Lessons on Boarding a Bus

We managed to swing a free trip to town this weekend because Aaron is doing bike training with the PC drivers (so maybe it is just me who got the free trip), so that means it's a big weekend in the big city for the Roses. Things are going well. This November weather has been great. We are still sleeping outside, but now we actually use covers...covers! I even wore long sleeves the other morning because I felt a little chilly.

SIAO was lots of fun, we saw some really neat stuff and had fun getting our discuté on. The part we weren't ready for was the vendors from Ghana who can speak English. This proves to be problematic when you are in the middle of a good bargain and Aaron walks up to say "man, I thought we'd be paying twice that!" Oh well, it was still lots of fun.

The trip home from Ouaga was a little less fun. The first bus was broken so we had to sit around for a new one, then comes the epic battle to get on the bus and claim a seat. I was hanging onto the bus door with one arm and holding off an old lady who was trying to pummel me to the ground with the other. Once we managed to get on the bus and get to Ouahigouya, we discovered that one of the girls with us was missing her bag with all of the stuff she had bought in Ouaga. We're guessing the guys at the bus station took it off the bus at some point, but needless to say, that was really frustrating and sad. Our second bus home was also broken so they roll up an hour late with this bus half the size of the normal one. Madness ensues once again; this time we are fighting for a place to stand because hoping for a seat is a lost cause. After everyone gets on sardine-style and they spend a good half hour loading the bags on the roof, the regular bus rolls up. The best imagery I have to describe the scene comes from Emilie, another volunteer with us. She says that the girl running next to her between buses got stuck behind people and Emilie looked back at her and started to slow down but the girl just waved vigorously and said "Allez, allez." It was madness. So within another hour we were on the road finally heading home until our bus broke 5km down the road. I knew it would be a while when I saw the guys starting to make new parts with a machete and a piece of wood. We finally made it home later that night, so I would say we did okay.

We have some new pets. One of my students brought over two pigeons and helped us pluck the wings so they wouldn't fly away and made a home for them. (I tried to take pictures but our idiot camera didn't work.) After a while when the pigeons have made some babies we'll eat the adults. We still have a rat problem and our attempts to kill them are getting more desperate. We used to strategize and plan, now we run around at 2 am trying to smash it with a shovel or drown it in a hole. They are supposed to make great cadeaux for the neighbors if we can ever kill one. We now have a slingshot, a shovel, and a new trap so either that rat is going to get it or one of us is going to be calling our PC doctor to explain how we got hit by a slingshot at 2am.

Other than the rats, things are great. School is going well. We only have about three week left until our break. I am currently reading Ulysses, which leaves me between states of literary bliss and wanted to be hit in the face with a slingshot. This book is nuts, but I am determined to get through it.

We're really excited about Thanksgiving next week having people over. Happy Thanksgiving to all of you back home.

The male half here. How are you folk? And the family? And the health? And the spouse? And the [period of day]? And the work? But seriously, I hope everyone is doing well. Also, that's an example of a greeting Burkinabe style. Not sure if we've really mentioned this aspect of our everyday life, but you greet everyone you see no matter what. Unlike in America where someone may run by with a quick 'hullo' and strangers say nothing at all and that's just fine, here that kind of, um, let's say efficiency, is taken personally. Of course, it's rather nice even if it just a formality. I liken it to the forced-smile effect. They say that if you're feeling down, even a fake smile can trigger something in your brain to make you feel a little better. Therefore, even formal greetings can make you feel welcome. Which leads to another important point: these formal greetings are surprisingly consistently genuine which makes one feel even better.

In Burkina Faso if you want to have a good day, all you have to do is turn to the nearest person and say 'Ca va?'

