Election part deux and cooking

It’s been 2 months since I arrived and so on Saturday I decided to make hamburgers for the sisters. I also wanted to make burgers for the girls who are still here (most of them went home for the elections) but I found out that you can’t buy ground beef here. That just doesn’t exist here in Duekoue apparently and the meat that Sr Vicky had taken out of the freezer was meat that she had bought in Abidjan. Also the only cheese you can buy in Duekoué is Laughing Cow cheese but it’s not refrigerated and is therefore suspicious. So we went to the market and bought tomatoes, lettuce, mustard, ketchup (Heinz!) and potatoes to make fries.

Sr Vicky helped me make the burgers and as I was frying them in a pan she said ‘get your camera. You can show your mom you cooked and she’ll say it’s a miracle’. So it was a miraculous day and we had fried burgers on baguettes (no buns in this town) and I wore my Obama girl shirt. Since Sr Vicky told me that even if hamburger meat was available, the girls wouldn’t like it because they’re not used to it, I bought potatoes for the girls to fry. They love fried stuff and use an absurd amount of oil.

Election day was yesterday and I guess it went well. There was some demonstration in Abidjan that got nasty and in a village near here someone stole the urn with all the votes in it, but nothing too bad. There is a 10 pm curfew until Wednesday so I sadly will have to wait to hit up all the sweet clubs and bars in Duekoué. Supposedly they’ll have the results by Wednesday night. It’s funny compared to home where they report the votes as they come in and there is no wait. Here they put a piece of paper in a box like they’re voting for who will be homeroom representative. The election is between the current president (Gbagbo) who has been the president for the past 10 years or something and a guy (Outtara) who was at one time the prime minister. In the debate I liked Outtara better even though some people think he kind of started the rebellion in 2000 or 2002. He’s Muslim and his wife is blonde, French and Jewish. A dynamic duo! I don’t really know how interesting all this is for you so anyway…

Today at the dispensary there were maybe 8 people and we finished at around 10 compared to other Mondays where we finish at 2 or 2:30. So one of the girls and I went to the tailor to choose a style for my fabulous new outfit. There were all these photo albums of different styles so it was kind of overwhelming, but I ended up choosing something pretty simple so hopefully I won’t look too stupid. Having an outfit tailored uniquely for me, including the fabric, will be less than 20 dollars. Hello new wardrobe! Just kidding I think one outfit will suffice.

So that’s what’s new in Duekoué. Just waiting for the election results. Waiting and waiting…

fotou and cornrows

I was going to wait to write this until I wasnt quasi rushed at the internet cafe with a barely functioning mouse, but Im going to go ahead and give a quick update.

Wednesday we were at the dispensary when we heard all the girls coming back from school at 9am. Usually they get back at 11ish, but apparently there will be no school until there is a new president. So the girls were happy and started leaving to go home to their villages. I was not happy to be losing my soccer team.

Thursday I decided to go big and one of the girls, Tatiana, and I went to the market to buy the cloth to make me a fantastic outfit. There are so many people selling a thousand different patterns so it was a little overwhelming and Tatiana is hard to understand so that too was a little stressful. After a while though we found a nice pattern for a good price and headed back to the house. Not before buying an 'obama girl' shirt though. Everyone has that shirt here and since hes my president I thought it was a very necessary purchase for less than 2 dollars. Tommorow we are going to take the cloth to the tailors to decide on a style so that will be interesting.

That afternoon I was talking to the girls and said I wanted to learn how to make fotou. Not sure thats how you spell it but anyway its a paste made from plantains and manioc and they eat it with sauce. The girls have this area where they make their food and one of them was about to make fotou. To make it you use one of those big wooden sticks and pound the plantains in a huge wooden bowl type thing. Not the best description, but think stereotypical village woman. She had already cooked the plantains and so she put a few into the bowl and handed me the stick. Then I found out why the girls are crazy buff. It was so heavy! I did it maybe 5 times and my arms were tired. The girls just sit there and do it like its lifting a pencil. I really struggled and was glad that at home I can cook some frozen food and be done with it. Soon after that one of the girls wanted me to try what she was eating so I said sure and it was in my mouth before I realized it was the skin of I dont know what. Pig or cow Im not sure I kind of zoned out when I heard her say it was skin. Cant say I'd choose to eat it again since the texture was not great, but the sauce on it was good so the taste of skin wasnt too powerful. Not sure what 'the taste of skin' would be but anyway...

