I left Bambey around 9am Friday morning and met up with several people for lunch in Thies. Afterwards 6 of us piled into a sept place and made our way to Dakar. We spent the rest of the day killing the 12 hours we had before leaving for Ghana. Finally around midnight we went to the airport and checked into the flight. We hung around the airport until 3:00am when we boarded. We were on the plane by 3:30 (after taking a bus to the plane) and took off around 4am. After taking off they dimmed the cabin lights. Then they turned them back on to serve us dinner (chicken and rice or fish and potatoes) at 5am. The lights were turned off around 6am and we landed at 7am. Fast forward to noon (after a shower and a nap): we went to the mall. Yes. The mall. It's like a normal indoor mall with a food court, nike store, puma store, apple store, a few other stores, and.... A MOVIE THEATER!
Because Ghana is an English speaking country they were playing a few recent American movies. After walking around we bought our tickets and went to see Sex and the City 2! I wish I could convey how excited we were when we found out it was playing, but I just don't think I can do it justice. Sure the movie was pretty horrible but we ate popcorn, sat in a movie theater, and watched a recent movie - it felt like I was back in the suburbs.
We're back at the hotel now and I am about to pass out working on about 3 hours of sleep over 36 hours. Tomorrow we are going to study and hang around. The test is on Tuesday - wish us luck, I'm sure I'll be posting more!
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Certificates
Today I handed out certificates for the class and we took a class picture:
I also had a meeting with my scholarship girls and tried to arrange things for the summer. I asked a few of them what types of programing or things they would like me to try and organize over the summer. They all agreed on basketball and when I asked if they had anymore suggestions one said, "you mean we can do more than one thing?!" Things like that make my job easier. Two of the girls stayed after the meeting to help me grid the mural and one of them (the rest have class) is coming tomorrow morning to help me paint.
Other than things at the middle school today was more getting ready for leaving, some cleaning, laundry, and studying. Oh! The sheep now only bleat when someone walks by their area. If they start bleating when Youssou walks by he bleats back at them. These evening after the sheep and Youssou exchanged several rounds of bleating he yelled, "hahaha your mom is dinner somewhere!"
KO
I also had a meeting with my scholarship girls and tried to arrange things for the summer. I asked a few of them what types of programing or things they would like me to try and organize over the summer. They all agreed on basketball and when I asked if they had anymore suggestions one said, "you mean we can do more than one thing?!" Things like that make my job easier. Two of the girls stayed after the meeting to help me grid the mural and one of them (the rest have class) is coming tomorrow morning to help me paint.
Other than things at the middle school today was more getting ready for leaving, some cleaning, laundry, and studying. Oh! The sheep now only bleat when someone walks by their area. If they start bleating when Youssou walks by he bleats back at them. These evening after the sheep and Youssou exchanged several rounds of bleating he yelled, "hahaha your mom is dinner somewhere!"
KO
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Noppi Noppi! (Be quiet!)
For the last 20 or so hours our sheep have been bleating. When they first started I thought it was their normal calls for Youssou to feed them... when it carried on all night and continued this morning I realized something was up. Today during lunch they actually broke out of their pen and so I finally asked about all the noise. Miriam told me the mother had been taken to Dakar... so long mom sheep!
I started on the mural (finally) today. I've painted the background and so now I just have... pretty much the entire mural to do. 2.5 days until I go to Dakar (and then on to Ghana)! Time to study!
KO
I started on the mural (finally) today. I've painted the background and so now I just have... pretty much the entire mural to do. 2.5 days until I go to Dakar (and then on to Ghana)! Time to study!
KO
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Last day of class!
Saturday was my last day of classes and we did studied marketing, each group presented, and then wrapped up the class. There are a few students that needed to make up some classes so I held one of those this morning. One girl decided to come, even though she hadn't missed a class. Afterwards she invited me to her house and I spent some time there. Later in the day, another student stopped by and invited me to her house if I'm ever in the neighborhood (it should be noted that I live in the neighborhood).
