Getting down to work

The attached picture shows Mark about to head off for his second day of teaching, as he was being advised by Katherine to avoid stepping in poop. Aside from being a necessary precaution every step around here, this was a family echo of one time when I walked our children into school for their first day. An unfortunate misstep in the park that that day that followed me to school and even to the office, became a theme on other recurrences of the first day of school, through the years. I'm sure they also remembered through the years the useful wisdom and sage advice imparted that first day of school, just as vividly.

After “assembly” at 7:30 a.m.at my school here in Swaziland, the teachers spent 15 minutes “settling down” the children in their classrooms, and then every single one of the teachers adjourned to an all morning faculty meeting, leaving the children in the classrooms with no adults and nothing to study. My class was to be ½ hour starting at 11, but after the ½ “lunch” break ended at 10:30 I excused myself from the meeting, which by then had mostly lapsed into siSwati, and bravely entered a classroom of 41 sixth graders. The PC trainer had taught us to try to get an opportunity to prepare the teaching environment before the students arrive, but they were fully in possession of the premises, and watched in amusement as I pulled out my various supplies. They were attentive, and anxious to please, when they could get past the language barrier and figure out what I was asking. We talked about long-term goals, to lay the groundwork for next week on short-term goals and challenges. Many want to be doctors, mechanics, engineers. No one mentioned being a husband, mother, father, wife, son, etc. Maybe because of how I posed the question? When I finished the discussion of goals they could see we had time, although my ½ hour class period had expired, and they said they had questions for me! After I understood what they were asking, and the particular questions, it was revealed that I don't know JayZ, I have (sort of) met Pres. Obama (well, there were around 79,999 other people there at Mile Hi Stadium), that I have 2 children, and they are too late in seeking to marry my daughter. I said I would tell them how long I'd been married . . . some other time. Isn't the old Las Vegas showman's expression – leave them wanting more – applicable to teaching 6^th grade?

I've had some contact with our son and daughter-in-law as they've prepared for teaching graduate students and undergrads. I bet they had better classroom management skills than I did my first day, but not for lack of effort and attention on my part. I'm not sure I saved anyone from HIV yet, either. I'll be with this class a full term, till December, so there is a little more time yet.

The picture is in our living/kitchen room. Propane to the left, water filter to the right. Kind of like the 10^th Mtn Division Cabin. But much smaller. The table, chairs, and shelving on the left were left by the previous PCVs, and not appropriated by the host family.

While I was at school Katherine was to meet one of the 5 “Rural Health Motivators” in the vicinity, who was to take Katherine around to meet families in neighboring homesteads. During this 90-day “Integration Period” we are in now, one of our big tasks is to take a “census” of the community, listing the people in each homestead and noting how many orphans (some in every homestead), children in school, people who are HIV+ (you don't always get the truth on this one – kind of hard to ask, but the RHMs are a really good entree), whether they have electricity, water, a latrine (some don't). how they are employed outside the homestead(so far maybe less than ½ the adults), some things they like about living here. How we were to do this community survey had been a puzzle to us, but Katherine walked with one of the RHM's to one homestead after another, until around 2:30. With no appointment they just walked up to the homesteads and sat down to get to know them.

The RHM's are (barely) paid by the government to provide instruction and some care for people in outlying areas. They are typicallyly women in their 50s or 60s. They know and are welcomed by everyone, and are remarkably well-informed about health matters. They are the perfect key to the community.

This required “Community Assessment” is a little “make work,” in the sense that there is not a big need for the data we assemble. But the process of visiting each homestead gets us out and meeting people, and gets us known by them.

There are “single” and “double orphans in every homestead. The concept of “single” orphans (lost one parent) is important because children who have lost one parent are far more likely to encounter problems – health, academic, social – than children with 2 parents, even when they are mostly raised by both parents. The prevalence of children being raised by their grandparents reminds me of some drug- and crime- afflicted US inner cities, and hints at the pain and loss we felt among young adults in Cambodia when we were there in 2006, who had been raised without parents, lost in the Khymer Rouge genocide in the 1970s after the US left Vietnam.