Riots and HFamily

I started out today running a little late and I made it to pre-school right on time for their snack. My jobs at the pre-school are a wide range of things, but I'm quickly becoming an expert "opener". Everyday the kids have snacks in plastic wrappers that they can't open and I'm always ready and willing to open them. At first the kids were nervous which I took to be regular "white-person" nerves, but it turns out sometimes the teachers take a bite of the kids snacks kind of as a tax for opening them which is why they were hesitant to hand treats over. Quickly enough, though, they realized that I wasn't after a few bites and consented to me as the go-to opener. During their break Ellen, the teacher for the 4 year olds, told me she had a meeting with the US-equivalent of a school board and I was to be in charge the whole time. My instructions were, "give some of them paper and let them color then write their names on the paper," which sounds simple enough but is not. The first problem was I don't know their names and they tell me different names each time I ask. Second problem was that I just couldn't bear to "choose" kids to color. And finally, I knew disaster would occur if 4 kids colored while 20 just sat and stared at me. The first two problems I quickly solved by sucking it up, picking kids, and not writing names on anything. The third problem I thought I would try a little development work... if you will.
A quick background note: I'm horrible with children. I don't know what they're supposed to be able to do or at what ages, so I've been consulting (via the internet) one of my old roommates (S.Low) who's REALLY good with kids. She informed me that 4 year olds should be learning numbers, letters, days, and really basic things like that.
Back to the story: I decided to start with numbers... something that's the same, written, in Wolof, French, and English. I had the kids sit on a mat facing the chalk board (while a few colored) and I drew a #1, #2, and #3 each time saying in French was they were. The kids were acting unruly so I tried to involve them: "Listen and repeat after me... one, two, three..." (this was all in Wolof and I was pointing to the board). Then I held up 3 pencils, "One, Two, Three," and I repeated it (with them repeating after me) a few more times. "How many?" I asked holing 1 pencil. "How many!" "How many!" "200CFA" where the answers I ended up getting with most of the class repeating what I had said and one kid giving me the price of a pencil. This unintentional game of "simon says" continued for about 10 minutes until I was able to get them to stop.

After a lot of pointing and speaking and writing I finally got them to at least yell guess "one," "two," or "three," when I drew a number on the board. There were a few kids who actually seemed to be getting it so I tried to encourage them especially. The little businessman who knew the price just got more and more annoying and started yelling out all sorts of prices (1000 CFA!!).

It was about 10 minutes (maximum) in that they started to get unruly so I had them stand up and we stretched to the ceiling then touched our toes a few times and did some jumping jacks as well. After that I asked them to make a line (in hopes I could get them to sit in rows not literally on top of each other) but that failed.

Around that point, with 40 minutes to go in the day, the teacher for the 3 years olds came in (the 3 and 4 year olds share a room) and decided it was song time. Which would have been really helpful if she did more than beat the drum and ask them to dance for about 5 minutes then leave me alone.

Then all hell broke loose. There were kids fighting and screaming and crying and dancing and generally being while. Shoes were thrown around the room and all I wanted to do was leave like all the other teachers had but I refused to give in! I started with the biggest fight going on. If I was a Senegalese woman I probably would have not cared the kids were fighting but if I did care I would have made them stop by hitting them. Sticking to my American, not Texas, ways, I decided just to separate the kids and try time out... fail. They thought it was a joke so they all started fighting hoping I would try and separate them. The other teacher came back in to beat the drum for 5 more minutes and leave. The second siege occurred and I thought I would fight back more creatively. I picked up the drum and started beating it - the kids started dancing a little. Then I started singing to the 3 year olds (the 4 year olds were just too crazy). I'm HORRIBLE at remember nursery rhymes and cliches so I pretty much made up the words to "twinkle, twinkle little star" and "itsy bitsy spider" but it calmed about 7 kids down. When the 4 year olds saw that something interesting (me singing, or trying to) was going on they rushed over. It was like the front row of a concert, they pretty much created a mosh pit and I was in the center of it.

FINALLY it was 10 minutes until the end and the other teacher came in to help me hand out backpacks and then the kids left (just as Ellen came back from her meeting). As we were all leaving I said, "see you Monday!" and got "what, you're not coming tomorrow?" as a response. I didn't know there was school on Saturdays (though, had I really thought about it, I could have figured it out) but I still don't think I'm going tomorrow. My eardrums are still ringing.

After pre-school I had lunch, did some LSAT studying, hung out with Matar, and went for a run. Today's run went pretty well: I learned there are some guys herding camels right outside Bambey (yeah! camels), and I got a thumbs up out of a car window. Oh, also, on my way to Matar's (before my run) some kids in "my class" saw me and actually called me by my name, not "toubab." Finally, right before dinner one of my hfsisters asked if I would come to her wedding if she got married (she's only in high school so it was asking if I would come back). I said I would try to, and then she asked if I would forget them all when I left and of course I said no. It's nice to know that even if I can't calm rioting children, the people I live with do care about me.

KO