The rest of today has been studying for the LSAT and watching parts of a huge Senegalese wrestling tournament at the end of which I swear the entire city cheered. Youssou also re-enacted the final moments of the match (which included dramatically flying across the floor pretending to be the losing wrestler) the rest of the night. I also watched Miriam cook dinner (chicken and noodles) and explained to her "fried chicken" which she thinks sounds disgusting.
Less than a week until Ghana!
KO
The rest of today has been studying for the LSAT and watching parts of a huge Senegalese wrestling tournament at the end of which I swear the entire city cheered. Youssou also re-enacted the final moments of the match (which included dramatically flying across the floor pretending to be the losing wrestler) the rest of the night. I also watched Miriam cook dinner (chicken and noodles) and explained to her "fried chicken" which she thinks sounds disgusting.
Less than a week until Ghana!
KO
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Accounting!
I had my second to last course today and subject was a fun one... accounting! First I have to confess I've never actually taken an accounting course in my life (why would I have, I was an econ major which is all theory, not business) but I have all of Peace Corps "how to teach basic accounting" materials and the level of accounting that I'm teaching isn't hard to pick up. The accounting is really just writing money that comes in and money that leaves - simple enough but not practiced here.
Class started like normal, I reviewed last week's lesson and then asked why this week's subject (accounting) is important. After a few guesses we started in on the actual work. The format is simple enough, 8 columns to track incoming and outgoing money. I gave two examples for a fake tailor shop and then asked for volunteers to enter other activities (bought fabric, sold a dress, etc). After a few, I took the next volunteer and told him, "you just bought tea for you and your friends to drink." He started to right the date, name of activity, and money spent when I stopped him, "I'm not nice. I played a trick on you.. sit down and I'll explain." I proceeded to explain that if the tea is for you and your friends to drink that isn't a business expense! And all of the kids seemed to understand and we finished the examples. I then gave them a little speech about how we only have one class left but if they want to learn more we can do that in smaller groups or if they have businesses in their family I would love to help out. Then everyone did their group work and we all left.
I had two girls walk home with me because they had missed part of last week's class and wanted to go over what they missed. After that was done one of them asked me what I did after class and I answered honestly, "nothing." (to be fair, class ends at 5pm and I do most of my other work in the morning) She invited me over to her house but I told her I needed to wait for other students to come if they were going to come to my "office hours." About 20 minutes later she came back and said, "well if you can't leave, I'll sit with you," and we ended up chatting about her life and mine for about 45 minutes until another student showed up with a question. He ended up staying a little later too and the 3 of us talked.
I'll be a little sad when my class ends Saturday because it's my current big project. Tomorrow I'm supposed to hear the final answer from the University of Bambey so maybe the camp will take the place of the class. I'm also working on a few projects with the students during the summer - I know I complained about nothing to do during the summer but these kids have literally nothing to do if they're staying in Bambey.
Back to the University tomorrow, I'm sure I'll have some story of bureaucracy tomorrow!
KO
Class started like normal, I reviewed last week's lesson and then asked why this week's subject (accounting) is important. After a few guesses we started in on the actual work. The format is simple enough, 8 columns to track incoming and outgoing money. I gave two examples for a fake tailor shop and then asked for volunteers to enter other activities (bought fabric, sold a dress, etc). After a few, I took the next volunteer and told him, "you just bought tea for you and your friends to drink." He started to right the date, name of activity, and money spent when I stopped him, "I'm not nice. I played a trick on you.. sit down and I'll explain." I proceeded to explain that if the tea is for you and your friends to drink that isn't a business expense! And all of the kids seemed to understand and we finished the examples. I then gave them a little speech about how we only have one class left but if they want to learn more we can do that in smaller groups or if they have businesses in their family I would love to help out. Then everyone did their group work and we all left.
I had two girls walk home with me because they had missed part of last week's class and wanted to go over what they missed. After that was done one of them asked me what I did after class and I answered honestly, "nothing." (to be fair, class ends at 5pm and I do most of my other work in the morning) She invited me over to her house but I told her I needed to wait for other students to come if they were going to come to my "office hours." About 20 minutes later she came back and said, "well if you can't leave, I'll sit with you," and we ended up chatting about her life and mine for about 45 minutes until another student showed up with a question. He ended up staying a little later too and the 3 of us talked.
