Retrospective 06: Health & Education Working Together

Burkina News:
A lot of Burkina is still in a lot of outrage over death of student in police custody due to police-claims of meningitis and the subsequent loss of life in initial riots following his death. Major cities still have striking and rioting, including burning down police buildings and allowing prisoners to escape. Some pro-CDP areas (supporters of the President) have had little public reaction and students have started going back to schools.

I'd rather not get into opinions about politics because it just ends up making me angry. So, let's talk about what sparked this whole problem: the alleged meningitis.

Some people join the Peace Corps because they believe they can save lives. I was more realistic upon arrival (I hope). I believed that I could maybe change some people's lives. I would love to claim that I saved lives in Peace Corps, but as a Secondary Education Volunteer, I don't think I saved any lives because my students learned some math. I might have saved some lives in the long term because my students learned to think a little bit more critically and creatively and also the importance and proper use of using condoms.

Upon reflection, though, I might have saved some lives from meningitis and other diseases by just being there... emphasis on might. The advantage to being the Nasara is that people want to see you and want to be taught by you. The disadvantage is of course you are basically a celebrity. Some people want to use and abuse you. Also, when you're not actually white but considered white it can lead to an identity crisis... more about that later I promise (as I have for the last couple of posts, I know).

Why is the Nasara effect important in the classroom? It brings people in to events (including school) and people pay attention to you. Once they get over the initial glamor of being near you (imagine yourself in the presence of your all-time favorite celebrity in the known universe), they still hang on to every word you say and hold it close to their hearts to be repeated over and over again. Even the troublemakers who normally don't show up to other classes, will come just to be in your presence. If they cause trouble, as they are often bound to do, and are kicked out of class they do everything possible to stay in the classroom and be in the presence of the Nasara. As a good educator though, you must look beyond the promises of "I won't do it again" and be stern in the beginning. With time, the Nasara effect will fade, but if you have used it to your advantage, it will be replaced with awe-tinged respect (especially if you can kick any of the other teacher's behinds in logic).

You can use your powers as a Nasara to discuss health issues (including sex!), something that the majority of teachers are unwilling to do. (I was lucky and had multiple teachers that were unashamed of talking sex, discrimination and other sensitive subjects at my school. Some were actually bashful in the beginning but transformed as they realized the only way to solve a problem is to talk about the problem and possible solutions. I would love to claim credit for their awesome, but the reality is that they are just awesome open-minded individuals.)

Back to meningitis and neglected diseases... if you play your cards right you can twist the arms of these adoring children into coming to class on Vaccination Day. Sure all students love to hear talk about sex, but who really enjoys being stabbed by a needle? (Masochists and drug users aside.) These vaccines and also chemotherapy (read: medication) against neglected diseases save the lives of people every day. This is important because few people use the health clinics, especially in rural areas. The tendency towards self-treatment and suspicion of "modern" medicine (I really hate this term) is still prevalent with the majority of births happening at home. However, as the enrollment rates increase, the ability for organizations like the World Health Organization (Organisation Mondiale pour la Santé) to turn schools into key disease prevention sites has also increased. Campaigns going door-to-door are also effective (especially for Polio which is nearing eradication, but that's the hardest part), but time-consuming and difficult if there is not enough humanpower. The key role of the educator at this point is not to do the actual vaccinating or the medicating, but to help the students understand why they are being vaccinated, and why it's important. And also, to make sure that each and every student is vaccinated and swallows their medication.

The exciting thing about meningitis is that it used to be an extremely expensive vaccine, but now it isn't and was distributed for free in December! Schools were used as vaccination sites, with priority to students and personnel first, but then people in the general community also lined up to be vaccinated. You can read more about it here.

Now, if we could only get a malaria vaccine, people would expect to live beyond the age of 60. The median age of Burkinabè would be over the age of 17. People would have less kids and at a later age because they wouldn't fear the early deaths of themselves or their children.

In the mean time though, any incoming PCT should know that you will find yourself in the face of death, especially those who will be working in Health. Sometimes, the life of someone very close to you will be taken unexpectedly. There is nothing that can really prepare you for the death of anyone in your life, but you should know that it is very unlikely for a PCV to leave the country without knowing someone who died.

May they all rest in peace and continue to be our inspiration to live and to serve.

Morals of the story:
• Always use a condom.
• Get vaccinated.
• I saved lives by glaring.
• You can't save everyone.
• Create a malaria vaccine and you will be a hero.

Library & Local Realities

Dear Donors, Friends and My Wonderful Family,

Library

Thanks for your financial support. Our construction finally started on February 1, 2010 at 10:00 AM as you can see in the new photos posted on Picasa.

