Books for Africa

Some of you have inquired about sending books directly to us for the libraries we are helping to establish. It would be prohibitively expensive for you individually to ship books directly to us. Books for Africa/Books for Swaziland is a nonprofit in the US which has teamed up with the Peace Corps and has a good system for collecting and shipping used and overstocked books. The books are sent by cargo ship to Durban, SA and then trucked to Swaziland. If you feel so inclined, giving a donation would help more than sending books. PC volunteers in Swaziland need to raise approximately $7,000 or half the cost of shipping and training school librarians. Here are the links for contributions: https://donate.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=14-645-001 (Books for Swaziland

or

https://donate.peacecorps.gov

Request to consider a donation to Books For Africa

This blog is a request that you consider a donation to Books for Africa, an organization to which we have made an application for a library in our community.

The High School in our community is across the dirt road from our homestead. There are 536 students in forms 1 to 5 with between 40 and 80 students per class. The students and teachers have been very welcoming to us. Mark is helping teach the Shakespeare class and we both helped coach the Jr. Achievement club. We plan to make the school one of our main volunteer projects, teaching Life Skills, which includes the fundamentals about HIV transmission, some general information on health and nutrition, and some exercises in trying to make good choices and stand up to pressure. The kids who go to this High School are mostly poor. Their parents, if they have them (many are single or double orphans) typically struggle to pay their school fees.

Last year the school did poorly on the English section of the national exams, receiving a 12% credit rate (C or above – necessary for college admission) and 24% pass rate. We want to help them improve those scores, because knowing English will greatly enhance their futures. With our help, the school has applied to Books for Africa/Books for Swaziland for a grant of 1000 books to replace the decades-old, tattered, dusty and generally unappealing books in the school library. While we don't know if our High School will be chosen, the program hopes to start or improve 30 libraries in Swaziland this year, and our personal view is that this High School is a top candidate to receive a grant.

We attach a picture of the current library and the newly formed Library Committee, submitted with our BFA application.

Many of you have asked how you can help us. The books for this program are donated, but need to be shipped from the US. Additionally, there is training for the designated “librarian” from each school. The Peace Corps has set up a way for family and friends to support volunteers. If you are interested, please check out the following links: 
https://donate.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=14-645-001 (Books for Swaziland) or go to https://donate.peacecorps.gov and put in the project number 14-645-001  

 

 There may be other opportunities in the coming months to help us help the people in Swaziland, some perhaps where all of the funds go only to our particular project, as distinct from BFA, where your donation helps 30 different libraries in the country.

Reading and teaching

We were at the public primary school earlier this week, and because exams are done (there are 2 more weeks of school, but the teachers show up and grade exams, and the students pretty much do nothing), we had an easy audience. Katherine read Roald Dahl's The Fantastic Mr. Fox, which I think our children enjoyed. These kids ate it up. We've learned that, among the things which we don't want to leave home without (TP, camera, small binoculars, notebook to record yet another polysyllabic name), one is a book we can read to 5 to 15 year olds (not easy to find in these spare libraries) should we have some downtime around one of our 3 schools. They push in on us, as those in back press in to see the pictures.

So we did the same during the ½ hour mid-morning break at the more prosperous “Railway” (subsidized by the Railway) school, where the students are way more advanced. As I'd hold the book up to show the pictures, the kids would start reading aloud the next part, but I would do the fun voices myself; my ogre from Jack & the Beanstalk (“Fe, fi, fo fum, I smell the blood of an Englishman”) got especially good reviews. Haven't had so much fun since I played Santa for neighbor Molly's children, and frightened most of them, till I was told I had to dial it back.

Then we team taught (but mostly Nomphumelelo) the Railway 6^th grade a lesson in “self-esteem”, which is thought to be important in making good choices, especially for girls. When they got a little rowdy, she did her piercing whistle – boy did that get their attention. My outing with them last week to the 7^th grade farewell pizza party helped me get to know them better than before, which makes this more fun, seeing the different personalities.

 

Phumi had them write 10 sentences about themselves, describing themselves, each beginning “I am . . . .” Some were just borrowed from our discussion, others were quite moving. “I am lonely.” “I have no friends.” Others very encouraging: “I am smart.” Many had picked up the Girls, Inc. motto from Phumi: Strong, Smart and Bold.

Spring birding

It is spring time in southern Africa! With the rains our dry lowveld part of Swaziland has turned green. There are some spectacular flowering trees in vivid red, purple and orange and even some colorful wildflowers. One flower, in particular, is a bright orange puff ball. In the last few days we have seen quite a few new birds. A new bird always makes me happy and I am learning to find joy in simple pleasures. We have found a bird-productive loop to walk taking us past homesteads of people we know, pastures, and kraals. There are always baby chicks, but lately new born calves and kids. Below is a list of birds seen since my last listing at the end of July.

