Ups and downs on the rollercoaster of life

It has been over a month since my last entry and I think that an update on my activities is appropriate. More time elapses between each successive blog entry which should lead one to believe that I am busy! It is definitely the case.

School
The school year started in early October with expected delays. Teachers and students were sent to other schools, kids from other regions were sent to Koudougou, and as a result the administration was a mess as were the class rosters. I didn’t get to even talk with the Censeur (his job includes making the timetables and scheduling things) before two weeks of “school” had gone by. I don’t think kids had actual class time (they tend to come hang out anyway because they have nothing else to do) before the beginning of the second week.

When I finally spoke with the Censeur we decided that the only class that had enough free periods during the week to schedule IT was Seconde, the first year in the second cycle which is about equivalent to 10th grade. There are 3 Seconde classes each of about 100 students. So I have about 300 students to teach using 11 computers. We figured that each student would need to come in at least once a week in order to retain some information in between classes. From experience, more than two kids per computer means that someone won’t be paying attention, so I could handle about 20 kids per class period. That meant 5 groups of 20 per class for 3 Seconde classes covered my 300 students. That also meant 15 hours of teaching a week, and when everyone is starting from the same place - from scratch - I would be teaching the same 1 hour long class each week 15 times!! Believe me when I tell you it is exhausting. But! It can be really fun.

Not having started yet, I was getting bored of being an IT repair guy at the computer lab; scanning usb keys for viruses and fixing computers brought in by members of the school staff, as well as keeping the computer lab up to date and virus free. Alain (my counterpart) told me he was going to Ouaga on Friday (10/10), so at the end of week 2 of school I took advantage of a free car ride into the capital. I even managed to pick up packages that had been sitting around at the bureau since I had arrived at site - I now have a PO Box in Koudougou so mail comes to ME now. While there I ran into Thomas from my stage, who was doing really well and apparently biking a lot - he has some hills near his place so he can do some up and down mountain biking, something that I miss! I met a couple other volunteers who I hadn’t ever seen before and then several of us went to the Embassy REC center to watch a re-run of the Vice-Presidential debates. I also picked up some things at Marina Market (the big French style grocery store) that I can’t get in Koudougou, and kept my eye out for a gas oven (still no luck).

That weekend one of my neighbor volunteers, Steph, happened to be coming back from the South and was passing through Koudougou so I met her for the first time and we hung out for a while. As per usual, most visits include meals chez moi and we cooked creamy garlic mashed potatoes with green beans and beef in a teriyaki marinade. Phenomenal.

Mid-way through week 3 of school (week of the 13th October) I held my first “classes” in order to give a competency test and sort the kids into groups based on their level of experience with computers. It was pretty simple: one half-filled group of “experienced” users and 4 groups of newbies for each of the 3 Seconde classes. Once the groups were made, they could start coming to their first IT classes.

A little trip
Towards the end of that week, Robert invited me to go with him and a couple other PCVs to a going away party for a 3rd year (she extended her service an extra year) health volunteer in a village called Gambo. On Friday I took the bus to Ouaga, then another bus to Kongoussi, met up with Robert and another 3rd year PCV who is COSing (close of service) soon and took yet another bus to Koussouka where Robert and I stayed the night at another health PCVs house. The following morning Thomas (from my stage) biked up to us from his neighboring site, Rambo, and the 4 of us biked to Gambo and met up with Leslie, the PCV whom the party was for, Anna and Renée. Saturday night was the big party, all organized by Leslie. I had the pleasure (it was fascinating) of watching a sheep get slaughtered for the party, but we didn’t end up getting to eat any of it (long story).

The party went as follows: we arrived at an enclosed area that included a concrete dance-floor with tin roof, some huge speakers, a TV and some DJ equipment. There were benches set up facing this concrete area, and there were tables and chairs along one of the other sides. The Nassarras took seats in the front of the rows of benches, segregated by gender, as were the Burkinabé already present. Then we waited. People kept showing up and sitting down, kids took seat in front of the benches on the floor, and Leslie was busy conducting her party staff. The “DJ” put on a DVD of Burkinabé booty shakin movie clips and entranced the crowd with provocative pop music videos.