Part of the delay was due in part to a change in the administration of the PTA (APE). For the first time in approximately a decade, the PTA board has been replaced. Convincing everyone of the merits of the project was easy. The difficult part was the old PTA board transferring power officially to the new PTA board. This finally took place at the beginning of December. Right before Christmas, a general assembly was called to discuss how the PTA would fund their part of the project (local materials). Would they bring it in themselves, or would the children bring it in? Alternatively, would they hire someone to haul all of the materials to the work site. Finally, they decided on monetary contributions per student enrolled.

We waited for their money and the materials to show up during the month of January. Finally, all was ready and we had a groundbreaking ceremony. The vice principal (intendant) and I laid the first couple of bricks during the ceremony. Though they aren't in the spot where the library is actually being built. On February 2, the real work started. Will hopefully have more pictures soon.

Thanks again for all of your wonderful generosity! For those of you who are worried about the financial management. I am personally in charge of all of the funds that you have donated. At the end of the project, I do have to do a report with receipts for both the funds that you have donated and the funds or actual work that the local community did to complete the project.

Harsh Realities

So, recently one of the phone companies started offering a USB key that allows you to access wireless internet from your computer. The key is about $90. With the equivalent amount of money, I can feed 30 of my students for a month. That is not a typographical error, my readers. Yes, one (1) student can really eat for just three dollars ($3) a month at our school's "cafeteria" (cantine thanks to subsidies from the school and the government. Many of my students come by bicycle or on foot through the bush from as much as 15 km away (10 miles). They wake up as early as 4 AM to get ready for school and don't leave school until 5 PM, getting back as late as 7 PM. On top of all that, they don't usually have the financial or physical means to go home at lunch time, eat, and come back to school every day.

One of the hardest things in my day is seeing how determined my students are to come to school each day and work hard (162 out of 241 of my sixth graders are passing the trimester as of right now) despite their lack of means to eat more than once a day. I do try to encourage them as much as possible with small gifts that I've gotten from you and other local donors such as candy, pens, pencils, stickers, pictures and notebooks and lunch days for the best students. Unfortunately, physical goods have a limit. Of course, I try my best to teach them well, too. Negative numbers, fractions, exponents, order of operations, geometry, general information about the world at large, civic education, and general life skills like financial and family planning. It's the only thing I can give them that will last for the rest of their lives (as long as a I do a good job of teaching it that is and as long as they review from time to time).

Classroom management is tough when you have a minimum of 90 teen-aged students in a classroom. Life isn't easy being a Peace Corps Volunteer because you're not like everyone else. But, I wouldn't trade a single one of my frustrating days of service as a PCV for anything else right now in my life.

Then again, I might be a little bit masochistic. After all, I did get through Tech.

Tomorrow I am taking the GRE. I will be back near good internet in about 2 weeks.

Squash the Rumors

Well, since I haven't officially made the announcement yet, I might as well...

I am doing a third year! I am staying at my current site, and continuing to teach mathematics, and hopefully other subjects next year. Secondary projects in the works are:

• Making an awesome website which will the tell the world more about Peace Corps Burkina Faso and also enhance the PCV experience by making collaborative resources available;
• Building a school library to better French literacy, and thus, French grades, and indirectly all other school subject grades.

The end of the school year wrapped up well. My sixième (sixth grade) students finally started to understand my teaching style, and did really well this trimester on tests including tough topics such as relative numbers (positive and negative numbers), plotting points on a graph, ratios and orthogonal symetry in a plane. So, I felt really accomplished! The only down side is everyone thought that I had lowered the level of my tests, even though I hadn't (in this class)!!! They didn't seem to understand that the students really stepped it up a notch.

The other math teacher and I also had an Olympiad for our top students in each class to see who the best of the best were. The Olympiad was really challenging, but some of the kids did okay. It's my latest FB profile pic.

I am doing some summer school work with interested students... which isn't a lot right now, but I'm hoping the word will spread, and that others will jump on the bandwagon. The kids who are interested are super bright and motivated, so I am inspired!!!! :D

So, I got selected to be a trainer for the incoming Stage, which is an exciting opportunity to meet new volunteers and also my future neighbors. I will be getting three within a 50 km radius of my village, if all goes well. Also, I get to work and do one of my favorite things: Teaching. Yes, as much as I get frustrated with my indisciplined students and correcting tests in bad lighting, I love teaching.

It's been just darned hot these past few months, but the good news is the rainy sseason started early (compared to the last two years). So things are already green and it's only the beginning of June.

Other exciting news... because you all know how much I love to use certain types of punctuation!!! I will be back in America in July. So, clear your calendar folks because trouble is coming to town.

Well, that's all I got for now... I will hammer out flight details soon, so you all can be ready. :)

Best and love,

AK

40 km WNW of the Bush

Hi, I am alive and typing in Tougan. What has been going on? Mostly teaching or scolding, I don't feel like there is a big difference between the two. I guess I have mentioned that I am teaching twice as much this year as opposed to last year. I am twice as tired and much less dynamic or friendly as is usual with me.

