OOPS! GREENLINING
I sent this portion of a newsletter to some folks, but failed to attach the mentioned photo. Let me try it all again now.
Look at the attached photo entitled "greenlining". See the school? See the fence on the right side? See the green line just inside the fence? Of course you see none of these things, because the photo was taken with our cell phone camera from a mile or two away! But if you had been standing where Cub and I were standing when we took the photo, you would have seen just what I described. The green line is the line of avocado trees we planted a few years back. I am delighted that they are now visible from such a distance; that means they are healthy and getting bigger. Recently Kit and I got a full wheelbarrow load of cow manure off the soccer field and put some in a "fertility trench" on the uphill side of each tree. This organic matter, Ruth tells me, will benefit the tree. This tree project is very satisfying.
2 hours, 59 minutes, 54 seconds
That's how long it took Cub and I to complete the 10km bike race at Ngwenya Glass (near the Ngwenya border gate, about 30 minutes from Mbabane) on Saturday 2 July. Ruth and the girls went to town Thursday morning to spend a few days with friends. I came in the back of Mr. Lukhele's pickup truck with Cub's bike and mine on Friday afternoon. I stashed the bikes at the church (sometimes the sisters there allow us to stay in one of their hospitality rooms) and collected Cub. On Saturday morning we caught a lift to the race in another pickup truck with Cara Breero, a longtime South African transplant to Swaziland. Cub had chosen what I would wear for the race-a matching set of biking shorts and a biking shirt. Such an outfit would be great on a summer morning, but it's mid-winter down here and the wind and cold whipped right through the polyester. I was shivering before we started! Cub had lots of sweats on.
How could a 10k race take so long? 'Cause this was a real-deal mountain bike race; more, in fact, than I expected for a kiddie race. We negotiated steep downhills, rocks, footbridges, tree roots, uphills, grass, gravel, glass (under the freeway), and the wind. I did not tell Cub until the end that this was a real offroad bike race, because I feared she'd give up. I did tell her at the end, though, and I was (and am) mighty proud of her. She was given a huge medallion at the end (every finisher was) made of etched glass. As far as I can tell the experience did not sour her on mountain biking, because we have continued our break-time rides together. I look forward to more such outings with her (and the other girls) in the future.
WASTE MANAGEMENT
Several weeks ago Ruth and I sat together on the couch, enjoying the time between putting the girls to bed and going to bed ourselves. Suddenly we heard a sound unsettlingly similar to the "whump" accompanying the pickup truck's entry into our house through a wall in 2007. I got up and peeked out the window to see a neighbor's trash pit in flames. I think what happened is he doused his trash with gasoline and put a match to it. Fast and effective, if a little dangerous. Maybe this should be a "Hillbilly" entry.
NEIGHBORS (by Ruth)
One of the really gratifying parts of living here is the opportunity to help out people who genuinely need some help. On Thursday Make Silolo came to visit. She is 8 1/2 months pregnant. It took her an hour to walk over here because of frequent stops to rest along the way. She is the widow of Rudy's homestead father. This year she was trading bread with her neighbors for shelled maize. Now she has all of the shelled maize collected ready to take to town to sell so that she will have the money to pay for the transport to town when the baby comes (she is starting to feel pains now). Only two problems: no cash for bus fare, and the bus that used to go by her house is no longer running. The nearest transport is from our place. We were able to give her some money, and I told her that if she wanted to stay with us before the delivery she could (transport options are better here during the day at least). I thought of all the people we have known who have helped us during my pregnancies, especially the Illomaki's who hosted Grace and I for a week and fed us well before the delivery of Jabu. It was good to be able to pass on that favor in a small way. Fortunately we had a reused peanut butter bucket (hillbilly Tupperware) full of good food from the last nights dinner and so I could feed Make Silolo before she left. While she was eating and feeding the 18 month old (Andiswa) on her back, she told me that she had to stop nursing Andiswa at 4 months because she was having to do things to care for Abner (her husband) after he had a stroke and while he was hospitalized that weren't compatible with nursing and baby care. At 18 months, Andiswa still can't walk. It is painful to watch this homestead which was prosperous and full of life empty out and really struggle. We are glad that we can be here to help them through this difficult time.
