I am officially extending with Peace Corps Swaziland in the capacity of “Peace Corps Volunteer Leader.” This position has been filled one time in country since the Swaziland post was reopened in 2003. When I was a brand-new trainee with stars in my eyes, I found our PCVL’s advice and direction extremely helpful in guiding my own Peace Corps Service. His name was Matt Krugh and he was a Group 6 volunteer and began his service in 2008. I owe him a lot of gratitude for helping to temper the classroom stress of PST with a very down-to-earth practical experience of life as a volunteer in rural Swaziland. It is my hope that I can bring the same to the current volunteers and new trainees as the y arrive in country next month.

The role of the PCVL isn’t clearly defined in Washington, and each post that has a PCVL probably has a very free-flowing description of the duties associated with the position. I think Advance Humanity blog basic description is a good starting point for PCVL duties:

PCVLs have many responsibilities, but basically they fall into four categories:

1. Providing assistance and counsel to Peace Corps Volunteers
2. Helping Peace Corps Staff work better with Peace Corps Volunteers
3. Helping Peace Corps Volunteers work better with Peace Corps Staff
4. Informing Peace Corps Volunteers about important information and resources

The above duties provide a very vague jumping off point to what my mysterious next year may prove to be like. I will be hitting item #4 pretty hard this next year. Over the last two years I have been asked by the office for continual assistance in organizing resource material for use by the volunteers. In a number of ways and over countless trips I have helped to develop and enhance the internal capacity of Peace Corps Swaziland to better help the volunteers get at useful resources for their community. Since most of my interaction in this regard has been in scant free time I have, I must say that I’m excited to be able to help develop resources in a serious fashion.

As energizing as the unknown of another year in the kingdom is, this time is still full of sadness knowing that my departure from my homestead is only weeks away. Since living here I have laughed harder, lived healthier, and been happier here than at any time previously in my life. Time changes your perspective on everything, and the same is true for the perspective I have on my service. Have I changed the world? No, but of course that wasn’t what this was about. My last two years have been about helping when and where I can. I have mended fences, taught college and primary school, helped create a small business, and formed several life-long friendships. If home is where the heart is, my homestead will always be one of my favorite homes.

The next year also brings with it certain luxurious advantages over my current lifestyle. I will be splitting my time between two locations, both within signal area for cheap and fast internet offered by Swaziland Post and Telecommunications (SPTC). Additionally my chosen third year extension projects resemble a 9 to 5 job more than Peace Corps service.  Both locations have electricity and running water. All of these amenities considered standard in developed countries will not be underappreciated by me in this coming year.  I feel the most appropriate homage I can pay to electricity and internet is to finally be able to post as frequently as I originally envisioned when I was coming here.

My first goal is to adjust the basic curriculum the nurses will be using for their classes. Most of this revolves around basic computer education.

My second goal is to train the nurses on software that is useful and applicable for someone working in health care. This is why I’m emailing all of you. Since I have no experience working in a hospital or clinical setting, I am seeking ideas on what software or applications of software would be recommended. Since this is Swaziland there is no money to purchase software, but that shouldn’t stop you from telling me something that I should look for.

If you have any experience with health related software, from billing software all the way through x-ray related applications, please let me know the name of the programs. And any ideas on what I can do to find trial versions, free version, old versions will be very appreciated.

As I began this article I mentioned there is good news. This news comes in the form of prepaid “data bundles” that PayAsYouGo customers can use. Remember that we are PayAsYouGo customers, so these data bundles are available to us. These bundles convert your prepaid airtime into data-only airtime. And the rates are exceptionally better than using straight airtime for your internet needs.

The above table shows the different bundles that are available. Currently MTN is charging approximately E1.14 per megabyte. This is really expensive! So now I can walk into PEP and buy the E150 airtime deal. I get E30 in “bonus” airtime and suddenly I have 300MB of data available. That makes it less than half the price I’m paying now, in fact I’m saving E193 if I actually were to use the entire 150MB of standard airtime.

