WE'LL BE HOME FOR CHRISTMAS!
Thanks to the hard work and generosity of Rudy's dad and gifts from several of you, we have plane tickets from South Africa to the USA for Christmas! School closes December 10th, but Ruth, Jabulile, and Grace (Ruth's technical assistant on baby care) will head out about a week before that so Ruth can attend the ECHO agricultural conference. Rudy, Cub, and Kit will follow right after we chase the students out the gate. We have no concrete plans yet; we know we want to get in touch with family and friends, and rest some.
GIRL'S CLUB
I don't know if we've told you about this yet; apologies if this is a repeat. On Friday afternoons at 3PM (as I write, in fact) Ruth convenes "Girl's Club". Whichever girls around Cubby's age and up are around the school at this time and day are invited. Ruth reads a story (and Nonduduzo, Yenzie's cousin, usually translates into SiSwati), they play a game, and then there is a fun/educational activity (baking, arts and crafts, acting out the story, whatever Ruth can think up or find in a children's activity book). Today they will make a pinata. Some mothers of the children used to come along too, but for some reason they stopped. Ruth was discouraged by that, but I told her I'm sure this is something very special to the girls and that she should continue. She has, and I am confident Girl's Club is making memories in the lives of these young ladies. In the long run, it might turn out to be our most successful "development project", as the girls get to have fun and gain some confidence (acting, thinking up and constructing art, and the like).
GOGO KHANYILE
This is the matriarch at the outstation church. You may remember that in April we said that her son, Waley Dlamini, a young man at our church, died. Thursday night we learned that Gogo Khanyile lost another child, a daughter. She was due to have some sort of get-together on the 14th, but she went into the hospital sick on Wednesday and died on Thursday night. If you pray, please pray for Gogo and other relatives. And if you don't pray, give it a shot. You might be suprised at what happens.
SELF-INFLICTED WOUND
Sometimes, the longer you are close to an issue, the more complicated it becomes to you. Other times, proximity and long exposure to something makes things appear simpler. The latter has been the case with my thinking about HIV/AIDS. Over 90% of HIV infections come through heterosexual sex in Southern Africa. And as people are having sex with more than one person over the course of a few months, no wonder the virus spreads so fast. So even though these early deaths are a horrific tragedy, it's been slowly and painfully dawning on me that they were almost entirely avoidable. Very few people are in the dark in Swaziland about how HIV spreads. I showed a 6-part video series by Bruce Wilkinson (dubbed in SiSwati) a few years ago about AIDS to my seniors. After we finished the series I asked one of them what they thought of it; he said it was good, but that everyone already knew that stuff. I was shocked. I asked him, "So why don't they change?" He replied "Because they don't care". Another student entered the room just at that moment and I said "Sipho, Nhlanhla here just told me everyone knows all the information about AIDS, but they don't change because they don't care if they live or die. Is that so?" Without a moment's hesitation he said "Oh yeah". AIDS is not like the Haitian earthquake of 2010 or the Tsunami of 2004, where people had no warning and almost no time to react. The AIDS death toll is largely a self-inflicted wound.
Now of course the complication comes with the survivors, especially children; and some girls/women have sex to put food on the table or to support siblings. But the root of the problem could be completely removed if men and women would wait for sex until they are married, and had sex only with their spouse after marriage. The two dynamics of this situation-the volume of death and disruption it brings, and the ease with which 90%+ of new infections could be stopped-produce moments of considerable frustration and sadness in me.
It also makes me think that people need more than another technical fix (like condoms, or virucidal creams, or circumcision) to stem the tide: they need to see that life has meaning, and they need something to live for beyond the present moment. Christianity has been in Swaziland at least a century, and it is publically expressed. One can find preaching and teaching on the radio, at the fruit and vegetable market, at tent revivals, and in handbills passed out by folks around town. Thing is, a lot of sexual shenanigans still take place. I wonder if it is a matter of the gospel needing to take root as ethical behavior. This isn't a fully-formed thought, but I wonder if the "next wave of evangelization" needs to be one of realizing the significance of human life as valued by God; this would, I suspect, help people towards or reinforce them in wholesome, life-affirming habits and push out a lot of unwholesome, destructive ones.
BRIGHT SPOTS
A couple months ago we were at a prayer meeting with some friends. In such meetings, when I "center down" (as the Quakers, I think, say), sometimes deeper issues come up. In this meeting a veritable slide show of faces of young people who died too young (mostly of AIDS) passed before my mind's eye. After the tears, however, the face of one young person also came to mind; she had made it through form 5 a virgin and seemed to be continuing on the right track.
Later we sent her a text message to check up on her, but didn't get a response. Then last Saturday, while walking around town, I met her and another former student who also was an upright young person. They were in town for a meeting called by the youth council of a local church, but were in a quandry because the meeting had been cancelled and no one had informed these two young women in time. Still, I'm happy to report they are both still doing well. One is living and working in town, and the other one is still in Dlangeni. What a relief and encouragement these two bright spots are in a time of far too much death.
MID-YEAR SUMMARY
At the beggining of this year, I had a quiet, inexplicable optimism that this would be a better year than 2009. So far, 2010 has (happily) met that optimism. School, except for the occasional hiccup and the Form 3 students, has been pretty good. It is becoming clear that the students' English skills are in many cases atrocious, and in order for them to learn the material I need to slow down my presentation (which I've done pretty much every year) and make reading comprehension a bigger part of my teaching. I'm doing that now, bit by bit.
It was nice to be in a support, and not directing, role with soccer this year. I suspect that in general, I am better helping someone else get things done than I am being the leader.
The birth of Anastasia Jabulile Poglitsh was a great treat; the delivery went well, mom and baby are well, and the other 3 girls really love her. I was reflecting recently that I am a rich man, by virtue of my awesome wife and children. Sometimes I think of Ruth as my crown, and our daughters as precious diamonds in that crown. I would not trade my marriage or kids for "stuff" or "success".
Our situation here is really good for us a family. I sometimes dread what we will do when Grace turns 18 (just a decade away!) and we have to move. Maybe we won't move; maybe we'll send her to the University of Cape Town, or something. Actually, for her to pass her citizenship onto her future children (if she decides to marry), she will have to spend some time in the USA. So this mostly-idyllic situation will change at some point, but for now it's a great nursery for our marriage and young children.
