Then and now

New Internationalist Easier English

Ready Intermediate Lesson
 Todays lesson:
Speaking
Grammar
Vocabulary
Reading
 Order the phrases to make a sentence:

has back
to a village to see
the changes in Burkina
an English man Faso
gone since 1985
every 10 years
 What changes do you think he has
seen in:

Housing Food and

Water farming
Technology
Education
Women
Health
 For example: housing
1985 2016
 Vocabulary a b
match:
1. straw
c d
2. corrugated iron
3. thatched roof
4. rectangular
e f
5. brick
6. pump
7. water table
g h
8. well
 Find 3 changes in housing 1985 to 2016:
Houses now look very different. The photo from 1985 shows a concession
(the local French term for a family compound) traditional round houses
with earth walls (colonialists called them mud huts) and thatched roofs.
Western people thought they looked pretty.
They still have the circular huts, but now they usually use them to store
things or for animals or children. People who have some money now live in
a rectangular house made of bricks (from baked earth) with a corrugated
iron roof. This roof makes it hotter, but lasts a lot longer and protects from
the rain more in the rainy season. And they dont have straw to make the
thatched roofs now.
In 1995 Mariama wanted a new house like this. I paid her money to
interpret for me, and she decided to save it for a house. Every wife has a
different house for her and her children to sleep in. That house was built,
but the rain destroyed it in 2008.
She now has a much bigger, decorated house bigger than her husbands.
She lives in it with her daughter and her daughter-in-law. Many people did
not have money to get better houses. The house usually shows how much
money a family has. Inside the houses there is usually no decoration and
very little furniture.
 Find 4 changes in water 1985 2016:
One of the main messages of our 1985 film was that women had
to work much too hard a lot of this was getting water. Women
had to carry the water for drinking, washing and cooking a long
way from one of the few good wells. This took hours every day.
But in 2002, they got the offer of a water pump (from a joint
programme between the Burkinab government and a German
NGO). But each family had to give $270 a lot of money and
also pay for its maintenance. Many families did not have enough
money for this. But some did. So there were enough in the
village for poorer families to use too.
Now people are worried that the water table is sinking so low
that the pumps will soon not get water in the dry season. They
need new, expensive super pumps to go deeper. They have only
three so far.
They now carry water in many different ways eg. plastic
containers, on bicycles or donkey carts, not on their head.
Order the words to make true sentences:
1) 2) 3)
live used didnt
to
heads water
thatched
They They
roofs
They to to
used water pumps
with on have
in carry use
houses their
 Focus on the grammar: discuss
They used to live in houses with thatched roofs.
They used to carry water on their heads.
They didnt use to have water pumps.
a) Are these sentences about the past, present
or future?
b) Are they about actions that happened more
than once?
c) What part of the verb comes after used to?
d) How do you make the negative?
 Grammar practice:
In pairs, write more used to sentences about:

1/ corrugated iron roofs

2/ straw to make roofs
3/ circular homes
4/ women hard work
5/ worry water table
In pairs, make more used to sentences
about food, health and education:
Then Now
 Now read this and write 10 more used to sentences,
positive and negative, about education, health and food:
Education: There was no school in Sabtenga in 1985 only a few children went to school and they had
to walk about four kilometres to Garango. In 1995 there was a primary school. It only had three
classrooms and only had space for a new group of seven-year-olds every two years. So at least 50
children a year had no education. In 2005 there were three more classrooms: Burkina Faso got money
from the HIPC Programme for health and education. This village is far from the capital, so this was real
evidence that the money was coming to the right places, not going to corrupt government ministers.
There were new primary schools in the villages around so there was not so much pressure on the
school in Sabtenga. There is now also a secondary school in the village. It started with one year group,
and took in a third year lfast September. They are planning a new set of three classrooms.
Health: In 1985 there was no real health centre it was an empty building with no medicines and no
staff. In 1995, it was a working health centre it did not have enough staff, but it was busy and was
improving the quality of life in the village. In 2005 there was a separate maternity unit, from debt
relief money. But people still had to pay, so many women had their babies at home. Some women
died having babies.
In 2016 the clinic was about the same, but had more staff. The staff had a lot more work because
healthcare is now free for pregnant women and children under five. This happened in June, because
of an election promise of the new president, Roch Marc Christian Kabor. The money for this is
coming from more tax on alcohol, tobacco and mobile phones.
Food: Most people in the village live by growing basic crops to eat - the traditional crops were millet.
They made flour from the millet and then made porridge called t to eat. This was the same in 2005.
Then, most of the farmers only used animal dung as a fertilizer. But about seven years ago
agronomists came to talk about how good it would be to use chemical fertilizer. Some people felt they
had enough manure from animals. But when they saw the better results by the farmers who used
fertilizer, they changed to chemicals and this is much more common now. At about the same time,
most people started growing maize, not millet. This is less work. They still make flour from the maize
and then t, but people usually pay others to do this at the village mill now.
In pairs, ask questions about the past eg.
Did the women use to ride motorbikes?
 Questions with used to :
1/ Did women use to ride motorbikes?
2/ Did they use to use that horse and cart?
Complete these questions:
3/ village . a TV mast?
4/ . everyone . mobile phones?
5/ . women .. equal to men?
6/ .. women .. on the floor at village
meetings?
And do you think any of these things are still true
now?
 Read to check your answers and write 3 more
used to sentences:
Technology: In 2005 I was surprised to see a few mobile phones in the village. People love
mobiles all across Africa so they are almost as common in the village now as in the West. People
use them only for texting and speaking not as computers, but they are very important to people
who have family working in other countries. If they didnt have phones, they wouldnt be able to
contact them.
There is now even a phone mast in the middle of the village, near the health centre. But the
most important change in 2016 was that electricity had come to some parts of the village. There
are masts with power lines and TV aerials in a few of the compounds. There are not enough
electricity meters for many houses. But now, families with electricity can keep food cool and
their children can read or do homework in the evenings.
Women: I would like to say there was better progress in the political situation of women but
the end of FGM is a big improvement, and because of the new water pumps, they have less
work. In 1985 Mariama was on the local Committee for the Defence of the Revolution. Two
places were only for women because of an agreement started by Thomas Sankara. Just before
his death, he said: Comrades, there is no true social revolution without the liberation of
women. I never want to see or go to a society where half the people have to stay silent. But this
agreement ended after the assassination of Sankara. Now there are only 12 women in the
national parliament this is only nine per cent.
There are womens groups in the village, but these are not to challenge the control of men, but
to give practical support to get some money from food or small businesses. I have been to many
village meetings where the men sit on chairs and women sit on the ground. Women now have
more bicycles and sometimes motorbikes, like Salamatu Darga, who is taking part in the anti-
malaria campaign. But men still control this society. Even the strongest women have to follow
what their husband wants. And many men still take a second wife without even asking the first
wife.
 Speaking: role play

A radio B someone
from this village
interviewer.
Interview B and ask about
in Burkina Faso.
village life in Burkina Faso The radio interviewer will
30 years ago and now. ask you about your village
life in the past and now.
Ask at least 4 questions Use used to in positive
with used to and negative at least 4
times.
 Homework:
Read more about the changes in Burkina Faso:
https://eewiki.newint.org/index.php/Issue_499
In Easier English.
After you read each article, click on
the link at the bottom to read the
original, more difficult article
our reading and vocabulary will
improve a lot!