baby steps

Context (2)

The combi station, not to be confused with the bus rank (over the bridge and through the phane worm piles). Abby and I take the 4 from UB to reach this point each morning, then the 7 out to Kamogelo. the trek, in sum, takes approximately an hour, depending on how quickly the combis fill up and whether or not their engines start (we've been pushed by helpful passerby more than once.) The typical passenger load for a combi is 16-17, but i've been in one with 19 before. The age range of combi riders always amazes me - babies as well as the venerable aged clamber in and out with equal facility.

Stands like these surround the station, and line the roads throughout Botswana. Every stand sells almost exactly the same things (chips, lollipops, oranges, bananas, and other candies) and i still can't quite figure out how all the food gets to these remote locations, and especially how it could be cost efficient for the stand owners to sell such small things for such small sums. As I've written before, so many of the people here seem to create "jobs" out of thin air. I'm really interested in the employment situation here and would like to spend some time learning more about it.

Like the Tuck Shops, hair cutting and braiding booths dot the roadsides. This example, replete with profile illustrations, is one of my favorite.

The morning routine - sometimes there is more singing, but this is the basic pre-breakfast assembly

Chasing a night of that thick kind of darkness, today was surprisingly good. Breakfast was served up on the later side, since one of the day care workers forgot the kitchen keys at home, and that helped to speed up the morning. There was also a small outdoor assembly around 10:30, during which a few members of the Rotary Club of Gaborone presented the children with books and videos that had been collected and donated by the kids at Northside Primary School. It was a little funny to watch the presentation, since the Rotary Club men were using it as a photo op, complete with a Rotary club banner and nice table display. However, the only other people present were about one hundred distracted kids sitting in plastic chairs, Abby and me, and the Kamogelo staff. The kids seemed slightly interested, but not completely elated, while the Rotary Club representatives were giggling and jovial. This is in no way meant to condescend or diminish the import or kindness of the donation, but the whole scene made me think a lot about the strange stratum of satisfaction that spans between giving and receiving. I’ll leave it at that.

The other interesting part of my morning was my talk with Sister Margaret about bank accounts and PayPal. It is my long term goal (since I have so many more months here) to help Kamogelo straighten out its finances and get some solid, consistent funding sources in line, so I went to her office to chat about such matters. Unfortunately, things seem to be in quite the tangled mess. Sister M. was incredibly vague about where their money is coming from now (apparently, an umbrella organization in Canada that pays the teachers’ salaries, and funds other things in Gaborone) and it was eventually revealed that the school does not have its own bank account. All previous donations have been deposited into a teacher’s private account, and then given to the school in cash for use.

I attempted to explain to the sister that this was not a sustainable solution to the donation problem, but she told me that they also were not allowed to apply for an account until the day care was licensed. Apparently, they applied for a government license two years ago, and their application seems to have been lost. They applied again in September, but she wasn’t sure if the application was received. I finally managed to get a contact number for a government worker (I think she’s with the Department of Social Services) and called her this afternoon. The good news is that the committee to review license applications meets in August, and that a license would indeed open the door to potential qualification for various funding programs. However, the woman I spoke with is not even sure that Kamogelo’s application is complete at this point in time. I will speak with her again tomorrow once she has checked.

Although it’s a slow and muddled start, I’m glad to know about this now and I’m looking forward to helping roll things along. If a private account can be established, so can a Paypal account for their website, and this would open the door to much more international help. I am incredibly relieved and newly motivated to work on something that really has the potential to affect positive growth after I leave Kamogelo and Botswana. I don’t want to get too hopeful – high expectations about rapid change and easy solutions are never a good idea here – but at least the optimism star twinkles brightly.

A final bit of news – a few weeks ago, Becca spotted a sign in the River Walk movie theatre bathrooms that advertised free film showings for orphans in the area. Abby called the number listed, as well as a few bus companies (the theatre will pay for transportation too) and incredibly, stupendously, amazingly, the result is a field trip! On Thursday, we will take approximately sixty children (the two older classes that Abby and I work with) to the movies for a novel treat. I haven’t been this excited since Ms. Frizzle and the gang boarded the Magic School Bus for a tour of Arnold’s body.