Work and Play in Burkina Faso

 Finally, captions to go with these pictures!

Voila, our computer lab. In my last post, I mentioned model school. This is where it happens, and we just finished our second week of class! Hard to believe-- time is flying here. There are four of us IT teacher trainees, and we each have our own class of beginners for 6-8 hours a week, and we share an intermediate group.

My beginning group has been great. The pace of the class has been fast. Many of them hadn't ever used a computer before, and I just gave them their first exam on OpenOffice Writer (open-source MS word). I had them enter some formatted text (so they had to use bold, italics, alignment, correct spacing, accents, etc.)-- the first part of the Wikipedia article on Bill Gates, actually. For a beginning group, I was worried that it was too difficult, but they did very well. Not perfect, mind you, but the potential is definitely there. I met with each of the students individually today to go over their score.

Speaking of grades... that's an interesting subject here. Scores are out of 20, but anything above 18 is considered truly impressive-- questions here are harder, and students aren't expected to answer every question correctly. 80% (16/20) is considered quite good. A rough translation below:

18-20: "Excellent" (A+)

16-17,9: "Tres Bien" (A/A-)

14-15,9: "Bien" (B/B+)

12-13,9: "Assez Bien" (C+/B-)

10-12,9: "Passable" (C-/C)

7-9,9: "Insuffisant" (D)

6-6,9: "Tres Insuffisant" (D-)

3-5,9: "Faible" (F)

0-2,9: "Tres Faible" (F-)

In the tradition of one of my favorite teachers, I put this list on the board at the start of class today, and presented the number of people with each score. Some of my students were genuinely concerned that there was someone in each category. Fortunately, there was only one person who didn't make at least "Passable". Of course, it was sort of a letdown that no one made "Excellent". But those are hard to come by here.

What's more exciting than the test though, is what's on the docket for next week. Instead of a second exam, I'm assigning a project that the students get to choose. Some of the older students who are about to enter the job market are opting for writing a resume. The younger kids, and the ones interested in starting their own businesses are going to do some accounting. Lastly, there are two elementary school teachers in my class, so they'll each do another "Excel" activity related to grades, as well as prepare an exam using "Word" (Quotes signify our open-source environment here). It's going to be a challenge to divide my time between the three groups, but ideally, it will give everybody some independent time to learn and explore each of the softwares on their own. In the end, it's an experiment! We'll see how it goes.

What comes after teaching IT class? Training sessions! Pictured above is my old language class. It involved making a lot of jokes in French. Now, were a bit bigger, but we don't meet quite as often as before, because our mornings are taken up by model school and our afternoons are full of tech training sessions. Some of the ones we had this week: malaria, tree planting, and teaching critical thinking. In some ways, a crash course on how to teach, plus how to do the five other "High Five" projects we are expected to undertake during our service.

In one of our earlier sessions, we covered how many years of specialized education are required here in Burkina Faso to become a teacher. It is at least 3, but often more. We are going to be entrusted with the same responsibilities and more after 11 weeks of training, a good part of which is dedicated to other topics, such as going from a novice to a passable level in French, and the "High Five" subjects as mentioned. Yes, we are all coming in with a college education, but many did not study teaching specifically, and don't have teaching experience. So how do we do it? Well, there's a cynical explanation with respect to the 3+ years, but I'll save that for another day. I focus on the positive: the bar for us is set high, but it's made exciting with the opportunities we have, and with support (Profuse thanks to the medical staff here!), we succeed. That's the same mentality that I try to bring to the IT class, and I think it works with the Burkinabe students just as well.

I mentioned the "High Five". What is that? The Peace Corps, in cooperation with the Burkinabe government came up with a program a little over a year ago to help overcome some of the biggest challenges here:

• Malaria Prevention
• HIV/AIDS Prevention
• Tree Planting
• Girls Empowerment and Education
• Small Business Development

As volunteers, we'll be expected to come up with a project related to each of these, on top of our 10-12 hours of teaching per week. This is a big shift from the previous project plan, where education (including IT) volunteers normally taught up to 30 hours a week. I forsee some transition period, where I'll spend more teaching at first, but hopefully, by the end, I'll be down to a negligible amount of teaching at the end (this is expected-- I'm the last volunteer at my site, as I think I mentioned last time). Thus, my routine will be lopsided, with my "High Five" projects coming more towards the end. I'm particularly interested in the small business development side of things, and there are a lot of possibilities in Koudougou especially in linking IT teaching to business, as computer access/literacy is expanding rapidly here. I have ideas, but those too will have to wait.

