week 1 Preschool Committee Meeting

8-19-12

   We got up early today to attend the preschool committee meeting this morning.  There are five committee members including Corine.  Corine had printed an agenda and financial reports for the year.  With donors from child sponsorship and school fees; the preschools are actually running in the black.  The committee members are three younger leaders in the community and an older influential woman who is a health motivator.  The flavor of the meeting was jovial and the young men exuded a wizened “been there done that” cynicism about the realities of getting things accomplished in this very traditional culture.  The committee meeting ran fairly efficiently; but with a few Swazi political problems thrown in.  They talked about the possibility of expanding preschools to other local areas and generating awareness and involvement for this in other communities.  A typical problem, the land donated for one of the preschools had already been misappropriated by one of the village elders.  The committee is also trying to obtain a consistent clean water source for the preschool.  Water, which comes from a royal residence near-by can be turned off if there are feuds or other political disagreements as a punishment to the people.  The committee talked about future projects and their plans for making both preschools self-sustaining.  I was very encouraging to see local leaders with a heart for their neighbors and their community.