Student Teachers: are my sense of inspiration!

I have consistently been thinking this country is 50 years behind the USA in terms of cultural/social, education and business development.  I believe they are making slow but sure progress.  I have had many nay sayers try to warn me away from this hope.  I know they are trying to protect me from the sort of hope that distorts reality and pushes one to waste time and energy, so I don’t outright dismiss the message.  However, today I feel my hope and belief have been confirmed.

As all readers of this blog know, my school has consistently and persistently deprived 900 students of a required computer education.  The school won’t maintain or buy computers, provide text books, provide notebooks, and finally just started calling the required computer class – free time.

So now, two student teachers are sent to Kwena Sereto to teach computer awareness.  I ask them how they are going to do this in light of all missing materials.  They say they don’t know, but they will do their best – which almost always means they will do nothing.

The first day of class the students come and stand around because there are no chairs in the computer lab.  The student teachers send them to their previous classroom to get chairs.  Then the teacher realizes the students can’t take notes because they were not provided notebooks for the class (notebooks are issued by the school).  So the teachers make handouts to give the students, but are told they can not make copies because there is not enough copy paper to give handouts to the students.

I’m just waiting – hoping they will get mad and cause a commotion and demand justice be done for these students, but I fear they too will give up. BUT NEITHER THING HAPPENS – INSTEAD

THEY FOUND A WAY TO TEACH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I felt like I was in one of those teachers movies I have on my wish list  (if anyone has one of those teacher movies I would really really like to have them here).

The student teachers wrote their lessons in Power Point, got a projector and used their own computer to show the lessons.  They searched high and low to find 23 books so two students could read and share a book in class.  They were extremely high energy and found ways to get the students to call back answers that was significantly more meaningful and likely to stick than just answering a question in a class. They had one student at a time come up to the projector/computer station and were teaching Excel.  They were teaching how to write formula’s and the kids were on the edge of their chairs begging if they could be the next one to work on the computer.  This from a bunch of kids that would rather have their leg broken than go in front of a class and perform.

I am practically in tears writing this because I am so so happy to see student teachers coming here with an idea to teach!  Universities here are really teaching teachers how to teach!  These two young men were persistent and they are succeeding.

I am the person who gets to be inspired today!   These student teachers have given me new energy and directed me to go back and rethink how to help here.  I know it can be done now.

Carol told me about some discomfort in her teeth.  Just a couple of months ago I had called Dr. Tenaka, the Peace Corps  Doctor charged with responsibly for the health of 160  PCVs in Botswana.  I had asked him about seeing a dentist since I traditionally clean my teeth every 6 months.  He told me the PC would pay for one cleaning per year, which wasn’t until September or so.  I resolved to wait it out and go just once a year while here.

But, now that Carol had an excuse to spend $60, and we made an appointment with the dentist  and went to town this morning for a checkup.  We had scheduled the appointment to coincide with another meeting which I had volunteered to help.  The Peace Corps  was hosting a meeting for a University from South Carolina with the good fortune of having enough money to send 19 people to Botswana for 3 weeks, all expenses paid, to see another culture.  The Peace Corps asked me and 3 other PCVs, all representing the 4 basic job functions (Life Skills (that’s Carol), Community Capacity Building, Non-Governmental Organizations and District/Community Liaisons (that’s me)) to come to the big city to share our experiences and perspectives with the hopes of getting these people to potentials to sign up for the Peace Corps.

So I went to the PC office for the workshop while Carol enjoyed a morning of shopping for a sweater with both of our ATM cards.   After the workshop we met for lunch and then headed off to our first Botswana dentist appointment.  When we arrived at the clinic, we were welcomed.   I went first as Carol sat in the room with me, surveying the environment.   The room was quite up to specs with modern dentist chairs, signs on the wall about using clean tools and health concerns, and a dentist with a mask and gloves.  We were pretty comfortable.

This was only a cleaning, so no X-rays were in order.  When I sat in the dentist chair and she started poking and probing I couldn’t help but be consumed with thoughts about this being an AIDS stricken country and wondering about the quality of the dentistry I was about to experience.   She had told us that she studied dentistry in Nebraska and had been to Chicago, and she made us feel quite good.

The next thing I know there is a loud grinding sound and dentist and her assistant are going to town in my mouth with the suction tube and some tool that seemed in every way like an electric stone grinder. I was concerned that  they had learned to clean teeth by grinding tauter off the tooth with a stone grinder, oblivious to the removal of enamel.  I was torn between stopping her and asking what was going on, or just trusting the Peace Corps recommendation.

After 15 minutes of mental debate it was done and I either had nice clean teeth or they were ruined for the rest of my life with no one to sue.  When I asked her what tool she was cleaning with, I was pleasantly surprised to see her produce an Ultrasonic Cleaning Tool that was in no way a grinder.  State of the art, painless and efficient.  What a nice relief!  Carol and I both got a clean bill of health and left happily, vowing to return again between the regular annual Peace Corps dental issues.

Seriously, this is not NY!

On our way home we had some time to kill and passed by Time Square.  Not quite like New York, but worth a picture.

The Lion at Gaborone Museum

Then we passed by the world-renowned Gaborone Metropolitan Museum of Art.  Actually it’s just a small, but nice little museum called the Gaborone Art Museum.  So we decided to make a visit and it had some interesting stories, pictures of the 2500 year old wall art in the Salt Pans part of Northwestern Botswana, cool animal scenes and some fun metal art on the outside.  We felt good to have visited probably the only cultural center in the country.

The Crocodile at Gaborone Museum

Darwin at his best

Picasso and her statue

Wall Painting in Botswana 2

It was just another fun interesting day in our Botswana lives…

Mothers Day: – Happy Mothers Day to all my friends that are Mothers – you have all made the world a better place for all the loving you put in the world!

Especially  to mom and Grandma!

The Garden:  Has not been going so good.  Not only is it the eye sore of the

The Garden - Eyesore

neighbourhood, and there are a lot of big eye sores here; it has been fairly unproductive.  Each plant only produces one small stunted vegetable or maybe nothing.  I think it is because the soil doesn’t have enough nutrients – and hopefully our winter worth of composting will help next year.

The meager fruits of our garden - This is the entire harvest to date!

The kids:  We are the funnest people in the neighborhood to play with.  Yesterday there were about 12 kids that came over to draw, play ball, jump rope, play Frisbee or just crawl around on our laps.  Last night I enjoyed it –

Kids at play in our yard

and I do most of the time – but sometimes I just don’t want to play with the kids.  But they always always always want to play with us.  When they want to play and I don’t we generally have talks like this:

Kid:  Can you come out and play?

