School in Benin

Hello everyone!

I hope you are doing well. I am enjoying being able to be in touch, even if it is in little bits and pieces.

This week I got to start observing classes at the local primary schools. It has been a big learning experience. I am hoping to possibly guest lecture in some classes, and also continue the environmental club that has been running in years past. There are lots of other small opportunities for summer camps and scholarships and things. That will all come with time.

With all that in mind I really wanted to get an idea of the teaching style, and general school protocol here. Let me share with you some of what I have learned.

To begin with, classes are often between 80 and 100 students. Teachers seem to try to be engaging, getting examples from different student and doing exercises where everyone holds up there answer on their black board. However, students really have to sit in their seat for the whole day (in fact, it is common in between lessons for the teacher to have all the students stand up and sit down a couple times). I was surprised to see that the system really works as well as it does because all the students are pretty engaged and motivated. I haven’t seen one student sleeping in class or trying to get attention by being bad or acting out. I suppose it is only the first week, so I suppose there is time for more observation in that department. Still it does impress me how much students need to be personally responsible for following the lesson, because there is just no way that the teacher can personally interact with each of them meaningfully each class.

Uniforms are required for school. I find this a little funny since, here in Founougo, pretty much all clothes are either hand me downs from the west or custom made garments in bright traditional fabric. So when it comes time to buy uniforms, parents by meters of khaki fabric and have something stitched up that basically follows the criteria of the uniform. With older and younger siblings to consider, you have students coming to school in several shades of khaki, some too big some too small, some with pockets, some with buttons… It’s an interesting mix and match.

Classes also have a long break in the middle of the day, that give things more of a college feel. Class goes from 8 am to 12, and then 3 to 5. Especially for girls, there are a lot of shores that need to be done in the day, and I think having things broken up helps with that. Also the afternoons get pretty hot, so it’s nice to break things up.

I have to say, for me, really trying to follow the French for four hours of class straight has been surprisingly tiring. It’s great practice though.

That’s been the main action in this week. I also scrubbed out my filter. Let me tell you, it’s been doing some work. I also successfully made a quiche. I was very proud of how it came out, but also felt like maybe I need to get a new hobby. So I picked knitting back up. I haven’t been working at that since August, and it’s good to be back building something. The hat is coming together pretty nicely too!

Tonight I was listening to some of my rationed-out podcasts and I was listening to a sermon from my church back home. It was from psalm 94 (“better is one day in your courts…”) and was generally about the concept of home. I was a little nervous that it  would make me homesick. However, one of the first points was about how home is somewhere you feel like yourself, and also somewhere you grow. That made me think about how I am making a kind of home here, and that made me happy. But one of the last points was that with whatever else we strive for, as Christians, God is Home. That was really powerful to hear. It’s really what I want, and what I believe. I miss my family and my home in New England very much, but I know I am traveling with my most crucial home with me. My greatest hope is to be doing God’s work so it’s also a major source motivation of growth.

Ok, I try not to get preachy on the blog, but every now and then I want to make sure I share what motivates me, as well as what I’m doing. Thanks for sticking through it.

In more anecdotal news, the other day I came home and greeted my neighbors, only to be quickly told to be careful. I immediately looked down for animal droppings. It was probably silly to expect a warning for something like that. In fact, what they were trying to warn me about was a huge swarm of bees that was in front of my house! As one of my neighbors said, they were trying to saluer, or greet me! Fortunately, bees are one animal that the Beninese and Americans seem to have a pretty even fear of. They wouldn’t let me go near the house. As it happened, hey were getting ready for lunch and invited me to join them. I’ve been wanting to share a meal with my neighbors for a while, so I said a quick prayer that everything was prepared ‘kosher’ and dug in. It seemed like a real turn of good luck after all. I am hoping to bake something for them this coming week.

I think that’s all for now. Thanks for reading!
With love,

Lauren