February 6, 2010

TREELINE
Almost every spring (around August/September here in the southern hemisphere) we experience strong winds from the west. In August 1996 we experienced one night of winds so strong they tore the roofs off some houses (visit http://poglitshphotos.blogspot.com for photos). Many of you contributed money to rebuild the damages buildings, and we appreciated it.

After that harrowing night, Ruth and I decided to do something: build a living windbreak. Using pits from avocados we had eaten or pits we found laying around (even in the gutters in town), we planted a line of trees on the western end of the teacher housing (from whence the winds come howling each spring). At the same photograph website mentioned above, you can see photos taken of the line of trees yesterday. For scale, Grace is about 4 feet tall. We may not be here long enough to see the trees get really big or even set fruit (though Ruth says it will be only about 5 years before the avocados appear), but it sure is satisfying to see the trees coming up.

BANANAS DO NOT GROW ON TREES
Technically (as I am led to believe), banana plants are not trees. I don't remember the reason, but you past ECHOites probably do.

Whether they are trees or not, three of our banana plants are setting bananas, and we recently harvested one bunch! The plants were gifts a few years ago from a student whom we put in touch with a scholarship fund. He won a scholarship and could finish his education, and the plants were a token of his appreciation. The short, fat bananas are delicious. In a few more months we'll be able to harvest at least one more bunch. We got to give his brother (who is in school) two bananas (one for him and one for his brother) as a thank-you for the thank-you. Unfortunately, the original gift-giving student is home sick with some chronic abdominal problem. If you would pray for him, he and we would appreciate it.

A TREE GROWS IN MSUNDUZA
Msunduza is a peri-urban area around Mbabane. Recently I got off a minibus in Msunduza after it had carried Cubby and I from the school into town. We came across a VERY large tree (once again, visit the poglitshphotos website for a photo) that I did not recognize. I wondered how I could miss such a very big tree, coming through this area as frequently as we do. Then I looked a little closer (do so yourself, before reading on): in fact, the "tree" is a cell phone tower disguised as a tree. My brother Chris lived in Johannesburg for a year or so and said these things dot the highways around Joburg; now we have one of our own. I think it's a good thing; if you're going to have a cell phone tower (and they sure are nice for reception), it's nice to have an arbor-esque themed one.

GYM TEACHER
The first sport of the school year is track and field (called "Athletics" here). Almost very student is reqired to participate. The school population (about 500) is divided into four teams, and after a few weeks of training the groups compete in an inter-school track meet. Then a smaller team is chosen and trained to represent the school against other schools.

As you may imagine, not every student in a school likes or is familiar with running. In the past, I have laced up my running shoes and hit the dirt road with the students, as an encouragement and for "sheperding" and for the exercise myself. For some reason, though, my left knee was so painful last Friday after a morning run that I hardly left the house Saturday or Sunday. I know running is out for now, but I wanted to help with the team. So I got my bike down and went with the students that way.

To keep the back of the group moving, I would pedal slowly behind them. If my presence didn't work, I would whistle like the herd boys do when they are driving cows or goats. That worked for a few, but not too many. So, I did the next thing herdboys do: pick up some small stones. If stragglers at the back of the group still weren't at least trying to trot, I would raise my stone and threaten to throw it. After lobbing a few stones a few feet behind the dragging feet of students without substantial effect, I reached for a stick (also a herd boy tool of the trade). THAT the students understood. I touched not one student with the stick, but an uplifted 30 inch tree branch is SiSwati for "Move it!" We all got back to the soccer field
in good time. We have 2 or 3 more days of practice; next Thursday is the big track meet. It's almost always a good time, except when the afternoon thunderstorms common this time of year threaten to drop lightning on our fun. Swazis seem oblivious to the dangers of lightning, though every year the paper carries stories of people dying from strikes. I regularly tell my science students about the dangers of lightning and what to do in case a storm is near.

MORE WRITING ABOUT RAIN AND BUILDINGS
This has been the wettest summer we can remember. If you have been receiving this newsletter for a while, you also know how annoying and inconvenient it is when the water stops coming out of our taps (and how much fun Mr. Mamba and I have fixing the problem).