Me:  No – I don’t feel like playing today.

Kid:  Can I come in and read?

Me:  No, I am busy today and I don’t have time.

Kid:  Can I please colour by myself?

Me:  Not today – I have a lot of work to do.

Kid:  Can I come in and clean the bathroom?

Me:  OK – (about 25% of the time I say yes to that).

I am not kidding – they regularly ask if they can scrub the tub, sweep/mop the floor, weed/water the garden or help with dishes.

So when we are not in the mood we often don’t answer the door.  If we don’t answer the door they pound on the door for five or ten minutes screaming, “Carol!!!  John!!! Gofaone! Tiro!! -  I heard you talking!!!!”  We have tried to explain how we knock on people’s doors in America – but it has not sunk in yet.  Hence the sign:

A little playmate, come out and play with me..........

We will see if this works.

University of Louisville:  The University has an International Business Studies program as well as a Pan-African studies program.  One of its programs is using sports to teach development.  The School has a program that integrates several different disciplines to come up with a weeks’ worth of education programs in an Africa school, specially involving the children in the sports development.  UofL works with the University of Botswana Education Program and together they target schools or NGO’s to visit.  Kwena Sereto was selected for the third year.

Four UofL students came to the school and introduced their sports programs and other issues that affect the kids such as “Anti-Bullying” and “Learn to Listen”.  The children were very receptive and really enjoyed the presentations.  They especially enjoyed the sport activities and I don’t think they noticed the games were geared towards team building and competition.

The best part of all was they invited us all to a free dinner at one of the nicer restaurants/bars in Gaborone.  A couple of teachers from school drove us and a fun time was had by all.  I told some school people I was interested in pursuing a MPH when our service was done and they strongly encouraged me to apply there as they believe Peace Corps service is one of the most outstanding educational programs which one can participate and they said they were always looking to employ good IT guys – so who knows – maybe we will end up in Louisville when this is done.  (It is an excellent town to enjoy the arts in as well).

Some teachers from School at the Dinner with me

John and I clean up nice every once in a while

University of Louisville, Peace Corps and Teachers

Mia bringing in bunch of fun stuff for dinner!

Friends: Two of my friends from the Peace Corps came over this weekend to make me a special belated Birthday dinner.  We had LAMB, pita bread and Tzatzike made from scratch, ginger carrots, a salad and Betty Crocker Carrot Cake (sent by Dad and Karyl).  It took the three of us about 4 hours to cook the dinner and we spent hours  enjoying the dinner and talking about life.  It almost felt exactly like an American dinner party.  It is nice when we can put together a few minutes of our life!

Lamb for Dinner!

The Jack Wagon:  Louie, formally known as “The Jack Wagon” figured out how to send a box!  He did report “illegal contraband” directly on the customs form and they made him open the box and remove it, so it was only half full – but hey, he got it done! (We weren’t sure Louie would ever figure it out.  We thought we would have to get the box when we got back to America).   So we now want to publicly retract the public name calling.  He is suspended from the Jack Wagon list (for now) and is now just a dear friend!  Thanks for the box Louie!

Louie - no longer a Jack Wagon - Just a regular good guy and awesome friend!

The problem with writing these blogs is that often they are written way after the fact and many of the fun and more interesting stories are lost from my memory leaving them as somewhat dry.  I try my best to write down the key points just after a trip or event so that I can share them, but more often than not, I get home exhausted and put it all off for too long.

So, this is just a chronological recount of the past couple weekends and some little adventures that Carol and I went through recently as interesting as I can make them, and if for nothing else, they will be added to our long list on this blog.

We start with a couple weekends back when a plan was made for a bunch of us PCVs  to get together on the upcoming Saturday night in Gaborone (the big city!) to celebrate Carols upcoming birthday along with a couple others who have b-days around then.   There were three b-day girls and a crew of 10 people  or so all looking forward to a fun dinner somewhere and a night on the town.  As the weekend approached, everyone watched their local bank accounts closely, waiting for the Peace Corps’ meager allowance to show up, but alas, as Friday came around, it had not.  So our cell phones were flooded with text messages begging forgiveness for having to bow out of the weekend plans due to a severe  lack of funds.  This was not entirely unexpected and certainly understood, as we all received exactly, to the penny, the amount of money we need to eat, sleep and get to and from work.  So most everyone is living literally from payment to payment, which is only made at the end of each month.  It was no big deal, since Carol and I had resolved to go spend a nice evening together, anyway,  regardless of company, at the 2^nd best hotel in the country for her b-day.  The top manager of the hotel is married to a former PCV and is very happy to please his wife by giving us all 50% discounts on the rooms, which brings it from $100 to $50 a night.

Real Afrian Drums

At the bus rink in Gaborone you will often see street musicians. Yes, those are

car hub caps for cymbals and the snare drum head is entirely ripped!  But they jammed away regardless…

Earlier that week, we had made arrangements to visit the owner of a pottery studio on that Friday and I was going to actually throw some pots for her.  For me this was very exciting because I had not thrown for over a year.  Rika and her family were a delight to meet and I ended up throwing a dozen or so pots for her and getting my fix.  She put us up in her very beautiful home and fed us very well.   We became friends with her husband and kids and now have another fun couple in our lives.  We spent the night and most of the next day there, finishing up some pots and enjoying the tortoises, snakes, dogs and wild birds along with their company.  That evening Rika dropped us off at the Metcourt Hotel and Casino and we met up with our friend Abbey, a PCV who is finishing up her service in June and has a scholarship to Harvard!  Also, Nelson, our Botswana taxi driver who we have come to know well and who we like very much.  So the 4 of us went out for Chinese food and that was a treat!  We spend the rest of the evening at the Bull and Bush Bar, dancing, playing pool and enjoying all the ex-pats and locals.  That was weekend #1.

