i speak english good

Hello all. I am very happy to be in the grand city of Bobo. I needed to get out of village. For no reason in particular, it's just that sometimes you need to get out. And now is that time.

Actually I am a bit frustrated with school, because half the time I am teaching, I am one of only two or three teachers at the school. A school with four grade levels, and 225 kids. So when I am in one of those four classes, and other kids don't have teachers, they are outside making noise and just generally disturbing my classes. So naturally those that are in MY class are paying attention to what is going on outside, and eventually no one wants to be there working. Including me. It's very annoying.

But in my English class, one day we were reading a chapter about going to an oracle/fortune teller, and then translating those predictions written in the book. The kids were bored after a while, and so was I, so I gave them a writing assignment (in English) to write a future prediction for their classmate neighbor, and then for themselves. Reading their papers in English had me cracking up, and I'd like to share some choice parts of some of their papers with you. Not that I am making fun of their English, but some of the stuff they said was hilarious, just because of the context.

Predictions for your friend:

"....Next year you will marry a beautiful girl with that you will not have children, you will go take all money of your parent and will give.... if no you will die"

"You will have in your future one wife and her will have one boy. this boy won't speak but when he will have 10 years old there will be strength in the world"

"You will be a beautiful man, and the girls will like you and you will buy a bicycle for your wife."

"You will meet the big dog"

"You will buy a new car, you will marry a bad girl"


Predictions for their own futures:

"I will marry a red wife and will have 3 children"

"I work in assembly national in BF. I will buy a car for my father and a bicycle for my mother. I will marry a girl for my sister who live in the village. I will have a long and successful life."

"I will be joy because my father give me many money"

"...I will be an Ambassador in Los Angeles. I will get married the girl of the President, our child will be a beautiful girl.."

"I will meet the master man....I will live in the city, classic."

"I look my future I see that I will have a good health but I will be a president of Burkina Faso"


That is some good stuff. I had my older class of kids write me stories of how they passed their Ramadan holidays, too. There were also some great phrases, but these (above)were some of my favorites. English is fun.

In my math classes, I am actually having a much easier time this year than last. I feel much more comfortable teaching, and I take less time to prepare lessons. In my older class, though, ... the class of kids who will have to take and pass the national exam to continue on with their education in high school... don't have any books. There are literally 8 math books available for a class of 37 kids. This is also very frustrating, especially when you want to assign homework. But they work it out, and I am going to talk to our new school director (like the principal) to see about ordering more. Probably not going to happen, but it never hurts to inquire.

Other news.... not so much. Just the holiday Ramadan, which was relatively uneventful. Just a lot of eating and greeting and wishing well for the new year.

I was trying to think of stuff to blog about and I decided on a good old "list." Of what? you may be asking yourself... well, I'll just call them
"Everyday situations that I never thought I'd be in".
I'll give you ten:

10. Sitting at home plucking a freshly killed chicken (with blood-stained feathers at the neck) so that I can have me a nice dinner.
9. Teaching my math class when a chicken walks in, clucks a few times, poos on the floor, and exits (I should have killed him for dinner).
8. Seeing a huge monitor lizard crawling up into my ceiling space from the outside and then trying to sleep while I hear him scratching the ceiling 'tiles' as if he wants to get through them.
7. Welling the water I use for bathing, drinking and everything else, and finding a big toad or any array of insects in the bucket I am pulling up.
6. Replying to people in Julah or Moore with some kind of smart remark when they ask me to be their 4th or 5th wife.
5. Sitting on the side of the road for a minimum of two hours to try and get a ride to Bobo in a crowded vehicle with any sort of combination of animals and people.
4. Biking for 15 min and climbing a steep hill to have spotty cell reception to keep a semblance of contact with the world while in village.
3. Having ice available to me one time a week, on market day, in a place where it is at least 100 degrees every day, and considering this a grand luxury.
2. Having to ask a friendly Peul (an ethnic group) man to move his cows out of the road so that I can bike by without getting a horn to the face.
1. Falling asleep at 8:30 every night, with the noises of braying donkeys, neighbors talking and cackling in another language, sheep baa-ing, mosque prayers over their loudspeakers, and some random blasting music from a party one kilometer away.

Yes, I am sort of homesick.

Here are some pics, finally, that I owe you all from past post stories, and from these past holidays:

Here is Sushi, the monkey that bit me and caused me to go get rabies shots:



What used to be a full bridge in my village. I live on the other side of this bridge


Will post more this weekend. Go to run