Writing & Work Archives - Sonia Marsh

“I’m Looking For a Job: Can You Please Help?”

February 6, 2017 by Sonia Marsh 12 Comments

Looking for a job in the U.S., after being a Peace Corps volunteer in Lesotho, has forced me to re-program my brain, which is why I’m asking for your help. (Photo of my first networking event the day after I landed in the U.S.)

The minute I stepped off the plane at LAX, I realized I’d have to put on my Usain Bolt legs to keep up with the pace of my fellow passengers. Why does everyone sprint? In my rural village in Lesotho, I was known as the fast walker, but now my legs appeared to be letting me down. (No jokes about an aging body please.)

The competitive spirit hit me as I accelerated to fit the fast pace of the western world and aimed for the immigration officer before everyone else. Why am I striving to beat everyone to this imaginary finish line? There is no medal for first place.

My second shock occurred when I set up my laptop enjoying the luxury of never-ending Wi-Fi. I no longer had to buy vouchers from Vodacom for data. With e-mails cramming my inbox, I’d forgotten the turn-around speed of e-mails in my new environment. In Lesotho, I would get an e-mail, ponder over it for a few days, and reply when I felt like it. Back in California, if I don’t reply within 5 minutes of receiving an e-mail, I may be losing an opportunity.

The third culture shock I had to face, was the skill of talking fast, and having a 30-second elevator pitch ready. It seems that marketing yourself is a MUST in the society we live in today where we are constantly trying to either sell our skills or make ourselves seem brilliant and indispensable.

We need to hook our potential employer, even our potential online dates, with a PITCH. Basically, everything is about marketing ourselves; what has this world come to? No wonder we are so obsessed with ourselves! Even dating has become a 30-second elevator pitch.

I’m by no means a slow, lazy, person. In fact, I’m quite surprised at the things I’ve accomplished in the two weeks I’ve been back. I’ve:

Bought a car
Got insurance, both health and car
Attended the Publishers, Writers San Diego meeting on how to create book buzz.
Attended a business networking meeting where elevator pitches were flowing like the wine, and business cards exchanged from hand to hand
Attended my niece’s wedding
Joined Match.com, and attended a singles happy hour with one of my friends, plus a few dates
Met my ex-boss for lunch and was offered a valuable contact for a job opportunity
Got offered a job at a French cafe in Newport Beach
Got offered work a few nights and weekends a month with an event planner at the Newport Beach Library with their author events
Meeting friends who are offering suggestions on resume writing, business coaches, and contacts
Getting my rental room organized
Loving Amazon prime, I won’t tell you how exciting it is to order something and receive it promptly

So writing a resume is not only difficult, but adapting it to various positions, especially when your interests and skills are all over the place. Why couldn’t I just be a dentist, or an accountant? It would be so much easier to pin-down specific jobs, rather than looking at what I have to offer, and saying:

“Help! What mold do I fit in?”

So that’s exactly what I’m doing. What mold do I fit in? Please help me define a job, and if you know a person who might need my skills, I’d love to have a contact name.

My skills and experience

Networking and connecting with people
Presentation and communication skills
Tri-lingual (French, English and Danish)
Recruitment and mentoring
Ability to clearly convey information, including to multi-cultural audiences
Project management
Research and report writing
Interviewing
Social media and blogging
Critical thinking and problem solving
Marketing and promoting
Professional, adaptable and flexible
Ability to overcome challenges
Fundraising and project management working on a sustainable school renovation project in Lesotho, Africa

If you would like my resume, please e-mail me at: Sonia@soniamarsh.com

As they say, the Peace Corps requires you to be flexible, adaptable, and to overcome challenges. They also require patience, and I have to say coming back to the fast pace of Orange County, California, leaves little time for patience.

Electricity Has Arrived In My Village-Gutsy Living

May 30, 2016 by Sonia Marsh 13 Comments

Computers from Minister-3

I did not want to make any announcements about the arrival of electricity in my rural village in Lesotho, until I could switch on a light in my rondavel.

Other Peace Corps Volunteers told me not to get my hopes up when holes were being dug for the electric poles in February.

“I’ve had poles in my village for more than a year, but there is still no electricity,” one volunteer explained.

We kept hearing that the Minister of Energy would “turn the switch” on May 23^rd, but I kept thinking this would be postponed. I was wrong! The Minister arrived at 3:30 p.m. on Monday, 23^rd of May, and that evening, we all had light.

Not every villager opted for electricity. Some of the poorer families could not afford the deposit of 580 Rand, ($37) together with the Ready Box (which has three plugs and one light,) that the LEC (Lesotho Electricity Company) installed on my wall. Fortunately, Mary, my “host mother” wanted electricity in her own three-bedroom cement, brick house as well as in my rondavel. She has a satellite dish, like so many in my village, and a TV, which does not work on solar power.

