Life's a Game

First of all, who is leaving these cryptic comments on my Blog? They're worse than those spam comments I was getting for a while, but I need a decoder for yours! I have an idea of who left me that last comment, but I am still decoding the last piece of the puzzle.

I realized that if speaking in French is like the game Taboo, then riding on transport is like Twister. People crack me up on transport because when you have decided where you are sitting, it is like a crime to switch places, or to move to make it easier for someone to pass. People pack in the front area of the bus/minivan, and the back is left open, but cut off due to the volume of people packed in the front. So when the car stops to pick up a new passenger, that passenger has to climb over people and seats to get to the back, instead of people just moving from the front to the back to make it easier from the start. The last trip in to Bobo, there were actually people sitting on other people and one guy who stood for two hours with his neck arched into the ceiling because there wasn't enough space, or because people wouldn't move. And it's not like it's rude to not move. They're just like... "oh, yes I see... you WERE sitting there before I got on, so I'll just put my left hand on this green shirt, my right hand on that blue shirt, my knee up on that guy's shoulder, and my foot in those 3 inches of floor space to get by to an open seat." Whatever... I guess I am just thankful I haven't had to ride in the car with any cows or goats for a while.

School is actually kind of fun right now, because I gave my kids a Statistics project to work on that is pretty interesting, if I do say so myself. I gathered Stats from our health center in Padema, the internet, cotton workers, etc... and am having my kids use that info to create bar graphs, pie charts, and histograms (with the aid of the markers and other supplies people sent me - Thank you!). They are formally going to present their charts to me and a few other teachers in a week and a half. They're really cute, and they are really working hard on them. The topics are: AIDS rates in the world and in Burkina Faso specifically, Malaria cases in the world and in Padema specifically, Number of births in Padema since the school year began and number of births in one year in Padema, the heights of each of their classmates (I provided measuring tape), the ethnic makeup of our class, populations of various countries in the world and stats on world cotton production and consumption. I am so excited to see their finished work. Pictures will be provided when I am home... IN ONE MONTH!!

I am also on the planning committee for the March 8th/Woman's Day celebration coming up. Apparently this is a big deal every year, and this year we started planning a month in advance. We have a lot of good female role models in Padema, too, so together we should plan a fun party! On March 6th we are having info-sessions for the village women on opening a bank account - How and Why to do it; General Development Issues; and General Health Talks on preventative measures against AIDS and other illnesses. They will all be run by people who work in those fields. Then on March 7th we are running a fun day at our school for all the female students. A sit-down open discussion between the working women of Padema and them to motviate them to continue their educations, a soccer match between us, food, prizes (hopefully), and the girls themselves said they will organize some theatre and poetry reading that they will present to us. I am also excited for this.

So all in all, my life right now is all about planning things. Here AND in America!!

OK, this was short but informative. That's what's going on in my 3rd world...
See you oh-so-soon!!