After that we were talking about my hair and I said I wanted it done in the same style as one of the girls. I was planning on waiting until the weekend or something, but one of the girls started braiding it and now I have cornrows and a headache. It looks pretty dumb and in any other context it would be unacceptable but I don't feel that ridiculous.

That night was the presidential debate! It was really interesting, but Im not going to describe it in detail right now because I need to go home before it gets dark. I'll have time to describe everything in detail next week since we probably won't have class all week. Quelle horreur.
Anyway hope everyone had a nice thanksgiving! I thought about trying to cook something for the sisters, but decided its best to wait until january and wait until I actually know how to do it.
Ill probably write again soon since there are only 6 girls left and I dont think the sisters will play soccer with me. Theyre not really your stereotypical nuns though so who knows. There might be a secret soccer star among them.
bye!

A 'normal' week

Last week was shockingly normal after the holiday on Tuesday and almost everyone came to class so that was nice. For the class with the people learning how to use computers we spent Thursday in a regular classroom so that went a lot better. Also at the beginning of class Sr Marguerite gave them this pep talk about how the UN mission here asked her for 2 people who knew computers well and who also knew English but she had no one to give them. She said the salary they offered and it was 3 times bigger than other jobs that the students might get after they finish. So they were all really focused that day. When I told Sr Marguerite how focused they were she said ‘well otherwise they spend all their time making fun of your accent and then come to me and imitate it’. Harsh.

Friday at the dispensary nothing too new except this one girl with this huge burn all over her shoulder/arm, but who had waited weeks to come in and so it was a mess. Her mom was with her and said ‘well I was taking care of my rice fields’. Oh ok I see. Then this tiny baby came in who was 5 days old but who hadn’t eaten anything since being born. He had his fists all clenched and Sr Vicky tried to feed him baby bird style (with a syringe, not with her mouth) but said his tongue and throat were all hard. The mom had had the baby at the house and Sr Vicky said that whoever cut the cord didn’t use a clean instrument and she thought the baby had tetanus and would die because there was nothing to do. Dang talk about a stupid death.

Friday evening we played soccer and usually I exert as little effort as possible but I had a lot of energy so I ran around a lot. Bad idea and I felt really sick later and on Saturday I didn’t feel well either. Sr Vicky said, ‘The girls are strong and can handle the heat. You need to go to bed at 8:30’. So it wasn’t the best weekend and now I have a new bed time.

That’s it for today. The elections (the sequel) are in a week so we’ll see how many days we have off school this time! Thanks for reading!

getting ma hair did and other events of the weeekend

I feel like a lot has happened since I last wrote but I guess ive been kind of busy. Tomorrow though is a muslim holiday so theres no school. That means that there was no school today…and there will be no school on Wednesday…and the sisters doubt that people will go to school on Thursday and Friday. So another week of school quasi in-session.

Thursday is one of the days where I do English class at the literacy center for the people learning how to use computers. Usually it’s in a normal classroom but on Thursday we were in a room where everyone was on a computer. We were comparing Word in French to Word in English and I was thinking we would just go through it real quick and they could make a list of vocab words. I completely took for granted knowing how to use a computer. Sr Marguerite is in charge of the literacy center and was explaining to the students what we were going to be doing. She had to explain how to open Word, make a new document, how to name it, how to minimize a window, how to close a window…all that. Then I wanted to go through and look at the words in French and English but I realized that if they typed the list, it would take about 8 hours because they’re just learning how to type. They didn’t know how to make a question mark or anything. Afterwards I realized that that was really clueless to think they would be able to do all that, but the age range is like 18-45 years old so I just figured everyone knew how to use Word.

