October in Review

From my Journal:



October 5th

Being back home felt really good. Better than I thought it would. So much so that being back here in Bani made me a bit homesick. It wasn’t so much the creature comforts that I missed. I can go without papa johns and sushi and air conditioning, wireless internet…etc. It was that I wasn’t a foreigner, that I was around people that understood where I was coming from. I cannot exaggerate how good it was to see my family and friends.
So for the first few days back I was kind of in a bad mood. But I’m already starting to snap out of it. I’m headed back to the classroom on Monday, so work will keep my busy. All of the students and teachers have already returned. Bani is no longer a ghost town.
On a sad note, my schools financial officer died last week in a motorcycle accident about 20 miles up the road. He was riding back from Dori at night after having a few beers and ran into a kid on a bicycle. He fell and suffered a serious head injury because he was not wearing a helmet. The boy on the bike was only slightly hurt. The entire teaching community is shocked and heavy hearted. The community as well.
My return to village coincides with the beginning of the Ramadan holidays; one month of fasting marked by a long party at the und. Last year I tried to fast, but it didn’t really work out. Allah didn’t give me the strength. But I told everyone I’d give it a go on Friday.
In this diary I’ve proposed or vowed to complete various secondary projects. There’s the cheese making, the basketball court, and the local bank. I’ve been contemplating others as well. I’m working on a curriculum for a health. I was a bit taken aback by their lack of knowledge about the most basic ideas of hygiene, nutrition, and sexual health. I hope to incorporate this class into the students’ schedule or hold after school sessions. The first class will be on microbes and the importance of using soap. I’m going to try and get one of the microscopes working, so I can prove to them that bacteria actually exist.
I’m also hoping to help start up a girls club. It could give me a more appropriate forum to talk to them about issues that relate specifically to them and their community. I’m thinking half fun/ half work. One day we plant trees, another we can have a soccer game.
As far as my previous projects go, I’ve pretty much abandoned the cheese making. Its an idea better suited to a larger town that already has some kind of supply structure (like a dairy) and electricity (for conservation/ refrigeration). I’ve also backed out of the basketball court because I’m still not sure how I feel about doing funded projects. If I id have the extra money I would still consider doing it, but I’m afraid that the first time the rim breaks, everyone is just going to say “ fuck it, its not my court”. No one will maintain it because that didn’t build it, because it isn’t a priority to them. In a year all it will be is a monument to good intentions and arrogance. It still would be a nice gesture, maybe I’m just being cynical.
Lastly, if that bank doesn’t open its doors before I leave I’m gonna hurt someone. I will make this project happen. I only have 8 months left so I had better stop talking about it and get off my and do something. Not right now though, it’s too damn hot.

Oct 8

So I did try the Ramadan thing this week. I made it until 3:30 before I gave up. I had stopped sweating around 2 which is only alarming when it’s 110 degrees outside, which it was. My mistake was that I advertised to everyone that I was going to attempt the fast, so when I gave up I had to admit it publicly. Now it’s a big joke how the whitey is a wuss because he can’t go a day without water. Ok fine, laugh it up.
Sharing my courtyard has been a bit more problematic than I initially foresaw. My shower area has recently become a public urinal. If I went to a strangers house and took a piss in his shower, do you think I’d be a bit ashamed? Not here. I watched people do it right in front of me with a giant smile on their face and then tell me to have a nice day. My solution was to put in a door (with lock) in order to encourage my visitors to relieve themselves at the hole in the next stall over. I thought that was pretty clever but I found out the villagers were one step ahead of me. Instead of peeing directly “in” the hole as God intended, I ended up with a constant pool of urine around it. It’s not like someone aimed and missed, that I can understand, they went in the corners for some reason that must make sense only to them. Anyways, I’ve been forced to put up a second door. Tried it the nice guy way and I don’t care if they do call me “complicated”, a word I generally find related with white people and their weird habits and customs (like not standing in someone’s urine while I’m trying to bathe myself). I’m not really that angry about it, but I do feel the need to vent my frustrations. There are some advantages to having a new neighbor. His wife does sweep the courtyard from time to time…Actually that’s about it. Sometimes the company is nice. Although we really only talk about how cool my cell phone is.
Enough of that. School starts in 2 days. The regional director is finally going to have mercy on us and supply a full compliment of teachers. That’ll make 4 of us. My schedule is even better than it was last year. I get Fridays off and I don’t have to teach the youngest class; I had a hard time controlling them. The curriculum is also way to basic for me to enjoy teaching it. ‘This is a square, look, an angle; behold the fraction.” Now I’m just taking the two middle classes in math and science. I’m looking forward to getting back in the classroom.

Oct 11

In preparation for taking the GRE at the end of the month, I’ve made an effort to write something everyday.