Of course sometimes, as an American, I forget that being late isn't taboo and walking into a room full of professors and immediately shaking all their hands and exchanging greetings isn't odd. The other morning, for example, I approached the Salle de Prof and, running a bit behind schedule but trying to be Burkinabe, paused at the door, got into the greeting zone, practiced my finger-snap handshake (a must to be cool), and effulgently burst through the door with a smile, a handshake, and a 'Bonjour' for the first person I saw. After the I-just-walked-into-a-dark-room-from-the-bright-outdoors-blindness wore off and I was on my second or third greeting, I simultaneously saw Amy surreptiously flagging me to shut up and heard the Proviseur (read Big Dog, my boss) addressing a committee for some meeting. Oops.

That's about all the excitement I have. I'm looking forward to the bike training this weekend. I'll be teaching the new trainees some basics and answering some questions of the staff who have received some training. If all goes well I may get to go to Ouaga sometime and do more in depth training and help out with the loaner bike situation there. I've been practicing my French bike lingo, so hopefully I can limit the amount of simian hand gestures.

Thanksgiving. Yeah, it's going to be bonafide. We have a local guy, the grillier, or meat-cooker, who has experience throwing Thanksgiving parties. He took care of business last year for Jill and Markus. We're going to finally have an entire pig cooked with pineapple (I wanted one for the wedding), chickens, beef brochettes (shish-kabobs), veggie soup, turkey, mashed potatoes, cold beer and sodas, cafe au laits (that's nescafe and sweetened condensed milk), sandwiches, the whole nine yards. You've still got a week to buy your plane tickets. Vous etes invites!

Really, that's all I have to say. Have a great Thanksgiving and we'll write to you later.

12

Better Off: Flipping the Switch on Technology by Eric Brende

Excellent. An MIT graduate student decides to live in a Mennonite-like community where technology is carefully scruitinized before its use is allowed. Brende's hunch is that though technology is supposed to make our lives easier and higher in quality, all technology is not created equal. Some technology actually leads to more work, more stress, and less enjoyment of life. Living in Africa, his tale is especially poignant.

For example, to wash clothes, he and his wife heat up water on the gas stove and put it in a hand crank washing machine that he claims does just as good a job and isn't too hard to operate. Amy and I set our buckets in the sun, dump some soap in, and in an hour each week our laundry is done. Then it line dries. It doesn't really bother us, that hour, and we use much less water and energy achieving the same result. We also save money and get a little workout That water and energy we just saved also just made someone else's life easier because now there is less demand for those two commodities (less demand that's not good for the economy...that's not the point). Therefore, washing clothes in a bucket is a technological advance over a washer and drier. Would I add a hand crank to my bucket? Yes, that would be easier without any major negatives. Would I add a motor? Perhaps, if the energy it required was small and easily provided by my habitat. Would I add a direct water line, drain, and electric heater? No.

Washing my own clothes, I've realized that cotten is really the only fabric I own that is hard to clean. My more technological synthetics just need a rinse and all the stains are out. That's technology that's worth it. If I didn't have any cotten to wash, I could use three 5 gallon buckets of cold water with a little soap each week and be done with the laundry in under an hour. That's comparable in time to modern laundry and way more efficient.

Those are the kind of conflicts of interest Brende points out. Technology has many hidden negatives such as cost, use of resources, maintenance, etc. that sometimes make tasks more difficult. Being a practical sort of guy, I like this thinking. True engineering takes as many factors as possible into account, so we need to review each new piece of technology to see if it's truly engineered or if it's sequiously engineered.

Also, Brende reminds us that we are social beings and one of his simplest, most profound discoveries is that work isn't work when you're amongst friends. "Working" the fields is an opportunity to hang out friends. Canning vegetables is a party. It sounds silly and perhaps obvious to some, but many Americans have forgotten this as they sit in cubicles 8 hours a day, or traffic 2. Many people dream of a sinecure and when they get it end up unhappy and bored. Humans are social beings and technology shouldn't interfere with that.

Bon travail M. Brende.

