joyeux noel!
It’s been almost a month since I last added to this blog of mine, though it seems much shorter. Not so much because I’ve been busy, which is usually what makes time fly by, but I think mostly because my life here is just starting to take on a rhythm and routine. Since I last wrote, the Assistant Peace Corps director came to my village to observe me teach, the faculty of my school wrote and administered the semester exams (called devoirs here), and I graded all 250 of my student’s tests.
The APCD’s visit to Tobre was an exciting event for my school, and I think for my director in particular. He went through special pains to really roll out the red carpet for her, which when she rolled up in the shiny Peace Corps Landcruiser she looked like she deserved to have a red carpet. First she observed me teach, which went fine, except that I spoke too much French. Then she gave a little talk to the class about how I’m a volunteer, how I’m in Tobre because I want to be there, and about why learning English is important. To bring about the last point, she asked the students where one might go to speak English. My favorite answers were Cote d’Ivoire, France, Porto Novo, and Parakou (the last two are cities in Benin).
After giving me feedback, my school director ushered in three girls from a higher grade, who served the three of us lunch. He had also arranged for the one place in Tobre that sells sodas to bring a crate-full over for us. I can’t really explain how touching it was that the director went through such pains for that visit.
As far as test-writing and correcting goes, I spent some time running around, typing tests and showing some of the other teachers how to use a flash drive (the priest in Tobre has a generator and computer that we used to type up all the tests). Correcting the tests, as I’m sure any teacher can tell you, was either enjoyable or disheartening, depending on whose test I was looking at. While some students did remarkably well, there were at least a handful of tests in every class that not only didn’t have any English written on them, but didn’t even have real words, French or otherwise. There are students who clearly never even learned to write, and just filled their papers with characters that only resembled letters. What do you do for students like that?
Other than teaching, my days have been filled with whatever one does in a village: chatting with neighbors, helping kids study, reading, getting tutored in Bariba, cooking, and fighting the never ending battle against the dust that threatens to take over my house. With my house right next to the main road, and the dry season creating red dust, everything gets blanketed in a fine layer of terre rouge.
So now I have two and a half weeks break from school, and I hope to travel around Benin a bit. I also hope to look into some different grants that I can apply for to help out my school. Right now there are no doors, windows, or real chalk boards, and there are not enough desks. I would love to start working on getting funding, and I will try to keep everyone updated.
I also may begin working with something called a Groupment, which is like a farmer’s cooperative. The Groupment is already established and working, but the closest volunteer and I are planning on going to their next meeting to see if they have needs we might be able to address. This might include basic accounting, leadership training, and researching alternatives to the insecticides and pesticides they depend on.
As the days go by more and more quickly, and I find more and more ways to be an asset to Tobre, I am more and more at home here. Of course, there’s really no place like home during Christmastime, so for my sake enjoy the festivities and traditions that I missing so.
Merry Christmas and bon fete!
The APCD’s visit to Tobre was an exciting event for my school, and I think for my director in particular. He went through special pains to really roll out the red carpet for her, which when she rolled up in the shiny Peace Corps Landcruiser she looked like she deserved to have a red carpet. First she observed me teach, which went fine, except that I spoke too much French. Then she gave a little talk to the class about how I’m a volunteer, how I’m in Tobre because I want to be there, and about why learning English is important. To bring about the last point, she asked the students where one might go to speak English. My favorite answers were Cote d’Ivoire, France, Porto Novo, and Parakou (the last two are cities in Benin).
After giving me feedback, my school director ushered in three girls from a higher grade, who served the three of us lunch. He had also arranged for the one place in Tobre that sells sodas to bring a crate-full over for us. I can’t really explain how touching it was that the director went through such pains for that visit.
As far as test-writing and correcting goes, I spent some time running around, typing tests and showing some of the other teachers how to use a flash drive (the priest in Tobre has a generator and computer that we used to type up all the tests). Correcting the tests, as I’m sure any teacher can tell you, was either enjoyable or disheartening, depending on whose test I was looking at. While some students did remarkably well, there were at least a handful of tests in every class that not only didn’t have any English written on them, but didn’t even have real words, French or otherwise. There are students who clearly never even learned to write, and just filled their papers with characters that only resembled letters. What do you do for students like that?
Other than teaching, my days have been filled with whatever one does in a village: chatting with neighbors, helping kids study, reading, getting tutored in Bariba, cooking, and fighting the never ending battle against the dust that threatens to take over my house. With my house right next to the main road, and the dry season creating red dust, everything gets blanketed in a fine layer of terre rouge.
So now I have two and a half weeks break from school, and I hope to travel around Benin a bit. I also hope to look into some different grants that I can apply for to help out my school. Right now there are no doors, windows, or real chalk boards, and there are not enough desks. I would love to start working on getting funding, and I will try to keep everyone updated.
I also may begin working with something called a Groupment, which is like a farmer’s cooperative. The Groupment is already established and working, but the closest volunteer and I are planning on going to their next meeting to see if they have needs we might be able to address. This might include basic accounting, leadership training, and researching alternatives to the insecticides and pesticides they depend on.
As the days go by more and more quickly, and I find more and more ways to be an asset to Tobre, I am more and more at home here. Of course, there’s really no place like home during Christmastime, so for my sake enjoy the festivities and traditions that I missing so.
Merry Christmas and bon fete!
posted by betsie at 2:17 AM
1 Comments:
Happy New Year Betsy.
A question: How is English taught there? I ask because Americans can't even speak good English any more because of the school system. I hope you teach the way your parents learned. If so, they'll be speaking and writing in English in no time at all.
Be safe.
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