In the small C-shaped country in the Horn of Africa where the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden meet, English Language Fellow Susan Marshall collaborates with teams of educators to improve English language teaching and learning, while simultaneously supporting public diplomacy and fostering cultural exchange.
“I’ve been one of the few, or in some cases the first American, with whom many of the Djiboutians I’ve met have interacted,” explains Marshall. That’s why she strives every day of her fellowship to share American culture and to foster a positive impression of Americans through person-to-person diplomacy. And it’s working.
After helping out with the Ministry of Education’s English Week, Marshall received a text message from a high school student who had participated in the event (translated to English): “I thought that white people are mean and that they are arrogant,” it read, “but I saw from your style that you are nice, and that shows me the opposite of what I thought.” Marshall received a similar sentiment from a university lecturer she’s been working with, who thanked her for “listening, learning, and collaborating rather than being arrogant,” which helped dissolve stereotypes of Americans for that lecturer.
Marshall’s Multifaceted Role in Djibouti
Currently, Marshall is working with a team at the Djiboutian Ministry of Education to develop the new Grade 9 English textbook and accompanying teacher’s guide. While at the Ministry, she also teaches three weekly courses to 42 pre-service English teachers. When she’s not working at the Ministry of Education, Marshall teaches two courses at the University of Djibouti, facilitates English Club meetings, and advises new in-service English teachers.
In addition to her work at the Ministry and University, Marshall co-leads a weekly women’s English Discussion Group, team-teaches English courses to soldiers of the Djiboutian Military’s Bataillon d’Intervention Rapide (BIR), and has facilitated a WhatsApp chat group of 163 participants from across East Africa to discuss what they’ve learned from the OPEN MOOC: Fostering Student Engagement and Motivation. She also enjoys collaborating with other participants in the region and serves as an Ambassador for incoming Fellows in East Africa.
“Susan is doing an amazing job in Djibouti,” remarks RELO Gena Rhoades. “She always goes the extra mile to make sure all of her classes and events are exceptionally well-prepared and useful for the participants.”
Person-to-Person Diplomacy in the Land of Exchanges
Marshall actively seeks out ways to connect with her local community and to nurture cultural exchange, and is therefore learning three languages: French (Djibouti’s official language), Somali, and Arabic. “I have been touched by the level of support of many of my colleagues, friends, and neighbors in wanting to aid me in my language learning,” she says. “One illustration of this is a colleague who searched across three different sources for a Somali language learning book to give me as a gift once he learned of my Somali learning goals.”
“I passionately believe in the value of cultural exchange,” Marshall says, and she works every day to build and nurture the connections with coworkers, students, and locals that lead to cultural exchange. As she points out, the people in her community in Djibouti City have made it easy for her to share about herself and her country, and to engage in meaningful person-to-person diplomacy during her two-year fellowship. “The degree of welcome I’ve experienced here has been humbling, truly humbling,” she says.
Coffee with a Splash of Camel’s Milk: A Day in Marshall’s Life
Along with her project assignments, these are some of the things that define daily life for Marshall in Djibouti: the sound of the call to prayer pouring from the mosques across the city. The scent of bakhoor, incense burned in the foyer or outside most homes, including Marshall’s, at sunset. The sight of camels and goats on the roads. The taste of muufo (traditional Somali flatbread) and French baguettes, and of Americanos made from coffee beans sourced from neighboring Ethiopia, sometimes with a splash of camel’s milk. When in season, the taste of locally grown mangoes, guavas, and papayas. Conversations with patrons at the cafe adjacent to the apartment complex where she lives with several other foreigners. Evening walks with local friends.
Having grown up in Minnesota, Marshall likes to take advantage of Djibouti’s warm coastal climate and enjoys working on her laptop near the sea or next to her apartment complex’s swimming pool. The climate, coupled with salt in the tap water, also calls for twice-monthly deep conditioning hair treatments at a local salon. Marshall’s friend, who owns the salon, started it and two other businesses as a direct result of the skills, knowledge, network, and confidence gained through her participation in a Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) East Africa Regional Leadership Center program, Marshall reports.
