Exciting Events

AHHH!
Imagine this: 200 students, crowded on old wooden desks—the kind of wooden desk that the bench is attached to table part—huddled together in the dark of the night. The 200 students are hushed in awe, except for every now and then, en masse, shouts of “OHHHH!” and the few minutes of excited chatter that follows. That was the setting for my first showing of the first episode of Planet Earth, in my village. AND, IT WAS UTTERLY AMAZING!
One goal I have as a volunteer while I serve in Benin is to complete a series of projects using the least amount of money possible. For my first official-in-my-eyes Peace Corps project I started showing Planet Earth last week. I will show one episode a week for the duration of the number of episodes there are. And, not to be repetitive, it was amazing.
I put the word out by spending all but 10 seconds talking about it at the end of my four classes 3 weeks ago. 2 weeks ago I was gone for a week because all TEFL Volunteers were in Parakou (a big city, not as pretty as Natitingou) for review and update sessions. I thought when I came back last week that my students had forgotten about it but they in fact had not.
Armed with a projector and a dvd-player donated by the mayor of my village (I’ve been so lucky) I showed the first episode of Planet Earth. I had to wait for nightfall because I decided to project the show on the side of one of the school buildings. The student brought desks into the courtyard and waited.
The first episode of Planet Earth is a general overview of wildlife from the North Pole to the South Pole. At one point, the show features a herd of Caribou migrating in Northern Canada, and the wolves following them. Eventually the wolves move in for the kill, chasing the Caribou. It was at this point that the students went crazy. Off-their-seats-squeals-of-excitement-clapping-crazy. It was so apparent to me that they had never seen anything like this before in their lives. I was on an emotional high.
At one point, the program features animals in Africa and the students were even more excited. They began discussing the show in French, amongst themselves, naming the animals. Touching.
For me, the point of this project is not to give the students a scientific explanation of the world around them but simply to show them the world around them. I don’t have the French version of Planet Earth—I did search for it. But I realized that an added element of project glory comes from the fact that the students are listening to English while being so focused on the images. There’s some subconscious level of something going on.
I’m doing fine, post is fine. I’m going to Parc Pendjari (a natural wildlife preserve) in just 2 short weeks!! Of course I’ll post about it!