White-face duck

Spotted Thick-knee

Crowned Lapwing

Black-shouldered Kite

Namaqua Dove

Lesser Striped Swallow

Crowned Hornbill

African Hoopoe

White-eared Barbet

Forked-tailed Drongo

Groundscraper Thrush

White-browned Robin-Chat

Violet-backed Starling

Scarlet-chested Sunbird

Amethyst Sunbird

White-bellied Sunbird

Southern Double-collared Sunbird

Marico Sunbird

House Sparrow

Southern Grey-headed Sparrow

Southern Masked-Weaver

Southern Red Bishop

Fan-tailed Widowbird

Pin-tailed Whydah

African Firefinch

Common Waxbill

African Paradise Flycather

Cape Glossy Starling

Chinspot Batis

Southern Black Flycather

Kurrichane Thursh

Diderick Cuckoo

Red-billed Oxpecker

Birds, pizza, and a loss

We now appear to be entering kind of a 3 month quiet spell, from what we can tell. The students are taking exams this past week and our classes were canceled (but not before we'd prepared a lesson plan on “self-esteem” and showed up ready to teach it), school ends in 3 weeks and the students and teachers all go home. Our 3 month lockdown “Integration Period” ends Thanksgiving Day, which we'll celebrate with Thanksgiving dinner at the home of the PC Country Director, with Embassy staff. The following week we have a 3 day training with our Swazi counterparts on “Project Design and Management.” Although it sounds hideously bureaucratic, which the PC easily slips into sometimes, we hear it's one of the better training sessions. I'm bringing a bright young English teacher/librarian from the local High School – part of the goal is to get us working well with our local Swazi counterparts, so they take ownership, do a lot of the work, and so that our projects here are sustainable once we leave in 2015. Once school ends in the first week of December we understand the country more or less shuts down for the Christmas break, until school resumes January 21. KUF is having more trouble landing a good counterpart because her first and second choices were too busy with the last week of school

It's now boiling hot, and in our metal-roofed hut the temperature is in the high 90s or worse by 11 a.m., and doesn't cool down til 8 PM or so. All of which is preface to say that Thursday morning, after a visit to one of the primary schools where we've been working to try to line up a counterpart for Katherine for the December training, we took the bus 45 miles further east and north to Hlane Royal National Park, a game preserve where the Kings used to kill lions, but now it is well-preserved, has giraffe, elephants and hippos, plus fine birds. Here we are, having got off the bus and walked 100 yards to the gate. Once we got there we were accompanied by an armed guard until we got inside the electric fence protecting the reception area, but curiously lions were viewed as uninterested in passengers disembarking from the bus outside the gate; anyway, we survived.

We saw a total of 7 new birds. Here we are at lunch, where we saw 2 new birds, I think. This looks out 150 yards to the hippo pool.

Practically the first bird we saw, nesting in a low-hanging bough just 15 feet away, was an African Paradise Flycatcher, a 3” bird with a dark blue head, bright blue eye-ring, reddish-brown back, and then an improbable reddish-brown tail 20” long!

We suffered a setback on our return; when we arrived home we could not find the pocket-sized book of Birds of Southern Africa. Maybe left in the restroom – we were tired and hot, or maybe it fell out in the cab of the truck in which we hitched a ride home. (We get rides very quickly, and feel quite safe; South Africa would be a different story, we are told.) We are asking our daughter, who found this for us originally, to try to get us another.

The 7^th grade has now taken their high-intensity national exams and finished primary school (those who passed), so a farewell pizza party was held 25 miles away, at a chain restaurant in one of the nicer shopping centers in the country. We all piled into public transport, and arrived at about 9:30, and then sat and all 80 students (the 6^th grade came, as well) waited patiently for the pizza and plates of sausage and wraps to be served, around noon. All remarkably well-behaved. That broke down a little as they served the dessert, thick chocolate cake with ice cream, and the sugar high set in. I failed to get a picture of the little boy in a shiny black 3 piece suit, or the girls in their cocktail dresses – aged 13 and 14, mostly. Here they are waiting to be served, 7^th grade at the table, 6^th in 2 very crowded rows in back. The 2 mugging are 2 of the brighter 6th grade girls, whom I like a lot, although they can be mischievous.  I had sat next to the one on the right in pink and started reading to her from a Disney book about Princess Jasmine, and then she took over and read it to me.  I need to get her more books.  The school library received 1,000 new books in March through the previous PCVs, but they have not been "registered" (listed, I guess), so the students aren't allowed to touch them.  Makes me crazy.  We're going to get past that.