I do find one of the toughest things about being here is social isolation. Make no mistake, there are 6 of us in the house and I teach at a school, so I have lots of social contact. Also, my friendships with my colleagues are deepening, and I am enjoying friendship with Godfrey Mubiru and Lawrence Rugumambaju. But there are still times when I really want to speak with another American for a while, where all the linguistic and cultural settings are the same and I can "unload" things that might be bugging me. Living out here (which is where we want to live) keeps us out of the flow of life of our American friends in town, but we do plan to spend some time with some friends in the coming month. And as I said, my Swazi and Ugandan friends are a lot of fun, and sometimes our discussions go pretty deep. So the situation is manageable and slowly improving.
We are very glad that we have a good headmaster and deputy; they have kept the stability of the school, while adding some standardization which, though it still produces occasional grumbles (from me included), has enhanced the academic standard of the school. We were very concerned about this transition when it came in 2007 (headmaster) and 2008 (deputy), but we are very happy with how it has turned out.
Our homestead family has changed quite a bit since we got here in 2003. Make Malinga, Marcos' and Rudy's homestead mother, has died, as have 3 other people I can think of. Older children have moved away, and so a lot fewer people stay at the homestead. It feels (and is) largely empty. Abner Dlamini's 2008 stroke has impacted him (obviously) and the productivity of the homestead; he loved to work. His younger wife works hard too, but running a whole homestead is a LOT of work. I should get over there more often.
Back to the kids for a moment. We read and enjoy First Things magazine. The June/July 2010 issue carried an article called "The Weight of Smut" by Mary Eberstadt. It considered the consequences of pornography. If you are concerned about this issue, you should be. Pornography pulls in more money than the NBA, NFL, and Major League Baseball combined. And as Eberstadt's article outlines, it has disastrous effects on men, their families, and society. I include here part of an e-mail I sent to my dad recently.
"I just finished the article on pornography in the above mentioned First Things-makes me get defensive about my girls. That evil will be part of the environment they will have to live in. Probably it already is, as you can get the internet on a cell phone and I suspect high school boys are viewing that stuff today. They then look at my girls through those warped lenses. I do pullups and pushups and sit ups now; I intend to make my ugly, old, physical presence unavoidable when I come between young boys and my beautiful daughters."
We hope you are well.
Sincerely,
Rudy for the gang
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Saturday, July 10, 2010
UPDATE FROM LAST WEEK
Maybe the last paragraph about no NGO being willing to touch the "universal right to consequence-free sex" should be modified a bit, at least in relation to children. We just read a newspaper article describing a new initiative at one high school in Swaziland. They are hoping to reduce the percentage of sexually active students from 70% to 50% over the next five years and reducing the HIV infection rate of pregnant women age 15-24 from 38.1% to 37%.
HOMEFRONT
I (Ruth) thought that today I would share a few child raising stories.
When I was a child I read a book called "Dibs: In search of self" which was a biography about a troubled child who went to "Play Therapy" which consisted of a playroom where the child could do anything he felt like under the observation of a Play Therapist who would try to interpret his behavior. The therapist considered the fantasy interactions that he had with the dolls (especially when he buried the father doll in the sandbox) as especially significant. I really liked the book and thought it rather profound when I was a kid. But I had to re-evaluate my opinion after my daughters bought a dollhouse with four family member dolls. The first week they had it, the boy doll kept throwing the furniture out of the upstairs window. He would hit and kick other family members, and the father's reaction was extreme to say the least. I wonder what this play therapist would assume that she knew about our family situation after watching that. A while back they were "putting the children to bed" and the kids kept getting out of bed and running through the house much to the frustrations of the harried "parents".
Kit (Hope) age 2 has a bit of her father's talent. Many years ago at ECHO, Rudy and Heidi Petersen would keep us all amused quoting large sections of movies or breaking into song (they would know all of the words--not just the choruses). Our little girl goes around the house quoting large and various sections of the "Barbie: Princess and the Pauper" movie and parts of the VEGGIETALES about Saint Nicholas. We are likely to be serenaded by any of our girls with the songs from the Barbie movie:
I'm just like you.
You're just like me.
We take responsibility.
We carry through, do what we need to do,
for I am a girl like you.
I am glad that we are fairly selective about what they see--it obviously goes in pretty deep.
Speaking of lines from songs (I only know choruses and very few lines). There was a song that had for me a very profound line "Life is what happens while you are making your plans." As a planner, that has been so true for me. I find so much satisfaction in planning out things that are not likely to ever be accomplished. When I was younger, I thought that they would be accomplished later (and many of them were). Now I am 42 and I am getting a more realistic picture of myself. It is much easier to imagine yourself succeeding at something than to actually succeed at doing it. I enjoy the process of starting programs in my mind. I realize now that I am not an enthusiast or a promoter--so getting other people motivated to do those things with me is really hard. If I do succeed in getting things going, after running it for a couple of years, the ongoing maintenance of the project is not what makes me real excited/motivated even though I will do it faithfully. [Just like the song above: We carry through, do what we need to do...]
I had a realization of a variation on this theme awhile back. I was working in our test plot for maize and enjoying it. I was thinking about the ladies here sitting around and taking the maize off the cobs of a large harvest. I realized that while I find agriculture significant and meaningful because I imagine how it can be a vehical for improving the lives of other people, for these ladies this work is just part of the annual routine of tasks that you must do to live. It is the equivilant of me mopping the floor. Now I don't usually find mopping the floor very significant or meaningful. I had a hint that life consists largely of the drudgery of removing maize from the cobs and mopping dirty floors and it was those activities that must have meaning or most of human life is meaningless.
The third variation on this theme has occured while taking care of our new baby Jabu (Joy). Sometimes she is screaming and we call her AkaJabuli--(Unjoyful). She was screaming on the changing table one evening and I was looking at her and thought that all we have is the moment that we are currently in. This moment is all I have--if I don't redeem this moment--if I don't choose happiness and joy in this moment, in each of the "this moments" of the day then the whole day, week, year, life will pass and they will not have been marked by joy--just a string of petty irritations, angers, and frustrations to show for all of that past time. Why is it that irritation springs up naturally and joy must be carefully cultivated?
