So, I have great news to report:
A few weeks ago, for the first time during the 8 months since I officially became a Peace Corps Volunteers and starting working in my village, I felt satisfied about something relating to my job. Go, me!

Go, me! Go, me! Go, me!

In school, the creativity and critical thinking skills of most students are either never cultivated or sucked dry because of the nature of the French school system which Burkina inherited. Class curriculum doesn't really resemble what I am accustomed to, especially, in correlation to age group. Everyone considers it nearly impossible to succeed in school and their ability to progress is dictated largely by their performance on national exams. (national exams, may i add, that ask really stupid and irrelevant questions.) Girls have little chance of continuing their studies to a very high level and have innumerable difficulties to face should they decide they might stand a chance.

Enter: Girls Club. I facilitate a Girls Club at the local secondary school for 8th and 9th grade girls, whose ages range from 14 to 18 (cuz that's how school works out here). The club is loosely focused on Health - that's the grand context I used to propose my idea to the School Director, but really, I'm just starting out small with them, working on self-esteem and assertiveness. Just little things, such as making girls speak up during meetings or asking them what they think - gasp!, make a big difference in how these young girls see them selves, their futures and their capabilities.

Chances are most of them won't make it through school. Most likely, they will fail, be married, get pregnant or just simply will be taken out of school for some other reason. However, I hope to help them develop the ideas about themselves that will help them be successful women no matter what they attempt in life. Simple ideas, like decision-making; speaking up for yourself; being aware of yourself, your thoughts and your feelings are the small steps that I am hoping to guide my girls through. next year, I'd like to incorporate more orthodox health topics, relating to body and hygiene and also collaborate with our local clinic to gain access to their support and resources.

yeah! Go, me!

Also, I've started review sessions for the sixth grade students because they take their first national exam in their potential educational careers to pass primary school. Right now, I am teaching math but hope to work on other subjects. I also hope to sneak in some health topics there, too, because healthy students have better chances at being successful students and healthy primary school drop-outs make better parents.

This is a good thing because since I started my job I have dealt with some very heavy tension between me and the primary school staff. Four of the six teachers are constantly not in school teaching because of health issues or something and there are not enough substitute teachers (besides the fact all the primary school teachers i know hate their job, so they'll find any excuse not to have to do it), so the students of the absentee teacher spend the day running around and come to school to get their free breakfast and lunch. Not the most productive use of time for little kids, huh?

So, since I am loosely attached to the school and have an extremely vague job, the school staff didn't understand why i wouldnt just take over a class. I was adamant about not teaching because (a) that's not my job and (b) i'm not qualified anyway and (c) really, it's sooo not my job! (also, i think the primary school atmosphere is a nightmare and would rather help the students from a distance. I have a severe dislike for my "colleagues" there, but that's a-whole-nother story. I would really resent it if I got saddled with someone's sucky job just because they didnt want to do theirs. Plus, it would take away from me doing my actual job because I would be busy at the primary school 6 days a week doing not-my-job.)

This way, I get to work with the kids, teach a bit at the school, run my classroom as I like because it's my regular class and help the kids learn something (maybe). I really try to be fair, encourage them to think and I definitely don't hit them or verbally abuse them, so that should be a nice change from some of the other teachers' classroom atmosphere.

for the record, one teacher really teaches well and i think part of the difference is that she genuinely wanted to be a teacher, but unfortunately, she's on maternity leave... her class is great! And to be fair, the classrooms are ridiculously overcrowded and teaching at our primary school is a very, very hard job. The first grade teacher works with 114 kids, none of whom speak French and she doesn't speak more than words of their mother tongue. Tel me that isn't discouraging? She spends most of her time disciplining, rather than educating. It's horrible and I've seen how she has gradually become more and more unmotivated and I empathize with her situation. But some of the teachers are consumed by the fact that their job is difficult and aren't actually interested in teaching, so ultimately, the children lose out, horribly and heart-breakingly.

Wait, this was a happy post. Let me see. ok, it still is because I am finally able to do something to combat all this mess and i get to do it on my own terms. So, I can feel like I am contributing something to these educational situation for the children.

Go, me! Go, me! Go, me!

I know my job is girls education and empowerment, but I see that school is just so difficult and life is so hard that i'm just doing my little part for empowerment - community empowerment -and, where and when i can, education. since getting to Gorgadji, i have been so much more interested in health because I feel that if you have control over your health, you have more control over your life. as the first GEE volunteer at my site, i see my job as simply introducing the idea of girls education and empowerment. there are so many things going against the success of girls and the community is so focused on just their mere survival that I feel as if I won't be able to make any grand strides for girls in Gorgadji during my two year service. that was actually a very relieving revelation for the overly-ambitious Jenni. you know, we are supposed to be doing grass-roots development, but this isn't even grass-roots, this is top-soil breaking! this is, trying to figure out where to even throw the seeds!

before my arrival in Burkina, I read something a volunteer wrote and I am going to paraphrase it horribly now. it was something like: you spend the first year trying to understand everything and the second year, you realize you have and it still doesn't make sense. so true! I have been happy in Gorgadji as a community since I got here and it is my connection and friendships with community members that has kept me here when times were tough, but my job is really difficult. I feel a lot more centered now in village because I've been putting less pressure on myself to get things done and have been focusing my energy more strategically. I guess i've had to do a bit of self-empowering before I could really start community empowering.

Speaking of helping others out... please please please send me dried fruit. ANY KIND. the dry season is awesome - as in, truly invokes awe, amazing to look at. but i miss rain and fruits. i don't know who can do anything about the rain, but if you can, hook a sistah up! i do know that anyone can help me with the lack of fruits. so please! :) this past friday, on my way south to Ouaga, I was transfixed (yes, even, enchanted) by the 5 or 6 patches of flowering trees that i saw. my mind was like "oh my lord, color!". the Earth is so hard, hot and dry right now. many of the barrages (sorry, i don't know what that word is in English) of water are all dried up in the North. the landscape is incredible to look at, but not so great on the fruit-providing front.

And one last time:
Go, me!

me and one of my closest friends, Sidonie, a nurse at the clinic in Gorgadji

what's up
temp: 115 F, burning hot winds and dust
reading: The Audacity of Hope
still reading: A Continent for the Taking
just finished: the Alchemist (for about the 5th time this life)
current favorite song: Say It Right (Nelly Furtado)
last thing i ate: fish! (only available to me in Ouaga)
last thing i bought: fabric - little joys!
recent butterfly: my Girls Club for high school girls is fabulous!
recent onion: my stupid savings-and-credit groups are still only quasi-functional - grrr...
fave destressing activity: pelting rocks at lizards who are fleeing from the broiling sun
unattainable craving: still, eyebrow threading. i like it better when someone else is responsible for this
next lesson: pacing myself - one project at a time, one step at a time. baby steps
next goal: health work on malaria, before the rainy season hits; brainstorming ideas for the next year
looking forward to: tomorrow and everyday after
updated: 29 apr 07