Tailoring, diabetes, and the Principal's Office

Last week Mark had some pants and jeans altered. Our friend Daniel in the cluster of shops at the crossroads took in the waist of 2 pairs of pants and shortened my new jeans, all for US $5. Services in this country cost nothing. Daniel took just over 24 hours, because he was very busy preparing the gowns for the pre-school graduations, which are a big deal around here. Here is his shop.

We have been struck by the prevalence of diabetes in our communities, both during initial training, and here at our permanent site, especially among women over 50, and we had wondered whether some targeted health education might bring big returns. When we heard that one of the PCVs whom we like a lot from the previous group (now 17/27ths into their 27 month service) had organized a day of instruction and demonstration on preventing diabetes, we took an early morning series of bus, khumbi, and hitching rides 30 miles back to the west and attended the days event.

90% of the diabetes here is type 2, resulting from excess body weight and physical inactivity, similar to what is found in some inner cities in the US. So the focus was on nutrition and exercise.

The event started with a march, complete with drum majorettes from the local primary school, and then a session of aerobic exercise. We helped prepare a healthy lunch of locally sourced healthy foods that are within the Swazi food preferences.

We may try something like this in our community, although the “counterpart” (Swazi involved in the project) for the event we attended is the daughter of the president of the nascent Swazi Diabetes Association, and was extremely enthusiastic; we do not know of an equivalent counterpart for us in our community. We are learning that the best projects are ones originating from the enthusiasms of the counterparts, not the volunteers, because the counterparts will work on and bring their friends into projects in which they are interested, and those projects meet the PC “sustainability” goal. We are now at the stage where we are planning our work for the next period, and we are exploring what we will do. We know we want to teach at all 3 local schools, one affluent primary, subsidized by the railroad, and another primary and the high school, the latter 2 severely under-funded and lacking in many areas. We plan to teach “life skills,” including goals, decision-making, self-esteem, nutrition, and sex and safety information. We are having a lot of success, we think, with team teaching, and this enables us to separate a class into boys' and girls' groups, get and give candid answers and information, and then sometimes compare for the whole class what the different groups were thinking.

Here is a picture of Katherine waiting outside the High School Principal's office. No, she hasn't been bad; we are waiting to see him to try to pin down exactly what we will do at the High School next term, starting in January; we need to coordinate subjects and schedule among the 3 schools – they are several kilometers apart, and we walk everywhere. We also need to get his authorization to bring a “counterpart” to training in December.

 

sorry, I think the pix got all mixed around, but this connection is so slow, and I forgot to bring the wireless mouse Martha and Tyler got us with the computer, and I can't get them straightened out.  Sorry.

 

COMING HOME

We were welcomed back into our community after being gone for almost two weeks of training,
and it felt good. We ran into friends, students, teachers, and bomake (women vendors) at the local shop and on our long walk to our homestead with heavy packs who greeted us by name and asked where we'd been. One of our favorite high school students Joanah gave me a big hug and said she'd missed us. With somewhat improved siSwati, we have been able to communicate better with out host family. We are the only white people (balungu) in our community so it is easier for them to remember us than for us to come up with their names, quite often. Sometimes I have to ask how a person knows me, but I recognized by name an English teacher from the high school who was on our return khumbie.

One of our personal goals in joining the Peace Corps was to become part of our new community; to become friends and neighbors to those living around us. I hope we will do meaningful work here, but it is the one-to-one connection with people, sharing the good and bad, which will have lasting value. My Site Support Agent, Sizakeli, an umgcugcuteli or Rural Health Motivator, joined us for lunch yesterday. She had showed up 2 hours early for work at the kitchen of the high school just opposite the gate to our homestead, because she does not have a watch and lost her cell phone 2 months ago, and we were coming back from a walk, so we invited her in. She is a poor, hard working woman with 4 children, and a deadbeat husband whom they haven't heard from for years. She has a gap-toothed grin, is cheerful, savvy and resilient. Over French Toast (a first for her) we talked about commercial sex workers, handing out condoms and religion. She is a devote Jericho. Sizakeli told me she would cry when I leave, because we are good friends. This is beginning to feel like home.

Halloween

So most of our group and the previous group got together at a “backpackers” hostel near Manzini and near the training facility, for Halloween (actually, the weekend before Halloween). It was really fun.

Our day started out early, because we wake up early, and headed out and, just as we stepped off our homestead, weighted down with full backpacks with clothes for really hot and quite cool weather, computer, and language books, a small pickup stopped to pick us up on the 2 K walk up to the main road – really nice. Only 2 kids already in the back and no dogs, and the truck bed was pretty clean – a very good start! And as we got to the bus rank at the junction, a partially empty bus was about to pull out, so we got to get on with our backpacks, which meant the backpacks didn't have to go in the boot where we couldn't see them – with the computer that prospect had made me a little uneasy. And a little bakery where all the PCVs assemble near the Manzini bus rank was open, and we had a delicious breakfast there and visited as our group started to arrive, did some shopping and took a short khumbi ride to the hostel.