I am surprised by how many of the “poor” villagers have satellites dishes, stereo equipment, cell phone, and nice stoves with ovens, yet claim that they have “no money.” I guess electronics take priority over food. Besides, all their equipment is crammed into one room, where the mother, father and children sleep, eat, bathe, watch TV, and cook. Everything is clean, tidy, and clutter-free.

None of the teachers at my school taught for three days prior to the Minister of Energy’s visit. Why? Because the Principal wanted the children to practice singing and dancing for the event. On one of those non-teaching days, the children were sent home to collect 2 Rand (13 cents) to buy a gift for the Minister. It took them three hours to trek home, get the money, and come back to school; another wasted day, which bothered the seventh grade teacher, and me, as they have exams in June. The school managed to collect $35 in total, and one of our teachers suggested buying the Minister of Energy a wall clock, and a bathroom scale. I asked if the Minister needed to lose weight, which caused laughter among the staff.

On the morning before the Minister’s arrival, the gifts were displayed in the staff room. Four AA batteries were attached to the Minister of Energy’s bathroom scale. Three teachers assisted in the gift wrapping process, and writing a note with a purple felt pen to thank the Minister for bringing us electricity. This took one hour away from teaching, but since the children practiced dancing again, it didn’t make much difference.

After my excitement of finally having a light bulb and being able to see my clothes in the closet without a flash light at 6 a.m., I arrived at school and was told that four desktop computers and a printer had been donated to our school by the Minister.

“’M’e Sonia, we want you to install all of them,” the Principal said.

“I will try, but just because we have computers doesn’t mean we have Internet. The school has to pay for data,” I told her, knowing full well, that her response would be,

“The school has no money.”

One of the male teachers, took out his penknife and started opening boxes of monitors, keyboards, computers, and even the mouse (mice?) etc. After each box had been opened, and unwrapped from its plastic covering, he called seventh graders to pick up a computer component, and stand on the hill above the morning Assembly. They were to display what we had received. I could tell their eyes saw free movies and videos, magically coming alive on the screens.

Computers from Minister-2

As soon as I entered the staff room, I noticed wires dangling from the new Ready Box we have installed on the wall. Our staff room is now hooked up to electricity, and all the teachers are charging their personal cell phones. We only have 5 Maluti (equivalent to 32 cents that the LEC (Lesotho Electricity Company) donated to each household to check that the electrical system in functioning properly in our village. Only the staff room has electricity, as our school did not want to pay for the other classrooms to have light.

“That’s for the children, and for using our brand new computers to teach our students. It’s not for personal use. We have our own 5 Maluti at home,” I said.

“No, that’s for me,” one of the teachers yelled.

Proud of setting up computer in our staff room

I was able to set up one computer system at school, just to make sure that everything was working, and I’m happy to say, Windows 7 is installed, and Office 2013. I could not hook-up the printer as one of the cables is missing, and I’m sure it’s hidden in one of the other boxes.

I laugh at myself, as I imagine my three sons back in the U.S., thinking, “Did Mom really set that up herself?” A few years back, I had no clue how to do this, and would ask my kids to help. Now I can do it myself, and that feels so good.

The Challenges of Teaching English in a Rural School in Lesotho

March 1, 2016 by Sonia Marsh 10 Comments

Here's what we did today in 2nd grade — Here’s what we did today in 2nd grade

I knew it would be challenging to teach English to the Basotho children in my rural school in Lesotho, but I never expected the level to be this low.

In Lesotho, all subjects (except for Sesotho, of course) are supposed to be taught in English, but most of the teachers are afraid of speaking English (so I was told) and so they revert to their own language. Another major problem is the “repetition” method of teaching. Some teachers think that the louder they, and their students yell, the more likely they are to remember. I was walking past second grade, and heard the teacher saying, “I have a right to an education,” and the children shouted this phrase ten times. I then asked the teacher if the children knew what they were saying in English. She asked them in Sesotho, and they had no clue.

I decided to teach English to Kindergarten, first and second grade, as they are not learning the basics. They all know how to respond to, “How are you?” they repeat this during morning Assembly, “We are fine and how are you?”

The first grade teacher admitted, “I don’t know what I’m doing. I’ve never taught first grade.” The kids don’t know the alphabet, and due to a lack of supplies, and a lack of teaching skills, memorization and repetition with the teacher pointing her long stick to numbers and letters on the blackboard, seems to be the only way that the kids are taught.

I subscribed to a website: http://education.com, so I could come up with some ready-made worksheets. The only problem is we don’t have electricity, or a photocopier or printer at school. Our Principal keeps telling me there is no money for supplies, photocopying, or printing. She does have a nice flatscreen TV and leather furniture in her convent though.