We went back to work on Monday but on Wednesday we took a long (1 ½  hours) Eastbound bus ride into Gaborone to catch an even longer (5 ½ hours) Westbound bus ride to Kang.  Kang is home to another PCV friend of ours who has a very good friend, Aabrim, who owns a large Hunting Lodge next to the Central Kalahari Game Reserve.  The CKGR is one of the world’s very best safari parks, although Aabrim’ s 20,000 acre farm borders the Southern edge of the park, and the Lions and other big game are all on the Northern part of the park.   Aabrim’s family is wonderful.  The three young kids are so well mannered and courteous we just could not stop complimenting them.   They fed us very well and our first meal was freshly cooked Wildebeest with bacon wraps.  It was incredibly good!  We were there while a Father/Son paid hunting party was just finishing up their last night.  So carol and I got to go out for free on a night game drive which is just where you drive around and shine a bright spot light looking for night animals for a couple hours.  While this is highly illegal in the US for poaching reasons, it is a tourist attraction in Botswana while on private land.  We saw some cool animals like spring hares which are these cool little critters that look like tiny kangaroos and hop all over the place.  You can catch them by hand and they are pretty tame, supposedly.  We also saw Honey Badgers (and yes, it’s true, they didn’t care about anything), porcupines, jackals, some strange rabbit/weasel like animal,  owls, an aardwolf (which is an interesting looking ant eater), zebras and wildebeests.  Aabrims’s 16 year old son was guiding us and he did a very good job as a knowledgeable, courteous, caring and professional guide.  The hunters were trying to shoot the jackals with a 22 rifle with a silencer on it.  They got off three shots but it was very hard to hit them while they were moving, and with the silencer I’m sure the bullet was as slow as a BB gun.

Hotel Wall Guests

We returned to a large bon-fire and then slept in a nicely provided hut,  complete with scorpions and probably all kinds of other fun co-inhabitants.

The next morning the hunters went on their final hunt at 6:30 am and invited me to go with for free too, which I gratefully accepted!   They were shooting a .375 and wanted to hunt Eland, and after an hour or so we saw a heard of Eland but we could not flank them.  All the herds spook easily with the truck.  We saw Impala and some Kudu and tons of Zebras and Wildebeest.   After a couple hours they decided to hunt Wildebeest and we came up on a heard and the hunters left the truck and ground stalked them for an hour or so.  Two of us went with the truck trying to redirect the herd towards the ground hunters so we didn’t see the shot that we heard.  The shooter was a 15 year old kid and he swears it was 70 yards and that he hit the animal, but his dad says it was 170.  Everyone agreed they thought they heard the bullet hit.  We looked for blood and found none after only 5 minutes of searching.  Aabrim told us he had two good trackers who would come out later and find the dead beast. They were all very confident about this.    Im not so sure it was really hit.

The Wildebeest Kill

Then an hour later we came onto three single ones in a field that were not with aheard.  When they are alone like that, they don’t run as soon as they hear a vehicle, they just stand there.  So the kid got out to stalk while we drove around to flank again, and this time the kid dropped it easily.  So they field dressed it and we took some pictures and loaded it in the truck.   It was a pretty fun morning but not much of a “hunting” experience.  Most of the hunters who come here spend tens of thousands of dollars and don’t want to go home empty handed, so killing something is an end to an expensive means.  I was happy to hear that everyone was also very conscious of only shooting bulls and never shooting into a pack where a pass through could wound another one and a bunch of other decent things.  The only bad part is the use of a rifle which makes it just too easy.  It will be a fun challenge to shoot something with a bow when Aaron comes!

John Mark's new Friend

On our way back home we passed by a 20 acre corral that held some beautiful horses and a couple of white camels.  The story is that one of these camels’ mother’s died during its birth and Aabrim’s family raised the camel on a bottle all of its life.  This became abundantly clear as we

He loved to pose!

approached the corral with the truck from 500 yards and the camel started a full run to meet us, smiling, burping and gurgleing the whole way.  It was more affectionate than most puppies and would not stop trying to lick our faces!   It was pretty gross and he had very foul breath, but it was a bit fun anyway.  That was our mid-week adventure.

The next day, we again took off work a bit early and hitched into Gaborone to meet up once more with Rika and throw some more pots.  It was another enjoyable experience and she introduced us to two more couples in the art world;  one a painter and the other an owner of a throwing school.  We enjoyed all these people immensely and are starting to join a network in a world quite different from our local environment of only occasional running water and unreliable electricity.  After leaving Rika’s home on Saturday morning, we set out for our friend Dana’s house at the other side of town, for a large PCV belated b-day celebration that went til late in the night.    That was weekend #2.

This weekend we are travelling a short (2 hours) distance back to Kanye, the village where we did our initial Peace Corps Training.  A new group of 40 PC Trainees arrived a couple weeks ago and we have been invited to speak to them about our experiences and jobs and answer questions.   This was an invaluable part of our own training back in September, so we are eager to help these newbees ease their anxieties a bit.  We will also go visit the older couple, Lillian and Morgan, who were our host “mom” and “dad” for two months.  We have kept in touch with them, and they really value our continued contact and friendship.

On Saturday Night, one of the guys in our band has an American friend who lives in Gaborone (he’s 22 and owns his own trucking company here!) and he has offered to drive our band and it’s equipment to his house for a large house party he is having!  He even offered to pay us, despite having heard our less than professional sound!  This should be a great time for us.

It’s been a fun bunch of weekends and this one should be no exception!

Some great new friends – We recently met some great people from other counties who have chosen to live in Botswana.  People that choose to make Botswana their home seem to be a special breed.  Living in Africa is hard and people who choose to live and raise their families here seem to be very special people.  They are hardy people, filled with love for the African culture and pioneer sorts of people trying to live or introduce western ways to this continent.  I am impressed with their ability to hold on to their heritage and also find a place in a new culture to thrive, raise children and share their lives and gifts.

We have recently met four unique families that have given me food for thought and strength to go forward.

Kelone and Jez:  have recently started an NGO called Springboard Humanism.  http://www.betterplace.org/en/organisations/springboard_humanism.  They have opened a hostel to take in children/young adults that have not been able to move past Form III (10^thgrade).  They are helping them study for exams to gain entrance to senior school and also helping them develop job skills in case that does not work out.  Kelone is the head of the Art Department at Botswana University.  Jez is the head of the German version of Peace Corps in Botswana.  Jez came here decades ago as a German “Peace Corps” and fell in love with Kelone and the Batswana people.  They went to Germany where Kelone secured advanced degrees.  However, they decided to return to Botswana to raise their daughter.

Kelone and her sister

They are both incredibly dedicated to all the children of Botswana.  Kelone is so sweet and worldly!  I can easily see how Jez fell in love with her, and remains dedicated to making her happy.  They have a beautiful home that they share with everyone they meet.  Jez is the kindest soul I think I have ever met – it is amazing how he can empathize with disenfranchised youth at a one on one level.  He seems to have a bottomless heart of compassion and works tirelessly at his NGO and at his job with German version of the Peace Corps.