I'll be a little sad when my class ends Saturday because it's my current big project. Tomorrow I'm supposed to hear the final answer from the University of Bambey so maybe the camp will take the place of the class. I'm also working on a few projects with the students during the summer - I know I complained about nothing to do during the summer but these kids have literally nothing to do if they're staying in Bambey.
Back to the University tomorrow, I'm sure I'll have some story of bureaucracy tomorrow!
KO
Saturday, May 22, 2010
Catching Up
I’m feeling a little behind on blogging so to catch up I’ll tell two stories from the past week:
A few days ago I rode my bike to Diourbel (about 25km away) to pick up some materials for a class. It had been a really windy day so when I turned around the sand, blown up from the wind, had covered the sun and it was getting dark about an hour before normal sunset. I rode for about 30 minutes into straight on wind and sand until I realized I had to decide if I was going to catch a bus the rest of the way or if I had time and would make it back before it got too dark. I saw some women selling dried leaves on the side of the road -I’d greeted them on my way into Diourbel - and stopped to ask. Like normal, I greeted them, asked about their families, and answered their questions before asking mine.
“Do you know how far it is to Bambey?” (keep in mind this is in HORRIBLY broken Wolof)
“No, but it’s far, are you going to go on your bike?”
“Yes, do you know how far Diourbel is?” (so I could count backwards)
“No, I don’t know that… you’re going to ride to Bambey TONIGHT on your bike?”
“Yes, I need to leave.”
“That’s ridiculous, you need to sleep at our house tonight, you can go to Bambey tomorrow.”
The Senegalese pride themselves on their hospitality and it’s absolutely true. These women had NO clue who I was and kept insisting that I stayed at their house. Knowing the Senegalese, I know these women weren’t joking, had I taken them up on the offer they would have fed me dinner and given me somewhere to sleep, expecting no payment the next morning. As much as I appreciate their teranga (Wolof word for hospitality) , I didn’t take them up on their offer and got on a bus to get back before it was totally dark.
Skip forward to today, I was waiting for Thomas (he rides his bike to Bambey, we chat for about an hour, and then he leaves and I go for a run) at our normal spot when some kids saw me. There were 3 kids ranging from 2-5 years old that just stared at me. I called them over in Wolof and held my hand out to greet them. The youngest one started walking over until he realized his brother and sister weren’t behind him and then he ran back. Eventually 2 more kids joined and all 5 got the nerve to come and greet me. The oldest one told me all of the kids names and asked me mine. He asked if I lived in Bambey, and then asked where the other toubab with the bike was. I told him that my friend was coming… and this point the youngest one (I would guess 2 but I have no idea… he was walking and kind of talking) just kept repeating “another toubab! Another toubab!” When Thomas showed up they were too overwhelmed and just stood half hidden by a building and watched us until we left.
A few days ago I rode my bike to Diourbel (about 25km away) to pick up some materials for a class. It had been a really windy day so when I turned around the sand, blown up from the wind, had covered the sun and it was getting dark about an hour before normal sunset. I rode for about 30 minutes into straight on wind and sand until I realized I had to decide if I was going to catch a bus the rest of the way or if I had time and would make it back before it got too dark. I saw some women selling dried leaves on the side of the road -I’d greeted them on my way into Diourbel - and stopped to ask. Like normal, I greeted them, asked about their families, and answered their questions before asking mine.
“Do you know how far it is to Bambey?” (keep in mind this is in HORRIBLY broken Wolof)
“No, but it’s far, are you going to go on your bike?”
“Yes, do you know how far Diourbel is?” (so I could count backwards)
“No, I don’t know that… you’re going to ride to Bambey TONIGHT on your bike?”
“Yes, I need to leave.”
“That’s ridiculous, you need to sleep at our house tonight, you can go to Bambey tomorrow.”
The Senegalese pride themselves on their hospitality and it’s absolutely true. These women had NO clue who I was and kept insisting that I stayed at their house. Knowing the Senegalese, I know these women weren’t joking, had I taken them up on the offer they would have fed me dinner and given me somewhere to sleep, expecting no payment the next morning. As much as I appreciate their teranga (Wolof word for hospitality) , I didn’t take them up on their offer and got on a bus to get back before it was totally dark.
