60th Anniversary of Lycée Yamwaya

I just experienced something very cool and decided that I needed to post pictures. Previously I had decided not to publish the name of my village, but after this post anyone in Burkina Faso (and elsewhere) will be able to figure it out. My village is actually our training site Ouahigouya.

Today my lycée celebrated it 60th Anniversay with a very large ceremony. Festivities started two days ago and culminated in the ceremony this morning. Everything was organized by the alumni of Yamwaya and included music, dancing and best of all matching lime-green pagnes (with math formulas). Government officials were in attendance and many speeches were given.

The best was the music of traditional instruments (still working on their names). The drums were just calabashes (large gourds) laid over fabric/pads and a stringed instrument even made an appearance. Surprisingly, I don't often hear traditional music here (sorry Luc). Mostly it's Celine Dion, Akon and R&B... a lot of Celine Dion actually.

Anyway, the festivities will finish up tonight with football (soccer) matches, a concert of l'Orchestre National and dancing. I'll probably go to the concert, but then it's back to work for me. I still need to write 3 tests before Monday and grade a fourth!

students singing the national anthem with drum calabashes in front

musicians - (left to right) hand clapping women, drummers, woman in lavender is a fairly well known Burkinabè singer, two dancing girls with great rhythm

Gotta love matching pagnes!

It's hard to see in the picture, but the gentleman on the left has a very cool suit with orange fish.

not really sure lime-green is my color

Kolo-kolo Day

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope everyone has a great time eating lots of kolo-kolos (mooré for turkey). Oh and enjoy the football games...

... and some pictures.

Thanks Dad and Bobbie! I'm very thankful your package made it to me, relatively in one piece!

... and thank you for the wonderful sticker! I'm proudly wearing it on my bike helmet.

Pretty pictures

Fairly random, pretty pictures:

Anyone who's read "Le Petit Prince" will recognize this one. (hint: it's a baobab)

Another big baobab ...

... and some baby baobabs (say that fast, three times in a row).

Vultures

I've decided that vultures really are very cute.

sunset over the barrage

I've taken to watering my lizards.

Excessively cute baby goat (with baby chicks and mom)!

Cattle (Naafo)

As promised, a post with lots of bovine pictures. I took a trip to a nearby village this weekend and as luck would have it, it was marché day. There were pesgo, booga, boanga and naafo everywhere! (sheep, goats, donkeys and cattle respectively)

First up are pictures from a barrage not far from village. While sitting there, eating a snack, a group of boys herded their cattle to the water for a drink.

They ran to the water, drank and took a nice relaxing break.

The cattle finally left the water after a couple of calls from the boys. Not once did the boys yell or use ropes; they just politely told the cattle what to do. It was really cool to watch!

The fierce cattle herders

While taking photos of the general melee at the marché, a man came up and asked if I would take a picture of his nag-raogo (bull). I quickly obliged, any excuse to take a picture of burkinabè cattle since they are so beautiful and graceful. Much to my surprise the bull wasn't burkinabè, but french and not handsome at all! Poor guy! At least he proves my point.

marché - cattle section

Check out the horns!

Monsieur Bull - french bovine (See not as pretty!)

Cattle herd on my route home

Musings

• Baby goats are still insanely cute, but sound an awful lot like human babies for comfort. And the cattle are absolutely beautiful. (pictures on their way)



• The stop signs here say "Stop". According to my French-English dictionary the french "stop" translates into the english "stop sign". Does this mean that a stop sign is telling you to stop or is it just informing you that it is a stop sign?

yup it's a duck



• I'm using a lot less water now that it's "cold" here. By the way it's cold here. Meaning I still don't need to sleep with covers. Brrrrr. Although taking bucket baths outside is cold and that's why I'm using less water. That and I'm not sweating every minute of the day.



• Cell phone/internet connection is on the fritz here. So if I'm able to post this it was by a fleeting miracle!

house frog (not a toad)


• People keep telling me we need to celebrate Obama's win by having a Coke, Fanta or beer. I think they want me to organize a get together at a maquis, however, if I do so I get to pay for everyone's drink.



• When cockroaches run at you from out of nowhere in the latrine, jumping up and down while shouting a few choice words is not necessarily futile. Sometimes you actually do land on the cockroach!

