Another Update

So I wrote this long entry after finding out that week we didn't have school for an entire week. I'll save you the details. Suffice it to say that we asked plenty of questions about how to plan the final few weeks of class and were rewarded by showing to an almost-empty school. I'll note here one little quirk of the Burkinabé though:

Learning that class had been canceled for the week when I should be teaching and not the week before is one thing. But this information was not just passed on to us, "Hi Amy and Aaron, there is no class this week because of the strikes. See you next Monday." No, instead we walked into empty classrooms and then decided to go hang out with the other teachers who seemed to be waiting for the late students. It was during this casual prattle that the censure, the guy with all the info, mentioned in passing how there was no class. This is how it is with all important information. If you don't listen carefully you'll miss the whole point.

Another typical exchange: I sat down at my favorite sitting spot in town and this guy approached and asked if I wanted coffee. Well, this was new to me so I asked, "That's possible?" And he said, "No, there's nothing."

On another note, I've been meaning to mention the bird situation here. It is quite surprising, but Burkina is a mecca for bird watchers. On a typical morning or evening bike ride I'll see many awe-inspiring birds. There are the huge diabolical vultures. The intense falcon (that may have eaten one of our cats), the fighter jet-inspired hawks, the iridescent tropical birds, many brightly-colored song birds, white crane-like birds that go lost on their way to the Nile, something similar to a kingfisher... My favorite bird though is the feather bird. I know, aren't all birds "feather birds" and isn't that a stupid name? Here's the thing: imagine the longest feather plucked from a California condor's wing. Then shove it up a hummingbird's behind and you have the "feather bird." This minutely-bodied bird steers itself through the air much like a rafter navigating rapids--he paddles furiously and seemingly to no avail, but somehow he makes it out alive. A film of this bird in flight would be a great addition to that "air is a fluid" science lecture. Watching it swirl though the sky you have no doubt of air's fluid-like nature.

Book update:

Book Number 13: A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson

An excellent book. It sums up the history of science from Newton to modern biology in a never-boring way. It's filled anecdotes of the crazy, boring, and sometimes evil figures in science history. Bryson set out to write the book because he had never taken an interest in science and realized as a result he had no clue how scientists knew the amazing things they know. Therefore the book is extremely accessible, informative, and entertaining. It could help change the popular geeky view of science in America.

Book Number 14: Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov

Another winner. This book manages to write seriously, creatively, and... dare I say beautifully... while making fun of serious creative writing and never undermining itself. It's like a basketball star convincing everyone that basketball is lame and so are its players but yet you marvel at his talent and lack of arrogance. I think even the ridiculous critiques of the book on the back cover were written by the author. If you want to read something classically new, read this iconoclastic burlesque.