Monsieur Michel, Professeur d’Anglais

Each morning when I walked into one of my classes, I’d always get the same greeting. The students would all stand-up immediately and shout “Good Morning Sir!” This instant greeting would always make me smile, even on the first couple days of class when I was trying to tone-set. So much for that. Then I would reply “Good morning, how are you?” followed by their “Very well, thank you. And you?” To state how I was doing, I never replied with the same response twice. Good. Great. Fantastic. Superb. Awesome. Chilling. They got the whole repertoire. Then they’d all sit down and class would begin.

For the past month and a half I’ve been teaching English at the middle school in my village. It came as a shock to me when my work supervisor (who is also the director of the middle school) came to me asking if I could fill-in as an English teacher for the final months of school. I wasn’t expecting to teach during the first couple months of my PC service, but I must admit that it has been a pleasant surprise. Teaching has kept me busy every day of the week and especially on the weekends grading tests turned from a quick activity to an all-day affair. I’ve connected well with the kids and have been able to help improve their English…a bit. In total I taught three classes with 60 students in each. Two classes were the equivalent of 7^th grade and the other was 8^th grade.

Here is a picture of the students in my 8th grade class. The school/students cannot afford text books so they spend a lot of the class copying information from the chalk board.

In Burkinabe culture it isn't normal to smile when taking a picture. I pleaded with them to smile and I'm glad a few attempted to. 

I was kind-of just thrown into the mix right from the start. I remember the first day walking into my first class and seeing 120 eyes staring right at me. I was a bit nervous and the first couple of classes had some awkward parts to them, but by the end things were going along smoothly. I connected with my students and if given more time, I know we could have made some real improvement. My school director said I was free to teach whatever I wanted, so I started with the very basics such as greetings, how to describe oneself and other basic vocabulary. Their English level was very poor even after already studying it for 1-2 years. I mainly just focused on helping them practice speaking the language. It would have been easy for me to say no to teaching because I haven’t had any training for teaching English or since it wasn’t part of my job description. However, I find myself jumping into every opportunity presented to me in this country whether or not I feel comfortable. And, most of the times everything works out. This change in mentality for me is new for me and I like it because each day there is a new adventure and experience waiting.

This past month and a half has opened up my eyes to more than just the profession of being a teacher. I’ve gotten a first-hand look at the education culture here and how it relates to the current socio-economic situation in this country. In the small village setting here in Burkina Faso it is nearly impossible to go to college, which is why barely anybody leaves their villages for a life in a bigger city where there are opportunities to earn a salary. Straight up, education isn't a priority in the village culture here. Parents rarely take an deep interest in their kid’s education or motivate them to study (especially since the average family size is around 4-7 children, so how could the parents be invested in each child?). To be fair, parents are instead preoccupied with the notion of providing enough food for their family to eat and live off of. However, something needs to be done to help kids stay in school and succeed with their studies. If 2% of the students entering 6^th grade in my village can eventually graduate from High-School, that’s a good/average year (says my school director). If some can make it to university, that’s even more of a rarity. Take a second to digest that statistic. I said 2, not 20. With statistics like these I can see why parents don’t push their kids to study, since most of them will eventually drop-out or be excused from school and most-likely become a sustenance farmer like their parents. Another factor in the high drop-out rate is the opportunity to make a quick buck my searching for gold in my region. Gold was recently discovered here and more and more boys are dropping out of school to mine for gold, even though the gold is already running-out. It’s sad that their short-term vision trumps their desire to strive for a better life by being educated. For girls another problem exists which is even sadder. There aren’t many high-schools in the small villages here in Burkina, so students who make it to high-school must lodge in a bigger city while they attend high school. Obviously, these students do have very much money. A horrible problem common for girls is that, say, they are at the market and they don’t have much money, a random man may offer to buy her lunch or some groceries. Next thing you know, after 2-4 weeks, the girl is pregnant by that same man. Some parents choose to stop their daughter’s education instead of sending them off to lodge for this reason. Damn, writing this paragraph makes me realize how lucky I (and almost all of my peers) was to receive a full education back home with none of the issues found in Burkina Faso. It’s clear that education is the root of the lack of development here in Burkina and I’ll definitely start looking for more ways to help out with this problem in Ramsa.

Ever wonder where your clothes from Good-Will go? Spotted this guy in my regional capital sporting a shirt from Huntington Beach. 

Saw this girl walking to school repping UCLA. Made my day.

I’m still a Community Economic Development (CED) volunteer here in Burkina so I’ve been doing CED work this past month as well. Each week I’ve been meeting with many of the members in my women’s groups to learn more about their work and what they envision doing with me. Turns out every single person in my village is a farmer during the rainy season (i.e. summer) where they grow sustenance crops that will hopefully last them for the next 12 months. Before and after the rainy season, some women have small businesses or practice animal husbandry, but for the most part they are lacking income-generating activities and are free most of the “dry season”. After many long talks with my counterpart Hermane I think the bulk of my work will be about introducing new projects during the dry season to help women make more money AND introduce new healthy, vitamin- and protein-rich foods into their daily diet. Nutrition is a severe problem here and with these new IGAs I can teach my women’s groups how to make cool new products to sell, as well as new healthy food options to feed their families. Children are often stuffed with carbs because parents think that big belly means a healthy child, but in reality children here don’t receive enough vitamins and proteins which stunts their growth physically and mentally. It’s the same thing with grown-ups too, carbs for every single meals. Vegetables and proteins are seen as almost luxury items which aren’t necessary in the daily diet. Some examples of projects in the pipe-line for me are soy transformations (into tofu kabobs), peanut butter transformation, moringa tree leaf transformation (moringa leaves have crazy nutritional benefits – you guys back in the US should check it out. Time just released an article on it - http://time.com/3822839/peace-corps-food-inventions/), mango/fruit jamming and vegetable preservations (either by drying or transforming into paste). Before each of these trainings I must also educate my members on the importance of nutrition and how it can help keep their kids nourished and strong. I personally love discovering healthy foods which are also tasty, but my community members don’t see the importance of a balanced diet…yet. I hope that after 2 years everybody has a bit more money in their pockets, but more importantly everybody is well nourished and eating properly every day.

This is one of my favorite photos. Whenever I return from a bigger city with a large-selection of vegetables and fruits I always stock up and eat like a king for the next couple of days. Growing all types of vegetables is possible in my village, but there wouldn't be a market to sell them since people don't buy them for their nutritional value.

Everything else is great over here. Of course life is way different and difficult at times, but I see that my neighbors are living in the same conditions as me so I just have to accept my fate and move on. It’s almost been 4 months here in Burkina. It’s gone by SO fast. Right now we are in the thick of the hot season so it’s typically above 100 degrees all day long. The rainy season is approaching and I honestly cannot wait for that first rain. It’s going to be awesome.

Until next time,

MB

 Camel Spiders. Aren't they cute? I tried to catch this one for a pet but ended up killing it instead. Oops