Endspurt

It is done!

Friday, students were allowed to come in casual clothes, and they brought food for everyone.

My year of teaching English in Abidjan has officially come to a close.

We had our graduation celebration last Sunday at the big event hall of the Police School. It was a nice event, a very positive vibe going on and lots of people (over 200). For me, it was an enjoyable occasion, though it also meant saying goodbye to the kids, whom I will miss a lot.

The last couple of weeks very quite intense, having to finish the report cards, and many of the kids finally waking up to the reality of school: If you don’t do any work, it will show in your results. Some understood that when I told them, others were honestly surprised. So most of the time in class I was moving from student to student non-stop, corrected their work during break and lunchtime and handed it back the lesson after. I did not sit down for a minute!

I have learned so many things this year about being a teacher and understanding African culture! These experiences will help me in my future teaching, and remain nice memories. My point system for discipline worked out quite well I believe, at least for 70% of the class. Some improved their behavior a lot during the year, some stayed the same, but none declined, which is nice! Additionally, I could make many connections and find really good friends in my colleagues, a fact which cannot be taken for granted!

I have only 10 days left in the country, 5th of July I will be leaving 😦

With my students: Maryvonne and Yan Ting

With my students: Maryvonne and Roseline

My students from Grade 8: Graduated!

The Highschool graduates giving their speeches, and many tears are shed

Pierrick and I

With my bro Willie

With the sports teacher, Eloge

With my bro Armand

I will try to get more and better pictures of graduation when the official photographer arrives.

Meanwhile, the rainy season has started quite dramatically, from months without any rain during the day, to an entire week of torrential rain. The effect of rain on society here is immense! Think of it equivalent to snow in London: public transport stops, few people show up to work, markets are closed. When it rains, everything stops here. To top it off, sometimes electricity breaks down, so even working inside on your computer is not possible, unless your place has a generator (not many places do).

 

Moi et mon frere Wisdom, at his home for dinner

His daughter, who tried taking pictures and succeeded after some tries 🙂

I visited the home of Wisdom, a friend I made in Palmerai. He is motivated to find a good job as a driver, and always on the search, but even with an agency it’s tough. If you have a car, you can hire someone privately for about 80.000 FCFA (€122,10) a month, to drive you around at any time to any place you want. You need to be lucky to find someone who pays decently. He told me he wants to work for white people, because they pay well and on time.

Anyways, he invited me for some spaghetti africaine. I think it’s amazing how easy people can trust you here and invite you into their homes, feed you and everything. And you find many who really just want to give out of a good heart, not because they want money from you.

What will I be doing until I go back to Austria? I want to try to visit different places, but most probably within Abidjan. I hope everything works out and I can tell you after 🙂

One thing that is sure:
I have started working on a website for the school, to give it more publicity and make the information for the parents more accessible. For now I’m gathering information and pictures.

 

The Old Gods and the New

The Old Gods

One of the many busses with “Dieu”, many other have Bible verses on them. Ignore the bullet holes.

At our school, we have kids who are Christian: Catholic, Protestant. We also have kids who are Muslim, also some with Jewish background. The dialogues are quite interesting, considering that the school provides a Christian American curriculum. Sometimes the Muslim kids complain about having to study about the Bible and Jesus. They tell me (mostly when studies are tough),

“I’m a Muslim, I don’t need to study the Bible!”

I ask them, “So then why are you at a school with a Christian curriculum?”

“My parents put me here.”

“Are your parents Muslim?”

“Of course!”

“Then they are wise people.”

As of 2008, 38,6% of Ivorians are Muslim, 32,8% Christian, and 28% African Indigenous (wiki). Generally speaking, in Westafrica, the North of the countries is majority Muslim, and the South mainly Christian. The cities, especially Abidjan, are completely mixed, though.

Especially these days when you hear about groups such as Boko Haram terrorizing in the name of God, and the killing of Muslims in Central African Republic, having kids of different background, nationality, ethnicity and faith in the same class truly crosses borders. With the right sense of mediation, this kind of coeducation helps to prevent future misunderstandings and conflicts.

