I’m embarrassed to tell you what we ate for New Year’s Eve dinner. One of my driving kids was going home for the holidays, and asked me if he could bring anything back. I asked for Cheerios, and he brought it on the 31st. I am more embarrassed on how much we all enjoyed it; no, how we relished it. It is funny what you end up missing when you are away for six months.

We went to a friend’s house for NYE, and it was pretty traditional, except we put tin foil on a broom and lowered it down the handle during the countdown. One of the guys ran off to use an outside line because he wanted to see if it would disconnect at midnight. True to this area, it took him over an hour to get a dial tone; not Y2K, but African telephone system. I trust your y2k was like ours, a blessed non-event. Except for the dog.

We have decided that Jessie is not y2k compliant. Last night this large black lav jumped on the sofa, climbed in my lap, put both paws around my neck, put her head on my shoulder, and trembled. Nan says it was kids throwing fireworks that scared her, but she chases baboons, so it must be the y2k bug.

The first of the year is community day, and we got to participate in lots of events. They had the traditional three legged race (hint- never bet against the greatest runners in the world), but also an event where woman carried water on their heads across a football field. Seeing 150 woman with cups on their heads racing across a field is a site I will not soon forget. Grace came it third, and was pretty proud.

Grace and her family came to lunch, and again it struck me how difficult to have a conversation with someone when you have no common context. I don’t know much about chicken farming, and Peter has never heard of Etrade, so it made for a stilted meal, except for our youngest, who had comments to make about everything, even if it covered chickens or Etrade.

Afterwards, we took them to the computer lab. None of them had worked on a computer before, and it was initially depressing to me, because three kids who have never worked on a computer will find it hard to compete. But then something wonderful happened.

The adults struggled with the computer, but the kids started to pick it up. One of the kids started to go through MathBlaster, and he went through two levels in record time. He had figured it out on his own, and it struck me; if these kids just get a chance, they can make up for lost time.

I’m not sure how you provide a chance when most folks live in homes without power, and 60% of kids drop out after junior high because they can’t afford it, but I know if they get a shot, they will run with it.

The question is: will they get their shot?

YOP

S