Sunday, November 8, 2009

Some more photos

Well, hopefully the internet will be cooperating well enough for me to get up some photos so you all have an idea of what I see as I walk down the streets of my town.

So, here's the Mairie, looking across the main street going through town. The building consists of four rooms, the Mayor's office and the Vice Mayor's office each with a room in front. That thing you see on the roof on the left hand side is a newly installed solar panel. During the day, the panel is used to help charge the battery that was brought in to allow use of the computer even when the electric generator isn't working. I know, fancy, isn't it.







Here we have the lovely C.E.G. at which I spend several hours a day, either in class or talking with the director or teachers (when they don't have class). There are two buildings, each with two classrooms, and a shade hangar behind each (though the hangar behind the building on the left isn't constructed as of now, not sure due to lack of funds whatnot).
And here is the inside of one of those rooms (taken from the building on the right). This is the older of the two buildings, quite apparently so from the inside as this one has mud-brick walls that are exposed whereas the other is cemented, helping to at least maintain some illusion of newness.
The picture taken is of the 6eme (or maybe 5eme, I forget. But 5th, 6th grade area) English class. In the class, I had counted 70 some students (though taking a head count can be somewhat difficult as the students all get up and shout in order to be called on when the teacher asks a question. It's about 4 students to a table/desk. Boys do outnumber girls in the classroom, though I am glad to report that girls are decently represented, if not evenly. In this class, the teacher works off of a notebook he has written in. No textbooks for either students or teacher at all at the C.E.G. except in higher english classes.
And this is the lovely shade hangar I referred to earlier. 40-some students sitting in a French class. At the end of lecture, the teacher wrote two short paragraphs on the blackboard. Somewhat surprising and sad was that I was able to read and fully understand the paragraphs whereas the students (who have been taught in french since primary school, even if school is their only exposure to french) had immense difficulty reading. I'm not sure if this is simply a result of the lack of textbooks (or any other reading material for that matter) or maybe symptomatic of a larger problem of failure to comprehend the language.
And here is the NEW C.E.G. that they are working on. It is to be a Franco-Arab school (main difference, as I can tell, is that Arab will simply be taught as a second language). This school will (at least at the start) only accomodate 6eme and 5eme students.
And here is a photo with me with the CPs kids. Two of the cutest kids I have ever know, and possibly the two Nigeriens I'll be stealing back with me to the USA.