reverse chronology

It's thursday, 26 February at 11:26 and I'm writing this on my laptop in my house. First of all, I'd like to point out the change of my mailing address on the right. I bought a postbox at the post office in Tchamba, and suposedly my mail will get to that one much faster.

Anyway, the last week or two in general, and today specifically has been extremely productive. This morning I went to a middle school called Tchamba CEG Ville II on the outskirts of town to ask about doing a map project. This is a project wherein you have a map of the world on a sheet of paper divided up into a ton of little boxes, like graph paper. Then you draw a much bigger grid on the wall, and copy the map box by box up on the wall. At CEG Ville II, they didn't have a one big wall uninterupted by windows, except for on a new building currently under construction that hasn't been painted yet. So they asked me if I would come back in September.

Then Heather and I went to the library to ask if we started an English club for adults, could we hold it there. The guy working there gladly agreed and actually wants to be in the club. A lot of people have asked Heather and me if they can practice speaking English with us. They would like to get better at speaking English, but don't have anyone to talk to. So if we get everyone in the same place at the same time, we can have conversations in English, and they can practice.

From the library, I went to the highschool to ask if I could do a world map there. The director was really enthusiastic about it, and I asked if I could work with a teacher, like a geography or math teacher. The geography teacher was in the office when I asked, and he was excited too. And the highschool has a huge, smooth, blank wall that would be perfect. This map is gonna be huge.

After the highschool, I went to the hardware store to inquire about the price of paint. It turns out that it's not too much, I may even pay for all of it myself. But after you count buying brushes and stuff, it could get expensive, and I don't know yet how I can subsidize the cost. Maybe I could ask the school if they could help or even ask the students to each chip in a bit. Ironically, at the hardware store I met the guy who helped a previous volunteer paint a world map on an elementary school a few years ago. I asked him where he lived and he said “do you know where EPP Watuwa is?” It's an elementary school in town, yeah, I know where it is. “Just go around there and ask where the rasta mon lives, they'll tell you.” So I'm gonna try to be friends with that guy.

All of this stuff happened today, and it's not even noon yet. Life out here is completely unpredictable.

Also, earlier this week Heather and I went to CEG Ville I (the other middle school) and asked about starting a club. We asked the director to get together 40 of his most motivated kids, 20 girls and 20 boys. We don't really know what direction this club is going in, but she's a health volunteer, and I'm a Girls Education volunteer, so health, nutrition, etc and gender equity will definitely be on the agenda. And we figure if we get 40 motivated students in the same room and ask them “What do you want to learn about?” we'll get somewhere. Ask them what projects they're interested in, what problems they're having, and what they want more of that they're not getting enough of and we can supplement that.

And last week a guy from an NGO called ADIFF, whose goals are exactly the same as the Peace Corps GEE program, came from Sokodé to visit me in Tchamba. He took me around to the 4 different elementary schools that his NGO sponsors and introduced me to all the kiddies. Sometimes when people introduce me, I feel like they slightly misrepresent me, but I don't have the french to correct them in their subtleties. But Français introduced me to the kids exactly as I would have, had I the ability. And he made sure to tell them to call me “Akilou” instead of “anasara”or “blanc”. ADIFF sponsors certain kids who wouldn't otherwise be able to afford school dues, notebooks, or uniforms. And they hold extra study sessions two days a week for the kids that they sponsor. So I think tomorrow (which will be yesterday by the time I post this) I will go to one of the schools and greet the kids again and sit in on one of the study sessions.

And Milo is doing well. I can tell he's getting bigger because he can't hide in the little places he used to be able to. And he spends a lot of time in my mango tree out front. He hasn't killed any vertibrates yet (mice, lizards, birds) but he's been feasting on insects and spiders. I guess he'll just have to hunt the little stuff until he levels up and can kill bigger, faster things.

So things have been going well, but that's not to say I'm not missing America a ton. The other day I realized how invaluable drive-thrus are. Not that I even used them that often, but just the idea of getting absolutely anything you want, steaming hot or freezing cold, without having to cook it, or go find someone selling it, or waiting for it to be in season made me long to be in the United States. Then I tell myself stuff like, people have lived this way for all of human existance save for the last century or so; I don't need a drive-thru. Aw, but man, they're so nice to have...