Quite striking when arriving from Austria is the quantitative jump of church attendance here. Sunday morning is Church Time. The pastors are like rockstars here. The Archbishop Duncan from Ghana has an own police escort plus three Escalades and a Hummer. While we were stuck in traffic, police ploughed his way through the masses. Truly a man of God, with the purse of a King (the former may be debatable). On TV you may watch some preachers putting their congregation into trance and people fainting when he touches their heads. They have definitely developed their own style of worship, with dances, drums and chanting. I would recommend to anybody to partake in a service like this, even just for the experience. As the pastors are rockstars, the service becomes a rock concert 😉

The New Gods

“And the white man comes directly after God!”

is what a friend told me recently. “Because they can do so many things that no black man can do!”

“But what is it they do?”

“They can build roads; all the companies for construction, they are not from here!”

The new God: Jack Bauer!

 

“Thank you, mother”. You may not fear God, but you better fear your mother 😉

Lacoste, Gucci and DG are popular brands to show off your money. Of course you can buy them at the market for 2 €.

While the tourguide at the national heritage museum was mourning the disappearance of African Indigenous religions, others welcome the change and see it as development.

So I ask the questions:

• Concerning the growing middle class, who try to copy the “European (middle class) Dream”, how will secularisation affect the local culture?
• Is the decline of spirituality inevitably connected to the rise of wealth? Why (not) in Africa?
• In the perspective of diversity and preservation, should indigenous religion and culture be encouraged and developed?

 

You Shall Not Pass! (on first try)

We just finished the second of three terms at school, and I handed out the report cards showing the grades. Everyone passed. But the reason is, simply put, because there is no possibility to fail.

Our school works with the homeschooling system. The student can study at his/her preferred speed. Some of my students finished two grades within one year, or two within three years. It sounded amazing to me, as it seemingly only depended on your level of motivation, when you finish your grade.

But there are some hurdles which are quite tough to pass:

Dilemma 1: Haste

Frequently, my students tell me: “Mr teacher, I cannot do this, I am too stupid.”

And I ask them, “What do you have to do, and what is the problem?”

“I don’t know what I have to do.”

“Did you read the instructions for the task?”

“No, I just want to do it. I want to do the tests and finish my grade!”

The problem is simple: the pressure is on finishing tests and grades, not on learning a language properly and doing your work well. They end up leaving out tasks which they don’t understand or feel like doing. They get angry with the teacher when he/she tells them that they cannot skip tasks: “Teacher, you are blocking me from advancing, I want to finish my book!” or “Ah, teacher, you don’t like me!”, as if working well and studying was a punishment.

Dilemma 2: Buddy system

The setting would be perfect for a buddy system, where students help each other out: older students, or those who are more advanced already, could help out those who are struggeling. I’d love to utilize that system. Problem: “buddy” too often means they hand over their books and copy-paste the results, including errors. Learning progress: zero.

Another problem: conflict. Maybe that’s just my class, but there are verbal and manual (to the face) fights nearly every day. Buddy system means communication, and communication means noise, that is unavoidable. I’d be fine with that, but sadly whenever I gave it a try – the noise happened, but the work didn’t. Furthermore, instead of helping the other person, the older buddies make fun of the younger students, resulting in a fight.

Dilemma 3: Multiple-choice tests

It’s no news that our educational system is seldomly testing knowledge, abilities or intelligence, but rather only the ability to regurgitate temporally stored information.

We study, not to learn, but to pass exams.

This contradiction reaches a new level when using multiple-choice tests. Now you don’t even have to just learn how to remember things, you can basically stop understanding them at all. In fact, you can pass tests without even having read the questions.

For grade 6-8, which I teach, there are 20 questions on the test. There are three possible answers for each question.

The lowest you could score is 35%, a clear fail. Now the real problem is that students can redo the test without the first try being counted, and being allowed to inspect the former (identic) test sheet. The theoretical score is 70%. Voilà, you passed!

