Take me out to the ballgame
I’ve been much too lazy about writing in here and now have too many stories to tell! So, I’ll start with the most recent. Yesterday (Thursday) Linden came home at the first recess and told me that Madame Michelle had not come to school and the kids were just sitting there (there is no such thing as substitute teachers here). I called her and she said she was in Douala and wouldn’t be back until Monday. So I took the plunge and decided to go teach a bit, since the university still hasn’t called.
I had already taught the kids “Take Me Out To the Ballgame,” inspired by the two Indian games Linden and I went to last summer, so I decided to continue the baseball theme. No one had ever heard of baseball, although they know a few things about basketball (and nothing at all about American football). First, we learned in the classroom about strikes, outs, bases, the pitcher and the batter. Then, we played a circumscribed game in the room, with me as pitcher. And what did we use for a bat and a ball? Yes, just as you have guessed—sugar cane for the bat; an onion that I brought from home for the ball. The kids were quite good at hitting the onion, although there were a lot of strikes, with us all shouting “STR . . . I . . . KE!!!” The kids ran down the aisle to first base, often forgetting what to do, producing some comical situations.
After a while it was time to proceed to the real thing, so we went out in the courtyard and set up some bases with big rocks, actually big chunks of mud. Well, with 58 kids in the class, some choices had to be made. We had 6 kids on the Yankees team, and 6 on the Indians. The onion quickly dissolved and someone found a small plastic ball that was cracked and on its way to dissolving. The kids ran the wrong way, carried the bat with them, forgot to get the ball, but had a blast. I think the score was two to three, but who knows. The other 46 kids pretended to be spectators on the sidelines but really just goofed around. Jealous little ones leaned out of their classroom windows and gave their teachers a break. Linden and I screamed out cheers for the teams, but no one caught on and joined us. The sugar cane bat began to disappear as kids pulled off pieces to chew on. A good time was had by all.
Today, Linden wore her Indians shirt and ball cap and we did it all again, with another 12 kids. We also played “Simon Says.” Then I had to take a three-hour nap.
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