Ah, housework. I am thankful for having washing machines in the US, because doing laundry by hand here will consume your Sunday mornings. It's stressful sometimes, because we have class/training sessions six days per week, so it's hard to give up even more free time. I try to do my laundry on weekdays whenever the opportunity presents itself, because then my Sundays are free to do fun stuff!

Cleaning the room is another popular chore here. Sweeping has to be done more often, because our courtyard, like most, is dirt, and that gets tracked in despite best efforts to kick shoes off before entering. Organizing stuff isn't too hard-- I don't have many possessions to keep track of!

Since I'm starting to get more used to life here, and don't need 9-10 hours of sleep a night like I used to, I just took on a new chore: cooking for the family on Tuesdays! On the menu this past week: fried spaghetti with a tomato and goat meat sauce. It was very good-- everyone agreed with one exception-- the objection was that I didn't add salt. But salt is in everything here--I needed a break!

Here's my house (at left)! Note the panoramic photo. I've taken lots of those here, ever since I discovered that my camera had that option. I will upload the rest someday.

Did I mention I have fun here too? This picture was taken when some of us went off to climb this huge baobob tree. A group of about 10 kids followed us, and they climbed as well, in ways we didn't think were possible. One kid did acrobatics on a branch 40 feet off the ground. We were terrified.

Biking is huge here, among Burkinabe, and Peace Corps Volunteers alike. We were all given bikes in our first week here, and use them every day to get to class, and go on baobob-tree-climbing adventures. Sometimes, we bike for biking's sake, and sometimes, the bikes break. Here, I have cleverly attached another (broken) bike to the rear of my own. Note: 400 meters down the road, my chain jammed, and we had to stop this foolishness.

The brousse beckons! This is what the Burkinabe countryside looks like at the end of the dry season. The monsoons have since come, so the land is much greener. I hope to make it out for another voyage this weekend, if it the roads aren't rained out like before!

A New Home

Hello world!

Well, it's been a couple of weeks-- time for an update again!

The visit to Koudougou went very well. I'll start off with a correction from last time: while the computer lab that I'll be working at used to have ony 9 computers, it is currently in the process of expanding to 55! The volunteer who I'm replacing has done some amazing work in her time here, including some successful grant-writing which made this possible. In the work that I'll be doing over the next two years, I will be standing on some impressive shoulders.

And while I did spend lots of time in the new lab-- and even helped set up some computers that had been moved around, I did lots of other stuff too. Let's break what follows into subheadings, as usual.

Travel

Pretty uneventful, actually. Which isn't what you'd expect in the Peace Corps. Many of my fellow stagieres live in rural villages, which involves a bus ride to a larger city (like mine) and then a "taxi brousse" ride with 15 people in an 8-person van from 1971, complete with screaming goats and chickens strapped to the roof. I just had a 90 minute ride on a full (but not overly full) bus. Air-conditioned bus on the way back (for the same price)! I did get to ride my bike in downtown Ouagadougou traffic, though, as I was following my homologue on his motorcycle. Exhilarating.

Food

Thumbs up: Ice Cream

Our Peace Corps living allowance is generous enough to permit a fair amount of beer-drinking. Beer, while cheap by US standards here ($1.50ish for 2/3 of a liter), is still about twice the price of an average meal. I, however have never been known to be a big fan of the stuff, and I like it even less here. This is a good thing, because it allows me to afford ice cream (which is similarly priced). And the ice cream in Koudougou is fantastic. You even get a cookie and sprinkles with each scoop! OK, so it might sound unimpressive to you... but after a couple of months in Burkina Faso, ice cream was a godsend. I could get it every day, even though I shouldn't.

Thumbs in-between: Shawarma

When I was in Granada a few years ago, I had the best shawarmas. So when I saw it on a menu here, I jumped at the chance. It was OK-- unfortunately less greasy than it's European cousins. Healthier... but I did eat it just as I started feeling ill. Perhaps my memory skews my opinion of this. Will have to try it again.