An hour and a half after we had sat down, Leslie decided that it was time to begin! She gave a speech in Mooré and French (she’s basically fluent in Mooré and its really impressive) and her head party guy said some things in local language - maybe a translation of what she already said for those who still didn’t understand, or he added some things - I don’t really know. Then they talked away from the mic and someone else was called up. I’m guessing he was an important community figure, and he gave a little speech about Leslie and the work that she did for Gambo. Head party guy took back the mic and after some more discussions someone else was called to the mic. This went on for a while, with various people shuffling towards the mic, giving a little speech sometimes in French, sometimes in Mooré, and two PCVs even said some things (one is also fluent in Mooré). After the casual speech giving was completed, two women from Leslie’s family brought out the food, and drinks also arrived. This was when the fun began.

The two women started dishing out riz gras on plates and we helped pass them out to the important guests who were sitting at the tables along one side of the dance floor (where the speeches were given from). They just sat there chatting and staring at us while we kept distributing food. We were told to give food to everyone who was sitting at tables or chairs on that side of the party. We were also instructed to give bottled soda to the same people, as well as everyone sitting on benches from the area were we had been sitting. The drink distribution was going fairly smoothly but we ran into a dishware problem. All those who had been served were still just sitting staring at their food and we had run out of plates for the rest of the party. Eventually we figured out they had been waiting for water to wash their hands with (even though they were given utensils) as is customary procedure. Once that was covered they started eating. So there is only enough food/drink for the people that Leslie explicitly invited, but there are a good 100 extra people who came to the party anyway - you don’t necessarily need an invitation to show up at a party. The problem was that they were also looking to get food and/or drinks. We were told to give out drinks and food to all those sitting on benches and chairs, but the extra guests had snuck onto benches and were sitting in between chairs and sharing seats with friends. It became a frenzy of grabbing hands and extremely difficult to figure out who was supposed to get a drink.

Finally we had handed out drinks to all those supposed to get one, and we were instructed to save the rest for Leslie’s family who had prepared all the food. Meanwhile the rest of the party was being given giant bowls of food to share. This was going fine, but we also noticed that the crowd of show-up guests (mostly kids and teenagers) was slowly getting closer and closer to the area where the food was being distributed from. They had started standing behind the other guests and then filled up spaces where they found room to sit, and now they were approaching the food and drinks. Now they were surrounding us (the two women who cooked/served and the PCVs helping distribute) and just staring. A couple were pointing and asking for drinks and food. We had no idea what to do, and Leslie was no where to be found, so we had to “guard” the area while the two women frantically dished out food for the other guests. There was some yelling, between the women and the approaching crowd, but for each step they took backward they would advance two. It was a really difficult position to be in, and I don’t know if I really did a good job describing how tough it was telling all these people they couldn’t have any food or drinks because it wasn’t for them.

Eventually Leslie came back and we managed to chase away a large proportion of the hovering crowd. When the food and drinks were appropriately distributed, the women took all the left over food from the plates and bowls and put it into a huge dish. She put that in the middle of the dance floor and told the kids they could have at it. In an explosion of energy kids ran from all around the party and hurled themselves at the bowl of rice. The first kids there got handfuls of rice that they shoveled into their mouths while the next to arrive literally dove over the top of the others, hands first, to reach in from above and grab some rice. It resulted in a dog pile of arms and legs, an empty bowl and bits of rice on faces, in hands, and flung everywhere.

At this point the party had gone more or less as planned and our jobs helping Leslie were over. The women packed up the rest of the food to bring back to Leslie’s family and hauled off the sodas. All that was left were beers (lots of beers) which wasn’t a problem for us!

We opened a couple beers and sat talking as we waited for the party to thin out a bit - there were still tons of kids (just watching us, as usual). Leslie decided to put on some grungy rock music to try and deter some of our huge audience from hanging around. It had the opposite reaction than we expected and suddenly there was a mosh-pit of young Burkinabé throwing each other around and having a great time. Well, that plan backfired, so we waited a bit longer and finally put on some music we all wanted to hear. Essentially we wanted to start the dance party, but no one was dancing yet. The multi-colored disco lights were on and spinning, American hits and reggae was blaring over the speakers, and the Burkinabé who usually love dancing were sitting staring at us. Granted it wasn’t the same music they were used to, but both groups were waiting for the other to hit it off. After a significant period of sitting around with loud music and an empty dance floor, the two girls made it happen, and within no time we were all rocking out. We had also managed to down several 66cl beers by this point so everyone was feeling great. The girls grabbed some women that live in Leslie’s courtyard and pulled them out to dance with us and the ice had been fully broken. The dance party kicked off and most of us whities left far earlier than the locals to go to bed. I think Leslie left around 2 or 3 and the villagers were still rocking out. We had a grand ‘ol time and had to nurse grave headaches the following morning.