11

Book #11 A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce

Essentially an autobiography of James Joyce growing up. Not a great novel by itself but contains a taste of stream of consciousness writing, had great descriptions, of hell for example, and contains well-written, well-developed passages on various topics. Should be a good intro to Joyce’s famous “Ulysses” as it introduces the reader to the main character and to Joyce’s bizarre writing style.

10

Book #10 Active Liberty: Interpreting our Democratic Constitution by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer

A bit boring; most of the main points are in the introduction and conclusion. Basically, Breyer says that the constitution was designed as a framework for making decisions meaning: Where the constitution doesn’t clearly resolve a problem, stop looking for an answer in its text, and start using your ingenuity and common sense. Breyer claims that a good judge must recognize the times when the language of a law prohibits it from clearly conveying the point the writers were trying to make and then make a sound decision based on what makes sense and what the writers would have thought. Breyer also claims that we need more “active liberty,” i.e. participation, in today’s government as opposed to apathy.

9

Book #9 Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond

Definitely a worthwhile book for everyone to read, despite terrible redundancy. This book was recommended to me as a less philosophical, more concrete alternative to Daniel Quinn’s “Ishmael,” my favorite book. It’s worthy of the Pulitzer Prize it won for its content and not its long-winded prose.

Guns, Germs, and Steel is an attempt to answer the question, “Why did Europeans end up technologically superior to the rest of the world and not China or Africa or Papua New Guinea?” This question is of course a generalization of the last few hundred years. Diamond answers the question by exploring the ultimate role geography, climate, and resources had on the proliferation of guns, germs, and steel which are the more immediate or proximate answers to the questions. He describes, based on anthropology and other sciences, how humans went from hunter-gatherers to today’s agricultural societies and where the different countries diverged.

Interestingly enough, Daniel Quinn hits the nail on the head in “Ishmael.” Diamonds scientific explanations of humankind’s progress back up Quinn’s theories on the same subject. Kudos Mr. Quinn.

8

Book #8 1984 by George Orwell

Awesome book. It warned of cold war-like events years before the Cold War. Probably as applicable today as ever. Just read it and see for yourself. I suddenly understand a lot more allusions in everday reading.

7

Book #7: How to Spend 50 Billion to Make the World A Better Place edited by Bjorn Lomberg

This book is the result of a conference of world-leading economists (8, 3 Nobel laureates) asked to perform cost-benefit analyses of spending money on various world problems. The results are then brought together and ranked in order of priority.
The results:
HIV/AIDS – 27 Billion with a cost-benefit ratio of 40
Malnutrition – 12 Billion
Free trade – “Small” cost resulting in huge benefits, e.g. 2,400 Billion/year
Malaria – 10 Billion

It’s interesting that all the economists agree that free trade is a no-brainer. They explain that the resistance to free trade is purely due to lobbyists who have a lot to lose despite the obvious overall gains of the countries involved—gains which will in the end make it back to the lobbyists and their corporations. I.e., in the short-term some companies lose and that’s enough to create so many holdouts.

Notably, global warming didn’t make the cut. The meeting (The Copenhagen Convention) occurred, though, before the recent slew of IPCC reports that greatly strengthened the evidence for global warming. When the report was published there wasn’t enough data on the economic feasibility of fighting global warming so the economists suggested the issue be looked at again once those studies have been completed. Now that those studies have been completed, and the results generally show economic benefits of fighting global warming, I’d be interested in seeing an updated report.

...

Book #6: Six Easy Pieces by Richard P. Feynman

This book by the Nobel Prize-winning physicist is an excellent overview of physics comprehensible by anyone. Feynman is well-known for his “Feynman Lectures” in which he taught physics to undergrads at Caltech in an easy-to-understand manner. This book is the introduction of those lectures in which he covers physics past and present (1960’s) in the simplest terms. He relates classical, modern, and quantum physics and describes the problems facing physicists today. I wish I had read this book my freshman year of receiving my physics degree as it really helped tie all those classes together.

...

