Much ado about a lot. That about sums up the events for this week. Sunday brought much excitement to PE in the form of a carnival celebrating the pending semi-final cricket match to be held the following Tuesday. A great display of local pageantry and arts, as the local schools and cultural groups paraded down Marine Drive (the main drag along the sea), while onlookers lined the streets. I mentioned in previous writings the importance of cricket to the South Africans. Well, this parade only further glorified the World Cup. Tuesday was Jack's birthday-now 7 years old. Jack is a great kid who loves to share with others. A birthday for Jack is like just learning you inherited an "all you can eat" candy store, complete with free passes for all your friends to attend. His love language is definitely "gifts" as he loves to both give and receive presents. You'll find him constantly offering to give others back itches, drawings, Pokemon cards, bottle caps-you name it--all free of charge. We played a guessing game during a recent trip in which we had to guess how close we were to answering questions about someone else. Jack received the question: "If you were to find a million dollars, what would you do with it?" The rest of us guessed he would give as much as he could to his family and friends and the remainder to the poor. We were close; his answer was he would give it all to the poor. So, you can probably imagine what a birthday is like with him. He truly appreciates everything he gets because he sees the gifts he receives as expressions of love. You can also probably imagine how loved he felt when Andre was able to acquire two tickets to the semi-final World Cup cricket match between Australia and Sri Lanka, which was held on Jack's birthday at St. George's cricket oval in PE. Talk about a boy feeling loved. Spending the morning of Jack's birthday at that cricket match was one of the best days I have had since being in South Africa. What topped it off is that Australia, Jack's favorite team, won the match, and subsequently went on to win the finals match against India the following week. We finished off his day with a visit to Bayworld--the local version of Sea World. Happy birthday, Jack.

In between the parade and Jack's birthday, I was able to spend a morning at Pendla primary school located in New Brighton, a township in PE. Pendla is a public school with over 500 children in grades 1-7. These youth are some of the children who live in the corrugated shacks within the townships. Many are from single parent homes, where constant alcohol abuse exists among members of the household. Many of the children are continually abused, emotionally, physically, and sexually. Ms. Mfunda, the principal of the school, shared with us that some within the culture believe it is the father's duty to be the first one to take his daughter. These children have little to eat, with many having only the slice of bread the school provides for lunch as their sole meal for the day. The government provides two slices of bread, margarine, jam, and a cup of powdered milk for each child in grades 1-3 at Pendla. Nothing is available, however, for the children in grades 4-7. Ms. Mfunda's solution for this problem is to give each child one piece of bread so that everyone can have at least something to eat every day. The school is riddled with broken windows with bars on all windows and doors. At night, the local thugs jump the barb wire fence and steal whatever they can from the school grounds. In addition to the school, Ms. Mfunda has acquired a couple of shipping containers to use for preschool and Kindergarten age children. The government will not provide funding to support the education of the children below grade 1. Ms. Mfunda holds the belief that it is better to find the young children and bring them to the school, even if they spend the day just playing and singing. Many times, their volunteer teacher does not even show up at school. To Ms. Mfunda, it is better to have the children at the school rather then the alternative of wandering the streets of the township, without any supervision or protection. It is a constant battle to keep the school in working order. On my first visit to the school, Ms. Mfunda told us that one of her unresolved problems is the inability to provide adequate hygiene to the children. The school only has a few working toilets for over 500 children. There is a building that contains an additional 14 toilets, which has not worked for the past 3 years. It appears that a water problem happened and neither the school system nor the city was able to figure out the cause of the problem. Her consultation of local plumbers resulted in a projected cost that would nearly equal the entire yearly cost for providing students with school related field trips and extra curricular learning. Having an interest in home repair, I asked if it would be okay if I "poked around" to see if I could find anything. After about an hour of plumbing problem solving, I found the main water valve and turned it on, Low-and-behold, water started to flow to the sinks and the toilets. The only problem was that one of the local thugs cut the only remaining copper pipes in the building: About 6 feet of copper pipe connecting two of the sinks to the water line. Turn the main water on and the water flows through the two cut pipes onto the bathroom floor. Apparently someone shut the water off 3 years ago because of the broken pipes and never told anyone about it-including Ms. Mfunda (who wasn't the principal at the time). A simple addition of a couple lengths of plastic pipe stopped the leaking and presto: the addition of 14 toilets and 8 sinks to Pendla primary school. It's amazing. I'm not talking about my plumbing diagnosis skills, which was basic in this situation, but rather that the school had a necessary building completely out of order for over 3 years. The volunteer "custodian" didn't even think to check the same steps I did. I suppose if you have never had running water within your own shack, the process of diagnosing a plumbing problem would be an unfamiliar skill. I can't stop thinking about their need for water every time I turn on a water tap, whether at home, a restaurant, or wherever. Amidst all the struggles in keeping this school running, the children have a genuine openness to the outside world. Both times I have been at Pendla I was met by the children with gracious smiles, kind words, and open arms. Ms. Mfunda tells me they have an innate excitement for being at school. Monday is their favorite day of the week because they get to come back to school after a weekend of chaos and abuse. I have been out to the school twice; the second time was with Kara and my brother-in-law, Rich. Kathy and I have planned for our family to spend more time at the school doing whatever we can to help.

Two days after Jack's birthday, George W. started his campaign to oust saddam out of Baghdad. America at war. Off to fight a battle that seems to have little global and less then optimal U.S. support. So now we are fighting a war that seems to exist because we didn't finish the job 12 years earlier when the world was behind us. The South African government doesn't support the actions the current U.S. government has taken toward this conflict. Although the people here have been very civil and nonjudgmental toward us, it is evident that what the U.S. is doing is not in high favor. Well, actually, that's from the South Africans who are in touch with what is happening outside their country. I would venture to guess that for the majority of South Africans this war has little meaning. It's hard to concern yourself with happenings that occur thousands of miles away when your stomach is empty, you live in a cardboard shack, and you've got a 65% chance of contracting AIDS. The battle for terrorism, democracy, oil, or whatever, is a far cry from anything of value here. Those who do express an opinion do so through eyes that have seen a country with a long and painful history associated with aggressive dominance, control, and misguided government interventions. Their perspective is unique and one that we have found to be very helpful in trying to figure out where we stand with regard to this current war. On the one hand we have the U.S. government's history of intervention in Iraq, complete with our support for saddam gaining power and the sharing of weapons of mass destruction in our quest for getting rid of the Ayatollah and his Iranian bunch. On the other hand, we are proud to be Americans and support the values of what makes America unique. I truly believe humanity and the belief in being "your brother's keeper" are virtues inherent within the people of America. It is hard for Americans to sit by idly and watch the continued abuse a madman reaps on millions of innocent people. The values we hold for human life do not allow us to turn our heads and let the horrors continue. So we continue to struggle with the decisions the current American government is making toward solving a problem our government a couple of decades ago helped create. The African continent is surely to suffer from this war, as many people here are highly dependent on funds donated by the U.S. and other like-minded countries.

So, we started the week with a celebratory parade and ended with a war. This has been one of the most intense weeks we have had since being here.