Model School and such

Alright, model school is in full swing now. I am teaching 4 classes a week of biology at a 7th grade level and Aaron is teaching math to the older kids. I don't remember ever taking biology in school, so I have been learning a lot about non-flowering plants. (I'm sorry to biologists out there, but this stuff is boring!)

It seems like the priorities in school here is discipline first, teaching second. We have a lot of rules that we are supposed to enforce in order to keep control of our class. For example, if a student comes late, you do not let them in; if a student's phone rings, take it from them; if a student is being distracting or annoying, kick them out of class, etc. I am actually finding it easier than I thought to be strict in class. I haven't kicked anyone out of class yet but I have yelled at them to shut up (which is totally exceptable here). My first class was with the older kids who aren't as well behaved and only half the class stood up when I entered the room so I told them all to stand and made them wait while I put down my bag, took out my notebook, arranged my chalk, and took a sip of water; then I told them they could sit.

The students seem to be hard workers. If you give them a definition, they will have it memorized by the next class. The trouble is critical thinking: if you ask them to give you the same definition in their own words, they are stumped.

So last week I was talking to Steph (are most devoted blog commenter) and she asked me a really good question and of course I gave her a really lame answer because, like all good questions, you can't think of a good answer until later. I am going to try and answer it now, though. Her question was: what do you like the most about being there?

I think what I like the most is the change of pace and priorities of life here. Right now, I have no idea what the price of gas is, I don't know what the summer fashions are (not that I ever had much style), and I have no idea which young actress is being arrested these days. I feel like despite the new food, clothes, people, language, etc. my life has been simplified. Also, it seems that there is nothing so important that it cannot be postponed for a wedding, baptism, funeral, etc. The sense of community above self, is a new concept for a lot of Americans. It has also been nice to get to know the other volunteers in this setting, without the pretext of our cars, or clothes, or jobs that we left back home. We always joke that if we were to meet in America, we would not recognize each other.

Okay, I think that is better than my original answer which was something about liking this yogurty-millet stuff I get for breakfast sometimes.

In other news, thanks so much to Steven for the package!! You totally made our week, buddy. We will try to sneak some action shots of us teaching this next week to post on the blog.

Aaron Speaks

This is kind of long. Here goes.

We started model school this week. Model school for the students is summer school to help prepare them for the upcoming school year (October). For us PCTs it's practice to learn how to write lesson plans, deliver effective lessons, and discipline the students. Today I taught my first class to the quatrième group (like 8th grade, only some of the students are probably in their 20s). I taught the first lesson in the PC book (physics and chemistry) on solids and liquids. 4eme is where they first see physics and chemistry topics, so we start out easy with the differences between a solid and a liquid, what is volume, and how do we measure the volume of liquids.

The 4ème class is the biggest class in model school; next week it will be split into two groups. There were about 50 students and they were a bit noisy. Helping me teach is one of the current PCVs. When the students get too rowdy the PCV can step in and tell them to shut it. I suppose it went alright today, no one threw anything at me, no one walked out, the lesson plan itself was fine. The hard part is getting excited about defining a solid and a liquid--pretty boring stuff to be honest.

Next week I'll start teaching one of the 4ème sections either algebra or geometry. I think that will be a bit easier and perhaps more fun to teach.


In other news. As Amy mentioned earlier, we went to our future site, Titao, last week. The trip was stereotypically Peace Corps. As the events of the trip unraveled, I felt like I was more of an observer than a participant, comparing what I saw to what I had read or been told should be happening in a given situation. This position of observer was possible because we were being chauffered by PCVs or our homologues the whole time and all I had to do was smile and nod. An example follows in the form of dinner plans one of the nights:

The Plan

Jill and Marcus informed us on Friday that we were to have dinner with the proviseur, the principal of the school, and a bunch of the big wigs at the school. The dinner was a big deal, as the proviseur is probably only second in status in the community to the mayors and chiefs, and the dinner was sponsored by him. Also, the dinner was specifically for Jill and Marcus for the school staff to say their thanks and goodbyes and give Jill and Marcus recognition for their work. We were to meet at 7 pm at the "Garage" which is a local buvette/bar with outdoor and indoor seating. Moussa, the resident factotum of Titao, was to bring the chickens and guinea fowl for dinner.

