A Mudança VII

We're getting close to wrapping up the kid's essays on the mudanças (changes) they want to see happen. In this, the penultimate post, we hear from another 8th grader, Manuel. Manuel is one of the brightest kids we have here and, aside from having one of the best articulated essays I read, also mentioned a personal change that he wants to make. And just for mentioning that personal change he winds up in the winners circle.

      The change I want to see is a change in the attitude of the government of Mozambique. I say this because I see that they aren't running this country well and how they ought to and I see that they are very corrupt and steal money that would be able to help this country develop and stop ruining itself. I would like to see a change of the president of Mozambique. Why do I say this? Because he also is corrupt and doesn't want to see our country develop. If he truly wanted to see our country develop he would have been doing everything in his power to strengthen this country instead of destroy it from within. What's more is that he is always saying we have to fight against poverty, knowing that he himself never fought to reduce poverty among Mozambicans and in fact contributes to it.

     I would also like to see a change in the attitude of the teachers in Mozambique. Specifically, the teachers that seem to only want to hurt students without reason. I say this because there are teachers that harm students without reason and lower their grades, treat them unfairly, and never listen or acknowledge the smallest complaint against them. They only wish to be given money in exchange for preferred treatment, restoring or getting better grades, or for selfish ambition. It is these actions that I would like to see change.

      I would like to see a change from parents that force their kids to marry young. I say this because there are many parents that force their kids to marry only because they themselves don't have any way to provide for themselves. I see this as very confusing because the parents left school in order to marry young because it was the will of their parents, and now they are facing the same difficulties and will be condemning their children to the same conditions in the future.

      Lastly, there is my life. Why would I like to see my life change? Because it is for the better and sometimes I am weak and will think bad thoughts or other times lose patience when I am provoked to anger. I would like to see myself changed to be a person that leads well and knows how to act upright in the midst of other people.

 

A Mudança VI

Now we get to the winner's circle of our portion. I told the kids there would be a prize for the best essays. However, I did not tell them what constituted having the best essay. Heck, I didn't even tell them what kind of change to write about. My criteria was that anyone who wrote something personal that truly meant it would win the prize. I wanted to read about a change they can make. Sure, theoretically they have the power to change the country or a system of corruption or kick out all the chinese, but they have even more power over their own actions and behaviors.

What I secretly wanted was to see the kids write about a change they have the power to make and I wanted them to mean it. I also watched the kids over a week before announcing the winners to see if they indeed meant what they said or just wanted to write something profound in hopes of gaining favor with me. Our first winner is Mauricio. He's not especially a profound writer, but he's an honest one. Not the sharpest tool in the shed either, but far from the dullest, very middle of the road. He also failed 8th grade this year in school. Keep that in mind reading what he has to say.

     I would like to see the teachers of Mozambique not continue to receive money from students in exchange for passing classes. Many students pass when they don't understand anything and others than understand are failing because they can't pay money. I would also like to see in school only studying one subject per day. Each day now we have five subjects and students complain that it is hard to concentrate and learn.

     I would like the president of Mozambique to not allow the entrance of so many foreigners because they use up all our resources and exploit our trees and forests. The chinese are exploiting the wood in Mozambique and it is destroying our country.

      I want for myself and others to obey and stop climbing up in the mango trees to eat mangos. We are hurting and taking from those that aren't able to climb trees and this isn't good for us or them. With this I would like to stop fighting because nobody is helped by fighting. Furthermore God does not like it, and people don't like it. I can stop fighting and if my brother [or sister in Christ] is provoking me I need to forgive them. In the orphanage, more people would be happy and get along and God would bless us in this. The changes I want to see are these.

A Mudança V

We're continuing our look at the kid's essays. The topic what what is the mudança(change) you want to see. This time we get to hear a different side of issues. For this group of kids, they're worried about a little bit of everything--- crime, public health, teen marriage, embezzlement of state funds, about what fancy-pants refer to as new economic colonialism. These kids refer to it mainly as China stealing our trees and selling us their crap.

     I want for the police to start controlling things well because of what is happening. They are paid by thieves with money after crimes so they don't go to jail. Also the traffic police. They see something wrong and later ask for money before they will let you pass. Also I want to see the numbers of thieves reduced because it is very normal for you to buy something and the next moment are robbed of it. So I want the government to find someway that the people can stop committing these errors.

      I also want to see the government construct streets, schools, hospitals, houses, bridges and to clean up the trash that fills the streets. I want for all Mozambicans to study so that our country can develop. Also, we can't be in relationships when we are young because many children get pregnant and marry and their lives becomes only farming and children. So first we need to finish school and studying and then we can marry. Also, many families force children to marry or to work instead of going to school. We need to force them to go to school and not marry or work.

-A very chivalrous sixth grade boy

      I would like to se my country change the style of corruption. Corruption has been happening all the time, and not only in Mozambique but in the whole world. As for Mozambicans and their government, corruption easily happens in the form of robbing state funds. This, I see, faults the payment of salaries of government works and contributes to the poverty of our country. I feel that the government doesn't know how to lead because they rob money and think they are the recipients and not the people of my country.

      In the case of the police there is lots of corruption because the police sometimes don't get their salary on time and get angry and plot with thieves to rob people in the city and suburbs and afterwards share the money. For this, the people themselves are corrupt too and need to change to develop as a country.

      Outside of robbing money there is the problem of robbing trees in our country. We have lots of trees and wood, but as for where it has gone, nobody knows. For example, in the province of Nampula we have schools without desks and chairs and classrooms. All of these need wood. The ministry of education also contributes to this problem.

-An eight grader

      In the first place I would like if we can change the president that is ruling my country. For me, he is not doing good as the ruler of the people. Because of this I see whichever foreigner arriving in my country. For example, the Chinese come here to Mozambique and rob our trees, sell bad computers, and make other crimes. For this reason I say that I want to change these, because every day it hurts my heart to watch them steal trees.

-This writer is in fifth grade and really likes trees

Merry Christmas 2011

"The sacrifice is great for a heart which tenderly loves his parents, family, religious brothers, and the land where he was  born. But the voice which invites us, which has called us to make the offering of everything we have, is the voice of God Himself. It is our Divine Savior who says to us as to his first apostles, 'Go, teach all nations,instructing them to observe all my commandments.' "

     - Father Damien of Molokai (1840-1889)

All The News That's Fit To Blog

Time for a break from the kids' letters for a look at current events. I post these from time to time, and they usually tend to raise a few eyebrows. Please be assured that I am not cherry-picking stories to make a point. There are so few news sources, and I'm taking all I can get.

The ones aren't here are all the news stories full of political rhetoric and telling people to just hold on a little longer because it will get better. Some people think that I pick the news to make it look like everybody involved has the intellect of Barney Fife, but these are about the only stories that are about anything at all.