They asked me to help tutor some of the young women going to night school.  I must admit when I first met these women it seemed completely hopeless.  The women are from minority tribes and Setswana is their second language and English their third language.  I felt it was impossible to teach them with such a huge language barrier – but when I came back the second week – the girls had learned 10 times what I thought possible!  I’m still not sure they will be able to pass the test to move on to the next level of education – but they are learning and improving their life skills and it feels very good to be a part of something so positive.  I have always believed there are two important components to being able to learn:  1)  You must have hope that you can and will be able to be productive and make something of your life and 2) you must have someone believe in you!  Kelone and Jez have totally created an environment for this to happen!  I am so happy to have found them.

Rika and Mickey:  We recently met Rika and Mickey.  Rika left German 35 years ago and come to Botswana as a UN volunteer.  She is an artist and has started a few art communities/schools that have been in existence for more than 25 years!  She met Mickey (from South Africa) and they fell in love at first sight.  They both decided to travel around all of Africa on a 1940 BMW motorcycle with a side car.  They then fell in love with all of Africa and they decided to make Botswana their home.  Rika is now writing a book about her travel experiences.

Rika and Mickeys Home

They have a beautiful home they designed themselves which is completely organic.  I felt both luxuriated and simple native at the same time.  I don’t have the words to describe the amazing paradox of feeling their home provides.  They have three very smart and delightful children ages 14 to 17.  The children are so responsible and mature.  Mickey owns a hydraulics company and Rika owns a pottery studio and sells her art everywhere.  She has trained scores of Batswana to pursue art as a means of supporting themselves and some have done exactly that for 25 years now!

A view from the guest house

We completely enjoyed last weekend.  She asked John to throw some pots for her and she was very excited to share ideas and methods about creating and designing pottery with him.  She gave me lots of insight to the Batswana culture and thought processes which has allowed me to open my mind and think of new ways to try to motivate teachers and students at the school.  She has invited us back next weekend too – and I am looking forward to this.

The pots John made

We recently met two other incredible families.  John has been trying to find a suitable hunting place for him and Aaron and we had been invited to a hunting ranch for a few days to try it out.  When we got there another family was there that lives in Gaborone.

The two artist

Shawna and Darren: are missionaries in Gaborone and they have three of the best mannered children I have ever met in my life.  These were teenagers that said ma’am and sir and were happy – let me repeat happy to be with their parents and were mature and helpful in every way parents hope their children to be.  Shawna and Darren have lived in Africa for 15 years and plan to spend the rest of their lives here.  They are sending their oldest son to college in America next year and I am slightly worried that he is just to kind and decent to fit in with the rest of American standard 18-year old spoiled indulged life – but then again I see this child has been brought up to be strong in beliefs, gracious around manners, and grateful for goodness, and in that light, I also can’t imagine youthful immaturity having a big impact on his life.  We are supposed to go visit them after we leave Rika this Saturday and I am looking  forward to that too.

Darren, Mikea, and Aabram after the wildebeest hunt . They use all parts of the animal in their home.

Shawna and Darren have worked tirelessly to bring religion, meaning and peace to people’s lives.  A part of that work is helping find water sources in communities, building schools, and working with refugees from other counties.  They have learned to speak several native languages and have clearly shown their children the value of caring for your fellow man.

Nannet and Aabran:  Finally – we met Nannet and Aabran who grew up in South Africa.  Aabran had a very successful dairy farm in South Africa, but he was gone from sun up to sun down and he decided he didn’t get married and have kids so he could run a successful dairy farm.  He sold the farm, moved to Kang, bought a 20,000 acre ranch and is a hunting guide.  His whole family works together to run the guide service and his kids are even better than all the other kids I have described.  His 16-year old son took us out on a night game drive and he clearly had worked with his dad for years.  He was very knowledgeable and also humble in his adolescence, and constantly deferred to us as adults.

Enjoying Nannette and Aabran's company

His children were doing the same kind of hard work as the parents, but were so respectful and obviously filled with love for their parents and for their own lives.  The 16-year old boy hugged his dad good night in front of us all – and you could just see the respect and love between them.   Neither father nor son worried what anyone thought – they just clearly loved each other.   I spent hours talking to his 14-year old daughter about travel and hobbies and it was the type of conversation I would have with an adult.  Anyone who raises such good children is living life as we were intended to live.

Albino camels on the ranch greet John

There is something in this African air that seems to weed out the weak and whiny and bring out the strength and kindness in all it calls to set down roots.

I hate to be repetitive, but I am so very happy and so very lucky to be able to experience this.  I pray and hope with all my heart that I can live up to the opportunity I have been given.

The guest rooms at the ranch

Thank you:  for all the great birthday wishes, gifts, cakes, and cards.  I truly felt loved by family and friends!

The Chickens Are All Gone:  All chickens in the residential neighborhood of Kwena Sereto have been beheaded, plucked, and stored for eating later or they have been sold.  The school does not allow farm animals to live on the grounds.  They have finally taken a hard-line to get rid of the chickens.

Agriculture classes are available at Kwena Sereto and a requirement of that class is to plant and grow a garden on the school grounds.  Many of the students have very nice plots that they water and weed every day, including Saturday and Sunday.  The school garden is several acres big with surrounding razor wire.

The garden plot

But the chickens love the gardens and find every nook and cranny around the fence, and they eat the garden fruits and vegetables.

At our school weekly staff meeting, there was only one announcement.  Those persons with chickens will be fined and the fine will increase every day.

Most of the meeting was in Setswana and it is often difficult for me to fully understand – but they said “It is not fair to the students” in English.  And I got excited for a minute.  I was wondering what they were talking about besides the chickens.  I was so happy to hear someone say something at the school was not fair to the students.  The principle was doing something to support the students!!!!!!  The meeting ended shortly and I asked a teacher exactly what was discussed.

Teacher:  “The chickens have to go and teachers are being fined.”

Me:  “Why are the teachers being fined?”

Teacher:  “The chickens.  The teachers are letting them roam and they are eating the garden.”

Me:  “What was the Head (Principle) saying was unfair to the students?”

Teacher:  The chickens are eating the gardens.”

Me:  “That’s it – just the chickens?  The whole meeting was about the chickens?”

Teacher:  “The students get graded on the outcome of their garden.  It isn’t fair that the chickens are eating the gardens.”

