Work has been busy busy lately, which has been nice. Other than discussing the inculcation of ideas to my chicken group members (see previous entry), my work with the Peer Health Club at the local high school has really taken off.
After sitting in on their meetings last year, trying to get a handle on their premise (“Learn and educate others”), watching them bicker amongst themselves, and seeing them not show up to events or do any outreach, I decided to arrange a Health and Lifeskills curriculum for them, deciding that writing skits is really not my strong suit, especially for people who don’t want to perform them. But if I gave them the correct information, they could do with it what they wanted. They could organize their own skits and spread the word formally, or they could chat with their friends and know that they had the right info. Well, the group that loves to point fingers and evade responsibility has been surprisingly willing to come to my activity sessions. They are even getting used to me wanting things to be interactive. Every other Friday, I ask them to meet for an hour after school, we do a health-related activity, have some juice, and go home. They’ve liked it. They even went so far as to use the info to write a skit and perform it for the school. Good on you, guys!
Last week we were invited to compete in a Drama and Quiz competition on the topic of HIV/AIDS. It was pretty typical notice….two days notice before the event was to occur, the invitation did not include the venue or starting hour, nor any information on how many were to participate, or how long the drama could be. Nonetheless, my group stepped up. I was proud of them. They wrote their own drama, and rehearsed it. We went over HIV/AIDS facts, discussed modes of transmission, prevention, etc.
On the day of the event, they all showed up “on time” (9 AM sharp=11:30ish), and did very well. We answered all our quiz questions correctly. * They performed with gusto. The drama itself didn’t make sense…and I offered that feedback. They performed it well, and I was thrilled that they included song, but the premise didn’t make sense(who is ever going to make the conscious choice to get HIV? No one, the choice is never that cut and dried), and honestly it spread a strong message of fear, which is counter-productive. Nonetheless, they did it all themselves, and after I said my peace about how it spread the wrong message, I felt it was best to just support them and be the best geeked-out, soccer mom supporter ever.
*this is something that I’m wondering. They can memorize facts and repeat them incredibly well, its just something they’re used to as a part of their schooling, but I’m not convinced that they actually believe them. For example, ask them if you can be infected by sharing a food bowl with someone who is infected, and they all will answer no, and explain why using all the right terms. But when push comes to shove, I’m not sure they would eat with someone who is positive. The requisite behavior change is not there, even though they “know” all the right facts. Is it that they have memorized the right words, but don’t know their meaning? Is it just that they don’t believe the books (and me)? Not sure, but while I am proud of their sudden burst of activity, my work in this area is not done.
All in all, we qualified to proceed to the finals, which will be held next Friday. We have to present a new play, so hopefully this one will focus on treatment and sensitivity to those infected. Wish us luck.
Monday, October 26, 2009
Tiyoo!!
Tiyoo!
Pronounced “tee-YOH” Peanuts!!
Its peanut harvest time, and like the corn harvest, there is much to be done. Men and boys pull up the peanut plants, and dangling from the roots are all the peanuts. They then haul them home in big bundles and in wheelbarrows. The women’s job is to pull the peanuts off the roots, a job that takes several days to get through the harvest. It’s dirty work in both departments, but I’ve enjoyed sitting with the women. It’s a good time for chatting, and the old women are downright hilarious. Many a pleasant afternoon has been spent this way.
Later, the nuts will be shelled. Some will be pounded raw for use in rice porridge, some will be ground into peanut butter, and then made into “durango” a peanut sauce, and served over rice. Still others will be roasted and sold by the roadside as snack food. EVERYONE is harvesting, which means there are also a lot of peanuts around. Everyone I help has given me some to bring home, people I pass on the street give me handfuls. The thing is, peanuts don’t emerge from the ground honey-roasted and lightly salted. Raw peanuts? Not for me….they sort of have the same texture and flavor as raw potatoes. I usually give these gifts to the first child I see after I have left whomever gave them to me.
This picture with the kids was sort of funny to try and capture. These children live across the street from me, and there is usually about 17 of them aping in front of the camera wanting their picture taken. Its pretty overwhelming. But today, it was just Tulai and Babucar around, and they were shy. It went like this “Ok, Tulai, hold the peanuts…now look at me. Ok, now Babucar look at me…ok, smile!! Ok, no, look at me. And Tulai look at me. Hey, Babucar, look at me. Ok, smile!” None of them turned out, it was just too much to orchestrate, the looking and the smiling and the peanut-holding. But they are some of my favorite neighborhood kids.
