Tuesday at Focolore

Tuesday was a day of school and teaching for all of us. I had one-on-one interviews with the Thesis students about their topics. Many are very aware of the problems with providing resources (books, teachers, libraries...) for K thru 12 students and want to see what can be done to use computers to help. Others are aware of the how small businesses need help getting their advertising on the Internet and others are interested in municipal services available on the Internet. I am trying to get them to take on projects with a smaller scope so that they don't take on all the problems of the world in one semester.

My Africa experience for today was putting a paper sign on my office door in the New Science Building. I took out my sign and Scotch tape and put it on the door, only to discover that the door had just been varnished. I saw the painter up there yesterday, but didn't notice what he was doing. I sort of stuck to the door but luckily the paper didn't stick and I was able to move the sign to the wall with some new pieces of tape. Again, since no one else has keys to the office doors, the painter will have to come back later in the week to do the edges and inside of the door. Maybe he will bring a "wet paint" sign!

The rest of the crowd went up to Focolore at 3 for the afterschool teaching of some of the local kids. They drew pictures and wrote the English words for the objects. Sharon invented a game of giving a tool or utensil each kid and they saying "who has the Paslode air-powered nail gun?" and that kid would hold up the tool and everyone would say "Paslode, air powered nail gun". Just kidding, they just had simple tools like screwdrivers and pliers, the nail gun would have been real useful to put the trim back on the apartment doors. When the wind starts in the afternoon, all of the doors slam shut throughout the complex. Since the door jams are all hand made, they slowly come apart from this slamming. I have made the rounds renailing all of the doors.

We had milk shakes tonight after dinner. We used to go up to the Warthog Cafe for milk shakes on Tuesday but their milk shake machine is broken and has will be fixed "maybe next week" for the past 3 weeks. We don't use a milk shake machine, we have Caleb. He is strong enough to get the hard frozen ice cream out of the carton and into our mixing bowl. We are trying to get him to wear a Maasi outfit while making the milk shake -- the guy at the Warthog does! Anyway the milk shakes are a very nice treat for Tuesday.