Updates 5.7-5.12

- Two Years After Starting... This week my administration decided that my system of punishment, which has worked for the last year and a half, is now not acceptable and I need to change it. Cool. Normally, I give kids who are making trouble or talking lots in class lines (a time-honored and often creative form of punishment taught to me by Peace Corps). If they do them, it's done, and if they don't, I take one point away on their next quiz grade. Apparently this is heartless and will make all of my kids hate English...except when I asked the students themselves, they were upset and wanted me to change it back. Oh well. I'll be sending a lot more kids to the office from now on. Maybe the lost class time and potential beating will make them like English more.

  

- A Quiz's Worth. I was making photocopies of a quiz on Tuesday, and we had a couple of mess-up sheets. The lady put them to the side, and right before I left I asked her to please not throw them out before Friday, so that my students couldn't accidentally find a copy before they took the quiz. Her response: "Oh, don't worry! I'm taking them home. We'll use them in the latrine." Africa: where every exam has it's purpose.

  

- I Miss Real Men. And by that, I mean men who don't see women as secondary citizens, possessions, and/or not worthy of the same respect they demand of their wives. Lately I keep having heartbreaking conversations with professional, respected men who talk about cheating on their wives as impossible to avoid, and tell me that women are worth less than men. "It says so in the Bible." It also says we can't wear cotton-lycra blends, but j don't see anyone paying attention to that one. I love my village, but I seriously can't wait to live somewhere where I'm not surprised when a man treats me like an equal and feels guilty if he cheats on his girlfriend. America's far from perfect, but at least we usually have the guilt part down.

  

- Sorry, That Was A Venting Session. I just talked to our village's doctor, who's 5'0'', round and has a ridiculously thin moustache. He can't help cheating on his wife. It's just his nature as a man.

 

 

- Moving On...

 

 

- Librarian Training Starts! After finally, FINALLY getting a librarian, I just started training her this week. Ella* is kind of quiet and not quite joking with me yet (I will break her), but she's picking up the systems quickly, and when I ask her for an opinion or if she has questions, she says practical, smart things. I like her. Also, she has one of the sweetest faces I've ever seen. We're working on learning labeling and organization, and by the end of the week we should have both the rest of the books and a solidly-defined system for checking books out. She'll label the new books while I'm gone next week (for my Close of Service conference!), and then we'll need maybe a week before we're ready to open. I can see the finish line!

 

 

- Director Still Clinging to Empty Shelf Theory: After I made him promise to give me all of the school's novels that he has in his office, I made a mistake. I didn't pick them up immediately. I guess letting have time to think is working against me, because I went Thursday to take the rest of the books, and he was suddenly unwilling to give me books... because then his shelves would be empty. No matter that he already voluntarily emptied several other shelves.

 

This goes back to a major cultural difference that constantly baffles me: whereas Westerners horde and refuse to freely share money, Africans share money but horde knowledge. A lot of Beninese people believe that we have the cure for AIDS but won't share it, because some of their countrymen would totally do that. My director hoarding books is his way of keeping a little bit of knowledge just for himself, even if that knowledge is entirely comprised of RL Stine books and murder mysteries.

  

- Girls' Club. This week, sexual harassment. Not my most engaging lesson, unfortunately, but an important, necessary one, and I'm glad we did it. We came up with steps to take if one of them is being harassed by a prof/administrator, and what to say if one of their friends wanted to sleep with a prof. No girls' club for two weeks, but in the meantime I'm working on getting t-shirts -- yay! I'm thinking about an African Rosie the Riveter on the front, but would be up for any suggestions... Oh, and anyone have a good empowerment quote? Deadline's Saturday the 19th!

 

*Remember Clotilde, the other librarian candidate that we chose? She decided she didn't want the job. I liked Ella better anyways. :)

  

- I Should Make This A Less Vent-y Post. Things I'm happy about right now:

 

• Mandee's visiting in 6 weeks!
• Sherry might visit in July!
• I'll be done with the library in 3 weeks!
• I'm getting a cool new pink dress from the couturiere tomorrow!
• The girls are SO excited about girls' club t-shirts! They love the club as much as I do!
• We have Close of Service (COS) conference tomorrow...which means I've almost survived two whole years of Peace Corps!
• And we get to stay in a fancy hotel with AC and a POOL!!
• I'm listening to Sam Cooke!
• My electricity and water are both working!
• I have good friends all over the place, and I get to see them in 4.5 months!!
• Yaaaaaay life!

K, I've worn out my allowance of exclamation points for the month, but I feel calmer. Love you all, and thanks for slogging through all of those rants!