Last night was (surprisingly) the first time my candles have generated a problem. Boi finally lit her tail on fire. Luckily, I saw right away
how stupid she was and blew out the small flame. She proceeded to get pissed at
me for blowing on her and began swatting me with her less-than-ferocious little
paws. I’m now accepting ideas for cat proof candle holders. I even considered
super gluing candle holders to the wall, but decided against that. I don’t
think my landlord would appreciate a $1 candle holder inexpertly glued to her wall.
The big exciting news of my life is getting a new (to me) big
bed! I can have visitors stay the night now, and they don’t even have to sleep
in a hammock! I’m planning on having a little gathering at some point soon.
Also, next week all 130(ish) Botswana volunteers are heading down to Gabs for
the first ever all volunteer regional meeting. It will be exciting to meet all
the volunteers from all the Bots groups, most of the volunteers have never met
some of the other groups.
Last week I went to the primary (elementary) school to talk
with the headmistress about downloading a fun typing program onto the 14 computers
in the lab. She took this to mean I wanted to start teaching computer lessons
and that I should probably do it four days a week. I talked her down to two
days a week, and even that I thought would be something I did not want to do,
but I reluctantly obliged. I went in yesterday, with absolutely no idea what to
teach them except how to open the typing program, but turned out I had TONS to
teach them. There were about 30 in the class (standard 6-age 11ish) and about
95% of them had never touched a computer. It finally dawned on me that it didn’t
matter how little I knew about computers, I could teach them anything and it
would be new. We started with the basics; it involved how to hold the mouse,
and how to click the mouse. Watching them struggle with the mouse, I could see
how foreign it was for them to use their hand that way. The right click and the
left click on the mouse were hard concepts to grasp, but toward the end of the
hour, most of them had gotten it down. I realized that this is how I probably
look to them when I try to do anything new here in Botswana, like dance or make
bogobe (porridge). I never remember being taught how to use a mouse, it seems
like such a innate ability for anyone in America because we have used computers
since we were seven (probably like two now, who knows). Overall, I really
enjoyed the class and the hour flew by; this means I am excited for my next
class today! They cannot wait to play games, but I figure they should learn how
to open a program first, then they can
move on to the really fun stuff. It’s really exciting to be the one to teach
them such a useful skill. Technology is becoming more prevalent in Botswana and
when they go to University (and they better go!), they will need to know how to
use a computer.
Me- “Hello, children. How are
you?”
Children- “Hello, teacher. We are
fine and how are you?” *erupts into hysterical fits of laughter*
Every. Time.
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