I was reading David Bently Hart's book "Athiest Delusions" which complains that the "New Athiests" don't take their Athiesm nearly seriously enough. One problem with materialism taken to its end result is that it renders all of our activity meaningless. This naturally leads to a lack of high vision and no desire to do great things and portends the end of high civilization. (I am probably butchering his argument here). This rings true. I don't think we would be here if we didn't believe in God. You might come if you thought you could make a grand difference. We have been here long enough for those hopes to shrink. As I get a clearer picture of who I am and what I can do and what the situation is here, it is obvious that we are not going to be agents of community wide transformation. We will touch a few individuals in a meaningful way and a larger group in a not-very-meaningful way but things aren't likely to be signicantly better here because of our sojourn.
On the other hand, I would add, a Theist can believe that changing a baby's diaper or mopping the floor can be filled with eternal significance. I was wondering how to love God with real affection. Again I found Jabu screaming on the changing table and was reminded "As you did this to the least of these my brethren, you did it to me." It was the Mother Teresa "encounter Christ in the poorest of the poor" trick. So I changed my screaming baby's diaper with real love, deep and genuine. And I am confident that that moment was redeemed.
So my locus of meaning is slowly shifting from changing the outside world to learning to encounter this moment with faith, hope, and love. It may be that if my private heart is transformed there will be public effects--I don't know. I can be confident that I will have some effect on my girls. My natural inclination is to work very hard to influence those outside my family. I forget that I will influence my girls much more than I will influence anyone else in my life.
ANACONDA
We have spoken in the past about Stan Mamba, local handyman genius, and the "black mamba water heater" named in his honor. As is his gift, Mamba recently turned another problem into gold. When water is entering the main school tanks, it always overflows them; the result is a veritable swamp around the tanks. This is unsightly, unpleasant to walk around, and a possible source of disease (mosquito breeding ground) and embarrassment (it's hard to tell the students to make sure they drain swampy areas so that mosquitoes can't breed, if the school doesn't do it first). Mamba took some strips of innertubes and closed off some leaks, then redid the overflow pipe so that it takes the water into two other pipes: one to a homestead downhill from the school, and one right into the school. We now have a 1&1/2 inch aboveground pipe gurgling water steadily wherever we want it inside the school grounds. Sometimes it waters plants inside the garden, other times it helps wash down the concrete hallways of the school. A student recently called it the "Anaconda", a huge tropical jungle snake. I sure hope Mamba doesn't leave while we are here; his problem-solving skills seem irreplacable.
ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL
Not exactly, but pretty close. One day this week Jabulile would not quiet down. Much to her parents' delight, Grace asked if she could take that screaming baby. Grace put Jabu in a doll stroller and then disappeared. You parents know that when a high-decibel baby suddenly gets quiet, you're not that concerned, as long as you are confident she is still in good hands. Time came, though, for dinner, and Grace and Jabu were not to be found. We went to hollering outside, and there they were; Grace had taken Jabu 4-wheeling in the doll stroller outside! Rudy was a little concerned, knowing that toy strollers aren't that rugged and noticing that Grace was moving at a pretty good clip; but no harm, no foul, I guess. Jabu "cranked up" again after we sat down to dinner, but Rudy pushed her back and forth with his right hand and ate with his left, and she was asleep in 5 minutes.
Some folks wonder how any couple can have more than 2 kids and stay sane. We have found that by doing our best to build a culture of love and support between family members, the older girls have come to look after the younger ones. Sometimes they have the most creative, effective, and supportive solutions.
CITIZENS ARREST
Classes end at 2:20PM, but students aren't released from school until about 4. The 1 1/2 hours is used by the cultural competition teams to prepare for Wednesday's competition at Somhlolo National Stadium. Not every student is involved in the cultural activities, so you can imagine a lot of dawdling takes place.
Late this week I witnessed a most remarkable thing. From down a short slope came whooping one student, joining some of his friends in apprehending another student. The 4 boys lifted the fifth and carried him behind the woodwork class block. Their intent did not seem malicious, and the apprehended didn't fight desperately, so I figured this wasn't serious; but it case it was, I figured I'd better be a witness/interceptor if it was. They laid their "friend" on the ground and then melodramatically administered a whoopin' to his backside with their canvas belts. After 30 seconds all stood up, all smiles. I asked one of them later what that was about, and he said they suspected the victim had been smoking. Some time after that I said I wish I had had a movie camera on hand to record it all; he said they might repeat it in the future. What a school.
NSUKUMHILLBILLY
Not only do your kids drop whatever they're doing to go outside to see the Cessna-size aircraft they hear buzzing overhead; to your self-chagrin, you find yourself get up from your desk to do the very same thing. You've become a
Hillbilly
Have a nice day,
The Poglitshs
Maybe the last paragraph about no NGO being willing to touch the "universal right to consequence-free sex" should be modified a bit, at least in relation to children. We just read a newspaper article describing a new initiative at one high school in Swaziland. They are hoping to reduce the percentage of sexually active students from 70% to 50% over the next five years and reducing the HIV infection rate of pregnant women age 15-24 from 38.1% to 37%.
HOMEFRONT
I (Ruth) thought that today I would share a few child raising stories.
When I was a child I read a book called "Dibs: In search of self" which was a biography about a troubled child who went to "Play Therapy" which consisted of a playroom where the child could do anything he felt like under the observation of a Play Therapist who would try to interpret his behavior. The therapist considered the fantasy interactions that he had with the dolls (especially when he buried the father doll in the sandbox) as especially significant. I really liked the book and thought it rather profound when I was a kid. But I had to re-evaluate my opinion after my daughters bought a dollhouse with four family member dolls. The first week they had it, the boy doll kept throwing the furniture out of the upstairs window. He would hit and kick other family members, and the father's reaction was extreme to say the least. I wonder what this play therapist would assume that she knew about our family situation after watching that. A while back they were "putting the children to bed" and the kids kept getting out of bed and running through the house much to the frustrations of the harried "parents".
