GRE and SOFANWET (Update)

Last weekend, if you can recall from my previous entry, I took the GRE in Ouagadougou. In preparing to take the next step in life after Peace Corps, I have begun making early preparation for graduate school. While the GRE is only a small step, it is a first step into a process that may take the latter part of this year to complete. My target is fall 2012, assuming the world does not end. While I won't go into too much detail about post Peace Corps plans since mainly there are no details yet, for the first time in my life I feel ready and excited to go back to school, and unlike undergrad, I'm going in with an objective.

This weekend is the exciting international softball tournament of Ouagadougou. It's called SOFANWET. Why? I have no idea. Along with several Peace Corps staff members and other volunteers, we have assembled a formidable team this year. Before leaving the United States my dad gave me a set of DVD's entitled 'Baseball.' Ken Burn's insightful series, almost 24 hours in length, takes an in depth look at the history of baseball and it seems to emulate the history of America. This series has got me so hooked on baseball again that I have picked up an old glove and begun throwing the ball against a wall in my yard. Let's hope this rediscovered love for the game I grew up with translates into a good performance on the field. This Friday, we will find out!

*Softball Update

The tournament took place at the International School of Ouagadougou, which is like little America. It's probably the only place in Burkina Faso with grass. Inside the walls everyone speaks English and it's very possible to forget where you are. It's a very surreal place, and honestly it makes me uncomfortable.

Like any good Peace Corps Team we lost-all three games. Two of the teams that we lost to were from high school, embarrassing. But hey, we at least played JICA, the Japanese Peace Corps, pretty well. The tournament was really fun overall, and nobody enjoyed the hot dogs and snow cones better than us. One thing about the ex-pat lifestyle, those folks just don't appreciate things the little things like Peace Corps Volunteers. Plus, nobody had better fans than we did. Even down 10 runs in the last game our fans continued to cheer us on. Let's go Team Peace!

Here are some photos, courtesy of Scott Worthington:

My baseball card shot, notice the 'stache.

Becky, Tim, and Brittney having a good time.

One of my hits. (2 above) Al and Mike having fun (above)

Andrew and Diana (below) Team meeting (2 below)

In perhaps the most descriptive photo of all, voila:

We are the visitors by the way, go Peace Corps!

Cue the Jaws Theme Music

It's Coming

Cold season in Burkina is purely fantastic. Yes there is the problem of the dust filled wind where ever breath you take feels like you are breathing pure exhaust. The sky is a gloomy color of grey. The wind makes it very difficult to pedal your bicycle 10 feet. But it's not hot.

It's Coming...

In cold season it does not get past 90 in the day, and nights drop down to a comfortable 70. No fan, no problem! Often I found myself taking warm bucket baths and wearing a hoodie to bed. The weather was indeed so nice that you actually feel cold sometimes.

It's Coming...

The fan is being turned on in the day; sometimes in the night. No more sweater, no more jeans. Cold drinks are becoming a neccesity again. The cold shower becomes your only shelter. Sweat begins to drip down your body all hours of the day-and night.

It's Coming...

In the hot month of October, there is one relief-that cold season is coming. In the back of your mind you know that you only need to tolerate the heat for one month before the cold scours the land. In February, there is no such relief.

It's Coming...

The outlook is grim. It does not get any colder. Sleeping outside becomes the norm because the home feels like a sauna. The days of 120 degree heat and 100 degree nights are near. The hot season is coming folks, be afraid, be very afraid.

The Grim Reaper of Education (GRE)

In an effort to practice my writing at the encouragement of my aunt, I wrote this story. Hope you enjoy. Warning: this story has nothing to do with Burkina except a tiny blurb at the end.

Once upon a time, in a place greatly different than our own, an organization was formed to standardize the university application process. Based in the backwards land of New Jersey, this tax-exempt organization held a gathering of highly elite members of society to find a way to cash in on its citizens by offering a useless, but labeled as imperative, program for innocent people wishing to go to school. What they developed was so horrible, so scary, that mid-twenty somethings dare speak its name for fear of exile from friends. The Elite Totalitarians of Society (ETS) unleashed this beast from the depths of New Jersey upon all the world Gaia; it was called the Grim Reaper of Education (GRE). The GRE has forced thousands of poor civilians to pay a grandiose sum of 200 dollars to take an archaic exam so that he or she may receive an education. Where does this money go? Only the GRE knows. Members of ETS have been allowed to operate under a discrete cover of tax-exemption for years.

Of course, institutions of higher learning, desperate to strip people of their individual qualifications to simplify the application process were easily seduced by the will of the GRE. This beast of New Jersey consumed others through money and greed. Making profit off of innocent students is a practice as old time, the GRE is simply a reincarnation of another horrid creature, the Savage Android Terminator (SAT) released upon millions of idealistic and innocent high school minds to win yet even more cash.

Even though citizens view the GRE with a disdaining eye, only until recently has there been a change of principals by universities to return to its roots of accepting based upon their individual qualifications, not upon the vicious GRE. Can we fully blame the university? Perhaps, but failure to accept the dreaded GRE may have lead to other beasts being released upon the land, including the dark creatures of the consumer driven ideals of “Jersey Shore” and the money and sleaze pit known as Atlantic City.

Where are the Robin Hoods, the John Connors, the Luke Skywalkers, destined to fight the ongoing invasion of the GRE? Educational centers, paying little attention to the needs of its young minds, have allowed the GRE to continue gauging the land of precious green. Combined with the eye-popping costs of graduate university, the poor student is left with debt and interests rates that take years to pay off.

Slowly, but surely, the stain of the GRE is being removed from society. Many institutions no longer value the beasts pointless antonyms, synonyms, and 7^th grade math choosing instead to regard the personal qualities of its applicants. Some have even abandoned the beast altogether. The GRE is morphing to adhere to the stringent demands of a 2011, but it may be too late. The rise of quality international education is rendering monopolizing beasts like the GRE useless.

Therein, we have found our hero: the evolving demands of a 21^st century. Unfortunately even with the arrival of our hero, the GRE has consumed yet another victim. I will be succumbing, resentfully, to its will this Saturday in the far away land of Burkina Faso.

Wish me luck!