Of course some restrictions apply. You must use the data bundle within 30 days from date of purchase. MTN also specifies that video calls (aka Skype) are charged at the standard voice rate. I can’t personally attest to that, but if I find a workaround I’ll post it. The other major issue I have encountered so far is checking my balance. Although dialing *556# is supposed to show me my airtime, bonus, and data balances, I have been unable to check my data balance, and have to guess how much is left.

Even with the few drawbacks, if you tether your phone to your computer or use your phone a lot for data, I highly recommend getting one of these bundles. Please tell anyone and everyone that uses MTN for data that this can really save them money. Although still not as cheap as an SPTC dongle, MTN will be around for a long time.

If there are interruptions in service the two most likely scenarios you will experience are either exceptionally degraded performance or you will be unable to view websites that you access by typing their names into your browser. An example of this would be typing http://www.facebook.com into a web browser and waiting patiently until an error message comes up.

The system that directs Internet traffic by using names such as http://www.google.com will potentially be unavailable. If this system is having difficulty, it may be possible to access your favorite websites using a different method.  In order to use this method you need to gather what is called the “IP Address” of the various websites you visit often.

You can get this IP address by “pinging” this server. When you “ping” a website, it is returning that websites specific computer-readable numeric address. This address will contain 4 sets of numbers separated by periods, and it will look similar to 173.194.72.105

It is this code that you need to write down and use if you experience difficulty accessing the web beginning  March 31^st. After this date to access http://www.Google.com you may have to type http://173.194.72.105 into your browser.

Please take the time before March 31^st to write down the IP Addresses for the websites that you enjoy visiting often. I use the example of www.Google.com, but you will need to do this for every website you will want to visit.

Find your computer’s operating system below and follow the instructions on how to ping:

1. To do a ping in Windows XP, Vista, or 7

a. Click start -> all programs -> accessories -> Command Prompt

b. When you see the black screen that come up, type the following:

i.      Ping www.Google.com

1. On a Mac

a. Go to the applications folder -> utilities -> Network Utility -> Ping

i.      Type www.Google.com in the box and click ping

1. In Linux

a. Open a terminal

i.      Type ping www.Google.com

Please follow these precautions now, as they will not work if there does turn out to be degraded performance or reliability problems. If there are no interruptions in service, please view this as a free tutorial on basic network troubleshooting.

I’ve only a few distros available in country, and am seeking to add several more flavors. Does anyone have the time or ability to download a bunch of Linux distributions and send them on a DVD this way?

Currently installed here is Linux Mint v11. We have both 32 and 64 bit versions here. We also have older Suse circa 2005, and Ubuntu 10.4 32 bit. Anything anyone wants to offer will be great.

Work continues as it always does, two steps forward one step back. I’m becoming increasingly aware of the impending departure from this lovely country within the next year. This means all my time and effort needs to be driven into making my projects sustainable. I’m trying desperately to get the teachers at the primary school more confident in their abilities, so this way the XO laptops continue to be used to their maximum capacity. I’m also pulling more and more IT savvy Swazis into the “Swaziland Computer Society.” This is the organization my counterpart and I have been trying to create just to network with more people in-country that are interested in computers. So far so good we have connected with about 6 people so far. Sounds small but considering every IT technician here is an island unto themselves, it’s a big step.

Other work is being done to move forward with a survey on acceptance or interest in Linux. This will likely end up being a more formalized survey than I originally anticipated but it may be good to get a feel for the current penetration, and the basic knowledge regarding an alternative to Windows.

Once results of that and other projects become available I will remember to share them here. In the meantime if you are interested in computers please check out the group either on Facebook or on GoogleGroups.