I want to show the teachers that there are so many other things we can do than simply repeat and “yell,” so I printed some worksheets in the capital city, and tested the second graders with an Alphabet Blocks worksheet. I was shocked to see the results. Not one child could write the upper case alphabet. There were 12 letters missing, and they were in sequence. Even though they can sing the “A, B, C’s” they have no idea how to write the letters. Some even put numbers instead of letters, or several lower case “h” and “ba.” They are so used to copying from the board, and not ever thinking about what they’re writing, saying or doing.

I decided to buy a few pairs of scissors, and some play dough, to cut the letters out and use their fine motor skills. The teachers have never tried these techniques, and the Principal laughed at me, as though I’m just making the children have fun, and not learn anything from the government book, that they are incapable of reading, let alone discuss any of the second grade assignments. (see the topics below.)

The second grade teacher did not show up today, (quite common for teachers to skip school) so we took out the scissors and felt pens, and I made them cut out a lower case and an upper case “A.” They loved it, and concentrated so hard on cutting out the letter, and coloring it. This was the first time they were given scissors and felt pens. I then played the ABC phonics song on my phone, and we sang together. Here they are working hard and enjoying it.

Concentrating and enjoying something different than repetition.

With a pass rate of only 17% in 7th grade, my school has to make some changes in order to improve. I’m helping my 7th grade English teacher, who is a young enthusiastic teacher. He is the one who asked Peace Corps to send a volunteer to the school. I admire his hard work and dedication to making changes at my school.

My First Experience Having Google Banned

August 6, 2015 by Sonia Marsh 7 Comments

I experienced first-hand what it’s like to have Google and FaceBook banned. I was not able to logon to either at the airport in Shanghai, and asked a young Chinese woman working at the airport lounge why I couldn’t access to Google or g-mail. She blushed and in a hushed voice said, “No Google.” It felt like my freedom had been taken away, and apparently Twitter and social media aren’t allowed at all. I’d heard about this on the news in the U.S. several months ago, but thought it was temporary.

I sat next to a German man who lives in Shanghai, and asked him what expats do in China in order to get e-mail. Apparently they open a yahoo account. Yahoo is allowed.

While at Shanghai airport, I noticed that I didn’t have access to several websites and blogs that belong to my author friends in the U.S., as well as bloggers around the world. It was a really strange sensation, especially when one of these websites from a close memoir friend stated, “Access Denied.”

All I could think about was, “How does an expat indie author promote his/her work?” and then, my second thought was, “How nice not to have to compete and constantly promote your books, when you have no choice.”

I realize that we are fortunate to have access to social media, something we take for granted. Here in Bangkok, I have the best Internet. I’m staying in a small, basic hotel, about ten-minutes from Bangkok airport, and the Internet speed is phenomenal.

I’m glad I got to experience seven hours without Google at Shanghai airport, as this will be training for me when I move to Lesotho with the Peace Corps. There, I shall probably only have Internet access a few days a month.

Has this happened to you? If so, how did you feel about it? How would you feel about it, if you didn’t have social media access?

Who Has Time to Read Long Blog Posts These Days?

July 6, 2015 by Sonia Marsh 21 Comments

attention-spans-shorter-longer-1024x512 — Click on photo to go to Nick Leffler’s post for more details

Who has time to read long blog posts these days, let alone take the time to comment?

I wish I did, but I don’t.

I only have time to read a few blog posts a week. Forget crafting detailed and thoughtful comments, the way I used to a few years ago. I know I’m not alone here; other bloggers have expressed the same.

Things are changing in the blogging world, and just as I was about to write, “Our attention spans have decreased,” I found a better reason expressed by Nick Leffler in his blog post:

“Attention spans aren’t getting shorter, they’re becoming more selective for good content.”

— Nick Leffler

After all, states Nick, we’re able to sit through a 3+hour movie, so our attention spans have not decreased.

As Nick Leffler says:

“We’re getting more selective about what we pay attention to. There’s a lot of information coming at us. It used to be just newspapers where we got our news, then came radio, then TV, then Internet, then our brains exploded.

There’s a lot of great stuff to read, watch, and listen to. There’s also a ton of crap.

Attention spans haven’t gotten shorter, they’re just more selective for good content. So if I’m not writing good content, I’ll lose my audience within 8 seconds and it’s not their fault, it’s 100% mine.”

There is presently a shift towards writing shorter (300-word) blog posts. How do you feel about that?

There is of course an exception to this; longer, more detailed posts (about 1,000 words or more,) from experts who cover specific topics that readers are searching for.

So from now on, I’m going to write shorter blog posts, whenever I have something to share. My upcoming adventures lend themselves to shorter more frequent posts, just like we see on FaceBook.

What about you. Are you changing the length of your posts?