Thumbs down: Hamburger

Shocker! How un-American is it, to thumbs-down the hamburger? Picture this scenario: you're sick for an evening (puking, diarrhea, fever, etc.), but make a quick recovery. You're looking for a good old-fashioned American meal that your stomach will take. Hamburger? Sold!

And then the patty turns out to be slimy, black mystery meat...

The House

My new house! It's kind of like a condo. It's small (common room, bed and bath), in a complex shared with other young (urban) professionals, complete with tiled floors, a flush toilet and an indoor shower. "Everything but a kitchen sink" is how I'd sum it up, because it's true. Not what you'd pictured a Peace Corps volunteer in Burkina Faso living in, huh? I'm looking forward to calling it home, and welcoming volunteers who come in from more rustic places seeking amenities.

The People

Last Thursday, I met many of the important people, as promised:

Monsieur le Proviseur: Principal of the high school (my new boss)

Monsieur le Censeur: Academic Dean of the high school

Monsieur le Surveillant: Disciplinarian (I sent late/troublesome students to him)

Madame la Directrice: Headmistress of the elementary school (I'll be co-teaching there part-tim, it seems)

Monsieur le S.G. de la Mairie: Secretary General of the Mayor

It was a full morning of somewhat awkward exchanges, but on the whole, everything went well. I got to see a lot of them again at the current volunteers' going-away party, which was really a lot of fun. The one thing that was missed: I didn't get to see the elementary school's computer lab, because the teacher of that class was doing some work at the regional office. But I'm excited to see the setup when I get ready to start work in September. After showing my host brother (who's going into "CM1" or 4th grade) some math games on the computer, I think that there's huge potential here with that age group.

The going-away party was, as I mentioned before, a really neat experience, because it was also my first real networking opportunity in Burkina. I spent some time with the other teachers, a lot of whom hang out in the computer lab after-hours, and also chatted a bit with the proviseur and censeur. I also talked for a while with some university students who lead an English club. They are super-active-- they have debates, put on plays and do all sorts of activities in English, and have helped the past volunteers out with their projects. Alas, I may not forget my own English here either!

Model School

I've been back in Sapone since Monday, where I've been gearing up for model school-- a four week short course. Details have just come out about that: I'll be teaching a beginner computer class for 2 hours a day, 4 days a week-- jumping right in. On top of that, there's an intermediate class that all of us IT teachers-in-training are going to share, so each of us get about 2 hours a week of that as well. Adding to the learning experience, we'll be teaching off (Peace Corps official) Ubuntu machines. Nice thing is that there's some decent educational software that comes with that package.

And now for a change of subject...

I do have to admit it's been tough at times. I fell quite ill last week-- and lost 75% of my appetite. Over my time here, I've shed the freshman 15: I'm now as light as I've been since high school. And while I'm recovering steadily, Friday morning was a big test for me: between the weight loss, appetite loss, general queasiness, and the reality of having to prepare for work ahead, I had a panic attack. I ended up going back to bed and sleeping it off. But something that I learned from this: stay in better touch with home! The guilt from not getting back to your e-mails was weighing on me significantly. Tonight I will catch up! But in the future, I hope that you'll be able to text me: +226 66 20 16 52! I get internet access every 2 weeks or so, but my phone is always with me (Peace Corps requirement)!

The final word: 

"Food!"

You may be able to tell that I am hungry as I write this. It's true. I'm looking forward to getting some "soupe de poulet" (chicken soup) tonight, which is a common high-end meal here (chicken here is one of the most expensive meats). But what is the food really like here? I feel like I may have given you all an erroneous impression with the ice cream, shawarma and burger shpiel. That's American-ish fare that we crave after a few weeks here, and that can only be found in a big city. I'll list a few dishes below that I think well represent Burkina Faso:

Benga

One of my favorite quotes: "Je mange le benga, tu mange le pizza. C'est le Corps de la Paix". Benga is made primarily with black beans and a medley of vegetables, maybe a little rice. It's a hearty dish, which I'd give a solid thumbs up.

To

To is (in my opinion) the other side of the coin where it comes to Burkinabe cooking. It's like farina, except with millet flour, and isn't really flavored with anything, only served with a "gumbo" sauce. Not my cup of tea, ut definitely a local favorite.

