Let’s see where do I begin. I haven’t left site in almost 2 months which goes to show things are going quite well. I’ve finally gotten into a routine. I had in service training for a week with all the other volunteers at the end of January which was really nice to see all of them and talk about how everything is at their sites (compare the similarities as well as the differences. When I returned home from training I had bought fabric for my next-door neighbors (Ne Ne Kadioutou) and her daughter and my best friend Oumou. When I gave them the fabric Oumou jumped up and down and hugged me and couldn’t stop thanking me. They were both shocked and so grateful. I could tell they truly were thankful and happy. I’ve been doing a lot of English/ Pular studying with her and she really seems to get it. I also bought my fellow teachers cola nuts, which I’m glad I did because they got passed around the village and I had many people thank me. Here in this country, the custom is to bring back gifts for people, and the cola nuts are a sign of respect and given to the oldest person in the village who then distributes the rest of the nuts to the others. I saved a few for the women I cook with and they were quite pleased. There little pink, white, and red nuts that only the older people like to eat.
Thankfully when I got back my cat “Midnight” was still alive and I didn’t know at the time but I was about to meet a new best friend. It was the principal’s daughter who was on maternity leave, who came to my house and said, “Allons” (Let’s go) to where I didn’t know but I wasn’t about to question her because she said it with such authority. We left to go cook, she took me on tours through the village, introduced me to people I didn’t know and just helped me feel at ease. She made me eat every lunch and dinner with her even if I protested and said I wasn’t hungry. She taught me some pular, how to prepare meals, how to deal with people that made me feel uncomfortable, brought me to weddings, parties, and had me selling at the market. Most importantly to me, she was a woman, educated, a teacher in another city, had been married in 8th grade to a man that already had a wife, had two babied, but managed to finish school and go to university. She was the first woman I could communicate with because she was educated and spoke French. She let me ask questions about life, having another women who was married to her husband, etc. She mad me carrying her baby on my back, and always had me laughing.
Then the weekend arrived when she had to go back home, I cooked her her last meal, helped her pack, went around with her to say good bye to everyone in the village, then carried her stuff to the middle of the village to catch a car with the whole family and neighbors. She loaded into the car, called me over and I said goodbye and cried walking home to my house alone. Haha Thankfully she will be back for summer and I told her she had to live with me. We also are able to talk every few days on the phone.
Besides socializing, I surprisingly do work. I’ve been working with my 9th and 10th graders to try to finish the curriculum on time. With my 10th graders I’ve been holding night classes for questions. June 18th is the brevet and my students had asked me to go with them when they take it in the neighboring village, which of course I said I would. We have also been learning English, which they have been doing pretty well with. They keep asking me to translate songs, so I finally did and it was hysterical because I ended up singing off tune in front of the whole class which then turns into them asking me to dance, so then I am dancing and singing in front of my students like an idiot, but I’ve learned to realize that if you feel stupid, it doesn’t matter. I stick out like a sore thumb so I might as well use it to my advantage. I also started a jump roping club here which I said was for the girls, assuming the boys would have no interest but when I said the day and time the boys asked if they could come as well. So I said whomever was interested could come which turned out to be a big crowd. So I had a mix of 5 boys and girls together jumping rope at the same time, yelling at each other when someone’s foot caught the rope and having a really good time. Then I showed them how to do cris-cross which they thought was amazing and have been trying to get ever since.
My one major struggle with my classes is motivation and level, because the last few years the government was unstable, school had been stopped and the program has also been changed. I have some students who had re-doubled, or re-tripled the class, for example did not pass the class the first year, so stayed back, then did not pass again, and stayed back again. I also have some students where its their first year, so it’s not only teaching to 80 plus students, but I have 3 varying levels, so who do you teach to? The kids who have redoubled or re-tripled because they have a better chance in passing the test, or the first year students because they’re at the correct level and should be being taught to? Consequently I have some students telling me to continue on, because they understand and others telling me to slow down because they don’t understand. So I am constantly going back and forth.
I also say motivation because school here is a social event. The kids come to school to socialize and talk with friends. I finally got frustrated and asked some of the students why that was and the answer was quite interesting.
1. For the girls, most will be married before the end of high school if not before then, so what are they to do once they are married, try to finish school then go and stay are home, cook, clean, have kids? Where is the motivation for them to continue on to university? Especially in the village it is difficult for families to understand the importance of education, for women, whereas in some of the larger city it was more widely recognized.
2. For the boys, life here consists of providing for the family. That’s why normally it is 30 year old men whom are marrying 18 or younger girls. The men’s role is to make money and financially support the family. He is responsible for giving money to the women to take care of the families and often the men have more than one wife so it is quite costly. Even if the women work on the side selling food, they are not responsible for sharing the money with the family, and their money earned is considered their own and for themselves. With that said, the desire for the boys is to make money and lost of it. If a boy finishes school, goes on to university, graduates, there are not many jobs available for well paying jobs, so often times the boys will quite school and begin working as drivers, vendors, or other trade jobs that pay quite well so they can start accumulating money for a family.
Also motivation is a problem for the teachers as well because many have not been paid since the prior year or simply are not paid. Therefore the motivation to teach and do a good job can be somewhat lacking. On a side note, one of the principals from a surrounding village had gone to the bank to get money to pay his staff, which meant he had to go to a larger village 60 plus kilometers away and find a bank then return with the money. He strapped the money on the back of his motorcycle and headed home, when he got home he realized the sack of money had fallen off which had over a million francs in the bag. So we were asked to donate money to the village so they could pay the teachers. How horrible.
