I have a ton to catch everyone up on! I made a list of everything, and maybe I’ll get to it all before I pass out because I’m so tired. The pace of everything has picked up and I’m busy ALL the time again. I think I just work at one speed – fast.
Abseiling
This weekend Robby, Amit, Lauren and I went abseiling. Y’all know Robby and Amit, but not Lauren. Lauren Kraus a student at Brandeis University and is interning at the Family Art and Literacy Center for two months. In short – she’s legit. She’s living with a family in the same neighborhood that the Center is located and has already learned more Sesotho. Her blog is also great to read, but seeing as she only has internet when she comes to my house once every week or so, it is considerably sparser than this one. Anyways. Abseiling.
In short – we went abseiling down the longest commercial abseil in the world at 204 m. Which was totally awesome.
The abseiling itself was great, and the hike back OUT of a 200m deep gorge will forever live in my mind, but the view of the sky at night was the most amazing part of the trip. Semonkong, the tiny town in the mountains where this abseiling lodge is located, only has enough electricity to power the city during the day, so at 10pm, the lights all go out. PERFECT stargazing conditions. High altitude and no other lights. I’ve never seen so many stars, it was beautiful. Do you remember the part in the movie Titanic where they show the sky at night and there are so many stars that you think it’s fake? (And by “you” I mean a 10 year old Grace who only knows what the suburban Chicago sky looks like) That’s what this sky reminded me of. I even saw the Milky Way, which I count among my life achievements. It was amazing.
Food Poisoning
What’s a trip to Africa without allowing your body to play host to some unknown bacteria that takes your intestines hostage for a couple days? Not a good trip, in my opinion. This has been a good trip.
Lumber vs. firewood
Another interesting culture story. Today Robby gave our students an exercise in which they had a list of 10 items that they could possibly sell in the town, and the students were supposed to rank them from best to worst in terms of profitability. Bricks and lumber were both on the list, so I was curious about how the students would decide which building material was perceived as in more demand by the community and why. So I asked (my favorite student) N’tsepiseng why they had bricks as number four and lumber as number five, and she described that people wanted to build houses for themselves because more people were starting their own homes, so they would need bricks and by supplying them in town, she would be reducing her customer’s transport costs. So that’s bricks. What about lumber, N’tsepiseng? Well, it’s winter, so people will need fuel to keep themselves warm.
I think my startled look as I realized that Robby and I completely missed how lumber isn’t necessarily a building material made N’tsepiseng think that I didn’t like her answer, so she hastily said, “And people can use lumber to roof their house or for building parts of their new houses with the bricks.” I mean, props to her for being slick and saving the answer. That is, if the first answer was wrong. But it wasn’t! It makes sense that in a place where houses are built with bricks and electricity is expensive, wood is a cheap and decent source of heat in the winter. I explained to the group how Robby and I didn’t even think of lumber having a different primary use than building, but that their answers all made sense (of course, one could differentiate firewood from lumber and say it is her fault for not knowing the difference, but that person is a snob and unaware of how this is a prime example of cultural differences). I love how much I learn through teaching these students.
Business Consulting
Today, after the microenterprise camp, we went to the Family Art and Literacy Center, where I literally worked until it was too dark to see because the electricity company hasn’t turned on the electricity. One of my tasks today was having all the children sign a letter to the electricity company asking them to please turn on the electricity. My former cheerleading skills are quite handy when trying to control fifteen boys under the age of 10. It’s amazing how loud they can be.
More rewarding of a task was to teach the resident artists Peter and Thabo how to use the receipt book to record sales of art that come through the Center. That turned into a discussion about the relationship of the artists and the Center. The Center provides supplies and a workspace to artists, and we have decided that in return, if an artist sells her art, she would return a commission to the Center in reimbursement for the supplies used and also to provide funding to sustain the Center. That discussion led into a discussion/lesson on pricing art, because if the Center will be given a percentage, how much should an artist charge to make sure she makes enough profit to live on?
At the end of it, I realized that I was the resident expert in business, and that I was giving competent and useful advice to these artists about business matters for their Center. It was strange and comfortable at the same time. I felt very confident about what I was saying, but I never thought that I would be occupying this position! Financial consultant for an art and literacy microenterprise in a tiny African country? Thank you, BTB and HHMI. Y’all are awesome for putting me into such a position. Peter Maphatsoe, one of the resident artists, is infamous for his constant exaggeration, but I still felt proud when he paid me this compliment at the end of the day – “Grace, what you have done today is absolutely marvelous. It is changing lives, the help you have given us today.” GUESS WHAT?!?! I’M MAKING THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE. That’s all I want.
Remind me one day to tell you more about Peter. He is phenomenal.
The Mystery of the Lost Cell Phone (sounds like a contemporary Nancy Drew book, right?)
After the children went home from the Center today, Jane, Peter, and I were still around finishing up some stuff. A terrified looking girl (okay, she had a terrified tone of voice. It was dark in the Center. Reference lack of electricity from above story) came in an explained to Peter that she lost her cell phone. I said that I would call it with my phone to see if we could locate it based on the ringtone, but to no avail. I asked her where she had it last and if she might have put it somewhere else. When it was confirmed with a second phone call that the lost cell phone was definitely not in the Center, I told her that we would ask Peter to see if the children accidentally took home a cell phone tomorrow. She went home, and I felt with a sinking feeling that this girl was probably going to be beaten pretty nicely for losing something so valuable. Fast forward about two hours. I just got a text message that says “A thank you with a speacial touch. Your kindness meant so very much. I found the fone. From: the girl who lost the phone. Once again thank you My name is *some text missing* “ Which is pretty much the best text message I’ve ever received. I really was not going out of my way to be especially kind to this girl, but it obviously meant a lot to her. So much that she was willing to spend precious money on a text message saying thank you. I just wish Vodacom didn’t suck so much and didn’t cut off the girl’s name. I’ll find it out tomorrow.
New Hygienic Lows
In the spirit of my friend Jana, who posts new hygienic lows from each country she visits in Africa, here is my new hygienic low.
I was reading The Cat in the Hat (one of my favorite books) to three children, one of whom was on my lap. This girl happens to be the cutest girl in the entire Center, so cute that she is brought along as irresistible cute capital when talking to donors. Of course Hilda the Cutie gets prime lap seating when we read books. As I was reading, I noticed that something warm was on my leg, and I remembered laughing at Lauren when she told me a similar story that ended with “then Hilda peed on me.” Hilda the Cutie is also Hilda the Pee-er, so beware when you let her cuteness suck you in and put her on your lap. I paid for my cuteness weak spot by having a pee stain on my pants for the rest of the day.
Also, I’m not sure if this falls into the hygienic category or not, but I definitely saw Thabo clean up spilled paraffin (which I’m pretty sure is kerosene) with ammonia household cleaner. Well, Miss Taylor the 6th Grade Teacher Who Said Never to Mix Household Chemicals, Thabo doesn’t care what you think. He cleaned up kerosene with ammonia, and it worked just fine, thank you very much.
Not that I’m endorsing such a practice, but I was honestly surprised when it didn’t combust or emit noxious gases to make people drop like flies. Wasn’t that supposed to happen?
***UPDATE 6/24*** I’m terribly sorry that I had typos and misspelled hygienic. That’s embarrassing. I guess it proves how much I rely on SpellCheck.