Catching Fire

Disclaimer: This post isn't a review of the newly released Hunger Games movie, nor is it a clever metaphor for my service here in Guinea.



You haven't really taught school until you've had to administer an exam in the middle of a raging fire. I wish that was some elegant metaphor, but it's not and here's the story.

When dry season rolls around, the people here take to burning all of the fields both for the duel purpose of nitrogen fixation, and to prevent wildfires from starting later on in the season.
So, I was on break between classes and started to hear a very loud noise. All of the students ran to the other side of the school and of course I followed them to see what was going on. The field behind the school was on fire! The kids returned to the classroom shortly, but then the smoke started to roll in. All my students pointed to it and explained "c'est comme ça en Afrique" and asked if we could wait a few minutes before starting. Well, the classroom was filled with smoke, so I had NO problem with that and they all ran back out of the classroom coughing and rubbing their eyes. Five minutes later, the smoke had dissipated somewhat and I asked the class if they wanted to start the test or wait a little bit longer. They all said "Madame, let's get this over with" [rough translation]. So, we started, and finished, the test in the middle of this raging fire. The students were coughing, tearing up, and waving their scarves over their heads the entire time. At one point, the fire was burning the plants directly underneath the classroom windows. The cackling was immensely loud and it was pretty terrifying. My students aren't permitted to talk, but they would occasionally look up and tell me that life here is hard and how could I punish them for that? Amazingly, the grades from this exam were the best so far…all it took was lighting a fire underneath them.