The Spelling Bee

For the last few months, most of my time and energy has gone towards planning a region-wide English Spelling Bee. The Spelling Bee took place this past weekend, and I’m happy to say that it went off smoothly with no big problems.

There were fourteen participating schools, which gave a total of 41 students who participated. Each school ran a preliminary Spelling Bee to determine the best three students. Then, the students would study privately with their volunteer for about a month to learn the words, and the rules of a Spelling Bee, an idea foreign to them.

On Friday, all of the students arrived with their volunteers in Orodara. The students all stayed at a center here which was loaned to us at no cost. On Friday, we started the Spelling Bee with some ice breakers, games and an introduction (which of course included rules, like no boys in the girls’ room). After, we ran a practice Spelling Bee. This gave not only the students, but also the judges (two Burkinabe English teachers) the opportunity to see what exactly would happen the next day. It gave me the chance to iron out some unforeseen problems.

This day, naturally, didn’t pass without a few hiccups. The first and biggest problem was caused by a simple text message. On Friday morning, we (all the volunteers) received a text that our closest city was temporarily off limits due to some violent events that occurred the previous day. This is not the first, nor the last time, that we will receive something like this, so it usually isn’t a big thing. Well, that day it was a big thing because half of the students and volunteers participating had to travel through that city to get here. After a lot of stressful phone calls and panicked volunteers, we got everyone here safely.

The day only got better once all of the students arrived. It started off with a minor flood because some of the students had never seen a water spicket before, and therefore had no clue how to use it. I got panicked yells from some of the students, “Mrs. Sara! Help me! The water won’t stop!” The kids were trying desperately to catch the shooting water in buckets before I got there to turn off the knob. Another interesting incident occurred when a kid pooped in the shower. I see a group of boys running up to me, “Someone pooped in the shower!!!” As much as I tried, I couldn’t stop myself from laughing at this one. Thankfully, this was at the time when the chaperones were changing so I was no longer in charge. I sent the kids over to the new chaperone to deal with that problem.

Finally, the day I had been planning for had arrived… at 6am. Of course, this day wouldn’t start without some type of emergency as well. The woman who was supposed to be preparing breakfast for the kids never showed up. Thankfully, someone knew where she lived at and was able to get her.

Shortly after, the ‘important people’ who were invited to the event started showing up. This included our Peace Corps Director, the top Commissioner from my region, the mayor, the police commander, and several important education officials. Although we invited all these people, I doubted that any of them would want to come to this small event. They were only supposed to watch the opening remarks and the first round, but most stayed the entire day! They thought the Spelling Bee was so interesting and chose to stay there and watch it all.



The rest of the day could not have gone better. I was worried that the rounds would go too fast because the kids didn’t know any of the words, or that some kid would memorize all the words and it would be too boring for the audience. But, it was perfect. Each round, about 5 kids were eliminated, and we had a small break before starting the next round. We eliminated 32 kids in the morning, and stopped at noon to eat and rest before starting the afternoon rounds. The final rounds were very interesting because all the kids left were really good, and everyone in the audience was pulling for someone. Everyone was engaged and eager to see their kid win. Because I was a judge, I was trying my best to remain fair, but I really, really wanted my kids to win!



After a heated back and forth between the last two (neither of which were mine unfortunately), we finally had our winner. The kid was extremely excited about winning. The first prize was a bicycle, and various school supplies, which were presented by the top commissioner. The second prize was a new school bag and school supplies, and the third prize was the school supplies. Afterwards, the winners were all interviewed and photographed by a journalist. I think this part was more excited for them than actually winning.



After the Spelling Bee, everyone was so happy with how well organized it went. All the volunteers had a great time, and the important people thought it was a great idea. A few talked to me about continuing it next year!



That night, we organized a small ceremony to celebrate all of the kids who participated. We wanted to congratulate everyone, and not just the three who won. Each kid received a French/English dictionary as well as a participation award. During the competition, some of the students who were disqualified were really upset, and some cried, so the celebration was a great surprise to them. The dictionaries cheered them all up, and they were really excited about showing off their dictionaries to their schoolmates at home. After the dinner, we all danced to a mix of Burkinabe and American music. I’m sure the students thought we were crazy when they saw us all dancing around like idiots, but they all had a great time.



All in all, the Spelling Bee went off without a hitch (… mostly), and I’m so glad that I did this. Although, I’m also glad that it’s all over and now I’m heading off to the beach for a nice little vacation.