Swazi.Computers@groups.facebook.com

or

Swaziland-Computer-Society@googlegroups.com

Now my TV loving I think feel is only temporary, as I’ve been able to peel myself away at least a few times a week (and once for an amazing two-day hike!). You see; even without electricity, I am somehow managing to watch at least two or three movies a week. And at the end of the day I can’t quite ignore the chorus of relief chanting inside my head “OH! Let’s watch a movie!” I blame this entirely on having an interesting life. More specifically on having such an interesting life that I come home at the end of the day utterly exhausted. It doesn’t matter if I spend my day in a workshop intently listening to every syllable of siSwati being spoken, or spend my day talking about computers and reading Dilbert. Lately these mornings I am blown away by how quickly I fell asleep the night before. I put my head under the blanket and pull it up by my teeth (Swazi phrase), and *BAM!* it’s time to make the emafethis. (hint pronounced ema-.fatties)

Don’t know the emafethi’s yet? Delicious fried dough, incredibly scandalous. And our family has brought me a few plates for breakfast in the last two weeks, and my saturated-goodness index pegs out for a few days afterward. Just when I think the day can’t get any better, I step out of the hut and the radiant African sun winks a small hello over the horizon of Mozambique. I put out my solar lights, and come back into sip my coffee and read some more Dilbert. Occasionally I look up and remember that I’m incredibly lucky to be experiencing everything around me.

After my coffee I lock the door, and the rest of the day couldn’t play itself any better. Sometimes it rains on my painstakingly washed by hand, and line drying clothes. I just laugh and take comfort in having at least two pairs of pants. (You win again Nature!) I shake off the laughter and hear the sound of water dumping from our rain gutters into our water tank. “Water in the tank is like money in the bank!” It’s kinda a theme song for Krista and I. There is something beautiful and relieving to know that whatever else happens, you know you’re going to be able to drink water for the next several months. And with rainy season coming, whenever I think about the water level a content smile can be felt on my face. Oh water… how I love you. It’s the simple things in life right?

I continually recognize how fortunate I am, and how life is less stressful here. There’s stress but it doesn’t have the same bitter taste in the mouth, it’s more of a sensed urgency than stress really. Maybe something like biting into your first piece of really tart lemon meringue pie. You know the pie has a reputation for jabbing your taste buds on the initial encounter, but you unhesitatingly accept the fate of sharpness. It’s like that kind of stress. I had an email conversation with Ryan recently. I say conversation meaning that more than 3 emails were exchanged in less than 48 hours. I think that is my new Peace Corps record.

Anyway the conversation has been an attempt to reconcile the two worlds that I have come to know. As per our usual maturity, at least one of the emails had a serious note to it. I simply can’t understand the world I came from anymore, in the same way that I did before I left. As Americans we have life so incredibly good, and if you were to conduct a poll, most Americans would probably say yes. But I want to know how many Americans actually know first-hand how good we have it. The old phrase you can’t see the keyboard for the keys (I mean trees…) feels like it applies. When I’m calm (and before the movie starts) I think about America and what I loved, what I wanted to change, what the BBC says about it everyday, and what I view it as now. And all I can think of is the mindless hours we spend in front of the television. I think it’s obvious:

We as Americans are exhausted.

We need more vacations.

I talk a lot about the cultural side of Peace Corps. How we sing with our family, play with kids, and try to speak SiSwati. What I don’t really talk or write about is the incredible opportunity for personal growth that Peace Corps has given me. When I wake up in the morning, I have stopped believing I know what any single day will hold. I can of course have lose plans, and I still enjoy my morning routine (thanks for all the coffee Ryan, Karen, and Pop!) There is no plan, no schedule, and nothing for certain once I get outside of the hut.

One thing I have often said to my dad on the phone is “day’s are long, weeks are short.” It is incredibly difficult to convey even in words how true that is.I do not work 9 to 5, I work sunup to sundown. Today’s early morning started relatively normal. The only routine I have really is in the early morning. My first chore is to take down the solar lights and put them out to charge. The second task is to make coffee. After a bit of time, usually 8 or 9 am I usually make my way to either the KaGogo center, or to the primary school.

Although this sounds like it could be routine, it really isn’t. The locations are the same, but sometimes the teachers will be there, sometimes they won’t. Sometimes they will all be in a room together buying Tupperware or planning a cooking party. Sometimes the Gogo Center Manager is there, sometimes he is already at a meeting. Sometimes I see the goats sleeping by his door and I know I could just turn around and go home.

