On a random day off today as we've had exams in school since last Wednesday so today the teachers are going through the corrections and evaluations etc with all the people in charge, so there are no lessons. However, the poor children weren't told anything, so they all turned up this morning and didn't totally disperse until after 9am, having been there since about 6.15! Nobody seems to know why they weren't told, but the bells went off for the flag as well at normal time apparently (I slept through that bit...) - very bizarre.
Exams are tough here; sitting there watching them all last week, I had a total kind of epiphany of just how hard it is for these children to get anywhere. Not only are they working against the heat - which by the way they do suffer from, not in the same way as us, but they still sweat and need their fans etc, especially at the back of the class where it's just stifling - but they are also in competition with the noise from the primary school next door, from the next classroom; they're sharing pens/paper/pencils/rubber/crayons between about 4 and the benches are so uncomfortable that lots simply kneel on the floor (during 1.30/2 hour exams...). Plus the fact that the tests themselves often have to be corrected before they can start, and, something else which I hadn't fully realised until the other day, they're working in their second, sometimes third, language. They're not born with French, they often don't speak French at home and many of the little children in the street speak hardly any French at all. If the teachers speak to the children outside of lessons, it's often in Ewé and I never really realised that it's because it's more natural for them. Yes, they are bilingual but they're not born that way. It's not like being born with parents of different nationalities who speak in their own language from day one - that way you grow up with both, here they are taught French, even though everyone does speak it. Of course, I'm teaching English so I'm teaching them a third, sometimes fourth or even fifth language... No wonder I had an average of about 7 out of 20 for my 5é! There are other difficulties too, but they're not up for discussion on here.
It's only when you really think about these things that you realise what effect they have. When you look at the statistic that only around 43 percent of students attain the bac here it seems atrocious and you ask why. Then you look at the conditions in which they're learning their lessons and taking their exams and you understand. Not to mention that the majority of these children also work in the home, which means getting up at 4 or 5 and not going to bed until sometimes 10 or 11. At the age of 12, it's not at all surprising that they fall asleep in lessons.
On the bright side, had such a good start to the day here - woke up and had breakfast, watched furtively (occasionally not so furtively!) by the hundreds of children outside school as it's only across the road, and got so many laughs when I came to serve them in the shop in my pyjamas! Then there were two girls who installed themselves just outside us and started playing Bryan Adams 'Everything I Do' Celine Dion 'My Heart Will Go On' and just heaps more, which was so nice! In Europe... we just don't turn up and make ourselves at home on someone's doorstep let alone play music to them, and I really wish we did!
That is the real charm of Togo; the entire atmosphere is of friendship and community. You say hello to EVERYONE you meet, whether you know them or not, little children, big children, adults, old people - just everyone. And like this weekend, I'm going travelling to a voodo market at Vogan and then down to Aného, an old colonial town by the beach, and will be relying on asking people there where to go, where to stay and what to do because here, you can do that. Last week, one of the other volunteers met a guy in the street, they got talking as you just do here, and it turned out he was an artist. And when my friend asked if he could see his work, because he's also interested in that kind of thing, the answer was sure, come right now. And so he went! And had the most wicked time, got to use all the guy's stuff and took loads of pictures and all sorts! Because you just can here. At home, that wouldn't even be considered. And tbh, the offer probably wouldn't be made like that anyway so the option just wouldn't be there! But here, such is life!
Plus, at the moment it is seriously hot over here... The thermometer keeps reading 40/41 and today walked into a shop with air-conditioning at 29 and felt cold... Not saying it wasn't nice but wouldn't have wanted to stay in there for really that long!
x
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