Teachers, Meetings, and Tupac Shakur

I don’t really understand the school system here. I’m trying, but it’s a little difficult. Thursday was the official opening of school. So I made sure to be around so I could meet up with all the teachers when they came in… Only they didn’t all come in. The night before there was some talk on the radio about a strike. (I think I’ve already ranted about strikes so I’ll just let you fill in the blank about my feelings at this point). A couple of the teachers showed up Thursday morning. Monday was to be the start of school. “Will the students show up on Monday?” “Yes, Annicka, the students, the teachers, everyone.” Cool! (although it makes more sense to me that the teachers would spend a week at school first, but anyway). Monday morning, 8 am, I go to the teachers’ compound. 4 teachers there (out of 9). We hang out a bit. There is a little discussion over work. The radio talks more about the strike. We eat lunch. They leave. “When will I see you again?” “Saturday.” Oh. Saturday. Well at least there’s that. (I think you can tell that I’m a little disheartened by the ‘enthusiasm’ thus far shown by the teaching staff that I know to be actually very good).

So there’s Saturday. My APCD (Associate Peace Corps Director), ie. my boss, will come to my village and host an all day meeting extravaganza. In the morning, representatives from my village and the four nearest villages (who all have students at our school) will come to talk about and hopefully develop an Environmental Action Plan (EAP). This is one part of the Peace Corps Environmental Education project plan: to help the communities establish and execute an EAP under the guidance of a steering committee, composed of members of the school’s community, hence the 5 village collaboration.

Our project plan involves three parts. The first is this EAP and steering committee, so this weekend’s meeting will get that started. At minimum it should put me and the community on the same page as to what I ought to be working on and what are the perceived environmental (and health, most likely, because they’re so interrelated) problems our community faces. The second part of the EE project plan focuses on the students and educating them in conservation techniques, etc, through an Environmental Club. That’ll wait until school has been going a little while, but I’ve already got ideas for that. The last part of the EE project plan focuses on the teachers and that’s the second part of Saturday’s meeting stuff. After lunch, which itself is proving to be a little tricky to plan, the teachers from our school and 5 nearby elementary schools will have a training about Community Content Based Instruction. Basically, that means teaching school lessons so that they are relevant to the students’ surroundings… hands-on, get outside the classroom stuff. This is training I had in Thies and I have access to resources to help the teachers make more lesson plans. It’s the main reason they wanted an EE volunteer at my site and I think it will be a big part of my work here.

So I’m very excited about Saturday. It’s a chance for the village to get to see me actually doing work. Hopefully they will be impressed by my boss (he is a really cool and indeed impressive man), and will feel like I’m not just here to hang out, as often seems to be the case.

I think I repeat my frustration about work being slow and feeling like I’m not doing anything productive, but it’s on account of two factors. One, I am an American and tend to think of work in an American light; it seems that it should all be go, go, go, “git ‘er done”, if you’re not busy, you’re not working. But that is not the only way, nor is it a practical approach to life in an African village. Delivering invitations this morning was important work. It involved going to the appropriate people, saying the appropriate things, making my message clear and making them feel important and valued. And it involved a fair amount of sitting and chatting. EVER SO IMPORTANT. Thank goodness my brother came with me because that’s a lot of conversational pressure. But it was fun.

The other reason I feel unproductive, I believe, boils down to inertia. I am still in the beginning months and although the new stage will be installed in under a month (CRAZY!), I still think about being a new volunteer. I realized some this week that I have a stronger handle on village life than I had previously thought and that my ‘first three months’ did basically what they were meant to… that is, get me introduced to my environment, let me figure out the culture and language a little, and what was it I called it before? establish a presence. Right. Fairly on target. But I don’t have projects running yet. And that’s ok. I look at other volunteers and think, man, they’re doing so much. I’m totally not. But then most of them have been in their villages for a year or more. And I’m at 6 months. And others of them from my stage walked into projects, so it’s ok that I’m not where they are because I didn’t. No worries. So, as inertia indicates, it is hard to “get the ball rolling”—in the most literal sense, that’s precisely what the laws of inertia say, right brothers who have/will study physics far more in-depth than I?—and for me, getting the ball rolling means identifying projects and getting them started. But that isn’t just a me thing either. It involves being in agreement with the village as to what the projects should be, their necessity, and their feasibility (and precisely how they’ll be carried out). That’s a lot of ball to roll. And I’m hoping that this weekend will be just the push I need.

Other fun things to share this week are more anecdotal: I made a Senegalese joke and it was truly funny and unexpected by my friends in the village. I believe I mentioned that it’s not really kosher to talk about someone being pregnant, even when it’s ridiculously obvious. Not that it’s bad to do so, they just don’t really mention it in general conversation. So I was at a friend’s compound and an older woman looked at me and pointed to another’s bulging belly. (Btw, she should be due soon). I said, “Yeah, she really likes to eat rice. Look, she eats so much rice and beans that her stomach got huge!” They make this joke all the time, but because I made it unprompted, it was HILARIOUS!!! I felt like I belonged.
Today delivering my last invitation I was in the chief’s compound in the neighboring village. They said, “You went to Sinthian Coly and then came here to Sinthian Demba? You must be tired.” “No, I’m not tired yet. When I go to Velingara and then come back, then I’ll be tired.” “Aminata, you can speak pulaar now!” Then she recounted the story of how they’d asked me to dance at my namesake’s baptism and I said they’d have to wait until the evening and I’d broken the fast. Then after we ate they said, you promised to dance after you ate, so I told them to start clapping and I would dance. It’s so nice to have people tell good stories about you to others, especially when it’s to illustrate how much you now fit in.
Today waiting to meet up with a teacher to discuss planning the lunch for Saturday, I was having a very serious discussion with two men who live in our building. Centering in this discussion were, you guessed it (you did guess it, right?), Akon and Tupac. Akon, who is from Senegal didn’t you know, isn’t a very good role model for his fan base. Is that the result of American society? Because it isn’t the Senegalese way of doing things. Well, it isn’t American either. Rap videos don’t represent reality on either continent. And do you believe that Tupac is really dead? We all agreed that he is, in fact, as dead as many historical figures who disappeared without remains to be interred in proof of their deaths. Not so much in the way of Machiavelli as Tupac apparently claimed pre-disappearance, who dropped off the face of the earth for ten years and reappeared as alive as ever. No, Tupac is surely dead. Besides, the ten year anniversary of his supposed death has already come and passed sans revival. This was indeed a very serious discussion, which might have continued forever had my teacher not shown up.

So in summary: there might be a strike, but there will be a plan of action; “git ‘er done” requires time, velocity, and social finesse; too much rice and beans will get you preggo; and Tupac liveth no more.