Greetings from Zululand!

Hello All,

Thank you for your emails.   We love hearing how you are doing.    We care very much about what is going on in your lives....the great stuff, the good stuff, and the not so good stuff.  

We have had a very busy week .   We hope we are doing the MOST important things.   We still struggle to decide where to spend our time and efforts.  It seems like each week we discover another need or another concern that we care about.   Before we arrived, I had preconceived ideas about what was most important, what would benefit the people and what I wanted to do.    All those notions have flown out the window.    I was wrong on most accounts.

CONFESSIONS OF AN INFERIOR STUDENT

When Larry and I were in college taking a geography class together, I crammed the few nights before the final exam while he studied faithfully a little bit each night the entire semester.   When the final exam came, I always scored higher than he did.   I would tell him NOT to study so hard.    However, a few years later when we were reading about world events, he always knew exactly where the countries were and knew a great deal of information about them, their leaders etc.    I, on the other hand, have forgotten almost everything!     In fact, both the African and Afrikaans people are amazed at Larry's knowledge of the history of Africa.   He knows about the revolutions, colonization, present leaders and unrest/peace of most African nations.  He knows about their present leaders and political issues happening now.

Today, I am being reminded again of my "cramming" habits.   While teaching third grade, we briefly studied the metric system.   I dutifully learned the equivalents for meters, yards, centimeters, kilograms, kilometers etc. I thought, "When will I ever use this?"  But TODAY I am making dinner for 12 hungry missionaries and I CAN'T remember any metric equivalents.    I have a kilogram of sugar.....how much is that?  I need 7.5 ml of salt...how much is that?  I need a cookie sheet 11 inches by 17 inches.....there is nothing in my flat that looks anything like that size and I don't have anything that measures in inches.   I remembered there were 30 cm in a foot and 100 centimeters in a meter...but that is all.     I would look it up on the internet but it is load shedding---and the power is out.      Larry is shaking his finger at me and saying "I told you so."

DINNER

Before our mission I said "I don't want to spend my time feeding the missionaries."   Well, I still don't like all the cooking.   But they are SO appreciative of a big home cooked meal with homemade rolls, cake, roast or chicken, etc.    I have 3 crockpots going and the oven will be full when the power comes back on.   (The oven is very small).   However, at 11:30 AM the power went off.....so I am here typing.    It will come on in 2 hours and I hope that the food will be done by 6:30 PM.  It looks completely raw so maybe we won't eat until 8:00!  Right now, the crockpot seems like a very bad idea.

SCHOOL DAYS

I love seeing the kids going to school here.   EVERYONE in  every grade wears a uniform. Each school has their own colors for their uniform:   blue, green, maroon, gold, red or a combination.  So you always know what school a child attends by his/her uniform.   Our neighbors say that they do this so if you see any child walking around town or the neighborhood during school hours you know where they belong.   The public can call the police and they pick up the student and drop them back at their school!!   Girls wear skirts or jumpers, a white shirt and a tie (like a man's tie).   The boys wear long pants, white shirt, and tie.   Both boys and girls have a vest or a long sleeved sweater they wear when it is colder.   These students always look neat and clean when we see them.  How do they do it???  Dirt is everywhere.    Clean white shirts (they always look IRONED) on every student.   When I see the condition of their homes, I don't know how a clean white shirt could possibly come from there!!!  And do they really iron them??? Looks like it.     Remember how hot it is here????   And how humid????   The students are wearing these uniforms with ties all day in oppressive heat.   Most of them wear long sleeved shirts for some reason.

All students must have uniforms, regardless of their financial situation, and they get the money somehow or they can't attend school.   It costs $20 (USA) a year to attend school per child for government/public schools (the lowest quality education).

I am familiar with 2 first grade classes.  They are both similar so I will describe Mrs. Gezane's.   She has 70 first graders in a room smaller than my room at Field.   

They have very narrow TINY tables that seat 3 students.    They have 9 students in a row... touching.  They have no where to store any books or supplies...everything sits right on top of the desk.   Each student has 4 workbooks, stacked on top of each other.    They work in their math workbook and then put it on the bottom of the stack.    Then they do writing in the next notebook and then put it underneath, etc.   They sit elbow to elbow.   There is no room on the floor to put workbooks or supplies not being used at that moment.

The desks take up the entire room from front to back.   When the teacher wants to have the entire class "come and sit on the floor together", they push all the desks together towards the back of the room and then sit in the empty space.
   

There is no air conditioning and NO FANS.  

They have a nice chalkboard and alphabet letters and pictures on the wall just like the US..only in Zulu.
  

There are NO books anywhere except their reading workbooks, math workbooks, etc.

Since I have been here, I have not seen one child from K-12 with any kind of a book besides a textbook.    Again and again I ask students, "What books do you like to read? "   Or "Do you have a favorite author?"   I always get a puzzled look.   I am discovering that no one (that we work with) ever reads anything "for fun"...even at school! They only do reading instruction at school.  Breaks my heart.   But they say:   We don't have time to read....because after school we need to watch TV and play video games.

Most students walk to school and many walk long distances..you can't miss them in their sharp uniforms.   But those with some money hire trucks to pick up their children and drive them to and from school.   They are VERY small pickup trucks.   They pack between 11 and 14 kids in the back.  I am enclosing a picture but their faces all blur together and you can't see how crowded it is.   

They do have testing at the end of every grade K-12 but my teachers tell me, that everyone cheats (teachers and students) because no one can pass.  I don't know about that yet.    The end of the school year is December. 

I will say, that every child seems happy in school  that I assist....very happy.

Yesterday, I helped a high school girl with her homework.   She was supposed to write an essay on "The Most Important Things in Life."   She had no trouble identifying the most important things (she was right on!) but her essay filled an entire page and was only ONE huge run on sentence.  It contained many phrases all connected by the word "and".    The thoughts were jumbled and repetitive.  It was deja-vue from my third grade writing class.  Mary Finch, where are you????    This would have challenged even your editing ability.  (Mary is a great writing teacher.)    Well, we finished that essay and did a rough draft of  an "interview" writing assignment.  I ask if there is anything else.   She pulls out her science notebook with chemistry questions.   Yikes.  They do not have textbooks.  The teacher photocopies a few paragraphs from each unit for each student.    If the question could be answered from the paragraph, I was fine.   But otherwise, I was in over my head.   So what did I do?????   I emailed my children the questions and hoped they would check their email in time!  

SPECIAL FAMILY

Friday night as we drove home from Enseleni (a township), I was overcome with love for the people we are working with.   I can't describe the feeling.   I truly know  "we are brothers and sisters"....it is not just a phrase.   They call us "their family".   We are treated exactly like their family--we have complete access to their home, food and meager belongs.

The Alvana family hosts all youth in the area that would like to come for a lesson, games, etc., every Friday night from 6-9 PM.    It is dark by 6 PM (it is fall), so Larry makes so many trips driving around to pick up kids and then driving them home afterwards.   They cannot be outside after dark because of the crime and violence--even to walk a 1/2 block.  We are inside a locked metal gate at the Alvana home.  We still sit outside in the pitch black for our lessons/activities because there is no room inside.   I have purchased several flashlights and they have one light by the back door.   The teens are learning to lead a game, sing a song and teach a song, tell a story, give a 2 minute uplifting thought.   These are HUGE steps.

Gugu Alvana (the mother) just told us Friday night that her cancer is back.   She had cancer 4 years ago.    She has asked us to be with her at her doctor appointment on Monday.   She said, "You are my family.   I need you to be with me."

We love serving God's children in Africa.   We know that Jesus Christ lives today.   We know he has a plan for each of us.  

The Todds