Couple of random things

Fine and you? If all goes well, I'll be back next week (or even as soon as tomorrow) with another post, something kinda new and exciting (at least, I hope it excites everyone).

But for now... a couple of random thoughts and anecdotes.

- I think my official favorite misuse of English that I hear all the time is when someone walks up to me and greets me by saying, "Fine and you?"

- A sad, frustrating, revealing story that I've been meaning to tell for a while: At the end of 2nd quarter
back in June, all the teachers compiled the students' grades from semester exams. We average them out, sort them, rank them, and hand write individual reports for each student in the school, with comments from each teacher for each student. This took many hours. This culminated in a day over winter break when parents (or guardians) were told to come and collect reports. Teachers were all on hand to give comments.

Roughly 30% of the students had someone show up. Bummer, right? But wait... turns out, we only give them their kid's report if they're up to date on school fees... which most are not. So the day went something like this. We sit around for a while. Someone shows up asking for a student's report. I find it and take it out. I hold it in my hand for 5 minutes as conversation ensues, in Sesotho. I am told by a teacher that we are not giving the form, please put it back. I put it back. In the end, I think we gave out less than 50 reports (there are over 300 students). That's how few students have both a) someone looking out for them and b) enough money for school fees.

Now, students and parents who are behind on school fees are unable to find out the child's performance, and how they are doing compared to their classmates. I see this as a waste of valuable information that is both wanted by the students and useful as a motivational tool (and motivation is in short supply already). So, I've taken it upon myself to discreetly tell my students about their ranks, and load up the conversation with as much personalized motivation as I can. I hope it's helping.

- On Monday, a group of boys shoved a donkey into their classroom, in the middle of history class. Their parents or guardians were called to the school today, and both parties were spoken to firmly. The boys were subsequently beat with sticks.

- I learned recently that Basotho use the word "crocodile" to mean "prostitute." Here is why. The Lesotho soccer team is called the Crocodiles. And apparently, they are bad, and are beaten by everyone. When you are beaten, the term that is used is the same as saying "you were eaten by" that team. But, there is a lot of redundancy in Sesotho, and apparently "being eaten" is also a term form being... well... there might be kids reading this... let's say for being cuddled. So it's like, the crocodiles were cuddled by everyone they played. So crocodiles are prostitutes.

- Over winter break I spent some time at my friend Rory's village, building keyhole gardens to feed local orphans. Another friend, Shanthi, posted something about it here, with a good photo, and apparently is going to upload more photos soon. It was a great experience. Usually, spending time with other volunteers is more about taking a step back from everything and blowing off steam. But it was wonderful to spend my time with them actually doing productive work.

I had one more thing I wanted to write about, but now I have forgotten it. Darn. Maybe I'll remember by next time. Everyone in America, I love and miss you!