My service is winding down. I am considering applying for a third year, and despite my interest in doing so/desire of colleagues/needs of the village, I might not. We will see. There are certain factors weighing against a third year (people I love very much!)

PCBF just got a new IT committee going and I have the chance to contribute to it. Unfortunately, I'm technically not around for much longer (unless of course I apply and get accepted for that mystical third year) so I hope to push it far enough so that we can go live with a beta-version of a publicly-accessible website in August keeping all you interested parents, friends, prospective volunteers, and Burkinabè-loving people up-to-date on what we crazy volunteers are actually doing to try to help Burkina Faso develop on top of other fun stuff for us PCVs in BF.

So, in other crazy news, the weather! First week was cold (50s to 60s); second week was HOT (over 100); third week it was hot and humid which meant it RAINED!!! Twice in fact in the third week of February. This week it has just been hot is all. So, the month of February has gotten all four "seasons" that BF normally gets in a year:

• hot season, March through May, over 100 daily
  
• rainy season, June through August, rains often
  
• mini-hot season, September through October, gets hot as everything dries out
  
• cold season,November through February, dry, windy and cold (for Africa that is)

March is upon us! So happy birthday soon to my dad and all the other March birthdays! I will be heading back to village probably tomorrow morning with a nice cheery 65 km bike ride (short story but not a lot of time) or 15 km (if I get lucky).

Thanks to all the people who have written recently: TE and CS in particular.

I promise to be online in the second week of March, so be ready for more contact from Africa!

Alive & Happy Holidays

Hi All,

I wanted to let you know I am alive and healthy as can be for BF. I spent the last three months in village (one short internet-less trip to Yako right after the last time I was online at the end of September/beginning of October)! I only went to Toma three times during that whole period: once to pick-up my absentee ballot to cast my vote for my presidential and local candidates of choice; once to eat some chicken and drink some cold drinks with my colleagues; and once to see my directeur decorated for his many years of service.

Why so much time in village this year? I am teaching twice as much as last year and CLM is no longer my neighbor. Plus, Bryan (my formerly second closest neighbor, current closest neighbor and soon-to-be second closest neighbor again) and Garrett came up for Thanksgiving and we had tasty green beans and of course, turkey, stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes, candied yams and cranberry sauce (almost all of which is thanks to ex-neighbor CLM). Though, at the end of this week, I will be getting a new neighbor about 45 km from me! Exciting since it is bikable and there is daily transport that passes through our villages (if I get lazy and feel spendy).

Also, my APCD passed through and dropped off packages and mail which was exciting. Followed by a visit from my CD who just wanted to say hi. Will post pics that he took eventually.

I will be contactable for the next day or so, as I head back to village to celebrate Christmas/New Year's/my new neighbor, but I plan on coming back for a day in the beginning of January.

Hope all is well.

Best, AK

Hello Connection; Goodbye Free Internet

Hi All,

I know I promised I would be online more because the connection was fixed, but unfortunately, the connection became unfixed encore.

I have been busy in village making yet another world map. School ended at the end of May, but then came the exam period. The BEPC came and went (end of middle school exam) and then the CEPE (end of primary school exam). The results in my village were not spectacular, but they weren't terrible either. The BAC (first tour, end of high school exam) is finishing up around the country.

A little about the French-ified school system. At the end of each school year, the students (and also anyone who isn't in the school system and registers) takes the examens to get their diplome at whatever level they are trying to get. This basically involves 2 to 4 days of intense testing followed by a second tour (basically a redo in French and Math for those who at least make a certain cutoff level). The subject material didn't seem so bad to me, but then again, there were also errors during the second tour.

Everyone is leaving my village now that the rain has really started (last Saturday). The fonctionnaires to go on vacation and the villagers to cultivate. So, all in all the only people in village are the people who are too young or too old to work all day in the fields. Unfortunately, this cross-section of the village population leaves something to be desired in the French-speaking ability.

My progress in Moore/Jula/San has not made any real advances. Though I've started to recognize that there are more similarities between Jula and San than Moore and San.

Tired. Will be internet-able for tomorrow and Saturday.

Please note. While it says "April" that's when I started this post. I really posted in June. Darn you internet.

Dental Woe / Quickie Post

I don't have much time because I will be running to my gare in a few minutes to catch my bus back to village (if there is such a bus this morning).

Monday afternoon after lunch while flossing out the wonderful bits of food stuck in my teeth, the floss broke. So, I tried again, second time around, one of my fillings popped out. No, Doctor Stender, it was not one of your fillings, it was one of my old, should-have-really-gotten-it-replaced-before-I-left-California fillings. In all cool-headedness, I popped it back in and sent a message to the PCMOs to ask them what to do.