Witchcraft Killings in Sofala Province – 16 women were killed having been accused of witchcraft. Often times when literally anything happens people will accuse one (or all) of their grandparents of cursing them. This could be their wife leaving them, a child dying, a car accident, or crop disease. You laugh, but people here really do witchcraft for bad things to happen, and then those bad things happen. This story reminds me of another one I posted earlier where the village chief was lamenting that there had been 12 lynchings last year in his village. He only authorized 7 of them and wanted to know who was responsible for the other 5.

The Republic of South Africa has announced it will be looking into the death of Mozambican President Samora Machel and is prepared to fully cooperate with Mozambican officials. President Machel died when his plane crashed in South Africa near the border with Mozambique. In 1986. Yes, he crashed in 1986. Thank you for your quick and timely response, South Africa.

A Mudança IV

Apparently several of our workers overheard the essay prompt and decided they wanted to get in with it.They too wrote about the change they wanted to see, but went in completely different directions.

The first letter is from Carlos, one of our construction workers. He wrote on what he sees happening at the orphanage. It was by far the most entertaining letter of all of them I received.

      From my point of view, I would like if we could change our attitudes because it they are strange. I say they are strange because when our leaders ask something, sometimes the children get angry for no reason. For example: the tell us to go to devotional and for some of us it is very likely that we won't participate. This demonstrates that we don't love the people that our leading and guiding us with respect to our God.

      Another thing is that children* should have the right to travel to other countries to be able to know and visit other people and places in the rest of the world. Also to see how things are there in comparison with here. Another thing is that here in the orphanage we don't have somebody in charge of physical education. There exist several boys and girls don't want to work or carry water and tell others to do it for them because they are lazy.

      Other ideas is that there is no swimming pool here. Not only for swimming but for activities and games. Mainly, on days that there is a party, this would play a big part in the festivities.

     I would also like that we would be able to change from eating porridge for breakfast to eating cake [muffins]. The porridge makes me sleepy and lazy. But when breakfast is cake I have much more energy during the day for work. If we would be able to eat cake it would bring us more energy and the will to work hard.

      It is these things that I have to contribute to the changes in our center. Thanks.

*[Carlos is in his early twenties and sees himself more as a kid here than as a worker. He was mad that he was left out of the church trip to the conference in Zimbabwe. He failed to understand that the conference was for leaders in our church an not construction workers at the orphanage.]

A Mudança III

This edition's letter  comes from a boy in eleventh grade. He had some particularly insightful observations about how things work and what needs changing and how to do it. If he had stopped after the first sentence and written nothing more I would have been please with his essay all the same.

This young man hits on a variety of topics, and even manages to squeeze in his Christmas list, so bonus points for sneakiness. This is the change that he wants to see:

      As for my country, the change depends on us ourselves. The government of Mozambique, on the subject of education, has to decide, when a student finishes school and job training, that the student has a right to work. Some of them bribe for spots and steal it over those who have education and training. Having finished with studies, the government is responsible for each of them to fill a vacancy. As it is now, the government thinks that they are capable of making a living, not realizing that there are no opportunity that exist. Therefore, I would like to see all of this change, starting with the corruption.

      It is very normal for a student today to be intelligent and smart, have good grades, but the teacher wants that student's money and will decrease his grade if he doesn't get it. At the same time, students that don't know anything are passing because they have given the teacher a bribe. I would like to see this end.

      As for here at Evanjafrica, there are a few things I would like to see change. I would like to find a place (perhaps a library) that would have different types of books and resources and put up a schedule for us to have access to more information. This will also help with the ability to read. Here we could also have a place for several computers to help us with our studies.

      I would like [for us to have a TV and have] a staff member in charge of controlling a TV for us. Turning it on when there is news or telejournals, and soccer, because this would help us also to know what is happening in our country and in other countries. At the end of the program, the staff member responsible for the TV would turn it off and put it away.

      We also have people with problems of being lazy and arriving late. They are also slow to arrive when they are called to a certain place. For example, if you are called for dinner and the person is late in arriving it is because they don't value eating and they need to have a punishment. It is not because they don't like eating though, it is because they don't like obey. This is one thing that must change.

On the next installment, we'll hear from some of our construction workers who also did essays. Unfortunately, their ideas involve building a swimming pool.

A Mudança II

Today is the second post in our series of “The change I want to see”. As the kids turned in their essay, I was surprised at how not surprising their choice of topic was. About half of them chose to write about topics concerning school and the leadership of the country. A common complaint among people, especially here in the north.

Today we have two essays that come from two brothers. Not surprisingly, they are both very opinionated. One caveat is that I have trimmed down the letter and taken out quite a bit of content because if you voice your discontent with certain members of the government you are liable for libel. And it gets prosecuted quite a bit. Or rather not prosecuted, but maybe beaten during the middle of the night or assassinated quite a bit. Anyways, here's what they had to say:

Brother one; just completed grade 9.

      I want to see a change in the corruption. I would like to see a change in teachers primarily. In my country, teachers want you to offer them money to pass a class. Even if you may be intelligent you have to offer money to the teachers to pass. In the case of girls who aren't intelligent, if you want to pass all she has to do is have sex with the teacher, but it a boy is not smart and doesn't have money he will immediately fail the class.

      Also I would like to change the principal of my high school because when the government sends money to pay the utilities like water and electricity he takes the money for himself instead of paying these things and immediately goes out drinking and it harms the students. They go weeks without water to drink and those that study at night go weeks without lessons because of the electricity.

      Ultimately I would like if the doctors and nurses could change. In my country when a patient appears at the hospital for an emergency they don't attend them immediately because they are not present or they wait for the patient to die so they can rob them before sending them to the morgue.

Brother two; just completed grade 11. Also very opinionated.

      About the change that I want to see: I want to see a change in corruption, bribes, lies, racism and greed here in Africa but foremost in the country of Mozambique.

I, being Mozambican, get very sad with this way of corruption in my country because it is corruption that is inviting criminals and thieves from the midst of our people. But all of this is because of the government that doesn't know how to run or lead its own people. They invite corruption by robbing the money of the people and later those same people start to imitate this manner because they see it happening with their leaders. They will rob cell phones, power lines, anything.

      Also I would like if we could end this way of the bribe. because with bribes the people are becoming stupid, illiterate, and poorly educated because they have become accustomed to a life of giving money to teachers in order to pass a class without knowing anything. Later, it is a great harm to the people to grow up knowing nothing. This life is full of prejudice and for this it must change.

      Another cause is racism and greed. In our country there is great value in being the son or daughter of somebody important. For example, presidents, ministers, governors, wealthy foreigners, etc. This choice of preference is something very ugly and sad because all of us are equal without discrimination of color or race or religion and we all have the same rights. The greed is a thing that is very ugly and destroys the life of of people across the world.

Our country is changing, but it is going backwards. I think it will take the work of all Mozambicans to change our country for the better. It is this that I have to say about the change I want to see.