Book #5: The First 20 Million is Always the Hardest by Po Bronson

A book about as outdated as the technology it describes. The First 20 Million is a novel about Silicon Valley software engineers writing the next killer app, starting a start-up, and dealing with copyright issues. It’s poorly written with a mediocre plot. Goes to show that just because you graduated from Stanford University doesn’t mean you can write a good book. It might have passed as interesting or at least entertaining back during the technology bubble.

Next...

I figured out how to have posts added in the future. Therefore, since there are so many book reviews to add, and some people (Jason) complain about our rate of adding new content, this should help pass the time.

Book #4: Eat, Love, Pray by Elizabeth Gilbert

Give me a break. Let’s just say I don’t think we’d be buddies. This “spiritual journey” is only redeemed by the slightly elucidating discussions of Hinduism, Yogism, and other Eastern religions and philosophies; my typically limited American perception of these topics was filled out a little better. Other than that, the book was mostly like listening to a self-asorbed, I’m-worldlier-than-you teenage brat. In the end this attitude is replaced to some degree with a new-found humility that I hope persists.

Book reviews

I've updated my list. Here goes.

Book # 3 : The Brothers Karamazov by Fydor Dostoyevsky

Everybody has heard of Crime and Punishment but critics call this Dostoyevsky’s best book. Einstein called it perhaps the greatest novel ever written. Freud referred to it often. Tolstoy died with it next to his bed. What do I think? Well, I have the goal of reading a bunch of the classics while in BF to make up for the relative lack of reading during college, and I decided to start with the Brothers. I believe it has been an excellent choice.
It’s an 800 page book that reads like 400 it’s so well written. Yet it’s no Redwall; there’s much to think about including religion, crime, guilt, community, wealth, and poverty. It covers much ground in great depth, makes one stop and think, and manages to tie it all together fluidly with a great storyline. That’s the definition of a great novel, right? Highly recommended.

Aaron's Update

Life is good. Who’d have thunk it? I feel like I live here. Everything seems normal and I’m comfortable knowing I’ll be here for two years. I think that’s a good place to be. It’s funny the things you get completely used to. Bucket baths; no baths; sleeping outside under a mosquito net; pooping amongst the spider, lizards, flies, mice, and other bugs; pooping in a hole; pooping outside; pooping water; cooking with a camping stove; washing dishes and clothes with buckets; never driving a car; riding or walking everywhere; the heat; the dust; spiders everywhere in the house... Sometimes I think, “Hey, wait a minute, that’s not normal.” But of course in BF it is.

Most of our time is spent cooking, cleaning, teaching, lesson planning, reading, and studying. That’s our day. Nothing ever seems too urgent or stressful. What a nice life.

A note on water. Once a week we pay about 55 cents for about 55 gallons of water delivered to our door. Most of that is used for washing dishes and laundry and the rest is for cooking and drinking and showering. For showers we use a 5 gallon pail that lasts anywhere from 2 to 4 showers depending on how clean you want to be and how cold the water is. Therefore, one bathtub probably contains the amount of water we use in a week.

A note on the fou. Amy mentioned that a fou stole my Nescafe the other day. I don’t think I’ll ever forget the look on her face while she was dumping my coffee into her place. It was a look I’d forgotten existed. It was the mischievous, “I know better but I’m going to do it anyway because I know I can get away with it look.” It immediately brought me back to elementary school where I used see the look all the time in R.B.’s face. He was unique, though, and so was this fou.

I want to say congratulations to Mr. Obama. I have a feeling that Americans are probably 50/50 elated and disappointed. For what’s it worth, America just got a lot more popular in Africa and I think, rightly or wrongly accomplished, that is worth something. (Just heard someone say his name.) Listening to the BBC and the African portion of Voice of America was like a birthday, graduation, and wedding party all in one—everyone was praising and congratulating America and Americans. It was a nice change of pace.

Also want to say congrats to Paul Krugman, the economist who just won the Nobel Prize. I heard a speech of his last summer and thought it was brilliant. Then I realised this great article I was reading online was by the same guy. Now, he’s gone and legitimized my feelings by winning the Nobel. Nice work buddy.

