Warm Fuzzy Kiddie Stories

The Look on Goabaone’s face when she saw the backpacks
I’ve never seen a face light up like this one. Goabaone is one of my favorites, a little girl that lives in a single tent with a single lady. She saw me carrying a the bunch of backpacks that I bought at Pep for the kids and the look of surprise and happiness on her face was priceless. Eyes wide, big gasp then smile, with the gap between her two front teeth – she was completely elated and even did a little hop when she saw me. I signaled to her to keep quiet with my finger over my lips and she scurried away.

Maduo’s excitement when he got his Xmas present
We told the kids that they had to open their presents at home. Though all the boys got cars and the girls got dolls, I didn’t want the kids to fight over colors or etc. At the end of the party, most of the families had gone home. Maduo and Mogomotsi lingered with their mother. The kids had never gotten Christmas presents before so they had absolutely no idea what to do with them, how to unwrap them etc. The mother meticulously opened one end of Maduo’s present, loosening the single piece of tape which exposed the tail end of the car. As soon as he saw it, he went ballistic. “Ke Koloi!!!!” he did a little dance, a hop and waving his arms. I saw Lesupile’s mom open his present. And when he saw it, he was exited and said when he got home, “Ke tla go kwetsa koloi yame,” “I am going to drive my car.” The statement was very telling, these kids probably didn’t ever receive gifts of their own, ever. People don’t celebrate birthdays much at all. The concept of prizes and gifts is lost in Batswana culture. When children receive gifts, the gifts are typically for their parents, a thermos, glass salad dishes, a broom. Giving these kids toys for Xmas was huge.

The kids showing off their underwear
Heidi came down to Sehithwa to visit my NGO and see the kids because we all knew of its eminent closure. While she was at the centre she asked me “why do all the kids keep showing me their underwear??” And sure enough, just as she asked, one of my kids ran up and pulled down the front of her track pants to expose the white panties with hearts that she had on. Then another kid ran up to show his underoos. They were so playfully excited, I realized, “They’re showing you their new underwear that we gave them last week.” For the last week, I had noticed the kids wearing their new socks and new underwear. And this sign of excitement meant that they were proud of it to.

Lesupile’s pickiness
I was talking to Lesupile’s mom at the end of the graduation. She said that all the kids looked smart in their white uniforms. However, Lesupile was wearing grey socks. She had tried to get him to wear white socks to go with the white uniform but he said no and refused. He wanted to wear the grey socks – his new socks.

Class Picture Time
The Thursday before the last week of school, we had all 31 kids show up – the first time since I had ever been there. My wish had come true to take a class picture. I was excited to have the amazing opportunity to document this point in time for the kids and their families since I was sure they never had anything like it and class pictures and yearbooks don’t really exist yet. With Heidi’s help, we lined the kids up in 3 rows. Then when we finally caught their attention, told them to smile and say “Cheese!” Hilarity ensued from there, as the kids said “Cheese!” “Cheese!” Then wouldn’t stop…
…”Cheese!”
…”Cheese!!!”
…”Cheese!!!!!”
They chanted “Cheese” for about 3 minutes as we took several pictures.

Teaching the Kids How to Receive Certificates
In preparation for the graduation, we taught the kids how to walk in a single file line to sit in their seats then come up when their names were called. When they came up, they had to shake with the right and receive a gift in the left. Then they would say Thank You and give a little Curtsy. For the kids that didn’t say Thank You, we had to remind them,
“What do you say?” – “Go bua eng?”
“I didn’t hear you.” – “Ga ke utlwa.”
As time went on, the little murmurs of Thank You became loud shouts of “THANK YOU!!” The best part were some of the kids, instead of a slight curtsy, would take their gift and squat all the way to the ground, which was hilarious.

The funny things kids say
When I started at the school which was half way through the year, the kids didn’t say much. They kept mostly to themselves. As time went on, I began to understand their social interaction with each other. How they share food with each other or help each other close their backpacks. As time went on, they talked more with each other, less in small cliques but more with all the other kids. Some of course liked to tattle more than others. Tiroyaone was that one that constantly said funny shit.
“Tichara! Boikobo blah blah blah…ditafole!” – “Teacher! Boikobo hit me with the table!”
“Teacher! Boikobo is eating the curtains!”

