Quarter moon ... Full day

It was one of those days that come by in a Peace Corps
volunteers life, like, almost never.
It was just one of those days that makes it all worth it.
Under the quarter moon I am writing about today's full
agenda. Here's how it went ...
The beginning was at the garden this morning seeing the
people working their plots and in a few cases having a
helping hand by their husbands.Also received a packet
of chili pepper seeds and began a little seed bed with
them. We didn't have any of those types of plants before
so it will add a diversity and in my opinion, a minute progress.
Then it was to the woman's netball court to prod the guys
into removing a tree that was inches away from the line
and kind of a hazard. A whole new group of young men
worked that little project and they toiled to say the least.
They dug down about 3 ft. and cut out the stump and
it was like a mini-excavation project. But now the netball
court is finally complete in all it's detail. It also looks
great and really has a good vibe to it.
Also during that time we were able to finally decide on
the location of the new football/soccer field. Right now
the soccer field is almost a mile and a half away from
the center of town and really isolated. It actually takes
out the enthusiasm for going there and usually no one
knows when or gets to see the players in action. So there is
no activity for the people and virtually no support for
the players. But we've solved that today and now the
new field will be about 100 meters from the center of
town. It also will be available for the school which
doesn't have a field at this time.
Yesterday I went to a city called Katima Mullilo and
was able to buy some rope that was needed to complete
the recouping of an old volleyball court that wasn't
used since the South African military left almost 19
or so years ago. Over the last few days we've cleaned
it off and cut down two old light poles that are now
being used as supports for the net. The problem we had
was that we needed some rope to be able to attach the
net. I brought that back yesterday from Katima and this
afternoon young men were playing volleyball (photo above).
It was really incredible to see all the positive activity
going on. Men playing volleyball and the women
playing netball and there had to be over a 100 spectators
total.
The goal of these activities is to try and give the people
and especially youth, something to occupy themselves with.
The biggest problem in this isolated village is alcohol.
It also is one of the leading factors in the spreading and
contracting of HIV.
When I arrived all I heard was that the youth have nothing
to do and so for that, they go to the shebeens (bars).
One project I am going to be involved in beginning this
week is to collaborate with a teacher to work with the
young girls in school whom are mothers. I am not sure
of the total but in the village itself there are many, many
of young or should I say, very young girls, totting their
babies around tied to their backs.
The only way to begin to address this issue that I could
think of was through sports. The people just love to
play sports and the San (Khwe) people can run and run
and run. Almost forever it seems.
On the volleyball court were three particular young men
whom everyone told me would have definitely been in the
bar at that time. On the netball court were four girl
students who are mothers.
One person told me to look in the direction of the bars
and tell me what I saw that was peculiar. I didn't get
what he was driving at but he said that for the first time
that he could remember, he didn't see anyone in
front of the bars on a Friday afternoon.
I got to tell you that this last week has been hectic
and the pace has been almost that of what life in
the States was. But, again, it was all worth it.
Can't say that all the problems are solved or that
this momentum to get balance back from the alcohol
driven society, will work out. In fact, only time can
answer that.
All I can say that it was just a great felling to sit there
this afternoon and see everyone having fun and
laughing and there was no alcohol involved.
So yeah, it was a full day and tomorrow we are
going on the road to the next village about 30 km
away to play netball with two teams.
Next week we are going to try and organize a
woman's netball league and a volleyball league
or two (depends on if women want to create
a league too). That should fill next week up with
that and the preparing of the soccer field (need
to cut down 4 little trees and moving goal posts).
Looks like another week ahead of full days, I'll
take as many of those as I can.
Maybe we can make this place and people's lives
better.
It's what this is all about.