two top 10's

two top 10 lists for you...

Top 10 Reasons it feels like we’ve only been here a SHORT time:

10. I still really suck at speaking siSwati.
9. We’re not even close to filling up the pit latrine.
8. I still get lost in Mbabane and turned around in Manzini.
7. Haven’t yet seen any lions or giraffes.
6. Still wearing the same old patched up pair of pants I brought with me.
5. Haven’t yet read the entire PCV Handbook
4. Still have plenty of crossword puzzles to do.
3. Haven’t gone through all the bags of coffee from care packages (thank God)
2. Feels like just the other day we were back home, saying goodbye to friends and family
1. Plenty of locals still stare at me as though I’m an extra-terrestrial

Top 10 reasons it feels like we’ve been here a LONG time:

10. 9 new babies have been added to our friends/family back home (including the Burley twins)
9. I hardly notice the roosters anymore
8. I’ve become quite skilled at pretending to understand more siSwati than I actually do.
7. Eating with my left hand (which is taboo here) feels really strange… and I’m left-handed.
6. Seeing a plane and/or hanging a fresh strip of fly tape constitutes an exciting day
5. It’s nostalgic to see and feel U.S. money (we keep a wad of it tucked away).
4. Hard to recall the annoyances of living in the U.S. but easy to remember the conveniences.
3. I call my wife “Khetsiwe” (her Swazi name) way more than I call her Jamie
2. I’m okay with being crammed into an overcrowded van with engine trouble and faulty doors
1. When white foreigners passed through our community (it’s happened exactly once) I stared at them as though they were extra-terrestrials

My Entrepreneurship students won a trophy

For the past academic year I have been facilitating a Junior Achievers (JA) business/entrepreneurship course at the high school, in which students founded a mini-company. They wrote a business plan, raised startup capital by selling shares and taking out a loan (from JA), then they developed a product and sold for a profit—all to learn about basic business operations and entrepreneurship. We sold scarves, ordered from a factory and designed to meet the school’s dress code requirements (kids get punished if they don’t adhere to it). They had the school motto, “Simply the Best,” embroidered on the scarf and sold it for a decent profit.

Anyway, at the end of the course, and after a Liquidation Report was turned in, the program judges selected the top 10 mini-companies in Swaziland to gather for an awards expo… and we were invited. The kids were pretty excited about the prospects of winning something. I, on the other hand, was more excited about a big, fancy lunch.

It happened last Saturday (Oct. 17th) in Manzini. At this expo, the General Managers of all 10 companies gave presentations about their company’s experience—startup, product, financials, social responsibility projects, income statement, etc—and the judges watched. Then these judges (businessmen and community leaders) combined the scores with previous scores to decide who got the awards. There were 1st, 2nd and 3rd place trophies, plus awards for CEO of the year, most innovative product, and best social responsibility project.

And you know what? Our little scarf company took home the grand prize: 1st place nationwide. Our CEO, a 17-year old boy named Makhosi, was interviewed for the local news. The school got a big, shiny trophy. The kids got prize money. I got that lunch. We were in the newspaper.

I know that winning isn’t everything, that the learning and practical experience gained by these students was its own reward… but I gotta tell you, winning feels good. And as the awards announcement approached that afternoon, I was just as nervous as my students. A little recognition is nice, you know? And for many of those kids, this was the most recognition they’d ever received. They danced on the bus all the way back home (see the video below).

It was a real challenge for me to be this program’s local facilitator. Cultural differences are really magnified in the classroom setting; they do school differently here, from corporal punishment to maddeningly “flexible” schedules… and frankly, I was never able to tell if anything I was teaching was actually sinking in. So it was nice that things ended happily. I guess sometimes you don’t know if a thing is worth doing until after you’re done doing it.

here's a short video for your viewing enjoyment...