Imagine a university campus in America, busy students milling around, chatting and looking at test scores posted on the walls. Only the students are much better dressed, like businessmen and women out to lunch in black slacks and neatly pressed button-up shirts, silk blouses and fitted skirts, but with notebooks clenched at their sides. Now make the buildings bare concrete, dusted with red earth. Imagine that all the signs are hand made. As you walk through imagine that leaves of shredded plastic catch the wind and roll across the footpaths, and chickens hop between the benches. Imagine that motorbikes are weaving around wherever they please, deftly maneuvering between lounging students. Professors in colorful traditional garb zip by on Vespa scooters. Imagine dirt paths between buildings densely shaded by vein-trunked tropical trees and flanked by fields of corn and cassava. Now imagine you are me, looking for something resembling a campus map to find my class, ha.
Everyone you meet will mention to you that the university is transitioning from the French system (License, Maitrise, Doctorat) to the more familiar English system (Bachelors, Masters, Doctorate) and in general things seem to be, lets say… perpetually up in the air. Class offerings, degree requirements, timelines and locations are all subject to change and as such one would be hard pressed to find any of this information in print. Information is primarily passed along in the first person, from professors to students, from student delegates to their classmates, or between peers. Friends are basic logistical necessity, letting you know when class moves rooms or times change, and luckily they are plentiful.
The students I’ve met here have been wonderful, welcoming, generous, inquisitive and good-humored. Each class begins with about a half hour of handshakes and greetings all around the room and sometimes ends with a friend sharing a home-cooked meal he brought in his thermos. I mostly keep my ears wide, listening to conversations between students about the environment, economics and future of Africa, lamenting endless hypocrisies and endless cycles of dependence, hazarding guesses at what could/should come next. The material taught in the courses is not exactly earth-shattering, but the professors’ manners of explanation are worth the attention alone. I give you one extravagant but absolutely true example.
Photosynthesis was explained with the following:
(It should be noted that students are very adept but lack random pieces of knowledge that we take for granted as something for a 6th grade science fair, such as the process of photosynthesis which had simply never been explained to a student now in a masters program.)
Prof: What did you eat for breakfast this morning?
Student: um, I had some cereal.
Prof: Exactly, you had grains that contained what?
Student: ...
Prof: Ok. Now I’m sure you have seen someone who is very weak in the hospital. Why is that? It’s often because he doesn’t have enough glucose. The doctors give him nutrition, glucose, and what happens? He feels better!
Now cup your hands together and breathe out like this.
(students mimick gesture and cup hands)
It’s hot no?
(nods of concurrence)
Well that’s combustion; one substance turning into another creates heat. Just like plants do when they turn sunlight into energy during photosynthesis!
Photosynthesis was explained with the following:
(It should be noted that students are very adept but lack random pieces of knowledge that we take for granted as something for a 6th grade science fair, such as the process of photosynthesis which had simply never been explained to a student now in a masters program.)
Prof: What did you eat for breakfast this morning?
Student: um, I had some cereal.
Prof: Exactly, you had grains that contained what?
Student: ...
Prof: Ok. Now I’m sure you have seen someone who is very weak in the hospital. Why is that? It’s often because he doesn’t have enough glucose. The doctors give him nutrition, glucose, and what happens? He feels better!
Now cup your hands together and breathe out like this.
(students mimick gesture and cup hands)
It’s hot no?
(nods of concurrence)
Well that’s combustion; one substance turning into another creates heat. Just like plants do when they turn sunlight into energy during photosynthesis!