Cheating slips used to be hard work to create, and enhanced the learning process of the author. With multiple choice, a slip that will get you 100% may look like this:
“11323213311123123323”.

Easy to forge, easy to hide, and no enhancement whatsoever.

Resumé:

The homeschooling system does not give freedom. It just switches positions of teacher and student.

In the classical school system, the teacher is literally and also figuratively in the front of class. He is deciding the speed of learning. If you can’t keep up, you’re left behind and fail. But not matter how fast you think you’re going, you can never really catch up with the Achillean tortoise.

Homeschooling puts the teacher behind the student – again both literally and figuratively. The student decides the speed of learning; The teacher stands behind him, looking over his shoulder and helping him solving problems. But it does not end there. The teacher also has to be like a bulldozer, pushing the student to advance.

So even though it seems that homeschooling is meant to be students doing work in their books on their own, and the teacher just passively in the background in a supportive role, it really is MUCH tougher for the teacher than being in front. He has to rely on the student’s motivation and will to study, and their maturity. Now… how much maturity and eagerness to study can you expect of an average 11-year-old? How about a 6-year-old?

 

On the bright side:

It’s mango season 🙂 There are around 4-5 different types of mangoes at the local market, with different origin, taste and colour.

I got this beauty (they say it’s a Nigerian Mango) for FCFA 150 (€ 0,23) from across the street of my home.

When a mangoes to Africa, he’ll go bananas for some fresh fruit. (I do apologize)

Otherwise, I’m fine, and recovered well from the Malaria. The kids suspected I had Ebola and recommended I took milk with honey, because that’s what their doctors always tell them.

As I will be enjoying a week of holiday until May 4th, I have some travelling planned. This weekend I will be going to a UPF conference in Gagnoa,  northwest of Abidjan. It’s a smaller place, and I usually enjoy the peace and quiet of such places. I’ll keep you updated!

 

 

Do agric, it pays!

Staying in bed for five days straight, glucose infusion with quinin tied with shoe laces to a hat stand, and this boy pretending to be a doctor… I was glad when it was over.

Sorry for the great delay of the post. Reason was I got sick and had to undergo the Quinin treatment for Malaria. I had a doctor visiting me at home, so it was alright. The most annoying thing about it is having hallucinations from both the sickness and the medication; furthermore, the combination of feeling sick, anemia, insomnia and fever really drains you. But since people have Malaria many times around here, everyone was calm and everyone had extra advice on what to do 🙂

 

 

Africa is often associated with desert, famine and draught. While for some regions that is true, the west-African region from coast until the Sahel provides an immense potential with its arable land and stable climate. Many African countries try to skip the step of succeeding in agriculture in the race for becoming an emerging country. 400 million Africans live in extreme poverty, of which 70% live in rural areas dependent on agriculture. Yet, how much do governments invest into the sector? Only 8 of 54 countries of the African Union have kept their promise of the Maputo declaration of JUly 2003, to invest at least 10% of the annual budget into agriculture.

Remarkably, the multiplier effect of agricultural growth in sub-Saharan Africa is estimated to be 11 times greater in reducing poverty than in other non-agricultural sectors, such as utilities and mining.

– Dr Sipo Moyo, Africa Director of ONE (http://www.one.org/)

Just about an hour’s trip from Abidjan’s market and bus station Adjame is INPRAT (Institut PRive d’Agriculture Tropicale), a school for secondary and tertiary level education on agriculture. Since arriving in Cote d’Ivoire I’ve always wanted to see tropical vegetation and how agriculture works here, so I visited my friend Mafoya at INPRAT.

The change from city to countryside is immensely refreshing for all senses: no bad smells and exhaustion fumes, less rubbish on the streets, less people yelling and running about. All is replaced by a peaceful tranquility, balm for the mind of a stressed teacher 😉 The school grounds are in the forest, but students live in a village across the street.