A mudança

We're officially at the end of the year here in Nampula. No, the time zones are not such that here it is Dec 31st, but things have all winded down. School is all over and exams have all finished and now we wait til Jan/Feb to start that all over again. Its also time that we get some rest and relaxation here on the staff. Victor made a good point to most of the kids the other day that, of the guy we have working in the office with finances and the construction workers and cooks, there's really only Me, Marta, and Victor that work with the kids, and it's pretty dang tiring. 40+ of them versus 3 of us. Heck, my parents only raised us three boys, and while we turned out fine and are making them very proud, they'll admit at times that we made their lives a torment. And that was 3-vs-2. Our kids are mostly great also, but man, those numbers...

As a result, we're scaling back and taking things slow now until Christmas. As a result, I've decided to scale back writing. But have no fear. Instead of having nothing, I'm giving you a chance to hear from the kids.

A little over two weeks ago, I gave them assignment. We do extracurricular work quite often here, so it was not a surprise to them. The assignment was to write an essay of which the them was, “A mudança que quero ver é ____” (The change that I want to see is ________). I gave no further detail or explanation, only the length and the due date. I left it purposefully open because I wanted to see was was weighing most on minds.

For the first group of kids we'll hear from today either feel really guilty or now exactly what to say for every situation. The week I assigned the essays, we had a little incident involving mawowo. I'm guessing there are two of you reading this that know what mawowo is, so I'll tell you. Its basically the word for the burnt, crusty part of whatever it is you were cooking. Most often here we cook rice, and cooking twenty pounds of rice at a time is bound to burn some on the bottom of the pan. And for some reason the kids love eating this burnt rice stuff that literally tastes like you left hard tack in the toaster for twenty minutes.

Well, the incident involved a group of about four kids fighting in the kitchen over who would get the biggest share of mawowo. There was punishment doled out for fighting, and the kids had this to say in their letter about what they want to see change.

“I want to see my behavior change. I also want to see the behavior of Isac Pequeno and Muaparato [the other boys fighting] change. I want them to learn how to read and write. When people tell us to not steal mawowo we need to obey and we need to change.”

-Belson; Grade 4.

“The change I would like to see is stop eating mawowo because it hurts my health. I would like to see us forgive because it doesn't help to not forgive. I want to stop playing bad because it doesn't help to play bad. I would like to start to forgive people because the Bible says to forgive because if I forgive I will increase in wisdom and in knowledge of God's word.”

-Riquito; Grade 2.

“A change of how we carry ourselves in the orphanage. I would like to see the patio [of the boy's dormitory] clean every day and for us to not throw mango peels there because this is dirty and will make us sick. I want to stop the fighting between us because it will bring us a hard life if we fight. I like that I they stopped me from eating mawowo because it was harming my stomach and my health and I wasn't growing up good.”

-Muaparato; Grade 4.

Our Heathen Church

Our church has some problems, but I bet so does yours. After you move past reasons like “organ vs. drums,” or ”too many/too few potlucks,” or “serving communion on Youth Sunday with coca-cola and doritos” problems with churches will boil down to two points. 1) People are sinners and, 2) your church is full of sinners. If you were not aware of those two points it is time to stop going to your church. It has failed you badly.

“Pastor's teeth are too shiny” is not a valid reason to not like your church. Though “Pastor is too creepy,” however, is entirely valid.

And let me tell you, no place is full of more sinners than our church, good old Evangelical Church Peace of Christ Nampula. (Warning: time to fasten your sarcasm seatbelt). Several weeks ago about 8 different churches from our denomination (the Evangalical Peace and so on church) got together to mark the end of a pastors conference, in which over thirty pastors from all over the province were gathered for service Sunday morning.

Things were going fine until at the end of service, the lead pastor got up for announcements. The first and only announcement was that this year, Christmas falls on a Sunday. In lieu of meeting in church that morning, he continued, all the churches would be shut for people to spend the day with their families.

Keeping Perspective

Transparency International recently released their Corruption Index report for 2011. If you are a nerd like me or interested in those things you can discover more here (http://cpi.transparency.org/cpi2011). While it's not quite as expansive as the Mo Ibrahim Foundation lists (nerds will know what that is) it focusses only on the perception of corruption.

Basically, in terms of corrpution, I think Mozambique is pretty dang bad. Mozambique ranks 120th worldwide for corruption out of 170 or so ranked countries. The bigger the number the more corrupt you are. One-hundred and twenty is a big number. That made me sad.

But that's a lot like comparing apples to oranges to put us on the same scale as Sweden or China. Mozamique ranks in 28th place out of 50 for African Countries. That's right in them middle. That made me happy. But fifty is still kind of a big number.

Comparing just Southern African countries---more like apples to apples--- Mozambique ranks 12th out of 15, ahead of only Ziimbabwe, Angola, and the country formerly known as Leopoldville (Democratic Republic of Congo). This is a low ranking. That made me sad.

Than I looked at the rankings and saw the Mozambique was tied with Iran and only one step above Syria and three about Pakistan. This made me sadder. Then I quit reading the report. But I think I got most the essentials.

Prayer Requests Dec 5th

Hey everybody. Hope you're enjoying the start to December. A nice short post today for those who like short posts, but also super important one for those who like super important posts. This one is about Little Victor.

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Seen here looking about three years younger than he is today (in a three year-old picture).

I have mentioned little Victor before. He's a kid at the orphanage (thus little Victor and not big Victor, da boss). He's not so little anymore. He's fifteen and almost taller than I am. He came to us after being our neighbor and participating in devotionals and going to church and when his family moved away they asked if he could stay. He was about 11 at the time. Unfortunately, there was one thing that was going to be a major obstacle for Victor's future: school.

Victor had never been allowed to go to school. Because of timing of when he came here had to wait for the next school year to roll around (can't enroll in the middle of the year) and start first grade (can't skip grades easily). Surprisingly, he was not the oldest first grader at school, but as he and I have talked he has said it was and is struggle for him, mainly because of  the shame involved.

Well, Victor has worked his tail off, is reading great (for learning a year ago) and about halfway through the year we decided that he would take the national exams for seventh grade at the end of the year. This would allow him to enter eighth grade next year if he passed. He would still be pretty unprepared for eight grade, but we've done this a time or two before with kids and they usually pass eight grade on the second try (which is better than being stuck in third grade as a 16 year-old).


Victor and I have been studying intensely for the exam, and he's been working with a leader from our church who is a teacher to prepare for the grade seven exams. He will be taking the exams in a testing center with lots of other older folks/ adults that are trying to pass school. Fortunately, maybe, we've heard a rumor that the department of education is just going to pass any adult (including Victor) that can read because the country is lagging in improving adult literacy numbers, and this is a benchmark they need to meet, so they're going to pad their numbers.


The short story is that, even though we've been studying for 4 months, Victor is woefully unprepared. He's highly capable, but covering 5 more years of info in four months is really hard. And the exams start today and go till Thursday.

