Corruption

Hi all!

Great news! Chad has officially reached new heights! According to a study by Transparency Int’l televised on EuroNews (Europe’s 24 hour new station, which I watch on satellite at Mary’s house), the number one most corrupt nation in the world is….drums!!… La Republique du Tchad! Yes, that’s right, the corruptest of the corrupt. What countries come to mind when you think of corruption? Colombia? Nigeria? Cuba? Iraq? We beat them all. And if you think about all of the things associated with corruption like dishonesty, lack of respect for other humans, greed, parasitism, grinding poverty, etc., I bet we’re pretty high up on the list for all those too.

There are highs and lows in the cultural adaptation process. You move from honeymoon to culture shock to initial adjustment and up and down. I seem to be in a low swing this week. Every little thing is really getting to me. The puff bellied, squatting little Arab baby having diarrhea in the street makes me shake my head and cuss. YaCou’s toddling around with KaKa’s knife makes me roll my eyes and pray for patience. The full-grown turban-wrapped Kanembu man snarling “Nasara!” makes me grit my teeth. And the rock throwers. There is a pack of 5-6 little boys up the street from my house. Their ragged clothes, sunken, glassy eyes, and dusty faces give them a wild, ghostly appearance. Nearly every time I pass by, they swarm around me, yelling, “Ket Ket Ca va?!” Then once I’m past them they hurl rocks at my back, of course, they rarely hit me and their little arms are too spindly and atrophied to do me any bodily harm. But getting hit by a rock is a very lonely feeling. After an encounter with the wild boys, I usually hurry home, with my lip trembling, blinking back hot tears of anger, embarrassment and loneliness. When I get home, I flop down and cry for a little bit, “Why do they have to do that?! I didn’t do anything to them!” and think about getting my mildly violent revenge. I’d really like to just shove them or smack them, just once. I realize that these are not entirely appropriate coping strategies. I realizing that keeping a sense of humor about it might be healthier but it’s real hard to find humor in a rock whizzing past your head. But, to put a positive spin on it, I told Pops about it a while ago and he said he’d go talk to their parents (though I doubt he ever did). I told Josephine (the Proviseur’s wife) about it and she went to talk to the Chief who then preached in the mosque about not throwing rocks at Nasaras. So, no, it hasn’t stopped but at least I have family – friends who would like it to.

School is now up and running at nearly full steam. I feel so much more at ease this year! I can handle classroom management a lot better now that my French is so much better and I understand the drill of the Chadian system. Looking back at last year, I feel like I was just stumbling through my classes and it’s amazing that any of my students understood anything I taught. Yesterday, My 5ẹ Chef de Classe (class prez) from last year came up to me in the teacher’s lounge and spoke to me in English! He’d been 1st in his class and always did well in English. But this summer, he took English classes in NDJ and he has improved so much! I’m really proud of him and hope that even though my teaching was haphazard and jumbled last year, maybe I helped him be excited about English.

Rainy season is over and the weather is now as close as it gets to being comfortable. The other night, all of us Nasaras gathered at the Haberkamps to eat homemade pizza and watch The Hiding Place (a movie about the Holocaust). We were standing on their porch talking and I thought, “Gosh, it’s comfortable right now.” I looked at the thermometer; whose little red line told me it was 90°. It still heats up during the day but there’s zero humidity. It’s not really pleasant to be outside during the day because the howling Harmanttan winds kick up clouds of dust and dry out your lips and eyes, so you’re constantly blinking and licking your lips. But the winds die down at night and sleeping outside in the cool night air, under the twinkling stars is fantastic. I’m glad our electricity got cut because now that there’s no light, I can see the stars better.