OMG! Here are the things I think are unfair to the students every single day in this school

• Teachers can and do beat the children with sticks, their hands and their fists  for whatever whim strikes them every day.
• There are not enough books for the kids to take home and sometimes not enough to share.
• Form 3 students (10^th grade) are still being taught with Form 1 books (8^th grade)
• Several classes are using books that are no longer used for testing because the school won’t buy current books.
• There are not enough desks.
• There are not enough chairs and these 12 – 18 year old boys and girls must share chairs for an 80 minute long class.
• Some classes don’t have an assigned teacher or a book and students are still tested each month (most all of these students fail the test).
• Teachers do not attend class with no consequences.
• Classes don’t really start the first week nor are there classes conducted the last week of the trimesters (that is six weeks of missed school), because teachers use those weeks to organize and grade tests.  Classes are also cancelled if the teachers get assignments from the Ministry of Education.
• Students are not allowed to use the 4 working computers the school has in the student computer lab, and are not taught a required computer class the entire time they are in junior school.
• Students are required to sit for a 1.5 hour study hall at the end of the day, but there are no supervisors.  A handful of students make it impossible for anyone else to study.
• There is no nurse’s office (for 900 kids of which at least 5% have HIV).
• There is no counseling office and if a student wants counseling he/she must come to the teachers’ lounge and tell their problems in front of everyone.
• Many students wear rags, like out of Charles Dickens novel rags, threadbare, shredded, with rips and tears to school.
• Lunch is served from bowls that are sitting on the ground.  There are no tables, chairs, napkins, condiments or silverware.  Lunch is mostly palache (grits) every single day.  One day a week they get a piece of meat.  Two days a week they get a piece of fruit with their palache.  Sometimes they get samp instead of palache.
• The school has broken doors and windows that have not been replaced in the entire time I have been here.  Wall panels which are necessary to separate one class room from another are not replaced when broken making it extremely difficult to hear your teacher.
• Teachers can and do sexually harass the girls and there is NOTHING that will be done about this unless the girl can “prove” it.  If she can prove it, the teacher can be fired.  This has happened once in 8 years in the entire county.
• I have seen some teachers sexually harass boys too.

Never have I heard any of the issues be brought up in staff meetings or even generally discussed outside the circle of Peace Corps volunteers.  But the chickens merit one entire staff briefing.  It turns out many of the teachers don’t like the chickens roaming the hood (and I don’t blame them for that).  Since this seems to be a concern of students as well as teachers it is being addressed.

Mitigation:  I was very happy when later that day the head girl (explained below) and the head boy came to me to ask why the teachers don’t care about them or school.  Both students were upset that their education is being short-changed.  We reviewed some school policies about their “rights” as students and she was going to call a meeting of the other prefects to discuss setting up a meeting with the School Head.  I am reminded of the young people’s movement in the sixties in the United States.  I sometimes feel like I can see the future here, because so many things are like the United States 50 years ago – and I am happy to sort of get a chance to re-live a time like that in a different county.  I am sad about this school, but very happy to see students take steps to take care of themselves.  These specific students future looks bright regardless of what the school does or does not do.

I remind myself that African-Americans were given the right to vote after the civil war.  However, it took another 100 years before the Civil Rights Law was passed, and there was some will behind the law to provide equity, and many would argue that African-Americans are still disenfranchised from voting in America today.  Botswana has only been an independent county for 46 years.  Things have changed a great deal in America and I believe they will change here too.  I will do what I can to play my part.

Head Girl and Head Boy:  are the “heads” of the prefects.  The prefects are selected by teachers and administrators to represent student interest in the schools.  Ministry of Education policy requires they have a place on each committee and in most school meetings.  Policy outlines many rights students should be given to take part in the governance of the school.  Nice policy – but little action.  The prefects are allowed to serve lunch, and do a few other work projects – but I don’t see anything like getting to take part in the real policy of the students.

Sleeping:  While we miss the chickens – we do enjoy the morning much more now.

Set up for the Sequel:  There are two mother hens brooding on about 25 eggs that are nesting/hiding in discarded grass.  John continues to feed and water the broody hens…..

Will they hatch, grow up and deprive the students once again?

So the post office called us and said there were two boxes and we needed to come pick them up right away!  This was just days after having received 8 boxes on one day!  5 from my sister Marlaina (thank you so much!) and 3 boxes of Carols’ winter clothes from Carol’s mom (thank you so much too!), which was just a week after having received 2 boxes from Carol’s Dad and Karyl, who send us boxes all the time!   We are eternally grateful to all of you (just too many to name!) who have sent us boxes!

Jackwagon

(except that Jackwagon, Louie Hernandez).

That day of the 8 boxes, the Post Office called me hysterical.  They could not accommodate the room and I was to IMMEDIATELY come pick up these boxes!   They are so paranoid that we might leave the boxes there, in their small little Post Office.  How little they reasoned through this….

So I took a taxi to the Post Office to pick up my two boxes and greeted my friend Bashi behind the counter.  Carol and I are very famous at the Post Office thanks to all of you who are supporting our Wish List!    He said “you have sunglasses in your box!”.    I immediately suspected that the box my dad had sent me 4 months ago and was assumed MIA, had finally arrived and that perhaps it had been damaged so they had opened it and checked the contents.  Nope.   It was just the regular 4 months late box.  No big deal.  My dad had written “sunglasses” on the outside for customs and that’s why Bashi had known to say that.  Since my dad had told me 4 months ago he was sending a small box and there were several pairs of cool sunglasses in there, I took a chance before I opened the box and told Bashi he could have a pair.  His face lit up like a kid in a candy store. But when I opened the box and handed him a fresh pair of very cool looking, tinted, safety sunglasses, not only was he overjoyed,  but all of a sudden there were 5 Post Office employees at the counter (where there had only been one before to wait on the all day long-hour long line of customers!)    The others turned green with a fun kind of envy as they all milled and stewed over this new pair of glasses!  I was afraid they might all ask for glasses, but fortunately they just laughed and giggled and looked so proud just to know the guy who got the glasses!

I knew it would be fun and easy to give those things away to people and it was especially nice to end the wondering about what had happened to that overdue box.  Thanks dad!

“You will be sick of seeing elephants”.   That is what our guide, Lucky, said after

Elephants Everywhere!

we got all excited about seeing our first giant elephant, just 1 minute or so into the Moremi Game Reserve.  Although, he was partially correct, even after three days and several hundred giant elephants later, we were still stretching our necks to marvel at them and clicking photos as fast as we could.

Botswana celebrated Easter weekend with a Friday and Monday National holiday, and with the Peace Corps rules we were allowed to travel inside the country over the 4 day weekend without any charge to our vacation days.  Not that we really need to ration them, but we wanted to take advantage of the long weekend and do our first travelling since we arrived back in September.

Maun is in the Central Northern part of Botswana and is host to some of Africa’s best safaris.

