Most of these are guesses rather that actual statistics:
There are, depending on the census you consult, 20,000 to 30,000 people in my commune.
The average family has six children; a number of families have up to fifteen children.
49% to 58% of the commune population is children under 18, again depending on which source you consult.
Over 80% of people will or did drop out of school before 6th grade. Many (most) heads of family only have an elementary school education.
Only about 4% of children continue to high school. About 80% of those are male.
Female students drop out of school because of pregnancy as young as 13.
Classes have a range of ages in every classroom because of kids being held back or missing years if they cen't pay school fees; there are often 7 year olds sitting next to 15 year olds, 14 year olds sitting next to 22 year olds, all in the same classroom.
Elementary school classes often have over 100 students per teacher.
High school classes often only have about 50-60 students per teacher.
Because there aren’t enough classrooms for all the students, classrooms are in use from 6 am to 6 pm. Students are booted off school grounds to wander for at least part of each day.
High school teachers are paid about $50 per month. Middle school teachers are paid about $30 per month. Elementary school, even less.
There is no high school in my commune. High school students must live in a nearby city.
Elementary school teachers usually have graduated from middle school. Middle school teachers have usually graduated from high school.
There are, to the best of my knowledge, only three people in the commune who went to college—me, my counterpart at the MBG, and the doctor.
There is one doctor for the 20-30,000 people in the commune.
Over 60% of adults are missing teeth. That’s a very low estimate.
The most common diseases in my area are malaria, diarrhea, and upper respiratory infections (from cooking over an open fire).
The syphilis rate in
The HIV rate is about 1%, mostly transmitted from French sex tourists. The HIV/AIDS rate is set to spike in a few years if condom usage rates don’t change.
90-99% of the people in the commune are rice farmers. Some also have day jobs as teachers or community police.
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