Happy Birthday, Silly Matt!

Wow, Matt, now you’re even more than halfway to 50. Keep on truckin’! And have some cake! Lately I’ve been craving the box confetti cake with chocolate frosting. But alas, instead I satisfy my hunger with delicious rice and sauce with bits of cabbage. A happy alternative to cake. Anyway, Matty, I hope your bday is splendiferous. Today is also my sitemate, Jillian’s, birthday, so Happy Birthday, Jillian!

I haven’t been able to leave Bouroum Bouroum for 3 weeks, and I wasn’t certain I’d make it out this weekend because of a potential Saturday site visit from a PC official. But JZ, you’re my hero because you came yesterday instead. So now I’m in Gaoua (biked again!).

I’ll try to sum up the last 3 weeks :

I gave exams to all of my classes and it took me about a week to grade them all. For each class, about half the students achieved the moyenne (50%), which is considered ‘normal’ but which I find a little disheartening. After I returned exams I encouraged all students to come to me for tutoring if they don’t understand all the material I‘ve covered in class. I also told them that there will be one more exam before this trimester ends, so those who aren’t satisfied with their grades will have another opportunity to improve their overall score. My goodness, there are some students who just can’t accept the grade they earned. These students approach me and try to argue for more points; after I’ve explained why I’ve subtracted points and they’re still not satisfied, I tell them I’m going to take off another point if they don’t stop bugging me about it. That tactic works pretty well.

Last weekend was the school’s 'nettoyage,’ or cleaning. Boys bring their machetes and girls bring their brooms, and all the students clean the school inside out while the teachers oversee the work. We’re trying to cut down on potential snake problems. But I observed more of the gender role distinctions that are so prevalent here. Girls must sweep, but when I recommended (jokingly) to one of the many male teachers that I could go home and bring back my broom for him to use, he laughed heartily and immediately dismissed the idea. Boys don’t sweep. Women must do the cooking. I don’t know how many times I’ve told Burkinabè men that I don’t like to cook, and every time their response is ‘Il faut apprendre’ (You must learn) because I’ll have to cook for my husband. I’ve yet to breach the subject of my not wanting to marry any time soon (or never, as I actually believe will be the case), and instead I retort that he’ll just have to cook for me. Oh the laughs I get then! Apparently I’m a funny person even when I’m not aware that I am (okay, I do realize that sometimes I’m a bit ridiculous, but that’s beside the point). The notion of boys sweeping or pumping water is completely foreign to many Burkinabè. I’m thinking about experimenting with this a little in my classes, test the gender roles mayhaps, and select a boy to balayer the classroom.

Herman the Cat is doing well and he loves me! But you should’ve seen him the first week I had him. He absolutely loathed me. Hissed at me everytime he saw me, wouldn’t let me come within 2 feet of him, and then of course the constant howling ALL NIGHT LONG. He wasn’t meowing ; it sounded like he was being murdered, a slow horrible death. I didn’t get any sleep 3 nights in a row and I was about to toss him out on his hiney (not really, but I thought about it a lot, especially when I was wide awake at 3 am). But then something amazing happened last Saturday : Herman fell in love with my feet. He approached them slowly, sniffed at them (and didn’t keel over!), and commenced rubbing his head against them and purring! And he’s loved me ever since. He’s about two months old, black and white (like Licky!), and he loves eating fish. Naturally. Not sure if Herman is a boy or a girl, but I’m leaning towards boy. But that didn’t stop me from putting a collar on him that says ‘Girl Power!’ He’s killed a cockroach (accidentally, rolled over it while playing with it) and likes to play with the little froggies I occassionally find in my casa. And he’s such a lover, always purring and kneading and sitting in my lap, and digging his claws into my legs and hanging from them when I’m standing up and he wants attention. Precious moments, complete with blotchy red marks.

For the 26th, Jillian, my homologue and I are putting on a sensibilization at the school for World AIDS Awareness Day, which I believe actually falls on December 2 but the 26th is the day for the Ministry of Health. We’re going to give the students red paper ribbons to wear (Jillian and I are making 700!) and we’re going to dish out all the scary facts about AIDS and most importantly, modes of transmission and steps for prevention. I’m looking forward to it.

I’ve also been attending the schools’ soccer games which started about two weeks ago. There are at least two classes for each level (6e, 5e, 4e, 3e), and so the matches are intraclass level. They’re exciting and almost all the teachers and students attend, but no girls are on any of the teams. If I’m not able to start a girls’ team my first year, then I’ll try my darndest to kick one off the following year. I miss soccer.

Speaking of soccer, World Cup next summer! I’m going to glue myself to a TV somewhere in Burkina for the entire month of June. Hopefully I’ll be able to manage that because I don’t want to miss it!

I’m going to Bobo in two weeks to celebrate Thanksgiving with some other volunteers. I hope everyone has a wonderfully delicious Thanksgiving next week!

And now it's time to bring out the Christmas music. Come they told me, ba rum ba bum bum.