Very roughly translated, this means “I’m doing well,” which seemed like a fitting title for this post now that we have 2 weeks of teaching our Microenterprise Training Camp at Masianokeng High School under our belts. I have to echo the other interns’ posts in saying that teaching is very demanding work, and, as time goes on and the students are able to build on concepts we taught earlier in the course, incredibly rewarding. Grace and I both love our class: a wonderful, friendly, dedicated group of students/future businesspeople. Every one of them has a unique set of talents and abilities, and while we have our fair share of renaissance men and women, one of the things I look forward to most each day is seeing who will emerge as a new star during our variety of activities.

One of the most challenging things about teaching our particular group of students is their varied levels in school, ranging from Form A through E (U.S. school grades 8-12). This problem crops up more during our morning math session than any other part of the day. For the past few days, I’ve been having the students take word problems and translate them into equations and functions that can be used to find the answer. This isn’t like the pure math that’d you find in most of their textbooks. While many of the older students are getting the hang of this interpretation process and could solve the equations with their eyes closed, most of the younger students had barely seen equations before this past week, and they have lots of trouble finding the solutions. This has often caused the math session to drift on past its designated hour and eat away at our time for business lessons, something that needs to change. I’ve been thinking of asking the younger students to try to come a little early so that I can work specifically with them on the mechanics of using equations to solve problems. One of the Form A students expressed some interest in this idea on Friday so I might propose it to all of the younger students in the next day or two.

From the beginning of the internship, one of the aspects of our project design that Grace and I were most excited about was partnering the course with local businesses to provide the students with an opportunity to apply their business knowledge to situations outside the classroom. Aside from that, I wanted to use this as an opportunity to connect the students with Basotho who successfully run their own businesses, and expose them to a variety of enterprises that aren’t necessarily like the convenience stores and vendors that are all very similar and line many streets here.

This aspect of our course has been difficult to implement. All employees defer completely to the business owner, who is often very difficult to contact, or takes a very long time to return phone calls. For instance, I talked to a manager at a cannery two weeks ago who said a partnership would be fine, he’d just have to check with his boss, and only yesterday did we find out that we wouldn’t be able to work with them. However, we have partnerships lined up with 5 other businesses and may be able to find a replacement for the cannery in the next couple days. For the group project, students will be presented with criteria for a business plan, marketing plan, and profit/loss statement that they will create themselves, tailored to the business they are assigned. We are bringing most groups to their assigned businesses tomorrow, where they will tour the facilities and have an opportunity to ask the owner all about how the business is run. This visit should help them craft ideas for the various components of their group projects.

During the past few weeks, Grace and I have also been going to the FALC (Family Art and Literacy Centre) in Khubetsoana. The project is coming together well; it’s really starting to live up to its head artist Peter Maphatsoe’s grand visions for the place. It’s awesome and at least slightly tear-jerking (Manhood side note: I’ve never actually cried there though) when you walk into this place on a typical afternoon. There are professional artists working on their pieces but also taking time out to help younger artists and children develop their drawing skills. There are kids reading books together, not only in English (which is taught in schools) but also in Sesotho – instilling the native language in younger generations will really help the country maintain its unique culture. There are a variety of artists’ works for sale, ranging from paintings to drums to hats and saddlebags. On top of all this, there are children’s books being developed at the Centre, which are written in Sesotho and are centered around Basotho culture, which eventually will hopefully be widely distributed. This week, we came up with a commission scheme for works sold at the Centre: 30% if materials at the Centre were used, 20% if not. We will continue working with the artists on the math behind good pricing that lets them pay the commission while still pocketing their desired profit for each piece. The Centre also now has some standards for record-keeping of money taken in from works being sold and money spent on art supplies.

Going forward, Grace and I plan on further standardizing the Centre’s record-keeping, and developing a business plan for the Centre to follow as it continues to mature. We will also be working on a couple of construction projects there in the time we have left. The Centre should continue to progress well as long as it has good publicity to draw in purchasers, continues to foster community support, and does all this with a firm purpose and plan.

In the past week, we also made some fun side trips. Last weekend I went abseiling with a few other people, repelling down a 200+ meter cliff with only two ropes holding me up. It was a beautiful area, especially the gorge around the Matsuyane Falls, but it was also very interesting to see the small, remote village of Semonkong, part of the other side of Lesotho, where people by-and-large live very differently than in greater Maseru. Also, on Wednesday, Amit and I went to see the USA play Spain in soccer at the Confederations Cup in Bloemfontein, South Africa. It was an incredible experience with a pretty schocking result: there was only a small United States contingent, but people from many other countries were cheering for us and there were several “U! S! A!” chants as the crowd exited. The coolest part of the night, though, might have been when we crossed the border back into Maseru; on some level, for the first time, I felt like I was going home. Basotho are friendly, welcoming people that place a great emphasis on family, and it’s a testament to them that I almost feel like a part of that family after the relatively short amount of time that I’ve been here.