Mr. Trussell Goes to School

I usually wake up at 6:20 and scramble around in my apartment until I leave with the Cochranes (parents of one of my students). We drive over the Niger River, through Badalabougou, then to the district where BCA is, Niamakoro.

On my way in the gate, I greet the guards and then work my way upstairs to Sarah’s classroom. We read the day’s My Upmost for his Highest and write out the verse of the day on an index card. Then, if I don’t have recess duty, I meet with the other teachers for a prayer meeting. Our principal, Miss Kim gives us each a card with the name of a BCA student written on it. Then we pray for that student. Afterwards, I go downstairs to my classroom. When the bell rings, I call for homework and enter the grades on my computer. Then we share prayer requests and have a class prayer time.

The first class of the day is Bible. Over the last few weeks, we had been covering the gospels and today, we started an overview of Acts and the early church.  The kids acted out the fourth chapter in the courtyard of the school and we discussed how the Holy Spirit helped the early church. After bible we transition into reading class. The 5th graders are reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. They designed their own golden tickets and made character maps. The sixth graders are in the middle of a unit on quests. They read an excerpt from The Hatchet and wrote letters to the author. Once they finish their reading work, they have a break for snack. The kids go upstairs to eat, and then they go across the street to the playground where they swing, climb, and run their energy away.

After recess, they have French class twice a week. On the days the kids don’t have French, they learn about science; right now, we are learning about adaptations and how they help animals survive in their environment.

At noon the kids eat lunch. Lunch is my students’ favorite subject. On Thursdays, they get to have a Coke for 250CFA (50 cents). After they eat, they go across the street for some more recess.
After lunch is a mix of social studies, art, music, and/or math. Today the kids are writing all of the things they learned during our unit about Egypt on a poster.  The bell rings at 2:15 and the kids are happy to go home after a hard day of work.

Once the kids have left and I have finished with the work I need to do, Sarah and I walk about a ¼ mile to the sotrama stop. Sotramas are the Tri-Met of Bamako. They are green vans that fit about twenty people on wooden benches that hug the inside perimeter of the back. They cost 150CFA (30 cents) to ride. The benches get crowded as the number of people approaches capacity. Rump to rump, shoulder to shoulder; it can be a challenge to squeeze yourself down onto the seat. Then at your stop it might take a push on the back to get on your feet.

It is about a 15 minute walk from the sotrama stop to Sarah’s apartment. In the evenings we usually have dinner with a group of our friends and we rotate cooking responsibilities. Sarah and I cooked falafels last time. Throughout the week we have different things we do; choir practice (Vivaldi’s Gloria), bible study, movie night at the bakers, Dr. Who nights, and other activities. At the end of it all, I sometimes catch a taxi home, but usually I just walk back across the bridge.

An Egg for the Cinquantenaire du Mali?

In Mali, September 22nd is celebrated as its Independence Day, and this year marks the 50th anniversary of freedom from French rule. This being the cinquantenaire, the country is in full celebration mode; in the capital city of Bamako where I live, there were tons of celebrations and events to mark the occasion. Fireworks, feasting, concerts, and parades were scheduled this entire week.

On Monday, a group of us went to a free “Mega Concert” that was put on by the major cell phone company in Mali, Orange. The streets were crowded beyond capacity as the excited Africans crammed together anticipating the Malian rap groups that were to come. The music was slated to start at eight, but as we expected, the real start was about an hour and a half later. And when it did start, the spectators chanted and sang along with the popular songs as we did our best to endure the sweat inducing heat. We made it through the first act and half way through the second before we decided that we should make our way home and to bed. 6 AM comes early after a long mega concert.

It took us a good 20 minutes to make our way to the back of the crowd. We must have been quite the spectacle; seven white folks amongst the sea of dark skinned Africans. Just about everyone at the concert who noticed our early departure had a comment or two about our tubabu (word in Bambara that means white person) group.  We provided them with a great deal of amusement!

