Local Homestead Census Project

We’ve been helping our community tally and analyze the results of a big local census (which was shaped and organized thanks to Jamie’s efforts). Local rural health workers were recruited to visit homesteads in their “coverage areas” and conduct the census, and we have now received demographic information for 1,377 homesteads—that’s over 11,000 people—in all 4 surrounding Chiefdoms that comprise our Inkhundla.

Why do this? Well, the simple answer is this: without basic, up-to-date information about these homesteads, it’s nearly impossible for local leaders to assess the community’s primary needs and to secure proper resources from both government and charitable organizations. So this census not only provides that basic information, but it also familiarizes locals with the process of conducting a census—and the importance of doing them.

Many NGOs show up in our community with all manner of handouts, from food to tents to clothing, and they ask the Headmen to please point them in the direction of the “neediest” local homesteads. But that’s a terrible way of doing things. It reveals a deep misunderstanding of the local jealousies and favoritisms (read: corruption) plaguing Swazi society. And that “show up and ask” approach also assumes that the Headmen actually have that kind of demographic information at the ready. But they don’t. No one does. So this census will at least provide everyone with an objective look at the community’s homesteads and their relative levels of need—a snapshot that will be out of date rather quickly, but is at least a good beginning.

So anyway, here are a few of the more startling things our Census has revealed about this community:

· 49% are kids, under the age of 18, with the vast majority of them (39%) under the age of 14.

· Of all the kids, 35% are either single- or double-parent orphans. That’s 17% of the total population.

· Of the remaining 51% that are adults, just 14% are over the age of 45. (sidenote: the national average life expectancy is currently around 34).

· Just 8% of the surveyed adults report having income from formal employment. (informal employment is more common). That’s an unemployment rate of 92%… and we think the US is struggling with joblessness!

So the “average” local homestead houses about 8 people—4 adults and 4 kids—and if they’re very lucky, one of those adults is bringing in steady money for everyone else to live on. If the family has any wealth or assets, it’s most likely in the form of cattle and/or goats.

After compiling all this census data, we set about finding an objective way to “measure” the different levels of need and risk that a given homestead faces. The need for an objective risk assessment is due to all the favoritism and jealousy that often hinder well-meaning assistance efforts. As cold as it may sound, we needed to take all these personal situations and express them in numerical terms—that is, assign a “Risk Score.” So we worked on building a formula, variously weighted by the number of orphans and working adults and elderly adults, the ratio of kids to adults and other ratios… and then we applied it to all the homestead reports. And what we’ve come up with so far seems to do a pretty good job at identifying the most at-risk homesteads— and without any last names or locations; nothing subjective to corrupt things.

The situations on homesteads with the highest risk scores are pretty bleak. They have no adult at all, or else very few adults (unemployed, of course, and likely elderly) with lots of orphans to care for. Here’s what a 15.22 risk score looks like on paper: 1 adult who’s 60-74 years-old and earns no income; 9 kids (5 younger than 14), 7 of whom are orphans. Yikes!

So we’ve graphed all this information and are teaching our local counterparts in community leadership to read and access the data. And hopefully, when the next organization comes and asks for the “neediest” homesteads, they’ll at least have something to reference.

Skills Training for Rural Health Workers

Jamie has been busy developing short lessons for our community’s Rural Health Motivators (RHMs) on a variety of health topics. She presents these lessons to the women during their monthly gathering at Umphakatsi (community grounds), when they come to collect their government pay of about US$40 (that’s a monthly salary). Her upcoming lesson is about nutrition and malnutrition: how to properly identify malnourished children, and how to improve the local diet without spending too much money. She’s made upper-arm measuring bands to check for malnourishment in 1-5 year olds, and this week she’ll distribute them and show the RHMs how to use them.

(poster shows a balanced diet)

Here I am using one the measuring bands on Jamie. If her arm belonged to a 1-5 year old girl, she’d be one healthy kid. No malnourishment detected. Good news!

Jamie has made a lot of health-information posters over the past year or so. They’re on display at the local Clinic, they’re used for these RHM lessons, and they’re displayed at various community spaces and events.

As you can see in these pics, much of the poster information is written in siSwati. This is not an easy thing to do. Jamie writes out what she wants to say in English first, then consults the siSwati dictionary, then consults with friends to get the translation correct. It takes a lot of time, but it’s worth the effort.

poster information: signs and measurements of malnutrition and better food choices with limited money

School Library Project

Soon we’ll be busy at the local primary school, helping the newly formed Library Committee set up its first-ever library. The school’s principal worked to renovate an old building into a great library space, and we worked to build a stock of books for its shelves. And within a month from now, both of those efforts will yield big results.