Attendance and Responsibility
Kids in Africa are given more responsibility at a young age. Older kids take care of the younger kids (granted not much older, 8 year olds are taking care of 3 year olds). All the kids have to sweep the floors at school every day, clean the house, fetch the water. In the states, teachers send home letters that say “sign and return” to make sure the parents received and read the letter. In Africa, that doesn’t need to be done. The children will not lose letters that they have to take home to their parents. When it came to the graduation, we had no electricity to copy letters to send home to the parents notifying them of the party and to bring their uniforms. We told the children to tell their parents of the time of the graduation and to pack their clean uniforms in their backpacks for the graduation – which they all did.

Most of the time, our attendance rate was 22-28 kids on any given day. Running out of petrol in the village for the last few months and having the driver be chronically absent was almost like a blessing in disguise. The children started to walk to school and walk home together, which I think fostered more bonding time with each other. Sometimes I’d see the kids on my way home and watched them as they’d walk and then wait for the littlest ones to catch up and then say goodbye to each other when they went off in their own neighborhoods. With the breakdown of the car, attendance had never been higher, above 28 most days in the 3rd term. With the responsibility of coming to school on their own (let alone wanting to actually go to school), they all arrived on time, if not early.

St Bridget’s Preschool Graduation
I went to my first preschool graduation to get ideas for mine at St. Bridget’s in Maun. The graduation was ridiculously cute. The children were dressed like little adults, one child in white with black pinstripe pants and matching hats, the girls in their best xmas dresses, somewhat like a little miss sunshine beauty contest, just without the creepiness. The best highlight was the nativity play the kids put on where 5 year old Mary tells Joseph, “Good news! I’m pregnant!” 6 year old Joseph shouts, “What? How is that good news??”

Katshepo Charlie Brown by Day, Lion by Nite
Katshepo is one of my little ones, probably 3 or 4 years old. He has the most imaginative personality of all the kids. Some days he’s running around like a dragon or a lion, hands out like claws and stomping around to the beat of his own drum, playing by himself. It’s absolutely hilarious. He’s also my Parkour natural. He jumps off anything and everything. Last month, I couldn’t get enough of watching him climb up to the top of the baby slide and jump from the top of it, landing in the sand below almost face first with a big thud. And he kept doing it. Jump, Thud, run back to the top of the stairs, jump, thud….Its only parallel – watching Charlie Brown run and kick the football and land flat on his back, over and over again. I cannot stop laughing every time I see him do this.

Ame the Celebrity
Ame is this cute little girl that reminds me of my friend Nithya. Every picture I have of her, she has this wide eyed, coy yet alluring look. She’s going to be a heart breaker. On graduation day, she showed up with her hair all greased up, stunner shades, and cute ballet shoes. She looked like a celebrity. Too cute. I commended her mom who is the only person who comes to volunteer at the centre on her own accord.

Mogomotsi aka Faith
Mogomotsi ironically, reminds me of a guy I know except in a little girl version. She’s not overly talkative, but over the course of the last month, I could see the change in how she carries herself. She almost always wears a dress to school. My favorite part is whenever she prays, she closes her eyes shut as hard as she can.

Boikobo Confused about Sexual Orientation
A harero boy, very very shy. We had to do a parental intervention one day when we conducted a home visit and told his caregivers that they had to wash him before he came to school because kids didn’t want to play with him and it hurt his confidence. He also doesn’t know Setswana so had trouble communicating with other kids. He still struggles, however has changed. His command of Setswana has gotten better and he finally made friends that he started to talk to. Though he’s still soft spoken and when he stands up to talk about himself, he says “My name is Boikobo Kanjou. I am 6 years old. I am a girl” and we always have to say no, you’re a boy! (Oddly reminded me of Farewell My Concubine the other day), I’ve seen a big difference in his confidence and interaction with other kids.

Kagiso the Dancer
A very pretty little girl. Shy. Doesn’t say much. But, loves to dance. Put on some music and she can dance like no other. Though she doesn’t say much, she has these big inquisitive eyes that are always observing her surroundings.