We had a choice of taking a 1 hour bus ride to Gaborone at 4:00 am to guarantee a seat on the 6:00am, 11 hour bus ride to Maun and then repeating that on the way back, or spending a whole bunch more money and catching a 1 hour flight.  It was a pretty easy decision.  After the travel discomfort stories we had heard from our Peace Corps friends who are not in a position to enjoy that choice, we have no regrets!

Our guide is named Lucky.  That is his real English name.  Many people here have English names that are the literal translation of their Setswana names.  Lucky was great.  He arranged for us to be picked up at the airport in Maun, taken to an overpriced, but very nice safari style lodge/hotel for our first night’s stay.  The next morning Lucky and his cook and his camp-hand picked us up

Our Safari Truck

Our Safari Truck 

in his freshly painted Safari Truck and we headed out for a 3 hour drive into the bush.   There are several major Game Reserves in Botswana and the surrounding countries, all of them offering fantastic sightseeing and all of them protected heavily from hunting.  There don’t appear to be many wild animals outside these reserves, with an occasional exception of a zebra or wild deer.  But once you enter the parks, its animals galore!

Elephants

We arrived at the entrance of the park in the late afternoon and drove slowly through very winding, sandy roads for several more hours snapping dozens of pictures at the elephants, giraffes and may other fun animals.  We arrived at our designated camping site, which was as pristine as if it had never been camped at

Ostriches

before, around dusk and set up camp and started cooking a meal.  To our delight, a herd of 7 or 8 huge elephants came trouncing right through the middle of our camp site, in no particular hurry, on their way to cross the river nearby.  Completely oblivious to our intrusion into their existence.   It was just light enough to see their huge ivory tusks and to really feel close to them.  When they left a moment later we heard what sounded like loud thunder as they crossed the river 500 yards away.

That was a great start to our little adventure.

Lucky’s guide service was expensive, as they all are, but included everything.  His cook tried his best to cook gourmet and did a

Cooks Creativity

pretty good job overall.  We had tables and chairs, tablecloths, place mats, real dishes, silverware and glasses and wine glasses.  They put out lanterns all over the place to mark the tents, the portable, sit-down toilet in its portable bathroom and pathways for us.  Our tent was clean, fresh and had two cots with nice mattresses and blankets with sheets and pillows.  They even had nicely folded towels for us like a first class hotel.  It was about as first class as you can get for camping!  In the morning, (6:00 am) we were greeted with a portable camping “sink” filled with nice hot water, steaming in the quite fresh morning air.  That was pretty cool!

A delicious hot breakfast of eggs, pancakes, bacon and all the other stuff like cereal and yogurts was again served by lantern light on a nicely laid out table.  After breakfast Lucky drove us around the park for the full day while the cook and camp hand stayed back and prepared dinner.  The truck was quite comfortable, however the roads in the park were very windy and had deep ruts and many were flooded forcing alternate routes to be taken.  We drove very slowly as we scanned the surroundings for animals.     There were plenty.  Within an hour or so, we had seen pretty much all the traditional African animals except a lion (or any other cat) and a rhino.   April is mid Fall here, so the grasses in the fields were very tall and it was still quite hot and we are told that the cats are more easily seen in the Springtime.

Video of:  Giraffes in Africa (may take a while to download)

10 Hours sounds like a long time to be bouncing around in the back of a truck, but with frequent stops to set up Tea (again complete with tablecloths and chairs) and lunches, and with the excitement of seeing all the animals up close, it passed quite quickly and very pleasantly.    We arrived back at camp to a hot shower in the portable Shower Unit they had brought with.  That was very cool!   Another hour later we were eating another great meal by lantern light, hoping for a repeat of last night’s parade.  It didn’t happen, but we did have another fabulous sunset and a beautiful almost full moon that no picture can do justice to.  Lucky sheepishly admitted that he had forgotten the wine he bought for us at the store.  That would have been nice.  We slept like babies that night and were a bit regretful in the morning when Lucky asked if we had heard the lions roaring all night just outside our camp.

Okavango Delta

Another great breakfast and again we were off for another day of sightseeing.  This day took us deeper into the delta and we arrived at one of many tourist attractions known as the Mokoro Trip.  Mokoro just means boat, but the Mokoro Trip is supposed to be a reenactment of the boat and standing pole pusher transportation that was used back when.  A very specific large tree was cut down, hollowed by hand and made into a boat.  The boats used now are fiberglass and much more stable (although not enough to stand up) and are meant to look like a tree boat, but

Mokoro

really are just funky looking plastic canoes.   Our Mokoro guide was very nice and explained about some of the birds we saw and did a fine job as he balanced himself in the back of the boat while he pushed us along up the river against the current.    We had the great opportunity to see a herd of elephants cross the river just in front of us.  Our guide stopped the boat for a picture and even backed it up a bit to give them plenty of space.    Apparently there was not quite enough space, as the last elephant (the hugest, dominant male) paused quite a while in the middle of the river and stared at us as if to let us know that this is HIS river.   A little farther on, just about at our turning around point, we came across 3 hippos in the water.

Hippos

We were told that hippos are the most dangerous of all the African animals. Not sure if that is really true, but our guide sure believed it, as he kept more than plenty of room between us and them.  Not so good for pictures, so you’ll just have to imaging small icebergs in the water, with huge mouths and fun little ears, staring at you, while 90% of the rest of their body is under the water.  I really wanted to see some Hippos out of the water so we could see their size and shape but they didn’t want to pose much for us.  All the same, the distance viewing was exciting and even a bit frightening, mostly because the boat all of a sudden seemed even more unstable to us.

After we got back to shore (if you can call it that – really it’s a river that just appears out of nowhere in the middle of a huge African field) we relaxed a bit and recounted our adventures for the day.  It would have been nice to take a nap just then, but the thought of laying in the grass, wondering what kinds of bugs and snakes might like to join us, pretty much kept us sitting in our chairs, sleepily enjoying the sun.

After another couple of hours of more animals and pictures we got back to camp and enjoyed a great steak meal.  This time Lucky had made arrangement to “borrow” some wine from one of his many guide friends

If there was one downside to the safari, it was only that we occasionally passed other guides, driving their all White (or Asian) clients around in similar safari trucks, and didn’t feel like we were the only humans on the continent.  On the other hand, knowing you are not alone out there (in the infinite fields) in the case of an emergency was comforting.   There were no radios or communication or firearms, so extra vigilance was taken for safety issues.