Kit (Hope) age 2 has a bit of her father's talent. Many years ago at ECHO, Rudy and Heidi Petersen would keep us all amused quoting large sections of movies or breaking into song (they would know all of the words--not just the choruses). Our little girl goes around the house quoting large and various sections of the "Barbie: Princess and the Pauper" movie and parts of the VEGGIETALES about Saint Nicholas. We are likely to be serenaded by any of our girls with the songs from the Barbie movie:
I'm just like you.
You're just like me.
We take responsibility.
We carry through, do what we need to do,
for I am a girl like you.
I am glad that we are fairly selective about what they see--it obviously goes in pretty deep.
Speaking of lines from songs (I only know choruses and very few lines). There was a song that had for me a very profound line "Life is what happens while you are making your plans." As a planner, that has been so true for me. I find so much satisfaction in planning out things that are not likely to ever be accomplished. When I was younger, I thought that they would be accomplished later (and many of them were). Now I am 42 and I am getting a more realistic picture of myself. It is much easier to imagine yourself succeeding at something than to actually succeed at doing it. I enjoy the process of starting programs in my mind. I realize now that I am not an enthusiast or a promoter--so getting other people motivated to do those things with me is really hard. If I do succeed in getting things going, after running it for a couple of years, the ongoing maintenance of the project is not what makes me real excited/motivated even though I will do it faithfully. [Just like the song above: We carry through, do what we need to do...]
I had a realization of a variation on this theme awhile back. I was working in our test plot for maize and enjoying it. I was thinking about the ladies here sitting around and taking the maize off the cobs of a large harvest. I realized that while I find agriculture significant and meaningful because I imagine how it can be a vehical for improving the lives of other people, for these ladies this work is just part of the annual routine of tasks that you must do to live. It is the equivilant of me mopping the floor. Now I don't usually find mopping the floor very significant or meaningful. I had a hint that life consists largely of the drudgery of removing maize from the cobs and mopping dirty floors and it was those activities that must have meaning or most of human life is meaningless.
The third variation on this theme has occured while taking care of our new baby Jabu (Joy). Sometimes she is screaming and we call her AkaJabuli--(Unjoyful). She was screaming on the changing table one evening and I was looking at her and thought that all we have is the moment that we are currently in. This moment is all I have--if I don't redeem this moment--if I don't choose happiness and joy in this moment, in each of the "this moments" of the day then the whole day, week, year, life will pass and they will not have been marked by joy--just a string of petty irritations, angers, and frustrations to show for all of that past time. Why is it that irritation springs up naturally and joy must be carefully cultivated?
I was reading David Bently Hart's book "Athiest Delusions" which complains that the "New Athiests" don't take their Athiesm nearly seriously enough. One problem with materialism taken to its end result is that it renders all of our activity meaningless. This naturally leads to a lack of high vision and no desire to do great things and portends the end of high civilization. (I am probably butchering his argument here). This rings true. I don't think we would be here if we didn't believe in God. You might come if you thought you could make a grand difference. We have been here long enough for those hopes to shrink. As I get a clearer picture of who I am and what I can do and what the situation is here, it is obvious that we are not going to be agents of community wide transformation. We will touch a few individuals in a meaningful way and a larger group in a not-very-meaningful way but things aren't likely to be signicantly better here because of our sojourn.
On the other hand, I would add, a Theist can believe that changing a baby's diaper or mopping the floor can be filled with eternal significance. I was wondering how to love God with real affection. Again I found Jabu screaming on the changing table and was reminded "As you did this to the least of these my brethren, you did it to me." It was the Mother Teresa "encounter Christ in the poorest of the poor" trick. So I changed my screaming baby's diaper with real love, deep and genuine. And I am confident that that moment was redeemed.
So my locus of meaning is slowly shifting from changing the outside world to learning to encounter this moment with faith, hope, and love. It may be that if my private heart is transformed there will be public effects--I don't know. I can be confident that I will have some effect on my girls. My natural inclination is to work very hard to influence those outside my family. I forget that I will influence my girls much more than I will influence anyone else in my life.
ANACONDA
We have spoken in the past about Stan Mamba, local handyman genius, and the "black mamba water heater" named in his honor. As is his gift, Mamba recently turned another problem into gold. When water is entering the main school tanks, it always overflows them; the result is a veritable swamp around the tanks. This is unsightly, unpleasant to walk around, and a possible source of disease (mosquito breeding ground) and embarrassment (it's hard to tell the students to make sure they drain swampy areas so that mosquitoes can't breed, if the school doesn't do it first). Mamba took some strips of innertubes and closed off some leaks, then redid the overflow pipe so that it takes the water into two other pipes: one to a homestead downhill from the school, and one right into the school. We now have a 1&1/2 inch aboveground pipe gurgling water steadily wherever we want it inside the school grounds. Sometimes it waters plants inside the garden, other times it helps wash down the concrete hallways of the school. A student recently called it the "Anaconda", a huge tropical jungle snake. I sure hope Mamba doesn't leave while we are here; his problem-solving skills seem irreplacable.
ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL
Not exactly, but pretty close. One day this week Jabulile would not quiet down. Much to her parents' delight, Grace asked if she could take that screaming baby. Grace put Jabu in a doll stroller and then disappeared. You parents know that when a high-decibel baby suddenly gets quiet, you're not that concerned, as long as you are confident she is still in good hands. Time came, though, for dinner, and Grace and Jabu were not to be found. We went to hollering outside, and there they were; Grace had taken Jabu 4-wheeling in the doll stroller outside! Rudy was a little concerned, knowing that toy strollers aren't that rugged and noticing that Grace was moving at a pretty good clip; but no harm, no foul, I guess. Jabu "cranked up" again after we sat down to dinner, but Rudy pushed her back and forth with his right hand and ate with his left, and she was asleep in 5 minutes.
Some folks wonder how any couple can have more than 2 kids and stay sane. We have found that by doing our best to build a culture of love and support between family members, the older girls have come to look after the younger ones. Sometimes they have the most creative, effective, and supportive solutions.
CITIZENS ARREST
Classes end at 2:20PM, but students aren't released from school until about 4. The 1 1/2 hours is used by the cultural competition teams to prepare for Wednesday's competition at Somhlolo National Stadium. Not every student is involved in the cultural activities, so you can imagine a lot of dawdling takes place.