Today was Sunday and therefore it was a little bit different. Occasionally I will go to church, but I usually find my interest more in tune with personal development. A few weeks ago I told myself that Sunday would be my “reading, writing, and reflection” day. It would be reserved for me to correspond with friends and family, and catch up on reading. Reorganize also sounded good, so I lumped it in for good measure. To my surprise I have actually been able to do these things on Sundays now. It is a quiet day where I can reorganize my head.

The Peace Corps experience starts with travel to a remote country, but that is only the beginning. I laughed at a phrase from a PCV friend the other day. Reid said “Now we are going to explore space; now close your eyes.” Regardless of the original context of the phrase, it strikes me as relevant to the exploring of my interests and passions. I am finding more and more that my lofty ideas of what the world were are being honed into a sense of purpose. It isn’t good enough for me anymore to expect someone else to change with world. I have been watching as many episodes of TED as I possible. I am continually renewed that I am not alone when I feel that the world can be a better place. I am reminded that it is up to me to make a difference, and I can’t wait for government, businesses, or other people to do make a difference for me.

I feel positive right now and stronger in my convictions that joining Peace Corps was the right thing to do. I have seen first a completely different way of life than I was raised with. I have experienced a culture that is incredibly unique. I am living with people that do not say ‘hello’ when passing you, they say "I am seeing you.” The intimacy of the greeting, and good nature of my company speak to me of a better place for humanity. In our digital and fast-paced age something as simple as real human contact has been overlooked. It’s not that you can talk to a person through an infinite number of methods, it is what you actually say to that person that has meaning and substance.

Substance is a trait that I find lacking when I look back at many of the relationships I had at home. Most people I know are mysteries to me. I may know them from a single context, at a club or from my childhood. But what substance do I have with these people? What am I contributing to their lives by being their friend on Facebook? What value am I contributing to people that don’t read what I write, and what value can I bring to someone that is shut-off from conscious and rational thought.

Peace Corps is a growing experience. I am growing further apart from people that I was never close with in the first place. My substance with my greatest friends and family is what is most dear to me. I can’t reply to every email Ryan writes me, but I read and reread them. I can’t explain to my dad how much his phone calls mean, but I will continue to try. I appreciate Karen tagging me in photos on Facebook, at the end of the month I have something else to look forward to.

We are coming upon the one year mark of being away. Just two weeks to go before our first Peace Corps anniversary. I have learned so much about myself, humanity, and the world that I understand my inner substance will never be the same again. If you are reading this I hope maybe you will set aside some time for yourself. Maybe you can use Sundays as you reorganization day. There are some many phrases in Americana that tell us what to do.

Stop and smell the roses.

You only live once.

Tomorrow may never come.

It is important to remember that while passengers on spaceship earth, hurtling through the cosmos of our lives, we are truly the masters and commanders of our destiny.

“What happens in a meadow at dusk?” : Everything.

Babe wetfu was a gentle man who I yearn to have known better. When we first arrived at site my unease of what my next two years would be like was palpable. Within days it was clear that Babe’s company would make me happy for the homestead to which we have been delivered. One day early in integration, Babe looked up at me and said, “Majaha, why did people stop going to the moon?” I was excited that one day I might be able to show off pictures of the moon, distant galaxies and all points in between.

Regrettably, I was never afforded my chance to satisfy his curiosity about so many things. Our babe suffered daily from a stroke he had a few years before we came. This left him in a much weakened condition and he wasn’t able to get around much. At the age of 72 he was fighting the good fight against time, but was unable to fend off his physical ailments.

When we awoke to the new of Babe’s passing, our entire service was frozen in time. What should we do? Do we go hug our make? Do we give money? Our immediate thoughts were to find out from our incredibly patient Swazi staff what our next step should be. I asked babe Musa 20 questions before I ran out of breath and paused long enough to let him respond. Very succinctly he asked, “Is it difficult for you right now?” We had called looking for some help with Swazi tradition, and what we received was warmth and understanding that helped bring our world a little closer to “normal.”

