Wednesday, November 14, 2012
Made it back to village safely --- that’s never a guarantee;
it’s always a bit of a shocker when transport goes relatively well… Well, I guess “relatively well” would be an
overstatement. I mean, I did wait for my
bus for over three and half hours, just hanging out on the side of road from
8-11:30pm, waiting for the good ole “Midnight Express” to breeze through from
Bobo to Guron (essentially my village…Guron is only a few kilo away from
Lanfiera, about 15 minutes by bike). While
waiting, I sat awkwardly on a rice sack and read a book, using my cell phone as
a flashlight. Several busses stopped,
but when MY bus finally came, some guy just started grabbing my stuff and
loading it onto the bus immediately, and I just kept repeating, “Where is this
bus going? Is it going to Guron?” to
verify that yes, this was the bus I wanted and if I got on it, I wouldn’t end
up in the middle of nowhere.
Unfortunately no one responded….so I just got on and prayed. (As it turns out, it was indeed the bus I
wanted, thank God!) Naturally, there was
nowhere for me to sit, except for the half-broken seats next to old, sleeping
women or women who had dirty smelly babies with them. I chose a spot next to an old woman, crammed
myself in (the guy next to the window was passed out, taking up 1 and a half of
the three seats, and the old woman pretty much took up the other 1 and a half
seats….) I’m not sure how I got in….but somehow I fit. I continued to read my book until someone
yelled at me for my cellphone light bothering him. So then I was angry and annoyed. The bus ride was far too uncomfortable and
bumpy to even try sleeping. I mean, I
had to brace my legs against the seat and wrap my arms around the bars in front
of me in order to avoid falling out of my seat or getting thrown out the window
due to the massive bumps aggravated by the driver going at an insane speed…. I was almost tempted to put on my bike
helmet…but then thought, “Nah, I’ll be fine.”
Well, I did make it back to Lanfiera after several hours on the Midnight
Express and a few bruises on my head (maybe I should’ve worn my helmet?) and it
was almost 5am by the time I biked back to my house and greeted Sabari who was
thrilled to see me after having been gone for a few days --- she was probably
more hungry than anything, though.
As I opened the door to my house, my cell phone light shined
towards my garden and then I saw it: the
gate was moved, leaving the entrance wide open, and most of my plants were
missing…or rather, eaten. URGH. I hate Africa!!! How are we supposed to accomplish ANYTHING at
all to help “the community” when I personally can’t even successfully have a
small garden with salad and green beans, next to my house, completely enclosed
with 5 foot high walls save the entrance (which has a gate, by the way!)
without someone going and messing it up and letting their damn animals eat my
green beans?!?!?! Urgh. Anger is an understatement. This is precisely why I don’t think I’ll be
extending my service for a third year: animals here ruin all my things. And herds of donkeys enter my courtyard at
night and stampede right underneath my bedroom window, making the most annoying
sounds known to man. And to make things
worse, no one cares, because “C’est comme ca, ici” (It’s like that here), and
as thee American, I’m rich and can certainly go buy some more green bean seeds
if I want… So I went to bed angry (or
was it angrier? Since I had already been annoyed about the midnight express?) And fell asleep to sweet dreams of knowing I
had to get up in less than 2 hours to teach my 7am math class with 120 junior
high kids. Not exciting. Especially when you’re tired and crabby. I fell asleep, woke up to my alarm far too
soon, turned it off, and went back to bed.
When I got up shortly before 11am, I called my homologue to let him know
I had “just” gotten back to village, ate some food (I was hungry!) and read a
book, because I was angry and didn’t want to do any of the things I needed to
be doing, like taking a shower (I was also quite dirty, covered in red dust),
washing my dishes, watering my half-dead, mostly eaten garden, typing up my
grant requests, correcting a few hundred math test, etc. So I didn’t.
I basically moped around the whole day in my house, not leaving or
greeting my neighbors, or really accomplishing anything. Today (Wednesday) I got up, thoroughly washed
(including my hair), went to school, lectured students about being annoying and
disrespectful during my class. I might
have also kicked a few boys out of class and taken a girl’s juice – hey, my
rule is no eating or drinking except water during class…and she had brought a
cold, almost slushy-frozen juice….so it became mine. Muahhhaha
But after class (and eating some Americaland goodies,
including wild rice with a can of chicken breast, smothered in Velveeta cheese
and a Snickers bar for dessert), I got to work.