I also got to cover for one of the other teachers who teaches the 7th grade, so I taught math to the 7th graders and it was an awesome and fun class. It’s their first year in junior high, so they are shy, timid, and quiet. So much easier to deal with than the 10th graders! But more importantly it was nice because I finally got to spend time with them and meet all of them . It’s funny because when I’m teaching, I will look at the windows and there will be different graders standing at the windows listening and watching. Often times I have to say, “This isn’t your class, go away, but it’s also a compliment because I know they’re curious to see what I am teaching or more likely to see how I’m teaching, whether its playing games, making the kids do wall sits or push ups, or standing next to me at the board because they got in trouble to talking, we always seem to have a good time. Often times the other teachers will stand at the door too and watch until I catch them watching and they will walk away.
My out of school activities consist of:
1. I organized a soccer tournament between the different grades. Which started out fun and ended pretty poorly when the 9th graders lost to the 10th graders and 3 of my 9th graders beat up a 10th grader and sent his to the local clinic. We had to postpone the next game until tomorrow, three weeks after. Since it was a school organized event the parents of the students who fought on both sides had to come to school to determine a punishment. It was all spoken in the local language so I was informed at the end that the students’ punishment was for the fathers to beat the children because as it was put, “some kids learn better from physical force”. I was shocked when the principal told me, no wonder why the boys were fighting because that is what they learn at home.
2. I’ve also started teaching to the assistant leader of the village, the police commissioner, and a local doctor English, which has been really fun for me. Not only that, but they are so eager to learn English, and whenever I see them in the village they try to communicate in English to me. It’s also nice, because they are higher up people in the village and well respected, but they look out for me and I am truly grateful.
3. The last big story: The government from a larger city came to our village to rally support for the president and himself so the day before the women came and got me and said we had to cook for him. So at 3:00pm that day I headed over and began cooking with the women, I was in charge of cooking chicken and potatoes, which consisted of them handing the chicken to a male to kill in front of us, then me learning how to cut the chicken up, pluck the feathers, and questioning which parts of the chicken you could eat, which was pretty much everything minus a few parts, even though I questioned quite a few parts that were handed to me. At 10:00pm that night I headed home and at 4:30am the next day, I heard my next door neighbor calling my name to let me know it was time to get up and finish cooking. I would just like to remind you, this is not cooking in a kitchen, this is cooking outside on three rocks, in the dark, using a flashlight to cut and check to make sure everything is coming along. In the morning as well because it’s the dry season the ants come out looking for water. And these are not just any ants, the are the type of ants like the saying, “Dancing like you have ants in your pants.” They crawl up your legs and pinch like no other, and they were everywhere, so every few minutes another women would jump up and start shaking her skirt around, jumping around, trying to find the ants and get them off of her. It’s terrible because then you feel like there all over you even if there not.
At 8:30am we finished cooking, brought the food over, went home changed, then headed back to wait for his arrival. When we heard the drum we knew he was close and the principal grabbed me and sent me to the front to greet him. I said, “Why me” and he said that I represent the United States of America. So I greeted the governor and was brought up on the make shift staging to site next to him and his entourage. The whole speech was in the local language so I was unable to understand most of it, until I heard Peace Corps in French and knew he was talking about me. So I looked at the principal who gave me a big smile and thumbs up. The man sitting next to me said, do you understand, and I said not at all, so he translated the governors speech into French. The governor had said something along the lines of, “look at this example, this peace corps volunteer left the United States, the most developed country to come here to help us. She left her family, friends, comforts, electricity, running water, sanitation to live here and deal with the hardships. She accepts how difficult life is here yet continues on. Protect her, keep her safe because she is here to help us.” It was a really nice and honoring speech, but at the same time I hate being the center of attention when it should be about their country, their people and what they need to do for their country. But it did remind me that I did make these sacrifices and hopefully I will make a difference in the peoples lives around me.
Now for the best part, some funny stories:
1. I was walking home from teaching and this cute little girl starting calling to me and ran up to me and wrapped her arms around me. I was so touched so I asked her what she was doing and what was in her bucket. I realized she was collecting cow dung (with no gloves) so those cute little arms around me, had now left cow dung on my back. I just laughed and thought, well I guess I need to wash this shirt.
2. Then there was a boy in my class that had a hat on that said, “I love Jesus” so I asked him if he knew who Jesus was, and he said no, so I said Jesus in Pular, then he said he still didn’t know, so I said, it’s not Allah. He took his hat off after that and didn’t see him put that back on.
3. There is this really cool flower that has these bright red balls that kind of look like Christmas ornaments. So I started collecting the flowers, and cut a water bottle to make a vase. Then my principal came over and asked, “Did you know that those flowers give you conjunctivitis?” I said no, decided after that, that I would stop collecting flowers and did not need a center piece.
4. Me and my hoe have been doing a lot of damage here. I’ve gone around picking up cow dung, probably could have gotten some from that little girl, lol and started planting a small garden. I got some seeds from a friend. I planted lettuce, zucchini, squash, basil, and cucumbers. Looks pretty good.
5. The new thing is for my girls to braid my hair because here everyone does it. So I’ve had quite a few crazy hair doos. I’ve had Alicia Keys corn rows, Bob Marley braids, and the normal corn rows, but we just started stepping it up, and I am nervous for what is to come.
6. Each time I get my hair braided, the women tell me that I am now becoming a pular woman. And then once I cooked with all the women for the governor, they told me I could get married now since I know how to clean, can cook, dress like them and am “fat”. Here you are considered beautiful if you are fat, and because I eat pretty well here and am bigger than most of the little girls, each day I am told how beautiful I am because my skin in white and I am fat. Talk about the ultimate bad day, hearing you are fat. Repeatedly! Lol
A special thank you to my mom and dad, my roommates for the packages I received of goodies, and Patty McKenzie for the letter. It’s so thoughtful of you and I am so thankful and appreciative. Hope all is well, I miss you all a ton and whish you all the best! Merci Au Revoir!