Just before Make Silolo left, Phayo and her sister Nkosi arrived. Phayo doesn't have regulation school shoes, which means that she is supposed to go barefoot. But it is 50 degrees F inside our house in the mornings now and colder outside. Walking barefoot and sitting all day in a cold classroom with nothing on your legs or feet is neither comfortable or healthy. I arranged with her Mom that if Phayo would wash our windows, we would work things out for her to get the money for shoes. Sure enough, Phayo and her sister promptly came and got the windows cleaned this week. I have learned that sometimes we think something is important, and the other people involved don't. It was nice in this case to see that school shoes were important enough that Phayo put her own efforts into it.
On Friday Phayo brought her sister and a neighbor to join us for Girl's Club. I was really pleased to see how Grace welcomed the new girls. They had a good time playing before Girl's Club. I didn't know how this would work because Yenzie and Nonduduzo were going to their homestead for the weekend so I didn't have my translator for the story. But Tebesutfu (Phayo's neighbor) spoke English well enough to translate the story and all other verbal communication. After everything was finished, Grace was pleased to have made some new friends. The girls have been good friends with the teacher's kids, but that is often an unstable population. Children move in an out here. Friends from nearby homesteads are much less likely to move away.
SIZINGILI
The boys have two styles of traditional dance: sibhaca and sizingili. The boys and the girls both participated in their respective dance forms a few weeks ago, and the boys did well enough to go on to the next stage for sizingili. That second stage took place last Friday (July 9), and they came in position 10. This meant the end of the competitions for them, but nevertheless-they finished in the top 10. Their sizingili season is all the more commendable because they did not have any real adult direction for the first month of their training. Good for them.
FINANCIAL TIMES
The global economic crisis has finally hit Swaziland. Swazi government, like the governments of so many countries, is tasting the bitter fruits of spending more money than you bring in. The government is in deep debt, and civil servants are concerned their paychecks may be smaller than their contracts say they should be. The government has asked civil servants to take a 10% pay cut and may impose it without getting consent. We've had two strikes by teachers since school opened for the second term, and SNAT (Swaziland National Association of Teachers) is threatening another shutdown at the end of the month. No one knows how all this will turn out. I attach three articles to let you in on the story.
SPEED IS LIFE
One recent morning I rode my bike to the Sibebe Gatehouse, a structure built by the local Rotary club a few years back to serve hikers going up and down Sibebe. On the way there I passed a homestead right next to the road and spotted a dog across the street from that homestead (to which, I assumed, it belonged). My friend and fellow Peace Corps Volunteer Marcos Bradley used to lead cross-country bicycle tours, and Marcos explained to me that most dogs are just territorial; they will sound and act fierce (but not attack you) as long as you stay off their territory. Bearing in mind Marcos' comment, I started picking up speed before I reached the homestead (this stretch of road was, fortunately, on a downhill). Sure enough, first the dog ran scared across the road to his homestead; then once inside his fence, came tearing after me with ferocious barks. I tried to keep my speed not so great as to have him give up, but fast enough that if he wanted to catch me, he couldn't. I got away scot-free. Thanks Marcos! Thing is, I had to go past this homestead on the way home, and of course in the other direction it was uphill. I was thinking "Maybe I should just spend that E90 and buy a can of pepper spray"; but fortunately, no dog appeared this time.
HILLBILLY
You don't want to waste electricity reheating frozen-solid beans on the stove. How to defrost electricity-free? Strap the reusable 1kg plastic peanut butter tubs (hillbilly Tupperware) with their frozen contents to a north-facing (sunny) window with bungee cords in the morning. By cookin' time (5PM), the beans are room temperature.
Hillbilly defroster
Hope you are well; have a good day.
The Poglitshs
PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT
One recent Saturday Cub and I went to Manzini for confession with Father Mikel. We discussed the fact that the next day was Trinity Sunday, the most difficult Sunday on which to preach as the Trinity is the most difficult aspect of Christianity to comprehend. I told Cub that "the most believing, most intelligent Christians of all time have had a hard time understanding this reality". I relayed this discussion to Father Mikel later in the day. Trinity Sunday was the third Sunday in June this year, and Father Maseko usually comes to the outstation church on the third Sunday. So even though I genuinely felt sorry for Father Mikel for having to deliver the homily on Trinity Sunday, I felt relief that at the outstation, Father Maseko would do the job.