You can say that it is a horrible injustice that he wasn't allowed to go to school. In my opinion, don't pray for justice, because what is just is for Victor to fail the test because he is woefully unprepared. PRAY FOR GRACE on behalf of Victor, the test proctors, the people grading the test, and this crazy rumor that everybody will pass. Our God is big and merciful and can make this happen. Thanks for your prayers.

The High Cost of Livin'

Sorry about gaps in content. I'm busy, okay!? But really, I've been managing construction on the girls dorm the last two weeks and man is that thing finally going up fast! I've had a little bit of time to write but most of it has been drafting a ridiculously long post essay article tome about the socio-psychological underpinnings of culture in Mozambique. I'm so busy in fact that I'm outsourcing the writing to the kids. Look for their content to be popping up next week or so. But for now, on the meat of the post. Or should I say the bread, or the peanut butter (huh?).

I live in Mozambique. That's in Africa. The city I live in is called Nampula. It is hot, inland, and is seen by the rest of the country as a illiterate, backwoood, redneck truck stop for goods moving overland to Malawi that is home to about a half-million people. Life isn't great in Malawi either, but the fact that many goods are destined for there and not here tells you something. My city is poor. It has no port. The biggest “industry” we have is the coca-cola bottling plant. Cashews are a cash-crop that get sold and processed overseas. Fruit grows everywhere here and the growing seasons vary that if you just wait two months something else will come around.

On average, people here live on about $1.50 a day. That statistic is highly localalized to our city, but also about three years old. I'll be optimistic and say that nowadays people live on $2.00 a day. But, I'll also say that the amount of money that a wealthy person makes (shop-owner, car-driver, businessman, Indian) is highly disproportionate to what an “average” person makes. So much so that about 75% of the people here live on less than a dollar a day.

Most people hear that and have a set of reactions which are all very valid and very true---Wow, that sucks; Things must be really cheap then for $1 a day; People must have absolutely nothing for $1 a day; If people farm you just barter and don't use money; I'm reading this on a smartphone with a $100/month contract.

Some things are really cheap. Things made in Mozambique are really cheap. Things made in China are almost as cheap but always break after two days because, after China makes foolproof products for the U.S., Chinese engineers try to reverse engineer the factory and sell knock-off products to third-world markets at a fractions of the price. But I'm not here to bash China, even though it would be really easy and fun.

Things made in Mozambique are food. Actually, food is grown, not made, but you know what I mean. I wish I had some size comparison, but just remember when you buy stuff in the grocery back in the states, things that are 16 oz size is the same as a pound. Here a rundown of what grown is Nampula (or other parts of Mozambique) and a quick little comparison to a price you might pay. Granted, these are not a blue light special, bulk, everything-must-go-now sale prices. Just average ones.

Peanuts – 90¢ per pound. Unroasted. Cost in America: $3.99 (roasted)

Coca-cola  - $3.99 for a 12-pack. Cost in America: $6.99

Eggs – Here they are $2.75 for a dozen very tiny eggs. Price in America: $1.59 for large eggs.

Oranges – 4¢ each. There is no price comparison here because it would just make you cry.

Mangos – 4¢ each. There are so many of these that you can't give them away in season. Also, no comparison.

Bananas – Again, 4¢ each banana. Also, 4¢ is the minimum denomination we have here for money. If we had a coin that was 2¢, oranges and mangos and bananas would be 2¢.

Tangerines – 8¢ each. That would make then two coins apeice, not just one. A little rarer.

Vegetable Oil – Bottle of vegetable oil: $1.40. Price in America: $4.29.

Peanut Butter – I have a friend that makes his own at $9 for a 16oz jar. Imported it is $10. Price in America: $3.49.

Cashews – If you have a tree, they're free. Otherwise they're about about $1.70 a jar. Super cheap American price: $7.

Sugar (unrefined/brown) – 60¢ per pound. Price in America: $0.99

Sugar (refined/white) – 80¢ per pound. Price in America: $1.69.

Ground Beef: Okay, there are a few cows here, but they don't do milk. Cheapest stuff you can get from the butcher is $4.50 per pound. In America: $3.59.

Goat: Maybe about $50 for one that will feed close to 50 kids. And yes, everything is included. No kidding (pun intended).

Chicken: For a big chicken, its about $2 per pound. Oh, and that includes bones, heart, neck, liver. No such thing as buying boneless chicken breast here. Our chickens have bones. For a nice, boneless chicken breast in the states, no legs, thighs wings, just meat, is $2.39 a pound


But for stuff that doesn't come from here, it is a little bit of a different story. Fortunately, because if people were faced with paying the real price nobody would be able to afford it, the government subsidizes off the top certain staples items. That means they help with the cost so the buyer can afford it. Subsidized items appear in italic. Most all of these imported items come from South Africa.

Milk (powdered): $4.90 per gallon. Yes, powdered milk.

Milk (real): $9-13.50 depending on how good you want your milk to be. All milk is long-life and imported. There are no cows here. Price in America: $3.39.

Butter: $5.80 per pound. Again, cows. Price in America: $3.69.

Diesel: $5.90 per gallon. Really subsidized. At levels bankrupting the country. In Seattle, USA: $4.09.

Gasoline: $7.50 per gallon. Also really subsidized, but not as highly used as diesel is. Price in Seattle, USA: $3.59.

Loaf of bread: 50¢. Also subsidized at levels bankrupting the country. Bread should costs 4x what we actually pay for it.

Flour: If you are a baker you can buy the super subsidized flour for your bread and sell loaves for 50¢. If you are just buying not-so-extremely-yet-still-subsidized flour for yourself it is $4.00 for a five-pound sack. In America: $4.19.

These are just the edibles. I don't have time to go into things like toothpaste, batteries, lightbulbs. Although I will say that a 110lb bag of portland cement is $12. Very comparable to American prices. It is imported, from Pakistan, at super cheap prices because the legitimate cement import is a front an expansive drug running operating that uses Mozambican ports as a midpoint for moving the drugs on to Europe and Asia.

Giving Thanks with Our Crazy Family

I have two crazy families. One is back in Seattle and I was thrilled and overjoyed to wake up in the middle of the night and Skype with them for a little bit as they were all together to celebrate Thanksgiving.

The other family is crazy too, and they number as almost fifty of the best kids you can find in Mozambique. I mean that very sincerely and tell them that quite often. We also, like any family, have a healthy amount of, hmmm, how should I put this...

...friction?

Even the best of families get under one another's skin every once in a while. Its just a part of being human. And no matter how well the wheels are spinning, there's just something magical about the holidays and everybody getting together that just seems to suck all the grease right out of those bearings. In truth, there's no such thing as Thanksgiving here because there is no commemoration of the Pilgrims fleeing England and arriving on the shores of Mozambique and giving thanks to God while sharing a meal with the Indians. That never happened. Because we're in Africa. Not Massachusetts. Still, I thought it'd be fun to do a little something for thanksgiving by having the kids thank each other.

