School, and a Terrible Loss

The two aspects of the title of this post are not related at all. I know some of you are curious about how school is goingfor the kids, and it is going well, but before I post on that I want to share about the loss. Earlier today Pinkie Thlabiwe, who was the coordinator of the Counseling Program in the Dept. of Educational Foundations (where I teach) was killed in a car accident. This is a terrible loss to everyone around her. I had only known her since I arrived here, but she was clearly a wonderful woman who worked very hard and gave a great deal to the department. As the coordinator she had been a great help to me and was very supportive; I had definitely come to think of her as a friend. In addition to being notified by the department chair, I have received phone calls from two students and my teaching assistant already this evening, so it was clear that she was cared about by many people. From the details that these people have shared, it seems that she was in South Africa today, registering for a Ph.D. program (she had received her Masters from Ohio University some years back). Apparently she had taken public transport (which I take to mean some kind of combi or small bus) that was involved in the accident. Pinkie had shared with me several days ago that both her mother and father had passed away in the past few years, and that she was an only child. I have asked about her children and apparently she has three grown or almost grown children, who now have no mother and no family on their mother's side at all. Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers.

This is a scary phenomenon. AIDS and car accidents are the leading causes of death here, and in the month and a half that I have been here, the university has posted death notices for 4 students and two professors, 3 of the students from "illness" and one student and the two professors from car accidents. I am not sure how this compares to death rates at other universities, but it seems incredibly high to me for less than two months time.

Ok - on to school. The tone of this may not be as positive as it should be because of my sadness over Pinkie's death, but school is going very well, better than I had hoped, I think. Eden is very happy. She loves her teacher, Mrs. Van Nikeirk (or something close to that) from South Africa. She seems to have made several friends and fit right in. There is one other American girl, from California, one girl who Eden said was from "Wales, Mozambique, and South Africa" and a girl that just started today who is from Canada and speaks only a bit of English. She doesn't know yet where the other kids are from. She told me that several of her classmates are fasting for Ramadan, which is a whole new experience for her, coming from Catholic school. She takes French in addition to "cultural setswana"; she said the French teacher spoke exclusively in French, which of course Eden had no clue about, but she just seemed to go with the flow. She hasn't really found anything she doesn't enjoy about it yet, other than the potential of being embarrassed by her parents... I am delighted with all the multicultural exposure, and mostly just delighted that she is happy.

Hope is doing well, better than expected. Given that her very first day of school was about a zillion miles from home, and that it was not the first day of school for anyone else (this is the beginning of the third term of the year here; the new school year starts in January) I thought she handled it like a champ. Her teacher is Mrs. Moss, who is British. There are 15 kids in her class, a pair of twins from India I met; I'm not clear on the other nationalities yet. There have been no tears, and she wakes up in a good mood and ready to go back, which is a huge relief. I think Eden's excitement about it helps a great deal, but I also think she is feeling genuinely comfortable there. Last year in preschool it seemed like she never did come out of her shell all year, like she just never really found her stride. So far, it seems like this will not be the case this year. She does ask interesting questions about how to start being someone's friend, so she is trying to figure out how to engage people socially, which I think was the problem last year. But as I said, this seems to be coming along much quicker this year. She stated she did not like P.E. ("the teacher was mean"), but seems fine with the rest of it.

School starts at 7:00 a.m. and dismisses at 1:00 except on Fridays when they dismiss at 12:15. This means we get up at 5:30 to be out the door at 6:30. The kids have adjusted to this much better than Ted or I. Ted stated this morning that he doubted he and I would get adjusted to the time schedule all year. They pack snacks and have two snack breaks during the mornings. In the next couple of weeks the after school activities will start, which are optional extracurricular things. All in all I am just incredibly proud of both of them. What we have asked them to do - leave their home and start the school year in a completely new place within a totally different culture and totally different school structure, and jumping into a new grade level 2/3 of the way through the year - they have just been amazing in their ability and willingness to adapt.

We have pictures of the kids in their uniforms which I will have Ted post later. He is in class right now, and the professor (Dean Kashiwagi, who is another Fulbright) has gone back to the U.S. for a few weeks. Dean and Ted have become friends, and he actually asked Ted to run the class tonight for him, which is a review for the exam next week. I am anxious to hear how it went...

We hope all is well with all of you there. Thanks for reading this - it means a lot to us.

More Home Life.

