Sonja & Soja

The story involved antelopes and so on it was a nice animal thing to tell for the visitors.

Hi all of you,

I thought it is time for greetings

and that you can have an idea of the days here.

Last week we had very important visitors from the USA because they were supposed to give a Soya donation to the school. Americo (the headmaster)  was eager to present the school in the best light. The visitors were expected at 9 am. So it took us 1.5 hours to round all 800 kids on the playground and sat them nicely. The visitors actually came at 11 am. So the teachers and I had a hell of a lot to do to keep the spirits up with singing and so on because no one should leave the playground (" they will never come back once they left" Americo J). Then at 11 am they came. 6 white big people, one thin journalist, one sweating translator and one black man from South Africa armed till under his teeth. The kids looked stunned at the bodyguard, then at me, some little girls began to cry and one boy came to me and asked whether the white people were afraid of them. Well, I tried as best as I could to explain that adult people are sometimes funny.

Then the show began. The kids were giving a dance performance. Under no condition they should ask the Americans to participate, the music teacher had taught them this. But I think they were so used that people joined them dancing and in their last rehearsal the night before I joined them dancing, so maybe they thought white people are happy to dance. To the total horror of the Americans they were asked by the kids to dance. Well, they all went and tried to dance. The other kids were having the time of their life and laughing and shouting. Then the Americans were released.

Jim, the farmers boss went on stage and started to speak in his broad Texan accent: "Hi, my name is Jim." For a moment it was deadly silent then all kids laughed like hell. And here, kids are not only giggling, they are really really loud laughing and rolling around. Because I was the only white person, Jim could spot who was supposed to know the kids. He interrupted his speech, came to me, hissing: "What’s wrong with them?" Well, I told him they possibly never heard anyone talking in that accent and he should just continue. He tried but the kids couldn’t stop. He had also a funny voice somehow. I saw that he had prepared a speech about the importance of the youth and so on. In the end he shortened his speech to tell something about Soya which made it worse as he kept on saying "soy" and the kids found it hilarious.

The teachers tried to safe the situation by letting a small boy entering the stage, Jassin, he was supposed to tell a traditional African story. The story involved antelopes and so on it was a nice animal thing to tell for the visitors. However, at 5 am that morning he had knocked at my door to tell me that he had invented another story by himself and would like to tell. Well, I was so tired and and a bit cross that he came for this at this time and told him it’s just fine and he should go back to sleep.

So Jassin started: "There was a woman" I remembered that he changed the story. It was deadly silent, the kids love stories, the Americans were listening eagerly. "One evening the woman went to bed." I got the idea that this story didn’t include antelopes…. And got a bit nervous… "The woman got pregnant" Americo and the teachers were looking worried…which story is the boy telling here??? I was praying for an antelope appearing soon in Jassin’s story, but... "Then the woman gave birth." Here Jassin made a dramatic break, everyone was listening and for the effect I advice you to hit the drums: "The woman was giving birth to three teacups." Then Jassin bowed and went to his place. The Americans looked rather stunned, the translator was asking if it were really teacups (it was, I had the dictionary with) and the kids were rolling on the ground again.

It was a golden day anyway and the school got the Soya donation.

However, as the guests left Jim came to me and said: "That’s quite a challenging task you have here. Good luck" Then he disappeared with his bodyguard from South Africa.

So this was one Tuesday morning, the days are fine and I have a lot of fun with the kids. Today two other DIs arrived, one woman from Brazil and one Japanese guy.

On Saturday I have built a soccer field with the kids and yesterday I went with 70 kids to the beach, praying to all gods that no kid would get lost... J

I have to go, I hear my name shouting

Cheerio, Sonja