The same thing happens at the boarding school with the VCR and DVD player. Sr Vicky starts the movie and then leaves. At the end when its finished none of the girls know how to stop it or turn the machine off. I feel really tech savvy as I rewind VHS tapes.

On Friday sr Vicky unleashed her idea that someone should braid my hair and add ‘mesh’ ie fake hair ie I should have a weave. No joke. I was like ‘ohh I don’t know about that. I think everyone would laugh’ but she says ‘no the opposite. They’ll like it because youre doing something that they do.’ Still the idea of buying hair at the market and then having someone tug at my scalp for hours was a little much. The next day though when she brought it up again and I was like ok whatever who cares about braiding it, but I draw the line there. So Saturday afternoon one of the girls braided my hair. She kind of like divided it into squares and then braided those pieces so there were a bunch of little braids. I looked like an idiot but she girls seemed to like it or think it was funny or both. Later I put the braided pieces into a bun and sr Yvette told me it looked like wedding hair. She then suggested a rather elaborate prank which involved finding a wedding gown, a ‘young monsieur’, and then taking pictures to send to my mom telling her I got married. That was more effort than I was willing to make for a prank but I loved that she suggested it.

On Sunday sr Vicky and I went with one of the priests to another village. It was tiny, but closer to Duekoue than the other one. After mass they wanted to give ‘the foreigners’ lunch so we ate…but only with the men of the village. The women brought the food to the men and literally genuflected as they put the food on the ground. Hell no. I hate to be judgy since it’s not my culture and I don’t really understand it but come on. At the end they gave us pineapples and a live chicken. Generous and the chicken was a quiet and agreeable passenger in the car on the way home.

On a somewhat related note, the other day some of the girls were asking me about my family and telling me they wanted to marry my brothers, and inviting me to their village where I would marry one of their brothers…the usual. So I was asking them how many siblings they have and of course they all have at least 5 but Djenebou won the prize for having 15 siblings. Then she explained that her dad has 4 wives. She said it in such an offhand way and the other girls seemed to think nothing of it so I made some generic comment like ‘its fun to have siblings’.

Well that’s all for now! Since theres no school today or tomorrow or maybe all week sr Vicky told me it’s a good time to do some extra English with the girls. Some of them like English and others really try to avoid it at all costs. Sr Vicky says the problem is ‘theyre lazy’ which always makes me laugh since the girls get up at 530 every morning, make all their own meals and do a lot of cleaning. If she thinks thats lazy I would hate to have her see me every Saturday during college where I slept until noon, never made my own food and cleaned rarely. But I keep that information to myself. So now its time to go find some lazy girls to study English. Thanks for reading!

Back to normal

This week everything is ‘back to normal’ after the elections and the second round actually isn’t until the 28^th. So we have some time before everyone goes home again and doesn’t leave the house for a week.

Since everyone was at home last week, Monday at the dispensary was nuts. We saw over 60 people and didn’t finish until 2:30. Halfway through I went into the house to drink some water and get my snack on, but sr Vicky didn’t stop once. I guess it’s kind of hard to say ‘come back on Wednesday’ to people who have walked super far to get there and their kid has a fever of 104. So it was a long day, but it was interesting and I really like being there. At around 2:15 sr marguerite came in to lay down the law and tell us to stop, but at that point there were only a few people left. She was hilarious and bossy. ‘No you need to stop. Even at the people at the hospital stop for lunch and then start again after’. To a dad whose son was falling asleep in his arms: ‘non mais pardon monsieur why have you not given him anything to eat?’ To someone who only had a big bill: ‘No next time you get change beforehand. It’s a waste of time’.

So other than Monday being a long day, nothing too notable has happened this week. English classes are going well even if the students continue to mock me even to my face. I guess I say ‘ok’ too much because on Tuesday every time I said it, one of the students would repeat it and everyone would laugh. Oh well. The ‘classes’ with the boarding school girls are funny because they are really into that ‘waving flag’ song from the world cup so we end every lesson by singing it. I’m glad I listened to that song on repeat or else I wouldn’t be able to teach them the words.

