dago

Wiffle ball has been a bigger hit than I imagined it would be. Dago is a smart player - he hits for contact and pitches for accuracy. I've built up a pretty good team here. The sad part is they will never play against another team. Ever. I'm proposing a new save Africa plan for these poor starving orphans who just want to play wiffle ball. I'm thinking if I can get Oprah, Bono or Clooney aboard and I start getting pictures of the really dirty malaria kids, then the wiffle ball saving African orphans dream could one day come to fruition. I'll soon put up a link where you can donate your money to this amazing organization.

game day

The Chinese paid for 80% (about 55 million US$) of the new National Stadium here in Tanzania. We caught a game between the the best team in the country vs the best team from Egypt. Tanzanians (and probably most sub-Saharan Africans) hate Egyptian soccer for the same reason most Americans hate watching soccer - because they fall when they're flicked and act like they've been shot with a rifle. Real Africans don't fall on the field. The Tanzanian team didn't fake the fall but they lost.

The stadium was beautiful. The hallways, the bathrooms and the seats are all like you'd find in a new American stadium. The only thing lacking is the concession stands. Americans go to a ball game and are only truly comfortable when there's a frank and a beer in their hands. Tanzanians are happy enough to be at a ballgame.

the hole

When the local kids get really annoying I lock them in this cage for a day or three. They shape up pretty quick when they're released.

the hike

This is the second time we hiked to the top of the mountain in my back yard. It's about five hours up to this point, which is a volcanic crater about 500 meters south of the peak. The students like to run all the way down - 2 hours. I couldn't bend my right leg by the time we made it to the peak. I had to limp down - 4 hours.

look up

Lucas is seen here trying to show a student the sun.

looking cool

About 2 out of 25 of my students on the hike figured out how to use the binoculars correctly. And about 25 out of 25 my students needed pictures taken with the binoculars. This one is funny because they're trying to copy Lucas' picture but they have no idea what the pointing means.

one is better than none

Here is our school monkey. We had the first one for fifteen years then it died. The second one lasted a few months. The administration said that was enough but the students weren't happy with that decision so they went and trapped another one. Here he is. The poor bastard lost the lower part of his arm during the capture. He lives in his own shit and they feed him (when there's enough food) ugali, the tasteless hard porridge that we eat for lunch every day. I try to throw him a banana once a day and he almost rips my arm off when I do. This behavior is probably caused by the students taunting and poking him with sticks.

The only time I've ever given corporal punishment to students is when I caught three of them trying to pull a dog into the monkey cage. I chased them down in the rain. Then I made them do pushups until they collapsed repeatedly in the mud. I got one to cry, probably because I ruined his only good clothes that he had just washed. Don't mess with the monkey.

arts and crafts

All over the world kids play with toys. Tanzanian kids build their own. And some of the contraptions they build are some of the most inventive things I've ever seen. They are made with trash- used batteries, shards of plastic, coconut shells, strings made from plants, bottle caps and anything else the kids can find that's not of any value to anyone else. With all the freedom the children are given and an environment that demands creativity you can bet the future artists, engineers, architects and Einsteins are coming from Africa.

gideon

Gideon is the chairperson of the village childrens future engineers organization.