Meetings, Markets, and Christmas in January!

Thanks to a couple days of classroom observations and more communication with the local staff, it finally feels as if we are getting into our main work here in Yako and the surrounding villages! After spending time in the Gobila school (as I mentioned in our previous post), we were able to meeting with Lynn and four of the head teachers to offer feedback about what we were seeing. The goal of the school is to teach in a more American style (compared to French/Burkinabe style that is much more strict and lacks in some areas) while maintaining the Burkinabe culture and doing without much of the expensive materials found in American classrooms. The teachers were trained at the school, but had no previous experience with studying education. Luckily they have had good training and are doing a great job! They are still, however, looking to make improvements, and that's where we come in! At the Tuesday meeting we first shared the positive things we saw and then offered some suggestions for improvements that could be made. Despite the language barrier (for some of us, as least), the meeting seemed to be a success and the teachers were very open to our suggestions! We were also able to gain a lot of insight into the Burkinabe schools and culture.

Since our Wednesday classroom observations did not start until the afternoon, we had the opportunity to go to the local market in the morning. It was quite the experience! We saw everything from food and kitchenware to clothes, shoes, and jewelry! Many of the girls enjoyed buying several panyas of cloth to be made into dresses/skirts similar to those worn by the local women.

Later that evening, Angela, Sarah, Bekah, and I were invited to attend Lynn's annual Christmas/New Year's party for the staff of the schools she is involved with. It turns out that they had waited to have their party until we were here! Although I was initially very nervous because of my lack of French and their lack of English, an ice-breaker game to learn names was all it took to get everyone laughing! We then enjoyed a traditional Burkinabe meal of rice, fish, cabbage, and grilled and sauteed chicken. It also turns out that people everywhere enjoy a good game of "Now you have it, now you don't" (one of many names for the game) and some funny group pictures!

Following the Christmas party, we were able to visit the home of one of the young men (and his brother) who Angela new from several previous trips. Needless to say, apartments here are much different from those back in the US! They were very welcoming and we got to see many pictures of families and missionaries from previous trips to Yako and Mahadaga. We then walked back to the orphanage and got to enjoy the stars that are so bright here without the bright city lights.

Well, this post only scratched the surface of everything everyone has done over the past few days. Hopefully we'll be able to add more pictures this weekend if we're able to get better internet access!