After breakfast I gave each of the kids a note card and asked them to write the name of somebody they wanted to thank and the reason why they wanted to thank or recognize them. They stressed that they didn't have to recognize or acknowledge only something that a person did for you directly, but it could be things that people do that benefited another person or even everybody in general. I also stressed that we were not voting for anybody, we just wanted to take some time to thank people.

After everybody sat around for about five minutes thinking of things (during which I encouraged people to be more aware when folks are helping and being selfless if it takes five minutes to find just one example) they actually wrote some really nice things about one another. Most of the things were actions not benefiting the writer directly. They were things like helping in the kitchen during the weeks that I was sick and the rest of the staff were in Zimbabwe, or how certain kids had taken an extra effort to help with construction, or kids that have been helping the younger students learn to read and prepare for exams at the end of the year, or people showing up early at church to help clean and prepare it for Sunday services. I'd say close to 75% were incidences of people doing things to help in general around the orphanage and with the day-to-day of life. I told the kids I was really happy hearing all the things they had to say.

Then, because the kids should know the nice thing others see in them, I gave all the cards to their respective kids so they could have them and know that the things they do are known and appreciated. The kids that got cards were really happy to receive them and read them.

The kids that didn't get cards? Not so happy.

While all of the kids filled out a card, the ones that got noticed were only about ten kids or so, with each receiving multiple thanks. Those kids all rightly deserved the nice things said about them. The problem is, there are also a lot more kids that do nice things and deserved to get a card and just plain didn't. I made a point of going to the six or eight kids I though really deserved a card but didn't get one to tell them how thankful I was for specific things they do, even if they didn't get a card. The problem is there are only about five kids who are completely selfish and don't deserve cards. That means about twenty kids got left out in the cold.

This was the scene I noticed at lunch. A kid finishes his food, stands up to walk his plate up to the counter and put it in the pan to be washed. The kid passes another who has also finished eating and motions to the one walking to take the plate with him the way. The one walking says to the one sitting, “Why should I bother taking your plate if you're not going to vote for me? Take it yourself.”

Ummm...

Later, a kid asking to borrow the cup of another to go get a glass of water. The one with the cup says, “And when was the last time you lent me your cup? Only if you promise to write a card to me next time.”

We might...

A kid carrying a bucket of water to go use in the construction of the girls dormitory asks another to help him carry it. The other responds, “No way! I work in the construction too and nobody ever thanked ME for it.”

...have...

A kid is pulling clothes in from the line and the wind picks up and blows a shirt off the line. As the shirt rolls like a tumbleweed it passes a kid playing in the shade. The one taking down clothes shouts, “Hey, quick. Grab my shirt fast.” The child in the shade doesn't even look up and drolls, “I helped you clean the bathroom yesterday when it wasn't my turn and you can't even vote for me with your card.”

...a problem.

Little did I know that a fun activity meant to thank and encourage folks was going to turn into a day of envy and folks that were not thanked were taking it out on their fellow kids here by flat-out refusing to help so they could spite people. Thankfully by dinner, most of the angst had worked itself out and people were back to their normal, helpful self. I made sure to explain that night at Bible study that the activity was not meant for “voting” the winner or most helpful, nor to discourage people from helping, only to thank and recognize people well deserving of it. I also tried to bandage the wound a little bit and tell them they all help a lot and, if it wouldn't take two days, I'd write a card thanking each of them.

But still, I kind of liked the activity, and the kids that got cards sure loved it, so maybe we'll try this again in a month or so and let kids write an unlimited number of cards and hope that nobody's feelings get hurt at the end of the day.

As for us, our dysfunctional family here is back to its old, normal, non-spiteful, crazy self. For that, I am very thankful.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

Math Camp III - Girls

Before we get back going on math camp, lets do a little review of where we've been, since it's been about a month since we started. In math camp part one we talked about the logistics of our times table competition and ended with the shocker that, with over 40 kids in the competition, only 8 of them managed to memorize their multiplication table.

In math camp part two we talked about a few reasons why nobody bothered, revolving around the main idea that people here tend to give up at everything when things turn difficult, they also think that getting 50% done is grounds for achieving a reward. I mentioned how Celso came up to me cursing because he came up one set of numbers short and that was grounds for earning the reward. The problem is also having people that a trained to seek rewards in the short term. We tell kids everyday the two things that will change their lives are Jesus, number one, and education second. I wrote that many of the kids “are looking to see if the reward is going to be worth all the effort. If they don't see it as some huge gain for them they're not going to do it. I know all these kids very, very well. For some reason there are several kids that have managed to get all the way to eighth grade being illiterate. And I don't mean functionally illiterate, I mean really illiterate. They've never seen or considered how reading will benefit them and they just learned to read until it got too difficult and quit there.”

However, those are only about half of the reasons. Actually, they're exactly 50% of the reasons. The other reasons are the girls.

Yes, the girls...

They are so complicated (understatement of a lifetime) that they get a whole post dedicated just to them. I'm constantly having to remember that we're taking a long term outlook and (barring God's grace) change in a person doesn't happen overnight all the time. Even in a matter of months, it can be hard to see somebody's change of perspective on education (or friends, or drugs, or God, or anything). People that have kids already know this. You don't just say, “You need to do better in school.” and the next day it starts happening.

Where the story of math camp continues is that after Celso left my house complaining about not getting his shorts, I encountered a cadre of girls to complain on behalf of Tercia. They were saying that Tercia (16 years old) should receive the reward also because she was the best girl to finish, having recited up until her sevens. The competition was up to 12, remember. After finally getting the girls to admit that Tercia failed and quit, they tried to reason with me (read: shout) by saying that girls just aren't as good as boys. Before I let them set a dangerous precedent I quelled their anti-feminist crusade and sent them on their way.

Oh, the girls...

While you could say they are a product of their environment and mostly have not seen great examples of education or success in their families, the thing you cannot say is that they have been given low standard. Our expectations and hopes for what the girls (and boys)can accomplish are very high. What's even more remarkable is how much of the girls here get higher grades than our boys (although that will make great sense once I explain why). Much of that though is rooted in how the system works. The girls will readily admit that they don't understand much of anything that they're learning and therefore give up more easily. In reality, often times after just one bad test or a confusing lecture they refuse to keep fighting with the subject and give up first, causing them to backslide even more.

What the girls have learned to do is skip class, avoid doing homework or required reading. All they need to do is ask to see the work of a boy or two that had done the assignment, clean it up a bit, cross their t's and dot their i's with hearts, and get a better grade. They've become so good at this that there is only one boy in the orphanage that consistently gets better grades than the girls. That would be Manuel, who finished the multiplication tables on the first day, and he gets straight A's. Manuel has decided to not give the girls his work to copy because it is unjust. It a problem that pervades the culture of much of the city, not just girls that happen to wind up here.

The girls are earning a counterfeit education.