Thomas and Robert and the others left nice and early (4am?) to catch a bus, but as I don’t have class Mondays I had the luxury of sleeping a bit more and taking a bus the next day. We sat around recovering from the night before and chit chatting. The villagers extract gold from rocks in the mine nearby and I got to watch one of Leslie’s brothers wash gold dust out of ground rock powder. It looked like he was just making mud but eventually some yellow colored stuff settled out. It was pretty cool seeing gold being mined for the first time. I caught a bus the next morning to Ouaga, hung out at the transit house for a bit and finally got home to Koudougou in the early evening. It had been a long weekend, but very enjoyable and I was really happy to have gotten out of K. I like visiting other sites and living in village is a great change of pace. City life is completely different.

Classes!
My return to Koudougou was also the beginning of a full time teaching schedule. The first classes were long and boring considering I did lots of theory and explained vocabulary for the material, and how to hold and use a mouse, without turning on the computers at all. By the end of that week I was completely wiped out and all I remember about it now is being at school all day and going to bed before 9.

By the end of the next week I had found my rhythm and was going to the marché regularly, cooking lots, and teaching the rest of the time. I spent some of my free time getting online, building my hammock which is still a work in progress, and hanging out with my neighbor and some guys from my neighborhood who sit near my house, drink tea and discuss. It took a while before I could find time to hang out and talk with the people who live around me (apart from my neighbor who often comes over), because of the hectic school schedule and being solicited left and right for computer help. I was happy to be able to sit down and talk and start to get to know some of these other guys. I’m also trying to work on my local language, considering that everything else I do is in French I don’t get anywhere near as much exposure to it compared to village people.

My kids have had between 3 and 5 classes, depending on the group (certain days of the week are more prone to having classes cancelled, thus the kids who come in those days usually have to come in on the weekends to make up class) and are quickly learning how to manipulate their virtual environments. Just like any class, there are students that learn fast and pick up things on their own, while there are some who struggle with even the most basic concepts. Being a teacher is tough, and especially because I am somewhat of a perfectionist I want everyone to understand everything before we move on. It can’t work that way and I am learning how to accept that not everyone will get everything the first time, and that I can be satisfied with having taught them whatever they do retain. In any case, those who understand more will teach their friends and help the ones who don’t get it. I know that even though I only teach 300 kids, by the end of the school year many more will know how to use a computer because a friend of theirs is in my IT classes who can pass on the knowledge. The kids (especially in IT class) are so enthusiastic about learning everything they can, that even kids who had some computer experience wanted to be in the groups with the absolute beginners so they didn’t miss out on any instruction. During other free periods or when kids don’t get let into other classes because they arrived late they come and ask if I can teach them something. I have never been in an environment where high school students are so self-motivated to learn and as a result teaching is much more enjoyable and rewarding. All in all I am content with how things are going.

Peanuts
The weekend before Halloween my neighbor kids came over and told me that my peanut plants were ready to be harvested. The leaves had started to turn yellow and apparently that meant it was time to pick peanuts. That basically involves yanking on the stem of the plant and ripping out the roots to which are attached the peanuts. It helps if the ground is somewhat moist so that the plant comes out without ripping off peanuts in the process. We harvested all the plants and then sat down to pick the peanuts off the roots. All the peanuts went into a basket which was then emptied on my tin roof to dry for a week. After drying, we brought the peanuts off the roof and they filled a 15 liter bucket! Lots of peanuts…They are basically ready to eat or you can boil them, or you can fry/roast them. They dried sufficiently for me to enjoy eating them raw, and I have to admit they’re like Pringles: once you pop (or crack open a peanut) you just cant stop. I gave away several bags to neighbors and the kids who helped me, and about ¾ of the harvest has been consumed. Good times.

Halloween, 4th of November, SIAO
It was about that time of the year and believe it or not pumpkins made an appearance. Melissa, my Koudougou site mate, hosted some new SED stagiaires who were doing their “demystification”. They came to Koudougou and followed Melissa around discovering what it was like to be a SED volunteer. They were around for Halloween so Melissa hosted a little party. Her host family gave her a pumpkin so I saw my one and only jackolantern! I think her family was shocked that she carved it up and didn’t eat anything… She even had Halloween decorations. A couple volunteers from around Koudougou also came. I still hadn’t shaved since month 1 of training, so I dressed up as Jesus. I shaved the following day. There was a Burkinabé woman with a “baby” strapped to her back, Melissa looked like our Country Director, and Steph was a nun. I was impressed considering our limited access to costume material.