Peace Corps didn’t waste any time taking action. The day was April 19^th and was a Swaziland national holiday. Within a few hours of the phone call we were being picked up from our home and were taken to Mbabane. The car ride provided enough time to reflect a bit and try to start the difficult process of understanding what comes next. I’m sure by the end of the drive back home I asked the same questions five more times. Although we could have stayed put if we had insisted, they let us know that the family would be making incredibly difficult decisions for a few days, and that our time away would let the family concentrate without having to make sure we were doing ok. Thanks again to Day, babe Musa, and babe Mfanafuthi for their incredible patience and understanding.

After two days in the capital and a basic understanding of what was to come, Krista and I agreed that I would come back to site and she would come in time for the memorial service. I was briefed during this time that Peace Corps would come out and pay their respects to my family. The morning I was to return home babe Vilikati, babe Malaza, babe Ndzabandzaba, and make Mkhabela all jumped in the car! It was an honor to have so many of the PC family bring me back. They explained to me what I could expect over the next several hours, and the following days leading to the service. And when we arrived, the staff and I went into indlu yagogo and prayed. My host family sang and my Peace Corps family joined them. They passed condolences onto the family and thanked them for everything they did for us. I am still unable to convey completely my sincere thanks to the staff for their coming.

All during the time we were in the gogo hut, the household was a flurry of activity. Bomake and bosisi were cooking and cleaning mass amounts of food. Bobhuti were helping clean the homestead to prepare for company. After I exited the hut and Peace Corps departed, I immediately found myself absorbed into the work at hand. I put a door on the maize shelter, cleaned the yard, helped paint, and learned how to glaze windows. I was told the hardest work would be on Saturday as the tent needed to be erected, and the grave needed to be dug.

Since I’ve talked about my experience over the last month, I have heard other people’s experiences when a member of their family has passed. My experience has been vastly different from every account I have heard. As we build our relationships with our friends and family here, each of our experiences are personal, and will be different from other PCVs. At the end of the day each of Peace Corps experiences is our own, and we will all come away with incredibly different stories of living the both good times and the bad.

Our babe had been suffering for many years, and was particularly bad over the last several weeks. Although the family was necessarily sad, there was an air of relief around the end of his suffering. There was more laughing and smiling than I anticipated. We played cards and told jokes. The children danced and sung loudly. I met many new family members and strengthened existing relationships.

While we were digging, the process was to grab a digging tool and prepare to be made fun of. Although I speak SiSwati fairly well, I could not follow the insults and teasing coming from the gallery of onlookers. The task was to poke as much fun as possible at the person digging, until they broke out in laughter and couldn’t dig any further. It seemed the direct opposite of being teka’d. Standing under the starry dark sky with 20 bobhuti and only a Nokia phone as a flashlight, we dug. Staring at the stars, I closed my eyes and focused on the laughter, spirit and camaraderie of the men around me. It was in this moment that I felt the closest to my family and community.

The night vigil and subsequent funeral in the morning was as anticipated. The tent became a habitat for bogogo and bomkhulu from as near as next door, to as far as Zimbabwe. It served well through the windy Lomahasha night, and only partially crashed down the next morning. People prayed and sang throughout the evening, interrupted only by full meals, followed by tea breaks. In an effort to discourage this potentially health-affecting practice, Krista and I did the night vigil in shifts. I was up until midnight; she awoke at 3am.

After the entirety of the previous week, I was told that our make was not to leave the house for 30 days and 30 nights, all the while cloaked in black. It is culturally appropriate for women to see and talk with a mourning wife, and inappropriate for men to do the same. It was during this time that I was not to see her or speak to her, as I was not “family.” I was later told the origin of the 30 days in the hut was born out of necessity. Before motorized transportation, it would take days or weeks for the news of a death to reach distant family. It would then take days or weeks for the family to come visit. Having the widow stay in one place guaranteed those traveling would find the person upon arrival. Although mobile communication and better transport have bridged this gulf with time, the tradition of staying in the hut is still alive.

