Friday, November 30, 2007

40 Years

This past week I was in the Banjul area for Peace Corps meetings and ceremonies. This month we are celebrating Peace Corps The Gambia's 40th Anniversary. It is the only country in the world the Peace Corps has been in to go for 40 years without interruption of service (wars, civil unrest, violent coups, etc). It was a good weekend. We had Thanksgiving dinner at the Ambassador's house on the beach, and a couple days later we had a ceremony at a hotel to celebrate the 40th anniversary. The program was put together well and included speeches from our new country director, PC staff, testimonials from Gambians, a slideshow, and a secret agent-esque official congratulations from the desk of the U.S. Peace Corps Director, except the message didn't self-destruct afterwards, and to tell you the truth I didn't recognize the director because the directorship has changed since I've been here. Nevertheless, I'm going to request a copy of the video e-mailed to me personally. Most impressively, a gentleman from the first PC group in 1967 was there and he hasn't left the country since. I'm not too sure what kind of work he has been doing, but he seemed normal. On the abnormal side of things, I met a man that said something to the effect of "I arrived here in 1980. My name used to be Tim but now I'm Brother Dimas!" He was a heavy-set, jolly and jovial type, had long white hair, a big white beard, a blue monk-like outfit, and a big wooden "T" necklace.

Right now we're in the middle of final exams here at the high school. We will be generating reports cards from our database for the first time as long as no catastrophes occur.

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving, and don't forget to remind your children this holiday season (especially if they're refusing to eat) that there are starving PC volunteers in Africa.

Friday, November 09, 2007

Cacophony of the Apocalypse

At approximately 5:50 A.M. this morning I woke up to 3 simultaneous prayer calls, 2 donkeys, a pack of stray dogs howling, a rooster, and an unknown bird. The first prayer call acted as the catalyst. One gets used to all those sounds and can even sleep through them, but the way they all came to together this morning grabbed my ears like meat hooks fresh from a kiln. In case you need visual assistance in imagining what the cacophony of the apocalypse will sound like:



Friday, November 02, 2007

Chalkdust Torture


Due to the never ending battle of our school's fuse box and faulty wiring, these past two weeks it has been back to the chalk board; no electricity. I'm beginning to master methods of stalling classes, and I'm starting to become aware of my former teachers' stalling methods that I never noticed at the time. Unfortunately, the most obvious method, playing a videotaped PBS series, is not an option. I'm also getting extremely good at slowing down my speech to speeds not uncommon to the crawling pace of an injured sloth.

Lack of silence usually doesn't bother me in the computer lab because students are always helping each other to find solutions and moving about, but when I'm trying to lecture and explain things on the chalkboard I require silence. This can often be difficult to come by, especially on entering a classroom. I'm tired of yelling, so lately I've been working on my Clint Eastwood "I don't have six-shooter drawn but as you can see by the look on my face I'm about to pump your head full of mind bullets, or maybe throw an eraser at you, and you'll be pushin' daiseys, unless you take out your notebook and pencil and shut the hell up." I'm getting pretty good at it. My favorite stare-downs occur when the rest of the class notices it and submits except for maybe two people, and the whole class is silent, shifting glances from me to them in anticipation of what will happen next... BOOM! Eraser in the face.