Late this week I witnessed a most remarkable thing. From down a short slope came whooping one student, joining some of his friends in apprehending another student. The 4 boys lifted the fifth and carried him behind the woodwork class block. Their intent did not seem malicious, and the apprehended didn't fight desperately, so I figured this wasn't serious; but it case it was, I figured I'd better be a witness/interceptor if it was. They laid their "friend" on the ground and then melodramatically administered a whoopin' to his backside with their canvas belts. After 30 seconds all stood up, all smiles. I asked one of them later what that was about, and he said they suspected the victim had been smoking. Some time after that I said I wish I had had a movie camera on hand to record it all; he said they might repeat it in the future. What a school.
NSUKUMHILLBILLY
Not only do your kids drop whatever they're doing to go outside to see the Cessna-size aircraft they hear buzzing overhead; to your self-chagrin, you find yourself get up from your desk to do the very same thing. You've become a
Hillbilly
Have a nice day,
The Poglitshs
Saturday, July 3, 2010
SCHOOL
Things are going pretty well. The form 5 (senior) students have been informed that most of what I can do for them I (Rudy) already have; it is up to them to study for their big exams which come in October and November. I gave them a study technique I used in college: figure out how many pages of notes the test will cover (which, in their case, is all the pages from early February of 2009; between 80 and 130, depending on the writing size of the kid) and figure out how many days it is until the test. Then calculate how many pages one must memorize each day, and do it. I don't know how many kids will do it, but I know it worked for me. Just one new page per day, with a review of the pages previously learned, will put a lot of information into your mind.
The form 1 (8th grade) students are going well, too. There are 69 of them in one class, yet they are serious about learning. I am trying to get them to do more reading. I get science articles off the internet (Popular Science, Popular Mechanics, etc.) and type them up with questions. A good grasp of English is very important to doing well on these tests. Lately I have also had them using a higher-level science book with an index in the back. I figure familiarity with books and an ability to access their information will serve them well at every stage of life. So I am enjoying this very large class of young people.
And then, there are the form 3 students. These correspond to American 9th or 10th graders. A good friend of ours took a wise route into the teaching profession: he was a substitute teacher for a full year, taking everything from 1st to 12th grade. At the end of the year, he decided the grades to teach are either the very early or very late ones. The young ones are eager to please, and the juniors/seniors are young adults with whom you can reason and who will listen to what you have to say about the road ahead. He now teaches elementary school in Los Angeles.
The awkward ages in between, however, can be tough. Hmm, that's euphemistic. How about "It's a wonder more sophomores and form 3 students don't mysteriously and permanently disappear". These students also face major external examinations starting in early October, but most of them don't seem too serious about them. I have also pretty much finished giving them the information they need, and it's now a matter of reviewing it until I shed a tears of joy when I feed them to the tests. Of course, a good number of them will be back next year as form 4 students; but for some reason I saw that last year's form 3 students (who also ranked high on the "most deserving of a throttling" list) came back more civilized as form 4 students this year. That will be a nice change.
CHURCH
Church goes well. The girls take the walk in stride, and they always have a good time with Nomphumelelo, Futhi, and Mphendulo who join us about 1/3 of the way there. We need to do some fence repairs on the garden, but the okra, jackbean and pigeon pea plants inside are doing well. Now that we are past the winter solstice, we can start thinking about the next planting season. Father Maseko came and celebrated Mass last week, and a good number of people were present. It sure is nice to have him come and have the fullness of Catholic worship.
Operation Christmas Child, an activity of Samaritan's Purse (headed by Franklin Graham), deposited gifts with children in our area. I have not visited the website (samaritanspurse.org), but it seems to work in the following way. A family or individual purchases items from a list provided by Samaritan's Purse. The items include writing instruments, small coloring books, warm clothes (gloves, hats, and scarves), and maybe some candy. The goodies are packed into shoeboxes which are then decorated with Christmas paper. The boxes are then shipped off to poor communities and given to kids who don't have these kinds of things. I am quite touched by the program; many students are sporting the warm clothes and have pens and pencils that REALLY WORK and don't break apart long before they should. The boxes that came to the outstation church and the school seem to have come from England, judging from the packaging. One kid got a "Manchester United" ballpoint pen; ManU is one of the most successful and well-known soccer teams in the world. I wonder what sort of scramble took place for that pen.
Even our kids got some stuff. There was a distribution to all of the children in our community. We were invited, but declined (explaining to our girls that they get boxes from their grandparents). There were some boxes left over and the community leaders divided them between the different churches in our area to distribute to their members. It was way unneccessary, but Ruth wisely reasoned that since our children are fully part of the church, it wouldn't be appropriate to set them apart and exclude them from this church function so we came home with two shoeboxes. Our children do appreciate the "Disney princess" washcloth and the scarves, mittens, and pencil sets a great deal.
LAWRENCE RUGUMAMBAJU
On Ascension Thursday, the day Christians recall Jesus' return to heaven 40 days after His resurrection, we attended church in Mbabane. After Mass a lady came back and greeted us, and invited us to her home for tea. Rare indeed is the day that the Poglitsh's turn down free food, and so we took she and her husband up on the offer. It turns out that Winifred and Lawrence Rugumambaju and their four children hail from Uganda. He's an architect working with a firm in Mbabane until next April, at least. We have a lot in common including interests in family, our Catholic faith, and pro-life issues, and our kids really like each other, too. They drove out and attended Mass with us at the outstation church last Sunday, and then we spent some time together at our house afterwards. We hope to have them out again July 22 (a public holiday) for a hike in this area. We have yet to connect them with the Mubiru's (but not for lack of trying), our other Ugandan friend and his family, but we will keep working on it. The Rugumambaju's like Swaziland and want to stay longer; we want to encourage that, too.
WEATHER
It's mid-winter. Usually winter is the dry season, with no sign of clouds for 2 or 3 months. The temperatures are in the 60s and low 70s during the day (mighty pleasant) and plummet to frosting temperatures as soon as the sun sets. The only drawback is that the dryness means the roads become veritable duststorms when the least wind blows or a kombi passes over them. Today and yesterday, however, we have had rain. This is a welcome break, as it knocks down the dust for a few days and recharges the school's water source. It also provides a great reason to stay in the house and bake with the kids. Friends in town sometimes have a "Christmas in July" party. It certainly feels like Christmastime, especially on the rare rainy days.
