Hey, a post
Ok, so today’s the 17th of January, and I know it’s been a heck of a long time since the last time either one of us put any sort of post up here on the site. But don’t worry… unless, that is, you really enjoy worrying. On the American side, exciting things include: Jolene’s mom’s (Donna) got proposed to on Christmas Eve (which was really exciting news, because that dude (Stewart) is pretty awesome but then so is she), and me being a month away from turning into a double uncle, with little Optimus VanderBeek due on Leap Day (check out letterstooptimus.blogspot.com if you want to see what babies look like… or what good blogs look like). On the Nigerien side, exciting things that have happened lately include: our friend Lachlan’s birthday in Maradi, our friends Rachel and Elizabeth celebrating their co-birthday, and other things that I can’t remember right now. On Lachlan’s birthday we made a list and made him do lots of embarrassing things which generally resulted in good times had by all. We didn’t actually do anything but call Rachel and Elizabeth on their birthdays, but they’re cool enough to warrant mention anyways. Also, Elizabeth told me that allegedly the moms looks at our blog sometimes, and she’d be excited if she saw her daughter’s name, so there you go, if you’re out there anywhere Elizabeth’s mom, Elizabeth, Elizabeth, Elizabeth.I started playing soccer at the mission school in town on Saturdays and Sundays, which has been pretty fun. Before I had been playing soccer on week nights with some of the guys at around 5 or so, but sometimes that was overlapping with work things, so I’m thinking the weekend option will probably work well. My neighbor the mai aski gave me a trim and a shave today, and when I went to see the director of one of the schools he said that I looked like I was 16. I think he meant that in a good way, but I’m not really sure. Which reminds me… A few days ago that same director came to the inspection from the mosque after the afternoon prayer and saw that I wasn’t praying. When he saw me, he started joking with me and asking how it was possible for me to not go to the mosque and pray when I’ve got a good Muslim name like Aboubacar. When I told him that my name in the states was a good Christian name and that it’s the title of two books in the bible, he decided that he would call me Timothy from then on, that is, until I start acting like a good Muslim and go to the mosque. I thought it was pretty funny.As we probably alluded to in the last few blogs, we were gone a long time out of our town due to the training, mines, and holidays, so it was good to see that everyone still remembers Djamila here (everyone seemed to have renewed vigor in calling me Achirou, the volunteer before me). Work-wise Jolene and I are keeping fairly busy. Some things we’re trying to do right now include: start a girls soccer team at the college (college = junior high… sort of), start a school newspaper at the lycee (lycee = highschool … sort of), help to get funding for first aid kits throughout the area covered by the inspection (inspection = school district … sort of), help to get funding for gas to go out in a car and do sensibilisations about the importance of girls education throughout the inspection (sensibilisation = not an English word, but whatever), observe classes and give feedback if possible (feedback = an important thing if you’re designing a control system), start interschool sports activities for boys and girls at the primary school level between the seven primary schools in town (parentheses after every item in this list = annoying), and start pen pals between schools in our town and those throughout the region (this = the last time I’ll use parentheses or an equals sign in this blog). Assuming that we don’t spread ourselves to thin I’m thinking that things should go swimmingly.I think that’s all I have for right now, as I should probably get some rest. En principe, we’re going to a friend’s village tomorrow to check out his school and watch his English class, and so we have to leave early in the morning. Hopefully, the next blog entry will follow with less delay than the last.
Allah ya ba mu hank’uri.