Note: Because the blogs are written by two or three different people, occasional overlap occurs.
Elizabeth, age 10, has joined Purity and Regina at the Clinic. Imagine: This child has never been out of the four square kilometer compound where she was born; never been in an automobile, never seen a town. In the clinic waiting room there's a television. She sat mesmerized, oblivious of her surroundings until time to go in for treatment. Holding that child's head as she screamed through the procedure was extremely painful. We kept asking Veronica and the nurse to reassure her, to let her know it would be over soon, to tell her how important the treatment is, and that the sore will begin to heal and not be so painful before long. When the procedure was over, we sent them home in a taxi because Regina couldn't walk to the mini-bus station, and asked Veronica to stop with them to get a treat on the way. Such a small, simple thing for people like us--a treat after enduring something painful or difficult--but for these people, unheard of.
Left to right: Purity, Elizabeth, Regina.
Getting in a taxi to go back to Kantolomba.
Theresa and Jen took advantage of our proximity to Sopani Boy's School to check it out as a possible next step for Kenny. He's really struggling in the Basic School he currently attends. Without immediate, full-scale intervention, passing his 9th Grade exams simply won't happen. Alas, the school is very expensive and couldn't produce a track record in exam success that convinced us that 1) they could save Kenny, and 2) it would be worth the expense. We're exploring home schooling for him--a concept that is definitely not cross-cultural!
Our tour guide at Sopani.
While Theresa and Jen explored the school, Tracey, Dave, and Cheri went on a search for chitenge. The stores were all closed for lunch. Fortunately Moyunda knew of a small shop in Kansenshi, where Twiketane, the Friary tailoring school, is located. Sort of success. Not very good colors but we got fabric. Most of this particular material will be used to practice sewing tote bags; it doesn't need to meet our standards of perfection. Since we were in the neighborhood, we decided to stop by Twiketane. They too were closed for lunch. Curses! 1300 hours and the whole country goes to lunch. We did manage to find the lovely woman who was left in charge of guarding the place, and she let us in to drop off the extra fabric for Brian's trousers and get a peek at what they've accomplished so far. It all looks good. We are most eager for our seamstresses to have their machines, electricity, and a reliable source of chitenge so they can create these beautiful items for us.
Out at Kantolomba to meet with Sam and the seamstresses, we received some very exciting news: WE GOT SOAP. Our guys have made beavers look like pikers in their pursuit of this much-needed, expensive, hard to get commodity. And they have succeeded!!! It lathers, it cleans, it's no longer a disgusting color. Hooray and congratulations.
We got soap?
We have decided to declare this the "Year of Communication." Our meeting with Gaudencia about the water stand pushed us to make the declaration now instead of later. What we've realized is that at least half of the organization has to be deeply steeped in the subtleties of communication or failure is a certainty. Here's the background: You may recall that the quote we received for the steel water tank stand was $20,000 USD, and that the shock of the number precipitated the realization that since we have a hill behind the building, higher than the building, we could place the water stand on the hill and save 20 K. Brilliant. We explained this to James, the supervisor, and he seemed to grasp the magnificence of our plan.
The next time we went to the building site, we saw 6 or 7 men with picks and shovels up on the tank stand site. Going up to see what they were doing, we found a trench about two feet deep and two feet wide around the area where the tank would sit. What's this?
The explanation was that the hill might be unstable and a footing plus concrete block would ensure stability. "No. We don't need this." "Well, yes, you do." "How much will this cost us?" "$950.00." "NO! We don't need this, please stop."
Meeting with Gaudencia.
It never occurred to us that without a detailed, pretty-much-everything-in-writing plan, the two parties would go away from a meeting with completely different ideas about how to proceed. (This could have occurred to us as it has happened over and over here and, now that we think about it, is a constant at home!) We're convinced: Communication is the key. It must always be our first priority. We all know assuming is dangerous, yet we assume we're communicating. Someone told me a quote recently along the lines of, "The danger with communication is the assumption that it has happened." Too true.
Next came the planning of the big Sports Day and party for the next day, Saturday. The guys have arranged for our workers to play the musungus in a game of football. There's a football "pitch" (all new terminology for us Americans) just down at the bottom of the hill. Goal posts will be erected, new soccer balls purchased, and the carnage will begin!
As the builders finished up their workday, they planned their football strategy.
Planning for the big game.