WORLD CUP
I have spent between 3 and 4 1/2 hours a day in my neighbor's living room, watching World Cup soccer. I have only missed one game in its entirety, and about half of some other games which were played concurrently. My neighbor is there for most of the games too, and we occasionally have to encourage each other to fight off the drowsiness-not that the games are boring, but games ending at 10:15 every night, night after night, does take a toll. Wednesday and Thursday, June 30 and July 1, had no games. Ruth and the girls tucked me into bed at 7:30PM Wednesday night; and I woke only once (when the hall light was turned on) before my alarm went off Thursday morning. Thursday will also have more family time, then it's back to the games Friday. The number of games has fallen off a great deal, as teams have been eliminated. Another teacher says the press talked about people reporting "soccer depression"; without the games on, people feel something is missing. I must admit, sitting at the dinner table with everyone Wednesday evening seemed like a real break in the routine-a welcome one. Ruth and the girls are very generous. For the next section, I hand you over to Ruth.
.....................................................................
COFFEE SHOP CONVERSATION
Every once in awhile you find an idea that changes the way that you can see things. I have recently found such an idea and I want to share it with you.
A number of years ago I got the first inkling that there was another way to view freedom. It first was mentioned in passing in an article in First Things Magazine (www.firstthings.com). As Rudy and I read George Weigel's biography of Pope John Paul II, it apeared again: after the fall of the Soviet Union, the late pontiff warned his post-communist compatriots that their newly-won freedom was not for license, but for doing what we ought.
I purchased a book (The Person and the Common Good, by Jacques Maritain), hoping that it would explain this hint of an idea. It was too philosophically thick for me to understand, but the introduction posed this question: "Does society exist for each one of us, or does each one of us exist for society?" Maritain asserts that our attempts to answer that question have plunged us into two opposite errors: extreme individualism on one side and totalitarianism on the other.
As an American, I naturally landed on the extreme individualism side; but what was the alternative? Rudy recently purchased two books by David Bentley Hart (In the Aftermath, which is a collection of essays, and Atheist Delusions) and both of them address this issue in a way that I can understand. Hart says that from the earliest Greek philosophy until late medieval times, freedom had a completely different meaning than it does today. The classic understanding held that there is a human nature that needs to be realized in each individual human life. Achieving that nature, however, is neither automatic nor easy because innumerable obstacles try to constrain and enslave us. Many things limit our freedom, just as alcohol limits an alcoholic's freedom. Michalangelo spoke of liberating his beautiful statues from the marble. People were seen as unformed blocks of marble from which, with effort, something beautiful, noble, and good could and should emerge. Conversely, without wisely directed effort, something monstrous and barbaric could and might emerge.
In late medieval times, a new concept of freedom arose. Hart says that this new concept is the essence of what it means to be modern. This is the idea of freedom as unfettered Will. In this view (which all modern people adopt to some degree) "the greatest good" is an unlimited range of choices. One should be able to define and create one's own nature through whatever choices one makes.
These two conceptions are radically opposed and create radically different societies. Either there exists a Good and a Standard to which we strive, and in that effort we limit and restrict those things which prevent us and others from "Being All That We Can Be"; or the only Good is to eliminate limits and restrictions so that people are not prevented from "Being Anything That Can Be." Hart's books are deep and engaging; they come recommended to anyone interested in these dynamics.
This puts much of America's "culture wars" into perspective. Part of our society militantly celebrates "choice" and sees any restrictions on individual behavior and public expression as evil. Part of our society is uneasy about the social (and personal) consequences of that celebration, but find themselves confused (like me), wondering if there is any ethical reason that the grosser products of our imaginations should be limited. What reason can we give to limit the agressive spread of internet pornography? Vile things on television? We are limited to say "it is bad for the children" since none of us believe that it is appropriate or worthwhile to try and protect adults from harmful influences. I think what many of us have done is to adopt (for our private life) a vision of the Good that limits and restricts what we personally choose, so that we can achieve "freedom to do what we ought". But we propose no similar vision of that Good to guide our society, adopting instead the vision of freedom as "license to do what I want" in the public arena, with the only restriction being "Your freedom ends where my nose begins."
Could we adopt a different view of freedom for our social lives? At this point, I don't think so; we would need agreement about what "The Good" is that we are to orient our lives toward. In a society which has understood liberty as "freedom from restraints" rather than "freedom to be what we ought" for over 200 years, it is unlikely that we can find that common ground. It used to be that our religious and social conventions provided self-regulation for a large part of the population. Other parts of the culture were disciplined by public restrictions, such as limits on what could go through the mail system, public decency standards for broadcasting, and the Hayes Commission overseeing movie releases.
People are now less directed by their religious communities or by social disapproval against destructive behaviors. The last tools for shaping behavior at the societal level are the individual will and government regulation. When we think about how to handle something like internet pornography, for example, the proposed solutions are "buy filtering software" (an appeal to individual will) or "government regulation" (a suggestion Americans dislike, since it would limit individual choice). As our embrace of unlimited choice grows, our habit of orienting our personal lives towards what is true, good, and beautiful diminishes. If we lose common beliefs and practices of civility and respect of others, we seek to create more government laws and programs to deal with anti-social behavior; thus we criminalize things like sexual harrassment, deadbeat dads, date rape, and hate speech.
Our freedoms can grow smaller as socially acceptable choices grow larger. For example, I grew up in a very safe environment. I never encountered sexual advances as a child or as a young person. The adults surrounding me were safe and virtuous. I had tremendous freedom with the young men that I knew. I didn't need to carry a house key since the door was left unlocked. We could and did invite strangers to stay at our home. I couldn't understand why my parents thought it unwise for me to take walks by myself at night. Unfortunately, I have learned from other friends how rare my freedoms were. Other friends were raped or coerced or robbed in similar situations. My daughters won't grow up with the freedom that I knew because contemporary society is neither as virtuous nor self-controled as my world was.