Two days later I took a bus to Ouaga to stay at the transit house for a couple days. I wanted to watch the elections live at the US embassy REC center, and visit SIAO (Salon International de l'Artisanat de Ouagadougou). SIAO is a huge art festival where artisans from all over Africa bring their stuff to show off and sell. It was mostly West Africa, with a couple other countries represented. There were food stands and 4 different buildings with stalls. On the 4th I went and walked around 3 of the 4 buildings, mostly just looking and talking with the artists. Paintings, T-shirts, clothes, pagnes, craft jewelry, metal work, wooden statues, masks, trinket boxes, and things made out of leather are some of the things I can remember seeing. It was fun talking with people even though I didn’t buy much. A couple T-shirts and some presents. I’m broke at the moment so I didn’t really have much of a choice.

We organized to go to the embassy REC center to watch the elections live on the American Forces Network projected on the wall and after being told it couldn’t happen and juggling options, we ended up making it over there. Before hand we had drinks and spring rolls for dinner and I even got a cake with chocolate frosting and my name written with sprinkles (thanks Lauren =D). It was a glorious birthday to have in Burkina, although I am uncomfortable knowing I have just reached my mid-twenties. Wasn’t college like yesterday? What ever happened to high school….? It’s no BS when you’re told time flies/life goes by fast/ whatever other metaphor you want to use - they are all too true.

Around midnight a large group of pcv’s headed to the REC center and set up shop in front of the projector. We saw lots of Katie Couric on CBS who had no problem shooting down ambiguous “we don’t know who’s winning yet” comments and strongly suggesting who the winner was before it actually happened. It was highly entertaining. We were all dozing off here and there, but as the final hour approached we were all fully awake and cheering after the state of California turned blue on the fancy electoral vote map. We were yelling and clapping and it was a long moment of bliss at 4 in the morning before we heard the speeches. McCain’s was very gracious as the news anchors kept describing it, and it really was a great speech. Obama’s was also awesome and it moved the room to tears. No one was balling but when you looked around the room you saw only wide glistening eyeballs and pcvs transfixed on the projected image. Cell phones were constantly beeping with the arrival of congratulatory text messages and people were receiving calls from friends and family stateside. We were all exhausted and overwhelmed by emotions. Around 530am we headed back to the transit house to crash. I took a bus home that afternoon.

Class continued for the rest of the week including make-up class from 7 to 12 on Saturday morning! Gotta love weekend class… On Friday I had site visit by my SE APCD (the secondary education associate peace corps director). It’s the first time they come to your site and check out where you live and where you work. Seb came over on Thursday night to my house to make sure everything was OK and to go over his check list of things I had to have. The screens on the windows had to be in place, the walls of the house had to be standing and a little yellow emergency phone number card has to be in plain view. I passed the test, and he came to watch one of my IT classes the following day. He was happy with what he saw, and we talked for a while about the approach I was using. My approach is to avoid giving them lists of instructions on how to accomplish a task, but teach them how to discover themselves how to do whatever they are trying to do, by exploring menus and options and testing things on their own. IT is constantly changing so in order to keep up I think its important to have a method for figuring out how to do things as opposed to having a list that you follow. The method never gets old - you can always explore and discover in order to find what you’re looking for - but the list can become obsolete, and then when you are presented with something completely new and different, one asks for the list as opposed to seeking the solution. Site visit was a great success.

Saturday night I had dinner with Kelly and Melissa and we ate some fabulous tuna cakes. Later in the evening I went to my neighbor’s house as it was his birthday (same age as me minus 4 days) to party. My present for him was a SIAO T shirt and he was really happy as he didn’t have the opportunity to go, and he is an artist himself. What was a Burkinabé birthday party in the city like you may ask? I got back to my neighborhood at about 9pm and could hear music from at least 2 blocks away. The noise level increased as I approached my house and I couldn’t even hear myself talk as I entered my neighbor’s courtyard. A speaker the same size as me was standing in the middle of his courtyard facing outwards to the rest of the world. As soon as I walked by the speaker, the noise, as it was hardly music at that volume, was considerably weaker and I could again perceive human voices and other night time sounds. It was like the music was an invitation for whoever could hear it to come and party. Advertising was clearly needed considering my neighbor and I were two of the 3 people at his party. The third person was his girlfriend. He said if I didn’t want to stay that it wasn’t a problem because by showing up I had already made him really happy. I told him that the only difference between my house and his at that moment was the presence of two more people at his house - the music was fully audible anywhere within a 500 meter radius so I might as well wait for guests to show up. It was already obvious I wouldn’t be getting any sleep that night.

