Teach a bunch of 10th graders how to use if clauses and then ask them to write a paragraph about what they would do if they had 5,000,000 cfa (approx a million dollars). Then, explain to them what it means to 'be creative' and remind them that a paragraph is not a list. Then remind them that this is not group homework and that I should be receiving 50 different paragraphs, not the same one copied 50 times. Wait until the next class, collect their papers, and among all the randomness about buying motos and calling parents this is what you might get:
"If I had 5,000,000, I would had visited Mme Kristin house in USA and I would have got in mariage her sister. After The mariage I would not have let her suffer from any danger. Arrive to our country she would not have returned to USA and I would have taken her the audience to see our president of republic." (authentically replicated with typos and grammatical errors intact for your reading pleasure)
Hilarious. Luckily for him I was too pleasantly surprised while reading this that it wasn't until later that I got mad at him for obviously NOT following my lesson about the correct tenses to use in if clauses. I let my sister know about the proposal right away but she declined. Too bad, it would have been nice to have a sister in Benin so I could come back and visit often ;-).
P.S. Post office is still closed...Turns out the "replacement" for the normal lady took about 50,000,000 cfa and ran. Great. After trying for 2 days to see the mayor who keeps going out of town, I threw enough of a fit this morning that they were like "oh, well there is the deputy mayor"...So I went to see him and although the mayor's office is next door to the post, nobody at the office had any idea of this closure. He was actually really nice and made some phone calls right in front of me although of course he didn't have any number for any kind of post office. What he did learn was that the post does actually know of this closure and they are doing an investigation. I said I just wanted to open the door and get my packages and he said that's not possible because the justice officials are involved and I have to wait until they complete their investigation. So, I'm assuming I'll get the packages sometime around July.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Monday, November 16, 2009
mr. the post of dogbo is not high on my list of favorite people right now...
So, even after that long letter I had to write to get the post box in the first place, and even after all the sucking up I've done in the last 7 months to the lady who works at the post office so she wouldn't steal my mail (I bake her banana cake all the time), turns out that all means nothing now that 3 boxes are waiting in a back room with my name on them. Normal post lady is on a 3 month vacation in the North and she introduced me to her replacement a week and a half ago. Turns out he came to work last Monday morning to put a note in P.O. box saying 3 new packages had arrived, and then he put up a sign saying he would return at 3 pm. Well...over a week later the sign is still there and he hasn't been back. Oh Benin.
Because it's Benin there really isn't anyone to get in contact with about it. I stopped at a phone station next door and asked if they knew and the guy told me to be patient and wait out this week, "surely they'll send someone eventually," he said. So, my Dutch friend gave me the post lady's cell number and today I went to talk ask my friend who is the mayor's secretary about it. They hadn't heard a thing (even though all of the hospitals, NGOs, and schools in town have a PO box, I guess none of them have noticed or seem to care). So, if the man doesn't come by tomorrow I have an "appointment" with the mayor in the afternoon to inform him in hopes that he can talk to somebody. If not, I'll have to interrupt the post lady's vacation and possibly head to the regional capital on Friday to talk to the post office people there. If it's my thanksgiving package I need it!!!!!!
In other news...things are good. I've officially got 2 kids out 40 to send e-mails to their new US penpals. I'm basically going to be spending every afternoon for the next 4 or 5 weeks at the cyber teaching them how to use computers. So far so good though...
Because it's Benin there really isn't anyone to get in contact with about it. I stopped at a phone station next door and asked if they knew and the guy told me to be patient and wait out this week, "surely they'll send someone eventually," he said. So, my Dutch friend gave me the post lady's cell number and today I went to talk ask my friend who is the mayor's secretary about it. They hadn't heard a thing (even though all of the hospitals, NGOs, and schools in town have a PO box, I guess none of them have noticed or seem to care). So, if the man doesn't come by tomorrow I have an "appointment" with the mayor in the afternoon to inform him in hopes that he can talk to somebody. If not, I'll have to interrupt the post lady's vacation and possibly head to the regional capital on Friday to talk to the post office people there. If it's my thanksgiving package I need it!!!!!!
In other news...things are good. I've officially got 2 kids out 40 to send e-mails to their new US penpals. I'm basically going to be spending every afternoon for the next 4 or 5 weeks at the cyber teaching them how to use computers. So far so good though...
Saturday, November 7, 2009
It's nice to get a little positive feedback now and again...
So, the government of Benin has this law that being a "full time" teacher at any public school is limited to 18 hours of work a week. 16 hours of class time (4 classes for 4 hours a week) plus 2 hours of the weekly teacher meeting. So, the full work week is considered 18 hours and they are NOT allowed to work more than this at one school. While they are happy to consider an 18-hour week a full time job, they are definitely not happy with the amount of money that gets them. So what all of the teachers do is take 1 or 2 classes from multiple other schools in the area where they are considered "part-timers". The results being as follows: my school has only myself and 2 other full-time English teachers, and between us we cover 12 of the 36 classes that need teachers. Every other teacher that 'works' there only has 1 or 2 classes.
In actually a great jump forward this year, however, the government now requires that both part-timers and full-timers attend the weekly teacher meetings. (Last year it was just me and my two colleagues discussing our few couple of classes and I never even met most of the others). It's really encouraging that they are demanding this, and this year they also limited the number of schools a professor can work at.
