Only 4 days in the red sand but I feel like I've been here for ages! You get to know the children so quickly, and there's nothing better than the smiles and curiosity they have for the new kid in town.
I met with the schools director and teachers this morning at the Lycee Ahmed Sekou Toure, named after the first President of Guinea who ruled the country for 26 years after the French took off in ‘58. They’re an interesting group of men with great rhetoric but little enthusiasm. I put together a schedule with just over 14 hours of classes a week, not including the extra time I wanted to put in with BAC preparations but I think I can handle it. The two English teachers actually speak little English, and one invents the class as he goes along, unaware that the second has the schoolbook. The book is on how to teach English in Guinea, published in 1995. The first teacher didn't even know the other guy had one, let alone that the school has a library...I think I had them in a room together for the first time ever. Unbelievable to think that even the teachers refrain from sharing. In the first few minutes of the meeting it became clear that they wanted to unload all of their classes on me. Not suprising when they are only paid less than 2$ an hour, and that all of the English classes are unpaid overtime.
I know I can do a better job, so I’m confident I will succeed, but I realize it’s going to be quite challenging. My first 2 hour lecture starts Wednesday, and I plan on making use of the accessibility I have to printing equipment at the company’s headquarters. The students never received a handout before since they have no books, no electricity, and no paper. I brought a book from California, but I’ll have to make some heavy changes to adapt some of the context, names and places to local customs. I also got my hands on a Peace Corps guide on teaching English in Guinea... The real challenge will be in seeing how motivated they are and what triggers their interests. How I can focus a lecture on something that concerns them, and turn their attention towards issues that could get them equally involved in school and in the community.
I think most at the base have realized the opportunity they have to get some free English classes. The Guinean employees around the base are also asking me for lessons and are jealous that they’re being left out so I’m organizing a few classes a week to get everyone involved. It seems like they’re really motivated and it’s great to see when there’s so much room for learning and change. My driver Balde, pronounced ‘Balday,’ sat down with me for an hour and a half or so and we went through some basic exercises, name, number, address, date of birth kind things. I quickly recognized how hard this was going to be. The pronunciation was something I left out, and from French to English, some even from Malinke, the dialect spoken in the region, each letter comes with different ways of moving your tongue, your mouth and your teeth. Everything you plan for has to be stretched out and takes twice as long as you thought it would.
I got a little black Casio for 4 dollars in the market today, although everyone told me I could have gotten it for 2$. I got the Babou price, the ‘white mans’ deal. When I was walking down the road the little kids with huge smiles on their faces were pointing at me and screaming: “Babouni, Babouni Babouni!” Essentially meaning: 'petit blanc, petit blanc!’ And then they wave at you, and you wave back, and they jump up and down with a smile and a swirl, sometimes even a little dance. It’s a triumph for both of us. Once I started shaking hands with one of the little guys before I had to embark in the Cruiser and 20 or so wrapped all around me to touch me and shake my hand or get a high five. It was so cool. They were standing around the entire time watching me until I finally broke the status-quo and touched one of them, so green light and they all jumped on the occasion to meet me.
I went over to the basketball courts around 5 to see if I could build a stronger relationship with the kids and keep up the daily workout routine. Since the last time I played basketball was in high school five years ago, I was awful. But I figured if I could at least last as long as them, if not longer, and run for every ball, I could gain their respect. So they encouraged me for my effort since I had some strength left despite the pain pumping through my legs and right shoulder from the game we played with my brother on Saturday. Unless you’re used to running and sprinting, a one and half hour basketball game can come as quite a shock to your body with no water or time-outs. They have no way of keeping time or score so we play until it’s dark out or until they insist on stopping. Some of them asked my how I kept in shape, and I just answered “swimming,” knowing that surfing was a tuff one to explain. In Conakry I was trying to demonstrate it to a guy, using one hand as the wave, and the other as the surfer, and when I began weaving them between one another he started laughing. I don’t think he believed me. So I stuck to swimming for now.
