I'm just a fool whose intentions are good...

Well unfortunately I have nothing nearly as cool as meeting the president to talk about today, but I do feel like I am beginning to get my foot in the door at at least one of my schools. Which is probably a little bit more my job than hanging out with high-ranking politicians. I’ve convinced my key-school principal to let me paint one wall of the primary school with a giant world map, which I think will be a pretty cool project. One of the teachers who was in the room when I was initially reading about it happens to love geography and is in fact currently teaching the very grid-enlarging method that we would use to get the map onto the wall. So he was sold and I get to do my project actual grass-roots style, like I’m supposed to. We’re going to recruit about 80 Grade 7 learners to do the real work, and I’m going to attempt to work in as many sample lesson plans and new curriculum usage as I can. Its actually already spawned a number of geography conversations with some teachers. I think that the curriculum was written in Canada, so consequently they all seem to think that either I myself am Canadian, or that Canada is part of the US – or both. There is also some general confusion about the location of Europe, North America vs. the United States, and whether or not you can drive to America. Generally the resources just don’t exist to put a nice map in every classroom, so I’m hoping that this will alleviate that problem and spark some good discussions on geography, culture, etc… Plus, I get to feel like I’m actually doing something. This is all provided that everything doesn’t fall through, of course, so wish me luck.
I’m grateful that I’m beginning to have projects to work on, because it gives me something to space out about when I’m watching television with my family at home. I love to spend time with them, and they’re all wonderful, but…lets just say that if the Chuck Norris Collection was to dissapear at some point I would definitely have had nothing to do with it…nor would I be too sad. Last night we watched Delta Force, featuring a manly and virile Chuck Norris and a rocket-launching motorcycle tracking down evil Arab terrorists. It was sort of like Team America, except the acting was a little stiffer and the special effects not as cool. The music was about on par though. Chuck Norris is big here, I have no idea why, but at least it makes all Chuck Norris Facts just that much funnier.
I got my first sunburn last week. (Meeting Thabo Mbeki. Did I mention I met Thabo Mbeki? The sunburn was worth it). It of course started to peel on Monday, and this freaked out all of my teachers. It may have been the first sunburn they had ever seen. A few probably thought that I had leprosy, and I had to explain numerous times that it was not the heat, per se, so much as UV rays. Then I had to explain UV rays. And melanin. (Actually, the melanin conversation was a good one). The upshot of all of this is, however, I am no longer aloud outside of the house without an umbrella or a large hat, and everybody goes out of their way to make sure that the delicate American is always in the shade and out of the heat. Hopefully that will get boring eventually.
And finally, a note on packages and mail: Matt Nagel is my current favorite human being on the face of the planet. And I would highly suggest that if any of you are sending a package to South Africa, declare it as something really boring, like “books” or “sundries” (the latter is a good one) and be sure that it is going air-mail. This vastly reduces the chances of it getting stolen, since writing dvds, clothes, and good things like that are like an invitation for stealing.

Oh, and the people down the road may or may not practice ritual 'muti-killings.' Of people. Neat, huh?