13 Jan 13: Sarah Gets an Office, Sarah Meets Tiro and Has a Knife Throwing Contest

Howdy everybody! I hope this second week of January has found you warm and dry! I heard that there was a day of nice weather in Kentucky- it was all the news on Facebook.

Millie loves to watch movies

So yeah, school started this week! On Tuesday morning, I was greeted by two hundred tiny smiling faces. My first order of business at the school was setting myself up an office. I am technically under guidance and counseling, so I need a semi-private space where children can come and talk to me if they like. The teachers are convinced that the children will be flocking to me en masse to discuss their problems. My school has a classroom that has been designated as the library. For some reason, the library has been locked up and out of use for the past two years. TWO YEARS! I discussed the possibility of using the library as my office with my supervisor and she thought it was a great idea.

All that was left to do was unlock the door and set up shop. I enlisted the help of the two cleaning ladies and boy was I glad that I did! When we opened the library door, we were greeted with two years of dust, sand, mice poo, and dead insects. We really had our work cut out for us. We spent the whole morning dusting, sweeping, and mopping. We had some kids move a teacher's desk into the room. I was really shocked that the library had been so long out of use because there were TONS of books. After having lunch at home, I went back to school and organized all of the books into fiction, nonfiction, nature, etc. I even made myself a little sign for my desk that says "Mme Maduo," which means "Ms. Maduo." On Thursday I made labels for the books shelves. After two days of hard work and lots of dust, I am proud to say that the Tshane Primary School Library is ready to go!

She really got into "Man on Fire." She loves Denzel
Washington.

I mentioned last week that sometimes I have to remind myself that I'm in Africa. That happened again this week. Everyday the teachers left between 12:30 and 1 o'clock. Some of the kids hung around the school but most of them went home. I thought 'no wonder these kids are failing. The teachers only teach for half the day!' I felt like a real a-hole when I found out that the reason the teachers dismissed the students early is because the school doesn't have any food to feed them right now. They would have had to sit all day without eating. It is not unusual for the school to go for weeks without having food for the kids. This is Africa.

I spent the rest of the week interviewing people and passing out surveys to finish my community assessment. I surveyed 25 police officers, the teachers at my school, the health educator, as well as some of the employees at the meteorology office. I found out that my community wants correct and relevant HIV/AIDS information, computer classes, income generating projects, and even aerobics classes for women! I am compiling all of this information into a report that I will submit on January 21st. Speaking of next week, on Sunday I am traveling to the capital of Gaborone for two weeks for In-Service Training. I am excited to see my friends and discuss everyone's ideas for future projects.

So I worked hard this week. I put in a lot of miles walking around the village. I talked to a lot of people about what they would like to see happen. To top it off, I even made a trip to Jwaneng, my shopping village. It was definitely the most pleasant trip to Jwaneng I have had so far. Phiri told me that he was going to Moshupa to check out his new job at the Moshupa Boys Prison. He gladly agreed to drop me off in Jwaneng on his way. So instead of spending 4.5 hour in a stinky, hot bus I got to ride in a brand new, air conditioned prison vehicle! We listened to Phiri's favorite bands, Boston and The Beegees, and I worked on a needle point project. Very pleasant!

I was able to do my grocery shopping and get to the bus rank in time to catch the noon bus back to Tshane. Unlike every other time I've ridden the bus, it wasn't full. I took a seat and waited for the bus to leave. A young man, smelling of cologne and heaven, sat down next to me. An old lady got on the bus and proceeded to try to sell her magic cure-all powder, yelling over the noise of the engine about all the great things the powder will do for you. The young man and I struck up a conversation as he translated what the woman was saying. As it turns out, the man was coming from Gabs to Hukuntsi to visit his mother. We talked the entire way home, which made the bus ride much more enjoyable than it usually is. His name is Tiro, he is a hospitality management student, he works as a bartender at a 5 star business hotel in Gabs, and he lives alone. Also, HIS HOUSE HAS AIR CONDITIONING. He had never been to this side of the country before and he didn't realize how little there is to do in this place. Compared to where he lives in Gabs, this place is a real drag. We decided that we would get together on Saturday and hang out.