We thought you would appreciate more pictures of the kids.

First, after eating PB&J for lunch (the J comes in a can), Trey does a little reading before heading off to nap. He pages through 'his books' until he falls asleep. He calls this book, his "tree book" for the trees on the cover. He has now moved on to fairy tales (one of Hope's books).

During Trey's naps, Hope and Eden look for things to do. On the day this photo was taken, they wanted to build a fort fit for hibernating. The two and three layers were meant to make it pitch black (for effective hibernation). Hope decided it was too hot to hibernate. This past week, both girls have spent most of their time with the 7 puppies next door.

Eden is next to one of our new Aloe Vera plants that we planted in our backyard (they call them all 'gardens' here). They are both doing fine.

School starts Tuesday for the girls. They both can't wait.

Please take care.

Road Trip!

This weekend we ventured outside of the city for the first time. We set out for Khama Rhino Sanctuary (KRS) in Serowe, a 3 1/2 hour drive from Gaborone. We rented a chalet for Friday night, and then went on a 6:00 a.m. game drive Saturday morning. We had been warned by the Embassy about driving outside the city after dark. This is because people here are poorly trained to drive. This is especially problematic on the weekends, because drinking and driving is very common, and most especially on the last weekend of the month, because the last Friday of the month is payday. We set out early to avoid this situation, but let's just say it did not go well. Our 3 1/2 hour drive turned into an almost 6 hour drive, and so we found ourselves breaking all three Embassy guidelines - driving outside of the city after dark, on the weekend - the last weekend of the month. AND, we did not know where we were going. Ted and I were - well - tense, and the kids were crammed into the back seat of the Corolla, antagonizing each other for something to do. (Eden wants me to add here that Ted and I were arguing like this: Turn the light on! No, turn the light off! No, turn the light on! and so forth). So, after what was quite possibly the most unpleasant family drive we have ever had, we arrived successfully at KRS. I think we are (now) all in agreement that it was worth it.

KRS is a fantastic place. It was established in 1989 to reintroduce white rhinos to Botswana. They started with about 4, and now have 36, so the breeding is very successful. They also now have 3 black rhinos, which are much more endangered. They have 4300 hectares of land, and have many other animal species as well. The rhinos have veterinary care and protection, while Mother Nature is left in charge of the rest of the animal species.

Eden wants to point out that our game drive ranger was a woman - the first woman ranger we have had. She is very happy about this. We saw 7 or 8 rhino, one of which we all agreed was as big as an elephant - just this massive creature that ran right in front of our jeep. The rest seemed to be more "normal" rhino size. We saw several other interesting animals: giraffe, zebra, gemsbok (a.k.a. oryx), eland (the biggest antelope in Southern Africa, and something Ted ate for dinner when we were in MalaMala), steenbok, springbok, kudu, wildebeest, duiker. Eden got to see the kudu very close up, as it wandered into a clearing near the restaurant while we were eating breakfast. She walked with one of the employees up close to take some pictures. Below is a sampling of the photos Ted took.

These are 3 juvenile male white rhinos (with a fourth one right behind the one in the middle). This was a group that we were able to get quite close to, and they let us watch them for several minutes before they went on their way.

Black rhinos are much more rare, and they have only 3 in park; we did not find them.

More rhino pictures....

We saw probably a dozen zebra. The birds in the background are either guinea fowl or crested francolins.

One of two giraffes we saw. (Carla - this one is for you and Nicholas)

A wildebeest. We drove through a whole herd of them. Not a mad stampeding herd like on Lion King though; they were just kinda' standing around watching us.

A sad footnote. A big area of the park was scorched - the ranger said the fire had just occurred within the past week. She said that the fire was started by a lady who was cutting brush at the side of the road - not in the park itself (people here are hired by the government to do this job, and they do it by hand with this little sithe-like instrument). I am not clear why she started the fire, but it got out of hand and swept through a big chunk of sanctuary land. (The only animals killed were some steenbok.) The woman was arrested, and was facing two years in prison. She committed suicide instead.

Weekend Update

So, we had a good weekend. On Saturday morning, we got up and went to the Main Mall, which is downtown. This is a much more "African" experience than going to the Riverwalk Mall near our house. The Riverwalk feels much more Western, while the Main Mall is an outdoor mall with a long corridor where people sell there wares on the sidewalk, and then lined with interesting shops, including the Botswana Book Centre, and to Ted's delight, the Gaborone Hardware Store. There were also several purely African places to eat. However, I must admit, we lunched at ... KFC. I think it was good for all of us to eat somewhere that felt familiar, if nothing else. It was the first time Eden has been able to find mashed potatoes anywhere here, which was a high point.

