Monday, December 21, 2009

Salajwe Girls MMA Camp

One project of mine that is starting to take off is my interest in starting a mixed martial arts group for female youth in the village. Mixed martial arts is a combination of several martial arts including Brazilian Jui Jitsu, wrestling, and Moi Tai boxing (punches and kicks). From my understanding, a lot of girls in Salajwe suffer from low self esteem. Rarely do the girls complete school let alone qualify for college. Most are mothers before they turn 20. There is somewhat of a low expectation for women: their goals are small if any and they have few role models to look up and relate to. Because so many girls are single parents, they move from boyfriend to boyfriend dependant on men to provide for them and the child. Part of the exchange is sex, most likely unprotected sex. Here lies opportunity for more unwanted pregnancies and possibly HIV infection. By learning and competing in mixed martial arts (MMA), I am hoping to build these girls’ confidence. As a result they will delay their sexual debut, or demand more equality in their relationships (i.e. condomize). My goals include building their self respect and also respect for their peers. By no means am I encouraging these girls to practice violence on each other or otherwise. But rather building a sense of women empowerment in the village.

[Please note that not all girls in Salajwe would fall in these categories I am mentioning]

With Lucas’ help at Lempu Junior Secondary School, I am applying to start an after-school club. A major set back for the school is that I want to open the club to 11-30 year olds. That includes primary school and out of school youth whom don’t attend the junior school. In order to build interest in the club beforehand (I’m sure none, if any of the girls know what mixed martial arts is), I planned a week long camp in December to show the girls what the club would be all about. I posted fliers all over the village about who, what, when, and why. My greatest advertisement by far was word of mouth. Any girls who come by the house all the time that are old enough I invited and had them bring a friend. I requested to use the community hall in the village and borrowed athletic mats from Lempu. The camp went Mon-Fri for two hours. I managed to secure all needs with no money at all. Lucas and I filled buckets with water for the girls to drink during practice and got to the hall early every day to sweep and mop mats.
Monday finally came around and we were excited to start. I got a scale from the clinic so I could weigh each girl. When I met Lucas at the community hall, he had been stung by two wasps and was having an anaphylactic reaction.  His face, chest, and arm pits were red and swollen and he was itching all over his body. I rushed him to the clinic to get a hydrocortisone shot and some medication. After all that excitement we still had to run back to the hall before all the girls showed up.
Well 10:00am rolled around and still no one was there. A few minutes later 4 girls popped in. I took their weight and recorded their names and ages. We warmed up and stretched. I had requested an out of school youth from the head of the youth committee to help me interpret to the girls but no one was available so we did the best we could (both sides). I wanted to stress the importance of drinking water, stretching, and insisting that all moves showed in the room were not to be used out of control or to manipulate anyone. Hopefully they got the message…Anyway, we played crab soccer (same as soccer only must stay on hands and feet all the time-really good for building arm strength). We started with boxing; jab, cross, and jab-cross combination. The girls were very enthusiastic. We ended with a game in which two people stand facing each other and must try and make the other person move their feet by pushing on their hands-really good for building better balance.
That afternoon we were visited at home by several young girls. We played ladder ball with them (Lucas made himself from tree branches and rocks). Afterwards, we encouraged all the girls to come to our camp the next morning at 10.
The next day we had 23 participants! Ages ranged from 11-17. No real out of school youth participated but many liked to watch. There were babies everywhere; either from girls baby-sitting brothers and sisters or mothers with their children. Even some boys tried to join. The girls took pride in telling the boys it was Batsetsana Fela! (girls only). We decided to break out the mats that day so that we could have a larger selection of games. We reviewed jab, cross, and combos for everyone who wasn’t there the first day. Because we had so many girls, we did relays. They get so excited! But they like to cheat too…The girls were getting pretty good at punches. We had them pair up and practice on each other while their opponent would hold up their hands. I think I started to loose them when I showed defense. We ended with Steal the Bacon-split the group into two teams and assign a number to each girl. When their number is called, one girl from each team races to steal a ball placed in between the two teams and run back to their team. These girls were flying head-first towards that ball. I don’t know how we didn’t have like 15 concussions. These girls get after it. They’re such good sports-no one was particularly too bummed that they lost. They were just having a good time.
On day 3 we showed up at the community hall to sweep and mop (an hour before practice started) and there was a group of girls already waiting for us. They are so eager to help. They offered to sweep, pull out mats, and fill buckets with water. That day we took a different route and started teaching some wrestling takedowns. I had them practice their balance by playing a game in which they hold one of their feet behind their back, hop around, and try to pry their opponents hand off their foot while keeping their own balance. We did step-by-step instructions of how to perform a takedown shot. They did pretty well during the drills but actually taking down an opponent is hard and I think some girls started loosing interest. I’m sure a lot of girls were starting to get soar and tired from the weekly activities. We regained their attention with more games but what really calmed them back down was doing boxing drills. They really picked up on those quickly. We warmed down with some yoga stretches and even did some push ups! Our plan for the next day was Jui Jitsu moves. We were nervous but thought they should give it a try anyway.
We started off the day with low expectations. The girls seemed to get frustrated quickly with the takedowns. Jui Jitsu is hard enough to explain in English. I didn’t know how me and Lucas were gonna explain these moves in Setswana. We decided to tackle the beast early and taught a reversal from guard right away. Guard position is when a fighter is on her back with her feet flat in the mat. Her opponent is on her knees in between the fighter’s legs and lays almost chest to belly. In a reversal, the fighter hooks her opponent’s arm and with her hips, pushes off the mat and rolls so that she is on top of her opponent (this can also be used to escape from a sexual predator). The girls embraced the move well although most were embarrassed about the position, especially if they were wearing skirts.
After drilling takedown shots again across the mats, I split the group into two teams and had them paired up by weights. When their number was called, the 2 girls would meet in the center of the mat and try and take each other down. I wasn’t sure how the game would go but I was interested in seeing how the girls could wrestle. Please note that when teaching wrestling in the states, most coaches would wait weeks of intense wrestling practices before having wrestlers attempt live takedowns. I was blown away by the results. From the youngest to the oldest, these girls were so tough and would fight to the death. No one was too shy. It was the best part of my whole week. I demonstrated how to sprawl (throwing legs back and out, and hips down onto an opponent’s head) when an opponent was trying to take you down and other defense wresting moves. We ended with more games and bowed out (circle up, hold hands to your side, face up, and bow forward-encourages building respect for peers).
Last day, we planned to have mostly games to keep them interested and wanting more. We played sword fight (girls stand foot to foot and hold hands so that their finger is pointing out like a sword; then they try to “stab” each other with their “sword” while protecting themselves at the same time). We did 6-man relays that included tumbling, shots, cartwheels, and barrel rolls. We lined them up and did punching drills plus a few takedowns and sprawls. Again I split the girls into tow teams and had them take down their opponent. They had low stance, taking shots and sprawling. I couldn’t believe how much they learned in only a week!
While Lucas occupied the group with various games, I took two girls at a time and had them show me various boxing punches, takedowns, and Jui Jitsu rolls (mock exam). Afterwards everyone got a treat which they loved. I explained as best I could in Setswana that I was interested in starting a club similar to the camp at Lempu next term and wanted them to come and join.
All in all I thought the camp was a HUGE success. I think over time these girls will develop higher self esteem and hopefully deter them from risky behavior. A perfect ending to my week: Lucas and I got the go-ahead to start the club at Lempu!!!