First tests

I just finished handing back the first tests to all three of my classes. Overall the process went without a hitch. Here tests are on a 20 point scale and you aim for a 50% average.

The testing process for my 1ère PC (physics/chemistry) class was the smoothest. The topic was introductory organic chemistry. The average was 8.5 with a nice spread. The students were not happy though, but not because of their grades. The source of their discontent: the test had different questions from the problem set I had assigned! The key for me is going to be to get the kids to make the leap to the next level. So far it appears that the system here rewards memorization and considering the number of students per class, I can understand why.

The test for my 2nd PC class was not good though. The average ended up at 5.6! There was a massive disconnect either on my part or theirs. The test wasn't too dissimilar from the problem set so I'm struggling to figure out what happened. The topic was average velocity and only two equations were needed: V = (x2-x1)/(t2-t1) and V = (2πR)/T. Simple, straightforward? This is why I prefer chemistry. :) To solve the problem of low grades I've decided to give another test for this trimester. More work for me, but hopefully the next one will go better.

The most amusing was my 5ème Math class. Considering the ages of the kids and the number in the class, 87!, discipline is more of an issue. At the beginning I told the kids that if they talked during class I would ask them to leave and they would lose 5 points. That is a lot of points when a test is worth 20. Up until this point I've had no leverage against them. I could say "moins cinq" all I want, but there was little follow up. Well today I handed back their tests. I announced all the "moins cinq" students first. This tactic worked really well. Everyone realized I was serious and my trouble makers had to walk up to the front of the class to pick up their tests minus 5 points. I also took 2 points off some of my "light" talkers just to scare them. After class I pulled those students aside and told them it was a just a warning and that they still had the 2 points unless they continued talking. I think we have an understanding now. And as a further disciplinary measure, during the break I took my biggest trouble maker to the Surveillant, the person in charge of discipline.

Part of the problem with the 5ème Math class is that 32% of the students are retaking the class. They've already seen the material and they're bored. Therefore they talk and act up just to keep things entertaining. Knowing the problem is half the battle, right?

Update: It worked!!! My math class was full of lambs today and we actually got some work done!

Election Day (one day removed)

Yay, yay, yay, yay!!!! I'm overjoyed that our 44th president is going to be Barack Obama.

Last night I went to bed frustrated by the time difference and my inability to watch the minute-by-minute vote tallies. This morning I woke up to several congratulatory text messages from Burkinabè colleagues. I switched on the radio and heard the news that Obama had won. I listened to his speech for a few minutes (not the same translated into french) before heading to the lycée to give my first test in Burkina Faso.

The test was for my 5ème math class from 7 to 9 am. My lycée is large enough that I am able to print photocopies of tests for my students. I did experience one hiccup, however, while handing out the tests. I gave the tests to each row to pass back, but when all were distributed I was 15 short! My extremely helpful homologue made more copies for me, thank goodness. Half-way through I managed figured out what happened. Some of the students had pocketed an extra copy of the test! Lesson learned: from now on I personally hand each student their test. Tomorrow I'll be giving tests in both my PC classes. Then it's grading time.

But I have digressed from the election...

So promptly after giving the test I headed for the cyber café. Frustration continued as the connection was too slow to listen to Obama's speech and actually cut out at the end. Losing connection wasn't too bad though because I had to leave anyway; I still had to teach two hours of PC. So I headed back to the lycée.

On the way back to school I ran into a cattle drive. Being a native of a cattle ranching state I have an innate ability to recognize herded cattle when I see them. They were taking up the whole road so I made a detour and bought some celebratory bissap. Cattle don't move terribly fast, however, and they were still moseying along when I got back to the road. I was close enough to my school that I decided to follow them. Not a terribly great idea as two of the steers at the back decided they didn't like each other, locked horns and started fighting in my direction! I rode to the side of the road, they kept coming and I kept scurrying out of their way. Their handlers finally got control of them before a "Running of the Bulls" scenario played out.

No more digressions...

Despite the frustration of not be able to watch election coverage 24/7, being here for this moment in history is pretty cool. On my way home today my neighbor stopped to wish me a bonne fête. Evidently while I was sleeping, my neighbors were watching TV and listening to the radio and heard the news at 3am this morning! During one conversation today someone here made an interesting observation. They remarked that the US is a real democracy. Comments like that make you stop and think a bit.