I asked for a full tour, though I’ve forgotten to take pictures of the actually school buildings. But anyways, they are just buildings like in the city. At the school there are around 500 students from age 16 till 27, who all chose their preferred field of expertise in the sector: fish-farming, cow-herding, breeding rabbits; cultivation of plants such as maize, yam, cassava, rice or plantain; the extraction of rubber from Hevea plants – and all the theory that goes with it.

When we arrived on Saturday, we met the headmaster of the school, who made little effort to greet, but much more effort to advertise the agricultural sector: “Agriculture is good money! Welcome to our school.”

African rice fields!

almost ready to harvest!

Here we are at a rice field. Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire used to be self-sustaining in their rice industries until the 90s, when government deemed the crop’s quality not good enough and changed to import, mainly from Vietnam. In a slow struggle, rice is making its way back, and you can find “Riz local” at the market.

well planned plantain plantations

Plantain is a type of banana that’s used for cooking. It’s tough and less sweet than the common banana that we find at the supermarket in Europe. Plantain is either cooked or fried, and usually served with fish. Aloko is one of the favourite national dishes.

As you can see the school actually plants the trees in rows… which is not the case when you go to the fields and plantations of the farmers of the village. Only the big food producers use land that systematically.

A football field… the cows are not supposed to be there, but they seem to enjoy their outing. The cattle is a rather small species, their shoulders barely reaching our hips. The main purpose is meat.

The machine for the rice-shredding. Yeah, it’s rather ancient. In the back you can see the stalls for rabbits and quail. Unfortunately all but one quail got eaten recently… by forest ants. Damn nature, you scary!

The beautiful lake which is providing the water for the fish-farming.

New piglets, just couple of months old. They reach maturity so fast!

Hevea Brasilensis, the rubber-tree is a new trend in west-Africa. After about 20 years of growth, the tree’s circumference  is measured 1 metre above ground. If the circumference is beyond 50cm, the harvest of rubber can begin: with a very sharp machete, the farmer cuts the bark of the tree in an inclined way, so the sap flows down into a bowl. Having produced rubber in a chemistry laboratory, seeing rubber being extracted from trees seemed like magic to me.

A peaceful little hut in the forest 🙂 It turns out this is an illegal distillery run by the village. They distill palm wine here. Looks neither safe nor clean – and definitely illegal; therefore hidden in the bush.

Refreshing ourselves after the tour with some cold, bottled water. The water from the tub is also drinkable, but tastes of soil. The fruit in the foreground is used to produce the orange-reddish palm oil, the most common oil for cooking in west-Africa.

These two students, friends of Mafoya, repeatedly asked me to search for Austrian wives for them, and vehemently proclaimed their being serious about it. So, any takers? 😉

The president of the student’s union was working hard cutting some bamboo for building. He did not fail to tell me about how agriculture is the best, and how it makes a lot of money.

A cocoa tree in the middle of the village. When the fruit becomes orange like the one in the center of the picture, you can harvest the crop. The inside is eatable, but the main product is the seed, which is dried and exported to Europe for processing. Cote d’Ivoire is the world’s #1 cocoa exporter.

Finally, a nice meal before going back to Abidjan: Soy beans, tomatoes, white pepper, onions and garlic, with palm oil and rice. All ingredients from the village market, all natural and pesticide free. It tasted amazing as well.

Agriculture surely is a sector to be watched closely in the following decades, concerning the constant fear of overpopulation and undernourishment. It is essential, though, that African leaders don’t sell out their farmers and arable land, else they will end up producing cheaply, and importing the products of their own produce all over again.

“Here in Africa, we beat our children!”

Classroom discipline is one of the most important, daily responsibilities of a teacher. Yet there are barely any courses on how to achieve it, neither is the problem really recognized by the public. As a young teacher, you are thrown into the lions’ den, and then God help you.

