School, Solitude, and Sanity

It has been so long since I last blogged that I am having trouble figuring out how to start it. I am sitting in the Peace Corps office in Ougadougou with some other volunteers and sharing stories about our first couple weeks of school so far, and everyone’s experience has been different and interesting. School started officially in the country on the first of October, but for most of the schools it starts a few weeks later because school starts about the same time as the harvest for all of the villages. In Matiacoali, school started on October 2, and surprisingly a majority of the students were there. The education program in Burkina is currently going through some type of reform process and the CEG in Matiacoali is on of the pilot schools testing out the program for the first year. I am still a little fuzzy on the whole idea of this reform process. Unlike in the states there is no taxation in Burkina so the students have to pay each year to attend school. In small villages this is really hard because most of the families don’t have a lot of spare money that they can invest into the education of their children. This means that a lot of the children are uneducated and work with the family instead of attending school. To remedy this problem, because education is very important, is trying to lower that cost of attending school to increase the number of students. This year, at the pilot schools, 6eme the equivalent of 6th grade is free, and 5eme, 4eme, and 3eme, the three levels above are half price. This is awesome, but I am not quite sure why this needs to be tested in pilot schools.

I feel that I am teaching different subjects each week, but I think that it is finally settled that I am teaching 6eme SVT (biology), 5eme English, and 4eme SVT. They are all working out decently well. My 6 class has 131 students and about 14 inches of space between the front desks and the chalkboard. I taught a lot of 6 during model school and I am used to the subject so the 131 students don’t even phase me. My other class of biology is another story. The subject is geology, which I don’t find either particularly interesting or particularly useful. The entire first part of the three part book is about identifying rocks, and what would happen if you put a rock on glass, and is the rock permeable to water, and what happens when the rock is exposed to hear. Who cares? I don’t, and if I don’t find the subject interesting or useful, how am I supposed to expect my students to? Finally English, English books do not exist for levels 6 or 5 classes in Burkina Faso, so I guess that the teachers are just supposed to make up what they learn in the class. I know English, so this should be easy, but it is proving to be more of a challenge than previously expected. I think that in my grammar class in the 6th grade I sailed through with an average of a C, and that is pretty pathetic. All of the grammar is in my brain somehow, but I don’t know how to explain it. I am slowly getting better and I don’t think it will be a problem, but right now it is difficult.

Other stuff has happened, but I am running out of time. So real quick….

I am rocking probably about a solid 1.6 on the poop scale, and by solid I mean semi-solid.

I think that in the package race the parents are winning with sending me books for class and food, Zack is a close second with sending me the best food so far (the chocolate peanut butter and Dairy Queen honey mustard), the grandparents with priceless ketchup, and then friends. What is the deal? I leave the United States for 5 months so far and you forget about your good friend Caleb.
Note: These rankings are not final and can still and will be adjusted for the remainder of my stay in Burkina Faso

I live in perpetual Halloween town in my village. The children believe that I am a never ending supply of sugar and free things that I would be more than happy to give them, but that is just not the case.

I have found several look/act alikes in village. I have found a young version of Seth Snowden, and also a version of Flo from Wal-Mart, only this version is not nice and does not call me by the nickname of “boo”.

Andy McMurtrey would be quite the attraction here as he is currently in the states. With out realizing it I perform with my hands the act that after observing Andy, and after practicing with Ashli for many months, where it sounds like they are farting, and it is pretty much the coolest thing in village. I am dragged by children to their houses to show their families this and they are just amazed. I can only imagine how impressed they would be with that squid and finger thing.

That is pretty much all that I can remember at the moment. I need to start writing these things down as they occur so that I remember them when I finally get to a computer. Also, I have taken lots of pictures in village, but I forgot my jump drive at my house in village, so the next time.