message from last week

Winter has set in. On Monday I woke to see snow in the mountains. The
wind had howled the entire night and we had quite a cold snap for
three days. There was frost on the ground and it was very very cold.
The students came to school in all kinds of outfits.Many wear long
coats with scarves and hats, but some don't have coats and so they
wear blankets or towels wrapped around their waists. I have already
stared to buy tights for the girls that don't have any because they
were coming to school with bare legs while I was wearing jeans and
long johns....

The girls who board live in a small house together with two rooms with
bunk beds and a third room for storage. When I first arrived they also
were keeping the chicks in their house until they were big enough to
be moved. 28 girls and 99 chickens...
Anyway, they are in serious need of a dormitory, and this week
provided several more reasons, the first being the broken windows-I
spent part of one evening taping plastic bags and cardboard over one
of the broken windows that one girl slept under; the poor thing was
frozen at night! The second involves the vulnerability of girls in
general: it appears that they had lost the key to their door a while
back and last weekend there an "intruder" who entered their house and
tried to take advantage of the sleeping girls. They screamed and
scared him away, but he came back the next night with a friend and
tried to touch some of the girls. This week the lock was changed on
the door and they can now lock themselves in, and the boys ( who live
next to them) were alerted to confront any stranger on the school
property. On Tuesday a young man approached their house after dark and
was calling the name of a girl who had been at the school the year
before. When one of our boys asked him to identify himself, he threw a
rock at him and took off. He was chased by our boys and they beat him
up quite badly before bringing him to 'M'e Mapalesa. The police were
called and he was put in the cookhouse where he was guarded by about
15 people. All of this time I was peacefully reading in my house. By
the time I came out to see what was going on, the entire village had
showed up in support of the school. Now that's what I call a
neighbourhood watch! It was quite a sight. Many had heard the
commotion and had come running to help. To be honest, this boy was
lucky that he wasn't killed. He was from another village and
maintained that he had realized that it was getting late and so he had
been looking for a place to stay (he just happened to have picked a
girls dorm). This, according to "M'e Mapalesa is a thin story, as a
person who finds him/herself in another village at night time should
report to the village chief who will arrange for a place for him/her.
A person who does not do this is thought to be suspect as they have
not followed the correct custom and might be a thief looking to steal
animals.
The girls were very very happy that this person had been caught. They
sang and danced until the police took him away.

It was very interesting to me to see how the village system works. I
felt very safe knowing that the villagers watch out for one another.

I hope that you are all well. I will write some more next week.