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Students painting
Working on a world map mural at the primary school The month of April was hot. Very hot every day. There were a few nights when the wind picked up and it seemed to want to rain, but we got nothing but dust storms. When I lay down to sleep at 11 pm, outside of course, the temperature is often around 94 degrees and there is no breeze. Ugh.
The artificial lake that was dug in Satiri last year is long dried up. It is now a field of dry, cracked clay. We had to add another length of rope to the well bucket in order to reach the water’s surface, now a good 10 m deep. The well water is muddy but not dried up yet. Swarms of bees surround the water holes and cover puddles of spilled water. Apparently they’re thirsty too.
The villagers, too, are ready for the heat to end and the rains to start. This time of year the Bobo hold some of their biggest traditional festivals: mask dances by moonlight. The first mask dance of the year was the biggest. It drew a huge crowd from several villages; people even came in from Bobo. The dance was held in a clearing in
Teaching 6ieme
112 kids in a room not nearly big enough to hold them. And in the heat, teaching math is never easy. the village, closed off by mud brick houses.
The crowd was in fact too large for the venue: people were pressed against the mud walls and newly-arrived spectators kept crowding in front of those already seated, shrinking the performance space. As the area became too packed and it became too difficult to see the dancers, my neighbor and I pushed out of the crowd to the edge of the courtyard. One of the mud walls was part of an unfinished house, the owner of which invited us to climb up. Sitting on top of the wall we had a great view of the dancers. Unfortunately the performance space had become so small that the masks no longer had space to do their traditional dances. Hope they hold the next mask festival in a bigger clearing.
Last week PCV Stephanie came to visit and help me with a world map project. We worked with 23 students from my 9th grade class to paint a 2 m x 4 m world map on the wall of the primary school in the center of town. The process involved drawing a huge grid on the wall in pencil, then having the students
My colleagues and me
From top left: Mme Ouedraogo (math/science teacher), M. Somanda (English/French teacher), M. Kieta (school director, French/history teacher). Bottom row: M. Ouedraogo (surveillant), M. Sane (secretary), me draw the countries following photocopied handouts. That part was easy - mistakes could be corrected with erasers. The painting part was messier; it required constant surveillance. We were also surrounded by gawking primary school students who wanted to crowd the people working and touch everything. We had to keep chasing the kids away and constructing barriers to give us space to work. Overall, though, the students did a pretty good job. After a full day of touch-ups by Stephanie and me, the map looked beautiful.
Steph also came to class with me one day, which was fun. As she followed me into my 6ieme math class I heard her mumble, “oh, my god!” at the crowd of 112 preteens that constitutes my class. She was shocked at how little space there is to walk between the chalkboard and the first row of desks. She couldn’t help but laugh when she heard me say things like, “Did you do your homework?” and “Okay, Mouhamadou, that’s enough. Sit down and take out your notebook.” She was amused by the students’ responses when I’d pose an easy question - 50 hands shoot up, snapping their fingers and urgently shouting, “Moi, Madame! Moi,
Madame!” Steph got some pictures for me and then left thankful that she is not an education volunteer.
Otherwise the school year is winding down. I’m happy to have finished the 3ieme biology curriculum. Now we can use the next few weeks to do practice exercises for their big exam. This will benefit the 25 or so 3ieme students who still come to class (of 70 enrolled). As for the others, well…I just can’t make students learn if they don’t want to work a little. It’s true for teachers here and in the States: you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink.
Last week we held a “BEPC blanc,” a practice test for the big high school entrance exam in June. It is not graded yet but the students say it did not go well. We’ll see.
In other news, I booked a plane ticket home! I fly out of Ouagadougou on July 5. Since I have to go through Casablanca, why not spend a week in Morocco, right? So I’ll leave Casablanca on July 11 and get to Detroit on the 12th. I think I’ll be in SE Michigan for a
month or so, so let me know if you’ll be around!
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marissa
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you're coming home!
wow rosa! can't believe you're almost done! i won't be in MI for a while, but where are you going after your month there? did you choose a grad school? i'll be home for a short weekend at the end of august... if you're still there it would be great to see you. if not, you must be in touch soon! ciao bella! ps: "all I'M sayin' is.... there's nothing you can do to do a bully..."