The hostel is a sprawling old house set back from the main road among some trees on a hillside. Most of the PCVs stayed in bunks in a co-ed dorm for US$12 each, but we splurged for US$15 each and got a separate little house all to ourselves – with a lovely hot shower and a sink, with hot running water and a mirror. You could also camp on a grassy lawn for US$8, and some put up tents, but it rained from 3 until around 9 PM, and they all moved inside and crashed on mattresses in the lounge.

Here we are, as we left, on a gray chilly Sunday morning.

It was really nice to reconnect with these kids and hear how they are doing. Its hard out there, and some of the most capable are having a hard time, just because they are in difficult situations: remote and can't get around well, or far too much to do and not enough help at an orphanage, or trying to teach 5^th grade math to deaf students using sign language – in siSwati! Yeah, the thought of even trying that dumbfounds me. There are some really smart kids here. Really, really smart.

The PCVs got dressed up in very clever costumes.

Mark is on the far left, back row. Middle row, standing: a mosquito net, then a Swazi school girl in school uniform, an 80's workout instructor, cat woman, a greek goddess, spider woman, a 60s hippy. Front row, kneeling: Not sure who the 1^st person on the left was trying to be; then Pocahontas in a clever costume made from a slip and parts of old mosquito netting; Pipi Longstocking, and a “Care Package” - my favorite.

Mark went in a double costume: a scary old guy wearing the attractive hair extensions frequently worn by Swazi women, which were then removed upon request to reveal an even more scary Swazi haircut, now 3 weeks old and still showing parts that had never previously seen the sun. KUF wore a pink spotted dress and was the elusive pink spotted leopard..

Rumors Sipho danced on the bar, wearing a wig, joined by a scruffy guy with a moth-eaten beard wearing a red dress, are false and have been referred to our solicitor for an appropriate response. Well, OK, there was a small wall near the bar, I admit that. And there may have been some tastefully arranged hair extensions. And Abdul is a PCV (Yup, Abdul Ahmed – Muslim, from Oklahoma – ah, the diversity of our country!) from the previous group who has helped us with some lesson planning and whom we like a lot, and he looked really good in his girlfriend's dress. But dancing on the bar, like some kind of inebriated college kid? Nah.

Now we're back at the training facility, settling in for intensive language instruction and a “resource fair” later in the week with vets from the group that has been here a year showing us what materials can be helpful to us for lesson plans and youth group activities that have been loaded onto a flash drive and onto the Kindle the PC issued to us. And pursuing mutual exchange of resources – I've been getting some fine tunes from some of these kids – exploring new areas. Plus of course, exchanging movies. Don't tell ASCAP. The technology issues are daunting, but we're getting better – some of the other PCVs are very patient and helpful, and I'm getting exposed to lots of music that's new to me, including South African – Ladysmith and Xhosa, and the Vitamin Quartet and Civil Wars. It's taken me 3 or 4 efforts to learn the multiple steps involved (you can't copy directly from a flash drive into iTunes; you have to copy into My Music, then open a new folder in iTunes), but I'm now successfully downloading to the computer – its really complicated. Aren't you proud of me? Of all the challenges of this PC endeavor, the technology is right up there near the top. Where's the Sherman and Howard Help Desk when I need them?

Well, so far there is no WiFi at our training facility, so I'll just keep adding, because I can't send this out. After sitting in classes all day Monday and way over-eating because . . . well, the food was there, we didn't have to fix it . . . , anyway, some of our group were doing the “Animal Flow” exercise cycle Monday evening (pictured, MAYBE) and then some of us got up at 5 a.m. Tuesday to do the “Insanity” workout Katherine's walking group friends had sent us (also pictured; we understand there are some who have come to anticipate – is that the word? Dread? - the repeated topless pix of Mark. Kind of like a centerfold, or when the Sports Illustrated February bathing suit issue came out and immediately disappeared from the magazine stack at the gym.). We all go to sleep so early at our homesteads, and we're doing that here too (except for Saturday night, when we partied), and so we wake up early, so that wasn't as tough as it may seem in US terms, at least for some of you. Its a good workout – I'm still sore! Thanks, friends.

 

Lots of training during the week on language, teaching skills, and what we need for a successful project. Saturday morning we were unscheduled, so we went back to the homestead where we had lived in July and August during Pre-Service Training. Well into the spring now, it is all green and very beautiful there, and the avocados, mangoes and peaches are developing on the trees, but won't be ripe until later in the summer – January or February.