The Reality

Jill, Marcus, Amy, and I arrived at the Garage just before 7 and just as it was getting dark. At the same time a storm was rolling in and we were glad we just missed it. When no one had arrived by 7:05, we realized there must have been a change of plans that someone had forgotten to inform the guests about. Thus started an exchange of broken telephone calls between Jill and Marcus's two phones and probably everyone else who was supposed to be at the dinner. With the storm, the cell signals of the three providers in town were cutting in and out so that Marcus would get reception back only to be calling someone with another provider whose service just went down, etc. By the time we deduced that everyone else had gone to Moussa's, in the other direction from which we had come, and another km or so from the house, the sky was dark, the frist drops were falling, and the wind was blowing dust sideways. The proviseur was on his way to Moussa's, in a car of course.

We would have asked about moving to one of the local restaurants that has an actual tin roof, but of course the phones were totally dead by now. Therefore, we got on our bikes and headed straight into the storm, using our little lights, riding on dirt roads and watching out for the occasional dog, goat, donkey, guy on bike with no light, drop-off, etc. At this point I smiled--"So this is the 'Peace Corps Experience' " I thought. We couldn't see. When we could see we had to close our eyes because the dust was being blown straight into us. When we could open our eyes we were about to crash into something. And we were going about 5mph because the wind was so strong. And then there was Marcus answering a phone call from his mom, "Umm, this isn't the best time..."

We arrived just as the rain really started coming down and we headed to "shelter" immediately. Of course that was halted by everyone coming out into the rain to greet us. Half-wet, we walked into the shelter expecting shelter. Of course this was an old, poorly thatched room. We sat down in the pitch black, moved around two or three times to find a new stream of water to sit under, and got drenched. I actually shivered. At this point I smiled again, "So this is the..." We commenced with the meal of chicken, guinea fowl, beer, and soda and under using our bike lights. The chicken, actually, was great. The beer was warm and bubbly.

After a bit, the proviseur said some words--thanks, good luck, and even a good luck to Amy and I for the future. A couple of the others spoke and they gave Jill and Marcus some fancy local cloth as a gift. Then we shot the shit for the bit in French.

Once the beer (they only have the big bottles here) had worked its way through a bit and I really had to go, I went out and after a few steps found myself in the middle of a field, animal bones everywhere, dark, low, ominous clouds covering the sky, lightening and thunder non-stop, and the rain. I smiled for the third time, "Awesome!" I went back in, rubbed my belly, and we left shortly thereafter.


I think my training--via the books I read before leaving for Africa, stories I heard from RPCVs, PCV blogs, and the official training of the past 6 weeks--has desensitized me. I'm not likely to get too worked up about anything now. Everything that happened that night would have been very frustrating normally and I was aware of that while it was happening, yet it didn't bother me in the least. That's the Peace Corps. More precisely, that's Africa.

Thanks for listening.

Titao ("Teetow")

We finished our site visit this week to Titao. Our site seems pretty cool and our house is bigger than our old apartment in the States. We have a market where we can get meat, fruit, and veggies all year round and while there's no electricity yet, you can still get cold drinks at some places. Currently, there are 6 cats residing at our house, but we are hoping to get that number down to at most 2 when we return in September. Not that I haven't always wanted to be a crazy cat lady, but I think 6 is a bit much.

Honestly, the most memorable part of our 4 day site visit was the actual travelling. I would compare Burkina transportation to a ride at Disney World. The wait was longer than the ride itself (in our case, the bus was 3 hours late for a 1.5 hour ride), all the little details seem so exaggerated that they are fake (the music was a few notches above enjoyable and seemed to be playing at 1.5 times the normal speed and the old man next to us decided to dedicate all of his time to staring unblinkingly at us), and as with all popular amusement park rides when all is said and done you have to ask yourself if it was worth all the wait and effort.

We actually had an extra element of fun on our ride: since this is the rainy season there were huge puddles in the road. When you combine that with our driver who must have been preparing for the Daytona 500, I felt like Harry Potter on the night bus swerving all over the road.

