January 23, 2010

END OF SCHOOL BREAK
This has been a very enjoyable break. We had good times with friends over Christmas and New Year's, and the rest of the time we have completed most of the things on our to-do lists. Rudy especially enjoyed hiking, once with a friend from town and 3 or 4 with our girls. School opens Tuesday, Jan. 26. Catch is, temporary teachers (which Rudy has been all 7 years, and will continue to be until we leave) are supposed to sign their contracts on Monday the 25th in Manzini. We'll see what that does to the schools countrywide!

THE ROAD AHEAD
This was put together by Ruth a while ago. Rudy hesitated to send it, but now thinks it's a good thing to get out.
Dear Friends and Family Members,

About a year ago, we announced our intentions of moving into agricultural development work in a year. To accomplish this required 4 things:
1) Having a US based organization and doing fundraising
2) Having a Swazi based organizaton for legal purposes
3) Having a plan of action
4) Having local housing

Updates:
#2) During the first school break we spent a lot of time exploring what different groups were doing. We found a Swazi NGO that we would feel good about working with. #2 done

#3) We wrote up a proposed plan that would fit our skills and abilities. We have continued to do the demonstration garden at our church. We have been able to mentor a young man working with SwaziAid's program introducing moringa. We have seen some good things, but frankly very few youth are interested in agriculture as an occupation. It seems that Swaziland's relative prosperity means that while jobs are few, most homesteads have someone employed in a paying job and many preparing or looking for paying jobs. Low paid jobs with stable salaries are more appealing than the uncertainties of agricultural work.

The Farming Gods Way/Conservation tillage method has some serious flaws for our area because of cattle eating all of the mulch during the dry season. We will be experimenting with some cow resistant green manure crops at the church this year.

We were counseled by an American experienced in this type of work to move back our time schedule. She felt that while Rudy was employed it was wisest to start the types of things we would like to do so that we can work out the problems with our program design while things are small. She also suggested waiting until the children were older so that I would be freer.

#4) Right as we were considering making this transition there were a string of break-ins in our community. Including the house on Rudy's homestead that we were interested in renting (just a few days before Rudy met with the owner to talk about renting it). We realized that we would be a magnet for thieves and the best option would be to try and make arrangements to have a house on the school grounds--but that would involve $20,000US to build a place.

#1) It took us awhile to realize how serious the economic situation in the US had become. Three years ago I am sure that we would have had no problem raising the funds that we needed to work in agriculture. At this point we don't feel good about doing fundraising and starting a new venture when so many people are struggling financially. It seems wisest to stay put teaching, do what we can on the side, and let the Teacher Service Commission/Swazi Government continue it's support of our time here.

So our plans have been greatly modified. We decided to have another child since that is something we won't want to do in the middle of a big life transition and our chances to do that will run out soon (We just turned 42). Rudy is continuing to teach.

After many years of teaching, Rudy has become interested in a job with more defined tasks and accomplishments and one where his success isn't based on the actions of other people. This growing desire doesn't fit well with agricultural development. The ag work is definitely my dream--and while I think Rudy and I would work together extremely well in this kind of a program, I am coming to realize that for us to succeed we need a shared dream among community members, Rudy, myself, and funders. We are very far from this shared dream, and at this stage in my life I do not have the time available to devote to this project. So we are stepping back from moving into full-time agricultural development work. We don't anticipate changing our situation in the next couple of years. Long term, Rudy has developed an interest in ultrasound work and he will be exploring that interest to see if it would be a good option for us when the time comes for us to leave Swaziland.

We appreciate your interest in our lives here. We would appreciate prayers for clear direction--I like to have a sensible life plan.

The school has announced that it will not admit students with low exam scores into Form 1 for 2010. They will have to repeat part of primary school or find a different place to study. This should make the Form 1 classes smaller (Currently about 60 per class). In a previous year they didn't re-admit students who failed their Form 3 exam. The current group of Form 5's was a very good class and the school has high hopes for them. The administration wants Nsukumbili to be a more academically-oriented school. We will see what happens.

PROJECTED MAIZE (CORN) HARVEST
I (Rudy) am pretty slow on the draw. It has slowly dawned on me, as Ruth has known for most of her adult years, that subsistence farmers depend on their annual harvest for the coming year. Most of us (including the Poglitsh's here in SWD) simply go to the store to get our food; that is not quite as easy for most of our non-school neighbors. As a result, I have been paying closer attention to maize fields. Grace and I went on a big hike today, and I happily report that most fields around here look good. The corn crops are at different stages of development, but they pretty much all look good. Barring any horrendous hailstorms (we had one a few years ago), it appears that this will be a good maize year. I am convinced one of life's greatest gifts is a hard day's work (including sweat, ideally), followed by a bath, followed by a good meal, followed by an unbroken sleep. Dlangeni residents look to be in good position for this happy sequence.

NSUKUMHILLBILLY
Your eldest daughter says "Mom says marshmallows are just another kind of candy-so let's try roasting some of the Life Savers the grandparents sent us for Christmas!" You concede. Roasted Life Savers aren't that great, and beware of the hot and dripping bits that are right above the candle flame; they hurt on the skin!
Hillbilly

The water is out, but you want to clean the pan you baked tonight's chicken in. Solution? Put the pan in the backyard and let the neighborhood dogs lick it clean, and use soap and water the next day when the water returns.
Hillbilly

You are tired of the dirty walls, but you only have 10 liters of paint at your house to cover 20 liters worth of wall. Solution? Paint the bottom half of the dirtiest walls until the paint runs out. Everything looks nice except the hallway, but a line of children's artwork over the seam where the colors don't quite match takes care of that problem quite nicely.
Hillbilly