We then went way out to the north part of town to Botswanacraft, a store that sells primarily locally or regionally made and traditional items, including pottery, baskets, textiles, and much more. The girls each got a stuffed animal, Trey picked out a handmade paper book, Ted got books on the trees of southern Africa and historical buildings of Botswana, and I got a neat little leather purse. We also got some marula candy (yummy!) which is made from marula fruit - something only found in southern Africa. (You can also get a liquour made from it called Amarula, which is quite good, eh Scott?)

Later in the afternoon, the girls and I went to my friend Kanana's house, so they could play with her kids. Liam is 7 and Khutlo is 4. Eden and Liam have become good friends, they play together very nicely. Hope is a bit more shy around Khutlo, but they did watch Mulan 2 together, and by the end of the afternoon Hope seemed to have had a good time.

This morning we went to church for the first time. Most of the churches have 2 services each Sunday, one in English and one in Setswana. We thought we were attending the English service at a UCC church, but it seemed like most of it was in Setswana, other than the more formal parts. It was 1 hour and 45 minutes long, with about 40 minutes of that being the sermon! However, all in all it was very lovely and we actually enjoyed it. The music was particularly lovely. With no piano, organ, or anything, people here are able to easily break into 2 or 3 part harmony that is just amazing to listen to. To my kids delight, one of the hymns was "Jesus Loves Me", which I sing to them often, but had never actually heard it sung in church before.

After church we went to this place called Sanitas for lunch. It is a teagarden in the middle of a nursery and garden store. It is all outdoors, under some big lovely trees, with a giant treehouse/playset for the kids, and several decorative fountains going - just a lovely place. We will definitely be going back.

After lunch when we came back here, the girls were playing a game in the living room and Eden complained that we did not have a vacuum for the rug. I suggested she could take it outside and beat it if it was dirty, and she said "Um, no thanks.". Aaahhh, I have my kids back :-)

A note to readers: Ted is now telling me that since I have posted this, he is concerned that no one is going to scroll down to read his posting below about the trip to the game reserve, so please make sure you read his post so his feelings are not hurt...

Gaborone Game Reserve (Park)

Ted: The kids and I spent several hours at the Gaborone Game Reserve (GGR) on Tuesday, August 19th. We were greatly surprised at the variety, number and quality of the animals we saw there. We saw several species for the first time. First some background: Gaborone was selected as the capital city for Botswana in the mid 1960s when they gained their independence from the British. At the time, Gaborone was barely a town. They pretty much started from scratch to build a capital, parks included. The GGR was sited along the Notwane River in 1978. It is very small by any Africa game preserve/reserve standards - only 5 square kilometers or 1250 acres - but it is on the edge of town and 15 minutes from our flat. Their goal was to provide a place were local folks could see animals native to the area. From their brochure, "A large number of people from Gaborone, both adults and school children, never see wildlife in its natural habitat". It is open every day, cheap (about $5 for all of us) and we get to use our own Toyota Corrolla as our safari vehicle.

We were there for about 3 hours but ran out of battery on my camera after the first 30 minutes. It is just one large fenced area with roads, a couple of picnic areas and the vacant Visitor Center (picture above). We drove up and down, across the roadways all looking in different directions going, "oh, look there. oo, over there... ohmygosh, look at that one". During our entire time (during the day on a weekday) we saw no more than a total of 5 other vehicles - otherwise, just us lost in the wild. For those in Fort Wayne, it was an super-sized African Velt at the Zoo, except in your own car. The most common animals we saw were Impala, Warthogs and Vervet monkeys. Lots of Kudu and Ostrich.

The Vervets let us get pretty close with our vehicle. They went on with their day picking bugs from trees and caring for their young. The monkeys were sometimes no more than 5 feet outside our car window. Toward the end of our visit we stopped at a picnic area to stretch. After a couple of moments, a family of Vervets piled out of a nearby tree and began moving toward us. They just kept walking toward us (I think they are used to picnickers tossing them food), the male first followed by the females and tailed by the babies. After I realized they were as tall as Trey (and Trey has no fear) we decided to get back in the car. It ended with us running and giggling/dropping the keys, screams of, "Daddy, daddy, they're still coming" and slamming doors all around.



