This is the moon set from my back porch- you could see the moon better before I ran to get my camera ;)
This is the river-as seen from a little called a pirogue.
This is my Post Mama, in front of a beautiful sunrise over the valley.
This is Sadie, she sleeps in my mosquito net. She's so cute!
November 3, 2009
The Joys and Woes of Teaching in Benin
Woes-
1.The French System seeks to weed out the weaklings, rather than make sure everyone gets an education. Thus, when I give a quiz and 40% of my students pass, that’s totally normal.
2.My smallest class is 42, my largest is 52.
3.All the kids’s names are crazy! Some are straight-up French, which are the ones that are easy. Then there are the crazy African names, which are pronounced totally phonetically. Then there are the names that I think I know how to pronounce (Kevin, Geoffrey) that are totally NOT pronounced the way they look!
Joys-
1. The kids love to sing whatever dorky (in a good way) song I can think of and/or make up to go with my lesson. If it has motions or a dance, even better!
2. The kids are super interesting in me, which means I can do things like have them review asking questions about people “Where are you from?” etc by having them ask me any question they want- as long as its in English.
3. They have figured out that I only speak French in class when they are in trouble. Which means that the moment a French word comes out of my mouth, they are all dead silent. It’s a good trick.
4. I get to be totally goofy in class- the goofier I am the more they are interested and more likely to remember what I’m teaching them.
Both-
1. All of my classrooms only have walls on two sides, meaning that they both catch a lovely breeze, and that there is always something happening outside.
2. The kids don’t have textbooks, which means that what I write on the board becomes their textbooks. In general, I think this makes them get more out of things in class, but it also is really bad if they don’t copy things perfectly, because their copybooks aren’t correct so when they study its not correct.
Crazy Everyday Occurrences
-Chickens running through my classroom
-Dogs running through my classroom
-Rain coming in and soaking everyone, as well as erasing the board
-Rain coming down so hard on the tin roof that I just write things on the board and have the kids copy, to explain later, because nobody can hear me
-Fumes from burning garbage filling my classroom so that I have no recourse but to evacuate!
-Muddy soccer balls flying through my classroom
-The Principal coming into my class and kicking almost all (except 6) students out because they haven’t paid their school fees yet
That’s it for now… but there are sure to be more later!
October 21, 2009.
An Interesting Day All-Round
So today was one of my short days. They are nice. So I got home around 12 and had just changed out of a teaching outfit (one of the dresses I had made here, out of crazy local fabric) and two boys who are in 6th grade and I know by sight (I have 5th grade so I will have them next year- the grade numbers here go backwards) come and tell me that the Directrice (female principle) and “the other whites” want to invite me to lunch. And of course I’m all, sure, just let me change and off I go traipsing through the village. So I get there and I find out that there are indeed “les autres blanchs” and that they are a French couple who decided to retire to a small jungle/river village in Benin! Interesting right….So I stayed for lunch. They were very, very nice, which I figured out when I got used to their Frenchy-French accents and fast talking. I figured out that they had no idea that I am the 4th American to teach at the CEG (middle/high school), which honestly is really weird. I mean it’s not like the people here see a white person everyday. Its more like seeing an Oompa-Loompa, you know, that somewhere (in Loompaland) there are pleanty of Oompa-Loompas, but when one moves in next door all you and the neighbors want to talk about is those crazy Oompa-Loompas and the crazy things they do (not to mention go through their trash and scream “oomph-Loompa! Oompa-Loompa! Every time you do see them). This being the case I am really shocked that one of the other volunteers hasn’t figured out that there have been French people living here for the past 8 years. And for the record, I didn’t figure it out either- they found me.
Yesterday was also a good day. Again, it was one of my short days, and also a market day, so, of course, I went to the market. It was the market. Which is pretty sweet, but that’s a whole post in itself. Anyway a couple of weeks ago at the market I bought some popcorn. Yes, popcorn. And it was damn good! But I haven’t seen the popcorn mama since then so I decided to ask the other mamas in the vicinity of her stand where I might obtain some more popcorn. After a lot of explanation and gesticulation, because I have no idea what the word for popcorn is in French (still don’t) I figured out that here, they call popcorn “poof-poof.” Which is awesome. So I went in search of poof-poof (Wouldn’t you?) along the way I went past the mosque and a bunch of Muslim establishments, so I figured this must be the Muslim part of town. Sweet, I had been kind of wondering where the 5:30 call to prayer was coming from. Eventually I found what looked like a bouvette (a bar) with a popcorn, or poof-poof, machine displayed in the open door (I say door, but most businesses here have doors that open up all the way- so more like an open shop front). And what a popcorn machine it is! Its exactly like the one that they have at Swain’s, where my grandpa used to get my a 25 cent bag of popcorn every time we had to go in (and sometimes when we didn’t), which is, of course, why the popcorn is AMAZING! So I bought some of the incredible poof-poof and got to talking with the owners, I think. Anyway there was a youngish guy who sold me the popcorn and an older woman who was putting bisap (really good, really sweet hibiscus juice) into sachets (baggies) that sell for 25 francs. Anyway so I asked, “You sell bisap? I’ll have one of those too!” (it was really hot and I can actually drink bisap because in order to juice a dried hibiscus they have to boil them for awhile) when the guy was all, “We also sell ice cream.” ICE CREAM! What!? I didn’t ask to see the ice cream just then, because I know I would have wanted one and popcorn was enough for the day. Also, I know that if I know there is ice cream there I will go back- it’s a good day excursion. So from talking to the guy (and to the busy mama a little as well) I deduced that this amazing establishment of my dreams was not, in fact, a bouvette- which sells beer (and sometimes wine) along with suceries (soda pop) but is what he calls a “bar” which is basically where Muslims (guys, of course) can hang out like it’s a bouvette, but where there aren’t all those pesky temptations (unless you call ice cream a temptation, which I do, but Muslims don’t). As he shows me around I also find out that there is a foosball table, man those Muslims in my village really know how to party! Popcorn! Bisap! Ice Cream! Foosball! Sometimes it really sucks to be a girl here, because I know it would be absolutely culturally inaprops to hang out there with all the Muslim guys one night. But man, that would be fun! Don’t worry… I won’t actually do it!
In other news, my birthday was pretty awesome, in large part due to the fact that I got two packages (thanks Mae and Mom!) and also that I spent most of the day (a little too much actually) in Cotonou with my friend Laura. It was really great to hang out with her and also get to chat with everyone at the office, it was the most time I had thought all in English all in a row for a long time! And when I got home I had Annie’s shells and cheese (thanks again Mae) with Cherry Kool-Aid (thanks Gram!) and God decided to give me another present. You see, here, unlike in Porto-Novo, the electricity usually goes off during the day, which is pretty sweet, but also a let down. A let down because as my neighbors will tell you (they think I’m crazy) I really like to look at the starts. But even here there is quite a bit of light pollution. However, on my birthday, just as I was finishing eating my amazing mac and cheese all the power went out. It was an amazingly clear and clean night and with the view from here I could see more stars than I’ve ever seen at one time before. It was absolutely beautiful, although I did find myself wanting to know what constellations I was looking at (nudge, nudge, wink, wink if you are thinking of sending me a package!)
So long for now, I think this will get posted fairly soon!
Love, Glenna
