Tuesday, March 11, 2014

hand washing, and opening a new airport

    Our favorite High School student John, Head Boy at the HS, from the Refugee Camp (2 brothers killed as his family fled the “Democratic” Republic of Congo) will take a test March 15 for admission to the International Baccalaureate program at Waterford, the superb private school up in the capital. We are helping him with the application – personal statement, etc.
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We taught hand washing this week. It rained all week, which didn't make it easier, but the kids loved it, teaching why, when and how to wash.
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Mark's drawing of a germ was especially . . . contagious?
While Katherine worked through the journals in which we want them to write every week, Mark would take part of the class out to the faucet to practice washing hands (which can prevent ½ or more of the cases of diarrhea, which is no fun, let me be the first to tell you and is one of the top causes of death in children.) The girls especially loved our soap with a faint perfume smell in it; they kept lathering up and smelling their hands and asking where we got it. Thank you, Concord NH Best Western. When a tiny piece would slip through their fingers the next child in line would snatch it out of the mud, and when I'd pull another new piece of soap out of my pocket – a riot!
The tanks are filled with water from the roof; we do the same. Cleaner and tastes better than what we draw from the tap. The bugs washed off the roof keep changing as the summer wanes.
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We interrupt the incessant whining and occasional bragging of this Blog to bring you news of the opening of “the Jungle Airport” just 10 miles (straight line; 30 miles by foot and by car) from our homestead. And worlds away.
The wealthy primary school was also at the opening. They recited and kind of acted out a terrific poem they'd written last year, when the airport was supposed to have opened, thanking the king for making this happen..
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We'd come over with the High School; it was really fun to be so enthusiastically greeted by our little Primary buddies, who hadn't expected us. Many of those Primary kids really love us, especially Katherine – can you imagine the thrill of being kind of a Mom figure to 90 kids?
Our high school performed the traditional dance at the opening. Here they are practicing in the parking lot in front of the terminal.
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Yeah, I noticed that too. Katherine insists they were wearing panties under those skirts; thongs, I guess. I made a point of not peering so closely that I could have testified to any of that from personal observation. Some of them wore shirts when not “dancing,” but others spend the day topless and with little below, either. We held their lunch money for them.
When these dancers performed at the debate back in January at the local government center (actually just a tree in the barnyard in front of the chief's house) all the middle-aged guys rushed over to snap close-ups, and I figured standards of sexual allure differed little from here to where I grew up, but today I watched herds of teenage boys, policemen (boy does this country have plenty of them, all in crisp uniforms, most with AK 47s – makes me feel really . . . safe?) walk past these girls,and not one especially leered, that I saw. I remember a college friend told of sitting at the base of Michelangelo's David in Florence, facing out,, towards the tourists, watching as each new visitor's gaze wandered to take in the whole, and then focused . . . . Well there really was none of that. Although the girls are not oblivious to the fact they are on display; watching the dancers' (fully clothed in school uniform) rehearsal earlier this week I asked one girl I knew why she was not a dancer and she said “I do not like to show my . . . “ and she gestured to her chest.
More importantly, how are women going to be taken seriously in this country if they perform at an airport opening dressed that way?
We went over with the High School, but before we left 5 lucky ones were driven off in the back of a pick-up 50 miles to the old, tiny airport, to ride on a plane over to the new one! The teacher called us over to explain to the lucky 5 what they should be prepared for in flying. We came up with: “grab a window seat, fasten your safety belt, you can pretty much ignore the instructions about a water landing, and it's much safer than any khumbi we've been in, and way safer than the back of that pickup.” Of course, they loved the ride.
The khumbi driver bringing us to the airport blasted a Shakira tune (“Summer song”?) on the way over; the girls knew every word and, packed in though they were, the little van shook to their dancing and singing; the police at the checkpoints just smiled and waved us through. Then someone called “The Professor” was the next piece. They knew that one too. I guess 15-year-old girls are pretty much the same the world over. There's a universal language.
(Hope so, because this coming week, after the easy lesson on hand-washing last week, we plan to start on Human Reproductive Systems, puberty and changes in your body. I ran into one of my students at the produce stand over the weekend and asked her what of that she'd had before. Yup, had studied people's body parts. The backbone was all she remembered. Could have been a language issue. Or embarrassment. But it could be a challenging week. We're getting to know some of our favorite students, and just a very few live with both parents and a good number (maybe 1/3rd?) have no parents; so there's likely no one to give them straight hard facts, and we sense they crave that, despite the intense embarrassment. Try saying clitoris and seminal vesical in front of 60 11 to 19 year-olds. Fortunately, the PC, bless 'em, has provided us with excellent posters with graphic details, so what we lose in translation, maybe we can convey visually. Hope to go into those classes off a good night's sleep.)
Everyone passed through a metal detector going to the airport opening. Katherine worried that her Swiss Army Knife and the scissors she always carries (she's a full-time primary school teacher now!) would cause a problem. The metal detector was howling merrily as we approached, continued as we passed through, and also as we walked away. No one batted an eye. It was just a doorway.
and the “poor” primary school? No money for any extracurriculars (when you can't provide lunch . . . ). So not invited to the airport opening. They just keep losing out.
Oh, “Jungle Airport.” I couldn't understand much that the speakers had to say, and really didn't try very hard, but the translator of the King's speech kept denouncing the “nay sayers” who'd labeled it that way, and particularly a documentary the king had seen using that phrase that seemed to have raised some hackles. I looked around at the surroundings, and wasn't sure the comment was so far off. Not a single airline has, so far, committed to fly into it, and even little Swazi AirLink, with 2 planes commuting over to JoBurg, isn't ready to move until, they say, the access road allows their customers to reach the airport with more ease. But the new airport will be really nice for all in this country who have private jets.
It's named the King Miswati III airport. The crowd was said to have been surprised and delighted. I was not surprised.

Sorry this is dragging on, but lots is happening. There will not be a test. Anyway, when my sister connected with us a week ago she left us with some nifty school supplies, some well-chosen books and a ziplock pouch of the most wonderful birthday cards for Katherine, which we opened after celebrating her birthday with the traditional spaghetti sauce, pasta and raw red South African wine, after returning from the airport opening. We were deeply touched by the care and forethought that went into writing and then assembling these cards, and the sentiments expressed. And season 4 of Downton Abbey? WOW!! after we've watched that, we should be in a superior bartering position with these PCV kids for other stuff, with that.


One more thing: we finally got a list of donors for Books for Africa. We will be in touch with each of you, but given our limited internet access, that may be a while, so we'll just mention here that we are touched and deeply grateful that so many friends from all over contributed to this effort. Also, the list seems to us to be incomplete, but we are working on that. Anyway, we think we can make this new library a winner, with generous help from so many of you.

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