Lucas after being stung =(


Kenaneo being weighed, first day


Katie teaching a jab


Girls drilling punches


Lucas teaching takedown shots


Katie teaching takedowns


Katie teaching jiu jitsu roll


Girls doing live takedowns

The Scharmers Have Moved





Some of you may have heard of some problems we were having with our house: once the rains came in we discovered quite a few leaks in the house, particularly in our bedroom. It was like playing musical chairs to find a spot for the bed not under a leak. Once the pluming broke, I decided we needed to find a new house.
On a walk we stumbled on a vacant house just outside the primary school compound. We couldn’t get inside but through windows we saw there was a large kitchen, with cabinet space, two bedrooms with closets, and a nice size sitting room. When Lucas told me the primary school owned the house, I set about getting us moved into it. At first Mma Petso, the head master of the school was reluctant to let us move. But after it was discovered the leaks of our house could not be repaired, she gave us the keys to the new house. We were ecstatic!
The new house has running water and electricity (we had been out of running water for 30 days). The one down side is we have to abandon our garden we worked so hard on. But we have plenty of yard space for a new one. After spending a day or two fully cleaning and re-arranging the new house, we needed help moving our things from one house to the other. We decided to recruit the students.
We borrowed a truck to move the major pieces of furniture. Once that was finished, we took our posts: Lucas was packing up and boxing things from the old house, while I was sorting and making homes for the things in the new house. In between were the kids in a line carrying it all. I was amazed at how much one kid could carry. One in particular kept telling Lucas to keep giving him more until he was weighed down. Two kids about 6 and 8 years old carried sitting chairs. When Lucas was boxing up my tampons, a child asked “ke eng?” which means ‘what is that?’ Lucas tried to explain, “It’s for Lesedi.” The kid insisted they were sweets. Lucas finally had to open one up to convince him it wasn’t candy. After all was said and done, we were all moved and all it cost us was cookies and a pitcher of juice.

