Halloween and Community Updates

Today is Halloween. Halloween is not celebrated in my village. I’m sad. My friend Tom sent me a text message this morning wishing me a happy holiday. He also told me that he was dressing up as a white person for the day, he expected a lot of attention from everyone in the community (in case you don’t get the joke…he’s white). I drew a pumpkin on my calendar to celebrate. It doesn’t really compare to last year’s celebration with Celina at the bars but what can you do.

Last week I gave my first workshop on my own. The topic: Alternatives to Corporal Punishment. It went very well and my teachers were intrigued by the idea of star charts and other methods of positive reinforcement. They were even more impressed when I used positive reinforcement with them through the use of candy. They all filled out evaluations afterwards and for the most part there words were very reassuring. The best moments came the day after when: my principal had me use one of the methods to help teach a first grader about self-discipline and also when a teacher came and told me some of the methods she had tried in her class that day and how well behaved the children were. I finally feel productive and accomplished!!

I also have become very well versed in Microsoft Excel. I’ve implemented a number of spreadsheets to help my teachers with school management: one for budgets and one for examination grades.

As of now I’ve found two spaces to make a library. I will be putting a small one into my school Leakhale and after the new classrooms are built at Matshwi I will be turning one of the old blocks of classrooms into a community library. I am incredibly excited about these projects. Literature plays such a huge role in my life and to spread the joy of reading to children feels amazing. If anyone is feeling inspired a hint: contact me on doing a book drive, believe me, we need them.

Also on the topic of reading, I’ve gotten Mapula addicted. I gave her Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants to read and she was addicted. All she can talk about now is trying to find a copy of the movie to watch and where we can find the second book in the series to read. I decided she was ready to read some more quality literature (I loved sisterhood but it wasn’t Shakespeare by any means). She is now in the middle of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. She discovered that I had finished the book in three days (it was damn good) and as a result her goal is to finish it in less. I keep trying to tell her that reading is not a competition but she’s convinced. She keeps bugging me that I need to get copies of Harry Potter. After I raved about those books she seems as focused as me to be totally in love with the series.

Life is good here. I got to see a number of the volunteers over the weekend and it definitely helped to lift spirits. In addition, I was approached by a group of high school students, about 30, to help them start and HIV/AIDS awareness project in the community. They are amazing teenagers. They continuously inspire me. I’m giving them a workshop on different HIV/AIDS workshops that they can give to other youth in the community on Wednesday. I can’t wait to see what they accomplish. I wish I knew more focused youth in America like them.