Everyday is an Adventure!

March 8, 2011

Friday and Saturday:  I’ve got girls coming to basketball practice!  They are pretty bad right now, but they are starting to improve their dribbling and shooting.  Their biggest problem is traveling and double dribbling. The boys have been very helpful in coaching them and explaining things far better than I can in French or Ewe.  I try, but I just do not have the vocabulary. 

Sunday:  I biked 12 km to Tabligbo to meet the counterpart of another volunteer.  The counterpart raises animals including goats and I want him to start making goat milk. I don’t know if it is worth his time or if anyone other than me would buy it, but I like the idea of having real milk and being able to make my own butter, cheese and maybe yogurt.  Powdered milk just isn’t the same.

 About 10 km into the trip I got a flat tire. I had stopped for some water when I heard a hiss and immediately assumed that I heard a snake.  I saw one while biking to another village last week, so I was being a bit reactive.  The last thing I want to do is get bit by mamba!  I quickly grabbed my bike and moved it to the other side of the path.  Some children gathered around me and I tried to explain to them via charades what I thought had happened.  It wasn’t until I had gotten back on my bike that I realized what the hiss had really been.

One of the children, none of whom spoke French tried to explain to me that there was a mechanic nearby.  I had no idea what they were saying, but they took my bike and started to push it in the direction I came from.  We passed a man who asked what was happening and told me that there was in fact a bike mechanic a bit up the path.  The timing of this flat was incredibly lucky because there is no other village for the first 9km out of my own. 

The hole was where the intake is attached to the inner tube.  I had no idea if it could even be fixed and I sat by the mechanic really stressed out while he went to work.  I ride my bike everyday to get to school, basketball practice, or to travel to neighboring villages.  Not to mention the fact that I was pretty far from my village and don’t know what I would have done if it hadn’t been repaired.  Carry it on a motorcycle?  I hear it has been done.  In fact people here seem to be able to carry almost anything on a motorcycle including dining tables, goats, my surfboard, you name it.  I was incredibly relieved when we put the tire back on and it held air.  He had taken the old intake off and glued on a new one that won’t work with my pump, but will work with the pumps they have here so its really no big deal. 

The rest of the trip went without a hitch.  Daniel is very interested in the goat milk idea, he’s already got the goats.  We just have to figure out how to milk them, and then how to pasteurize and store it.  I’m looking forward to more sources of protein.  I can’t imagine that eating as many eggs as 10 eggs a week can be good for me.
Monday:  Back to Tabligbo.  I heard through some volunteers that my cellphone carrier has a usb key modem that is pay as you go.  Another 12km each way on the bike to go to the Togocel boutique.  I make sure to ask if the key will work on my Mac and the sales people assure me it will.  “Very easy to set up, very easy!  This will work great in Kouve!”  So I buy it.  The whole way home I am soooooo excited to have internet access, to be able to email whenever I want to, to possibly skype if the connection was fast enough. 

You can imagine my disappointment when I got home, turn on the computer, stuck in the key and realized that the software would only work on a PC.  The user manual claims it should work, but doesn’t have any directions or trouble shooting info.  I called their customer service line and asked how this thing is supposed to work with my Mac.  They told me that I would have to bring the key and my computer back to the store and they can help me configure it there.  My hopes are still up at this point.

I wasn’t up for a third trip on my bike, so I motoed back to the store.  The sales guy and I tried to figure it out, but couldn’t so he said that the “chief” would be able to.  I waited an hour and a half for this guy to show up and then even he couldn’t help me, because it plain and simply wont work on my computer. It took us another 30 minutes to confirm what I at this point had already assumed.  The chief called the store in Lome, they told him to do a whole bunch of stuff that wont work on a Mac.  I kept telling him to ask them specifically if it will work on a Mac, which he doesn’t.  Then he wants to know what my operating system is, which I tell him is Mac OSX 10.6 which he relays to the person over the phone and finally the lightbulb goes on.  “Well you have to have Windows.” 

I can’t entirely blame them.  These people had probably never even seen a Mac before, they probably thought all computers ran Windows.  However, it does get frustrating that it feels like no one ever listens to what you are asking or gives you a straight.  No matter what you ask, it seems like the answer is yes.  Sometimes this results in your taxi getting lost, because he doesn’t actually know where you have asked him to take you or they try to take you somewhere else because they have decided in advance that it is where you want to go.  And it happens in my English class where if I ask if they have understood, they almost always say “Yes, Sir!”  I will blame all that on ineffective communication. 

Tuesday:  This morning was the final exam for my English class.  These tests are downright ridiculous.  They are written by the regional inspectors and are full of mistakes and words that the students have possibly never studies. The students were asked to write an essay, which is really just a paragraph, on the prompt “Talk about a journey you made to a village. This will help you:  by foot or by car?  with your friends, brothers, or parents? what is the name of *his village?  what did you do/eat? Did you like the journey?”  *typo

The students did not understand the incomplete sentences and no matter how many times I explain it, they seem unable to understand what an “essay” really is.  For example one response was:
-by car
-parents
-village name is Lome
-I sees the food
-Yes I like because he is verry good. 

I get really frustrated because I want my students to be successful, but I have no control over how they are tested.  Frankly the directions are confusing, especially for someone in their second year of learning this language, and it is unfair to use things on the test which are not taught to them.  However, this is the system and what I really need to teach them is better reading comprehension and test taking skills so that they can do their best to guess when they have no idea what something means. 

This afternoon I finished a book, baked some Foccaccia, tended to my tree nursery and fetched water from the pump. And I’m also suffering through this nasty medication called Fasigyne because I’ve got Giardia.  Now I’m hanging out with my crazy kitten who is zooming around the house and eating bugs.  I think I’m in love.

Its amazing how much one can complain about and really be very content to be where they are.  Aside from the trash, my village is really pretty, and when they are not yelling “yovo” the people are super nice. I’ve got all these ladies that speak no French who just talk about me in Ewe like I understand and I just stand there looking bewildered saying yes whenever it seems appropriate and then we giggle and go our separate ways.  Me with a 25 gallon “bidon” of water strapped to my bike, they carrying basins of the same volume of water on their heads.