After the girls knocked the dirt off the termite pole.

"Sudsbuster" Poglitsh

Bernanke, eat your heart out.

"I went to a garden party, to reminisce with my old friends"

Cub and the mud-covered termite stick.

Normal (background) and termite-attacked poles.

JABULILE MAMBA-KHOZA
We have mentioned that Jabu likes to visit her friend Sinathemba Mamba (daughter of handyman Stan Mamba). She also enjoys visiting Ms. Khoza, the school secretary who lives on the other side of the duplex from Sinathemba. Not infrequently we find our daughter does not eat very much dinner-because the Mambas or Khozas have given her corn on the cob or (most recently) a sit-down (on the floor) meal of rice and fish.

Ruth and I were joking recently that we were very exacting and careful with the first three girls-making sure they were properly dressed, that they sat as they should at the table and ate their three square meals a day, knowing their whereabouts at all times, etc. With Jabu, we've grown much "looser" in our childcare, farming out much of the supervision to the older girls and losing track of her for an hour or more at a time (knowing that we can always find her next door in good hands). I related this conversation to Ms. Khoza, and before I began giving details about clothing, eating meals, etc. Khoza smiled and said "You don't care about Jabu." She did not mean to say we don't love her; just that we've slackened the reins quite a bit. Khoza and I both laughed.

SECRETARY OF THE RESERVE, JABU POGLITSH
One way Ruth found to keep Jabu at home for a couple of hours is to put her on our bed with a pile of coins and a cupcake tin. She will pick up, sort, re-sort, and play with money for two solid hours. Ruth has wondered if people like money so much just because it is such fun to handle. Jabu sure thinks so. Who needs television (the "electronic babysitter") when you have coins?

She's also enamored with washing clothes; we'll frequently find her sitting on the floor or outside with (or without) a basin of water and some random sock or other piece of fabric, going through the motions of hand washing it. I suppose of all the games she could play, this one might really help in the future.

GARDEN PARTY
This past weekend Sakhiwo and Swakhile Dlamini, daughter and son of teacher N.M. Dlamini, came for one of their occasional visits. They attend school closer to N.M.'s homestead, where his wife also stays. To celebrate, a half-dozen kids put together a "chocolate" baking session and enjoyed their confections on a backyard picnic table. It was great to see them having a good time together-and they are astonishingly creative with their baked goods.


TERMITES
The older girls and I wandered about the yard Sunday morning before going to church. We visited a small garden plot established by a student last year as part of his agriculture project. After he finished his project, we inherited it and tried some carrots, beans, pumpkin, and beets. This Sunday morning we found one of the wooden poles used to hold strings that the beans could climb was covered in mud. A closer examination revealed that termites had moved in. After taking some pictures, the girls whacked the infested pole to see what was underneath. Sure enough, the termites had eaten a good portion of the top of the pole. This is not something I am familiar with; it sure was interesting.

WHAT'S BEHIND DOOR #3?
Y'all remember the TV game show "Let's Make A Deal" with Monty Hall? A few weeks ago I heard strange sounds coming from the agriculture storeroom. Gingerly opening the door, I found a handful of schoolboys playing cards. Turns out they do not have a teacher for technical drawing (hasn't been one for 3 years; he's been getting training in Botswana and he wasn't replaced). They closed the door and returned to their card game. I came back later, kicked open the doors, snapped some photos, and laughed my head off. I promised I would not show the pictures to the deputy; after they knew that, they were happy to see themselves on "film". I don't really blame them for doing what they did; what are they supposed to do with no teacher? They could be into a whole lot worse things than blackjack with a free period.

FRIDAY AFTERNOON IMPROV-FOR THE LAST TIME
On the 24th of February Mamba, Mbuyiseni Gama and I went out to fix the water. Mamba's "set and cap" program-wherein he sets critical valves along the line so that all parties get sufficient water, then covers those valves with 200-300 pounds of concrete-has eliminated tampering as a cause for water outage. These days, we go straight to the main tanks from the source and check things from there.

We found water entering the tanks at a very slow rate. That meant a trip to the source. At the source, we found very little suction on the intake pipe. Mamba decided we needed to get more water above the pipe, thus increasing the pressure and pushing water down into the pipe. This meant raising the water level, which meant packing the bottom of the pool with clumps of soil to plug the escape routes under the dam. But, we had no shovel.

"We were supposed to have brought a spade", said Mamba.

I have described Mamba's chronic aversion to bringing tools. Generally he also says, when it's just a little too late to return to the school, "You know, we made one mistake. We should have brought..." This day, I started a mental list of tools to bring on every job. When I got home, I wrote this short list on a piece of paper and stuck it to a bookshelf where the keys to our school water tanks hang. From the next trip onward, I resolved, we would have lots of tools-just in case. No more looking around for discarded plastic grocery bags, or improvising hammers, etc etc. Whenever Mamba says "You know, what we need is..." that item will go on the list and travel with us the next time out.

Back to the present-at this point, we were a 20 minute walk from the nearest homestead where we might borrow a shovel, and a shovel we absolutely needed.

I mentioned to the others that the last time we were up here, we found the head of a shovel lying around. I had no idea now where it was. Gama wandered off for 5 minutes and came back with that rusty, handle-free shovel. Unbelievable. Still, it will be the LAST time when I'm helping that it will happen.

Ever tried to dig using a shovel with no handle? I got my chance a week and a half ago. Gama would hold the shovel in place, and I would stomp it down with my boots-working hard, of course, not to amputate his fingers. It required the same action as stomping aluminum drink cans into hockey pucks for recycling. My knees still ache from the experience. One more reason I will always carry plenty of tools in the future.

We got the water running-for about half a week. Last Thursday, we returned to the tanks-this time, with lotsa tools!

At one point we had to slide two pipes apart from each other. "You know", said Mamba, "it's too bad we didn't bring soap."

"WHO didn't bring soap!" I gleefully shouted, simultaneously pulling a small plastic bag with bits of bar soap in it from my pocket. Earlier in the week Mamba had said that he would have appreciated having some soap on a previous trip, when he needed to connect some pipes. I'm pretty sure the soap did not help get the pipes apart this day, but the fact that he had a bit of material he wanted-and did not expect to have-was great fun for both of us. I may become a walking pile of shovels, rakes, bowsaws, pliers, pipes, soap chips, PVC cutters, keys, plastic burlap bags, zip ties, etc. on our water outings-but I look forward to the extinction of the phrase "You know, we should have brought..."

Hoping YOU carry enough tools for your next project, we bid you-
Salani kahle ("stay well")
Rudy for the Poglitshs