The end of the rainy-season is finally here. All of the
villagers are transitioning to harvesting and subsequently drying their crops,
which they will eat/sell over the next year. School finally started the second
week of October and once again I’ll be teaching English (this time only 1
class, not 3 since I have to commit more time to my other business projects).
I’m with the quatrième
students (which is their 9th year in school) who have already had
two previous years of English instruction. Even though their English level is
novice at best, the fact that they are in their 9th year of school
signifies that they are strong students who have endured all the way to this
year in school. I gave them a pre-test the 2nd week of school to
gauge their initial English levels and hopefully by the end of the year they
will have improved.
A picture of my house in its entirety. Far left is my shower/latrine, middle-left is my hand-washing station and to the far right is my front gate. Took this at the end of the rainy season standing in my neighbors courtyard.
Before school started, my school director and I discussed
the most pragmatic class for me to teach. We opted for the 9th year
class because I will be able to speak more English with my students instead of
just teaching them in French. Having them hear my authentic English accent will
train them on the correct pronunciations and sentence structures. Before school
started I unrealistically wanted to only speak English and implement an “immersion”
style course, where the kids would eventually pick-up on English due to the
fact that it would be the only language that I speak. However, a month into
class I find it difficult to do this because explications in French are almost
always necessary for complete comprehension of my lessons. Later on in the
academic year I’m sure I’ll switch to more English.
When living in a weakly fortified house in Africa...(There were four in total in one night)
Overall teaching is going great so far. My much smaller
class size and easy schedule gives me something to do each week, yet leaves
ample time to work on other projects. I’m also holding office hours and English
club each week to let students ask questions 1-on-1 as well as do some cooler
activities in English (last week we translated and learned the lyrics to “Tree
Little Birds” by Bob Marley, which they thought was super fun). My students are responsive; not too much
baby-sitting going on which makes it more durable for me. To make things more
interesting I split my class into teams and award points for various
accomplishments with a “special” prize awaiting the team with the most points.
My students love this. It’s a great way to “hack” students into learning and
participating more in class. They are doing all this extra work to win points
for that prize at the end, but what they don’t know is that they are actually
learning English at the same time haha!
I went to my neighbor Sarah's village to help set-up a hand-washing station for her family compound (She's an English Teaching Volunteer who lives 7km from me). Washing hands with soap properly seems like an elementary activity yet many kids here didn't know how to. We then did a mini training with her family on how to wash hands with soap and why it's important. Not only is it dirty here, but people wipe after going number 2 with their hands as well as eat with them, but most don't use soap. Such a simple project with such large benefits.
Going back to school to the school environment has been
good so far, but it also reiterates to me how hard it is to succeed with
academics here in Burkina Faso. I often look back to my upbringing to recap my
educational experience and what was available to me as a student. I had parents
who read to me at night, top-notch schools with highly-trained teachers and all
sorts of external resources to help further my academic studies. In Burkina, and
especially in smaller villages such as Ramsa, the educational experience is
almost the exact opposite of mine. First, they must undergo schooling in French
which is not their native tongue. French is never spoken in the household which
makes it hard for students to learn the language. Even some of my 9th
year students have trouble speaking basic French. There are no books (academic
or novels) so students can only learn from what is written on the chalk-board. Their
informational intake is very limited in this respect. At the household level,
parents aren’t involved on a daily basis with their children’s studies. It’s
tough because most parents don’t speak French but even so they typically don’t
give any motivation or follow their students’ progress. Instead, I mainly hear
parents calling their kids “stupid” when their studies are failing, instead of
encouraging them to do better. And finally, the school environment isn’t a very
positive place that doesn’t foster both education and personal development.
Most teachers didn’t want to be teachers when choosing their professions. They
wanted a government job with a salary, so they decided to settle for teaching
since there are many openings. I’ve had many talks with my teachers and they
are all concerned with the development of their country and all agree how
important education is, but when I see them in class it’s hard to agree that
their teaching methods are efficiently contributing to the country’s human
development. Almost all teachers yell and shame students not only if they
misbehave, but if they try and are incorrect. This makes students extremely shy
and timid. As a result their public speaking skills and overall confidence at
low levels. I don’t think physical violence is a daily practice but I’ve seen
it happen a few times. This last part definitely derives from the “hitting”
culture here, where parents hit their kids daily and kids hit each-other just
as much. Hitting would cause an outrage in the States but here it’s so common
that women often joke about which of their actions would make their husbands
hit them.
Hanging-out with my Village Chief drinking dolo. He's an extraordinary Burkinabe.
I’m doing my best to change this culture little by
little. I tell my colleagues the importance of positive discipline and how
physical violence is not effective. But most importantly my changes are taking
place in my classroom. I give participation points to those who volunteer in
class, even if they’re wrong. If someone laughs at another for making a
mistake, I put them in their place. I talk about the importance of school and
how with hard-work and determination anything is possible. Writing this blog
it’s so apparent the cultural differences between our countries. Back in the US
we do everything for our kids to give them the best chances to succeed, but
here in Burkina hardly anything is being done. A kid’s success in life is
almost solely dependent on themselves. I wish it wasn’t like this. But, as most
development practitioners know the biggest roadblocks are often cultural.
My English class taking their first test. 48 kids in total.
Maybe my student has the words "father" and "great-great-grandfather" mixed up haha. Whatever the case, 115 years old and still a farmer? Impressive.
After my students finished their tests I told them to draw on the back. One of my favorite students left me this note. He also got a 100% on the test. It's little things like this, appreciation and seeing improvement, which make this job worth-while.
Outside of the educational sphere, my CED related work is
starting to pick-up. The moringa garden is almost underway once we cement in
the fencing to the ground. Our soybeans are in the process of drying and
afterwards we will start out tofu transformations. My counterpart and I are
also preparing a multitude of other trainings to present to our saving’s groups
which will take place over the course of the dry season. One thing that
particularly excites me is the heightened interest in opening a village
pre-school. I’ve shared with my community that other volunteers have started
local pre-schools/kinder-gardens to help prepare children before entering
primary school. We would teach them some basic writing skills, basic French,
classroom behaviors, motor-skills and other activities to make the transition
easier. It would start-out very small and informal with the potential to grow
in size and legitimacy. It would be great to see this particular project come
to fruition since as show in the paragraphs up above, the educational situation
here in Ramsa needs all the help it can get.
In other news, it’s still blazing hot during the day but
at night it’s finally getting cold! I finally slept inside my house for the
first time by choice since coming to Ramsa. Group 29 (the volunteers who came
in October 2013) are finally leaving back to the US which makes my Group 31
officially “juniors”. It’s crazy that I’ve already been here for 10+ months. I
know that they next 17 months will go by even faster. Trip to the Ivory Coast hopefully just after Christmas.
Hope all is well back in the US.
Until next time,
MB