Occasionally, however, Fr. Maseko can't make it. And this Sunday he didn't. And Make Khanyile asked if I would lead the service, which includes preaching. I had 20 minutes to come up with something to say on the most mind-bending teaching of the Christian church. Carumba! Someone at ECHO told Ruth years ago that missionaries have to be able to sing, preach, or die on a moment's notice. I got door #2 on this Sunday. I think it came out okay, though. If you'd like to read what I said, see below.
"Today is Trinity Sunday. As I was telling Cubby yesterday, this is the hardest thing to understand in Christianity. The most believing, most intelligent Christians ever to live find this difficult.
The Trinity means there are three persons-God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit-within the one divine nature. And LOVE flows among the three persons of the Trinity. This love was so great that it overflowed into creation, into making us. It was like an orange so delicious that you don't want to keep it for yourself; you share some of it, because you want other people to enjoy its deliciousness too. God wanted us to experience the love within the Trinity too, because He knows how good it is.
This love within the Trinity is so great that even when Adam and Eve, our first parents, broke the relationship between us and God, Jesus came to save us and make it possible for us to go to heaven. Heaven will be our direct experience of the divine Trinity.
May our relationships-with our husband or wife, children, parents, extended family members, friends, etc.-showe the same strong, deep love that is between the members of the divine Trinity. In this way, our lives on earth will be a start of the love we will experience forever in Heaven."
GREENLINING
Look at the attached photo entitled "greenlining". See the school? See the fence on the right side? See the green line just inside the fence? Of course you see none of these things, because the photo was taken with our cell phone camera from a mile or two away! But if you had been standing where Cub and I were standing when we took the photo, you would have seen just what I described. The green line is the line of avocado trees we planted a few years back. I am delighted that they are now visible from such a distance; that means they are healthy and getting bigger. Recently Kit and I got a full wheelbarrow load of cow manure off the soccer field and put some in a "fertility trench" on the uphill side of each tree. This organic matter, Ruth tells me, will benefit the tree. This tree project is very satisfying.
POLE VAULT
The school kitchen cooks students' food in huge cast iron pots over an open fire. To keep that fire stoked, students are asked about once a week to bring firewood. One day recently a student ran by (he was a little late for assembly) with his piece of firewood. It was half the height of the flagpole. He looked like a pole vaulter on his way to breaking a world record. We all got a laugh.
ANTICIPATION
On Saturday June 25th the USA Men's National Soccer Team played their Mexican counterparts in the Gold Cup. Winner enjoyed bragging rights in that fierce rivalry and a trip to the Confederation's Cup in Brazil in 2013. I wanted to watch that game. They played at 9PM on Saturday in Los Angeles; which is about 6 or 7 AM here in Swaziland on Sunday morning. I tried to contact MZ Dlamini, a teacher who gets the SuperSport3 channel-all soccer, all the time. A text message didn't get returned, and no one was at his house Friday or Saturday during the day. I assumed he was out, so I asked other homes if they had SuperSport3. They did not, but one teacher said he knew MZ was around.
So, at 6:30AM Sunday morning, I walked over to MZ's house. I could only imagine how excited he would be to have an unexpected visitor ask to sit in his living room on a cold Sunday morning and watch his tv for 90 minutes. But MZ was gracious, and we tried to find the game. SS3 didn't carry it. MZ expressed his condolences and I departed. Off we went to church.
But I had the cell phone with me, and since it can access the internet, I thought I could at least find the result that way. But the cell phone tower was not operating, so that was out. Later the cell phone tower came back online, but then I couldn't get onto the internet for some reason. I sent my dad an e-mail from the phone (that was working) and another friend in town a text message to please look up the result and tell me what it was. I got the answer Monday morning-a 4-2 victory for Mexico. I can't say the result was worth waiting for, but I do appreciate everyone's help in trying to let me watch the game and get the result. It reminded me also that the information highway isn't always paved perfectly smooth here in Africa.
SUCCESS! JABU SWEATS IT OUT
We have mentioned that no matter how warmly we dress our daughters in winter, we frequently get comments from Swazis about not dressing them warmly enough. On one jaunt in town recently I showed all the layers to a shop attendant; Jabu had on about 3. "Hawu, she's going to sweat in there!" This was music to my ears. A Swazi woman actually criticized me for having TOO MANY warm articles of clothes on one of our children. It's been 8 long years in coming, but such a comment finally arrived. Later on at home, Ruth said "Rudy, look at this!" She would push one of Jabu's arms down level with her body, and without Jabu making an effort, the arm would bounce back up because of all the clothes she had on. Many of you will remember Ralphie's brother in the movie "A Christmas Story" whose mom dressed him in so many layers he could not get off his back when he fell in the snow. Jabu was dressed similarly.