Tiro takes a throw

I was really excited to have a friend to hang out with and come Saturday morning I anxiously awaited his arrival. Because there is no transport into my village, he had to hitch hike, which took him about an hour and half. I met him on the road where he was dropped off and we walked back to my house. We made a picnic lunch of guacamole, tuna, and fruit. We packed it up and set to walking the mile and a half to our picnic spot. We found a shady spot in the bush, spread out a blanket, and ate our food. We layed around relaxing and talking until we decided that we were ready for the main event: a knife throwing contest. Of course, Tiro had never thrown a
knife in his life. His first throw was perfect. He hit the tree square on the point of the blade. My next few throws, I took the lead. He caught up and we were tied. Then I scored, then we tied, and eventually we decided that whomever hit the tree next would be the winner. Tiro hit the tree and was declared the victor. We packed up our picnic and walked back to my house.

My turn!

Perfect throw! One point for me!

When we were on the bus, I told Tiro that I was into yoga. He was so excited when he heard that because he had always wanted to learn to do yoga. Let me tell you something about Tiro: he is a weight lifter. He has biceps that could choke a bear. To say he is muscular is an understatement. But if he wanted to do yoga with me, I wasn't going to turn him down!





When we came home from our picnic and changed our clothes, I put on the music I had prepared. The night before, I designed an hour long routine and set it to music. I started us off with some stretching, then we did sun salutations, standing balance poses, floor exercises, and finally meditation. Several times we had to stop to drink water and wipe off the sweat that was dripping off of us. He was really impressed by how difficult yoga is, despite the fact that it looks easy. After meditating, we had a little snack and relaxed. Because he would have to hitch hike to get home, we had to leave the house around 4:30 to ensure that he would get home before dark. I felt guilty making him walk alone while he waited for a car to come, so I went with him. We walked for about an hour and a half before a car came and picked him up. Exhausted doesn't describe how tired I was when I finally got home. Luckily, a car picked me and brought me home shortly after I started walking. I had a light dinner, a bath, and went to bed.

Tiro, knife throwing champion!

I invited Tiro to hang out with me and my friends one night while we are at IST. Tiro is funny, willing to try anything, not to mention good looking. I am excited to have a friend that lives in the capital that I can stay with when I have to go there for Peace Corps business. I am also excited that said friend works at a nice hotel with a pool and a gym.

I can't write an update without mentioning Millie, my sweet little lady bug. I am typing this laying on my stomach on the floor of my living room. Millie is snuggled up to my right side taking a nap. How precious is that? She is growing like a weed. She even has the beginnings of a little feathery tail. She's been eating lots of butterflies, moths, and mosquitoes! I have plans to build her a nice house when I come back from my two weeks of training.

I don't really have a lesson to share with you this week. I guess maybe I found out that it's nice to be busy after the downtime from the holidays. It felt really good to get the school library up and running and to get a desk. I now have somewhere I can put all my work-related papers and things like that. I made myself a rule that after I walk in my front door, I will not do anything related to my work. If I want to think about a project or look at notes from my community assessment, I have to do it at my desk at school. This really motivates me to work hard during the day so I can relax in the evenings.

One more thing: a special thanks to my family, specifically my dad (Frank), stepmom (Denise), aunt (Amy), and uncle (Carl) for sending a large box of books for the Tshane Library. The librarian was sooooo excited to receive the books. She is reorganizing the shelves to have a "new books" section, something that the library has never needed before. She went around the village to all the offices telling people that the library has novels now. While I was visiting the library, I saw a lady come in and peruse the new romance novels. Thank you so much!!!

Sarah and Millie-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------9

PS- those random dashes and "9" are Millie's contribution. She stepped on my computer when I wasn't look and added that.