Saturday, December 12, 2009

Merry, Merry Christmas from Botswana

Lucas and I want to wish all our friends and family a Merry Christmas. While you guys are gathered around a Christmas tree in sweaters, we'll be baking in the Kalahari Desert heat. A special thanks to those who sent gifts: Cyrena Ratliff, Amy and Donald Bryson, Chris and Cameron Ross, the Home Fellowship at The Heart and Amanada and Peterson families. Thanks to family, we do have a small Christmas tree and small stockings some Christmas music and even some decorations. But we do miss the smell of Christmas trees and snow.
You all have no idea how much you are appreciated and missed, especially around the holidays. Thank you again

Love
Katie and Lucas Scharmer



Lucas cutting out Christmas cookies


Kifilwe and friends helping decorate cookies


Look at all the goodness!!!!

Survival Night 2

So Lucas and John had such a good time out in the bush, our friend Sadie and I wanted to tag along for the next trip. We made plans to meet in
a central village, Khudumelapye. We were headed to Sorilatholo where John
is a volunteer. The village is so small it’s not even considered a village;
more like a glorified cattle post. Needless to say you can’t be picky when
hitch hiking to Sorilatholo. The first available ride turns out to be a
Chabuku truck. I think we have told you about Chabuku before. It is the
traditionally brewed “beer” here. It’s made from sorghum; it’s white and
chunky; and it’s really popular here because it’s cheap: about 5 pula for a
litre which comes out to less than a dollar. Anyway, the drivers stacked
their Chabuku carts to make room for all four of us and our gear. The truck
drove from village to village and paused at the cattle posts so men could
run out and buy alcohol. We were almost to Sorilatholo when the truck hit a
sand bank and 10 crates of Chabuku went flying off the top of the truck.
They stopped the truck and we tried saving as many cartons as possible. We
managed to collect 4 crates out of 10. The cartons were opened and caked in
sand but apparently still sellable…?
Last minute we decided we would buy a chicken, slaughter and cook
it while we spent the night out in the bush. John made the necessary calls
to get a hold of one the next day. We left in the morning to hike to the
spot John and Lucas camped before. There were still traces of their old
shelter. It wasn’t quite as far into the bush as Sadie and I thought.
People in John’s village had told him he would be eaten by lions if he
spent the night in bush. There was no way lions would come this close to
the village.
Anyway, Sadie and I started putting things together to build out
own shelter. Not long after, John got a call that the chicken was “ready.”
I offered to go back to the village with him. We went to pick it up and
brought it back to the “camp site.” We took turns holding it, swapping it
back and forth. Every time we traded it off, it got inspired to escape. We
weren’t worried because its legs were tied together. The one time we
dropped it, it walked right out of the tie. I couldn’t believe it; we’d had
this chicken less than half hour and it was gonna get away. We circled it
and caught it. I made sure to tie its legs up nice and tight.
We got to camp and decided we had better kill the chicken before
too long. If we got to know it too well, we weren’t gonna want to kill it.
I went to get the chicken and it hopped up on its legs, which were tied
together, and hopped into a thorn bush. By the time I got it out, I was so
ready to kill it. We took it a ways from camp so that the scraps didn’t
attract animals. Lucas and John studied on the best ways to kill a chicken.
They decided the best way was to hypnotize it first then to break its neck.
It seemed to be hypnotized pretty good. So good in fact we couldn’t tell if
it was dead or not. John broke its neck, decided it wasn’t dead so put a
knife through its brain. Unfortunately it wasn’t until they started cutting
off its head that we realized it was still alive. So for our first try, we
didn’t do such a great job giving the chicken a fast and painless death.
But maybe next time…
After the kill, Lucas, John, and I went after pulling the feathers
out. The people here pour boiling water over the chicken to get the
feathers off. Since we were out in the bush, there was a limited amount of
water. Once the feathers were out, I volunteered to take out the guts. We
let him hang up-side-down to let the blood drain out. Cleaning out the
insides is surprisingly easy. They just pull right out. There was very
little blood. It didn’t start stinking until I got to the intestines. One
time, I watched our neighbor clean out the intestines of a chicken to be
cooked later. They keep all insides but the lungs from what I could tell;
they eat the feet, head, intestines, stomach, kidneys, and the heart. We
were not so brave (Lucas and I ate chicken intestines with our host family;
we are not fans). So lots of parts were left behind. But we got what we
needed. By that time the chicken was becoming more familiar territory. The
boys took the carcass back to John’s place to clean it and season it.