Normally, I have Thursday mornings off, with English club in the afternoon. So, English club got cancelled and I planned to leave Wednesday night for a Thursday morning village and then back to village on Thursday afternoon... Yeah, so things did not pan out. I spent all afternoon watching as cars went away from the capital and not towards (except one camion, which passed really early but I truly believed the bus was coming that afternoon). Come 5 PM, after my friends across the street at the primary schools had watched me wait all afternoon, one of them calls the gare to find out what's up. They say they are not running at all this afternoon. If I had known that at 2 pm when I saw the camion, I would have jumped on and gotten off at the closest city with decent transport 70 km away. Fortunately, people in the Faso understand transport doesn't always work out. Got my dental appointment rescheduled and left yesterday morning (after being rejected by a couple of cars which were full of people who wanted to leave yesterday afternoon like me).

CLO helped me find the dentist; got some new shiny silver in my mouth; ate a good dinner on one side of my mouth (like I have been all week); saw Liz and caught up on life in general (who I have not seen in FOREVER).

So, how's village? It's going. The school year is almost over. In fact, I am rushing back to village to surveille the BEPC blanc. The BEPC is the middle/junior high school exit test. We are giving the examen blanc, a pre-test (think PSAT:SAT) over the next four school days (Sunday is excluded).

I might be online again soon (as I have not checked to see rumors have panned out). Internet may or may not be coming back near me at least for the next week, but hopefully permanently.

I have been extremely bad these past two trimesters about keeping in touch and I apologize. Things have been kind of hectic as the school year winds up. Don't worry, I will write lots of letters in June.

Much love from the Faso.

PS, I put a couple new photos up in the usual places (FB/Picasa). Sorry, not more specific, gotta run.

It's Getting Hot

General Notes:

• New photos posted on Google Picasa. Check them out (in the usual places).
  
• Bats have been sited going in/out of my latrine as recent as this week.
  
• I am incompetent at keeping in touch. Just been overwhelmed trying to catch up at school since I missed a week and the kids didn't understand negative numbers. So, I apologize for not writing letters/emailing/calling. Also, my network coverage has been terrible. My messages don't go through for some reason or I don't receive them. In fact, some of my fellow PCVs thought I had ETd and gone home because they weren't hearing from me.
  

I have officially finished my second trimester (and then some). This term because I was not pressed to leave for a training/funeral, I actually got to go to the conseil and eat chicken. As I may or may not have previously mentioned, I am the professor prinicipal of a class. It was 4e last term, but now that I no longer teach there thanks to schedule shuffling, I am pp in 5eB.

What does the pp do? All the work that a computer does in the developed world without a computer: calculating weighted GPAs, ranking students, laying the general smack down. All I know is I rock at it... must be the years of organizational skills I developed at my institute of higher learning... or something.

In other news, I finally finished a world map at my school (as opposed to in CLM's village) with her help (pictures in the photo gallery). It took two days and it is beautiful.

General recommendations for those who are interested in doing world maps:

• Less people is better, but more than one is strongly advised.
  
• Having two "adult" figures is good. One for supervising any students that might be there, one for actually directing traffic.
  
• Small brushes are essential for painting countries. Clean brushes often and also immediately after use.
  
• Kerosene is essential for preserving paint and also removing it from your hands.
  
• Don't let the kids draw the grid. For some reason, students are incapable of drawing a whole lot of perpendicular lines (math teachers too, but we got by a little better than the students did).
  
• Old socks are great for wiping off dripping paint.

I got my hair done for Huit Mars (aka Inernational Women's Day) and a fancy schmancy outfit made, but unfortunately didn't get any pictures of the outfit, but I did get the hair. I putzed around all day and then played soccer with the women against the married men of the village. The women won 3-1. We kicked butt. My students came out to cheer me on (after all I am also their gym teacher and they love me anyway).

One of my other highlights since Chinese New Year was my friend B from high school came to visit me in village. That's right, all the way from America. He actually had a hard time getting in touch with me since my phone/coverage stinks, but somehow he actually made it to my village (though in a roundabout ridiculously long fashion). He took lots of pictures which I am hoping he will post soon of me, my students, my village, and friends. So, be ready for the awesomeness... when it arrives. He and his accomplice Brian stayed for the night. They got to chat up with some locals, experience real village life, sleep under the stars (sort of), and check out a funeral (they are a lot of fun around here). Seeing two Americans (with corn starch and old socks) really made my day! Their visit also coincided with our first "rain" of the rainy season. Really by "rain" it is more like mist, but still. Very exciting! Since then it has only sprinkled once.

So, really I just came in for a few days to get out of village, bask in a/c, and get some work done. I will be back next week on Saturday for the day, so be on the lookout for yet another post.