Again we slept well and woke to the campsite being dismantled.  A comfortable breakfast and some packing up and we were on the last 5 hours of our Safari.  The Big 5 in Africa are the Elephant, Rhino, Cape Buffalo, Lion and Leopard.  These are mostly named, sadly, for the hunting of these animals.   On our way out of the park we spotted one of the Small 5.  The Small 5 are the elephant shrew, ant lion, rhinoceros beetle, buffalo weaver and leopard tortoise.

Leopard Tortoise

Read more: http://www.southafrica.info/about/animals/little-five.htm

We left the park in the late afternoon and arrived back in the small town of Maun and again stayed at the slightly overpriced lodge for our final night.  Apparently, Lucky had an arrangement with the lodge to bring his guest for two nights and then he gets a free room too.  We were ok with that, as it was a nice experience and came with a hot breakfast too.

The flight back was even more appreciated than the one up.  We could not imagine at all how those other Peace Corps folks could stand another gruelling bus ride after the fun but exhausting weekend!  We totally understood the story we had just heard about two of our PC friends who had recently bussed up, and then purchase very expensive, last minute one way flights back!

For anyone who is considering an African Safari, my opinion would be that 2 full days is sufficient to see what you are going to see in that part of the world.  After the initial thrill and excitement wear off a bit, the roughness of the travel becomes more apparent and a third day is not nearly as exciting as the first two.

As we arrived back at our home, we were feeling a bit out of place.  Not sure why.  Maybe just heading back to routine from a great exciting adventure.  Anyway,we thoroughly enjoyed the trip, and although it was very expensive for a short 4 day weekend getaway, it was well worth it!   Now we are excited about helping Lucky to put together a webpage and help him grow his business with great referrals.  That is, after I get through the 200 emails that stacked up while we were gone!

John and I went to Maun over Easter.  John will give the details of the trip – and I want to supplement by adding a commentary.

On the road in our safari truck

I felt very compelled to vacation NOW!  The Easter break would allow us to take a four-day vacation without taking any time off.  Many PC volunteers were going on to Maun that weekend, including the mature crowd, the married couples and the younger adults.  Another group of Bots 10 and miscellaneous others were taking a trip to the Kalahari Desert.  We wanted to join people – but mostly we wanted a nice vacation and we didn’t want to spend our time on the bus or in budget hotels which would require sleeping bags and or our own linens.  I felt I was entitled to something nice.  Most of the planned trips were budget trips so we decided to go on our own – which ended up suiting us well.

After many phone calls, emails, texts and back and forth of this and that, here and there who is and isn’t coming, we called a tour guide and he said he would arrange everything for $1300 US dollars – for a three-day trip, with tents; camping.  That would not include transport costs to and from Maun or the hotel we would stay at the first and last night.  OK – fine – we are in Africa and choices are limited.

Several people had traveled to Maun before us and most complained bitterly about the bus ride, especially if one possesses an older bone and soft tissue body.  The bus seats make Southwest airplanes look spacious – my legs don’t fit, and I don’t know how anybody over 5’6” can fit at all.  The bus driver allows twice the capacity to board and people stand like sardines smashed in the isle.  Also many people on the bus don’t bathe regularly.  Finally – Africans don’t like to open the windows because they believe disease is in the air – and there is no air conditioning.  It is an estimated 11 hour bus ride. Flights were $350 a piece and one hour.  A lot of money – but we will be on a safari in Africa – so we decide to spare our body the pain.

The view from the dinning area

The plane is delayed for two hours and we miss the sunset flight, but we still loved the plane knowing the alternatives.  Our hotel room is fairly nice by Africa standards and it is one of those eco lodges that builds itself in the jungle around the trees, with mostly natural materials.  This assumes we believe concrete block buildings are natural materials because the concrete was made from the stones in the quarry about 50 miles from Maun.   The rooms, service and food

Rooms are actually little buildings in the jungle

compare to Holiday Inn Express, but it is very pretty on the outside.  The hotel has space for campers behind the lodge who pay 50 pula instead of 700 pula.  We talked to several of those people who were “touring” Africa and they said the camping gets real old real fast.

I think they also feel like they are on some cheap trip and have been cheated of the grandeur of Africa – but I think the grandeur is a romantic notion and it is just work everywhere you go – sometimes very hard work, and sometimes just run of the mill work – but never really relaxing.  I hoped this fairly expensive safari would provide the alluding splendor in a relaxing environment.

John is enjoying the playground

The river bank 50 yards from our hotel

As usual – the guide is two hours late in arriving – but this is considered on time in Africa.  He comes with a fully loaded pick-up truck that has two chairs welded into the back.  Our safari truck really lets us feel the open county – but it gives people with motor skills issues some reasons for panic when rutted and pot hole filled roads are met.

We went to Moremi Game Reserve which is advertised as follows:  “Moremi Game Reserve lies in the heart of the Okavango Delta in Botswana. It is considered to be the most beautiful wildlife sanctuary in Africa and is the ideal Botswana safari destination”   Fairly enticing.

There is a big dry erase board at each entry point to the Reserve, where people

Carol and Elephant Skull

can report siting’s of wild animals.  We see:  Lions, pythons, elephants, giraffe, leopards, and we are quite excited.

We saw a few cute little monkey’s upon entry to the reserve and then lots of pretty scenery – which reminded me of the camping trip we took in Flagstaff Co. with brother Brad, mixed with the Big Sky feel of Montana.

When we got to our fairly remote camp site, the tour guide and his staff did most of the work setting up a fairly elaborate camp which included a kitchen,

Our 1st Class accommodations

toilet/outhouse, shower, and three separate tents.  Our tent had cots and mattresses with nice warm blankets.  John and I put up the kitchen table and chairs and collected fire wood.

The cook started dinner and everything was up and ready to go within a few hours.  We had dinner and sat around a fire for a few hours asking hordes of questions about the animals and the area.   Our guide was knowledgeable and nice and we both like him.  (See our “Visit Us” page for details).

The little baby is so cute!

The elephants were magnificent – they are so huge and all they eat is grass, and some bark.  How does anything that big survive just eating grass and bark?  It makes dieting seem hopeless.  I did notice at every siting the elephants were eating constantly.  Elephants were quite abundant – a herd walked within 50 yards of our camp one evening and another herd in the morning.  Another morning there was a single elephant about 20 yards from our camp.  Sometimes I would swear we could actually see them thinking.  Once we were on a boat and saw a group of 4 with two little ones crossing the river.  The last one stopped before she got out of the river and stared us down – she gave us a look like, “Don’t make me come down there.”  We knew we needed to give them some time to get away from the river before we went any further.

