The wages of reading?

The after-supper reading has been going along fine, several chapters a night. Perhaps it's unrelated but eggs began being offerred afterward. Then more eggs in threes and then in quantities of 10.
And what was that mysterious 4th bowl on the supper table one night? (Usually only the standard 3: nshima, cooked veg. leaves and meat or beans.) No one was talking. It was served after the meal, homemade yogurt banana pudding. Dessert is way off any Zambian menu. Another night fresh orange halves were served for the reader and all the listeners. And more eggs.

This Weeks' Interview: Wisedom Muzoka
Wisedom is 17 years old, of short stocky build. He was 12 when he came to the orpanage then in Lusaka.

His is not as open as some of the others and just a bit more difficult for me to understand. He speaks at a faster clip to my ear.

I remember him coming to my room on my first visit and always feeling a little put off by him. He was slow to tell me what he wanted because his eyes were roaming around my room. Even as he talked, he usually didn't look at me but continued (I think) to inventory my belongings. He was a frequent visitor until I found he always came with that same phrase, "Sir, I am asking for the ____ (his current need). He usually was asking for something he'd seen on a previous trip, but sometimes he was on a 'fishing expedition". I felt my only use to him had to do with what I had brought with me.

Later when I began to greet him with "What do you need now?" and not being forthcoming in providing it, he was not above sending others who seemed on better terms with Uncle Sam to try instead. When questioned carefully as to why something was needed, the covert agent would eventually fold and say it was for Wisedom. He needed a variety of things but mostly having to do with batteries and electronics.

Wisedom is in the 11th grade. His current hobby is learning the guitar and listening to music, mostly hip hop.

Sports: I like football (soccer) and I am good at it. I am learning basketball. I would like to play golf. [no idea where that came from]

Goals: I would like to complete my current studies and then take some courses in banking and find a job in that field.

His happiest memory here: When I passed 7th grade final exams and oh, when I got a laptop that worked.
His saddest: He could come up with one. [Others suggested that he would have had several to consider.]

Changes he has seen here: The children are getting older.

What I like best here: The kind of life... he hesitated. "life-style' I suggested, Yes, he agrees.

Changes he would make: More sports and group outgings, camping, visiting game parks, and such.

Relatives: I have a sister who lives far away but I have gotten to see her. I also have a brother I haven't seen in years.

Do you have friends outside Chishawasha?
Yes, I have friends from school, from church and from the neighborhood.

What would life have been like without Chishawasha?
I would not have been exposed to so many good friends, my education would have hiccupped (been hit or miss). I would have been out of it... I am more up to date now.

My 'next container' wish: Laptop, that is a better functioning laptop, Windows, Apple computer. Also musical instruments, guitar and keyboards.

If you had the money: I would buy a good house in Lusaka and a fancy car. Anything left over, I would give to some place like Chishawasha.

Anything else you would like to say I appreciatet the laptops that were sent, I use one in my studies.

Addendum:
Last night after the 'evening story time' Wisedom came swaggering in, dressed in a 'new' sports coat (he'd been 'shopping' in our warehouse donations) and carrying a brief case which he said contained a little cash for Uncle Sam as he plops it on the table in front of me. He could have been a mafia boss, he was accompanied by a group willingly portraying his seedy henchmen. Each of whom would slink by and try to take the brief case. I asked him what kind of car he'd come in. "Oh, the hummer is parked outside," was the answer with a jerk of the head.

Official Opening Report:
Everyone, everything is leaning hard toward this grand event. The embassies have not yet responded as to what level of officials they will be sending, will keep you posted. Anyone have a red carpet/brass band?

Fence Update:
The fence is complete, 15 electified wire strands. This comes with an impressive gate and guardhouse and an introductory wall on which a sign will be painted to tell you what impossing organization lies beyond. The new entrance road is still just fresh-cut from the bush (unimproved track) at present.

Guitars
In my interviews guitars have come up as possible contain items. I have since learned that the two guitars we have came from previous containers. And I should say that those two instruments are currently providing lessons for 6 students, including John, Toko and Wisedom who you now 'know' blog-wise.

Chingachinga Season:
Chingachingas are wild red berries about the color, size and tartness of cranberries, but they are mostly pit. Not much fruit. But enough to keep kids picking them and bringing pocketfulls to class. This soft-hearted teacher thought he couldn't really stop their consumption so he allowed them in class. Intent on what he was doing, about a half hour later, gets up to walk to the board, but this is now difficult from all the chingachinga seeds on the floor. We took a chingachinga seed break in instruction to sweep.

Games:
Our young folk spend a good deal of time playing games. It would be hard to find a time to walk across our campus and not see at least three groups ingaged in some game or other. Some you would recognize as Marbles and various competitive ways of jumping rope (or short section of hose), or games like Jacks played with small stones, throwing one up and snatchin another from a pile before catching it. Hop Scotch is common on the school play grounds but not much around the homes.

Yesterday I saw my first game of Chishawasha tennis. It is played with a tennis ball, of course. The raquettes were two short pieces of plank liberated from a construction site. These require only two-handed shots. The court size depends on how much area you can cover while the ball is in the air. And it is playes sans net.

We have a soccer pitch, or we did, before the fence. As it currently stands, the back of one goal keeper would be dangerously near the electirc fence. Keeper are under enough pressure without that. So the pitch will have to shift at bit. No one is anxious to go back to playing on stubble and trampling it down to hard packed palying surface again.

The goals are rustic, upright poles and a cross piece cut from the bush. The main obstacle to soccer here is the omnipresent thorn bushes. One kick out-of-bounds can be a deflating experience for the toughest soccer ball. That is why you often see the younger kids, especially, playing with a very limp ball.

There are some neighborhood teams that come and play against the Chishawasha squad from time to time. There are other schools in the area, might be a possibility of a tournament.

The warehouse has a basketball hoop on the side. Just recently the court has been severely deministhed by a load of crushed stone. The basketball at least is usually inflated sufficiently to dribble, all thorn bushes have been banished from that busy work/traffic area.

I promise more fun and GAMES later, could do a whole blog on nothing else.

This is Sam at play, blog pressing out of Africa