Sadie and I finished building the girl’s shelter. It was
considerably bigger than the boy’s shelter. But it didn’t much matter
because I use the word shelter very loosely here: neither shelter could
shield us from rain or bugs. It was more for state of mind and bragging
rights.
The boys returned with the chicken; cleaned, seasoned, and stuffed
with apples. Lucas and John built a make-shift rotisserie for the chicken
so that it could be cooked over an open fire. Sadie was interested in
learning to build a matchless fire so Lucas went about teaching her using
magnesium and flint. As a side dish we threw 4 hobo dinners into the fire.
As the sun started setting, the bugs came out. We saw beetles,
spiders, scorpions, giant millipedes, and big black bugs that spray poison
in your eyes and blind you. Some beetles would kamikaze right into your
chest. All of us but Lucas were rethinking staying out in the bush all
night. To make us feel better, Lucas dug a moat all around the shelters so
that bugs would fall in and be unable to crawl out. Like the shelters, it
was just for state of mind; it didn’t actually work.
After eating our delicious chicken and hobo dinners, we snuggled
into bed. Sadie opted not to sleep in a sleeping bag but rather slept
covered head to toe in shoes, gaiters, rain pants, rain coat, and
sunglasses. It was hard for us to go to sleep because we didn’t want to
think about what was crawling all around us. At about 2am we fell asleep.
Three hours later we woke to a thunderstorm and decided we had all the bush
experience we needed and packed up. Next time we’ll take a bushman with us
= )

Ceramics

Those volunteers who are not placed in the schools in their villages are
encouraged to get involved with after school programs and health
presentations for the students. Something unbelievable, like 70% of
Botswana’s population, is youth (a lot of adults have died from AIDS). They
are also the most influential group. My interest lies in studio art. Even
though Lucas is placed at Lempu Junior Secondary School, I visited the art
teacher, Mr Mosela. I noticed there were two potter’s wheels that were not
being used. When I asked Mr. Mosela why he did not teach his students how
to throw ceramics on the wheel, he explained that the wheels were not
working and that he had learned how to throw ceramics on the potter’s wheel
in college but was not very good. I have studied ceramics for 7 years under
three instructors so I thought I would give teaching a try.
After Mr Mosela knew I was interested in teaching ceramics to his
students, he ordered ceramic tools and a better clay than what they had
been using. The issue was that they didn’t have an official kiln. The way
that clay works is that each element that makes up the clay requires a
certain temperature to fire completely. If the kiln reaches only a certain
heat, some clays cannot be fired. In that case you mix in elements with a
lower fire temperature. The kiln at the junior secondary school is
essentially cow dung set on fire inside a metal trash bin. Once I teach the
students how to throw pottery on the wheel, Mr Mosela offered to take the
pieces to Takatokwane (a nearby village) to be fired at the junior
secondary school there, which does have a kiln.
Lucas is a pretty handy man so I called on him to help me fix the
wheels. One wheel is electric and the other is manual kick (which is good
for those students who are left handed). Now that we had the tools, the
clay, and the wheels, we were ready to start. I took a handful of students
to wedge the clay and get it prepared for throwing. They have experience
making hand-built pottery and bust forms so they were not starting from
scratch.
I started off showing them how to center the clay on the wheel by
keeping an elbow pressed into my side. Oh, by the way, teaching on a kick
wheel in a skirt is NOT easy. Once I started pulling the clay up to make a
cup they got really excited. In fact some students were leaning on my back
to get a closer look over my shoulder. Again, not easy. I tried talking
loud and slow so they could understand me. My studies of Setswana never
covered teaching ceramics. After I showed a few cups, it was their turn (I
finished the lesson by cutting my cups in half to show the evenness of the
clay throughout the piece; they were appalled I wrecked my pottery).
A boy hopped up on the wheel to give it a try. As soon as he
starts, his classmates decide they are all experts and tell him what all he
is doing wrong. I felt so bad for him being subject of criticism because he
tried first. But in the end he made a container. It wasn’t very impressive
as no one’s first attempt is. But he wanted to keep it regardless.
Next lesson: carving the bottom.
Eventually I get into making handles, bowls, and maybe even lidded pots.
Another issue besides Lempu not having a kiln is glaze. Pottery is
more useful if it can be eaten out of. It’s not safe to eat from pottery
unless it has a glaze. I know glazes can be made from natural materials,
but I don’t remember how. If anyone knows how to make glazes I would be
very interested. Also, I am interested in helping the art program build a
kiln made from a hole in the ground and again natural materials for fuel. I
believe it is the raku kiln. If anyone has kiln-building resources to share
with me, the students of Lempu art class would be very thankful…