So that’s that. Lots of peanut work. But you know its time for a break when you start to pop all the rotten, hollow peanuts and think “wow, this is fun like bubble wrap!”
Inculcate!
Hey all,
“We seek to inculcate within members a feeling of brotherhood and popular participation in poultry projects…”
“Inculcate?” Really? Actually, I’ve encountered this word twice in the past week…and that’s pretty much two more times than in the whole of the rest of my life, and I thought it was worth a mention. I’ve thought a lot about language since being here, and the ideas that language is meant to relate, and the status symbol of using one language over another.
The chicken group that I’ve been working with has been on hold for a little while. Yes, or grant was approved by the grant committee, but before we could get the money, the man whose job it is to give final approval and write us a check was released from his job. We’re waiting for the UNDP to hire someone else. We’ve been waiting for some time…but we’re patient. This is development. Anyhoo, we’re using our time wisely, to review and revise our group’s constitution. Its written in very flowery, wordy, English and I’m not at all convinced that the general members of the group understand it. We’ve had trouble with people not following the rules laid out in the constitution, so I suggested that maybe revising the wording to make it more straightforward might be a step in the right direction. We seek to inculcate a lot of ideas into the membership. I wonder if we might try to encourage these ideas, or foster them. The other word that was repeated unnecessarily much was “quorum.” Quorum, quorum, quorum. Its not that I don’t know what it means, its not that it was used incorrectly. It’s just that its such an odd word to hear from non-native English speakers. Heck, I’m a native speaker, and I’ve never had need to use it. In fact, I think it lends itself rather well to made-up meanings. (Harry and Ron were having quite a difficult time in Herbology class this term. They had yet to harvest enough quorum to complete their potions. All of a sudden, the seed pods with which they were working burst all over them. “Ugh! I’m covered in quorum and it‘s burning my skin!” yelled Ron. See?) So the goal of the meetings with my group has been to simplify, simplify, simplify, an idea that wasn’t as readily accepted as I thought it might be. I’ve over and over been asking, “yes, but what does that mean? What do you mean by that?” but we’re working through it, slowly slowly.
Oddly, later in the week, I again encountered more people wishing to inculcate ideas or qualities in other people. I stopped by just to greet a headmaster at the local primary school. He was working on revising the school’s mission statement, and wanted me to look it over and give suggestions. According to the statement, the school wishes to inculcate in students all the necessary tools to be successful in life. When I asked just what tools these might be, he listed academic skills, which is great. When I asked if there were any personal qualities which he thought were important to inculcate in the students as well. It was interesting what we came up with. We agreed on such qualities as honesty and a good work ethic. But when I suggested inculcating such qualities as independence and self-sufficiency, these were met with reticence. Even when he was trying to get a word out of me, and defined it as “being able to provide for yourself and your family without resorting to banditry” So self-sufficiency? No, he really didn’t like that idea, it was too focused on the self. Interesting. Yet another time when I am forced to remember how damn American I am, how American my values are, and indeed how well inculcated I was with them throughout my childhood.
Anyway, with both of these documents that my counterparts are trying to write, it was very important to them that they were in English, and even more so, in complicated English. It’s a status thing. But I’ve wondered for awhile just how much is lost in translation. From English to Mandinka, I can get the words right, and surface ideas across, but I think that important connotation, much of which cannot be really explained is lost. Its more obvious to me when it is someone speaking English for whom it is not their native tongue. Even if their words are correct, sometimes I am still pretty sure that what they have said is not what they meant. Or what it means to me, is not what they meant to say exactly. I’m sure it goes the other way. What are we not communicating to each other?
Oh man, I set the goal of saying inculcate 10 times in this entry.
Inculcate!
“We seek to inculcate within members a feeling of brotherhood and popular participation in poultry projects…”
“Inculcate?” Really? Actually, I’ve encountered this word twice in the past week…and that’s pretty much two more times than in the whole of the rest of my life, and I thought it was worth a mention. I’ve thought a lot about language since being here, and the ideas that language is meant to relate, and the status symbol of using one language over another.