The last one in line was ready to smash us if we got to close

We also loved the giraffes.  They are such strange-looking animals – it is also a

It is amazing that they are just there - staring at us!

wonder that they live on nutrients from trees.  They don’t look very fast or agile, although they are reported to run at 70 KPH.  At one point we counted 8 giraffe’s in a ringed circle around us and thought how nice it was to be surrounded by giraffes.  That was sort of boarding on “the splendor of Africa”.

Our guide said all Zebra's have brown stripes too

The herds of zebra’s were pretty cool too.  I always thought zebras were just black and white, but now I know they all have brown stripes too.  John was not as impressed with the zebra’s as I was.  He said that aside from the stripes – they mostly look like donkeys – which are very pedestrian here.  I will point out they have special manes too.

A few times we would come to a meadow with multiple kinds of animals

Warthogs and Zebras

including zebra’s, wildebeests, warthogs, and some birds – and it looked idyllic.  Several times I would stop to wonder or amaze at the thought of my living in Africa.

We saw hundreds of impala’s and many other types of African antelopes.

One stag and the rest are girls

It was also remarkable when we would pull over in our safari truck, in the middle of nowhere, under some beautiful tree and take out a table, table-cloth, dishes and our packed lunch and just have a wonderful lunch right in the

Tea Time in the bush

middle of the delta – with all the animals, and no trace of human beings.  It was especially cool when we stopped for “tea” instead of lunch.  I did have a Meryl Streep “Out of Africa” feeling then.

However, there is none of the romantic glamor of living in the bush or being

Boat ride on the delta - there are no signs of humans anywhere

close to nature that is more special here than other places I have been.  Africa is absolutely unique – but overall, it is special in the way many places are special.  I do love that I can find this out first hand, as I would not believe it if someone told me that.

In my desire to make the world fair I have believed the underdeveloped hardness of Africa is negated by its pure beauty which I was surely going to find right around the corner.

Outhouse at camp - it is more comfortable than it appears

We load up the truck and continue our quest and it is hot, dusty, and the ride is bumpy.  When we go back to what I know is a luxury camp, it is still just a camp site.  No electricity, running water, permanent furniture or sign of civilization.  We also have some small constant concern about malaria (at least I do).   We went to bed about 9:30 PM.

At the end of the day I see Africa is primitive and just sort of hard.  I have come to believe primitive does not equate to splendor and it rarely gets up to the romantic level either.  It is what it is – no more and no less.

I don’t want to complain.  The stars are phenomenal, the air is clean, the sun sets and moon rising are more spectacular than the ones we enjoy every night in Molepolole, and I am in a rather pristine part of the world.  But, the truth be told, it is much more like Blood Diamond than Out of Africa.

Morning moon is still bright at 7:30 AM

Another Sunset on Safari

I am enjoying this experience very much and would not trade it for anything.  But I also don’t want to glamorize the hardness of living in Africa.  Even when I am in the most beautiful parts, with the most exotic animals, in a luxury camp site – it is rugged.  Most people are surviving, but many are poor and struggling and almost all of them would give anything to trade passports with me.

Carols Shoe inside an Elephant footprint

I must remind myself that I can afford to enjoy this ruggedness with my US citizenship, money in the bank, college degree in hand, and a competitive capitalist culture to always compel me to seek, pursue everything, and believe the sky is the limit.  While trite – the idea that any of us can grow up to be president of the county, the belief is also meaningful beyond any explanation I can give in this blog.

I loved this little vacation, and loved the delta, the animals, our guide and his helpers – I love being in Africa – it was truly unique and has its beautiful places.  But the splendor I continue to see as brighter, deeper and more valuable each day is freedom, choices, work ethic, the conveniences and the luxuries afford to us in the United States.

Home sweet home

John and I at high tea in Chicago at the Four Seasons Hotel

The Pen:  A nice girl (Vice-President of Study Groups in PACT) borrowed my pen, and I knew it would never be returned, but there are some people you will let keep your pen without resentment.  She is an orphan.

That night she showed up at my house.  She said she would never take anything that was not hers, so she was returning the pen.  BUT, she LOVED the pen!  She said it is the best pen she ever saw or used in her life.  She was asking if she could have it.

The desired pen had been shipped from America (from dad) and was better than a Bic – a slightly above average pen.  I told her she could keep the pen.  She squealed and hugged me and told me she loved me as if I had just given her a Blackberry cell phone.  So little makes so many happy here.

3 Feet Tall Grass - Before

If we would have hired a “piece job” worker it would have taken about 15 hours to clear the yard. Mostly older women with no education do this work. We thought the boys (Ages, 16, 15, 12, 11, 6 and 2) would take 15 or 20 hours too. It would be a nice weekend job for a bunch of boys who normally sit in the yard all day.

The boys immediately ban the 6 and 2 year-old from work, which made them cry and/or whine for hours. They also followed the standard work ethic of most construction workers here, which is to have one or two guys work while everyone else gets to watch. The construction crews rotate so everyone gets about an hour of work a day. It took the boys 4 weekends to finish, and they ended up letting the 6-year-old do hours of work by himself. They somehow made it last that long despite John’s fairly constant attempts to keep them focused.

Phase 1 -This is the first patch completed - now with three weeks growth

Maybe one of the reasons for the delay was the lunches. John made them P&J sandwiches, carrots, peanuts, and apple slices. They had never had jelly on their sandwiches and were absolutely delighted with that and everything else. Apparently they eat a lot of rice at home. They consumed the lunch in about 3 minute and raved about it for two hours. When we saw how much they enjoyed the mundane lunch – we decided to make them a nice lunch each day they worked, which I think may have led to a work slow down.

They always love chocolate cakes (also sent from America) and to offset the lunch incentive I promised to bake a double batch of chocolate cake the day they got done. Every Saturday and Sunday for a month they would get up and tell me they would be done today and I should bake the cake – then they would get another 8th of the yard done. Finally, when they only had a small amount of grass left I made the two batches of cake. We cut it up and put it on a couple of plates and gave it to them. I told them it would be nice to save their mother a piece and they all agreed it would be. I also suggested they save some for later – they didn’t have to eat it all now. But they did eat it all without ever leaving the porch. They saved nothing! Except the 2-year old who offered me his last smashed up bite in his hand which had slobber on it.

Phase 8 - what it looks like when they are done. (And John feeding the chickens)

We gave them 115 Pula. We asked what they were going to do with the money. The older brother said he was going to buy something for his little brother and the others said they were going to give it to the church. What they lack in work ethic they make up for in appetite and human goodness.