Late!!

OK, so while I was working on my blog last night I decided that I needed a bit of help staying awake. I didn't want to walk to the other side of the compound to get a coke, but I did remember that I had bought a Kola nut down-town the other day (they are very useful for striking up friendships since they are the traditional thing to share). The kola-nut is a mild stimulant since it contains caffeine, but it turns out that the kick is a little stronger than that of a coke. I finally went to bed around 3:00 but still couldn't sleep for a while.

I had set the alarm on my cell phone for 6:00, but when I woke up the sun was shining in the room and the birds were really loud. My first thought was that the alarm hasn't gone off yet, so it must still be early. Fortunately, my mind didn't buy the explanation and continued to raise nag my body to look. I looked at my cell phone and it read 5:45. No problem. But then I heard traffic and people talking out on the street. Hmmm... I got up and checked the computer clock: 7:49!!! Yikes.

I was still foggy, but then remembered that I had had a problem with my phone-chip and had taken the battery out to reset it. Totally forgot to reset the time. Oooops. By the time I showered and dressed, I had missed breakfast. Then I remembered that I was supposed to go make some last minute photocopies for my class. Fortunately, Gideon is a good friend and volunteered to run do that for me while I get something to eat. (In the mornings, there is always people walking by with breakfast on their heads. You simply call one over and say, I'd like 25 cents worth of rice and beans, or porridge, or whatever they happen to have in that big pot on their head - Today I got balls of couscous and bean-flour mixed with with sugar - odd but good for a hungry, barely awake Steve).

I did manage to get my stuff together and my head on straight enough to arrive at class just in time. Of course, today just happened to be the day that we were taking a class-photo! It took me a few minutes to work out why everyone was wearing their nicest shirts (I was wearing my Burkina soccer jersey which is nice, but not quite to the same level). My lesson went well, but somehow, when I looked at the clock I thought to myself... "Wow! I have 30 minutes left for this last exercise! - it sure didn't take long to get through all of that information!" I gave instructions, and had everyone get into groups. I couldn't work out why everyone was looking at me funny, until one participant spoke up "Don't we get to go for coffee break today?". Somehow, I was half and hour out and the contents of the lesson had actually taken longer than planned, not shorter!

Ooops again. I recovered nicely, though by saying. "Turn over your sheets and look at the list of common problems when planning lessons... which one of these have I done in the lesson that I just gave you? After a few seconds, the answer came back... "It's number 4 on the list! You tried to teach to much content for the allotted time."

"Yep. Good Job. You guys have learned the lesson. This last exercise is for homework." Whew. Afterwards, one of the staff came and told me that I did a great job of feigning surprise when they asked about coffee break. "Ha ha ha. If you only knew..."

Since, I was nice enough to let everyone have a coffee break (sarcasm to be noted) we all ran out into the courtyard and had somebody take pictures of us with a dozen digital cameras. I don't know whether any of the shots worked or not yet. As you can see, the one from my camera isn't that great. The sun was pretty bright, so maybe looking up wasn't the best idea. Hmmm.

Oh... another thing that I love about Ouagadougou... Waffles. Yeah, that's right, this is a culture that loves their waffles. Not the way we like them (hot with multiple sticky toppings), but at room temperature with icing sugar sprinkled on them. I thought it was just the cook on-centre who made them, but it turns out that you can get them at all kinds of little hole-in-the-wall shops. People here think they are a really chic snack!