Dumelang

Dumela Mma (hello/female), Dumela Rra (hello/male), Dumelang (hello/group).

I thought I might put some of the pictures you’ll see on Shutterfly in context.

The students we’re working with are making public service announcements under the theme of “I have a dream.” They’re writing about their dreams for the future. We started writing with them on Saturday, and many of them have already written some powerful narratives. Our idea is to have them talk about what they’d like to do, how they want to help the world, their action plans for getting there, and their ideas of hope for the future. Then, either the Bishop, Kelly, Annelize, Mitch, Andy, or I will come on explaining that the viewer has just witnessed the dream of one of the students in Botswana. We’ll explain that not everyone has the educational opportunities to make their dreams real, but that a group of professionals have created Think Tank Thuto to build schools in Botswana that will incorporate traditional disciplines as well as the oft forgotten areas of arts, sports, music, and technology. These boarding schools will provide even the most marginalized children of the area to realize their potential.

Our students this week come from schools in Francistown. You’ll notice that there are Batswana (African kids from Botswana), as well as Asian and Caucasian students who live here in Francistown. It is wonderful to be in a place where all the races get along and work together with no noticeable tensions.

The pictures you see of us adults all standing in an open field were taken when we went to visit the site for the first school. The gentleman in the yellow shirt is the Kgosi (Chief) of the area. He is responsible for many aspects of daily life for all of his people. He is very excited that Think Tank Thuto and the Bishop are working together with the Pearson Foundation (and many others) to help make the school a reality in his village. There will be room for at least 250 students. There are no secondary schools in his area, so children either end up having to find their way to Francistown (15 kilometers away), or, most likely, not go at all.


Kelly and Annelize visited the SOS orphanage the other day and invited 40 young children to come to our Read for the Record event. Most of these orphans have lost both parents to HIV/AIDS, which is a big problem here. As a matter of fact, from a percentages standpoint, Botswana has one of the highest rates of HIV/AIDS in Africa. Funerals abound. They used to be held on Saturdays only, but now occur on Sundays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays. Many of the orphans Kelly read to are also HIV positive. However, they are making strides here. The government was one of the only in Africa to openly acknowledge the pandemic, and should be lauded for their efforts to reduce HIV/AIDS infections. The stigma originally attached to the disease is slowly eroding away.

Read for the Record went really well and we thank Kelly, Mitch, the Bishop, and especially Annelize for making it happen. The orphans had a great time and really loved the juice and sandwiches on offer here at the Marang. There was a big blow-up slide that they practically destroyed with their joyous playing.


We’ll continue to work with the students on their narratives today, then Annelize and I will go upload the footage of Read for the Record later this afternoon. There is a very funny “gym” here that Andy, Charles, Mitch and I are going to. I worked Andy and Charles out the other day (neither had done much weight-lifting for quite some time) an they both were cursing me yesterday…but they’ll go again today!

I drove the Bishop’s car yesterday to get ready for our four-hour drive to Gabarone on Saturday. You might not find this to be something to write home about, but I can tell you it takes A LOT of concentration to be steering from the right hand side of the car and drive on the left side of the road. The hardest thing to do is make right hand turns. I did it, and didn’t maim any of my friends. Whew.

Dumelang!
Erik

P.S. You can use my erikeleven11@yahoo.com account now, but I still can’t get email on the Pearson account. I’d love to hear from you! When Andy and I see that someone has left a comment on the blog, we feel like it is Christmas morning! So don’t worry about over-commenting or over-emailing…we love it and it makes us feel REALLY good.