This week we start 5 weeks of model school, which is a summer school that we put on to give us practice in the classroom and extra lessons for the students. This week I will be observing Burkinabé and PC teachers and on Friday I am teaching a physics class. While I am nervous about teaching to actual students in French, I think it will help the rest of training go by faster.

Aaron and I have been listening to this program in the mornings called Voice of America. Has anyone heard of this show? We find it both funny and a little troublesome that this one program has decided to represent our country to all other countries in the world, especially since most of it's programs are obviously biased propaganda. Our favorite one comes on a few times a week when they highlight international students who are attending "one of America's great universities". They interview the student and talk about how awesome America is and every now and then they will mention what that student is studying or something about their home country. By the time we are done praising America, there normally isn't much time left to discuss what is happening with the election or economy or things like that. But we still listen because it is nice to hear English and we need a good laugh.

Mom and Val and Keith thanks for calling this week. We were so excited to get a call! Jenn we haven't gotten your letter, but we'll keep looking.

Barak Obama discounts, homologues, etc.

On Saturday we took another language test to see how we have progressed over the last four weeks. There are three main levels: novice, intermediate, and expert. And each level (at least the first 2) have three subcatagories: low, mid, and high. When we first got in country, I tested in novice-low and now I have moved up to novice-high, which is exciting. Aaron is intermediate-low now. In order to "pass" training and become teachers we have to get to intermediate-mid, so we are getting close.

I met my counterpart (homologue) this week. He is really nice. He speaks English, jackpot! He works as a French and English teacher at the school where I am going to work. We've been doing a lot of U.S. vs Burkinabé culture activities. Monday we played a game that asked questions to see how well we know each other's culture such as "what is starbucks?" (the Burkinabé answer: tv show). One feature of American culture that all Burkinabé seem to be informed about is the upcoming election. Everyone wants to talk about Obama. At our local bakery, we have what we call the "Barak Obama discount". Go in there, make sure the owner knows you are American and that you will be voting for Obama, 15CFA off your baguette. Perhaps this is an abuse, I don't know.

Oh, here's a fun story for those of you who are more scientifically inclined. Friday night we had a big rainstorm. Really big, huge... Now I am not sure if you have seen this in the pictures but we have metal things on our windows that serve as blinds as well as metal screens to keep the bugs out. So Saturday morning, Aaron got up and went to open the blinds and noticed that he was getting a small shock when he touched the metal. Something happened Friday night and now there is a connection between our outside light (which doesn't work now) and our window. This was very difficult to explain to our host family. When we just had them touch the window to see for themselves, the kids totally freaked out and thought they were going to die. I think our host dad is going to call an electrician so hopefully it will get fixed.

Thanks to Ashley's mom and Uncle Dale for your comments and uplifting words. Uncle Dale, we haven't heard of those books but there is supposed to be a big PC library in the capital so we will see if they have any of them.

The Weekend

Hi everyone! I feel like I have a lot to write, so I am breaking it up into parts so that maybe it's easier to read. We had a really fun weekend. Saturday we cooked an American dinner for our family. This was kind of a multi-purpose exercise: we wanted to do something nice for them, teach them (and ourselves) how to prepare food we like with their materials, and have a meal that we really enjoy. So we made hamburgers with caramelized onions on top, garlic mashed potatoes, and sauted some veggies. It was really good (at least to us, I don't know if they really liked it or not).

The whole experience was a typical African business deal. We went to the market Saturday morning to order the beef and we were told "no problem", it will be delivered that afternoon to the center where we have class. By 3pm there was no meat so we got the phone number for the butcher and called and he said he would send the meat right away. Shortly after we got off the phone the butcher's son came to say we weren't getting the meat after all. So we went home (about 1km away) and decided just to do potatoes and veggies. After we got home, we realized that I forgot the milk at the center so I rode back to get it and the butcher's son was back with the meat. So it all worked out. We are learning to adjust to the way things work here. For example, when you go to a restaurant and order food and they say ok, it doesn't mean that they have the food and will make it for you. Sometimes they have run out and just don't like telling you bad news so they wait about 10 minutes before telling you.