Happy New Rat

Happy Asian Lunar New Year!!

I am currently in THE Dougou (not to be confused with Kool Dougou or West Dougou) to celebrate Chinese New Year. We are having a shindig which involves me cooking. Hopefully, no lives will be lost except for tasty ones. We decorated, and me being the loser I left my lantern in village (see photos), BUT I made up for it with yellow glowsticks and red ribbon (thanks to my (always) awesome former co-workers!) and my amazing ability to provide tasty Asian candies and treats. I am actually going to run off in a little bit to start cooking and whatnot. I hope that I get back in sometime late tonight or at the butt crack of two hours before dawn.

Life has been hectic as I try to make up for lost time in school and also battle boughts of paresse and fatigue. Coming back from a wired country really made it tough to adjust to the lack of electricity and general convenience.

Here's the scoop:

• Negative numbers are every students bane and I am way behind on grading papers. I've only graded about 20 devoirs, but the best note (coming from one of my top students) is 10/20. I spent all week reviewing operations with relative numbers (positive/negative). I am going to give a pop quiz on Tuesday (but don't tell my students!)
• The cost of living here has gotten tres cher. The cost of a bottle of Dinor (palm oil) has gone from 800 F CFA to 1400 F CFA in village. That along with many other daily consumed items (that aren't veggies or millet) have gone through the roof.
• Internet by me is still out. The internet lady and I are going to hang out at my place next week, though.
• Things are starting to heat up. Day time temperatures have been exceeding 90 and rising.
• I biked over 90 km in under 24 hours unintentionally.
• I am currently weighing in at 70 kg. Trying to get it back up this weekend.
• I received an extremely large box with refried beans and Del Taco sauce packets... every girl's dream!
• I own a ridiculous number of bags and suitcases in the Faso now. All of which are at village (because I thought I had left one in THE Dougou, but alas, no!).
• Tailors here are awesome. I own awesome dresses.
• There are 14 French people building tables for my school. I stare at them as much as my students. They stare at me as much as the Burkinabe. All in all, we're a bunch of oddities to each other.
• My last act before getting on the bus to get out of village: Watched telecentre Hamidou gut a lightly smoked chicken while making conversation and kids played with the innards.
• I have bats in my latrine. Unfortunately, the plumbing in my latrine is shared (i.e. one latrine, two holes). They pop up during the day time and night time to eat bugs and just make it difficult for you to excrete waste peacefully.
• I run an unofficial day care center. The kids of my neighbors just show up to lie around and doodle in the shade. At least they are cute and sweet (most of the time), except for the faux type in the making. My favourite is Newton, not even a year old and crawling around and causing havoc. He's big, fat, and a mama's boy. Total cutie, too!

Plan to be back in Marchish for spring break and to get some medical work done, but will try to get in sometime tonight or tomorrow morning for a last bit of internet time.

Fo Gou'ni

Fo Gou'ni Good morning everyone.

I am back online for the second time since... well, the last time I posted! Yesterday would be the first time but blogger was being persnickity.

These would be the only two pictures that my camera is willing to give up. The rest from Thanksgiving (food list to come) and pictures of my students refuse to be recognized by computers all around BF. I have some more photos of my house and pictures of a storm rolling in from September/October, but they are stored elsewhere so I will try to remember to bring them in tomorrow.



The first one would be one of two pies made for Thanksgiving holiday (that would be the apple pie) and the other is me after eating lots of tasty thanksgiving food. Even from the unflattering angle, it is apparent that my eating seven or more meals a day isn't helping. Yes, I do actually have first breakfast and second breakfast and sometimes if not often first and second lunch and don't forget the snacks, too! No, I am not a hobbit, but I do bike a minimum of 5k a day, if not more.



My schedule has been shuffled around a bit, and now I teach math and EPS (that would be PE/gym). I have Mondays off which works out well for me since Sunday is typically my big cleaning day. My villagers/fonctionnaires make fun of me because they don't see me all morning (and I get up before dawn) except to go to the water pump to get water. So, it gives me Monday to relax and run errands and whatnot. I am the professeur principal of 4e. That means I do the work of what computers do to calculate "GPA" or the "Moyenne". I did some programming on my dusty old TI-85 (literally it was quite dusty). Unfortunately, I remembered the limitations of that sucker in the process of programming. I remember back in high school how jealous I was with people with even TI-86's and let's not even talk about those TI-89's. I am sure technology has much advanced since then. What I would give to have Matlab and Mathematica running on something the size of a TI (and AAA or AA batteries)!!