This was also my feeling when I started teaching at Jina school in Abidjan. I had no real concept for keeping the class quiet and neat, or what kind of punishments apply when rules were broken. I just handed out the school rules, which included good behavior and respect towards the teachers, and thought that this should do the trick. I even went as far as most websites and books on discipline suggest:

• have a classroom discussion about rules
• create rules together and discuss what kind of punishment is fair and just
• print them and put them up in class
• apply the rules with great consistency and hold students accountable

As you might guess, that’s by FAR not all that is needed to create a classroom atmosphere where students behave and feel motivated to study and treat each other respectfully. The classroom continued to be loud and there were no 5 minutes of focussed studying. I am not even exaggerating. The punishments for misbehavior were in order of graveness (after a warning):

1. copying the rule you broke 10-50 times into your book
2. kneeling at your desk
3. being sent out of class for the remainder of the lesson
4. being reported to the headmistress
5. being reported and your parents get a phonecall

The students know these and have seen all of them carried out. Still, no change.

Then one day, student Timmy (name changed by author) goes too far. He is on his knees already, copying the rule he has broken, and just starts insulting a student behind him until that one gets upset and they start an open fight in the middle of class. I have to interrupt my lesson, go inbetween the two students who had started strangling each other, and bring them to the headmistress’ office. Together, we decide to give the parents a call. Having had teaching experience in Austria, I thought, “Anyways, what’s the point of telling parents, they don’t really care.” I was so wrong. We got the mum of Timmy on the phone. After a few sentences of explanation, she just answers, “Ok, I’m coming.” and hangs up. 20 minutes later she is with us in the office. I explain to her what happened in class, and why we had given her a call. And she looks at me, not without anger, and said,

I know that in Europe, things are different. But here in Africa, we beat our children”

And she did. In front of the headmistress, the secretary, and myself. On the head, the back and shoulders, while talking to him angrily why he was humiliating his family. When she was done, I took my leave to continue teaching in class, with TImmy being left behind in the office. Besides the anger I felt for him disobeying and fighting in class, seeing him getting beaten in front of everyone I actually felt pity for him.

The incident made me realize a few things:

First, African kids fear their mothers more than anything else. Nothing will scare them, no extra work, kneeling, being sent out of class. But you mention their mothers, and they will budge.

Second, despite having followed and carried out the disciplinary measures, less than half the class followed them and went through a week without being punished.

Third, I want to find a way how to manage my classroom without beating kids, obviously. But is that my arrogant Western-European attitude, my inability to adapt to the culture? If I want the kids to succeed in studies, they need to be disciplined. I just have to find a way how. So I created a behavior scale with different measures. Every student starts with 100 points, and when they break a rule, I deduct 2 to 6 points. When their points reach below 80, the office will call their parents. At the start of a new trimester, the points are reset to 100. There is also a reward system, if they do really well or when they hand in extra work.

The system is working quite well, except for some kids. I wondered why, and saw that it’s connected to the punishment. If at home, they get beaten, but at school they can “get away” with easier punishment, they will take advantage of it. Some students behave like angels at home, they are calm and respectful; but once they enter school, hell breaks loose. They become bossy tyrants, and disrespectful towards any authority.

Just beat them!

Is what the behaved kids in class say.

I’m waiting for the day you will beat one of us!

Is what they say themselves.

So for now I can say that discipline is still a great issue in my classroom. I fight with it every day, and it’s making me tired. Now two students are permanently outside class, and another joined a different classroom. There is only one single teacher in the entire school, where the students are (almost) quiet and respectful. And you can guess, why…

It’s half-time, not break-time!

March 2nd marked the completion of my 27th year of life, and 6 months of living and teaching in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, – a perfect occasion to reflect a bit and update you on what I’ve been up to.

1. I went to visit the big Universite de Cocody (which is – guess what – named after Felix Houphouet Boigny) together with my colleague and friend Armand. It’s a huge campus, with nice gardens, lots of nature and places to relax. Having studied at a site that’s somewhat tiny and has no outsides to relax, I could really envy the students passing by. But that feeling changed quickly when hearing of all the troubles students are facing here on a daily basis.

abandoned student accomodation

student apartments left empty

student apartments – “Access prohibited for students” hmmm

The spacious gardens of the campus

Lecture room for economics

University tract for middle- and highschool teachers. They earn quite well (CFA 250.000) and are needed everywhere!

