Economics (written May 20)

As some of you know, a few months ago, I got this crazy idea to attempt to take intro economics courses through an online distance learning program while living in a rural village in Africa. What could possibly go wrong, right? So why would I subject myself to this logistical nightmare, you might ask. There are several reasons, but the primary one is that I had never taken an Econ class in my life before this (I'd always assumed I would hate the subject), and unfortunately, intro econ classes are prerequisites for a couple of the graduate programs I plan to apply to in the fall. Well...that and it's something I should have done a long time ago for my personal education.

Much to my surprise, I'm finding most of the material relatively interesting and extremely relevant, given the huge economic and financial challenges facing the world today. While the courses certainly have made my life more complicated (and, sadly, drastically reduced my time available to read anything else), I'm very glad I'm doing it.

On a related note, Jacob and I recently started helping a small group of Senior Secondary (High School) students prepare for their end-of-term exams in July. We've been meeting for a couple hours most nights at the village Skill Center, which has solar-powered lights, a table, real chairs, and even a blackboard. It's a huge improvement over the typical study environment of sitting on a mat on the ground in a noisy compound, attempting to study by the light of a candle or an awkwardly-held flashlight. So far we have focused mainly on math, economics, accounting, and English. While these kids are eager to learn and trying hard, it's frustrating that they are expected to do things like graph quadratic equations when their grasp of basic concepts like negative numbers, exponents, fractions, order of operations, and even graphing itself, is shakey at best. Once we get past our frustrations with the education system, however, this study group really is a great opportunity for us to make a difference in these kids' lives. Unlike working with the younger (illiterate, non-English-speaking) kids, which we have tried and found that it requires significantly more patience than either of us possess, working with these high schoolers is extremely rewarding.

Last night, I had a particularly cool experience with the study group. They showed up with an econ homework assignment: Illustrate and explain a situation where output increases and a) revenue decreases; and b) revenue increases. This quite literally could have been one of my Intro to Micro assignments, so I got to stand up and teach Gambian teenagers in a rural village exactly what I had been learning in my online class from an American university. Pretty cool, huh?