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Thursday, January 30, 2014

first day of school

Remember that butterflies-in-the-tummy feeling you used to have on the first day of school?  Well, that still happens, even when you're the teacher.  Or maybe especially when you're the teacher?

At English school we start a new term 3 times a year!  New students and a first day of class every few months.  Since I teach level 1, I get a whole classroom full of students new to our school and our way of learning English.  I'm probably the first foreign/white/American teacher they've ever had, too.  I have a lot more confidence now in front of all of those staring eyes compared to the first class I taught, but it is still a nervous moment. 
"My name is Eliza.  You can call me "Eliza" or "Teacher" but please do not call me "Sir."  Do you know what "sir" means?" 
I have been called "sir" enough times now that I start my first class with those instructions.  I try to infuse a lot of humor into the first class session, at least enough so that I can get a smile out of every student.  They come into class very serious, ready to learn - which here means probably an authoritarian teacher and not much fun and mostly rote learning, repeating, memorizing.  We have an expectations sheet that is given out and gone over the first day of class.  It contains the requirements for successful completion of the course, but my favorite things on there are: "Making mistakes is part of learning." and "Have fun." 

I really love teaching my students.  Sure there are times that I get tired or frustrated, but most often it is that I am doing what I was meant to do.  I sometimes feel like I am extra alive when I am teaching.  Do you know what I mean?  I guess I also feel that sort of buzzy energy when I am deep into playing piano and singing or if I am engrossed in a creative project (crafting/sewing, etc...) to the point that I lose track of time.  I must not lose track of time when I am teaching, but the point is that these are great moments where I feel most passionate and connected with myself even though its like I've let go, I am fully there in the moment.
A couple episodes stick out in my mind from this new term's first class sessions. 
In one class I instructed the students to move their chairs around and form groups of 3 to do the conversation activities.  After a minute of shuffling, two guys came over to me concerned:  "we are only 2..." they said with unsure looks on their faces.  I deadpanned: "well then, I guess you can't do the activity."  After a few seconds I broke out a big grin and assured them that it wasn't a big deal and they could just work as a pair.  They went back to their chairs giggling.

And then in another class there was an exercise where students had to make "getting to know you" questions.  They wrote several questions to ask the teacher and they each had a chance to ask me 2 questions.  One student asked how old I am.  I explained that we shouldn't usually ask about things like age, weight, or money.  But I said I didn't mind about my age so I would tell them. "I am 34," I said.  Days later I was reflecting back on the previous class session, and suddenly it came to me - I am 33.  I won't be 34 until June.  I gave myself a good laugh with that one.

a good place to sit

All too often in Mali there are occasions when I ask myself "why can't things just be EASY?!"  Things that wouldn't require a second thought back in the states can require extreme amounts of effort, time, money, and patience here.  One example is the saga of our couches.
After we got married we moved into an empty house and we were able to buy things to fill it thanks to wedding gift money and being able to buy some used furniture from someone who was emptying out a house.  I am still so thankful this provision and we went from a very empty house to one full of furniture!  We spent the first 6 weeks sitting on either plastic patio-type chairs or wooden kitchen table chairs once those were build by a carpenter.  But there wasn't living room furniture to be found in the small town we were in, so we bought a couch set in the big city Bamako (7 hours away) and waited a bit longer for someone with a truck to be able to haul it to us.  We were so happy to have real couches when we finally got them!  Couch sets are usually a big couch (3 place) a small couch (2 place) and 2 chairs.  You can see part of the set we got 3+ years ago in this picture:


As you can see, it was made of these hollow bamboo-type sticks and the fabric was tan with red flowers.  What you can't tell from looking is that the cushions were "cotton."  I put cotton in quotes because I don't know if you can honestly call the stuff inside the cushions cotton.  I guess its the waste that is left over when cotton gets processed.  Like bits of white cotton but mostly what looks like pieces and specks of tree bark and seeds and really dirty cottony stuff.  Oh, and don't forget the bugs.  Those aren't supposed to be included, but it seems we got them as a bonus.  When you sat on these couches they were hard.  Not fluffy like a cotton ball, but hard like sitting on the ground, only better than actually sitting on the ground because it was elevated and had something to lean against.  Several months after getting this couch set the bugs started to bore their way out of the bamboo and other bugs came out of the cotton.  Or maybe it was the same bugs in both, but either way the couches were buggy.  We tried a number of things: setting the couches in the hot sun for an afternoon to cook the bugs out, bug spray, coating the wood with many coats of varnish... but nothing helped.  We lived with the buggy couches until we were ready to move to Bamako, and then decided to give them away instead of move them with us.