Riz sauce

This is the most common, and cheapest dish you can find here. My host mom sells it for 100 CFA (20 cents) a plate at the Grande Marche. It's very simple: rice, with a vegetable sauce, usually canned-tomato-based. Not bad stuff. Can come with meat for an extra charge.

Brochettes

Skewers of pure MEAT! These are (usually) delicious. Where does the meat come from? Sheep (mouton), goat (chevre), and occasionally pig (porc). Any part of the animal... hence the (usually) in the description. 50 CFA apiece at the Grande Marche, not a bad deal. I have been known to buy 10... and eat them all on better days...

OK, I think that I have demystified food well enough for now here... until next time! I'm off to catch up on e-mails and finish off lesson plans!

- ETH

Bonjour from Burkina!

Puusgo (Greetings) from Burkina Faso!

It's been over a month since I last posted (for a variety of reasons). Sorry! Have two posts to make up for it!

Post #1: The Past

The trip here went well. We passed through Manhattan on the way from Philly to JFK International and arrived in Belgium under cloudy skies the next morning. It stands to memory that our first flight over was pretty relaxed, but the second was much more eventful. The flight attendants humored our attempts at speaking French. The clouds lifted once we got to the Mediterranean, and we had stunning views of Mallorca, the coast and mountains of Algeria, and the northern part of the Sahara. We descended into a cloud of dust, and got our first glimpse of Burkina Faso from 2000 feet.

My first thoughts after stepping off the plane?

It's hot here, but I'm loving it!

Then began the first busy month of stage. We met our CD (Country Director), passed through customs, and were warmly welcomed by the staff. We jumped into a couple of vans that looked exactly what you'd expect offical Peace Corps vehicles in Africa to look like, and saw life in the streets of Ouagadougou. Boy, was a lot going on there. Motos rushing past cyclists dodging trucks (and our entourage) swerving to avoid donkey carts. People lining the streets selling everything from mangoes to  cell phone minutes to furniture. Garbage (unfortunately) everywhere. I'm not writing in complete sentences anymore. Anyhow, we got to see a taste of it all before heading into a compound to rest and orientate for the next few days.

Our orientation was just as you might expect, if you have taken into account jet lag, excitement, and the fact that most of us had not gotten any sleep in the past week. Those three days felt like two weeks! But at some point in time, we moved onto Sapone, which is a town that you will not find on Google maps.

If Google refuses to tell you about Sapone, I will. It's a small town of 6,000-ish, depending on what you count as town. It's centered around a Grand Marche (market), and has a solid community center, which is where we go everyday (except the occasional Sunday) for our classes. Us stagieres live all around town with host families, with some folks living in a more rural village. There is electricity at some houses (including mine), and running water and sewage lines were just installed in the main part of town two weeks ago (literally). There are animals everywhere. I could write a whole post about that, and certainly will in good time.

Instead, I'll leave you all with a few half-stories for now, as promised. These all happened to me in the first 48 hours in village... so you can guess that there are more to come. I hope you can forgive me for my untimely post, and understand why it was so darn difficult to write this:

1.                  My family has two cats. I witnessed one of them accomplish an impressive feat.

2.                  I had my first experience as a teacher in a Burkinabe classroom.

3.                  How about discovering that you're allergic to something rather inconvient?

4.                  Or perhaps discovering some African wildlife with your host brother?

5.                  Nope, I'm not sure if I'm cut out for this whole Peace Corps thing. Hey, wait a minute...

I look forward to recounting these stories in more detail!

One thing that I should also mention in this post: I've used the word “we” a lot. I just wanted to clarify who that is included in that: all of my fantastic stage-mates! I love how we all look out for each other and step up when it's our turn. Let's keep doing this, team!

Post #2: Present and Future

I was going to start off with a joke about conjugations in French, but then I realized that I'm terrible at spelling out French verb conjugations. The name of this blog is misconjugated, for Pete's sake! Oh well. I'm most concerned with being able to speak well first. And Les oeuvres saute =  Les oeuvres sautent, if you're actually speaking. Silly French.  I'll work on my writing in good time.

