I know its been a long time, I didn’t mean to let the blog die but I had a lot of traveling to do and emails to write and the internet connection is scarce at best. So I guess I’m just going to write up a bunch of posts and post them if/when I can. I got to the point where I even wrote postcards because I knew I wouldn’t be in touch with people. I went to the post office today to try to buy stamps but the man who sells the stamps wasn’t there. How’s that for luck? So I figured giving the internet another try. It hasn’t worked yet, since I’ve been in the bureau.
Teaching at the CFPP is going, and by going I mean limping along dragging one crippled leg behind itself. After coming back from Christmas break it was the Muslim new year, another holiday, and after that it has taken me a total of two weeks to get all of the students to attend class again as a group and show up at the assigned time. In that two weeks they stopped attending supplementary French lessons in the morning and my translator got sick/quit. So I am now without a translator and cannot pick Arabic up through the powers of ESP, so I’m really in a bind. On top of all of that I’m trying to figure out my schedule for taking vacations, but the CFPP itself does not know when their March break is yet, so they cannot let me request vacation. They do not know when classes will end for the year (sometime in june or july maybe? If they feel like it?) So I cannot plan going home to America because no one has their act together and wont let me leave. This is a big problem because they are postponing graduation until the start of the rainy season, which has a chance of stranding me in Nema. Its just amazing to me that not a single school vacation is fixed and no one can plan ahead until the minister of education decides when the vacation will be. This makes me so furious! And could cost me a lot of money!! I am on the verge of saying fuck it and just planning the trip when its convenient for me and my family, and not dick around with the ever rotating capabilities (or lack thereof) at the CFPP. On top of it all it has been continuously rumored that the CFPP will be getting more computers than the single one we have. This rumor has gone on since I have gotten to Nema. I have waited with bated breath several times and have constantly inquired as to when these computers could arrive. The building I am in only has one outlet, I’m not even sure if the center could sustain that many computers in one building. And we’ve recently been plagued by brownouts that cause the girls to lose all the work So we’ll see how this all pans out. I am about as frustrated as I can be with the center at this point and often wish I could quit. I feel as though I could better use my time giving lessons at the DREN where there are 5 computers and assisting women’s coops with accounting and good business practices. Instead I waste my time for 3 hours every day standing over women at a computer as they struggle to grasp what I mean when I say “fermez ca fenetre” even though I’ve been using the same materials, language and lesson plan for 3 months now. I don’t know how I’m supposed to make these women proficient at computers by June or July. This task seems impossible, and I tried to eliminate some of the girls who really cannot seem to grasp computers. It’s not their fault but by the end of class I’m so burnt out that I really don’t have the patience or the extra time to focus on the people who have fallen behind because of excessive absences or lateness. I just don’t. I’m excited for tonight because I am meeting with a women’s coop to discuss what I can help them with lessons-wise. I know that they want a sewing machine, I don’t know where I’m going to find one for them. I'm also not here to give out gifts.
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