21st Anniversary

21^st ANNIVERSARY

            This story goes back awhile, to 1992. My school opened for business that year, one of many junior secondary schools built at that time with the government’s newfound money, money arising out of the discovery of diamonds in Botswana. Unlike the sad story from other countries in Africa, in which only the politicians got rich from mineral resources, Botswana used its profits to build schools, roads and hospitals.

            My school head wanted to celebrate the school’s 20^th Anniversary. Contracts had been awarded for badly needed renovations, so the facilities promised to be looking shiny and new for the festivities. Unfortunately, the renovations were not completed on time, or anything close to on time, so no such event took place in 2012. By early 2013, however, the contractor had more or less completed the work, and the school head wisely thought that it was a now-or-never situation.

            So, with the help of the PTA and a staff committee, people began the planning process. Since our school is named for a deceased paramount chief of the Barolong tribe (the people who settled in our part of Botswana in adjacent parts of South Africa), and since his namesake grandson is the current paramount chief, it made sense that the current monarch play a major role in the festivities. The Ministry of Education has decreed that all schools supplement their inadequate resources with Adopt-a-School funds, so we made sure that current and prospective donors receive appropriate attention. I serve on the Adopt-a-School committee, so I have been training the school head and other staff on how to write gift proposals and how to woo potential donors. Finally, each year, top students and athletes receive prizes, so that event was merged into the anniversary celebration.

            At one PTA meeting I attended, a member noted that the 20^th Anniversary was going to be celebrated a year late. He must have been an accountant, since the numerical inaccuracy bothered him, and he convinced the rest of the PTA to label the occasion as the “21^st Anniversary”. The label stuck, and that term then appeared on all of the invitations, golf shirts, hats and signs associated with the event.

 

Here I am at home examining my Botswana wall map, sporting my 21st Anniversary hat.

            I will spare you all of the planning detail, except to say that there were many subcommittees working on everything from logistics to decorations to food. It reminded me of countless fundraising events that I have been involved in back in New Hampshire. One big thing was different: we killed our own food.

            Specifically, four beef cattle and four goats gave their all for the 21^st Anniversary. Two sponsors each donated a pair of cattle, and lower level sponsors each turned over a goat. We had to pick up the animals, live, and bring them back to school. There, they spent their last night grazing on the dry patches of grass by our athletic fields. The next day, several teachers appeared in class not wearing shirt and tie, but rather what could be described as car mechanic outfits. After fourth period, they joined several local volunteer farmers out by the athletic fields. They quickly dispatched the animals, and then proceeded to gut them. I joined the group later, and got to witness the quick work they made of the cattle. It was not so much different from field dressing a moose or deer, but beef cattle just have so much more meat on their bones. The various cuts of fresh meat were placed in plastic bags, thrown onto the back of a pickup, and driven to a local butcher’s to be stored in a cold room until needed.

 

Near our school sports field. Beef. It's what's for dinner.

            By the morning of the celebration, the school had been cleaned up, the red dirt grounds all raked free of grass and leaves, and four large open-sided tents set up to shade people from the intense sun. About 40 local VIPs arrived and sat together under one tent; the student body, parents and local villagers sat under three other tents. There was much diplomacy involved in who got to sit in the front row of the VIP tent (the paramount chief, a local councilor, a local government officer, the school head, two event sponsors, and the winner of our school’s beauty pageant, dressed to the nines in evening gown and sparkly tiara).

            After a rousing rendition of the national anthem (to which I joined in: we all learned it during language training) and a lengthy prayer, the extensive program got underway. The paramount chief delivered a nice talk, directed to the students. The school head gave a speech outlining the school’s academic achievement, and (at my urging) singled out by name present and potential Adopt-a-School donors. One such current donor, an executive with a diamond mining contractor, announced that his company was donating to the school a double-wide modular office building, worth 500,000 Pula (about $60,000), for use by the counseling, supplies, athletics and teaching staff. Another donor paid the cost for the 50 or so prizes given out to students. (The students get tangible gifts, not money, because there is a reasonable fear that some parents or relatives would simply take the money and use it for themselves).

 

Traditional Dance Group. Three of my math students  performed here. They really enjoy it.

            Several student groups performed quite well as part of the festivities. They included the school choir, traditional dance group, scripture union singers and gymnastics performers from Stephanie’s nearby senior secondary school. The highlight of the day was the unveiling by the paramount chief of a painted plaster sculpture of a tholo (a large antelope with curved horns, also known as a kudu in English). The tholo is the totem (i.e. mascot) of the Barolong tribe. It carries great symbolism, and no member of the tribe (which includes us) ever kills or eats a tholo. Since every neighboring tribe has a different animal totem, it is thought that this practice served ecologically to protect a rich variety of species from becoming overhunted, at least in the early hunter/gatherer era before herding and farming became so prevalent.

 

The paramount chief unveils the tholo sculpture on the school grounds.

            What was my role with the 21^st Anniversary? In addition to the Adopt-a-School program, I helped with the set-up of the facilities. On the day itself, I worked alongside other staff behind the scenes. I assembled and kept track of the prizes and certificates as they were handed out to students. Peace Corps volunteers are meant to be working members of their communities, and not VIPs who get special treatment. But there was a slight exception here. Midway though the event (which extended for five hours on a very hot day, not counting the celebratory meal thereafter), one of the emcees called out my Setswana name – Kabo. He bellowed several times in Setswana for me to walk out from my perch behind the scenes and to come up front onto the speaking platform in front of the 800 or so people under the tents. I did so, reluctantly, since I had a sense of what was coming. The emcee asked me a couple of questions in Setswana, which I then nervously answered in Setswana. The whole scene could have come across as condescending, i.e. that I am treated as a sort of school mascot. But I have been told that it shows the affection that people have for me here. I’ll try to remember that, but next time, there will be no impromptu Setswana oral exams before a large audience.