I did not leave my village for the entire month of October, not even day trips to go to the "big city" or to visit CLM's village. In November I was finally getting stir crazy and had to restock on some tasty treats at the "supermarket" so I got to the "big city". I also played basketball, got beat up by some kids in it (not really), but I tried to turn a corner and I am just not as fast as the boys here, so I got knocked down. Banged up my glasses, knees, elbows and my head pretty good, but I am fully healed now. The glasses could be in better shape, but I still wear them in village because its better than having to switch between normal glasses and sunglasses. I am lazy, it's true, but I also bike 15k to play basketball all day and then bike back 15k afterwards, so I make up for it sort of. Internet by me has been broken since I last used it. So, I haven't gone in to the "big city" that often except to buy food for Turkey day.

Thanksgiving was amazing. Here is the list of goods consumed: popcorn, peanut brittle, beef stew, green bean casserole, candied yams, mashed potatoes, gravy, turkey and stuffing, pintade, fajitas, fried rice, pumpkin pie, apple pie, brownies, sparkling cider, sparkling grape juice, soda (I have now grown to be a big fan of tonic), yaw (dolo/millet bair). I am sure there were other things, but that is all my addled brain can remember right now.

December was kind of hectic with schedule shuffling and then grading and then calculating all my grades by Friday night so that I could leave Saturday morning. It has been hard for me because I found out on Wednesday that my grandfather passed away a week ago due to a stroke. I was planning on going to Ghana for vacation, but instead, I am trying to get to Taiwan for the funeral.

I don't have much more to say right now, except that I am a little sick and a little out of it due to the combination of events and sickness.

Yet another rainy Sunday.

Being unclever, I wanted to internet today, but the more expensive place is closed, so I am just down the street from my house, but I can't upload any pictures and it is also going to take me a while to type a comprehensible post, so bear with me.

Rain is good, but the other PCTss and I are getting tired of rain on Sundays when we want to hang out at the pool in town.

We are now officially at the start of week 10. Tomorrow I am giving a chemistry test. I am also getting my first official San lesson. San is the language primarily spoken in my village. I am also learning Mooré (spoken in the capital and throughout most of central BF by the Mossi) and Jula (western BF). So, on top of French, I am also trying to learn three local languages. I can do basic salutations in Mooré, but that is about it. I have only had one lesson in Jula, and I have already forgotten most of it. I know less than a handful of phrases in San courtesy of one of the staff members who is Samo (and actually originally from the village I am going too). I figured out that by the end of all this, I will have a minimal comprehension of almost ten languages/dialects. That is if I don't go crazy from being in village and learning all these languages. On the plus side, like my first language/dialect, there is no conjugation involved, which makes it easier than French, in theory.

General whining, being female in Africa stinks for multiple reasons, but my top complaints are anything involving excretion from the body and biking in a skirt. Other things that I would like to complain about, but don't have time for: flies, latrines, toilets, missing friends and family, limited contact with people (coming up at the end of August), food from home and other cultures that don't involve starch doused in palm oil!

Things that are awesome (aka, why I am still here): teaching and being told by my students in (6è) that they miss me, receiving a ton of letters and packages from people who love me, my host family, getting clothes made in africa (I will post a picture later of my very enviable molecule pants), the PCVs, the PCTs, and the staff.

Days till swear-in (not including today): 12

The Difference, Part II

Wow, it is the start of week nine. For some reason, FB is retarded and thinks that because I list my country as BF, my hometown is in BF (brief aside about FB and not BF).

Today I taught my first class of 3è (think freshman). The system here groups the physical sciences (physics and chemistry) and the sciences of the life and the earth (geology and biology). It is a little bizarre, but I am teaching chemistry... through discussing experimentation. I guess it is a little bit mind boggling for me to be teaching electrochemistry (which is the first chapter in 3è) without using the concept that metals have the ability to transfer electrons easily thanks to their d-orbitals. And also, to teach an experiment, and not actually do an experiment. Kind of bizarre, but again, lack of supplies, resources, etc.

In American chemistry, we start with the idea of the structure of the atom and its evolution through history and eventually go to orbitals and whatnot. In BF, there isn't enough time to be spent with a lot of the history because of the lack of textbooks and also the fact that the class is both physics and chemistry at the same time, it is more like bootcamp with lots of experiments and then trying to understand what happens with the experiment sort of like how BiCh111 and 113 were at Tech, but at least we had some resources to work off of.

How is my French doing? I already passed the level necessary for swearing in a while back. And, I think that all of the other PCTs are on their way to swearing in with the minimum level needed. For the most part it is okay, my problem is when I speak before I think, and questions that I am formulating to pose to my class are not formulated in an intelligible manner (and they sound as terrible as this run-on sentence does). I realized a little while back that I am the equivalent of any of the numerous foreign postdocs, grad students, or professors that taught in college with their thick heavy accents. Oh yes, in case you haven't noticed, my english is also deteriorating while my french gets better.