FIND ANOTHER FOOL
The form 1 students have begun discussing human sexuality and procreation in science class. I go light on the physiological details and heavy on the importance of saving sex for marriage and the benefits therein. I told the girls that if some sweet-talking boy with a 1-liter box of fruit juice and a two-piece KFC combo dinner in his hands and words of "Come here, Sweetie, I love you so much, let's go into the woods" they should say "Find another fool". In fact I wrote the phrase on the board and insisted the girls write it in their notebooks: Find another fool. "Any questions?" I asked. One boy raised his hand and said "But practice makes perfect", implying that one should have sex before marriage so that one can satisfy the spouse. Thank you, Menzi, for stepping into my crosshairs. You are the teachable moment for your colleagues on how not to conduct one's sexual life.
"Girls", I said, "Know now that you should avoid Menzi; his thinking is defective. In fact, let's try out that phrase you just wrote down. Turn around and look at him." They did. "On three, girls, use the phrase: 1, 2, 3: 'Find another fool'". The girls played right along; Menzi sustained a verbal bombardment of sexual non-consent. He smiled, but also looked like he wanted to sink through the floor. I related this incident to Ruth later that evening. She said it was good to give the girls an easy and direct phrase to use in a pinch, but the problem is that so many girls are starved for love and attention that is difficult to resist what looks like love. Message to you dads of daughters: show and explain to your girls what real care and love is, so that when they come up against Mr. "got some nice food for ya here in exchange for a trip to the woods", they can brush off the offer for the ludicrous counterfeit that it is.
After the sonic boom, I asked Menzi where he got the idea that one should practice sex before marriage. He said he got it from a book. I told him the book was wrong, and that he should bring that book. In a few minutes he produced a paperback entitled "Questions Young People Ask" by Bruce and Carol Britten. Bruce and Carol are Evangelical Protestant missionary friends of ours who have been in Swaziland for nearly 40 years. I couldn't believe Menzi claimed this book had the advice he attributed to it. I thought "I know the Brittens, and I know you won't find such advice in that book." Sure enough he didn't; QYPA is all about saving sex for marriage, and why. Menzi's copy was dirtied and dog-eared; the next day, I gave him a fresher copy.
Points for Menzi on stamina, though; he would not surrender the concept that pre-marital sex makes for better post-marital sex. I explained to him that he misunderstood sex. Sex is supposed to be the expression of love between a husband and a wife, not some sort of graded performance. He said that if the woman is not satisfied, she will leave and find another man. I said that marriages don't break up because the sex isn't good enough; they break up because the love isn't there, then the sex decreases in frequency, then one of the spouses goes looking for love elsewhere. I don't think he's convinced, but maybe some seeds of reality have been planted in the heads of the other students and they will avoid the insanity of pre-marital sex.
ABSALOM SIBANDZE'S HAPPY STORY
One recent Sunday a man picked us up in his car. We saw a boy in the road "driving" his own car, a vehicle made of scrap wire with a working steering wheel. Many pre-teen boys make such cars. I've seen one with a radio and working lights. I mentioned "Hey, there's another driver" to the man who gave us the lift. I asked him if he made those when he was a kid, and he said yes. In fact, he could ride on his (something like a skateboard, I guess). He explained that now he works on auto bodies for a living, and has all the work he wants. This Sunday he was supposed to be fixing somebody's car, but he wanted to take a day off. His uncle recognized early that Solomon he had an interest in cars, and encouraged him to pursue it. Absalom would work at body shops for very little money, but all along he knew he was gaining skills he could use to his profit later. Now is later, and he's doing very well. If only more people were to have elders giving them such good advice, and if only more young people were willing to put in the "sweat equity" to gain skills (if not big bucks) which pay off later! This story is a good one for Swazi youth these days, as so many of them dream of white collar government jobs which are vanishingly scarce and, in this economic climate, subject to pay cuts and eliminations. I need to pass this story on to the students.
Okay, I'm done. Hope you have a good day.
Rudy for the gang