The chicken group that I’ve been working with has been on hold for a little while. Yes, or grant was approved by the grant committee, but before we could get the money, the man whose job it is to give final approval and write us a check was released from his job. We’re waiting for the UNDP to hire someone else. We’ve been waiting for some time…but we’re patient. This is development. Anyhoo, we’re using our time wisely, to review and revise our group’s constitution. Its written in very flowery, wordy, English and I’m not at all convinced that the general members of the group understand it. We’ve had trouble with people not following the rules laid out in the constitution, so I suggested that maybe revising the wording to make it more straightforward might be a step in the right direction. We seek to inculcate a lot of ideas into the membership. I wonder if we might try to encourage these ideas, or foster them. The other word that was repeated unnecessarily much was “quorum.” Quorum, quorum, quorum. Its not that I don’t know what it means, its not that it was used incorrectly. It’s just that its such an odd word to hear from non-native English speakers. Heck, I’m a native speaker, and I’ve never had need to use it. In fact, I think it lends itself rather well to made-up meanings. (Harry and Ron were having quite a difficult time in Herbology class this term. They had yet to harvest enough quorum to complete their potions. All of a sudden, the seed pods with which they were working burst all over them. “Ugh! I’m covered in quorum and it‘s burning my skin!” yelled Ron. See?) So the goal of the meetings with my group has been to simplify, simplify, simplify, an idea that wasn’t as readily accepted as I thought it might be. I’ve over and over been asking, “yes, but what does that mean? What do you mean by that?” but we’re working through it, slowly slowly.
Oddly, later in the week, I again encountered more people wishing to inculcate ideas or qualities in other people. I stopped by just to greet a headmaster at the local primary school. He was working on revising the school’s mission statement, and wanted me to look it over and give suggestions. According to the statement, the school wishes to inculcate in students all the necessary tools to be successful in life. When I asked just what tools these might be, he listed academic skills, which is great. When I asked if there were any personal qualities which he thought were important to inculcate in the students as well. It was interesting what we came up with. We agreed on such qualities as honesty and a good work ethic. But when I suggested inculcating such qualities as independence and self-sufficiency, these were met with reticence. Even when he was trying to get a word out of me, and defined it as “being able to provide for yourself and your family without resorting to banditry” So self-sufficiency? No, he really didn’t like that idea, it was too focused on the self. Interesting. Yet another time when I am forced to remember how damn American I am, how American my values are, and indeed how well inculcated I was with them throughout my childhood.
Anyway, with both of these documents that my counterparts are trying to write, it was very important to them that they were in English, and even more so, in complicated English. It’s a status thing. But I’ve wondered for awhile just how much is lost in translation. From English to Mandinka, I can get the words right, and surface ideas across, but I think that important connotation, much of which cannot be really explained is lost. Its more obvious to me when it is someone speaking English for whom it is not their native tongue. Even if their words are correct, sometimes I am still pretty sure that what they have said is not what they meant. Or what it means to me, is not what they meant to say exactly. I’m sure it goes the other way. What are we not communicating to each other?
Oh man, I set the goal of saying inculcate 10 times in this entry.
Inculcate!
Monday, October 12, 2009
.JPG)
Hey, just thought I’d post some more pics of my fam being great. The past few weeks we’ve been harvesting the corn. Its maize, really, so it’s a lot tougher than sweet corn at home. I thought maybe that if I boiled the hell out of it, it would taste like sweet corn. It doesn’t. We dry it in the sun, then pop all the kernels off with our thumbs (as shown in these pictures), then those are dried fully, then pounded and cooked. I’ve actually not seen what the final food product looks or tastes like. The popping-the-kernels-off-the-cob time is a good time for chatting, but man your thumbs get tired.
It's Fatumata!!
Hey all, I was just going through some pictures from the summer, and I realized that I forgot to post this one. Fatumata was born sometime in August, to one of my host mother’s sisters. It was pretty amazing, I got to hold her when she was only about six hours old. In this picture, she must be about one week old, I’m pretty sure this was taken on the day of her naming ceremony (notice the shaven head).
Also, I want to draw attention to her awesome Burt and Ernie eyebrows. Women here shave their eyebrows and draw them on in bright colors (gold! Metallic purple!)when they dress up, but I think its pretty atrocious when they do it to babies. Atrocious or awesome. My favorite is when the baby moves while they draw them on, so all day the brows are uneven and looks like the baby is smirking. Anyway, it’s a fashion choice from which no baby is safe.
Friday, October 2, 2009
hey check out these nasty spiders!
lately it seems like these guys are everywhere! gross, hey? their legspan gets up to five inches! luckily, i've never seen them hanging out on walls, or lurking under beds being creepy. they mostly stay up in webs up in the trees or power lines. i'm pretty spider intolerant, so if i found one in the house, he would probably get a book dropped on him.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