“Wow, TJ. Don't you think you're being a little hard on the girls? They're just doing what they need to to get by.” No, I don't think I'm being too hard on them. I don't stand for any of this. The people that are doing the work for themselves don't stand for any of this. The problem is that cheating is not part of the culture here. Cheating is the culture. A few month back Victor was preaching in church and there was this exchange. It was a sermon about living as a new creation and getting rid of the old sinful things in our life.

Victor: And Jesus doesn't want us to do things that will destroy our lives.

Congregation: Amen.

Victor: Jesus doesn't want us to drink until we pass out.

Congregation: Amen!

Victor: Jesus doesn't want us to steal from our neighbors.

Congregation: Amen!

Victor: Jesus doesn't want us to fall into temptation and cheat on our husbands when they our in the field working.

Men: AMEN!

Victor: Jesus doesn't want us out until the sun comes up looking for prostitutes and abandoning our wives.

Women: AMEN!

Victor: Jesus doesn't want us to cheat in school.

Congregation: huh?

Victor: I said Jesus doesn't want us to cheat in school. Its a sin and its wrong.

Congregation: Umm...no its not.

Victor: Yes it is. You're stealing knowledge that is not your own and lying to you teacher saying it is yours.

The sermon ended pretty abruptly after that as THE CONGREGATION SHOUTED DOWN VICTOR UNTIL HE STOPPED! It was remarkable. I've never seen anything like it. The only way you could have made a group of people angrier is by showing up and your home-school co-op meeting and reading your book report on Harry Potter. It was that outrageous. People did NOT want to hear that cheating in school is a sin.

I'm not going to say the girls are the only people that cheat. There's a fair amount of cheating among the boys too, the difference is the boys will usually put in a good amount of effort exhausting themselves first before taking somebody else's answer. They at least try to get from point A to point B before copying the answers. The girls? They aren't aware that point A exists, they just want to get right to the end.

Yep, the girls...

We do study hall every night after dinner. Its mandatory. The girls (particularly anybody in 8^th grade or higher) have an extreme fear that I will see them flat out copying somebody else's work or assignment and then tear it up. One day I had a particularly tense fight with of the oldest girls here that revolved around the fact I had no right to tear up her work something-something-something and cheating is not wrong blah-blah-blah. She loudly announced to everybody that I was wrong and she was going to have the last word and copy the assignment again and was going to turn it in. Unfortunately for her, my pride, getting the better of me, wouldn't allow her to have the last word. I found her backpack before she went to school and wrote in pen across her assignment, “Dear Teacher, I want you to know that I am lying to you. This is not my work and I stole it from somebody to else. You may give me the grade I deserve. Thanks.” She didn't discover it till she got to school and returned to tell Marta, another staff member, what I had done. Once Marta stopped laughing she told the girl cheating was wrong.

Some of you are no doubt complaining that I'm really hurting the kids by not letting them turn if plagiarized work or that I'm making mountains out of molehills by making so much out of a multiplication table competition. The math camp itself, like many of my other social experiments around here, wasn't the point I was making to them. There are lots people that don't know how to multiply. Multiplying is probably not the most important skill they learn in school. My mom doesn't know how to multiply. The difference is she's a librarian and it doesn't come into play that often. She has yet to tell me a story that involves somebody walking in with a book saying, “I really like this one, but I think I'd like it twice as much if the Dewey Decimal was twice as big. Can you help me with that.” I'm sure at some point in history somebody has said that, but because my mom does not work in the same neighborhood as Jeff Foxworthy I'm sure she'll NEVER hear that.

The point is that folk here, especially the girls, have found a system that works not because it is a shortcut. It allows them to both give up when things get hard and still come close to actually succeeded by copying the work, which in their minds is the same thing as if they had actually done if for themselves. It is an uphill battle. It is an uphill battle on an icy slope with a giant cliff at the bottom that has major consequences.

What is worse is the absolute honest shock when anyone (girls or boys) fail a test or course or grade. And for the kids here that have failed, almost all the time they chalk it up to bad luck and the next year exhibit no extra effort or overwhelming desire to succeed at all costs, they just think that this year they DESERVE a passing grade after having failed the previous year. Its a big change, and some of the kids here really try hard and do an amazing job, even kids that are not as gifted at schooling or learning. But for many, when the going gets tough, they just find someone else to go in their place.

Of the girls, Tercia made it up through their sevens, and another girl made it up to here sixes. The two youngest girls in the competion, Mena and Ofeita, had a lot of fun practicing with each other and finished on their twos only after spending over a week trying to memorize their threes. The rest of them? Didn't even try. Not one of them. Didn't even approach me with a question. There was even a rumor for most of the competition that the winners would go to the coastal resort town of Pemba with me for a week. That didn't even motivate them.

At this point, at the end of our story, I usually coin some well thought out, elegant reason as to why the girls continue to display total apathy towards the system, but I don't have one. I should at least include some smart, well-crafted plan of action for how we're going to motivate the girls to get a work ethic and take the reins of their own future, but there isn't one.

Cause, you know, girls...

Math camp 2-and-a-half?

Editor's note: Just me, TJ here. I have no editor. That's partly why things here get so long. For example, the math camp posts keep expanding. It was originally one part but because I'm so stubbornly long-winded (thanks, Parishes) I can't and don't want to trim it down. That's probably why I'll never write a book. When I go to turn in my transcript to my editor he's going to quit and change professions after he sees that of the first five volumes (not chapters) three are about Ken Griffey Jr., one is about Darkwing Duck, and the fifth is pretty much a giant rant about McDonalds discontinuing 29-cent hamburger night back in the '90s.

I know that you, the reader, don't have an unlimited attention span. I know, the internet is a big place. Why spend 10 minutes reading about what Jesus is doing in Mozambique when you could be looking at last nights box score or browsing funny pictures of cats or posting on your posting on your favorite Taylor Swift message boards? (Oh hey! What's up 14-year-old girl demographic!) Heck, even my own mother will sometimes say, “I read something about that on your site and then gave up when it got too long.”

I normally try to keep the content maxed at two or three pages when I draft here on my typewriter, or about 1500 words. This second part of math camp clocked in at over 1800 words. Heck, this little side note here is an additional 331 words. That's a lot! Now it's gonna be three parts long. If it keeps growing exponentially, next time it's gonna be 7 and then after that be the running dialog into 2013 at which point the website will change from “TJ goes to Africa” to “That one time TJ did math camp and won't shut up about it”-dot-com.

Thanks for reading about us. Thanks for praying for us. Thanks for supporting us.

A very Scooby Doo health update

Well, its been a rough-and-tumble couple of weeks. I think the best way to describe it would be by comparing it to a typical episode of Scooby Doo. “Really, TJ? That's how your gonna describe it?” Oh yes. Yes I am.

