Sorry for the lack of blogs lately, life is cruising right along. The weeks between have been filled with us putting a lot of time into getting things finished before we have to go out of town. Last Wednesday, we left to come to the main city and spent a few days doing typical American things in this unlikely setting, like playing softball, (preparing for our tournament in Dakar in February), eating Thanksgiving dinner, having an “Open Mic” night where volunteers displayed there vast array of talent. We had a general good time, but because of all the activities and lack of real down time we came back more tired than before. But, a bonus on that part was that we got to stay in someone’s house and of course their bed was infinitely more comfortable than our who-knows-how-old-foam mattress. We got back from the fun filled weekend on Sunday, and Sunday is a Study night in the compound, so I was busy with that for a few hours. This week is jammed because all the real work for the next month has to be done this week, being that next week is Tobaski, and no one seems to really know if they will be going to school at all next week. For us, the following week we will be traveling and then it will be Christmas and New Years time. The whole month is shot already as far as work.
My duties this term, even though I am not teaching classes now, is to still participate in the observation of the student teachers. The third week in November I was one of four that made the long journey up to the last region in the country, the furthest east you can go. Our task was to observe about fifty students in about 12 schools. Which may not seems like that big of a deal, but when you have to go four wheeling through the bush and ask a lone farmer in the field exactly which dirt track is the one that goes to a particular school, it is pretty tiresome. Needless to say, no air conditioning, and lots of dust with dry season. A good thing about this trek was that I had excellent sleeping accommodations because there is a peace corps transit house for volunteers to stay when they are traveling.
Well, after leaving Brikama Sunday, finishing the week of observations, Friday morning finally came. We left Basse at around 7:30 and did not get back to Brikama until 12 hours later. Three hours were spent trying to negotiate a place in the extremely lengthy car line to get on the ferry. All I wanted to know was, Where is the bridge?! When we pulled beside the compound door I could hardly wait to un-mangle my body from the seat and was extremely happy to back home, I love Brikama!
Along with this type of observation trek, we are responsible for observing students in our immediate area. I have nine students at the school I am attending to. And this week I have been trying to finish with their observations for the term. Going to these schools are extremely draining. Imagine you, lone toubab, walking through a sea of children all calling you “toubab”, just to get to the classroom you need to go observe a student in. Yesterday I had to be around for the dreaded …..
Break time.
This is when every single student in the school is out amongst the entire expansive school grounds doing whatever they want with no adult supervision. Now imagine having to walk through these hundreds of students to cross the school grounds as the only white person. Trying to hold your head up and be a professional that deserves respect even while they are calling you this name and asking, then demanding, everything from candy (minty) to shoes, to bottles.
Well, just one more day of observations today, then I will take a nice long break.
People are very busy preparing for Tobaski, the market is filled with even more vendors than normal, everyone is desperate to make some money to go out and buy a ram. Our host father recenlty traveled to Senegal and brought back with him a huge ram, it is so tall, it is a little scary. It is tied up to a mango tree near the cooking area and is constantly making a gutterl bah sound. With the compound so full this year, if every family gets a sheep or goat, we are going to have a meat festivist. But at least this time I can be prepared, and have my goat stew recipe ready!