As time went on, Make began joking with Krista about how “Majaha is afraid of me.” I would run around the homestead shielding my eyes and screaming loudly so she could know my location at all times. On day 29 make told I shouldn’t have avoiding her as I am her son. We had our reunion during a prayer service and she told me how my avoidance made her sadder than anything else that happened since Babe passed away. Sometimes I find myself struggling to articulate the warmth I receive from our host family. The only way to understand Ubuntu seems to be through a direct encounter with the serene beauty that humanity can emanate.

Although our make is not a traditional woman, she has said she will follow the rules and wear black for the next six months or more. When we asked her how she felt on the first official day outside, she chuckled as her eyes shined. She responded to her confinement by saying, “It was killing me.” Our make has survived for 70+ years and seen countless things that I will never know. Life has returned to what it was, and up at dawn I can see make tending to the chickens, and wandering the fields, satisfied at a life well lived.

We have received a trinity of magical gift delight. Three boxes in one trip to get our mail. Multiple bags of cookies. As well as 15 kg of sweet, sweet candy from the States. I hope I won’t ever be guilty of taking consumerism for granted again. For all the angst I have towards our mindless consumer-driven first decade of the century, I am truly in awe of the supply-chain that has been created to serve our needs. Candy is such a part of the foundation of America, that we have rituals surrounding it. I’m not just referring to the obligatory pre-movie Walgreen’s stop, as candy is much more a part of our society than just that.

The celebration of Jesus’s rebirth gives Christians a reason to reflect on their religion. Since I was a child there was one tradition on Easter that surpassed the influence of Christianity on my life. This tradition can easily be defined through an iconic fat white rabbit and a marshmallow baby chicken. . Yes the Cadbury Bunny and its Peep acolytes are more symbolic of Easter than any symbol of Christian worship.

For lo, thy Bunny of Cadbury visits the known world with ambrosia for all!

The traditions I associate with Easter revolve around Chickens and Rabbits! And with the exception of hard-boiled eggs, all the chickens and rabbits are made entirely of candy. Delicious dark chocolate, malted milk balls, candy coatings. Holiday culture in America is synonymous with candy, regardless of the original holidays origins. Which is why we have Halloween; an entire holiday which was once steeped in Celtic mythology, has now become dedicated to tasty treats.

And beyond all the candy that has been lavished upon us, we are the recipient of an even greater truly American tradition. Homemade cookies sent halfway across the globe. Four zip lock bags nearly overflowing with love and warm wishes found their way to Mbabane recently. Whether it is the Marine Corps or Peace Corps, nothing sounds more American than sending cookies in the mail. I have been deeply touched by what may be one of the simplest yet most endearing American traditions. Thank you so much for providing delicious treats for my inner Cookie Monster.

These traditions haven’t influenced the culture here in significant ways. We can buy candy at the shops, and we can sometimes buy familiar candy in the capital.  A few weeks ago there were half a dozen bags of mini Twix bars. Last week we found peanut M&M’s at the expensive ex-Pat store Pick N Pay. Look up that store if you find yourself with time to spend surfing. It is a large chain grocery store headquartered in South Africa. Each store lives up to the expectations someone from the US would have of a grocery store. It is a beautiful, yet pricey addition to life in Swaziland.

As a volunteer we could spend our entire food-stipend there and likely walk away with no more than a cartful or two of groceries. This puts the store out of our reach for trivial shopping expenditures, but worse is it puts most of the population out of reach as well. Our volunteer food stipend is economically equivalent to the average income here. I say equivalent, as most people do survive on less than $2 per day, but most also have large plots on which to grow their food throughout the year. So by virtue of no land we make our $2 per day stipend plus enough left over to buy soap.