By about 10pm a couple guys had shown up and tea was being prepared in typical Burkinabé fashion. The music was still loud, someone was constantly changing tracks in search of their favorite booty shakin song, but two of the guys had started the dance party. I’d like to say that in the states its usually the girls who start dancing and eventually guys would join in before the dance party was really going. From what I’ve experienced so far, it’s the complete opposite here and guys take to the dance floor much earlier than girls feel comfortable to do so. These two guys were kicking up a huge cloud of dust as they shuffled their feet and bounced around to the beats of Burkinabé pop. It’s a mini competition between all the dancers; showing off their stuff and trying to copy the dance moves from the music videos of the songs. It wasn’t for another hour that two girls showed up and in the mean time there were at least 10 guys creating a sand storm while one was sheltering the tea he was trying to prepare. At about midnight there were enough people to call it a small gathering and the party was really started - out of no where appeared a couple bottles of whiskey and some coke and shots were being poured. It didn’t take long before the booz were finished and the dancing got a little crazier. The girls had joined in but were significantly shyer and reserved compared to the way the guys were dancing. They preferred sitting down and watching the guys dance, pointing out the drunk ones and laughing at the way they flopped around. I was exhausted at that point and headed home around 1am. I felt like I was leaving at the peak of the party, but couldn’t stay awake any longer, even after a couple shots of super-tea (concentrated and strongly sweetened). I managed to fall asleep even though I could hear the words to Bo-Bara-Ba from my bed. I woke up at 5am, however, and could still hear people yelling and music playing.

In the mean time, I had another problem on my hands. On Friday, a couple days after I got back from Ouaga, Zoa, my puppy, started acting strange and seemed to be getting sick. He lost his appetite, had trouble lifting his backside off the ground, was lethargic and his eyes were secreting infected puss similar to if you have pink-eye. By Saturday he wasn’t doing well at all, had avoided several meals and was getting very skinny. I would find him hiding in the bushes in the middle of the courtyard and he wouldn’t want to move. I enticed him with dog treats, warm sweetened milk, porridge, and even some precious beef jerky from a care package. He wouldn’t eat anything, although he did get up to drink every once and a while. It reassured me that he was still drinking and I figured if he managed to fight off whatever was ailing him, he would lose weight but wouldn’t get too dehydrated. On Sunday he seemed to be getting better - he was walking back and forth from the bushes and the shady spot he likes behind the house, and still drinking water. However, he still wasn’t eating. I decided that as soon as the animal center opened on Monday I would take him over there to get him checked out. I couldn’t expect much, as they are no experts and I doubt whether any of the guys I had previously talked to had any sort of veterinary education save what they learned on the job (they gave a friend of mine pills for his dog once and he promptly died after eating them). In any case I wanted to do something for my poor dog who had suffered all weekend. Even some reassurance that he just needed to fight off the attack would have made me happy and at least I would have tried to do something for him.

The sad news is that Monday morning he passed away. I brought him inside on Sunday because it’s cold outside at night these days, and I found that in the morning he hadn’t even shifted positions from where I laid him down on his pagne. He was breathing only very weakly, and it was raspy and labored. I sat by him for a while and around 6:30am on the 10th of November 2008 at the young age of 3 months and 5 days old, Zoa moaned and let out his final breath. He was too small and weak to fight long enough for me to take him to get checked out. I am still in shock at having watched his life drain out of him, and I already miss my little 4 legged friend. He was already a smart dog, knowing how to sit, lie down, and play fetch. Even now when I go home I still wait for a second or two hoping he will come running to the gate to welcome me back home, knowing that he was laid to rest in the back of my courtyard. It was a rough start to a Monday morning, having watched my dog die and then digging his grave in the early morning African sun while under attack by flies and the various thorns, thistles and weeds that have taken over my courtyard. RIP Zoa.

I’d like to finish this blog on a better note, so I’m going to mention that I have been continuing my cooking adventures and have explored several new options. I love fried plantains, but am trying to avoid frying anything because without an oven just about everything has to be sautéed (steaming is alright but not as fun as baking or sautéing) and I don’t think its healthy to always eat that way. I boiled plantains in their skins and they turned out almost as good as fried ones. I was surprised at just how good they tasted and very satisfied with the boiled version. I made that twice, once with honey-lime glazed fish filets and sautéed green peppers, and another time with a tuna-curry salad type deal. I am addicted to the salty or sour - sweet combo. Recently I also made barbeque sauce and cooked barbeque lamb for sandwiches with coleslaw (!). The next couple picture albums should have evidence of my culinary experiments.

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