So what might be the problem? Basically since the new presidency, students cannot use the university grounds for accomodation anymore. Nobody could tell me why, but anyways the new president said so. So half the campus is actually empty and it feels like a ghosttown.

2. How’s school?
It’s been seriously intense. But let me show you a bit of the work, that my students are doing. All books are to be done by the students on their own, with teachers supporting when needed. It’s the homeschooling system, and directed towards native speakers… which most of the class actually aren’t. Some don’t even have A1 proficiency, honestly speaking.

Grammar books grade 7 (age 12-13)

The authors are not shy to use the proper terms. Around 5% of the kids actually understand what they mean.

Go on, fill out the exercise! Mind the antecedent!

Civics, Grade 8 (age 14)

America, the land of opportunity… “There is more ambition in America than in any other country in the world. That is because every boy and girl has a better chance in America than in any other country in the world.”

Spelling grade 8 (age 14)

I honestly haven’t seen most of these words until after highschool. Plus they present them without any kind of context or hint.

To sum up, it’s an understatement to say the books are bad. They seem like they aren’t even made for kids! There is nothing on actual writing of coherent texts, no reading exercises connected with the new vocab, no examples. There are barely any illustrations either. The only mark counting on the final grade is a multiple choice test in the end of each unit, or in the case of spelling it is to spell all 20 words of the unit correctly. Many pass the grammar test with 100%, but have not a clue what an action verb is.

So much for the academic side of the school. I will be writing more about student behavior and local teaching culture in my next post.

3. How’s Africa? Are you African yet?
So I’ve been here half a year. I can truly say it’s been a very good decision to come here, and that both professionally as a teacher as well as personally I have learned a lot and now see things from a different angle as well.

Some examples…

• Colonialism has ended in the 60s, but the phantom continues within people’s mentality. Whites are seen as superior. Even among blacks there is racism against those with a darker skin.
• There is such a great diversity between the countries and tribes in Africa. By now I can differentiate between some of the tribes, like the Malenke and Baoulé. Abidjan is so different from Accra, and probably other cities have a different feeling as well.
• Everything is about relationships and being social. Strangers call each other “older brother/sister”, “mama”, “friend”.
• Kids imitate their peers and elder, in the good and bad ways. In a way a classroom is a miniature of society, reflecting cultures and norms, but without the adult ability of adequacy. They speak out freely what their parents think and do at home. If they get beaten at home, they often beat their schoolmates in class. This is how they think respect works, by physical superiority.
• Teaching takes your entire self. If you are distracted by other things in your personal life, or overwhelmed by how different things are, or distracted by the heat –  you will fail miserably.
• Teaching is a FULL TIME JOB, even in my free time, everything focusses on how to improve my teaching and on preparing lessons, revising my policies for classroom behavior, classroom English, and so on. I sometimes don’t even feel I am living in Africa, but I am living at school. I leave the house every day at 6am and come back at 6pm.

I will be staying in Abidjan until the beginning of July, so there’s still much to learn and to see. I will keep you updated 🙂

The early bird catches the flight

And time flies bye; it really does. So I thought in the early morning hours the airport would be nice and quiet. Surprise! 5:30 am – endless waiting lines!

Endless waiting lines at Vienna Airport. Very similar situation in Hamburg and Paris

Silly internet spots in CDG, Paris. Once again it proved useful to have multiple email accounts and get 15 minutes free couple of times 😉

My journey took me from Vienna (free Wifi) via Hamburg (free Wifi) to Paris (expensive wifi! Why??), and finally to Abidjan (super cheap wifi). The journey lasted round 25 hours. When I arrived at the exit at Abidjan airport (like every place of importance named after Felix Houphouet Boigny), immediately a flock of helpers spotted the solo white boy and offered me taxis, SIM cards, a hotel and to change my Euros to CFA. The taxi driver wanted to charge me CFA 10.000 for a journey that I paid 3000 when I took it before. Then I knew I was back in Cote d’Ivoire.
When I finally got back to the house in Riviera Palmerai, I was immediately welcomed by my host family with hugs and African hugs. What are African hugs? Not sure if that’s what they are called, but they are similar to the in-air-kisses left and right, only without the kissing and you only touch each other’s foreheads on the sides with your temples.
I really felt like I was back home – at my second home! After some breakfast and a 4 hours “power-nap” (I couldn’t sleep during the journey) I made my way to Jina School! I’ve been told that we were getting a new classroom and another floor. The building was planned to be finished in a week, but… it doesn’t look like it will be done by that time.