Some of our firsts included the rare Hyrax (below, left of the water well. They are the only living mammal related to the elephant),





Zebra, Wildebeast (below photo, but very far away), and Thessape (a long-horned type of antelope).



We saw a monitor lizard and all kind of birds.


The Warthogs were sometimes alarming. The park has no predators, so they grow big. One, I swear, was as big as a small pony. Several mom warthogs with 2-3 young. Eden and Hope thought they were pretty cute at that age.


We plan to go back soon and often, next times with fully charged camera and more apples and toys for Trey. We will likely eat our food in the car...

Of Birthdays and Sadness

Birthdays: Trey Thomas Nitza turned 3 yesterday - just don't tell him that. Some of you will remember the phase he went through in which he completely rejected the idea of the letter "W", and screamed "no, M!" every time someone got to the letter W while saying or singing the alphabet... Well, this is similar. He accepted that it was his birthday, and seemed to enjoy himself and his party. However, when anyone mentions that he is 3 now, he yells "No, I am 2!" with the same intensity he did about the whole W versus M thing.

Nevertheless, we had a nice day. The girls were VERY excited about his birthday, moreso than he was. I think this just gave them something new to focus on. We invited the little girl Harley that we met at the hotel over for a little party, which the kids were also all very excited about. Harley and her parents are staying at the Sun Hotel while her dad is filming the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series, which is based on the book series by the same name. If you have not read them, they are by Alexander McCall Smith and are set in Botswana. All the settings in the books are real places, and the books give a neat look at the culture here. The TV series will appear on HBO.

Back to the party... Trey and I made cupcakes (cooking with me has become one of his favorite things - he will tell you that he can cook hamburgers, rice and broccoli with cheese). The girls decorated the front gate with clothespins to look like streamers. When Harley arrived we had cupcakes and ice cream, presents, and then the kids and Harley played outside. We got him gifts that we were able to find around here: a ball, a book, a Noah's Ark set, a little kitchen set, and a couple scary wrestler action figures which, sadly, have become his favorites. We then went and got some pizza for dinner, and he played with his various toys for the rest of the day.
I am back to being unable to get pictures to upload this evening despite my success earlier today, so stay tuned for birthday pictures in a future post.

Sadness: The newness is wearing off, and I think it is starting to drag us all down a bit. At various times in various ways we are all missing the people and comforts of home. The girls are talking more about missing specific people. When Trey sees them get sad, he immediately says either "I miss Angie" (sorry Scott, I know he misses you, too), or "I miss Grandma and PoPo and Tulip". After we were able to talk to Scott's family tonight, Eden got very tearful, she misses Lyra so much. After I put her to bed this evening I saw she was still up, so I went up there to find that she was basically making a shrine to Lyra - a pile of all the things she brought with her that she knows Lyra loves. Sigh...

The kids have made a few friends - Harley, mentioned above, plus the son and daughter of my new friend Kanana, (who is the sister of my department chair here). Kanana lives quite close to us, and her kids go to Westwood also; I think they will really be able to enjoy each other. Kanana was raised here, but has spent the past several years in the Phillipines, so her kids are away from their home as well. School starting will be very good for all of them. I am trying to think of things for the girls to do during the day to keep them busy, but as I said, the newness is wearing off and you can only beat the dust out of the rugs so many times a day before it loses its excitement...

We Finally Got Some Pictures Uploaded!!

We have tried since we got here to upload pictures and this is the first time it has worked. Ted tinkered with the router, which seems to have sped things up a bit. Plus we are trying it on Sunday afternoon, when perhaps the volume of "traffic" is slow. It is still taking about 10 minutes per picture, so we are going to have to pace ourselves. But, here are a few to get us started. From top to bottom:

1) Ted standing in our front courtyard area by the front door. He is feeling proud of himself for having rinsed some clothes by hand and hung them to dry. Sadly, that little sink has a huge leak, so our cleaning lady, Catha Bigboy, washes most of our laundry by hand in the bathtub.

2) Trey examining the new landscaping in the back yard. Ted and the kids put in the whole rocked area around the trees.

3) The kids working on the backyard landscaping. They got the plants from Mokolodi (same place as our first game drive), which has a nursery that specializes in sustainable, native, drought-resistant plants. The girls have had fun discovering the joys of aloe straight from the plant.