C'est normal

Yovo, Yovo? Yep, that's me. Lesson planning over eggs with piment and a glass of pomplemouse? Why not. Chicken running through the classroom? Routine. Walking over fallen logs to cross a stream on the way home? Just another day in the life.

It's crazy how each day and the millions of antecdotes that happen along the way seem less and less bizarre the longer I'm here. After two months, everything from cooking outside to being without running water seems as if I've never known another way.

(Well, I remember it alright, but the pain of withdrawal isn't as great.)

Today marks the last week in Kpalime, yet another ending with a big beginning on the horizon. Next Thursday I move to my village and begin two years of service. As of the last few hours, I am pretty much set for my living arrangements. I got a mattress, gas stove, and a pillow - what more does a girl need?

Buying each thing takes a ton of time and energy, not to mention CFA, so it's a relief to be relatively done. The difficulty is, for example, in buying a pillow I can't just jump in a car and hit up Wal-Mart. I need to flag down a moto, articulate in French where I want to go, and bargain for the price. Then I need to find someone in the marche who sells a pillow or knows someone that does, and once again, bargain for a price. (C'est la prix yovo, n'est pas?) After, I need to find a way to transport everything back on a moto. Which again isn't just a simple matter of having enough free hands, but being able to balance while driving through curvy, dirt paths. Thus, right now it is nearly 20 o'clock and I am exhausted!

Tomorrow I resume teaching. Last week we had an awesome experience guiding a class through a M.A.P. activity. M.A.P. stands for Men as Partners. The point of the program is to discuss gender roles in our community and see how the community as a whole can work towards equality. Because this is a paternal society, when men are on board and working towards gender equality, there's greater opportunity for us to create change. Thus, for our MAP activity we wanted to begin the conversation about gender.

We had students walk to different corners of the room to reveal whether they agreed or disagreed with statements about gender. I learned so much about my students from their responses to questions like, "Are men smarter and stronger than women?" Or, "Who has a tougher job?" It was so exciting to see the students that were passionate about equality and feminism - and, for the responses that differed, it sparked so much energy in me to begin having more of these conversations with students and community members. It was simply very fun to see that kind of energy from students and about a topic I'm really interested in.

While tomorrow my class is focused on grammar - cheers to reflexive pronouns - I'm excited to be back in the classroom. Sometimes it can be frustrating here and I question the point of it all, but moments like the other day during the M.A.P. activity give me some clarity.

As for the moment, I'm crawling under my mosquito net and calling it a night.