More teaching, UTG, Fransisco's, and a mad taxi driver...

So as I stated before, I'm really behind. So here's my attempt to catch up.

Thursday - Today I gave a test like my mentor had asked me to do. I pulled 10 questions from the book, starting with easier problems and progressing to harder ones (3x + 2 = 11 to 2(4x + 5) - 14 = -3(9x + 2)). All of the problems dealt with solving one variable equations, although some had fractions in them and students were asked to find the Least Common Denominator (LCD) and then multiply through; something that I REALLY didn't feel comfortable testing. I started the lesson with a little review and a new concept (because that's what I was asked to do) and then asked the students to spread out. I posted the questions on the board. About 15 minutes into the test, my mentor finally showed up and asked if I gave them a time limit. I told him no because I was in no particular rush and he told me to give them a limit. He then left. I was a little confused as to why he showed up in the first place cause he only gave me that one piece of advice. Oh well. This is Africa!

While I was walking around the room, I began to realize exactly how much the students DIDN'T understand. They were having a ton of trouble with the first one. They had no idea what to do. I told them that if they didn't know how to move onto another problem and come back to it. I tried to give a few friendly reminders, although I had left the 4 steps posted on the board for them to follow. Julia and Jevi also helped out although the hands were still flying in the air. I gave them a time limit eventually because I didn't want to keep them there all afternoon, and I figured it would keep their sanity as well as mine. I didn't want to give them this test in the first place because I knew they weren't ready and here I am, rushing around the room trying to help as much as possible and still not reaching any of the students. It was one girls first day back at school. I told her that I wanted her to at least try, and she didn't. She took out a piece of paper and wrote a note to her friend, another little girl who hadn't been to school either. I stuck out my hand to ask her for the note and she crumpled it up and chucked it out the open window. I looked at her and thought to myself "yeah. Cause that just disappeared." I walked out the door and around the building to collect it. I put it under my book for later because I had too many hands to worry about. I would take care of that situation later.

After school, we walked home. Jevi and I were both exhausted. We haven't been sleeping particularly well. I'm thinking it's because our window is open and the people here tend to get up really early. Every morning there's a prayer call at 5:30 and that is followed by chickens and horns and music. Very loud music. Shuffling feet, brooms, mom's yelling down the street at their kids, birds chirping, Yamai and staff walking in and out of the house working out the small details, and Juliet cleaning, and Muhammad singing. Never a dull or unproductive morning by my standards. But it sure does keep me up.

Because of all of this, we decided to take a nap. That was such a good plan. We passed out for a longggg time. So long that we almost missed saying goodbye to Julia. It was her last day today, so we had an early dinner, around 5 pm or so. That evening, we had our first taste of Gambian locally brewed whiskey, and some of the delicious fruit drinks they sell at the grocery stores. Apart from the test situation and frustration on all spectrums, today wasn't a bad day...

Friday - Today we decided to go with the girls to the University of the Gambia (UTG) to observe their class. Megan was going to be presenting, and we thought it would be wonderful to support her and to observe how presentations are run. Yamai told us that if we had time, we could go and talk to Dr. Gomez about sitting in on some education classes. We got to UTG a bit early, so the girls walked us over to meet with him.

We squeezed into his extremely small office that consisted of a small desk, a PC, a file cabinet with loads of boxes stacked on top, and two chairs squished in front of his desk, very close to the door that opened into his office. Dr. Gomez is an extremely friendly and warm person, creating easy conversation. We began with places that we've visited before and then slowly moved into the reason why we were visiting. It was extremely frustrating though, because we sat in his office for nearly 20 minutes and I think we talked to him for a grand total of 5 minutes. People were constantly knocking on his door, walking in, showing him lists, talking about grades - it was insane. The girls wound up leaving us because they were going to be late to class. Jevi and I both looked at each other, unsure of how to proceed. But before we could say anything, he had called around asking professors if we could sit in on one of their classes that occured right during the girls class. We didn't really have time to say anything before we were in front of a classroom, being introduced to a ton of people.