But a good chunk of my time here is spent working on language. I placed into the “Novice-High” level at the start, and just took another test on Saturday to reassess. I might find out tomorrow, but my guess is “Intermediate-High”, which is the minimum level that us education stagieres need to be at to be sworn in as volunteers. I have my fingers crossed-- but if it doesn't happen yet, I have six more weeks. Ça va aller. The language classes here are very effective. I'm in a class of two, and both of us share the same philosphy with respect to language learning: tell lots of jokes, maintain the conversation, and keep the formal workbook excercises to a minimum (still do some). It's going really well, and we've been (for the most part) extremely comfortable using the language with our host families and out on the street.

So, it was a challenge we were prepared for today, when we had our first formal info session almost entirely en Francais. But even more importantly we got to meet our homologues (work partners for the next two years), following our site announcement, which happened last week. Which brings us into the future: starting in late August, I'll be living in Koudougou!

Wait, what's a Koudougou?

Koudougou is the “Chicago” of Burkina Faso-- AKA Burkina's third largest city. The population is about 110,000, and according to our country director, it's most famous for its juices. It's also about 90 minutes away from Ouagadougou (the capital) by bus. Beyond that, I don't know too much about the city, but I will find out on Wednesday, when I get to visit!

I do know more about my work situation, after meeting my homologue and talking to the volunteer that I'm replacing. It's really exciting! I'm teaching computer class to the equivalent of HS sophomores and juniors, and the computer lab is almost quadrupling in size. Last year, there were only 10 computers, but 28 more are arriving over the summer, which means that over half of the kids will be able to take “Introduction a l'informatique”. Even more interesting: I get to work in a really experimental situation. All of the computers in the lab should be equipped with internet, making my school the only public one in the country that has full internet access. Something that will be incorporated later on: computer classes at a public elementary school. This is also a unique situation in Burkina Faso, and I feel very much honored to have been invited to work here.

Whereas a few weeks ago, I might have found myself doubting my readiness for this challenge, going through Peace Corps training myself has made me a real believer in their process. I've been taking notes-- the training itself is an excellent way of seeing how people  really learn, and then go out to do things they never before thought were possible. It starts with vision-- our committed group of volunteers who have all been given fantastic opportunities-- and gets fed with constant encouragement and a few rules. Is it perfect? Of course not. But everyone makes mistakes, and we all still have a good time in the end. Les oeuvres saute.

A couple of weeks ago, we taught our first class. Actually, we taught it three times. First, we had a practice session just amongst ourselves in English. Two days later, we did the same thing, but in French. The third time was one day after that, but we had actual students. And the process was a huge confidence-booster. Surprisingly (or maybe not), the toughest one for me was the first: in English. I tripped over my words. My composure was rocky. I cringe when I see myself the video (Thanks for filming, Natalya!). The second time, in French, I fared better. My composure was better, and while I didn't get as far into the material, I also didn't over-explain things-- I spoke more slowly, and clearly. I feel pretty good about the video (Thanks, Steve!) Then, in front of the actual students, I felt very good. The French came to me more easily, and I only had to refer to my notes once to get through the entire lesson. Just two things more to improve: board use and comprehension checks. I'm very enthused about continuing to work on these presentation skills I've never before worked on in any serious way.

What was the lesson on, you might ask?

Well, we didn't have computers, so we had to stick to theory. I planned a “History of IT” class. We first broke down what IT/Informatique means (hint: Information and Technology), and then did a few activities demonstrating how various inventions, like simple calculators, the printing press, and writing itself has contributed how we share information more efficiently today. Someday, when I have access to a fast internet connection, I'll upload a video of one of my lessons.

That brings me to another topic: the internet. I have to admit: I bought a pricey USB internet key (works off the low-speed 2G network here), had brief access to it last week before renting it out to offset the cost, and then promptly broke my computer trying to install Linux. Don't worry, it's (hopefully) nothing permanent. I'm just waiting on a Windows 7 install disk that's coming in a month with another IT volunteer's care package (he broke his computer in a similar way). Why Linux? That's a subject for another day, folks... In the meantime, I'm borrowing someone else's computer, which I've promised to take good care of and not attempt another Linux install...

OK, enough with the computer drama. Back to the future! I visit Koudougou this week, and when I return to Sapone next week... model school! I'll be teaching a short course (4 weeks) for 10 students in preparation for my class of 38 that awaits me at site. Speaking of which, I'll be meeting with all of the important school officials on Thursday, potentially even Monsieur le Maire (the Mayor of Koudogou). The potential for stories and half-stories in next post is huge. Looking forward to next time!

- ETH