As many of you know, this nationwide book donation project reached its fundraising goals (thanks donors!) and Books for Africa shipped out their container of about 30,000 books last month. They should arrive here around early April, at which time the sorting and distributing will begin. Our school lays claim to just over 1000 of them!

PCVs from 26 different rural communities throughout Swaziland, including us, joined together on this Peace Corps Partnership Project. We were able to raise US$10,300 to cover the costs of books and shipping/customs expenses— and we set a Peace Corps record: the most individual donors to a single PCPP fundraising effort in the history of that program. Wow! Thanks everyone who contributed.

All 26 schools also had to raise money to cover various in-country expenses.

We’re preparing for the book’s arrival. Last month we attended a workshop to learn how to set up a school library, and in a few weeks we’ll teach that workshop to our school’s new Library Committee—covering things like book organization systems, making subject catalogues and title catalogues, establishing a lending system… lots of details. We expect to be busy with the Library Committee throughout April and May.

soon these shelves will hold books!

It may seem strange that a Swazi school library be stocked with English-language books, so I’d better explain. English is the mandated language for all education here. In fact, it’s the co-official national language (along with siSwati), and it’s the official language for all “government business.” As children progress through the grades, they must pass certain subject exams, and the most important of these exams is the English competency exam. In fact, students who do not pass the grade-5 English exam do not qualify to advance to the High School level. Without a firm grasp of English, the rationale goes, they’ll be unable to understand the teacher’s lessons in the upper grades. So for better or worse, this English-language mandate means that attaining fluency in English is extremely important for all Swazi students. By having a good library of English-language books for both the students and English teachers to use, our primary school will be much better equipped to meet these mandated education requirements—and the kids will have a better chance of graduating.

That said, it is important that these libraries properly integrate these English-language mandates with the cultural heritage of Swaziland and other Southern African traditions. In that spirit, school faculty members and PCVs are making every effort, to bring important cultural documents and reference materials into these libraries. We are working to include titles by regional authors, culturally relevant visual aids, siSwati language periodicals and other reading materials, and any other things that will help to encourage a sense of respect and pride in the Swazi culture. Plus, we’re encouraging the Library Committee to consider using the library for various cultural events, such as hosting local guest speakers to discuss local history and tell stories.

We’ll keep you all informed as this exciting project develops! And we want to send a big thank you to our Arizona friends, the students and teachers in the Verde Valley for their generous contributions. They raised money and purchased 185 children’s books for this library—and as soon as they’re on the shelves we’ll send you pictures! You are a special group of kids and teachers, and we’re so thankful for your efforts.

Community Garden Project Update

We’ve been continuing our work on renovating the community garden’s water system, which many of you helped fund (thank you!). And as the rainy season comes to an end and water once again becomes a scarce resource, we’re preparing to see a big surge of interest in the garden: the pipes are full of water. For the first time in many years, when June and July rolls around and Zombodze’s rolling hills are all brown and fallow, the big rectangular footprint of the community garden will still be green and verdant… and I cannot wait to see it.

Although most of the work has long been done to bring water back to the garden spigots, there has still been a lot to do. Last month we expanded the creekside reservoir and reinforced it with concrete. Just last week we installed the permanent filter at the intake pipe (built by the local welder). And just a few days ago we finally finished the fairly grueling process of replacing all the old, damaged standpipes and spigots in the garden with brand new ones—18 in all. I’ll replace a few more old components before we leave, but nothing critical. The last big labor component to do: build some ground-level concrete water tanks in the garden, to be used for water storage if/when the pipes and spigots need to be closed for maintenance or repairs. I’ll be hiring a few local laborers to do the work (while I hover over them impatiently).

Picture Caption: Here I am replacing an old standpipe and spigot assembly with new components. I've spent a good part of the last few months standing in muddy holes and sweating profusely.

I’ve also begun compiling a maintenance manual for the new system, which is intended to help the Garden Committee preserve the pipes and valves. It includes pictures of all the components and how they’re put together, where to find all the underground stuff, information about local parts suppliers, and a maintenance routine for regularly flushing out the system and exercising the valves. I love doing this kind of stuff. Seriously—I do.

Our most challenging work lately has been mobilizing the Garden Committee and holding garden meetings to improve overall organization… but we’ll keep at it and try various approaches. This is not a society that places any value on punctuality, so as a result, trying to organize and hold meetings here is often a frustrating exercise in futility: sometimes no one shows up, sometimes people trickle in… hours late. Drives me nuts. But we’ll persevere. I’m going to approach a Swazi organization and ask them to help with long-term organizational development of the garden, thinking they’ll be around after we’re gone to follow through.

