This computer is so slow -- I am grateful that you will forward
messages. If I were to write individual letters it would take hours
-- takes almost 20 minutes for yahoo to get up anbd about 2 mionutes
oif pressing the keys to get any action within it. I am so grateful
it is here I can't complain. OK -- here is my story for today.
I think probably the hardest part about this trip is that I am totally
in the hands of others. It has been made abundantly clear that this
is a very unsafe place and I can't do anything on my own, and my
interests differ, I think from those who are with me. My biggest
angst today was clothes. I came with all the wrong clothing. My room
had no air conditioning and last night there was no breeze so I
sweated all day yesterday and last night and our host said last night
he would get me a new room today. The rooms are all falling apart.
The plubmbing doesn't work, etc. Well Linda got a new room yesterday
and actually had a choice of 2 rooms, so I just decided to take the
one she rejected -- it had airconditioning. I moved before we left
today. At least I will have air -- and there is one desk lamp in the
room that should provide enough light for reading and one light in the
bathroom. I flushed and it works. I am happy be! cause for some
reason I am sweatnig a lot more here and it is very hard to get
clothes dry -- I washed socks and undies night before last and they
are still wet -- I figure wearing wet underware might make on cooler,
so maybe it is not such a bad thing. At least I am laughing about all
of this. Back to clothes. I so wish I had been able to get a light
cotton skirt and top. My tops are way too hot. I put on one of those
dressy polysester tops with pants this morning and I was dripping. I
changed to a cotton shirt without an undershirt and I am so out of
place it is pathetic. The women we work with all wear headpieces and
dresses that match just like Sunday/ Whoever sent back the message
that slacks are fine did not go out into the schools -- she was only
on campus, where, yes, you can see Western attire on the young people
and even our host wears a white shirt and pants. I was so embarrassed
because first we went to the English dep! artment faculty meeting and
were introduced -- fortunately I could plan ahead what I said and I
told them about Sam and showed them a book, and smiled a lot so I made
up for my out of place appearance. Then we went to another office and
took another lady with us -- who is in the education department. The
car was crowded with three in the back seat and no air, of course. I
now know why Ife is the way it is. The college is huge and the vast
majority of faculty live on campus and the whole thing is gated.
Ourside there are dirt roads full of ruts. A shocking contrast.
There was a fairly good paved road (no lines) from Ife to Ilesa where
we were headed. The downtown of Ife is a few shacks on the side of
the road. That is about it. Ilesa (pronounced Ilesia) is a large
city with sort of paved streets that are very crowded and lots and
lots of businesses in shacks - open air stores. Up hill and down.
This is much more the w! ay I had envisioned Nigeria. I just wish I
could have gottn out and walked the streets. We were then introduced
to the head of all the schools -- a woman who looked in control -- she
had nothing on her head at least. The car bottomed out twice as we
entered her building. She took us on a ride through the city to a
school and finally we got to observe some classes. The look
remarkably like the classrooms in colonial days with wooden seats that
held from 2 to 4 children side by side in four or five rows -=- 40 -
60 or more children per class. Everything seems top be done by rote.
And call and response. One child leader used a pointer to chant each
letter of the alphabet and a word that corresponded to that letter.
One teacher was probably taking a break from academics and doing
exercises. The kids in the primary classea re ages 3 to 7 and some
are multiage while others have one age. The intermediate class the
children w! ere all about ten and were learning about simple machines.
The teacher told them she was going to teach them about simple
machines. When you go to open a bottle of Coke (no kidding) what do
you use to open the bottle? An opener. A bottle opener is a simple
machine -- in chorus. She used a door latch and one other thing I
have forgotten. I would have liked to have stayed there a long time
but we had to go off to our teaching. That was in another part of
town and there were 4- teachers there -- when we arrived they did a
sort of cheer. Again formal dress. We were just supposed to meet the
teachers, but for lack of something else to do, Linda started her
language experience approach lesson which was the first one she was
supposed to teach. She patiently asked each woman's name and wrote it
on the board. I had suggested that there were inumerable skills you
could teach from a list like that so I tried to copy it -- old chalk
th! at crumbles and old chalkboard made some of it hard to see. I am
supposed to write it out again and get copies for tomorrow. Anyway we
had not idea how long we had so I showed them a book with a name in it
and explained that they could write about their own names. Too long
to go into but I discovered that Linda wants to teach the IRA
curriculum pretty much by script since she helped write it, and I want
to be a lot more informal and teach in response to what they do --
again I feel out of control here -- I try to defer to Linda because
number 1 she used to live here (which has been a wee bit awkward at
times, as her husband is dean of the college of education) and number
2 she wrote some of this stuff and it is good -- it may just not be
me. My contribution was to say that I had just seen a lesson on
simple machines and here is how you could teach reading with it -- but
I don't know as it was appreciated. It is hard to co-teach under any
circumsta! nces, but I shall just shut up and try to follow the script
and enjoy the people. The teachers obviously were very pleased that
we were there. Foprtunately they brought in drinks for all of them
and for us -- food is a real challenge -- and so are drinks. I have
drunk all my stuff from the states so am purifying water with my pills
-- it is bottled water so should be good but I am not taking a chance.
What is overwhleming here is that there are all these kids being
taught by rote with no materials to read. It is ideal for writing and
then reading each other's writing but that doesn't happen much either.
Not sure why. YOu see miles of schoolkids along the sides of the road
walking home -- as we did on our way back here -- all in uniform.
Linda wanted a akara so we stopped by some kids hawking food and ate
some on the way home -- it is bean curd fried -- they take out the
eyes of the black-eyed peas and the skins off and ground it and add
spice and fry it like a conch. Good.
Well I guess that is the report -- today the computer room is not air
conditioned, so I will go to my cool room and read and reread the
stupid lesson from the stupid book that an IRA person wrote about
football (soccer) and see if I can get the folks through that lesson.
It will not be easy. But I wll do it. Like I said I wish I could just
get out and walk the streets and be here -- I don't like to be just an
observer. I must have hit a key or something to make things itallic.
So long for now. Miss everyone so much, but this is a real education
in a lot of things for me and the teachers are purely delightful.
Sort of natural teachers who walk the front of the class and are
dynamic -- guess you have to be with 40 or so kids in your class.
The other thing that is hard is keeping clean -- I awake every morning
with dirty finger nails. I think that because it has not rained much
the dirt is red and we have been on dirt roads and such so there may
just be more dirt in the air. But it is kinda strange.
The one thing I have learned about the Nigerian cultures is that
children respect their elders in a really big way. It is lovely.
And, women cursy as they shake hands -- very gracious. More tomorrow
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