OSEP

There were two recent (or not so recent) at site, both of which ended with a soccer game. The first event was OSEP, and quite honestly, I can’t remember what the acronym stands for… It is an event at the primary school level, between all the schools in my “district” and the “district” next door. Throughout the previous months all 10 ten schools in my area had a tournament and the champion was now playing against the other district’s champion. The students were all about 5-6^th grade level and unfortunately neither of the two Yaho schools won for our district. A week or so earlier I had purchased my OSEP t-shirt, so I was sporting that and jeans in honor of the day.It was my first time wearing jeans in village, and I definitely got some comments about it, haha!

That morning there was supposed to be a theater performance by some of the students that I wanted to see. I went to the school roughly the time I was told, and of course they weren’t set up yet. So I went across the street to hang out at the health center until they were ready. After about an hour and a half, they still hadn’t started, so I finally went over to ask. Apparently nobody had arranged for speakers to be brought to the school, so they were going to do the theater pieces later at the soccer match.

I sat with the men waiting for a while, but when I realized all the women were over making lunch for everyone, I went to hang out with them. They were almost done when I got there, so I ate with them. They had to bring the food over to the men, so they decided I was at least capable of watching their purses and the boiling spaghetti.

That is one thing about living here, in some situations you are treated well above your status (such as being seated with school officials instead of the other profs), and the rest of the time your treated like a child (considered incapable of doing anything actually useful). And unfortunately, by their standards, I am kind of like a child. I don’t have the hand calluses necessary to grab coals or pots off the fire with no protection. I can’t even eat food straight off the fire, it burns my hands. I don’t have the strength to lift 20L pots full of rice or sauce. I also don’t cook the same way they do, so I have to ask how much oil to add (way more than any ever wants to think about), how long to cook the sauce, etc. I’m better left in charge of watching the purses…

Anyway. After eating and serving the men, they fed the players for the two soccer teams (all boys) then had some students (all girls) help clean up and bring some more food to the bar for after the match. At the match, all the official-type people were able to say a few words: congratulating the kids, thanking the sponsors, thanking anyone else who’s put in long hours for this, etc. At this point the prefet (the person in charge of all the government employees in the community) asks to say a few words, and goes on to say how they could have made the event better. Not saying that criticism is bad, but this was not the time or place or audience to be sharing specific ideas. And everyone was talking over him anyway, they just wanted to see the kids play!

Finally, the students did start playing. They even had officially looking uniforms provided by SEMAFO, a gold mining company that mines just north of Yaho.

During half-time the students preformed a couple theater pieces. There was a dance, a monologue, and a wordless skit. All of the pieces were directed by a friend of mine, Mados.

About half way through the second half, the sky got really dark and the wind started to pick up. It even blew the tent over!! But the students were able to finish the game and our district won!!! The whole village was so excited, it was great :)

(Sorry the picture isn't the greatest, as I said, the sky got real crazy just before this!)

After the game some people were invited for a little after party, where I helped serve the snacks. There was supposed to be a dance after the that, but it started raining, so it never happened :/ But I had a really fun day helping out with the event and mostly just watching the kids have a fun time!