When we got to Bamako we didn't have couches in our apartment for the first several weeks.  Then just before Christmas we bought a set.  This set was being made and sold on the side of the road like the first set, but there are no hollow bamboo sticks for bugs to hide in. You can see this set in the pictures below, but they didn't look like this when we got them.  They came with foam cushions (yay, not "cotton!") but it was the cheapest possible foam and was covered in a sort of scratchy polyester material - not nice fabric for sitting on in 90 - 100 degree weather.  We knew we'd have to replace the cushions, but we used them and let them get good and worn out over the past year.  And then this year our Christmas present (using money we got from parents) was to redo our living room.  



Jean-Patrick had always wanted an area rug for the living room space.  We found a simple grey one at Orca, a store selling imported goods.  We don't have a vacuum, so the rug gets swept and once it looks dirty we can take it outside and wash it with a hose, soap, and scrub brush.  We chose the fabric that you see at EuroDecor, a store selling imported fabric.  It is cotton, so much nicer to touch and sit on.  I had to visit the company that makes and sells foam mattresses, Fofy.  I learned all about different options as far as foam density and thickness.  I wound up buying a big mattress and cutting it into pieces because the price for pre-cut pieces was much more than if I were to cut it myself.  Then I had to take the foam cushions and fabric by taxi to a tailor to have him sew the fabric into covers (with zippers so they can come off and be washed.) 
So a whole lot of taxi rides with decisions and shopping and spending money later, and finally we have a good place to sit.  The new cushions are of high quality foam and are way more comfortable to sit on than what we ever had before.  I am glad that this project is done, but... its kind of like that book "if you give a mouse a cookie,"  because of course now I keep looking at the curtains in the living room and thinking that I'd sure like to get new curtains to complete the new look.  (by new curtains I mean fabric to sew new curtains - nothing is quick and easy!)


Thursday, January 2, 2014

Bamako Zoo

We finally went to the zoo!  I knew there was a zoo here, but this was the first time in over 4 years of me living in Mali that I went there.  It used to be not so great I guess, sort of what you might expect in a 3rd world country, a depressing place that felt like animal prison.  I don't know how bad it was before, but it has been recently renovated and it is pretty fantastic now!  Much nicer than I had expected.
There are actually 2 entries, one is from the national park next door, but from the other entry where we went in, this pond with lily pads was the first sight we saw.  Ahh!  Such a lovely departure from the noise, pollution, and dry dustiness we just came from out on the street.
 



It is not a HUGE zoo, but there are a good variety of animals there.  It is all animals that are native to this part of Africa I think.  Most of them are pretty rare to find in nature now, but I imagine that a long time ago they were everywhere to be seen.  This big crocodile was just laying there getting some sun.  I know its sometimes possible see crocs in the river, but I never have (hippos, too!)
This little elephant is named Kante, and he was our favorite animal to see.  It was the first time JP ever saw a live elephant, so he was excited about that.
 
 
 
We spent almost 3 hours walking all around the zoo.  The ticket price to get in is the same for everyone - 500 francs.  ($1)  I appreciated that, not only because its such a good price so anyone might be able to afford a visit to the zoo, but because at some places they charge different amounts for Malians and non-Malians.  I would have been fine paying a higher price to get in if everyone had to pay a higher price, but I don't like it when they say "hey, you're foreign, you pay triple! ha, ha!"

They do an amazing job with the landscaping and gardening, it was beautiful everywhere.  Elsewhere in Mali things are mostly brown and dusty now as it is the dry season.  I'd say its worth it to visit the zoo if only to walk around and see nice plants!  The animals were cool too, although next time I want to go early when they open or later before they close because between 10:30-1:30 when we were there, many animals were just sleeping in the shade.  Above is a monkey house.

Here is me in the aquarium building.  Everyone pays 500 francs to get in the zoo, and once you're in you can choose to pay for a couple extras if you want.  We paid 100 francs each (.20 cents) to get in to the aquarium building and again 100 francs each to get in to the snake building.  It is also possible to pay the same to go in the bird enclosure, but you can see all the birds from outside of it because its just netting.  We didn't feel the need to be any closer to the pelicans and other guys in there.

There is a place in the middle where there are tables and chairs with a fast food snack restaurant.  We saw that the prices were good, so we decided to have lunch there to finish off our day out before going home.  Our time at the zoo was fun, and I was pretty impressed with the total price when I added it up. 
taxi rides to and from:  $8
food for 2 at snack restaurant: $15
tickets to zoo (with extras for fish and snake exhibits): $3
souvenir zoo keychains:  $3
TOTAL:  $29

There are a few more fun outings I hope to do while we still live in the city this next year.  I'll post some pictures of those too when they happen.  I'm not sure when that'll be though, JP is usually at school so much.  It was great for him to have a week and a half off and us not be traveling for this holiday season.