So, this past week we had a bunch of these new part-timers attend our weekly English meeting for the first time. These meetings have been really productive so far this year, and next week I'm leading a session on visual aids. It seems like they want me to be leading most of the sessions, but I'm trying to get them to present their ideas and strategies as well. Anyway, this past Thursday we were just getting the newbies up to speed and I told them that we already discussed how important it is for us to only speak English in the classroom, and not give in to students' demands to speak in French. Of course the responses were mixed.
It's easy to look at them and see based on their comfort level if they really can speak English or not. One man (who didn't look so comfortable) raised his hand and responded (in French), "please, I respect what Madame has said, but when I talk to my second level class they refuse and refuse and refuse." Then we asked him what class specifically and it turns out it is a class I had last year as complete beginners, and all they got from me was English!! Immediately I said, "no no no!! That is impossible, those kids follow directions very well in English and understand perfectly." Then he went on to say that when they pronounce the verb "to be" they incorrectly say "I'm, you're, he's...etc" and I was like..."Of course they do! I teach them that in reality we speak in contractions, and they learned from listening to me". I then went on to explain to all of the teachers that speaking in English to their classes does not mean giving 15 minute monologues, but rather, short, quick instructions- "copy! finish! listen! repeat!"
Anyway, so after all of this I was still a little sad about my previous class now demanding French and refusing English. But that afternoon, as I was preparing for class with a first year group I'm teaching this year, about 15 of the now second years walked up outside my door. I walked over and said hello, and then joked with them (in French) that I was very mad! "How can you refuse English?" I scolded. "Madame, Madame, no!! He can't speak! He makes no sense and we need you to come back and teach us!" Then they asked me why I didn't follow them to year 2 and asked if I could switch. Then, to my crazy surprise, they told me they would come in every Saturday if I would do make-up classes with them. Since I'm in the capital this weekend, I told them that couldn't work, but that occasionally I'd be happy to work with them, and especially right before exams.
Then, just to reassure myself that I did a good job, I made them all stand there and repeat the conjugation of "to be" for me. Indeed...they do still remember it correctly...thank god! Then I promised them that I'd come visit their class this Monday morning and watch their new teacher. Afterwards I'll hopefully be able to give him some pointers about communicating better with them in English and hopefully seeing me will encourage the students as well.
All in all my students' little visit made my day...and while I do sort of feel like I abandoned them this year, I'm also having lots of fun with my new first years. I don't necessarily regret it because I'm glad I can get another group of kids off to a good start...even if I can't control who will come in the years to follow me...
In actually a great jump forward this year, however, the government now requires that both part-timers and full-timers attend the weekly teacher meetings. (Last year it was just me and my two colleagues discussing our few couple of classes and I never even met most of the others). It's really encouraging that they are demanding this, and this year they also limited the number of schools a professor can work at.
So, this past week we had a bunch of these new part-timers attend our weekly English meeting for the first time. These meetings have been really productive so far this year, and next week I'm leading a session on visual aids. It seems like they want me to be leading most of the sessions, but I'm trying to get them to present their ideas and strategies as well. Anyway, this past Thursday we were just getting the newbies up to speed and I told them that we already discussed how important it is for us to only speak English in the classroom, and not give in to students' demands to speak in French. Of course the responses were mixed.
It's easy to look at them and see based on their comfort level if they really can speak English or not. One man (who didn't look so comfortable) raised his hand and responded (in French), "please, I respect what Madame has said, but when I talk to my second level class they refuse and refuse and refuse." Then we asked him what class specifically and it turns out it is a class I had last year as complete beginners, and all they got from me was English!! Immediately I said, "no no no!! That is impossible, those kids follow directions very well in English and understand perfectly." Then he went on to say that when they pronounce the verb "to be" they incorrectly say "I'm, you're, he's...etc" and I was like..."Of course they do! I teach them that in reality we speak in contractions, and they learned from listening to me". I then went on to explain to all of the teachers that speaking in English to their classes does not mean giving 15 minute monologues, but rather, short, quick instructions- "copy! finish! listen! repeat!"
Anyway, so after all of this I was still a little sad about my previous class now demanding French and refusing English. But that afternoon, as I was preparing for class with a first year group I'm teaching this year, about 15 of the now second years walked up outside my door. I walked over and said hello, and then joked with them (in French) that I was very mad! "How can you refuse English?" I scolded. "Madame, Madame, no!! He can't speak! He makes no sense and we need you to come back and teach us!" Then they asked me why I didn't follow them to year 2 and asked if I could switch. Then, to my crazy surprise, they told me they would come in every Saturday if I would do make-up classes with them. Since I'm in the capital this weekend, I told them that couldn't work, but that occasionally I'd be happy to work with them, and especially right before exams.
Then, just to reassure myself that I did a good job, I made them all stand there and repeat the conjugation of "to be" for me. Indeed...they do still remember it correctly...thank god! Then I promised them that I'd come visit their class this Monday morning and watch their new teacher. Afterwards I'll hopefully be able to give him some pointers about communicating better with them in English and hopefully seeing me will encourage the students as well.
All in all my students' little visit made my day...and while I do sort of feel like I abandoned them this year, I'm also having lots of fun with my new first years. I don't necessarily regret it because I'm glad I can get another group of kids off to a good start...even if I can't control who will come in the years to follow me...
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