We were welcomed into the classroom which was filled with older adults. About 5 were female students and 20 male students. On the board was written: Project Development & Management. We were later told that this was a course for educators who were in the process of becoming administrators. The class was largely discussion based and reminded me of many of the courses that I've had at St. Mary's. Although I noticed that no female talked during the hour that we were present, and as we looked around the room periodically, we noticed that people were sleeping. Granted these naps were never that long, it still wouldn't fly in the states so easily I feel. After class we debriefed with the professor and then wandered back to Pierre's office 1) because we didn't know how to get back to the girls and 2) we wanted to thank him for his hospitality. This time, there were no interruptions and we had a good conversation about the Gambia and UTG. The girls eventually called Pierre and came to retrieve us. We began walking down the dirt road toward the main road to hail a bush taxi (one of those old vans that is so hot you can barely stand it and has so many people in it you can forget about your own personal space). We grabbed one that wasn't too full and began the half hour drive back to Jmpex.

At one point, we had to turn down a dirt road because it was prayer time and people filled the streets. Instead of waiting, our stubborn male driver (not being sexist or anything ;)turned down a dirt road following a couple of other bush taxis. I knew we were in for a ride when the girls started mumbling under their breath. Apparently they've taken this detour before and have gotten stuck cause the sand is so deep. We all laughed and hoped for the best. Well, the driver before us slowed down and of course got stuck. Our driver had to stop as a result and began yelling some phrases in Wolof...phrases that I don't think were very nice haha. The men in the van in front of us jumped out and started pushing. They got through pretty quickly. Our poor driver was stuck with his apprendi (typically a young boy who hollars out the window trying to find some people headed to the specific destination) and 6 tubab girls. After a minute, a group of males were walking by, started saying "Boss Lady" and "tubab" and eventually started pushing the van. After we were freed, our driver gave some money to the guys who helped. We were again on our way.

Once we got home we had some lunch and hung out. We decided that we wanted to go out but since we hadn't heard from the boys, we decided that Waaw was out (some info: 1) Waaw is the Gambian word for yes 2) Waaw is a dance club that plays a lot of Akon and Jamaican music 3) the boys are people our girls met...one from Juniada (Kyle), one from Germany (Tilman), one from Sweeden (Yonas), and one Gambian named Samba). We decided to have a chill night at a bar called Fransisco's. It's not too far, it's pretty touristy, but still can provide a good time.

We took two taxis. We arrived and the bar had a total of 3 tubab's and a couple of waiters. We realized that it was the end of tourist season but didn't regret our decision. We still had a great time. A couple people showed up later in the evening and around 12 or so the boys decided to show. We went back aways to grab a table big enough for all of us to sit. We had some hilarious conversations...Megan had bought a book of Gambian proverbs and every so often she would pull it out, read one or two, look at us and say "I'll let you ponder that for a bit..." and close the book. She's hilarious. Some of the proverbs include our favorites:

"If you want to catch a monkey in the grass you have to take it easy, easy"
"No matter how long a log sits in the river, it will never be a crocodile"
and "Water never jumps a hole"

We even came up with a couple on our own!
"It's better to toupe than to paint"
and "You can't catch communicable malaria if you're wearing your Polish napkin"

Yeah. That about sums up our night :)
We started walking towards Kairaba to catch a taxi home. Samba hailed a taxi for us and struck a deal with the driver - 75 dalasi to get home. Not bad given the time. Jen, Jevi, Sarah, and I climbed in. He started driving and didn't really talk much. He then turned down a weird road, and Jen stated that we were taking the back way. We turned in a direction that I didn't think we should be turning, and none of us recognized where we were. He then started asking Sarah where we lived...she stuttered, Jen popped in and he started yelling at us. We told him where and he started raising his voice saying "You don't think I don't know where I am? This is Kanifing! I am Gambian." We replied with "well this isn't our house, so take us there." He then started saying that he was going to punish us and charge us 500 dalasi for getting him lost. A) We didn't get him lost...he was faking that he was lost b) we weren't going to pay $20 for something that he screwed up. About a minute later, we pulled up. I handed him the 50 dalasi and he said no I want 200. We refused and started arguing, and he started driving again, saying that he was going to take us to the police. We said that he could take us to the police...he was just wasting his time. When we pulled up to the stop sign at the end of our street, we dipped. He reached back and I handed him the 50 (only because I didn't want it coming back on us and us being guilty) and he drove off. It was obvious that he was just seeing if he could scare us into paying him 200 dalasi...yeah no. We walked down the street at first angered, and then we laughed about it. It only made the night more memorable...a good story for later :)

We got in, grabbed bags of water and then bid each other goodnight. All in all it was a great and busy day. Each day has definitely been an adventure without any exceptions.