Once we were free from the crowd and had walked a few blocks from the concert, I somehow was locked in a game of high stakes negotiations with a street peddler for two masks that I didn’t really want. He initially asked 6000cfa each ($12 USD) and I was at 1000cfa each and not budging. I was firm in my offer of “oeuf pour mask.” As I emphatically made my offer, the French speaking members of my party began to laugh. I thought it was a good price, but apparently no one else did. Eventually the man gave up as we could not come to a mutual price. I later found out that my offer of “oeuf pour mask” really meant “egg for mask.” As I had no eggs, it is a good thing he rejected my offer!

Attack of the Killer 3rd and 4th Graders

I just finished the first two full weeks of school and everything is going great. I am living about a half mile from the Niger River in a guest apartment that is operated by Avant ministries. My girlfriend Sara is on the other side of the river about a mile away, and the school is another mile past her.

In the classroom, we have the usual math, reading, science, spelling, and bible; they are split by grade level, 5^th and 6^th.  The kids are fantastic. There is one from England, one from Ghana, two from Sweden, one from Germany, and one from Alabama.

Here is an example of just how good and nice these kids are. I had been teasing Sarah before we left the States that I was going to train my class to attack her classroom. Once we got here and started getting into the flow of things, I thought it would be fun to flesh out some of those threats in a silly way and the kids were more than eager to get involved in some mischief. The worst we could come up with was to sing a little song to violate their ears. Understandably, the 3^rd and 4^th graders were a little dumbfounded when our class came in singing our song, and rumor has it, they began immediately to plot their revenge.

The next few days went by without incident, but then I sensed an attack was on the horizon when I got an innocent looking text message from Miss. Silberstein asking if my class was busy. I replied a simple no and braced for the worst. My class was as peaceful as mud puddle on a cloudless day when their class came in with a chant. Then they fired. Paper ball after paper ball whizzed by my head and bounced off the surprised bodies of my students. Then, just as quickly as they appeared, they left –running actually. It took my students no time to devise all sorts of devious plans to get back at those lowly 3^rd and 4^th graders; “lets write on their board when they are at lunch!” one girl cried.

That next Friday –yesterday, we had an all school chapel on self control, after which the power went out in the school. It was too dark for us to do the reading assignment I had planned, so we had a discussion about what it means to have self control. Somehow, the discussion moved to the 3^rd and 4^th graders. My students wanted to exhibit self control through this situation and they came up with some great ideas; each of them made a paper box and decorated it, the boys each contributed a note telling them that our class wanted to be friends, and they invited Miss Silberstein’s class to a chocolate party two Fridays from then.

When we delivered the peace offerings and notes, the 3^rd and 4^th graders looked a little worried. But, I think by the end of the “attack” they were ready to join us for some chocolate!

Traviling to Mali

I left PDX at 10:30 PM on a red eye to New York. I was excited that my layover was 18 hours so that I could have a chance to see the city. When I got there I found a place to store my luggage and caught a train into Manhattan. I got off the train and after I made my way through the underground portion of the station to the street level, I looked around to see Madison Square Garden right behind me. Then, I turned down the first street I saw, and just down it a few blocks was the Empire State Building. The trek to the top is rather long, but the view is something else for sure. From there, I walked to Times Square and even in the daytime it was lit up like a thousand Christmas trees. I finally made my way back to the airport just in time to wait four hours for my plane to board.

The next stop was Casablanca, Morocco. Once I was on the ground it was quite a task to get through arrivals on to departures. I followed the crowd to a large room where customs officials were checking documents. I handed mine to the man, and he informed me that I needed a white paper and pointed to the back where stacks of them lay. Thankfully the instructions were printed in English as well as French and Arabic. Once that was in order, I wandered around in the baggage claim area until I asked a guard how to get to departures. After many gestures and a few grunts he pointed me in the right direction and I finally made it to the main entrance to the airport.  Getting through departures was a little tricky as they had a 10k weight limit on carry-on luggage and my bag was 16k. The excess baggage charge was going to be 600 Dirhams, or about 70 USD. Needless to say, I began throwing away things that were not super important, and filling my cargo pockets with books. With that settled, I could wait at my gate for the plane to depart; and it finally did about 8 hours later.

I arrived in Mali in the early morning and Steve from Avant Ministries was there to take me to my new home. Then I slept – for 16 hours.