Amy and I want to send a shout out to the following people: Aunt Annie, Amy, and Natalie; Paul and Steph; Mom and Dad; and the other Mom and Dad. Here goes: THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE PACKAGES. THEY REALLY PUT A SMILE ON OUR FACE. HOLY MOLY M&Ms ARE AWESOME. COFFEE GALORE...X 4!!!! IT WAS LIKE XMAS AND WHAT DAY IS BETTER THAN XMAS? Thanks a bunch folks, it was a really great month.

Another quick note: I'm told that the remaining kitten that we gave to a friend has passed on to a deeper spot on Earth. Something like, "It started twitching like it was having a seizure then keeled over." RIP little buddy.

Hurray for a new president (elect) !!!

Everyone here in Burkina is really excited about Obama winning the election this week. We had arranged to watch the election results all night at the place where they show the soccer games but, nothing ever works out like we think it will, and we spent the night sitting around our radio at home listening to the BBC and Voice of America. Finally, around 4am, they called the election for Obama (fist pump).

Luckily, I only had one class the next day and ample time beforehand to drink coffee (kind of like college). Classes are going well. I am giving my first test this week, we’ll see how it goes. I’ve been trying to incorporate activities and review games in my class to make it more exciting but last week I received a total slap in the face (figuratively) from one of my classes. They were a little chatty after we finished our warm-up game so I asked if they would prefer to skip the rest of the day’s activities and take notes in silence for the rest of class and received a resounding “oui” in response. What the heck?!!! They preferred to take notes in silence for 90 minutes than play my games. Ouch. Well, that’s what we did and it was so boring (for me, at least). I guess for them that is the easiest way to have class since they seem to learn by taking notes and memorizing them. But I am still going to make them play my games every now and then so they practice thinking for themselves.

A few weeks ago we had a big awards ceremony for all the schools in the area to give prizes to the students who had the highest grades last year. We arrived at 8:30, as instructed, just in time for the ceremony to start around 10:30. There were a bunch of big wigs, like the governor, there who gave speeches for the first hour. Then, we gave out about 10 prizes and they announced that it was too hot and the ceremony was over. I felt bad for the 40 or so students who had to collect their prizes later without a big applause. The prizes were pretty good, though. Everyone got some shoes, notebooks, money, and some students got a bike.

Then it was time for lunch at the High Commissioner’s house. There were 2 buffet tables laid out, one for the teachers and the other for the students who received prizes. We sat for an hour for no other apparent reason than it had been a while since our last wait. Then all of the sudden, it was time to eat. I would describe this experience as an African running of the bulls with rice. There was no line. People were grabbing entire platters of food and running off with them. Aaron couldn’t even get a plate. I got a little meat because a guy we knew threw some on my plate as he ran by with handfuls. Then, I looked up to see the students standing quietly in a single-file line at their table. It was nuts.

Speaking of crazy experiences with people and food, we were eating breakfast the other day (bread, butter, and coffee) at a table in town and one of the town fous (the name for crazy people here) walked up, took Aaron’s coffee, dumped it in her bowl, and ran away laughing. It was ridiculous. Oh well, I guess she probably needed it more than us.

We met a girl from the UN World Food Program the other day who was explaining what the WFP does in Burkina. I guess Burkina just got demoted to “emergency” status by their organization. Their program provides free meals at school to encourage parents to send their kids to school. A volunteer in a neighboring village says the program at her school has doubled the attendance.

We are heading to Ouaga this weekend to go to SIAO, an artisan festival that occurs every 2 years. We are going at the end, so hopefully we’ll get some good bargains. Later this month, we’ll be hosting Thanksgiving at our house. We’re trying to get a pig to roast.

Thanks to Aunt Annie and Val and Keith for the packages…real coffee!!! And thanks to Steph for the phone call and Maria for the text. Miss you guys.