Since I’ve been back 3 people have separately come up to me to ask when this bank I keep talking about is going to show up. At first this makes me happy that one of my ideas is generally considered a good one. Right after that I get angry that I’ve waited so long. It was a bad decision to work with Kabore, he is far more concerned about his own interests than that of the public which elected him mayor. If he ever does help me make this project a reality, it will be because he will somehow benefit. He’s not a bad guy, I really believe that. Boly calls him mediocre, I think it is pretty accurate.
When Mssr. Le Maire showed up at school yesterday I asked him what his platform was and what he was going to do for Bani. He laughed, said he had no agenda, and suggested that I propose one to him. Was he joking or serious? Probably a mix of the two with more of the latter. Since his inauguration, he has done little but travel to various training sessions all over the country. When I ask him what he learns at these “formations”, he answers simply “how to be a mayor”. I admit that it would be impossible to create a municipal government from scratch without some outside guidance, but he doesn’t seem to be doing any of the functions that I would expect from a local government. Many of the details concerning this transition of power are unknown to me, and Kabore may have many projects he isn’t telling me about. I just don’t see how among farmers and shepards, a man can be a born politician. But there he is.
So anyways while he was at the school (probably paying the tuition for the 4 or 5 kids/orphans he supports financially) I told him I’m tired of waiting and I’m going to talk to the bank people in Dori on Friday, with or without him. Of course his response was that he was “waiting for me to come back from vacation.” Ok, whatever. He said he would try to find time in his busy schedule but that they were breaking ground on the mayor’s office in the next county over, so he had to go to that. In Africa you don’t turn down a per diem, which I assume was included Despite that fact that I don’t give out per diem, he did seem genuinely interested in trying to make it to the meeting. I told him if he couldn’t make it to send someone else. He said ok but my bet is I’ll just be doing this thing alone, or looking for another partner.
I gave my first classes of the year today. I’m pretty pleased with how far I’ve come as a teacher here. The biggest difference is the French, sometimes I even think in it. But I’m not going to tolerate bad behavior like I did last year. They aren’t bad kids but then there are 97 of them packed into a little room like sardines. You just can’t stay in control without military discipline. It’s a volatile situation. If one kid gets excited, that’s it. Forget it. Game over. The laboratory is already showing potential. It’s been cleaned and I’ve moved in two big tables. All the materials still need to be washed and organized, but it should be open for business by the end of next week. I took out the microscope after class today and we took a closer look at some flies and grasshoppers. Pretty cool.
I want to congratulate myself on winning the war over my latrine. The doors are installed and they work perfectly!

October 20th

To my surprise my meeting with the credit union went off without a hitch. Kabore send his 2nd in command to help me and we had an interesting conversation with the regional director. I learned a few things. First is that there are a few people in Bani what are pretty far in the red already with the bank. Not encouraging. Second, once you have use a cow patty as a pillow, you can’t sleep on anything else. I’m not exactly sure how our conversation descended to this but we spent a lot of time talking about Peuhl culture. The idea of saving money in a bank is almost contradictory to the way people live here. Not here in Africa, but here in the very north where agriculture is pretty much a waste of time. The Fulani are shepards, they raise beef and goat. At first glance you wouldn’t suspect that this fact has anything to do with banking, but this is because Americans are not emotionally attached to their steaks. To put money in the bank, you have to sell livestock, something the Fulani refuse to do. They would much prefer to measure their wealth in cattle than in francs, despite the fact that cows die and money doesn’t. The attachment to their herd is comparable to the feelings I would have to a dong I’ve had for 10 years. Actually it may be ever stronger because they actually live for months solely off the milk. So it’s more like a dog that keeps you alive.
This is why a Peuhl would rather go into debt than sell off his friends. This is why the credit union is having such a hard time up here in the north. And the regional director admitted this much in our meeting. He even sympathized, telling us about a goat someone gave him for Tabasci (a muslim holiday). He just couldn’t bring himself to eat it. Eventually his wife got fed up and made him sell it but he said he had to leave the house when it actually happened.
The best way to sum up this phenomenon is a rule that is particular to Fulani culture. If you buy a cow from a Peuhl and as you are walking away he starts to cry, you are obliged to sell it back to him.
Anyways, we’ll see if anything actually comes of this meeting. Kabore needs to find a plot of land in the village and start gathering building materials. We’ll see what his plan is.

October 23

Last night signaled the end of the month of fasting for Ramadan. In the spirit of the occasion I decided to do something nice and share a bit of my culture with the Burkinabe. I went to the market to buy materials to carve a jack-o-lantern, but unfortunately pumpkins are unknown to this part of the world. So I ended up making a special Ramadan watermelon-o-lantern. It had the desired effect. I put it in front of the mosque and it was admired by everyone who walked by. I also gave them the fruit to break their fast with.
Finally some encouraging developments at school: The ministry sent us 3 new teachers and we now have a full staff. Since all three are starting their first year as teachers, they are considered volunteers by the state. Officially they are still in training and thus receive no salary. Regardless they seem to be motivated and capable. It is also worth mentioning that one of them is a woman. It is rare to see women in any position of authority. Times appear to be changing, but it’s still a man’s world.
As a result, the director has reduced my weekly hours to 9. I’m rather ambivalent about the change, I could actually use the extra free time to work on secondary projects.