pretty easy:

"Finding places for millions of new students is one of sub-Saharan Africa's most overwhelming and gratifying missions. After two decades of sluggish growth in enrollment rates, the region's 45 countries find themselves with an embarrassing number of eager schoolchildren.Nearly 22 million more students flooded classrooms between 1999 and 2004, increasing the enrollment rate by 18 percent, more than in any other region of the world, according to Unesco. More than 6 out of 10 primary school-age children are now enrolled, and that ratio does not even include older students, like 14-year- old second graders, who have also streamed into schools. Not since the 1970s has sub-Saharan Africa made such strides. "The whole climate has changed," said Nicholas Burnett, who produces an annual global report on schooling for Unesco. "Resources are becoming available. You can definitely see the attitudes of African parents changing. Africa is starting to move in such a positive direction." Two trends have converged to produce such change: One is a willingness by international donors and African governments to spend hundreds of millions of dollars more on basic education. That has fed a rising demand for education by the region's parents, who for perhaps the first time see a chance to give their children a future they were denied. The challenges, however, remain staggering. Foremost is a flood tide of school-age children in a region whose birth rate is nearly twice the world's average. Forty-four in 100 sub-Saharan residents are under age 15, the highest percentage on earth. By some estimates, the next decade could increase the school-age population by another 28 million. The region must absorb those newcomers while trying to lift itself from the subbasement of global education. Sub-Saharan Africa is home to barely one-sixth of the world's children younger than 15, but fully half the world's uneducated children — the legacy of poverty, colonialism and historically inadequate schools. Those who do make it to primary school are more likely to enroll late, repeat grades and drop out before sixth grade than are students anywhere else, according to Unesco. The pupil-teacher ratio, averaging 44 to 1, is the world's highest; the percentage of trained teachers among the lowest." -Sharon LaFraniere, Herald Tribune

The next step is medical/dental clearance, which from what I hear, can take months. After the PC approves the paperwork I will receive an invitation to a specific country and be given a specific departure date, so stay tuned. 10 more months of pizza and hot running water!