You have yet to make a noise or show any signs of life so you pretend to be sleeping. With any luck, they'll just go away. You wait a moment to see if there will be anymore tapping on the tin door of your courtyard. Silence, then a sudden pounding. The tin door is rattling in its wooden frame. You fear the entire mud-brick courtyard wall will collapse but you wait. It stops. You breath and sit down on the edge of the cot.
Your thoughts turn to breakfast. Do I want oatmeal or pancakes? You go through the list of ingredients in your head and realize it will be oatmeal. It was oatmeal yesterday and will be oatmeal tomorrow. At least the brown sugar is plentif... There comes a rush of banging and "sir, sir" (translated just for you) on your window shades above the bed. It rattles on for a minute but you are a deer in headlights. You dare not move or make a sound.
Five minutes pass in the cacophony of the window pounding. Then it stops and small footsteps are heard running off while a giggle traces their path. You cautiously slide open the shades and see a small boy racing to punch another smiling boy. They are both laughing.
So, oatmeal it is. You prepare the breakfast, eat it and immediately rinse out the disk, returning it to the top of the bookshelf beside all the other cooking utensils. Now that you are awake, you prepare warm water on the camp stove and pour it into a bucket then head outside.
In the small, walled area used for both a latrine and shower you strip down to nothing but flipflops. You bathe by using a small plastic cup that you dip into the bucket then pour over yourself. The contrast between the warm water and cool breeze gives you the shivers. You remember back to all the days through heat of the summer and fall when you thought you would never again get the shivers. You smile.
After finishing, you pick up the pair of pants that you have been wearing to class for the last week and put them on. You decide the old shirt has too many chalk stains so you sport for a new one. On the way out the door, you finish your ensemble with your schoolbag made from a rice sack that cost you twenty five cents in the market.
Your bike is waiting in the courtyard. You hop on it and suddenly remember your helmet. Do you go back inside to get it or head to school?
Just Go To School (click here)
Go Get Helmet (click here)
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a little about burkina faso
Burkina Faso (formerly Upper Volta) achieved independence from France in 1960. Repeated military coups during the 1970s and 1980s were followed by multiparty elections in the early 1990s. Current President Blaise COMPAORE came to power in a 1987 military coup and has won every election since then.
Burkina Faso's high population density and limited natural resources result in poor economic prospects for the majority of its citizens. Recent unrest in Cote d'Ivoire and northern Ghana has hindered the ability of several hundred thousand seasonal Burkinabe farm workers to find employment in neighboring countries.
Location:
Western Africa, north of Ghana
Geographic coordinates:
13 00 N, 2 00 W
Area:
total: 274,200 sq km land: 273,800 sq km water: 400 sq km
Burkina Faso's high population density and limited natural resources result in poor economic prospects for the majority of its citizens. Recent unrest in Cote d'Ivoire and northern Ghana has hindered the ability of several hundred thousand seasonal Burkinabe farm workers to find employment in neighboring countries.
Location:
Western Africa, north of Ghana
Geographic coordinates:
13 00 N, 2 00 W
Area:
total: 274,200 sq km land: 273,800 sq km water: 400 sq km
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