Wa kobi kob'i se!

::Applause:: Our program manager is still receiving phone calls about last Friday’s "lancement" (kick-off of activities) in Bamba. Despite some difficulties with the generator, a sick cameraman, and changes in the program, we presented messages on cholera, malaria, and good breast feeding to over 50 officials/chefs and easily 200 community members. The audience especially loved the bit when the cholera "microbe" was trying to get into the wooden replica of the pump (access to clean water is one of our main interventions) and the giant mosquito attacking people who don't sleep under nets. I translated our coordinator's address directly from French to Sonrai much to the amusement of the crowd. It's been replayed on the radio too many times--and now with the messages I recorded on good health that play morning and night, Mariama Cissé is very well known along this stretch of river! It amazes me how many people rely on the radio, a result of isolation I suppose. It's a great tool for our information dissemination. The children were excited to sing our educational song, and get a Tshirt for their work (others "won" Tshirts if they answered questions properly during the evaluation part of the program). The idea is to our 25 singers hooked and then they will sing in school, in the road, while playing etc. and other kids will learn the message...goodness, it's like a shady propaganda scheme...

Question du jour: Who? Who will it be, to make change? Everyone accepts the system status quo, even the West and Development. It has to start with individuals who will demand higher standards for their own children. Education is key. And then if we can get the system to change--I feel it would be better to build a few well-supplied schools with strict admission standards. I am starting to realize you can’t have equality. There will always be a ruling class. And it is good, important to society, to have an order: to have those who provide services, those who think, those who educate, those who lead. It is crazy to want universal primary education because it does nothing to change the country—saying after everyone, boys and girls have a basic RRR level they will develop themselves. In fact, it is the cause of a lot of unemployment. Once a farmer is enlightened, albeit only a little, he refuses to continue his work in the fields and goes to the city to find work. But without industry, there is no work. And without a base, farming and cultivating, there is no industry. The education he got closed doors. Especially because the quality is still poor. Ansongo passed everyone, no questions asked. Students in Bourem got their DEF (9th grade diploma which is the basis for most positions in the civil service) this year without ever getting basic math, physics or chemistry. The French system could work because it is a more vocational, tracked approach, but the students of this broken system (post-colonial, Development created dependency, poor funding) are today's teachers. So the quality continues to descend...