I had pictures to take of “Flat Stanley” visiting my village for my cousin Jessica's daughter, as well as
a grant to write – It’s due tonight… I didn’t leave myself to much wiggle room
there, and in fact, even at the moment, it’s still not emailed. The internet is working, but it hasn’t
finished uploading the document (11 pages of grant gloriousness), and so I
wait. And pray that it will work. If it doesn’t I don’t know what I’ll do. The deadline is literally in a few hours. C’mon Internet! You can do it! Just upload a few bytes every minute, that’s
all!
If you’re interested in my grant, titled “Literacy through the
Arts,” here’s a few paragraphs of its eleven pages:
Project Summary: By
providing each of three local elementary schools with a set of one hundred
age-appropriate picture books (primarily in French, but also in local
languages) and basic “Literacy through the Arts” materials, this project aims
to provide students with improved learning opportunities to develop their reading
and critical thinking skills.
Additionally, this will be accompanied by a teacher workshop for the
schools’ teachers and directors, strengthening their capacity so that they can
successfully and creatively teach literacy.
This project addresses many of the community’s concerns, including:
improving schools and children’s education; learning how to read; increasing
access to books; incorporating health, hygiene, and other basic life skills
into school curriculum; and training teachers.
The community and individual schools will be providing a significant
proportion of the resources necessary for this project (25%), but in order for
“Literacy through the Arts” to be as successful as possible with the greatest
impact, outside aide is needed. The
potential outcomes for “Literacy through the Arts” are invaluable: books to
read, students who succeed, and teachers who lead. Considering that the youth of today are the
leaders of tomorrow, can we really put a price on their education?
Community Background: Located
near a river in the Sourou Valley of western Burkina Faso, not far from the
frontier of Mali, Lanfiera and its surrounding commune is a flourishing
community (pop. 15,800) that has recently received much attention from outside
aide resources, such as the USA’s MCC (Millennium Challenge Corporation). However, all of this attention has been
directed at improving the agricultural techniques of local farmers, increasing
production, and ensuring food security, while in the meantime, the youth and
teachers, who spend their days at school rather than in the fields, have been
neglected. The schools have many
problems, ranging from too many students and not enough desks, to a lack of
trained teachers and limited access to potable water. Yet, when asked what they would most like to
see changed in their community, an overwhelming majority of community members
(including both adults and children) expressed a desire to learn how to read
and to have access to books – specifically, books that are fun, educational,
and interesting to children, as opposed to math textbooks (which are lacking as
well!). There are no libraries near
Lanfiera (the closest is 42 kilometers away), and there are certainly no places
to buy books, more or less books written in French; or better yet, African
French; or still even better, local language.
Furthermore, the pedagogy used by teachers to develop students’ literacy
skills is severely lacking and altogether negative in approach, primarily due to
insufficient resources, though also a result of not implementing fresh and
modern pedagogical methods into the classroom.
Every year, the primary schools graduate several hundred students into
the local middle school (though almost as many don’t even make it to middle
school), and sadly, almost half of these middle school students cannot read or
understand a text, unless it is read aloud to them first. While they may be able to hang on for a
little while – or even a few years – they eventually reach a point where their
inability to comprehend written language prevents them from learning entirely,
and consequently, they drop out of school.
Aiming to inspire students and teachers, this project, “Literacy through
the Arts,” is needed in the community because it addresses many of the
community-identified priorities presented to me, as well as has the potential
to incorporate secondary community concerns such as health and hygiene. But most importantly, this project goes
above and beyond, getting at the root of the problem while creating sustainable
skills and practices: not only teaching students, but also teaching
teachers.
If it gets
approved, there’s a good chance you’ll hear about the grant again…when I come
knocking on your door (well, the cyberspace door of your email or facebook,
that is) asking for donations! How much
do I want….oh just a thousand dollars…or two. Specifically, 1.178.000 CFA (local currency) or $2,356.00 (USA). *Think Beth’s Christmas Present….or Africa’s
Christmas Present, if you want to be global.*
But hey now, don’t get anxious. it’s
really not that much. Honestly, it equates to about $800 for each
school – and that’s nothing. Most Americans spend more than that just on clothes…or
yummy Starbucks drinks during the year….or one month’s rent…or a personal computer! These schools don’t have much of anything,
certainly not even just ONE computer (no money + no electricity = no computers),
nor are there books. Can you imagine
going to school and your education only consisting of note-taking in a language
that’s not even your mother-tongue? No
wonder the majority of the people in this country are illiterate (they sign
their names with X’s – seriously.) …. But you can help fix that! Keep me in mind, and hopefully in a few
weeks, I’ll let you know what you can to do to help and how to send my project
your monetary donations! Merci!