Sunday we did laundry and went to the pool. The pool was great! We even ate some pizza, sort of. It was ground beef, cheese, and onion on a pizza crust which is good enough for me.This week we meet our homologues and visit our site. I don't know if I explained the homologue situation so here it goes: we each get a person at our site who is involved in similar work that helps us integrate into the community and answer any language, work, cultural, life, etc. questions we may have. Then we get to visit our site from Thursday to Sunday. Aaron and I have it easy because our site is only 45km away but some people have 2-day journeys to get to site. Also, Jill and Marcus (who we are replacing) have one week left in country so they will be there to show us around. I am really excited.

Just Added...

I just added a new "Books I've Read Section" to the right. I'm going to post my review of the books here though.

1. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas S. Kuhn

Considered a classic text for the history of science. A bit dense. The concluding chapter and postscript are the most interesting. Now I have more questions as to the actual scientific revolutions cited in the book.

2. Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin

This was an amazing book. A quick read, great adventure story, but most importantly a lesson on the muslim culture, where all these terrorists came from, and the most effective way of defeating terrorists.Because it was such an imortant lesson that all Americans should know, and probably most don't know, I'm going to go into detail here.This guy Greg went to climb K2, considered the hardest mountain on Earth to climb, tougher than Everest. When he left he promised a small village, on the edge of the glacier in the middle of nowhere, that he would build them a school. He has now built about 50 schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

He has the official blessing of muslim leaders in both countries and has had the high muslim courts issue statements in his (non-muslim, American) favor. During his time there, since 1993, he has watched madrassas spring up all over the countries. These are schools funded by the Taliban. Some are simply schools, but of course others are the training grounds of the anti-American fundamentalists. In places with the option of going on to higher education, the children and parents will take that option. In the places without schools, and with madrassas, the children turn to their only option, thus the strength of the Taliban and terrorists has increased over the years. Greg actually has a former Talibanist who has sworn allegiance to him. He was only in the Taliban because that was his only choice, now he's happy to serve a good cause. Thus, by simply building schools, Greg Mortenson is fighting terrorism more effectively than any war. The people he works with love Americans but hate American planes-it's that simple.

This, is of course what the Peace Corps does--works to strengthen nations basic resources and set a good example of Americans to promote peace long before peace-keeping efforts are needed.

Site Announcement!

These last few days have been really exciting. First, we had our 4th of July party on Friday. It was a lot of fun and we had a lot of good food that reminded me of home. It also reminded me of how much I miss the everyday devices which make cooking at home easy. I think I spent 3 hours chopping and peeling in preparation for the party. We did have a local band, called Laffi Bala (pictured here) which is Mooré for "is it good" I think, and we danced a lot. Towards the end, some local people came by and joined us in the dancing. The only downside was 3 days later over half of our training group was sick, so we are thinking there was something wrong with the food. It tasted great at the time, though. :)

I spent the night in a village called Bogoya F on Saturday to get a taste for village life. It was really nice and really different from how we are living in Ouahigouya. At our host family's house, the tv is normally always on and we can communicate with a hybrid French-English concoction pretty easily. In village, I was lucky to find someone who understands French and English seemed out of the question. This led to a lot more awkward silences, but it was okay. Aside from the huge, man-eating spiders that seemed to occupy Joanna's house, it was really nice.

I bought some fabric this weekend called a pagne. I am not sure if it's because of the pagne or something else, but my mom came out of her room on Sunday all dressed up and said, "Amy, take your picture with me" ( in French, of course). She had me put on my pagne and gave me a wrap for my head and taught me how to sit for pictures. It was really cute and a little surprising. The picture is to the left.







Yesterday was a big day for everyone because they announced where our sites are. The way they do the site announcements is there is a big map of Burkina they put on the wall. Someone will read a small clip about the site and then they will announce who is placed there and that person comes up, finds their site on the map, and places a little cutout of themselves on the map (pictured here). Aaron and I are going to Titao. It's actually close to where we are now in the north. When we flew here a month ago, we met a Peace Corps couple at the Paris airport who were returning to Burkina to finish their service. They were on our flight and we chatted with them for a little bit. Well, it turns out that Aaron and I are taking over that couple's site. Crazy. Everyone says they have a great house so we are excited to visit next week.

