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.
PIC 802
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.
PIC 799
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.
PIC 798
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..
PIC 823
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.
PIC 808
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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