Time for the giant spiders...
March kicked off with a hot spell, making everyone believe that hot season had come early, and in full force. Luckily though, it cooled back off after a week of oppressing heat mainly due to the "cloud" cover because of all of the dust and dirt in the air. I do believe that the Sahara is blowing in on us, with the Harmattan working its magic.
The 8th of March is International Women's Day, widely celebrated here in Burkina. The festivities started with a "course" in which the villagers biked and walked from one end of town to the other. I wasn't exactly planning to join in, but I happened to be riding my bike through town to pick up my phone from being charged at a boutique when the course was beginning. So I joined in by default. Later in the day came the women versus men soccer game, which was hilarious as the players were all older people and were not the best at soccer. Many people were trying to get me to play, but I refused as I did not want my soccer debut to be in front of the whole town. But, best of all, the women won 2-1!
women and men
he is enjoying himself
so much so that he can take a break
two of my favorite girls in their 8 mars
The following week was busy as I was giving and grading my final tests for the trimester, while trying to calculate all of my grades. I am lucky to have only three classes to grade, while some other teachers have more than six. However, another new teacher just got affectated to Tougouri so my closest friend, Madame Diallo, now has fewer hours and more time to spend at home with her baby and to talk to me :)
March 11th was Culture Day at LDT so many of the students dressed up in traditional dress and performed a skit during the break time. Unfortunately, I did not have my camera so I cannot show pictures of my students dressed up as elders, complete with face paint. That night was Cultural Night where the students put on skits and dances for the villagers. It was actually a lot of fun and I even got to present the award for the best student in reading English. I have never spoken in front of that many people, let alone in French. So, needless to say I was a little nervous but it went well. I later became the photographer before retiring early as it went on for more than 4 hours. That weekend there was a fair at LDT followed by a soccer game between our team and a team from another middle school. The whole town turned out to watch, complete with music and refreshments. And Tougouri won! That night was the student ball, but I left early, at midnight, before the dancing even started. When Burkinabe go out, they stay out late!
Students dressed as gendarmes
Dance time
During the last week of school before spring break we had our first girls soccer game, premier cycle versus second cycle aka middle schoolers versus high schoolers. The whole school came out to watch, and despite the fact that many of the girls were not very good at soccer, everyone seemed to have a good time. But we will be working on getting better at soccer! The trimester ended with a typical Burkinabe meeting that lasted 5 hours. The next day I escaped to another volunteer's site and went from there south to visit another volunteer. Since then I have been in Ouaga, enjoying electricity and internet, and of course had a good time at the COS party for the stage that is leaving in a few months.
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