The one about the hilarities of education

Working in a school that is not in your culture is a sure fire way to get some good times out of life. Sure, it is difficult and proves to be challenging everyday, but the shear hilarity I get from it surpasses all trials. Take for example when I was in the middle of a lesson, and a boy comes to me, taps me on the shoulder, and says, “teacher, can I urinate?” I didn’t understand what the boy was saying under his thick Gambian accent, so then the peanut gallery chimes in and says, “HE NEEDS TO URINATE”. I wanted to retort with an asinine response such as, “I hope you can urinate” or “might you have an infection”? Put I simply nodded my head in the direction of the latrine and let him go, to spare embarrassment. Or when one of the other 5th grade teachers said to me, “America is in the North Pole, correct? Oh boy, people in the north and south poles have problems in life, for they are very cold”. I laughed incredibly loud, trying to play the laugh off as a “you’re so adorable laugh”, but actually laughing in the tone of “did you just really say that”? I told him I had only seen a polar bear in the Philadelphia Zoo, but have fantasies of owning a faux polar bear skin rug for my pretend snow castle. He thought it was funny too, and then proceeded to tell me how he could never live in Iceland. Prior to this conversation about latitude and longitude the teacher, Mr. Bojang (who I lovingly refer to as Bojangles) says, “I really hope for Obama to be in office, because he is black, and if he gets elected there will be peace throughout the world. Everybody will stop fighting…because he is a black man.” Talking to Bojangles as a person is always hilarious because he is gracious and engaging and adorable, and then flips the switch when talking to the students. We will be in the middle of a lovely conversation during break, he will get the whip out and threaten to beat a child, and then turn back in his chair (hands propped neatly on his lap) to finish the conversation completely normal. I do not appreciate the public whipping of children, but his manner in doing so in hil-freaking-larious.

Whenever something happens in the classroom out of the ordinary, the students look to the white woman to see her reaction. Today, for example, Bojang sent 2 students to the corner to kneel on the floor because they were being bad. The students, in unison, turned towards me to see my reaction (to which I inflated my cheeks and crossed my eyes). When something funny happens, they look to make sure I am laughing. When somebody prays, they check to see if “non-Muslim whitie” is praying as well. I usually cross my eyes or touch my tongue to my nose in every situation; I feel it builds a good relationship with the little ankle biters. They also look to me to see if I am laughing at Bojangles…which is almost always the case. Bojangles is a very calculated man, in an awkwardly goofy way. He is helping me organize a party for the teachers at my house next week, and told me we need to have nice party music so he can get his groove on.

Today the assistant master came to our classroom and informed me that the President of Sierra Leone will be driving up our road tomorrow to take residence at a local hotel. He instructed me to tell all the students to go home after prayers, wash and iron their clothes, and to prepare to stand on the street tomorrow morning with Sierra Leona flags to greet the President into our country. It was made clear that if any student came to school with dirty or wrinkled clothes, that they would be beat. After my day at the grist mill, I am now having my cocktail and cigarette, to which the quote of the post is in homage.

Quote of the post:
“Drinking without smoking is like pooping with out peeing. One cannot naturally happen without a little of the other.” -some comedian my friend told me about.

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