Essays and Wardens

Yesterday I was in a major blue funk. Today I was ripped from it by the amazing-ness of South Africa's children!

As I believe I mentioned in a previous blog: I am sponsoring an essay contest at my huge-o school Moholeng Primary. The contest is in conjunction with March 8th International Women's Day. I challenged the grade 6 and 7 learners to write an essay about a women in their lives that they admire/respect and why.

The deadline is tomorrow and I had rather expected not to receive any essays whatsoever (even though there are 210 learners in grades 6 and 7 at this school) because the contest is to be completed in English - their second language (and one at which they struggle with immensely).

However, today I was approached by several young learners who were DYING to tell me that they'd finished their essays and they were SO excited to have me read them! One learner who goes to Moholeng and is in grade 7 happens to be my neighbor across the street. I know her pretty well and know that her English skills are less than those of her peers. Anyway, a few minutes ago she knocked on my door and asked me to please help her with her essay. She had written an ENTIRE page in English!!!! She wrote about her grandmother. It was fantastic and almost made me cry. I was so proud of her!!! I can't wait to go to school tomorrow and collect the rest. I have a feeling I'm going to post some of them on my blog so you can enjoy them along with me.

About wardens.

The Peace Corps has a new system to keep track of volunteers. The Warden System. Well, one person from each province was to be selected by the PC staff to be the "warden" of the province. What this means is the warden has to know about each volunteer's specific ware abouts if they are going to be away from site for more than 24 hours at a time. Also, the warden would be the liaison between PC and the province's volunteers should there be a consolidation due to crisis. Well, guess who the Northern Cape's Warden is? Yeppers, moi.

I have no idea why I was selected. Perhaps because I'm anally organized? Maybe :). It could serve as a resume builder if I tweek the language a bit. Jason said I should describe this position on my resume as: "Volunteer Supervisor - one of four supervisors charged with overseeing the safety and security of 153 Peace Corps volunteers." My version was: "The super-duper scary and fantastic supervisor of all things Northern Cape 'wa-tish' (the cracking of the whip)." Which is better?

That being said: I'm mostly excited because I get an all expense paid trip to Pretoria next week to hang out with our new Safety and Security Officer who happens to be a (GET THIS!!!!) former member of the AFRICAN UNION'S Mission to DARFUR!!!! I'm soooo excited to meet him and ask him questions.

:)