The modern conception of freedom will sacrifice nearly every other good to maintain "choice" as the queen of all virtues. In Swaziland we see how very little tolerance organizations have for anything suggesting that one choice is objectively better than another. No organization dares suggest limiting sexual activity exclusively to marriage even though this would protect the life of the individual, provide the best environment for child raising, and thus create a healthy society. Instead, we will lament that the median lifespan of young men is about 34 years of age; but our proposals for behaviour change will not dare touch unlimited sexual expression.
These are my ruminations. I hope that you find this idea helpful to clarify the values behind the public arguments that you hear and the values behind your own internal thinking.
Sincerely,
Ruth Poglitsh
Things are going pretty well. The form 5 (senior) students have been informed that most of what I can do for them I (Rudy) already have; it is up to them to study for their big exams which come in October and November. I gave them a study technique I used in college: figure out how many pages of notes the test will cover (which, in their case, is all the pages from early February of 2009; between 80 and 130, depending on the writing size of the kid) and figure out how many days it is until the test. Then calculate how many pages one must memorize each day, and do it. I don't know how many kids will do it, but I know it worked for me. Just one new page per day, with a review of the pages previously learned, will put a lot of information into your mind.
The form 1 (8th grade) students are going well, too. There are 69 of them in one class, yet they are serious about learning. I am trying to get them to do more reading. I get science articles off the internet (Popular Science, Popular Mechanics, etc.) and type them up with questions. A good grasp of English is very important to doing well on these tests. Lately I have also had them using a higher-level science book with an index in the back. I figure familiarity with books and an ability to access their information will serve them well at every stage of life. So I am enjoying this very large class of young people.
And then, there are the form 3 students. These correspond to American 9th or 10th graders. A good friend of ours took a wise route into the teaching profession: he was a substitute teacher for a full year, taking everything from 1st to 12th grade. At the end of the year, he decided the grades to teach are either the very early or very late ones. The young ones are eager to please, and the juniors/seniors are young adults with whom you can reason and who will listen to what you have to say about the road ahead. He now teaches elementary school in Los Angeles.
The awkward ages in between, however, can be tough. Hmm, that's euphemistic. How about "It's a wonder more sophomores and form 3 students don't mysteriously and permanently disappear". These students also face major external examinations starting in early October, but most of them don't seem too serious about them. I have also pretty much finished giving them the information they need, and it's now a matter of reviewing it until I shed a tears of joy when I feed them to the tests. Of course, a good number of them will be back next year as form 4 students; but for some reason I saw that last year's form 3 students (who also ranked high on the "most deserving of a throttling" list) came back more civilized as form 4 students this year. That will be a nice change.
CHURCH
Church goes well. The girls take the walk in stride, and they always have a good time with Nomphumelelo, Futhi, and Mphendulo who join us about 1/3 of the way there. We need to do some fence repairs on the garden, but the okra, jackbean and pigeon pea plants inside are doing well. Now that we are past the winter solstice, we can start thinking about the next planting season. Father Maseko came and celebrated Mass last week, and a good number of people were present. It sure is nice to have him come and have the fullness of Catholic worship.
Operation Christmas Child, an activity of Samaritan's Purse (headed by Franklin Graham), deposited gifts with children in our area. I have not visited the website (samaritanspurse.org), but it seems to work in the following way. A family or individual purchases items from a list provided by Samaritan's Purse. The items include writing instruments, small coloring books, warm clothes (gloves, hats, and scarves), and maybe some candy. The goodies are packed into shoeboxes which are then decorated with Christmas paper. The boxes are then shipped off to poor communities and given to kids who don't have these kinds of things. I am quite touched by the program; many students are sporting the warm clothes and have pens and pencils that REALLY WORK and don't break apart long before they should. The boxes that came to the outstation church and the school seem to have come from England, judging from the packaging. One kid got a "Manchester United" ballpoint pen; ManU is one of the most successful and well-known soccer teams in the world. I wonder what sort of scramble took place for that pen.
Even our kids got some stuff. There was a distribution to all of the children in our community. We were invited, but declined (explaining to our girls that they get boxes from their grandparents). There were some boxes left over and the community leaders divided them between the different churches in our area to distribute to their members. It was way unneccessary, but Ruth wisely reasoned that since our children are fully part of the church, it wouldn't be appropriate to set them apart and exclude them from this church function so we came home with two shoeboxes. Our children do appreciate the "Disney princess" washcloth and the scarves, mittens, and pencil sets a great deal.
LAWRENCE RUGUMAMBAJU
On Ascension Thursday, the day Christians recall Jesus' return to heaven 40 days after His resurrection, we attended church in Mbabane. After Mass a lady came back and greeted us, and invited us to her home for tea. Rare indeed is the day that the Poglitsh's turn down free food, and so we took she and her husband up on the offer. It turns out that Winifred and Lawrence Rugumambaju and their four children hail from Uganda. He's an architect working with a firm in Mbabane until next April, at least. We have a lot in common including interests in family, our Catholic faith, and pro-life issues, and our kids really like each other, too. They drove out and attended Mass with us at the outstation church last Sunday, and then we spent some time together at our house afterwards. We hope to have them out again July 22 (a public holiday) for a hike in this area. We have yet to connect them with the Mubiru's (but not for lack of trying), our other Ugandan friend and his family, but we will keep working on it. The Rugumambaju's like Swaziland and want to stay longer; we want to encourage that, too.
WEATHER
It's mid-winter. Usually winter is the dry season, with no sign of clouds for 2 or 3 months. The temperatures are in the 60s and low 70s during the day (mighty pleasant) and plummet to frosting temperatures as soon as the sun sets. The only drawback is that the dryness means the roads become veritable duststorms when the least wind blows or a kombi passes over them. Today and yesterday, however, we have had rain. This is a welcome break, as it knocks down the dust for a few days and recharges the school's water source. It also provides a great reason to stay in the house and bake with the kids. Friends in town sometimes have a "Christmas in July" party. It certainly feels like Christmastime, especially on the rare rainy days.
