Birthday.

Things are still going good on this end.  We had our first day of rain since June 16th just last week.  It didn’t rain much, but it’s a start.  A lot of people are telling me that we should expect a drought this year.  I’m crossing my fingers, hoping they don’t know what they’re talking about.

This last weekend I went to a Peer Support Network(PSN) training.  I’m really excited.  I’ve been chosen as one of 11 volunteers in country to be an ear for people who are having a hard time.  We all have them, and it’s a great feeling to know that I can be a shoulder for people to lean on.  By default I somehow ended up as co-chair for the group.   It’s a very good thing for me.  I feel helpful.

It’s been nice having my credits lowered.  I have a lot more time to make good lesson plans, and the students are loving the opportunity to look at computers.  Most of them have never seen a computer in their lives.  Trying to explain the mouse, the cursor, the shift key…it’s challenging but the kids are quick learners.  I hope they’re learning something valuable.  The other day I showed them an episode of ‘Life’ on a computer.  About 60 kids huddled around a single monitor, watching an episode on mammals.  They don’t understand a single word of David Attenborough…his accent is too strong, but they are fascinated nonetheless.  They were were in disbelief when I explained the part on whales.

Another teacher at the school has shown the students a few movies.  They loved seeing “The Gods Must Be Crazy” as the tribe in the movie speaks a dialect of Sotho, simlar to Sesotho.  It was a perfect combination of slapstick funny, thought-provoking, and cultural stimulation to keep them really interested through the whole thing.

Since I’ve been teaching about viruses, I decided to spend the day on HIV today.  My students soaked up the material…they were pretty much sitting on the edge of their seats.  I had given them life skills sessions during their study periods but I think hearing it a second time, with my accent improving, helped them to really understand.

3 of the students came to me during lunch.  “Sir,” they said, “we have written an essay”.  I was really surprised.  They aren’t exactly my best students, but I could not have been more impressed.  They wrote an essay on their own time, just to confirm that they understood and know the information.  It was one of those “I couldn’t have a better job” moments…which, I’ll be honest, are few and far between.  What a birthday present.  It was much needed, too, because I had just dealt with a frustrating cultural head-smashing:

When I first arrived at site, I mentioned that I can receive grants for small things that the school might need.  The staff unanimously decided that new tables for the staff room would be nice.  Well, I thought, “the staff room has tables…they’re old, but they function.”  I had discovered that Basotho are really bad at discerning wants vs. needs.  I didn’t waste my time with the desks.

Recently, my colleagues have been asking,  “when are you going to throw that party for us!?”  So far as I was aware, I had never agreed to throwing a party.  I was wondering where this was coming from.  I thought I got my answer when one of my teachers told me she had met another volunteer…a bit of a partier himself…who buys lambs and beer for parties where everyone is invited.  I keep telling them, “maybe we can do something small.”

Today I was asked “why does it have to be small?”  Well, I don’t exactly have money pouring out my pockets and the teachers know this.  When I asked for more details, they said that they thought i received a grant for 4 or 500 rands(“the same grant you could have gotten the tables with…surely enough to throw a barbecue.”)

I was confused.  I told them I had received the money and spent it on the computers.  “NO NO NO!!!!” they were dead disappointed and dead serious.  They thought that money was supposed to be spent on them.  I quickly wrapped up the discussion and went outside for some air.

I’ve been at the school for 8 months now, and the people I’m with more than anyone else still don’t understand what I’m here for.  I was so frustrated and so disappointed, mostly because I thought that the teachers were some of the few people that actually understood my role as a volunteer.  I felt somehow betrayed.  Betrayed by their expectations of me and betrayed by my expectations for them.  Am I sending out the wrong signals?  Am I not explaining enough?  How could they expect that I would spend grant money on a barbecue party?  It all goes back to culture….a culture very much influenced by Aid, a topic I’ve avoided talking about for a long time, and will continue to do so

The moral of the story:  my birthday present, in the form of an essay on HIV and AIDS, could not have come at a better moment.

Oh yeah, I also watched our school pig(a freakish beast of sorts the size of a small horse) get castrated today.  That was neat.  All in all, a pretty good birthday.

Tagged as: birthday, computers, frustration