We have a 100 liter (think 50 two-liter bottles) plastic barrel we had been placing beneath the eaves to catch runoff during rains. We wondered how much more water we could collect if we just had a short length of gutter. So the same Saturday (I think) that Cubby and I met the cell phone tower tree, we purchased 3 yards of raingutter and the brackets to install it. After the rest of our errands, we carried the gutter to the bus rank (station). The line for kombis straight to Nsukumbili was huge, and I knew a 9 foot plastic tray would not be appreciated or easy to manage in a crowd clambering for seats. So another kombi which gets within walking distance of Nsukumbili was nearby, and we went over to it. A bus rank officer protested that there was no way the gutter would fit in the kombi. But I saw no other way to get it home, so gently reassured him that it would even as I went about trying to shoehorn it in. Sometimes, I find it useful to simply proceed with one's project and deflect objections from authorities/onlookers as you proceed. Ask me about getting my into a shopping mall with my bike sometime, if you are interested. To my happy suprise the gutter did make it, though it touched the back window of the kombi and went so far forward it sat near the shoulder of the driver. Looking back on it, it reminds me of like those parrots which sit on the shoulder of the pirates in the old movies/cartoons.

We began our trip, and the weather was holding-for a while. By the time we were in Pine Valley, the clouds were spitting intermittent rain. By the time we reached our destination, we had thunder (as best as I could tell) coming from two directions. Though we had almost no groceries, I knew Cub and I couldn't reach the school before a storm hit. The kombi wasn't interested in taking the riders any further. So, Cubby and I began to walk, and I tried to act brave while Cubby started acting like we both felt: scared.

Swazis are very nice people though, and when we turned into the first available homestead, we were welcomed inside. We spent close to an hour talking with the Sihlongonyane family in their living room while the heavy rain and thunder crashed outside. After being treated to juice, bread, and peaches for the road (what did we do to deserve this treatment, when we were simply looking to save our skins?) we continued our walk. Cubby walked the last 2 or 3 miles almost all on her own, without complaining. I only picked her up once, when I wanted to hurry us along.

A couple days later we installed the gutter, and man-does the water come in quick in a rain! It's also nice because the gutter covers a little of the back step. This means you can stand on the back steps in a decent (but not torrential) rain and not get wet. I think that when the combination of no water in the pipes and water falling from the sky strikes again, everyone in the compound will be able to get the water they need for necessities if they just bring their container and wait a few minutes.

ORA PRO NOBIS
This is "pray for us" in Latin, I think. Our deputy headmaster (vice principal) lost her husband in December after a prolonged illness. If you could pray for her and her family, all would appreciate it.

CONDOM MADNESS AGAIN
The day I'm writing this (Friday, Feb. 5) I taught two classes before the 9:50AM break. In preparing for classes after break, I was told there would be no more classes today because a group from PSI was coming to give a presentation. PSI stands for Population Services International; they are addressing the AIDS crisis, in large part through promoting condoms with pretty explicit advertising (judging from billboards and ads stuck to the sides of public transport).

Today, PSI came promoting circumcision. This has been able to slow infection rates some. The backs of the T-shirts worn by the presenters read "Double Your Protection-circumcise and condomise". I am not against circumcision per se, but in this context the presumption must logically be that "they're just gonna do it anyway, so let's make sure they can do it 'safely'". After all, a man wouldn't need to be circumcised to avoid a sex disease if he were going to save sex for his wife, who had also saved sex for her husband.

Ruth and I pulled together some resources explaining the various failure rates of HIV-avoidance techniques and gave a copy to each of the four presenters. They received them graciously. I also got to talk to the students (all the male students in the school in one room) briefly, saying Ruth and I have never had to use any "protection" because we are both free of disease and we are faithful to each other. I ended with telling them if they just wait for sex until they are married, they will have no worries. The presenter smiled and nodded. That was encouraging.

OVERHEARD
The new (since 2007) headmaster has made staff cameraderie one of his goals. To reach this goal, teacher trips to various places (game parks, Maputo in Mozambique) have been encouraged, sometimes with contributions from the school's coffer. There was no trip last year, and so the cashbox is pretty full. During our first full staff meeting this year, a few teachers suggested a road trip. Mr. Lukhele, an English literature teacher who sits next to me in the office and who turns chicken, beef, and bratwurst on the barbeque with his bare hands (I have seen him do it on many occasionas), suggested putting the money into a barbeque (braai). With upwards of a thousand bucks in the penny jar, this would be a substantial amount of meat. His suggestion was gently chuckled off by the other teachers. I spoke to Lukhele later and said I agreed with him. He said "You see: why should I put money into petrol when I can put meat in my stomach?" Probably the money will be spent between the two options.