Inspecting the work. The change is much bigger than I had expected

Here’s the wooden frame. They use a wood they call “piemont” (pepper), which smells spicy when dry. It’s cheap, because foreign markets are not interested in it. So the classroom for high school will be larger, and on the second floor there will be office space. It’s a much needed extension, as the classroom was already uncomfortably packed.

Building material at the basketball field.

the floor and sides of the new classroom and offices.

Here’s my classroom. Seems like I will not be able to teach here this week…

Well… my classroom turned into a storage room!

I wanted to activate mobile data on my mobile phone, but they let you purchase the internet on the mobile without telling you that you have to activate it first in a shop. My unlimited Internet USB stick seems to have a limit after all, so it’s not working either. “Cyber Cafés” are closed on Sundays. Am I addicted or is it normal to miss something that you are so used to and depending on?
Gloria, our secretary at the school, had a birthday party, which I was invited to and I attended. It was nice, with much singing and cake and sweets and dancing.

This time I brought five laptops to school, all donated to me by family and friends (Thank you all!!).

yay, laptops for the school!

I really would like to test Moodle in combination with the home schooling system. I think it will be a perfect match. How much effort and financial investment would it take to transform an analogue into a digital classroom? Is there a market for blended learning in Africa? The shipping of the books from the US takes 3 months, and it’s expensive. I will look further into it after talking to the headmistress.

So I will start teaching again on Monday, in small spurts, as the building is still going on. It will be nice to see my students again 🙂

On dit quoi!

Ondiqoi (How are you/ do you have time/ what are you doing?)

I thought I’d let you know how “life” is here. Specifically, what I am actually doing day in, day out.

The days start really early here. I get up every day at five a.m., which I thought was an accomplishment, until some of my Muslim students told me they got up at four a.m. every day. It seems to be normal not to sleep much at all, and despite the scorching heat, there’s no such thing as Siesta either. Bedtime is between 10 p.m. and midnight.

Traditionally, you start your day with an early “bucketshower”. There is no shortage of water, but there is little reliability on the pumps. Often you’d want to wash your hands, but there’s only a faint cough and a few drops of water escaping the tap. Storing water in buckets is a smart thing in two ways. First, it’s building your own reservoir for use. Secondly… bucket showers are more eco-friendly! While in Europe an average shower takes 80 litres of water, a bucket holds 20 litres, which is more than enough. Furthermore, the water remains unheated, saving electricity.

To my own surprise, tap water is drinkable here. If you’re not used to it though, it will mess up your stomach pretty badly until you adapt. By now I’m fine with it.

Breakfast consists of the same palette every day: white baguette with jam. Fortunately there is fruit as well.

I used to go to school by public transport. The more common way is school-busses. As most sub-Saharan countries, Cote d’Ivoire has a very young population, so in the mornings, the streets are crowded with students and school-busses. Good luck though finding a reliable and safe driver! And even then, with our school-bus, we were involved in three crashes and had a narrow escape in another case. The school-bus costs 40.000 CFA per month.

Upon arrival, I seek the calmest spot at school: the library. I link up with the internet. The only chance to get a connection is in the early morning, as not so many people are online at this time. By 10 a.m. all websites are only displayed in text mode, and scripts stopped working.

An equivalent to the bucketshower are these emergency batteries for the computers. You never know when a power outage hits the district, or sometimes the entire city. The more severe problem of outages at school is that the ACs stop working, and with all the heat in the classroom, focus is lost completely.