The lifestyle of spending little due to a lack of disposable income is nothing new to me. I was raised to make something last until you had exhausted every possible way of maintaining an item. If there was one chain of atoms that came from the original product, it didn’t matter how much glue you smeared on, or how many sticks you laced together, it was still a usable descendant of the original. These skills transfer directly to, and greatly enhance our life in the Peace Corps. Recycling as we know it in American is not an option here, but reuse is part of the culture. Everything we use can be dual-purposed into someting else. I will be honest, not everything gets reused. I recycled for years (to build up karma I think) but we’re burning enough stuff here that we are definitely reversing any positive impact we had on the planet. I don’t think those “carbon footprint” calculators available online actually account for how much trash is burned in the developing world.

Aside from the occasional fire, everything is dual or triple-purposed. Strangely most items are just left floating in the yard, sneakily camouflaged as trash. This is just an illusion as the majority of garden fence we have is made from this fake-trash that lays around everywhere. Our homestead Babe was a farmer and welder. He was always making things, and if you could weld it, it was likely welded (I think he may have welded some trees together). His professions and our homestead Make’s craftiness have led to a large assortment of useful things we can scavenge from the yard. Even with all the wire and strange gear, it was obvious months ago that there was an extreme lack of America’s #1 fixit: duct tape. After looking in country we started to wonder if it was true, there was no duct tape. Fortunately for us a wonderful package from Krista’s mom came with a bounty of supplies. It contained in this order: a 3-inch piece of string, a shred of paper, and the last few inches of a roll of duct tape.

Delicately placed under the “mock” gift package was indeed the real thing. An entire roll of duct tape. We received the Duck Brand duct tape several months ago, possibly near November. The roll is nearing its halfway point, and we have no intention of discontinuing its usage in our lifetime. The litany of household articles healed by tape are vast, including pedals on a bike, a speedometer cable, shower curtain, expensive electronics, water bottles and patching a 5000 liter water tank from the inside. Additional uses that aren’t fixing something include assembling a solar cooker with duct tape, and using strips of it in the never-ending War on Ants

America is currently fighting the War on Drugs, the War on Terror, and the War on Poverty. In rural Swaziland we are engaged in a seemingly daily life-and-death struggle with invasive ants. These ants have proven a most resilient foe, and have thwarted our outer perimeter on multiple occasions. Our battles were passively predictable for many months, they would chew through our concrete walls, we would give them Blue Death and patch the new tunnels. Our defenses were taken by surprise last month when they came through the interior door jam separating our two rooms. It was in the battle of the door frame that duct tape has proven its functionality on the battle field. It is still holding the frontline as it sticks to the metal door frame that has been chewed through. It has even been employed to thwart the latest advance by the ants. In a move reminiscent of medieval castle warfare, the ants have tunneled beneath us and came up in the middle of the floor in several spots. I only hope that the rest of the concrete floor holds, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we have a wall-to-wall duct tape carpet by the time we depart. There is no hope, they will overrun us at some point. I can only hope that we can escape before “the big one.”

There have definitely been additional uses for the tape, and I’m sure this won’t be the last time I will praise it.

All things considered, Krista and I are pretty lucky. We have a lot of friends and family back at home who are supporting us in tremendous ways. I may not get to write emails or post as often as I want, but please know that reading emails and Facebook messages can help make our week a great one. Cookies are great too. Thanks everyone for your continuing support!

I have been teaching computers at the Primary School for a few weeks now.  At the end of last term I pushed several teachers through an intense crash course on everything the XO computers could do.  In case you aren’t familiar with what the XO is, I can tell you a bit of what it is.

The One-Laptop-Per-Child program (www.laptop.org) was started by Nicholas Negroponte about a decade ago.  Nicholas Negroponte was the director for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Media Lab for many years.  The Media Lab is one of the most prominent and advanced technology centers in the world. MIT’s Media Lab could be considered a rocket-powered space station on an intergalactic voyage.  The mission of this voyage is to create new ideas and new technologies, and then applying these ideas and technology.  I’ve been a fan of Nicholas Negroponte for a number of years, particularly after reading his book Living Digital.  After Professor Negroponte left MIT he started working on the OLPC project, whose aim was to enable all children of the globe to have access to information technology.  Focusing on economically poor countries and students, the OLPC foundation created the XO.  The XO was designed to be a low-cost computer, low enough to be put in the hands of every small child in the developing world.