If you're unfamiliar with the general plot progression of a typical episode of Scooby Doo I'm sure you can zip on to youtube and find a million of them right now. Here's how it works. Every episode starts out with the gang going somewhere when the Mystery Machine breaks down and they get stranded at [an abandoned mill]. At first the gang is distressed, but relieved to be somewhere that has other people. That is usually when the locals come and and say something like, “It's be best to get as far away from here as possible. Don't you know about [the swamp thing]? Its been terrorizing the town for weeks.

Fred eventually says something like, “Hey gang, lets get to the bottom of this.” And Shaggy and Scooby make some remark about going to regret that decision. Eventually the gang has a run in with whatever spooky thing is in question and they catch [old man Smithers, the ex-foreman]?! Velma explains why it was obviously this person, Shag and Scoob high five that they can go back to eating cheeseburgers, and Daphne... come to think of it, what did Daphne ever bring to the table? Fred at least drove (and wore ascots).

Its right about then that you start saying to yourself, “There's no way [old man Smithers] really did it. I can't prove it, but if the case is really shut what are we going to do for the next 25 minutes that this episode is on? It can't be 5 minutes of crime fighting and 25 minutes of Shaggy and Scooby eating cheeseburgers, can it? They haven't even had their signature chase down a halfway of doors yet. They obviously didn't catch the right guy and had better get back to work.”

Before you know it, the gang goes back to enjoying their time at [the abandoned mill] only to discover that [the swamp thing] still exists and they had better catch it for sure. Hilarity ensues, Velma loses here glasses and Scooby's [swamp thing trap] ends up catching the thing that they find out that it wasn't really [old man Smithers] after all. It was really [the real estate mogul that wanted to turn the mill into a haunted house].

As an adult watching the show with your kids (or by yourself, that's cool too) three things are probably running through your head. The first is utter disbelief that Casey Kasem is really the voice of Shaggy. And the second thing is that how could your kid think for one second the first guy they caught was really the one that did it because, hey, 25 minutes of eating cheeseburgers. The third is why do they always think they'll have gotten away if not for these meddling kids. What is it these kids do that real police are not capable of?

I'm guessing that you are nowhere close to putting the dots together and mainly just wondering why I spent the last 500+ words shoddily describing every Scooby Doo episode ever. Well, it helps describe the progression of my health the last several weeks. At least in my mind it makes great sense, but that could be a result of the toll the last two weeks (or 25 years) have taken on me.

It was great that Christina got sick first. Not for her obviously, but for me. I thought. Maybe. Sure, she spent three days in the hospital recuperating, but I got into the clinic and out in less than three hours with the same diagnosis knowing what I was expecting. I caught [the swamp thing] in the first five minutes of the episode and was ready to get out of dodge and eat cheeseburgers for 25 minutes. Figuratively. Very figuratively.

Getting diagnosed and put on antibiotics in the wee hours of Sunday/Monday kept me fine till maybe Thursday. Thats when I started feeling markedly worse. By late Saturday I was in a bit of pain and having massive diarrhea again and a bit of a fever so I had friend take me down to the clinic to get more blood work down. (Medical services here are just kind of ala cart. You walk in and ask, “Give a blood test” and then they do it. You also sometimes have to interpret the results yourself.)

Having determined that the infection was way down and my white blood cell count was normal, I though it would be just a phase of the recover. One of my friends that took me to the hospital, his wife had the same thing last month and it took her over 3 weeks to beat this thing. Christina on the other hand was looking much better after only a week and seemed normal, so I was wondering where I, a healthy, manly young man, would fit in.

Where I would fit in was, after spending an hour or two on Skype Sunday night telling people how well I was doing, abruptly left those conversations and than collapsed with severe dehydration brought on by four days of intense diarrhea. I am not joking when I say it was the most intense pain I've ever felt in my life as my entire body cramped and spasmed uncontrollably until making it to the hospital (what felt like) hours later until they gave me an I.V. and a couple injections in my butt and tried to control my fever of 103deg.

This would be [the swamp thing] roaring back to life after thinking I had captured [old man Smithers] or whatever his name is. After a week of antibiotics and medicine and thinking it was just a gnarly case of paratyphoid, it turned into a GNARLY case of paratyphoid. To know how bad paratyphoid is, just think A) typhoid! That doesn't sound very good, does it. And the only word that shows up more than typhoid on it's own wikipedia page is salmonella, so B) salmonella! The only time I ever hear about salmonella in the States is when somebody gets like a $1M settlement from Taco Bell for getting sick, overlooking the fundamental flaw that the “victim” was willing to eat at Taco Bell in the first place.

(Editors note: Too bad there was no way to get the typhoid and salmonella to work against each other. I was reading a couple of months back about an experimental trial in which the “doctor” used HIV to attack and cure a patient's leukemia. Too bad that sounds REDICULOUS. Imagine hearing this from your doctor: “Yeah, so it appears you have breast cancer, but we're gonna give you some Ebola and that's gonna clear it right up by morning. Maybe...”)

So how is TJ now? Worlds better. I spent three days in the hospital getting constant I.V. bags and antibiotics directly pumped into me. Because, you know, severe diarrhea and dehydration for four days! And three days in a Mozambican clinic was quite enough for me, I'll tell you that. I came home a week ago Tuesday and have been resting up and getting my strength and weight back little by little each day. To give you an idea what the dehydration had suddenly done to me, I checked into the hospital the same weight I entered high school in. Granted, I entered high school 5'9” and fat, but now I'm 6'3” and handsome (take my word for it). That just ain't right.

The takeaway from the story is that, aside from being at the sickest point of my life, I was well taken care of. When people get sick here we always buddy them up because things can turn really bad in a heartbeat, so the whole week before (and after) my hospital visit there were people around helping me and checking in on my and minding me., and its great how when people are really down the kids all pitch in to help. The second takeaway from the story is that I've got some great friends here that several times dropped everything in the middle of the night to drive me to the hospital, (because Victor was in Zimbabwe). The third takeaway is that there is really a great community here that we've built up. Both weeks I was in bed sick there was at least a daily visit from a neighbor, a pastor, friends from the barrio, the kids' friends from school, that were all coming by to visit and pray with me and for me and offer to help out around the house. God's grace was very evident these last couple weeks and its very plain to see there there's lots of people here that really care about me.

So whats next? Barring any relapse, I need to be getting my strength back. I'm eating well and just being patient as my body is recuperating. I've been back home for 8 days now and Monday I managed to walk out the the market for the first time. Today, I went around the city doing some grocery shopping. It left me pretty tired though and I've just spent the rest of the day lying around (and thinking about Scooby Doo). I could still use prayers that I can get back to full speed, because I still feel only around 50% energy wise.

