Powerschool GoGuardian Naviance Aimsweb Semstracker EdReflect SchoolDude Virtual Paragon Frontline Alio Service Portal

Shannon Rafferty Explores Ethiopia: Life is Calling

Ethiopia has a common expression, “Life is calling,” and Shannon Rafferty, Woodland alumni, has answered. At a mere twenty years old, Rafferty has graduated college at nineteen with a degree in Internal Business, and now, at twenty, works as an English teacher in Ethiopia through the Peace Corps.

Rafferty held a presentation hosted by Woodland for Women Worldwide, and shared her full experiences in the country. Ethiopia is a country located in the northern-east part of Africa. The country speaks over eighty-eight languages, and English is being strongly enforced as their economy blooms. Their main exports are coffee, live stock products, spices and herbs. Contrary to popular belief, not all of Africa is starving and sickly. Rafferty shares how there was always enough food to go around, and people were incredibly generous.

“There’s a really warped idea in America that everyone in Africa is poor and starving, and I found it is so opposite.”

Through out her experiences in Ethiopia, Rafferty was immersed in their culture. She spent the first three months with a host family, learning their language, eating their food, and took on their everyday lives.

Rafferty then moved to a home by herself in the village of Coromia. Her house consisted of two rooms, her bedroom and a kitchen. The walls, which appear normal, were made from a mixture of mud and other materials. Rafferty became accustomed to cold showers everyday, sometimes only using hand-sanitizer for soap. Many basic sanitation supplies aren’t sold in her village, and she is one of the few people in the area that uses toilet paper.

This lifestyle seems absurd to Americans, but to an Ethiopian these are just everyday things. Rafferty acknowledged how privileged Americans are, and explains that the strangest thing she experienced when she returned back to America was washing her hands in a sink. These things may seem unsanitary or strange, but are all simply part of Ethiopian culture. The country has larger problems to worry about, their education system for example.

The ministry of education in Ethiopia invited the Peace Corps to come and improve their schools. Rafferty teaches eleventh grade English to students ranging from the ages of sixteen to twenty-four. Rafferty still struggles breaking down the language barrier between herself and her students. Although she does speak one Ethiopian language, her students speak another. She explains the situation by comparing it to an English speaking student in America taking a Spanish class while the teacher only speaks Spanish, it’s extremely difficult. Rafferty shares she will teach the same lesson for several days in numerous amounts of different ways in order to get the knowledge across.

“I have learned that the students don’t get mad at me or frustrated, they just want to learn the material.”

She is also helping Ethiopian teachers to learn more English to help teach the students, while also absorbing as much of their language as possible. Rafferty has made a great impact on all the students of the village, and the students appreciate the work she does for them.

She was asked if there was ever a time when she knew the work she was doing was worth it, and she recalled a time that occurred after she had been absent from class for a few days. “I had been training for about a week, and another teacher had taken my place. When I walked into the classroom, they all stood up and started clapping.”

Rafferty does so much for her students, more than just teaching them English. She explains the most amazing thing she experienced through out the Ethiopian culture was how incredibly strong the women are. They cook, clean, get an education, take care of their children, and are expected to be married by the age of fifteen. Rafferty explained the greatest way to be a role model for these young women is to stand in front of a classroom everyday and teach without a husband. She was constantly questioned in Ethiopia whether or not she was married, and why was she teaching. Young women’s value in Ethiopia is decided based upon how well they could cook, clean, and raise a family. Rafferty says it was incredible to show the girls you can do anything on your own.

She also will be a part of a summer camp called Camp Glow (Girls Leading Our World), which will teach the girls life skills, leadership, talk about HIV and prevention from diseases, and stress female empowerment. In addition, Rafferty has brought up a new goal of filling a library with books. With already such limited resources, the books would create a huge advance in the students’ education.

Rafferty has truly done so much for others’ and is an inspiration to everyone, including her sister and a senior at Woodland, Alicia Rafferty. “She teaches me to take risks and step outside my comfort zone, ” the younger sister, Alicia, explains.

This twenty year old girl has already lived such a full life at her young age. She will be returning to Ethiopia on June 7th, and won’t be returning until 2016. She has immersed herself into their culture, connected with their people, and helped the lives of so many students. Life called for Rafferty, and she answered.

+ posts

Julia is our Executive Yearbook Designer and Photographer, and she has spent four full semesters at Hawk Headlines. She loves her dogs, Missy and Champ, and sometimes goes by the alter ego "Culia Jaruso".

Learn More →