I’m going to go figure out what to do with the English class at the literacy center this afternoon. They are older and more attentive than the boarding school girls or the technical school kids so it’s a nice change. They also wait to make fun of me until after class at which point they tell sr marguerite just how funny it was when I said ‘Im not a sister’. I really don’t know why that was funnier than any other phrase that I butcher, but at the lesson after that, when someone called me ‘sister’ I didn’t bother to correct them. So this is sr anne signing off.

vacation week!

Not too much new to report here since we had off the entire week because of the election. Yes, it did take place on Sunday and yes it did happen peacefully. Still no one went to school or work for an entire week. The results were announced and its…a tie! No joke. There will be another election on the 22^nd so there will be at least another week where no one works. Its funny to think about how much work doesn’t get done because of elections! Funny isn’t really the right word, but you know what I mean.

We still did the dispensary on Wednesday and Friday but there weren’t a lot of people. Most of the boarders went home for the elections (necessary) but there are still maybe like 25 girls so we’ve done a bit of English and played some soccer. Ive never exerted so little energy and gotten so sweaty. We’ve also watched a few movies and yesterday was the best day ever because we watched The Sound of Music (la melodie de bonheur in French). All of the songs were translated so the lyrics were different alas I was not able to sing along to the entire thing. A real shame, but I enjoyed it anyway.

My French is coming along, but the boarders are still really hard to understand. The accent plus the fact that they don’t slow down when they talk to me can make things pretty difficult. Overall though it’s getting easier and I guess it’s good that there aren’t any other English speakers because like this I have to speak French. I can usually get my point across even if this sometimes requires the use of wild gestures. I’m basically a semi-professional mime.

This morning was cleaning day so I gave my bedroom/bathroom a serious scrubbing and then I went to the market with Sr Vicky to buy fruit. I found the market depressingly dirty the first few times I went, but I enjoy it now and it’s always quite the mix of things. Lots of fish, next to someone selling bras, next to someone selling gold jewellery, next to someone selling rice. Also, I’ve also never seen so many plastic bags. They put everything in little plastic bags- water, juice, spices, yogurt, pigs feet. You name it, they got it and they will be happy to give it to you in a bag that you will later toss onto the street because there are no trash cans. These little plastic bags can be kind of tricky because you bite a little hole in it and then squeeze it to eat/drink it. The first time I tried it, yogurt went all over the place and it was a mess. Then last weekend one of the boarders handed me a bag of water, half of which ended up on me and the other half on the ground. Probably for the best since I didn’t know where that water came from but really didn’t want to ask, ‘is this filtered?’. That would be like asking one of these fishmongers if they had anything sashimi grade.

That’s it for now. Im going to go play soccer and hopefully tonight when I go to take a shower the water will be on. Last night it had been cut and the timing was unfortunate since I had just played soccer and was looking to bathe in something other than my own sweat. Sorry I know you’re not reading this for an in-depth description of just how sweaty I get here so that’s it for now!

...after the elections

Since Ive been here there has been this massive build up to the presidential elections that happened on Sunday. Everything is talked about in relation to the elections. Some girls are waiting to come to school until after the elections and a bunch of other things ‘will start after the elections’. So Sunday was the big day and it happened peacefully. There was a voting station next door to us so there was a UN tank in front of our house all day. They are very serious about peace. I figured things would start back on Tuesday (Monday was all saints day so obviously no one worked) but things apparently won’t start up until next week even though the results should be announced today.

Yesterday I was supposed to have two English classes but at the first one there were only 2 students and the second one didn’t happen at all. Today at the dispensary there were around 10 people as opposed to the usual 30-40. At mass on Sunday there were maybe 50 people as opposed to the usual 200ish.There is no one in the streets and it’s like everything has just stopped while they wait for the results of the election to be announced. I find it really frustrating, but everyone else seems fine with it so I guess I should chill out or something. It’s just hard to understand how everything can stop.

So not too much is new here. I guess once the results are announced things will start up again..after maybe a few days of celebration and then maybe a few days of recovery…maybe then everyone will go to school and work. I hate to sound like a negative nancy and overall things are still good here. But still feel free to send me any entertaining or even any boring emails!! Thanks for reading!