So after checking mails etc, I teach. I will write another entry solely about that part later on.

I get back home at around 6 p.m. every day. My district is called “Riviera Palmerai”, the Palmtree Forest. It’s the local burgoise, who built nice houses and estates round here. Europeans/whities settled rather in the districts “Golf” and “Marcory”. I barely see any.

 

This is where I live. Rue Baobab, Riviera Palmerai. I share a room with Rodrigue Kisung Aka.

Rodrigue’s dad holds an important position at RTI, the main TV channel of Cote d’Ivoire, so there is always a bodyguard with a Kalashnikov round. There is a guard for the gate, a driver, and there are two cooks. They are treated almost as part of the family, though.

It gets dark between 6 and 6:30 pm every day, so most of my evenings are spent inside, studying French, and preparing lessons for my students. To relax a bit in between, I read books. Right now I’m reading Charles Dickens’ “Nicholas Nickleby”, which I can really recommend.

I was finally able to get a haircut at a place in Palmerai. 3000 CFA (€ 4,60). Hair cutting is an entirely male job here! So instead of “your holidays”, the main subject of small talk is football, haha! Also, so far I have spotted three hairdressers who use pictures of Puff Daddy on their posters. I wonder if he knows…

Saturdays, I try to go out a bit more. Until now, though, I am dependent on other people’s guidance. Today, I am meeting with So-Sheloba, who has a project for a new school in plans.

Food is Love

Food is love, and it is a universal expression of culture, identity and affection. Africans love their food. Every time I tell someone here that I really like their local food, their faces light up and they tell me about all the other foods I have yet to try!

Food is managed in tribes, but since the independence of West African countries, they have started to mix the food, and to create a sort of variety, which didn’t exist until then. Still now, Ivoirian people proudly insist on having the most variety of all West African countries. This is mostly true, because of the waves of immigration from surrounding areas. People immigrate and bring their food and knowledge.
I have by far not tried everything on the market, but the most typical food is offered at every corner (literally, they have little stands where they sell food everywhere).

Willie and I went out to grab food at a place he knows in Cocody, not far from the school. Everything is prepared and fried fresh. Don’t be too picky on hygiene though 😉 The two little bowls of water are given to you to wash your hands before and after the meal, together with a tiny bag of detergent.
So what we have here is “Aloco” [‘a-lo-ko], fried Banana. It is super greasy and sweet, blending perfectly with the spiced meat, and turning your mealtime into a tasty and exotic pleasure. This time we had chicken, but the stands usually sell beef and fish as well. The second side dish is called “azzeke” [a-che-‘ke], made from cassava, sweet potato. It’s served grinded, and in small portions packed into sachés. Its taste is like potato, but a little bit sour. And, of course, everything is eaten with your hands! Super yummy!

To my own surprise, there are a few drinks as well, which are typical for the region. One is “Gnamnankou” [ja-‘mo:-ku:]. That stuff is intense. The yellow, milky liquid consists of sugar, jalapeno, and ginger. It’s served frozen, or at least cold. The first sip feels gentle at the beginning, but the spice burns down your throat seconds after. Together with the icy consistency – a perfectly refreshing drink. On the picture the drink is inside an industrial bottle, but it’s not produced in factories; so people “recycle” bottles of companies and sell it like that.

Drink number two: “Bissap” [‘bi-sap], a purple-red coloured beverage. When I asked what it was made of, mostly I was told “from a red flower” and that it was “good for your blood”. After some research I found out it was hibiscus! In Austria we make tea from it, but the plant is a slightly different one here. And it’s good for the blood: hibiscus is antihypertensive, meaning it regulates, reduces your blood pressure. The drink itself is too sugary for me, I can only enjoy it in the form of ice, served in the little sachés.

This is a typical meal we enjoy at school, where we have three ladies cooking for the kids and teachers every day. So we have fried fish, with azzeke, spices, and a sauce made from onions and tomatoes with palm oil.
Also at home with the family, I eat fish almost every day, with azzeke, rice, yam, cassava, and sometimes even fries.