We played soccer yesterday against a local girls team. I am pretty out of shape but it was really fun. We ended up tying. I think we are also going to start playing volleyball against a local team. That will be lots of fun.

Mom and Ron, we got your packages yesterday. Thanks so much! It was our first piece of mail and it totally made our day. If anyone feels like sending a letter or a package, feel free. We can always use more peanut butter, granola bars, and mixes (sauce, cookie, drink, anything).

USA! USA! USA!

Happy 4th of July everyone. I hope you have something fun planned. As for us, we are trying to go as all-American as possible here. We are grilling hamburgers and eating the mutton that the chief gave us a few weeks ago complete with fruit salad, potatoes, and even a little watermelon we were able to find at the marché today. I heard a rumor that some local drummers are coming to play, which isn't American, but it is way cooler.

The other day we got a cookbook compiled by former and current PCVs who have created some recipes with local ingredients. I cannot wait to start cooking. Ok, really, I cannot wait for Aaron to start cooking so I can eat and I will start baking. That's right, you can bake here. There are instructions for making a dutch oven along with recipes for breads, cookies...all the good stuff.

We had a class yesterday on how to use the black board here. It was really interesting. The students do not have textbooks so their notebooks are their only resource for studying the material so they are very picky about what they write. This means that you have to be really organized in how you present information on the board so that they don't fill up their notebooks with stuff they don't need. Also, there are specific sections of the board that students will copy everything you write, other sections for where students can work problems, and a section for where you outline the days activities everyday, and a section for equations and new definitions. We also learned how they do basic math operations here. The division is a little different and some of the numbers are written differently. It was just really fun and interesting.

Thanks to the Clem family and Mama Duck for your messages and prayers.

Birthdays, 4th of July, etc

First of all I would like to say happy belated birthday to MG and Ron and happy birthday today to Andrew. Monday was Aaron's birthday and with the help of some current volunteers I was able to scrounge up some little gateaux and made some chocolate icing for a birthday cake. I also got some of the other trainees and training staff to sing happy birthday in a bizarre combination of French and English.

So one of the helpful/bizarre/embarrassing (pick your adjective) things about living with our host family is that they seem to have a 6th sense when it comes to the latrine. Everytime we use it, one of our host sisters is lurking nearby somewhere to get in there and clean as soon as we exit. Because of this, our host family stays pretty up to date on our digestive health.
Wednesday morning, Aaron wasn't feeling great so I went out to greet our host family and let them know (which of course they already knew). My host mother and one of my sisters kept telling me to go do something or prepare something for Aaron (I'm still not sure what they said) but I just figured they were reminding me of wife duties to go take care of Aaron so I just said ok and went to eat breakfast. A little while later Aaron joined me and our host sister told us that they had called the PC doctor for him. We were a little confused by this, but we just said "ok, thanks" and kept eating. No more than 5 minutes later a PC car rolls up and one of the staff hops out and says "ok Aaron, we take you to the doctor". It was a really bizarre/confusing morning for us.

The thing about host families is that they really take your safety and health into their hands. So when we get sick, they get really worried. It's really sweet but can be difficult as well. Our host dad keeps saying Aaron has malaria, which he doesn't, and I am not sure how to convince him of that.

Moving on, everything else has been good. Next Tuesday we find out where our site for the next two years will be. And the week after that we get to go visit our site. I am hoping to go spend the night with one of our GEE (girls education and empowerment) trainees who lives in a village outside of town this weekend to get a feel for village life. Joanna's boyfriend and parents if you are out there, I am talking about Joanna. She's doing great but she broke her bike this week. Also Lauren Nouis, if you are reading this you should see if you went to school with Joanna. She is from Colorado Springs, she is tall, and she is just like you in all other ways. So maybe you went to school together or are long lost twins separated at birth or something like that.

Ok, it's time for language class. Thanks to Aaron's parents and my parents for calling. It was great to hear from you. I didn't have time to talk about our 4th of July plans, so next time.