Exchange Programs’ Legacy In the Land of Encounters
The salon isn’t the only place where Marshall has gotten to witness the impact of educational, cultural, and professional exchange programs in East Africa. Last year, she attended a dinner for Tanzanian alumni of U.S. Department of State projects. “It was powerful and inspiring to hear from this group about how their exchange experiences have influenced their careers, community involvement, and other aspects of their lives,” Marshall noted. Not only did she hear about the impact from exchange participants, she got to experience it firsthand: “the dinner was held at a lodge co-owned and run by one of the alumni,” Marshall explains. This alum has built a multinational tourism company that’s bringing more international travelers to Tanzania and neighboring countries.
The dinner coincided with one of Marshall’s favorite fellowship experiences: the Tanzanian English Language Teachers Association’s 5th Annual Conference in Arusha, which hosted 300 participants from Tanzania, Zanzibar, Kenya, and Djibouti. She had previously connected with many of these educators virtually while facilitating an OPEN MOOC discussion group and one of the RELO East Africa’s monthly webinars, as well as watch parties for several TESOL 2024 International Convention virtual sessions.
Marshall loved getting to meet the participants in person: “I was touched and humbled by the warm, generous welcome shown by these educators when we first met in person, and getting to connect with them at this in-person event following the strong rapport built through our earlier online engagements is an experience for which I am deeply grateful.” She also facilitated a workshop on increasing student motivation and served as emcee for the resource giveaway during the conference’s closing ceremony. Marshall still keeps in touch with many of these educators.
Fellow Flexibility and Professional Growth
“I’m immensely thankful for the abundant variety of professional learning and growth opportunities I’ve been experiencing throughout my first, and now into my second fellowship year,” Marshall says. “I’ve also grown in my capacity to be flexible with time and schedules, striving to balance Western cultural norms and expectations for productivity and efficiency levels with local cultural values which place more emphasis on relationships.” She has also learned “the value of having contingency plans ready for when sudden changes occur; of building networks, systems, and resources that can be drawn upon in navigating unanticipated situations; and of exercising flexibility, patience, grace, and a sense of humor.”
Her fellowship has also helped Marshall develop professional skills in textbook development. “I’ve learned a great deal about developing a scope and sequence, editing, and layout and design.”
Professionally, it always circles back to person-to-person diplomacy. Throughout her two-year fellowship, Marshall says she has learned the importance of being intentional about getting to know colleagues, especially in a culture that values familiarity and trust as the foundation to effective professional relationships.
After Djibouti
After her fellowship ends this summer, Marshall says she would love to work in public diplomacy and education development with both government and non-governmental organizations, and she knows that the professional learning as well as the abundant and extensive networking opportunities that she’s gained throughout her fellowship will “have a significant positive impact on my preparation for and access to potential post-fellowship professional roles.” She has enjoyed connecting and collaborating with others in the Fellow community, a community that she finds, among other qualities, “kind, supportive, [and] dedicated,” and one that she plans to stay connected with as she continues her professional journey.
Before her fellowship ends, Marshall will be working hard to wrap up her impactful projects, and she hopes to get one more swim in with the school bus-sized whale sharks that migrate off the coast of Djibouti.
Susan Marshall is an experienced education development professional with strong teaching, training, curriculum development, management, program design advising, partnership building and community outreach, volunteer coordination, project management, administrative, event planning, and customer service skills developed through working and volunteering at NGOs, schools, and government, as well as private sector institutions. She has significant cross-cultural experience gained through employment, volunteering, and study abroad experiences in Djibouti, India, and several Latin American countries, and working and volunteering with refugee and immigrant populations in the United States. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology and Latin American Studies from Seattle Pacific University in Seattle, Washington, and a Master of Arts degree in English as a Second Language from Hamline University in Saint Paul, Minnesota.