The one thing that bothered me the most was the kids failure and inability to get along with each other, and the way they treat girls and those younger than them. We're taught to resort to violence as ultimately the last resort or in self defence. But here emotion and violence often come first. I can't say I never saw two players fight because of a bad call or foul play, or a boy throw a ball at a girl in the face, or maybe even an older teen pushing a kid to the ground, but it was a wake-up call seeing all of this in context. It just made me rethink the way we act back home. The players couldn't argue, they could only yell and fight if something went wrong. They would often violently throw the ball at each other, if it wasn't at a girl, for no particular reason. As little kids gathered around the court to watch the 'Babouni' in action, the older players would chase them off, push them around and herd them away like the little goats that hop around the village. I will teach by example, impose myself when I think something is wrong, whether it is in the school or elsewhere. I'm here as a volunteer but also as myself. And even if our customs differ, I won't just sit by the sidelines and watch. I can teach them the meaning of equality, of hard work, and guide them so that they can inspire to lead their community by the right example.
The situation in Kerouane at the school, between the teachers, the leaders and elders of the community, between the children in the streets and on the basketball courts, can be seen like an allegorical novel. But unlike William Golding's book, the ambition, and the will to achieve and compete that we are familiar with is replaced by a disinterest and inability to strive to reach a greater position. People believe instead it will be handed to them or that it is beyond their control, “Inshallah.” So people tend to think individually, but strive for different things than we would in such a stripped down environment. Rationality is rapidly replaced by emotionality and disputes immediately turn into screaming and violence whether between grown men, or children on the basketball court or in the market. I hope that in the time that I am here, I can help the kids learn that ambition, initiative, and motivation can be used to improve the community as well as breed individual freedom and morality.
I met with the schools director and teachers this morning at the Lycee Ahmed Sekou Toure, named after the first President of Guinea who ruled the country for 26 years after the French took off in ‘58. They’re an interesting group of men with great rhetoric but little enthusiasm. I put together a schedule with just over 14 hours of classes a week, not including the extra time I wanted to put in with BAC preparations but I think I can handle it. The two English teachers actually speak little English, and one invents the class as he goes along, unaware that the second has the schoolbook. The book is on how to teach English in Guinea, published in 1995. The first teacher didn't even know the other guy had one, let alone that the school has a library...I think I had them in a room together for the first time ever. Unbelievable to think that even the teachers refrain from sharing. In the first few minutes of the meeting it became clear that they wanted to unload all of their classes on me. Not suprising when they are only paid less than 2$ an hour, and that all of the English classes are unpaid overtime.
I know I can do a better job, so I’m confident I will succeed, but I realize it’s going to be quite challenging. My first 2 hour lecture starts Wednesday, and I plan on making use of the accessibility I have to printing equipment at the company’s headquarters. The students never received a handout before since they have no books, no electricity, and no paper. I brought a book from California, but I’ll have to make some heavy changes to adapt some of the context, names and places to local customs. I also got my hands on a Peace Corps guide on teaching English in Guinea... The real challenge will be in seeing how motivated they are and what triggers their interests. How I can focus a lecture on something that concerns them, and turn their attention towards issues that could get them equally involved in school and in the community.
I think most at the base have realized the opportunity they have to get some free English classes. The Guinean employees around the base are also asking me for lessons and are jealous that they’re being left out so I’m organizing a few classes a week to get everyone involved. It seems like they’re really motivated and it’s great to see when there’s so much room for learning and change. My driver Balde, pronounced ‘Balday,’ sat down with me for an hour and a half or so and we went through some basic exercises, name, number, address, date of birth kind things. I quickly recognized how hard this was going to be. The pronunciation was something I left out, and from French to English, some even from Malinke, the dialect spoken in the region, each letter comes with different ways of moving your tongue, your mouth and your teeth. Everything you plan for has to be stretched out and takes twice as long as you thought it would.
