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.