I am officially done with my first year of teaching! However the past few weeks have been a little bit crazy. Since the beginning of May I have filled out report cards (bulletins), helped the Professor Principals (counselor teacher for each class) fill out the Livret Scholaires (student grade books), attended 6 soccer games, went to two fetes, and attended the final 6 hour long teacher’s meeting which was followed by chicken and beer, thankfully.
Last week I took two girls from my village, Alima and Jacqueline, to a girl’s conference in the regional capital of Kongossi. Ten volunteers attended the conference, each bringing two girls. During the conference, two men from L’Action Sociale, a government ministry, spoke about family planning, sexuality, and women’s rights. Having Burkinabe speak was good, but I did not particularly like their method. Every morning was lectures, which got a little boring. We tried to intersperse the lectures with motivating activities. At one point the Burkinabe wanted to correct the girls’ French, which I thought was not appropriate as this was not school. And if anything, my French should be corrected, not the girls’! I did learn some interesting things, though, such as the Burkinabe consider polygamy as a method of family planning and to be Burkina’s president, you need to be 35 years old and have 20 million CFA (about $40,000). In the afternoons we volunteers did fun activities with the girls, such as games, condom demonstrations, etc. One afternoon a panel of motivated women, such as nurses, teachers, came and spoke to the girls. It was really neat to see the girls’ transformation throughout the formation. At the beginning, they were scared and timid but by the end the girls were all talking and had lots of fun at our dance party on the last night.
This past weekend I have been in Ouaga for a Youth Development Committee meeting. It sounds like we’re beginning to figure out our goals. We are hoping to put on a youth leadership/citizenship conference this fall/winter for local youth. The first goal is to find funding, which is the plan for today. Also, Saturday I watched two volunteers participate in the Ouaga marathon. They both finished with good times, but were a little sore afterwards. The marathon is basically a straight shot out of Ouaga along a road with no shade whatsoever and the runners were running next to cars, motos, bikes, and donkey carts. But, it did start at 6am, instead of 8:30 like last year, and there was enough water, though warm. It was also amazing to see many of the runners running in sandals or dress shoes. I don’t know how they did it!
That’s about it in my life right now. I am looking forward to my trip to Paris and home in less than 3 weeks!
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