It’s not a great computer by the standards we expect today.  It wouldn’t have been an icon of powerful computing 5 years ago either.  It has a 266 Mhz processor, which is slower than most of our phones.  It has 1GB of memory which actually is the short-end of what many new netbooks are coming with.  It has roughly a gigabyte of storage.  These all might be seen as shortcomings in a computer for us.  If we saw it on the shelves at Best Buy most of us would walk away, or at least the sales guy would try to get you to move on.  These features are only describable to the children using one word.  A word that is continually overused in modern society, just ask Bill Engvall.  These computers are Awesome. I can share with you a glimpse of the joy children experience with these computers, only because it has been captured in a few photograph  An unrelated survey was given to a 5th grade class this week.  In the survey it asked the children what is their favorite class.  So many of them answered computers, I’m honored.

The first class was fun.  It consisted of trying to get children to point out the various part of the XO.  What are the speakers, where is the camera.  Almost everyone has played with a cellphone here, so it became “the camera that is just like the one in the cellphone.”  And the speakers were “just like the ones on the really loud buses.” Most children memorized the parts of the computer pretty fast, but lacked mastery in approaching the mouse.  The mouse in the case of XOs a touchpad.  I still feel obligated to call it a mouse, because 30 years after its creation, the mouse is no longer a pointing device.  It is a concept.  And it is a concept that I took as granted.  I somehow lured myself into believing that mouse usage was universal, and had somehow already established itself in the collective unconscious of children all over the globe.  The lesson learned by me was not to skip anything with these children.  Any knowledge I have is completely new and foreign to them, including the simple word “click.”

At the end of the first lesson, after getting the children to turn on and immediately turn off their computer, I asked them an interesting question. One of the more popular questions asked by Peace Corps volunteers to their students is “what do you want to be when you grow up?” Because the question has been asked here by plenty of volunteers before I got here, I was prepared for the answers.  Almost all students answered one of a few things.  Police, soldiers, teachers, and nurses.  One student wanted to be a banker, and the other an accountant.  It is true that children want to grow-up to be the occupations they are exposed to.  The children are ready and ripe for something as intense and powerful as computer and the internet.  I feel there is a critical mass of curiosity building in these students, and computers are the perfect relief valve.  Not to be caught in a trap of dismissing the children’s interest as ‘status quo’ or ‘to be expected,’ I asked them an additional question.  “How do you think computers would be used in the job.”  A few kids muttered some answers, but one hopeful policeman said “it would help me catch thugs.”  These kids were ready for computers and I was ready to get them working.

The first class was an introduction to me as to what my service could actually look like.  It wasn’t until my second class though that I felt my own awe at what I was experiencing.  Our second class consisted of a review from the first class, including “phone cameras” and “bus speakers.” My main focus was trying to get the students acclimated to moving a ball through a maze in a very simple game.  It is literally a maze, such as the ones we find on the back of cereal boxes.  The object is simple, get the ball to the end of the maze.  Movement requires the use of the arrow keys.  Up, down, left, right.  Simple concepts once you have been exposed to them, and had time to experience just what “left vs. right” might mean.

And it was in that moment when I was looking at the different faces in the room that I realized I was engulfed in the “help” I had so incredibly wanted to bring.  I was aware of the physical presence the silence of the students had on me.  I heard nothing bu intensity from the students. I immediately went to the front of the room, something told me I needed to see this from a beter perspective.  The silence of the students was they key for me to recognize that something was happening.  The students were entranced by the glow of the screen, and completely absorbed in the decision of going “left vs. right.”

Knowing that I was there and I helped these students engage a part of their brain that up until that moment was untouched, gave me the incredible satisfaction of helping.  And it gave me my first real Peace Corps experience.