9/7/11

When the Unexpected Happens...

   Yesterday I went to one of the two primary schools in my village. The plan was that I would present a STEPS film with the guidance counselor about a child who loses her mother to HIV, and then following the film we would have a discussion followed by an arts and crafts activity. In the midst of my hour long walk to this primary school, I received a call from the guidance counselor letting me know that the power had gone out in my village and that we wouldn't be able to show the film. She asked if I wanted to cancel. I told her no, that I was already half way there and was still up for coming to the school to do the arts and craft activity even if we couldn't show the movie. When I got to the school, I felt so badly that we couldn't show the film because there were close to 100 students between the ages of 6 and 12 waiting outside of the library. I was then relieved because I realized there was no way that showing the film to  100 kids was going to work out very well. First of all, the room the guidance counselor had set up was too small to fit all of the kids, and second of all, there was no way they would have all been able to pay attention. I ended up breaking the kids into two groups of  about 50 students at a time to participate in the art activity. I told the teachers I could come back a second day if the second group of kids didn't want to wait around because it was after school, and they technically did not have to stay. However, the kids wanted to stay. There were kids waiting outside of the classroom we were using and at the windows to be able to have their turn after the first group finished! I felt horribly that they were waiting, but each group of kids seemed to have fun, and in the end, that is what matters. I had asked them to draw someone in their life who was important to them, and I collected their art work so it can be put up on the clinic walls. We told them ahead of time that their art work could be displayed, but if they wanted to keep their picture they could. Most of the kids drew family and friends. The guidance counselor told me that  some of the kids had drawn parents who had passed away, which was sad. One of the kids drew a picture of a person with a tear on his or her cheek.  I got some pictures of them working on their art work at their tables so that they could see themselves, and we also handed out stickers that said things like "Great Job" to each of the kids at the end of the activity. They were all smiles during that part.Overall, it was pretty successful, but we still want to show the STEPS film some other time. We are also talking about starting some sort of after school group that meets once a week that has a smaller number of students in it, like maybe 40, so that we can play more games and do more activities with them that work better in a smaller group than 100 plus students. I asked that if we do that we can maybe come up with a list of kids who the guidance counselor and teachers feel may benefit most from it, like maybe kids who are having a tough time in school right now or who are dealing with the loss of a parent. 
   When I got home I was totally exhausted and very thirsty from my long walk home in the hot sun, lugging a projector that was never even used. When I went to get water, I discovered that there was no water coming out of my faucet. Crap. My village was out of water. Luckily, I had some water stored that I was able to boil and drink. Just when I had finished boiling my water and was relaxing on my couch with some green tea and a book, I heard a knock at my door. I figured it was one of my neighbors checking to see if I had water, being the silly American that I am, they probably thought I didn't have any stored. When I opened the door it was my 10 year old neighbor, and he looked upset. He asked me if my house was out of water too, and I said yes, and that I believed the whole village was. He told me his dad was away at work for a couple of days, they had no water stored, and that he didn't know what to do. I helped him get water from my stored water bucket, and he said he knew how to boil it on his own, but I made him promise to come back and let me know if he needed any help or needed more water. A little while later there was a knock on my door again. It was the same little neighbor who this time wanted to say thank you. He saw the world map I have on my wall as we stood in my doorway talking, and his eyes grew wider. He asked me different questions about where I was from, and we talked about time zones. He thought it was very cool that when he is getting up to go to school in the morning, kids on the East Coast of America are still asleep because it is the middle of the night there. I told him about my youngest brother who is 11 and how he thinks that is cool too. I ended up feeling kind of glad the water was out because I don't think any of this would have happened otherwise. It felt good to be helping someone here with something so simple like having water, when I've been helped with so much since coming to Botswana. It felt good to even know how to store and boil water.The water ended up coming back later in the evening, and I got a another knock on my door "Neo, metsi is back!"
   Sometimes it is very frustrating how easily plans can change here, but then there are days like this when things that were totally out of my control happened, and it turned out to be a pretty cool day anyway.


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