Rat Out, Rabbit In

The project to start a computer lab is moving along. We hit some unexpected hiccups last week due to some philosophical differences between the school administration and Aaron and me as to how we should present – or not present – the project to the other teachers. The school principal and treasurer that we’ve been working with thought that it would be best if we kept the project hush-hush. So they asked the representative between the teachers and administration to announce that we have computers to sell but he wasn’t informed as to how many were available, where they came from, why they were being sold…he knew nothing. The day of the announcement, 14 teachers signed up to buy the 10 available computers. The treasurer, unsure of how to handle it, told them there were only 6 for sale and for the moment nobody could buy one. I’m not sure how he came up with the number 6 or why he thought that that was an adequate solution to the problem. I’ll probably never know. When I heard teachers grumbling that they were only selling 6 computers, I got scared that they had stolen 4 and given them to friends (pretty likely) so I stormed into the principal’s office demanding to see all the computers. Over a period of 45 minutes, he explained the problem to me interspersed with other woes (the water pump is broken again, the government hasn’t sent money to pay the teachers yet…) that had nothing to do with the computers and about which I could do nothing to help.

Aaron and I decided that all this sneaking around and avoidance of direct questions was unnecessary and frustrating everyone, so we decided to have a meeting with the administration and the teacher’s rep, Coach. Coach was already in the loop because I had told him about the project, but since he hadn’t been “officially informed” by the principal he played dumb. This was somewhat frustrating when it was just Aaron and I in the room and he continued to return all my questions with a shake of the head and “I’m not informed about that.” The day of the meeting, everyone was still “uninformed” so I went around and informed them myself that we would meet and find a way to resolve the problem of not having enough computers to sell to everyone. The problem is that people here are pretty sensitive. All those objective, impersonal (American) methods like first-come, first-serve or auctioning them to the ten highest bidders don’t fly. So we decided that we would offer them 14 computers and use the extra money to buy a printer for the school and 4 cheaper desktop computers from an ex-PCV in Ouaga. We have a strict payment plan established so I’m not sure if all 14 teachers will actually be able to buy a computer anyway but if we didn’t offer everyone the option, there would be drama in the teacher parking lot (under a tree in the school yard). Aaron and I also did a quick presentation to all the teachers about the goals of the project and where the computers came from so that they didn’t think we were running some kind of business.

There’s still a little frustration with the teachers who ask us to change the due date for the first payment for them. This is where we’ve been laying down our cold-hearted business side and telling them that selling the computers is a means to an end for us and we don’t care who buys them. We offered them to the teachers first as a favor but if they can’t buy them we’ll offer them to other people in town who can. Obviously, they aren’t happy to hear this but they’re getting used to it.

Women’s Day was last Monday. I was really excited to play in the soccer game again this year, but it ended up being a little too much for me. My team had over 20 women on it. The first time I touched the ball I was knocked over by my own player; the second time, there were no players from the other team around so I tried to dribble but couldn’t get anywhere because of the 4 players from my team that were in my way and ended up taking the ball from me. The game wasn’t fun enough for me to endure an hour of being called “nassara” on the loud speaker so I made up an excuse and left at half-time. We have a teacher vs. student soccer game coming up next week. The teachers have started training every night and they are always inviting Aaron to join them. Finally, I told them that I would come and play. There was an awkward pause followed by “ok, you can play defense.” This got my inner-feminist all worked up so I showed up ready to knock their socks off that night. I was totally schooled. Those guys are so good and so fast I didn’t have a chance. It didn’t help that the field was surrounded by students and everytime Aaron or I touched the ball or even got near the ball they all start laughing. Oh well, at least I tried.

On the bright side, mango season is here. Mangos are the only thing that makes the hot season tolerable. We’ve settling into a comfortable diet of about 3 mangos a day each. It’s convenient to have a readily available snack that is so delicious because it’s getting too hot to cook and we’re hardly home anymore anyways. Aaron is always studying for the GRE and I’m always at school working on the computers. Luckily, we’ve made some good friends who like to send over extra food when they cook. The other day we were the enthusiastic recipients of rabbit soup and I think lunch will be taken care of today because our friend, Mariam, wants us to try her tô sauce. How can we refuse?