Service With A Smile - Health Update

In the first several centuries of Christiany (and even in modern times, though often not publicized) some Christian communites had the hallmark of always being sick. They weren't identified as people who always wore WWJD bracelets or attended every single conference to come through town or be annoying by responding, “I think you meant to say Merry Christmas.” when people use “happy holidays”. The reasons for this was that, as you can imagine, people were diseased a lot (there's a reason life expectancy for much of human history was only 40 years until the last century or so) and the folks that stepped in to care for and minister to the sick were the Christians. They'd not only say, “Let me tell you about Jesus,” they'd also say, “I'll take care of you.” Because of this, it was often these same Christians that would themselves get sick by taking care sick people they were ministering and evangelizing to.

I'm not saying this to try to make myself sound super awesome or martyr-ey in any way, I'm just saying that service (aka worship) can and should involve sacrifice. Even if it's unintended.

OK. Enough prose, cause I'm pretty exhausted. Last week a boy here had a really bad case of diarrhea and was in the hospital. One night he pretty much exploded all over his sheets and clothes. Not a pretty site. While Marta took him to the hospital I spent the morning washing his sheets and clothes and helping clean up his bed. Celso got better, and I got worse.

Based on what we can figure out, I am Patient Zero. However, I was not the first to show symptoms. Christina started feeling sick and spent all day Sunday with diarrhea and vomiting and went to the clinic with Victor on Sunday night when it was clear this was not a normal case of diarrhea. So when I started experiencing all same symptons at about midnight I wasted no time in calling for Victor to come get me to join the party at the clinic.

We figure that Christina had contact with me and only started showing symptoms first because she already was fighting another infection. Because of my contact from helping Celso I was probably the first carrier. What we've got is typhoid-salmonella. Its technical name in English is paratyphoid, which is borne of a strain of salmonella bacteria, but that doesn't mean we're only para-sick or para-miserable. I got discharged only few hours after getting diagnosed and was back home by 5am on Monday with medication, at which point we filled all the kids on to what was happening and started an orphanage-wide cleaning of absolutely everything except the dirt. So far nobody else has gotten sick, so we're very thankful for that.

As for now, I've got just a huge feeling of malaise. I'm exhausted constantly and have a small but nagging stomach discomfort and no appetite, which is bad because I really need to eat a lot. Christina is doing much worse than I and as of now (Tuesday afternoon) they still have her at the clinic under observation. We both could use prayer but especially her as (unless I turn for the worse) she has a longer road to recovery.

What is mildly amusing about the situation is that Sunday night I was talking with friends on skype saying how awesome it has been health-wise because not since my infection in April and the wedding debacle in July have I even had a runny nose. Not two hours later I feel like that dude in Alien as the alien is exploding out of his stomach. Yah, on second thought, not mildly amusing at all.

Thanks for keeping us in prayer and for all the notes of encouragment and especially all my Nampula friends that have been calling/stopping by to check up on me.

I'll try to keep folks updated, but expect content to really slow here till I get better. Caio.

Math Camp Pt II- The Why

Things get hard and people quit. Its just a fact. It's why New Year's resolutions sound great in January but come February you've forgotten all about it. It's why for the smoker every other cigarette is his last and the drinker always promises himself just one more. It's why people abandon Jesus as soon as he starts to tearing away the idols in their lives. Others give up before they get started because they're afraid of encountering difficulty (or failure). It's why that test will get studied for tomorrow. It's why a workaholic dad says he'll start spending time with his kids once they're older and can appreciate it more.

There's millions of examples of why people quit or don't even get started to ever have a chance to quit. Let's not even consider prospects of failure. I'm not talking about failure. A lot of times failure would be preferred over doing nothing.

I'm done pontificating for now. Lets get back to math camp. As you'll recall, we finished our multiplication table competition with exactly 8 kids completely memorizing all their numbers. Keep in mind that there's over 40 kids here that were capable of performing this task. I figured if the kid can count to one-hundred its totally doable to take an average of two or three days to memorize a set.

And now, as promised, I'll explain why so few kids achieved this herculean feat. (A good writer should never explain when he's being sarcastic, but I'm not a good writer and that last sentence is pretty dang sarcastic.)

Yaaaaaay Math Camp!

Math camp is that magical time of year when, out of school, you go with all your friends for a week of fun and games and bonding and more mathematical formulae than you can shake a stick at. It is as much as an essential part of growing up as losing your baby teeth or taking family road trips.

What? You never went to math camp growing up? That's OK, neither did I. But our kids here have. Let me tell you about Math Camp '11.

Several months back during their school break I did math camp with the kids. It was primarily out of a desire to create a positive incentive for the kids to do something academic. The idea wasn't even to do a full-fledged summer-camp math oriented program. I wasn't going to whip out math skits or math games or math movie nights or math-themed food or anything. The weeks revolved around one very simple, simple prop. A chart.

Prayer Requests Oct 2011 - Pt II

[For some reason the blogger program is not liking when I do scheduled posts anymore. This one was automatically set to go out Wednesday with another set for today, Friday. When I plopped on my site today I noticed it did not automatically post itself, a recurring problem lately. Instead you'll get this today and the next one either Saturday or next week, depending on when I remember to post it.]


I play solitaire on the computer every now and then. Its really just to pass the time as I load web pages. With our slow internet in Africa, in the 30 seconds it takes to load the stats from last nights baseball games I'd rather be doing even the tiniest thing than just staring at a blank screen. I have the solitaire on the computer set so that it turns over three cards at a time from the deck and I can't undo moves. I figure if I was playing with physical cards I couldn't undo to the start of the game, so why should I on the computer. The game is also wired to tell me when there is no more moves and I have no chance of winning the game. This saves me from turning through the deck five or six times till I realize I've lost.

The other day I turned to play a new hand as I was reading about that extremely hilarious Iranian-Saudi assassination plot. As I started a new game, the little animation of shuffling the cards happened, it dealt out the cards, and then popped up a message. The message said there were no more available moves and the game was over. I had lost the game. I had lost the game before I even started it! It actually took me back a bit. The solitaire didn't even give me the chance of clicking through the deck to see if there was a card to play or not. And since I was not in control of the game and playing with physical cards I couldn't just turn down one card or shuffle the un-dealt cards. I was shocked, and a little mad that I didn't even get a fair chance. From the very start there was nothing to do.

School can be like that sometimes. Here, at least. I know that many of you are thinking, “Yeah, school is/was totally unfair sometimes.” But whatever ever teacher you swear had it in for you is just scratching the surface of what things can be like here. Kids that can't read or write pass at the end of the year simply because a teacher doesn't want to teach them again while kids at the top of the class are failed because their success and ability to get a job threatens the privileged status of the teachers themselves. Sending a parent to talk with the administration doesn't result in the parent becoming an advocate. It results in the child having a target put on it's back for the parent's haughtiness. If you don't have enough money for a bribe at the end of the year you risk failing because the higher grades have a certain quota of kids that are allowed to pass. Kids often will go weeks without seeing their teacher because the teacher has come down with malaria, is visiting another province, is taking a quarter off, or is too drunk to remember they have a job---during all of which you will not even have a substitute. And when classes are over 60 people there is no space for you to sit in another class.