turn up the boombox

La Bonheur: Good Morning Manigri!



Manigri-- Narcissis Last Name Unknown and Likely Unpronouncable has been promoted by the Ministry of Education to the position of Surveillant General at CEG Manigri. This administrative position combines the responsibilities of Secretary, Treasurer and Referee with the disciplinary duties of BDSM sadists. Narcissis, age 26, was overheard to have said, "I will beat them well," them referring to his students. A biology teacher at CEG Manigri, Narcissis knows enough about the human body to know where the pressure points are. "I hear he's a real bone crusher, " said American Peace Corps Volunteer and English Teacher Sarah Pederson. Ms. Pederson and Narcissis have been neighbors since they both moved to Manigri. The two reside in the Professional Building District of Oke, after the Grand Mosque and before the swamp. Ms. Pederson remembers the first time they met, when he asked her to marry him. "It was very sweet. He asked me if I wanted to go running with him a few days a week. When I accepted the offer he asked me if I'd like to take a nap with him afterward. I said no, but now that he's the Surveillant..." Ms. Pederson's eyes grew glassy and she quickly became unresponsive with the thought.

The general consensus is that Narcissis, while new to the job, will nevertheless stay on task. He has already arranged an open house and has beaten several children with a thick piece of rubber rope. "It doesn't hurt that bad," assures one 5eme student who requests to remain anonymous out of fear of retribution, or harsher ass-beating by the Surveillant. "My dad hits me harder."
"These are all children of farmers," explains veteran English teacher and scholar Hafissou. "The way that they are treated at home requires us to utilize corporal punishment while they are at school." When asked whether or not Narcissis was fulfilling his responsibility of Ass-Kicker in Chief, Hafissou replied, "I'm sure he will do very well. It is not an easy job, it is a lot of work. But you know," he giggled, "I can take care of discipline problems myself." He brandished a thick stick cut from the surrounding cashew trees.

With the Director also serving his political office as Chief of the Village, the fate of Manigri will rest on Monsieur Narcissis' lanky shoulders. Already underway are plans to arrange a Correspondence Club with Ms. Pederson, and seek funding sources to build a science lab. "He's really hit the ground running," said Ms. Pederson. "I just hope he doesn't need to take a nap," she laughed gaily, her eyes glazing over once again.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Let it be known first and foremost that Narcissis, if he were to see this, would laugh. We are very good friends, and I am very happy he's been promoted. Despite the marriage proposals, which I only find as a minor annoyance, he does always do his best to look out for me. And I appreciate it. Even when his best constitutes beating my students in front of the rest of my class. I know he's doing it so I won't have any problems. It's his way of being nice. Strange, right?

I can't get myself worked up about corporal punishment in schools. I know there are vindictive Surveillants, those who really abuse their power and in turn their students. The same goes for teachers. It's by far not a perfect system, and while I wish there was another culturally-appropriate technique available, the fact of the matter is that the teachers are ill-equipped and untrained. They punish their students the same way they themselves were punished. Rarely is anyone seriously hurt, and as we all know: pain is a motivator. While I have never hit a child, I don't blame those who do. Even if it is technically illegal. This country's education system has a lot of problems, and I would place this policy near the bottom.

Narcissis is a great example of this. He isn't exactly graduated from the University yet. He has finished his core classes and has been asked to serve as a teacher in one of the rural schools of the North. He isn't from Manigri, he's actually Goun (an ethnic group from the South). He didn't know anyone here when he moved in, which is partially why we're such good friends. He teaches ALL of the biology classes in CEG Manigri, ALL of the biology classes for CEG Biguina, and two classes in Bassila. He does this so he can make some money, but he isn't- from our Western perspective- qualified to do so.

The pay rate for teachers in this country is politically tricky. While comparatively speaking, they are well paid in contrast to the rest of the country- they are far underpaid as government employees. Most teachers make approximately $25 dollars a month. This changes depending on your school district. Whereas teachers are not civil service employees, but recruited and contracted ones, their pay scale is marginalized. (Sound familiar?) This accounts for yearly strikes by teachers, where the government promises better pay in turn for teacher cooperation. A new contract was signed last year giving teachers a 100% pay raise, which would be a phenomenal accomplishment, but it has been working it's way through the bureaucratic channels for the better part of two years now. Because the pay is dismal, the government has a difficult time recruiting teachers, despite the high unemployment rate of college graduates in Benin. This forces them to contract university students and army officials into being teachers in their lesser paid school districts in exchange for some money and school credit.

The result being, that because most of these teachers have never taken an education course in their lives, they have no training. During Stage my fellow PCVTs and I received nine weeks of methodology and theory. (To be honest, i thought it was a complete waste of time seeing as teaching seems to be equal parts instinct and discipline, but what do i know?) This makes me nine times more qualified to teach in the Beninese school system than my counterparts who have been teaching for twenty of more years. To be clear, that estimation is not mine, but something that has been repeated to me by teachers time and time again. We have no formal training, they say. What can you teach us about teaching? My eyes grow wide with a deer in the headlight kind of look when they ask something like that. I grow tongue tied. I look up to Hafissou, my homologue, quite a bit. He is probably one of the most intelligent people I have ever met. What can I teach him? Should I really be concerning myself with the fact that he makes students get on their knees and them hits their hands with a thick stick? I don't think I can, or even necessarily want to, correct him. He knows what he's doing far better than I do. Even if he results to punishments that make me uncomfortable. I actually pretty sure that everyone knows corporal punishment is forbidden, but they do it anyway because it's effective. (Why mess with success?- tasteless joke)

