Le Conseil (09/28/2010)

I’ve been at site for about a month. On September 15, the other teachers at my school were supposed to arrive, and we were supposed to have a big, important meeting, Le Conseil. From what I understood, it was a meeting to discuss teacher’s schedules, the last school year, and problems at the school. It would be my first school related meeting and my first meeting in French. I was nervous, but also excited to get going. So, September 15th rolls around and no there’s no conseil. I wait, and wait, and eventually it comes. I get a call yesterday morning from my homologue (the person at my school who’s my contact for any problems and pretty much in charge of me), telling me that the conseil will be held that afternoon at 3. Finally! Only 2 weeks late hah.

I show up at my school around 2:40, as a good American, I’m a little early and ready to go. There’s no one there. I sit around and wait. Eventually, at 3, my homologue (who is also the Vice Principal) shows up. He tells me that the Principal is sick with “le palu” (AKA malaria. SIDE NOTE: Everytime someone is sick here, they think they have malaria, a parasite that can be deadly if it goes untreated. My homologue told me twice he probably had malaria because he was really tired. They’re usually fine within a couple of days.) So eventually some of the teachers start rolling in, and the conseil starts closer to 4. We start of with introductions, and, of course, everyone is wondering who is this new white girl. I introduce myself, “Je m’appelle Sara. Je suis une volontaire avec le Corps de la Paix. J’enseigne le SVT et l’Anglais.” (My name is Sara. I’m a Peace Corps volunteer. I teach science and English.) Whew… I made it! The other teachers seem satisfied with my response because they continue on. At this point I realize that only 12 of the 20 teachers and 2 admin showed up for the meeting, and I’m the only female teacher! Oh boy.

We continue on with information about last school year. Basically just a lot of statistics unimportant to me, but there was one shocker. He announces how many students passed the BAC (the equivalent of the SAT’s, but students are required to pass the test in order to graduate). 43%!!! Yes… only 43% of the students passed! I couldn’t believe it, and I think my face said it all because my VP stopped the meeting to ask me if I was ok haha.

So, next section of the meeting, problems at the school. The big problem for this school year is lack of sports equipment, athletic fields, and a gym teacher. I take a mental note that I may be able to help with sports equipment and athletic fields. Then, he asks for someone to volunteer to teach gym. I ignore the request because he could not expect this skinny, white girl with glasses to teach any type of sport when out of nowhere, “Sara, could you be our gym teacher?” Oh fuck. Well, I once walked the mile in 25 minutes, and almost failed gym another year, so I was probably the best person here HA! I politely tell him that I don’t think I’m the best candidate, and he assures me that he can give me all the resources required (except sports equipment and athletic fields…). I try to weasel my way out of this one, and I’m still not sure if it 100% worked. We’ll see if I show up for the first day of school and have “Gym” on my schedule.

After the whole gym debacle, we move on to the part I’ve been waiting for… teacher’s schedules. Now remember, this conseil is being held 3 days before school starts and the teachers still have no clue what they will be teaching, and no one seems concerned about this except for me. I browse over my schedule… it’s looking good so far, 2 sections of middle school English (74 students each), 1 section of high school English (60 students), and 1 section of Geology (99 students!)… wait, Geology? When was the last time I studied rocks? Let me tell you, it was with Ms. Davidheiser when I was in middle school… 10 years ago! Uh oh… I’m in trouble. After the conseil, I head to my homologue’s office and the “library” (a room with one locked cupboard filled with old textbooks) to collect the books I need for my classes. I immediately get overwhelmed when I come to find out that there is no curriculum or book for my high school English class, and the geology book is a really in-depth, wordy book about rocks. Do we have a rock collection at my school? How am I supposed to teach this?? Not to mention, they throw in a section of Sex Ed after rocks… can you say “le penis” haha.

So, the whole day today I spent running around to different bookstores and the other high school in town trying to collect the books and materials that my school was lacking, and trying to figure out how to teach 99 kids about rocks. It’s been overwhelming, stressful, and frustrating. But, hey, it’s Peace Corps… “the hardest job you’ll ever love.”