Some good news, I have experienced my second week of weight gain since my arrival in BF. I am very excited. I am almost at 160 lbs again. This brings me down to 25 lbs lost (I was at 30). I think this may be due partially to the fact that I now eat five meals a day. Two of which are really processed American food in high-protein bar form (Luna/Balance/Cliff bars). The plus side is I think I am regaining muscle mass. The down side is I can't depend on these supplements in my diet that much. Thanks to the high carb/high fat diet, I am almost always hungry now that I have officially stopped being sick and regained my appetite.

Other good news, I think I can make my own peanut butter cups here if I try (through a concoction of condensed milk, cocoa powder, and peanut butter (this is prevalent everywhere, they have plenty of peanuts here).

In other news, I lent my knifelight over the weekend, and because I was in a hurry to leave and the knifelight was still in use, I left it behind, assuming (foolish person that I am) that the person would be able to close it and give it back to me the next day. Unfortunately, this did not happen and my knifelight/only knife in Africa is now lost (mostly I have been whining about this for about a day now and understanding/teaching electrochemistry in french). I am going to try to go back and find it with some big tough people because I really don't think it could have just washed away with the 12-hour rainstorm we had on Sunday. (Dear TH, I am very sorry for being incompetent.) In reality, I don't think I am going to see it again.

Moral: Don't lend a sharp pointy object to someone and expect it back the next day because people are not prone to riding bikes with an open knife.

Next week is the last week of model school, and the week after that is the big goodbye/separation and lots of packing.

Ok, time to going back and relearning chemistry in French. The sad thing is that I understand the concepts (I think) behind what is observed, but I can't teach it that way. I guess we all have to start somewhere. And then also planning my math lesson in French. BTW, it is way easier to teach math in French, than PC in French, which is still easier than SVT.

Love,

A, Knifeless in Africa

Days Left Till Swear-In: 17

The Difference, Part I

The biggest difference between the school systems here and the school systems in the United States is the unfortunate lack of resources. In a class of 100 students, there is a very strong probability that not a single student will have the textbook. That means that the word of the professor is their textbook. This is both good and bad.

The second biggest difference is the French philosophy versus the American philosophy. The French scoring system is a 20 point system, where 10 (50%) is considered passing. Unlike, the American system of 100 where 65% is considered passing.

I am actually going to have to run now, so this is short, but it gives you a small glimpse of what I am working with...

End of Week 7

It is hard to believe that I am now finishing up my seventh official week of training. I am done with my first full week of classes. It was tiring even though I only taught for a grand total of five hours this week. Each day the USA seems farther away.

Next week I am teaching seven hours, but in reality I am giving a devoir (or test) for two of those hours. I cheated today while teaching and had my students spend half an hour copying the exercises I wanted them to do at home (again the whole lack of text books thing really takes away from valuable teaching time, but I am not complaining because it means less time for me having to explain things in French). I will be pretty busy though, since I want to spend as much time as possible reviewing for the test and also observing the 3e class (think freshman in high school) since I am going to try to teach 3e math (a class of 100) in week 9. Which also means I have to relearn some math, understand it in a foreign language, and then figure out how to explain it in a foreign language.

I think the material for my current class is pretty easy, but its only been review of perimeters and areas of standard quadrilaterals. Nothing fancy. Giving them a test will probably be tough, even tougher will be grading it. I think I need more paper to write the problems out on before the test because I don't think I wrote my exercises big enough this time.

I added some links to other people's blogs on the links page, but the more internet savvy or aggressive people like my mom (hi mom, I love you!) has probably read all of their blogs multiple times. I think almost all of the SE PCTs are in the internet cafe right now because they gave us some free time after class today. Ran out of time as per usual.

Wish items: powdered drink mixes, tea, text messages, and letters.

A la prochaine!

I figure...

That I should spend my money on the internet while I can. Because in the future, I won't be able to do it as often.

So, today I wanted to review an exercise on the rhombus and then bust through the concept of parallelograms and then hit up perimeters and areas. Malheureusement, I only got to perimeters.

But tomorrow, I will teach areas and have them measure the classroom with their ten cm rulers. It will be fun, but take up the whole hour for sure. And then, Friday, I am thinking trapezoids and I got some fun applications thought out.

Some cool pictures from Jim Barry's trip in Mali (I think I might be closer to Mali than to the capital. Qui sait?)

Only a few minutes left. Send me emails and leave comments.

And So It Begins...

Model school started last week; and officially, I began teaching this week (though I taught division of fractions last week in a full one hour lesson). Apparently, my years of customer service have made me very patient with children. Though today, I did kick a student out of class because he refused to come to the board.

