Darren's got an appetite

I am exhausted and I have beautiful half-moons under my eyes. However, I am sleeping extremely well and even when I wake up in the middle of the night sweating buckets, I tend to fall right back to sleep. My bike manual makes a really good fan and it is my constant companion.

I think a major part of why I’m exhausted is the stress of Model School—which has been going well, by the way—but I can also attribute my constant le tiredness to having every minute of my day planned out for me. I kind of feel like I’m being infantilized, but I also realize that the scheduling and training is necessary. And the truth is that I’ll probably miss being told what to do once I’m at site and I’m completely on my own. But let’s face it, right now it’s a little annoying. I’ve noticed that most of the people in my stage are a little more on edge now than we were in the beginning. Patience has gone down and sarcasm has risen. I love it.

But we only have two more weeks of stage! We go to Ouagadougou on my birthday and then two days later we swear-in. Yaowzers. I’m ready for stage to be over, but at the same time I feel like I’m in no way ready to go to site. Ready or not, I’ll be there spouting out the few Lobiri phrases I’ve learned. Mi fuoré!

Model School Update: I’m switching my subject next week from Physics/Chemistry to Math. There’s a good chance that I’ll be teaching Math in Bouroum-Bouroum, so some practice in that subject would probably be helpful. I also administered my first exam this week. Amusing news before the bad news: A mother and her little chickies wandered into my classroom during the exam. I shooed them away, but they were so cute! And now the bad news: Most of the class performed abysmally. Students need a 10/20 to pass the test, and out of 37 students only 5 passed in my class. I was horrified and depressed, and then I drank a coke so I felt a little better. What confuses me is that I thought my test was fairly easy—I took questions from the lectures and I tweaked them a little bit to make sure the students weren’t simply memorizing everything they wrote down without understanding it. But alas, it seems like most of them did just that.

The Burkinabé education system is based on rote learning, which is a problem when it comes to critical thinking. When the same questions are asked in a different way, blank stares are usually the response, and maybe some drool. Or blank or blatantly wrong answers that make no sense are written on exams. But thank gobbledygook, one girl in my class got a 16.5/20 on the exam. She actually took the time to learn the material and understand the mechanics of it. I praised her in front of the class, and she was embarrassed but happy. And now I know that my test wasn’t impossibly hard—it was just a test that demanded critical thinking rather than a direct regurgitation of the material. That’s that.

We’ll see how my algebra class goes next week. I’m glad that I’m getting a taste of what school will be like at site because now I know that I need to ask questions and teach the material in a way that discourages rote learning. I’ll be tackling fractions next week—woot to the woot!

Today I’m going to the tailor with my host mom to have an outfit made for swear-in. I bought a couple of panyés last week at the marché to use as the material. It’s black, with a red, green and white repeating pattern. For some reason the pattern looks Irish to me, but I can’t explain why. Maybe Celtic is what I’m going for. Anywho, I’m hoping to get a short-sleeve top and long skirt made, and this is my first time going to the tailor. I explained to my host mom what I wanted, and she offered to take me to have it made. It will be our first host mom-daughter outing! Precious moments. Side note: my host mom bought a 24-pack of soda (coke, sprite and orange fanta), which is something she hasn't done before. I don't know what she means by this and if I will be the lucky recipient of 1 or 5 cokes. I'll investigate and get back to you.

I have a few last things to day for this week’s entry: One, arm sweat. I’m not talking about underarm sweat because there’s nothing interesting about that. I’m talking about sweating on every square inch of my arms. While sitting. I don’t think I’ve ever noticed arm sweat when I was in the States, probably because arms are the last part of the body that should be sweating. Golly gee it’s chaud!

Two, I now hate Saturdays. Four straight hours of Lobiri on a Saturday is no bueno for my health. Especially when I finish the fourth hour feeling like I’ve retained very little information.

Third and Last, I’m eagerly awaiting the arrival of a couple of packages that were sent some weeks ago. I want chocolate! I’ll let you know, Mom and Grandma, once they arrive—thanks so much for sending the love!

And just in case the rest of you were wondering, I’m not averse to receiving packages and/or letters. Again, just in case you’re wondering, I love receiving packages and/or letters.

Sa ha gbe!

Hope you all have a ducky weekend!