Sunday, February 5, 2012

"Madam, may I assist you?"

Friends that come out to play as soon as the lights go out

Unlike my last few posts, I am in a solidly good mood as I write this.  I have just come back from buying a few groceries for the first time on my own and—as far as I can tell—the women did not even attempt to cheat me on the price.  Peter had warned me about buying food myself and told me to make sure that, until I was familiar with the prices, I either texted him or had someone with me so I could be sure I got a fair deal.  So, on Tuesday I flagged down Centrine, our librarian, on her way out of the school compound and asked if she would accompany me as I shopped.  We walked about 100 yards outside of the gate to the nearest street corner (I use the term “street” very loosely), where I can see around 2-5 women sitting in the grass selling produce on any given afternoon.  Centrine did most of the talking as I smiled at the group of primary school students hanging around staring at me while they chewed on sugar cane.  I purchased about 2 pounds of sweet potatoes for 20 shillings (somewhere in the neighborhood of 25 cents) and 2 small mangoes for 10 shillings (12 cents).  They also convinced me to try some sugar cane, so for 1 shilling a woman took a machete and hacked off a piece about 5 inches long for me.  They started to explain to me how to chew it, but Centrine seemed inexplicably offended when the children began to giggle at me and she ordered me to keep walking.  She seemed equally perturbed at another small group of boys who giggled as we walked by and spoke to them in some very aggressive-sounding Kiswahili.  A little farther down the road I was able to buy tomatoes (3 small ones for 10 shillings) from a tiny store that looked like it carried some candy and probably Safaricom top-up cards.  Dinner—and then some—for under a dollar?  I’ll take it.  Celestine then showed me how to chew the sugarcane. It looks like bamboo on the outside, except a little thicker and solid in the middle.  The inside is white and you basically rip off strips with your teeth and suck out the juice before spitting the leftover strip onto the ground.  It was definitely more pleasant than I expected—much juicier than you would think.  The first couple “bites” were very refreshing in the hot sun, but I soon tired of using my teeth and the sticky juice covering my fingers.  I waited until I got home then chucked the rest of it behind the house.

            This week at school has been great.  I’m beginning to learn more names and I’m more comfortable with the schedule.  Discipline in class has not been much of a problem so far, but as the students grow more comfortable with me I can tell this will become a more significant issue in the near future.  This morning a boy wanted to leave class a few minutes before the lesson was over and I had to physically place my hand on his chest before he would sit down.  Yesterday was the only day so far that I’ve truly lost it—I still haven’t the faintest clue what the problem was, but I was asking for their homework and getting blank stares in response.  I don’t know how to say, “Give. Me. Your. Exercise. Books. So. That. I. Can. Grade. Your. Homework… NOW!” any more clearly.  After a few minutes of this (and, ok, a lot of waving a book in the air and yelling) I simply walked out of the room with the small pile of books I had been given and gave the students who did not turn theirs in zeros.