So that’s the garden water project update. The water flows, the system is functioning well, and what work remains is aimed at improving its prospects for long-term maintenance and preservation. When the dry season is in full swing I’ll do some measurement/evaluation regarding increases in garden membership and crop production.

Picture Caption: Two of our most valuable volunteer workers, Mkhulu Nkambule (left) and Mkhulu Simelane. These guys are really, really strong. And friendly.

South African Coast Roadtrip

Here's a video summary of our trip, which features monkeys, trains, hikes, beaches, waves, markets, and Twurly Cones.

Want to help launch 27 school libraries in Swaziland? me too. here’s how.

We're back in Swaziland and will post vacation pics/vids soon, but first things first-- this is way more important...

The vast majority of schools in Swaziland do not have functioning libraries or access to large collections of books, and our community’s primary school is no different. But they’ve recently renovated an old building for use as a new library and now all that’s needed are books to fill the shelves (see the pics). We’ve been trying to help them do that, pursuing a few different options with the school’s principal (plus, our good friends in Cottonwood, Arizona are even working on something—Cottonwood rocks!). And now YOU can get in on all this literary do-gooder action.


Thanks to fellow PCV (and great friend of ours), Jason Kiener, there is currently a Peace Corps Partnership Project (PCPP) online fundraising effort underway to supply about 30,000 books to over 27 schools in Swaziland… our school being one of the chosen. Want to help? Got five minutes? Donating to this project is easy, just go to this Peace Corps website and follow the steps (on the right-hand side of the page).

We’re among a group of in-country PCVs partnering with Jason on this important nation-wide effort to increase the library/book capacity of rural Swazi schools. The U.S. partner is an organization called Books For Africa, and your donations will help fund the shipment of a giant shipping container full of books to Swaziland. A librarian-training course for participating schools will also be donor-funded. See the above-linked site for more project details.

We estimate that our school, Ngwane Central Primary School, will receive just over 1000 books through this project to help establish its first ever library. Pretty cool, huh? There’s actually shelving space in our school’s renovated building for about 3,000-4,000 books, so the other ongoing book donation efforts are still very much needed and greatly appreciated! Together, all these combined efforts will have a school library up and running in no time.

Jason is using the same program—the PCPP—we used for our community garden water project. 100% of your donation goes to directly to project costs and implementation. Plus, it’s fully tax-deductible.

So if you love books and libraries, and if you love the idea of helping school kids here in Swaziland gain access to books and libraries, then this is a great opportunity to help make that happen. The PCPP amount being raised is US$10,300. Donations of any size are gratefully accepted.

As always, thanks for your continued kindness, generosity and support you’ve all shown us during our time here.

South Africa Sojourn

We're travelling along the South African coast right now, on a 15-day vacation from our site in Swaziland. We're surfing, hiking along beaches and through forests, exploring little towns and settlements... it's been great to be on the move. We've rented a car and can pretty much come and go as we please-- not relying on khumbis and busses feels like such a luxury-- and when we get to Cape Town we'll hop on a train bound for J-burg.

Right now I'm using the computer at a great backpacker's lodge located in the shady forests around Nature's Valley. Yesterday we hiked around Tsitsikamma National Park and it was brilliant. It's breakfast time and we have a fun day planned: Monkeyland in the morning and the beaches of Buffalo Bay in the afternoon. I've been excited about Monkeyland for months. It's a free-roaming primate sancuary in which you can just walk around the grounds with all varieties of monkeys. Guess I've gotta remember not to put bananas in my pockets today...

Anway, we've been driving from east to west along a coastal highway called the N2. We picked up our car in Piet Retief and went straight down to Durban, where I picked up a used surfboard other essentials. Then we went into a remote area called the Wild Coast, staying first in the Eden-like beach town ofPort St. Johns and then Coffee Bay. Coffee Bay was great-- stayed a few nights, surfed/boogie-boarded (she-J) in warm, shark-free waters and went on a little day adventure to Hole in the Wall. Then we headed on down to East London (where I picked up a cheap old wetsuit for the cold waters ahead), then the surf mecca of Jeffreys Bay for a few days. Next, we're off to Buffalo Bay for a couple of days/nights, then Mossell Bay, then we'll spend some time in the Cape Town area before boarding the train.

So that's the basic itinerary... we'll post pics and vids when we're back home in Swaziland.