Robson the Troublemaker
Just one of those little boys that looks mischievous. Though I’ve never seen him severely misbehave, he just looks like a trouble maker.

Denis the Runt of the Pack
The littlest of them all, may be 3 years old. He’s always clueless because he only knows Harero and is too young to really learn Setswana well. He’s cute and tiny and the cutest part is in Setswana, Denis is pronounced “Denis-ee.” When the kids walk home, they all walk in a big group and then all stop as a group and wait for him to catch up.

8 Months In

Happy Holidays Everyone!

8 months in Botswana. I can’t believe that I’ve spent the majority of 2010 here and am going on to 2011. Forgive me for not updating my blog, but the last month has been the busiest one yet.

I finally wrapped up and closed my NGO, of course not without some drama, a lot of stress, but with some good stories. For the last 3 months, we had to find a way to spend 20,000P (almost $2900) on “food” for the kids with every pula accounted for in receipts to the donor. Results: I started a program so that the kids could take home food from school to eat on the days they don’t come. Often on a non-school day, if we conduct a home visit, we will find the kids (ages 3-6) home alone in the afternoon without having eaten anything all day and wearing nothing but underwear. Since Setswana food has to be cooked, the kids are left to starve until someone cooks for them since their mother often comes home drunk. So at school, we gave them food to take home they didn’t need to prepare, bread, apples, peanut butter, milk and backpacks to put them in. We also purchased the kids an extra set of uniforms, underwear, socks. On Nov 25, we had a preschool graduation and xmas party for the kids where 14 of my kids graduated to primary school and all 31 got to receive xmas presents for the first time in their lives. The boys got cars, the girls, dolls, and graduating children – lunch boxes. Pictures can be found at: http://www.dropbox.com/gallery/5776400/1/My%20Kids%20and%20Graduation?h=6b3b32 Details on the last blog post.

Working with the kids this last month has been the most rewarding, finally nailing down all 31 names and knowing all their distinct personalities. One story: Heidi, my friend and fellow PCV came to visit a week before the school closed. While she was at the centre she asked me “why do all the kids keep showing me their underwear?” And just as she asked, one of my kids ran up and pulled down the front of her track pants to expose the panties with hearts that she had on. Then another kid ran up to show his underoos. “They’re showing you their new underwear that we gave them last week.” For the whole week, the kids wore new socks and underwear and this sign of excitement meant that they were proud of it too. More warm fuzzy stories in my next blog post.

Since the closure of the school, I’ve been trying to de-stress and loosen the tightness in my semi-permanently raised shoulders. Last weekend, I went on a trip to Tsodilo Hills which were inhabited by people for at least 100,000 years and house some of the oldest cave paintings in the world. Pictures at: http://www.dropbox.com/gallery/5776400/1/Tsodilo%20Etc?h=619749

For the holidays, I’m looking forward to some R&R in Cape Town, wine tasting and catching up with my sister. Typically, I like to donate money in peoples’ names for Xmas, but this year, I’ll just highlight an organization in Botswana called Mothers for All (www.mothersforall.org). Mothers for All empowers women who are HIV Positive or who care for orphans in Botswana by teaching them life skills so that they can make necklaces to generate income. Donating helps the organization expand or buy a necklace because the proceeds go mostly to the mother that made it.

Africa Videos

Finally! I’ve figured out how to compress my videos into something I can share. I apologize for the watermark, but I haven’t gotten that far in figuring all this out…but wanted to share anyway.

Welcome Song by the Village Development Committee

Each village has a kgosi or village chief and a VDC Chairman (usually a woman). If the village is large, each ward will have a kgosana, a lesser chief that oversees that ward. When we were in Moleps, we were guests of a kgotla meeting or town meeting where we asked them about HIV/AIDS issues in their community. When we arrived, we were welcome by the women of the VDC who sang and danced the traditional dance of their ward.

Cultural Dance
Dancing has always been huge. Each tribe has very distinct dances that they used to share when they met other tribes. I think this dance is of the Bakwena the Crocodile people who reside in and around Molepolole which is also where the first Batswana settled. We saw these dances in Thamaga. The women sing and clap their own beat. While the children dance, they wear strands of dried moth cocoons that are filled with rice to make rattling sounds.