Skip forward to today, I was waiting for Thomas (he rides his bike to Bambey, we chat for about an hour, and then he leaves and I go for a run) at our normal spot when some kids saw me. There were 3 kids ranging from 2-5 years old that just stared at me. I called them over in Wolof and held my hand out to greet them. The youngest one started walking over until he realized his brother and sister weren’t behind him and then he ran back. Eventually 2 more kids joined and all 5 got the nerve to come and greet me. The oldest one told me all of the kids names and asked me mine. He asked if I lived in Bambey, and then asked where the other toubab with the bike was. I told him that my friend was coming… and this point the youngest one (I would guess 2 but I have no idea… he was walking and kind of talking) just kept repeating “another toubab! Another toubab!” When Thomas showed up they were too overwhelmed and just stood half hidden by a building and watched us until we left.
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
... because of the heat
If I had to guess, I would say (with no reasoning or logic) the rain with come (and the heat will break) end of June. It doesn't really matter, though, because until whenever the rain comes (expected between mid-June and mid-July) it looks like it's going to be hot with sandstorms. Oh well, it's what's to be expected of Africa.
I had my 4th class today with the middle schoolers. We were supposed to be doing cost calculations and accounting but ended up stopped after costing because some students had a make-up class to attend (here that means their teacher didn't show up one day so they have to come back in and make it up). I explained direct and indirect costs then we brainstormed direct and indirect costs for each of the groups "businesses" and finally I went through a calculation. After having them go through it with me and asking if there were any questions, I asked each group to pick one product or service and cost it. As they worked I went from group to group answering questions. I feel like the students are finally getting comfortable asking my questions because I had a lot to answer today. As I was moving from one to another I squeezed past a desk... and heard something rip. I looked down to notice a HUGE rip in the thigh of my pants. Now... these aren't just any pants, they're the pants that make up my "peace corps uniform." Everyone seems to have a pair of khaki capris that, when paired with sandals and a stretched out t-shirt, are the essentials for any volunteer. Here I was with about 45 minutes left in class and a HUGE rip in my pants. I couldn't help but see the hilarity of the situation and laughed it off (then kept laughing periodically every time I thought about how ridiculous I looked). Eventually the class ended and I walked home with my bag covering the hole. Matar was able to patch them up nicely and, as Alyssa pointed out, the sewing makes them slightly more intense.
The rest of my day was power cuts and hot, sandy wind. Though I did have a salad (lettuce with balsamic vinegar and greek seasoning) for lunch today (my own choosing, my hfam at rice like normal). Tomorrow I'm finally starting this mural (just painting the background)!
KO
I had my 4th class today with the middle schoolers. We were supposed to be doing cost calculations and accounting but ended up stopped after costing because some students had a make-up class to attend (here that means their teacher didn't show up one day so they have to come back in and make it up). I explained direct and indirect costs then we brainstormed direct and indirect costs for each of the groups "businesses" and finally I went through a calculation. After having them go through it with me and asking if there were any questions, I asked each group to pick one product or service and cost it. As they worked I went from group to group answering questions. I feel like the students are finally getting comfortable asking my questions because I had a lot to answer today. As I was moving from one to another I squeezed past a desk... and heard something rip. I looked down to notice a HUGE rip in the thigh of my pants. Now... these aren't just any pants, they're the pants that make up my "peace corps uniform." Everyone seems to have a pair of khaki capris that, when paired with sandals and a stretched out t-shirt, are the essentials for any volunteer. Here I was with about 45 minutes left in class and a HUGE rip in my pants. I couldn't help but see the hilarity of the situation and laughed it off (then kept laughing periodically every time I thought about how ridiculous I looked). Eventually the class ended and I walked home with my bag covering the hole. Matar was able to patch them up nicely and, as Alyssa pointed out, the sewing makes them slightly more intense.
The rest of my day was power cuts and hot, sandy wind. Though I did have a salad (lettuce with balsamic vinegar and greek seasoning) for lunch today (my own choosing, my hfam at rice like normal). Tomorrow I'm finally starting this mural (just painting the background)!
KO
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