Things I like about my new home

the availability of phone credit

listening to snoop dog while taking a bucket bath

being able to cut in lines because they don't do lines

being able to tell anyone off, anytime (usually for giving me white man's prices)

being able to curse anytime because no one understands you anyway

eating a whole chicken cooked on the street

street salad

We are together

getting called mama from random people and being able to call people mama

all the white people in the world are my brothers and sisters

repeating things numerous times (cent cent francs)

speaking three languages in one day

anything from nigeria (even phone reception)

walking anywhere is considered doing sports

people saying good morning to me at 10 pm

eating with my hands

laundry drying in 10 minutes

people taking naps outside

people being so happy when i say hi to them that they clap

Smelly Problem.....PART II

So the day after tabaski I ate sheep for breakfast, lunch and dinner. At one point I was pulled off the street by a neighbor to eat sheep with them. Then they were surprised that I “already knew” how to eat it. But when I got to school, my students told me there was poo in the classroom again. Enraged, I asked them to show me the damage. This time, it was not only on the floor, but some deranged child had smeared in on the chalkboard as well. I decided I didn't want to deal with another hour clean up job, so I told my class to go to the next classroom over, since there's always classes whose teacher's do not show up. But the culprit had struck there too! Third times a charm though, and I had class in the next classroom I checked.

Tabaski

All week the sheep around here have been running a muck, bahing all night long and keeping me up! These aren't the small fluffy sheep either. They're like big goats. It's ok though, they were sacrificed today for the Muslim celebration Tabaski. At 9 am, everyone went to the stadium to pray. This was one of the most beautiful things I've seen since being here. There were hundreds of families walking up to the stadium, dressed in their best clothes. The men wear brilliant solid colored long robes with pants and small hats on their heads. The women wear multi-colored fabric made into pagne or wrap skirts, shirts and shawls that wrap around their head and upper body. Many of my students were there and they greeted me. I took pictures with a couple of them. The men and women pray separately, so the men lined up in the front and the women and children in the back. I took a seat in the back to watch. The prayer readers' words in arabic drifted over to me , and I watched all the people move in unison to pray.

After the prayer, I went back to my compound. I waited in anticipation for the killing of the sheep. Two days before, my neighbors had purchased a large sheep that, after a struggle, they tied it to a tree in the yard to await its demise. Finally around 10 am, some men came and brought the sheep over to the designated place, right in front of my house. They dug a small hole and cut the sheep's throat over it so the blood would pour into it. Louise, my two neighbor girls, and I watched from front row seats- my porch. When the men were finished, we went over to the scene. The sheep wasn't dead. It was twitching and writhing, even though it's neck was cut open so much I could see into it's esophagus. I took a picture of all the proud kids and the sheep. After a couple minutes it stopped moving. Then they moved it on top of some roof tiles and proceeded to skin and disembowel it. This took over two hours. About an hour into it, we ate lunch. Sheep meat, sauce and rice of course. My neighbor's proudly presented me with two choice pieces, which I cooked that evening with some steak marinade I brought from home. The rest of the day, I visited people around town. They were all hard at work preparing their sheep as well. Looks like i'm going to be eating sheep for the next few days. It was a very nice day and I think I like the fete de mouton even better than Ramadan.

Field Trip

Do you know how you go down a mountain on a motorcycle? You turn off the engine and hope for the best. I know this because I did it twice on Thursday.I went to visit my friend in a neighboring village to watch one of her classes. This is what happened: At 7:30 am I called my moto driver and he came to my house to pick me up. I told him I was going to Meri and he asked when I was coming back. I said later that day. So he said he'd just stay in Meri all day to take me back too. He was going to make a lot more money on this aller-retour then he would if he went back to our village. So we set off. The trip was pleasant with a nice breeze, since we were doing about 60 km, through the countryside with the mountains in the distance. It gets a little disconcerting when the driver weaved around to avoid potholes, but it was ok. About 30 minutes into the trip, he pointed at a mountain and said we were going to go up that mountain and back down it to get to Meri. I thought he was joking. He wasn't. It's not like there are roads on the mountain. They're kind of dirt roads, but with big stones sticking up too. I'm really surprised we didn't get a flat tire. Going up the mountain was slow going because there were two of us on a little moto driving on these stony paths. Going down, yes my driver just turned off the engine and I closed my eyes. The village was very nice with many traditional houses. It was also in the mountains, so there was not too much shade. After being there for a while, I realized I had no cell phone service-they only have the company that I don't have. That became irrelevant when my phone died anyway. Was I at any point worried that I would not be able to find my driver again? No, not at all. In the afternoon, we asked a couple kids to go find my driver. An hour and a half later, he drove up and we went back home. All in all it was a successful little field trip.

Pen Pals!

So I'm paired up with French classes at Uplift High School in Chicago for a pen pal exchange with my students. I just received the first batch of letters from them (sent on 10/5) and they're great! My students will love them and the american students will learn a lot about how lucky they are.
Some of the letters are hilarious, let's do a few highlights:
“Hello my name is Andrew now I know this is your first time meeting me but don't be shy its all cool. But what do you like to do for fun? I like basketball, do you? How do you like your neighborhood, because my neighborhood its fun around here you and your school should come visit us at our school. but anyway How do you look? I look like a tall guy dat's skinny but I play ball so its ok and plus im 5'10 almost six feet with a mean shot from the three point line mabye you can play me one day but until then au revoir.”

“What do you prefer to eat? I prefer, chicken, corn and cornbread.”

“I'm not really an A student but I'm no fool.”

“I live in Chicago, Illinois, also known as the windy city and trust me it lives up to its name.”

“I like school but I don't love it to death.”

“Is English hard and overwhelming like French is to me?”

“And how do you say sorry, live, laugh, love and forgive me I made a mistake?”

“I play a lot of sports but my favorite is volleyball; I am a star player.”

“ I would like to know what your daily life is. Mine's going to school, doing homework, and hanging out with friends.”

“I'm also a very curious person and I tend to ask a lot of random questions. Do you?”

“Deuces!” Did I miss something?!?

“What do you eat? I eat food like pizzas and burgers.”

“Are you guys traditional?”

“Do you be having to fight in school because people be tryin to talk about you?”

“Do you know Kobe Bryant?”

“My favorite color is blue and I am tall.”

A Smelly Problem

Monday when I arrived at school there was a commotion outside my class. I went into the room and discovered that an animal had gotten into the room and crapped all over the floor. The room stank to high heaven. Cleaning the floor was a complicated operation. First we had to cover the piles of steaming dung with dirt so we wouldn't pass out from the stench. Then we had to find brooms. I am referring to traditional brooms, which are basically sticks tied together. Then we had to look on the list of people who are supposed to sweep on Mondays. Then we had to find these 10 people out of the 114 in the class. Surprisingly, no one was coming forward when their names were called to sweep up the feces. Then they swept the room. They poured water on the dung and swept that too. So instead of learning english, we spent 45 minutes cleaning the floor. When we finally started class, the room still stank but what could we do? So I taught english with kids wearing bandanas and things over their noses.