I got a little black Casio for 4 dollars in the market today, although everyone told me I could have gotten it for 2$. I got the Babou price, the ‘white mans’ deal. When I was walking down the road the little kids with huge smiles on their faces were pointing at me and screaming: “Babouni, Babouni Babouni!” Essentially meaning: 'petit blanc, petit blanc!’ And then they wave at you, and you wave back, and they jump up and down with a smile and a swirl, sometimes even a little dance. It’s a triumph for both of us. Once I started shaking hands with one of the little guys before I had to embark in the Cruiser and 20 or so wrapped all around me to touch me and shake my hand or get a high five. It was so cool. They were standing around the entire time watching me until I finally broke the status-quo and touched one of them, so green light and they all jumped on the occasion to meet me.
I went over to the basketball courts around 5 to see if I could build a stronger relationship with the kids and keep up the daily workout routine. Since the last time I played basketball was in high school five years ago, I was awful. But I figured if I could at least last as long as them, if not longer, and run for every ball, I could gain their respect. So they encouraged me for my effort since I had some strength left despite the pain pumping through my legs and right shoulder from the game we played with my brother on Saturday. Unless you’re used to running and sprinting, a one and half hour basketball game can come as quite a shock to your body with no water or time-outs. They have no way of keeping time or score so we play until it’s dark out or until they insist on stopping. Some of them asked my how I kept in shape, and I just answered “swimming,” knowing that surfing was a tuff one to explain. In Conakry I was trying to demonstrate it to a guy, using one hand as the wave, and the other as the surfer, and when I began weaving them between one another he started laughing. I don’t think he believed me. So I stuck to swimming for now.
The one thing that bothered me the most was the kids failure and inability to get along with each other, and the way they treat girls and those younger than them. We're taught to resort to violence as ultimately the last resort or in self defence. But here emotion and violence often come first. I can't say I never saw two players fight because of a bad call or foul play, or a boy throw a ball at a girl in the face, or maybe even an older teen pushing a kid to the ground, but it was a wake-up call seeing all of this in context. It just made me rethink the way we act back home. The players couldn't argue, they could only yell and fight if something went wrong. They would often violently throw the ball at each other, if it wasn't at a girl, for no particular reason. As little kids gathered around the court to watch the 'Babouni' in action, the older players would chase them off, push them around and herd them away like the little goats that hop around the village. I will teach by example, impose myself when I think something is wrong, whether it is in the school or elsewhere. I'm here as a volunteer but also as myself. And even if our customs differ, I won't just sit by the sidelines and watch. I can teach them the meaning of equality, of hard work, and guide them so that they can inspire to lead their community by the right example.
The situation in Kerouane at the school, between the teachers, the leaders and elders of the community, between the children in the streets and on the basketball courts, can be seen like an allegorical novel. But unlike William Golding's book, the ambition, and the will to achieve and compete that we are familiar with is replaced by a disinterest and inability to strive to reach a greater position. People believe instead it will be handed to them or that it is beyond their control, “Inshallah.” So people tend to think individually, but strive for different things than we would in such a stripped down environment. Rationality is rapidly replaced by emotionality and disputes immediately turn into screaming and violence whether between grown men, or children on the basketball court or in the market. I hope that in the time that I am here, I can help the kids learn that ambition, initiative, and motivation can be used to improve the community as well as breed individual freedom and morality.
hey Austin- I'm Janet Treseder's niece. she sent me the link to your blog because of my past work with low-income kids in new orleans and current interest in (alternative/creative) education. You have an interesting (and complex) story unfolding here. it brings me back to similar joys/frustrations i had with the minute social dynamics...struggles to find the truest balance between loving/soaking up a deep-rooted culture while somehow also in a role of "volunteer" who brings outside energy and personal convictions. i often wonder if i ever got remotely close! best wishes,
ReplyDelete-gloria