Teach Me How to Conjugate/Dougie

So the definite highlight of my past couple weeks has been my new relationship with the local middle school. You may remember a few months back, one of the local English teachers totally stiffed me for a tea date. After I had gone out and bought myself a tea pot! The nerve! But it's cool, I got a teapot out of the deal and my pride has slowly mended itself. I recently decided to give the old school another chance, and I think second time is the charm for us! My sisters had been heading over there for summer school, so one day I followed them and was treated to a free French lesson, an invitation to help with English classes, and a crew of really friendly/non-creepy/French and English fluent teachers – yeah!

Initially, I observed a few classes. The great part about summer school is that the classes are only about 20 students -- much different than the overflowing classrooms typical of Senegal during the school year, with one teacher wrangling upwards of 50-60 kids. So seeing a teacher interact with a small group was quite a treat, and the kids all had a chance to contribute, talk, and ask questions. But having only 20 kids didn't change the fact that the boys far outspoke the girls, nor did it change the crazy habit Senegalese schoolchildren have of standing up, snapping their fingers, and yelling "SIR SIR SIR" in a desperate attempt to answer every single question.

Also, I just have to share some of the weird English quirks being taught in the classroom. None of them are super big deals, so I’ve tried to stay quiet and respect the teacher's authority. Besides, if I fought him, he’d just say, “No, we learn BRITISH English here… that’s why you don’t understand.”:

- There is no verb “to have.” The verb is “to have got.” If any student says “I have a T-shirt” the teacher cries, “NO! No! I have GOT a T-shirt!”

- All of the kids are forced to add and subtract the hell out of any time they read. Saying the numbers 8 and 47 to describe 8:47 is unacceptable. “NO! No! It is 13 to 9!” Oh. Life will be hard for you, child who learns this, when you go visit Britain or America.

- An eraser is a rubber. Ha. One day, each kid had to stand up and ask the person “Do you have a rubber?” as a pronunciation exercise. Yeah, I’m aware that I have the humor capabilities of a 13 year old boy. Heh. Heh.

I taught my first lesson this morning– it went as first lessons usually go, which is to say that the children were terrified of me and my English fluency and didn’t know how to react when I started acting out words like “WRESTLING!” and “RHIANNA CONCERT!” I was pretty proud of the activity I'd created -- I'd made little invitations, all with different events (like WRESTLING! or RHIANNA CONCERT!"), dates, and times. I prefaced the activity by talking about how Americans LOVE being on time, so if you're invited somewhere, you better know where you're going and when you need to be there. A little time management never hurt anyone, right? But the kids had been working on days and months, so it seemed appropriate. I'd just go around and ask them "What are you doing? Where is it? When is it?" and they would answer, in English. It seemed simple enough. I knew it probably wouldn't be simple.

They didn't find it very simple. But that's okay! We're learning! I also confiscated a cell phone during my first minute, because that’s how this class is going to roll.

Talking with the teacher after class, he mentioned that I shouldn't be discouraged because two girls in the room had absolutely no English at all -- today was their first day. I asked if he would like me to tutor them, by themselves, and he thought that was a great idea -- so I immediately had my first session with them and it was great! If I know anything, it is the English language. Yes, I am a health volunteer here first and foremost -- but I must admit, I think teaching will really help me feel less crazy and more useful. Half the battle of the Peace Corps is getting over the constantly nagging guilt that you should or could be doing more – integrating more, learning more local language, building a hospital, I don’t know. But teaching two little girls English: yeah, I can go home and say I did something today!

Other recent events:

- Ramadan family bonding time has continued! And when I say family bonding time, I mean judging French spelling bees, playing French scrabble, and doing Michael Jackson routines with my sisters. Also, when I say playing French scrabble, I mean I kind of cheated at French scrabble to save face, but only because my sisters cheated first. TANNER could be a French word, right? When my host sister questioned its meaning, I said, “You know. Like animals.” She accepted it and I am a horrible person.

- Yesterday was the Assumption, a Catholic holiday observed by this country of 95% Muslims. Woo religious freedom and tolerance! My host sister talked all week about a big dance party that happened the night of Assumption, forcing my promised attendance and then insisting I wear jeans. We loaded up the car and headed down to the Place de France... nothing. I guess the party was cancelled because of Ramadan. But it was a fun 10 minute car ride.

- I got a robinet installed in my bathroom! This would be more exciting except for the fact that Thies never has water. Except at 2:00am, for about an hour. My host mother has instructed me to leave the faucet open so as to collect this precious water every night, and I'm complying... for now. But that also involves me waking up every night at 2:30am, terrified at the sound of an impending flood, then crawling out of my mosquito net through the cricket nests to shut off the water. It's almost like I live in the bush! Almost.

- in CRICKET WATCH NEWS: the other night, I couldn't take it anymore, I just went in my bathroom and viciously murdered a family of five. I think parents were copulating because it was SO LOUD, but as I said, THEY AREN'T COPULATING ANY MORE. Nevertheless, I've learned that cricket eggs don't hatch for a year. So I can only imagine what my life will be like in a year. In the meantime, I've been allowing any spider I see in my room to live, after I give a little speech about them pulling their weight and killing crickets and leaving me alone.
Roommates.

- I've been alerted to the existence of two libraries in Thies! I haven't visited them yet, but I'm pretty excited about the prospect of them.

So I feel like I'm on the upswing. I definitely had some rough moments in the last couple of weeks, which I found strangely reflected among basically all of my friends from my stage here in Senegal. Maybe the shared freak-out was part of our adjustment? Or maybe I've just got reeeal crazy friends. Maybe both. I also apologize for anyone who's been on the receiving end of my depressive bouts. I was talking with a friend here, and I basically concluded that I'm generally happy, but when I talk to people not in Senegal and try to set up my daily scene -- I find myself becoming re-aware of little things that I normally just roll with, the little things I deal with every day that are annoying and awful and then I re-think about the problems I'm normally just embedded in, like, you know, poverty and shit, and I just end up getting more and more angry. In other words, it's not me, guys! It's talking to you that makes me angry! Ha, no, but generally, I'm good. In the end, I think what someone said to me once just continues to ring true: we must continuously reframe our reasons for being here. When you feel like we're up against a wall or things don't seem to make sense... well, you better figure out a way to justify yourself... to yourself. Some days, I can do that.

In closing, I’ll leave you all with what my host mom said to me the other day. We were sitting outside in the dark, waiting for everyone to finish their last prayer of the day. “My family, my home, my health. What more could I need? Alhamdulillah, Praise to God.” She threw up her arms and I had to agree with her.