Yesterday, I considered a success even though my students were not given bonne motivation because I did not vomit in class despite strong desires to do so. So far, these past few days have been up and down health wise. Making me feel like a yo-yo who also has to figure out how the heck to make quadrilaterals and their properties interesting. I am hoping to hit parallelograms and areas and perimeters tomorrow, and trapezoids on Thursday. And then something fun and not rote on Friday. Though, I haven't figured out a fun activity for reviewing it all as of yet.

A lot of people have asked me for photos. Unfortunately, these are hit or miss since I haven't been very camera happy and some days the internet does not like the idea of me checking my email, let alone uploading photographs.

Healthwise, I am doing well after a sleepless Sunday night. I wanted to say hello to all the parents and friends of current stagiaires out there because I have been informed that my life sounds cushy as of yet (friend of C---). Don't worry though. In a month, I will be shopping for furniture (a disaster awaiting to happen) for my new house, including necessities like a stovetop, a ridiculous number of marmites and tamarinds, and necessary furniture like a bed, a wardrobe, and a cupboard for dishes and food. How do I plan to protect all this from pests? I have been informed that large cans filled partially with kerosene deter pests well and then putting the furniture legs into said cans. So; I think thats my plan of attack contre my friends the creepy crawlies. BTW, I have seen and killed already the "scorpion carrying spider" in the first few weeks, I just didn't realize what it is until recently. I don't think it looks like a spider, but that's what the call it. I have not seen a scorpion yet, but I promise to have at least one amusing story about that and poisonous snakes by the end of service.

A little bit about my site and my experience with transport: I am off the paved road by about 100 km. I hear I have to travel 40 km to get to the nearest unreliable source of internet (and also no daily transport there, so you figure out how I travelled there afterwards to visit a current PCV). Though, there is a slim possibility that I will have internet within 12 km of me (I am not holding my breath though). In theory, I am three hours from capital. In practice, I woke up at 4 am for a 6-7 am bus. I didn't get to my site until well after dark at around 8 pm. In total, I think I saw my site in about six hours of daylight. It is pretty, with lots of trees. It is fairly large, but not as densely packed as the volunteer who I visited later on in the week. I met my proviseur, and some people around village, but for the most part, people were out cultivating. I have met some people who come from that village and general region. And because of the many different tribes, I am considered a sister of theirs now. However, this means I have a "joking relationship" with one of the larger groups in BF, the Mossi people. It makes for a lot of fun joking around during breaks since a lot of the staff are Mossi. "They" say my people aren't very nice, but we all know I'm not very nice. So, I think I'm fitting in well culturally. ;p

All right, I got two minutes to go. Hope this provided life is being good to you all.

Another Short

I don't really have that much to say right now, but I felt obligated to blog since I'm splurging this week and hanging out at the internet cafe twice (so far).

Model school started officially, and either tomorrow or Friday, I will be doing my first co-teach. On Monday, I get up and do my first full hour lesson by myself. I am worried of course, and probably will spend most of this weekend preparing my lessons (since I signed up to teach both 6e and 3e math).

The summary of the past few weeks: sick combined with travelling on public transport. Not exactly easy out here. I think I hit reality a lot more than some of the other PCTs though.

Different Cafe

I am trying out a different cafe today. It is 100 CFA cheaper. The connection is very slow and I cannot get my email to work right now. My phone will probably be decodé (unlocked) by Friday (if it can be done).

I dont think I am going to try to upload any pictures today. A lot of the computers here have readers for smart cards and compact flash which is awesome. Yesterday morning, we had our first heavy rain during the day. As I was biking to class with my classmates, we were biking against the win towards these giant brown clouds, reminicent of really smoggy days in Los Angeles. The dust/sandstorm got closer and closer and finally it hit. After the wind paused for a little bit, the heavy rains started. The rain lasted until a little before we had to leave for our technical session (where I am learning how to teach). It was still drizzling, but only lightly. TC should be happy to know I got some use out of my Interhovse STAFF jacket. It is very compact so I always carry it with me since it is currently the rainy season.

My first five-minute teaching session went pretty well. The only downer was that it was only five minutes and I had more than five minutes of materials. I gave a 6eme (approx sixth grade) introduction to points and lines and had a pretty nifty group activity to explain points and lines. I am looking forward to the longer session where I can actually have time to deliver my lesson without rushing.

I think I am going to really enjoy teaching. I say that now before having to deal with discipline issues and cheating. I guess we will see how I feel in a few months when I am actually teaching. As frustrated as I am with heat rashes and the billions of insects (apparently they dont use the word billion in french either) and the lack of cool things (let alone cold things), I felt so excited to teach and reenergized. I am hoping that I really enjoy this teaching thing... and that I survive. 10-year plan still on track.

I am tired and probably should go home to dinner soon before my family starts worrying about me. Especially,if I want to get in my evening bucket bath!

à la prochaine!