WORLD CUP
I have spent between 3 and 4 1/2 hours a day in my neighbor's living room, watching World Cup soccer. I have only missed one game in its entirety, and about half of some other games which were played concurrently. My neighbor is there for most of the games too, and we occasionally have to encourage each other to fight off the drowsiness-not that the games are boring, but games ending at 10:15 every night, night after night, does take a toll. Wednesday and Thursday, June 30 and July 1, had no games. Ruth and the girls tucked me into bed at 7:30PM Wednesday night; and I woke only once (when the hall light was turned on) before my alarm went off Thursday morning. Thursday will also have more family time, then it's back to the games Friday. The number of games has fallen off a great deal, as teams have been eliminated. Another teacher says the press talked about people reporting "soccer depression"; without the games on, people feel something is missing. I must admit, sitting at the dinner table with everyone Wednesday evening seemed like a real break in the routine-a welcome one. Ruth and the girls are very generous. For the next section, I hand you over to Ruth.
.....................................................................
COFFEE SHOP CONVERSATION
Every once in awhile you find an idea that changes the way that you can see things. I have recently found such an idea and I want to share it with you.
A number of years ago I got the first inkling that there was another way to view freedom. It first was mentioned in passing in an article in First Things Magazine (www.firstthings.com). As Rudy and I read George Weigel's biography of Pope John Paul II, it apeared again: after the fall of the Soviet Union, the late pontiff warned his post-communist compatriots that their newly-won freedom was not for license, but for doing what we ought.
I purchased a book (The Person and the Common Good, by Jacques Maritain), hoping that it would explain this hint of an idea. It was too philosophically thick for me to understand, but the introduction posed this question: "Does society exist for each one of us, or does each one of us exist for society?" Maritain asserts that our attempts to answer that question have plunged us into two opposite errors: extreme individualism on one side and totalitarianism on the other.
As an American, I naturally landed on the extreme individualism side; but what was the alternative? Rudy recently purchased two books by David Bentley Hart (In the Aftermath, which is a collection of essays, and Atheist Delusions) and both of them address this issue in a way that I can understand. Hart says that from the earliest Greek philosophy until late medieval times, freedom had a completely different meaning than it does today. The classic understanding held that there is a human nature that needs to be realized in each individual human life. Achieving that nature, however, is neither automatic nor easy because innumerable obstacles try to constrain and enslave us. Many things limit our freedom, just as alcohol limits an alcoholic's freedom. Michalangelo spoke of liberating his beautiful statues from the marble. People were seen as unformed blocks of marble from which, with effort, something beautiful, noble, and good could and should emerge. Conversely, without wisely directed effort, something monstrous and barbaric could and might emerge.
In late medieval times, a new concept of freedom arose. Hart says that this new concept is the essence of what it means to be modern. This is the idea of freedom as unfettered Will. In this view (which all modern people adopt to some degree) "the greatest good" is an unlimited range of choices. One should be able to define and create one's own nature through whatever choices one makes.
These two conceptions are radically opposed and create radically different societies. Either there exists a Good and a Standard to which we strive, and in that effort we limit and restrict those things which prevent us and others from "Being All That We Can Be"; or the only Good is to eliminate limits and restrictions so that people are not prevented from "Being Anything That Can Be." Hart's books are deep and engaging; they come recommended to anyone interested in these dynamics.
This puts much of America's "culture wars" into perspective. Part of our society militantly celebrates "choice" and sees any restrictions on individual behavior and public expression as evil. Part of our society is uneasy about the social (and personal) consequences of that celebration, but find themselves confused (like me), wondering if there is any ethical reason that the grosser products of our imaginations should be limited. What reason can we give to limit the agressive spread of internet pornography? Vile things on television? We are limited to say "it is bad for the children" since none of us believe that it is appropriate or worthwhile to try and protect adults from harmful influences. I think what many of us have done is to adopt (for our private life) a vision of the Good that limits and restricts what we personally choose, so that we can achieve "freedom to do what we ought". But we propose no similar vision of that Good to guide our society, adopting instead the vision of freedom as "license to do what I want" in the public arena, with the only restriction being "Your freedom ends where my nose begins."
Could we adopt a different view of freedom for our social lives? At this point, I don't think so; we would need agreement about what "The Good" is that we are to orient our lives toward. In a society which has understood liberty as "freedom from restraints" rather than "freedom to be what we ought" for over 200 years, it is unlikely that we can find that common ground. It used to be that our religious and social conventions provided self-regulation for a large part of the population. Other parts of the culture were disciplined by public restrictions, such as limits on what could go through the mail system, public decency standards for broadcasting, and the Hayes Commission overseeing movie releases.
People are now less directed by their religious communities or by social disapproval against destructive behaviors. The last tools for shaping behavior at the societal level are the individual will and government regulation. When we think about how to handle something like internet pornography, for example, the proposed solutions are "buy filtering software" (an appeal to individual will) or "government regulation" (a suggestion Americans dislike, since it would limit individual choice). As our embrace of unlimited choice grows, our habit of orienting our personal lives towards what is true, good, and beautiful diminishes. If we lose common beliefs and practices of civility and respect of others, we seek to create more government laws and programs to deal with anti-social behavior; thus we criminalize things like sexual harrassment, deadbeat dads, date rape, and hate speech.
Our freedoms can grow smaller as socially acceptable choices grow larger. For example, I grew up in a very safe environment. I never encountered sexual advances as a child or as a young person. The adults surrounding me were safe and virtuous. I had tremendous freedom with the young men that I knew. I didn't need to carry a house key since the door was left unlocked. We could and did invite strangers to stay at our home. I couldn't understand why my parents thought it unwise for me to take walks by myself at night. Unfortunately, I have learned from other friends how rare my freedoms were. Other friends were raped or coerced or robbed in similar situations. My daughters won't grow up with the freedom that I knew because contemporary society is neither as virtuous nor self-controled as my world was.
The modern conception of freedom will sacrifice nearly every other good to maintain "choice" as the queen of all virtues. In Swaziland we see how very little tolerance organizations have for anything suggesting that one choice is objectively better than another. No organization dares suggest limiting sexual activity exclusively to marriage even though this would protect the life of the individual, provide the best environment for child raising, and thus create a healthy society. Instead, we will lament that the median lifespan of young men is about 34 years of age; but our proposals for behaviour change will not dare touch unlimited sexual expression.
These are my ruminations. I hope that you find this idea helpful to clarify the values behind the public arguments that you hear and the values behind your own internal thinking.
Sincerely,
Ruth Poglitsh
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