Narcissis and I were talking about science classes in Manigri a few weeks ago. He was telling me that when he wants to explain what various reactions to chemicals are, he has to draw it on the chalk board or try to explain it via a text. They have no resources for a science lab. There are two broken microscopes in the Surveillants office, and one beaker. Nothing else. I find that really disconcerting considering so much of university level science has to do with experiments and lab reports. How can you ever hope to build a class of professionals in the science fields, including doctors, if you do not have the capability of teaching laboratory techniques? If anyone is at all interested in brain-storming with me how I can help get them a few microscopes and some basic laboratory equipment, I would find that extremely helpful. (Not electric microscopes, the old-fashioned mirrored ones- maybe someone knows of where they go when schools get new, fandangled microscopes)

I find that my french is getting better from day to day. I'm trying to focus better on using grammar and asking to be corrected if I think I am not saying something correctly. Luc, my best friend in village, helps me out a lot with that. I lent him my bike for the day so he could go visit some family 20km away. It's hot so I gave him a water bottle as well. I find I have to be careful when I give away my garbage, it causes jealousy among both children and adults. If I give Gi or Mouda a small possotome bottle, I have to make sure none of their friends are around. If I give Mama a wine bottle, I sometimes hide it behind my back as I walk out to her by the road so our neighbors don't see. It's kind of nice that this recycling takes place, but a little sad as well that I will never find so much treasure in my own trash.

A week ago I went to Cotonou to be checked out for any bugs I may have picked up in the past couple of months. I had a few ameobas and so I've been taking this anti-parastic medicine that really tires me out . It's been kind of nice resting in my house and reading the many magazines my lovely mother has sent me over the past month or two. It's worried my neighbors like you wouldn't believe though. I received so many visitors everyday, neighbors, friends and work colleagues, all making sure I am okay. The former President of the APE (the PTA) came by with a bunch of limes for me, limes and honey being a traditional remedy for stomach sickness. I thought it was sweet, but as David says, the last thing these people want is a dead white person on their hands. Also, maybe, just maybe, they care about me too.

I hope to be starting a Girls Club in the next couple of months. I need to talk to my director, Hafissou and Narcissis to get the green-light and then start selecting girls for it. I want to have some sort of mechanism to train girls to help other girls, in a way that maybe there will be a lasting impact for those who cannot be in the club as well. Girls Clubs here are really interesting because not only are women completely marginalized, but sex education is seriously lacking in this country. The average age of a sexually active individual in Benin, or rather, in my village, is twelve or thirteen years old. Sex education does not begin until most students are seventeen or eighteen years old, and frequently older. Even then, it's abstinence based. I'm sure that type of sex education is the result of some sort of loan conditionality, although I can't prove it (that's the sort of research that requires a good internet connection and a lot of time).

I suppose abstinence based sex education does make sense to a point here, in that condoms aren't free or really even available anywhere- and condoms are a hard-sell just about anywhere. The AIDS rate is lower here than in the United States, but the teen pregnancy rate is astronomical. Birth control may be considered by some to be a human right, but it's expensive. It is not unusual for a student to have a teacher as a sex partner, in exchange for food or good grades. I know a few teachers in my school who have young girlfriends in khaki. It's sickening, but I know that if I tell them I don't like it, it won't change a thing. It will just make them uncomfortable or resent me. There's a lot of tongue-biting on my part here. I am not going to try to impose my view on these people who have more problems than I can understand. That's not why I'm here. I can however, offer education to young girls so they are aware of the consequences of their decisions, and their options. Ideally before they become pregnant by their math teacher.

I just got scolded for leaving my house in just a pagne wrapped around my shoulders. Mama told me to go put a shirt on and come back if I wanted to saluter her. I thought that was pretty funny. "Go put some clothes on!" She basically said. The men sitting at the bar chimed in, "Yes, you shouldn't be out of your house like that." Which was even funnier because their wives were just wearing a few pagnes as well, and they were out of their concession. Maybe my white skin was blinding them.

I don't know if I'll ever really be Benin-Integre here, or even if that is something I'd necessarily want. It's tricky, because no matter what I will always consider myself an American. I've lived in the US for 23 years, and at the end of this I will have been in Africa for only 2.5. And no matter what they will always consider me a foreigner. I have white skin and a funny accent. Even if I learned to speak Nagot fluently and sat under mango trees all day, and wore nothing but tissue, I will always be a foreigner. It seems a little disingenuous and quite insulting to me when I hear about other PCVs (specifically white ones) trying to become fully 'integrated' into their community. It really shows to me a lack of understanding to the importance of history and ethnicity that built this culture. My African American friends have a much easier time being accepted by their villages, which I think makes sense. Many of their ancestors came from places like Trinidad or Haiti, (or East Africa) and culturally speaking they have the ethnic and historic implications of their existence running through their bloodstream. I don't mean this in an Alex Haley 'Roots' kind of way, but in that despite their upbringing in the United States, they're not seen as invaders, or as oppressors. No matter what I do here, the legacy of Western dominance will follow me wherever I go.

+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+

"I have faith. Faith in penicillin, riflampin, isoniazid and the good absorption of fluroquinolones, in bench science, clinical trials, scientific progress, that HIV is the cause of every case of AIDS, that the rich oppress the poor, that the wealth is flowing in the wrong direction, that this will cause more epidemics and kill millions. I have faith that those things are true too. So, If I had to choose between lib, theo or any ology, I would go with science as long as a service to the poor went with it. But I don't have to make that choice, do I?" Paul Farmer, Founder of Partners in Health.