Call me Tom

Call me Tom, most of my village does. If not Tom then some other form including Tomo, Thomas, Tommy, Thomisa, Tom & Jerry (yes the cartoon), Teacher Tom, or Thomani. Thomani is my Venda name that means beginning or start it's also very close to my surname Toman. In South Africa people normally put their surname (last name) first followed by initials-- Toman K. S. -- and often introduce themselves by their surname. This means that people thought Toman was my first name and that Thomani comes from my first name. Meaning to most in my village I'm Tom.

Frogs. I have a lot frogs. They seem to really like my room and I catch at least one a night to take out. My host brother, Grade 9, and his friends will run, and run far, if they see me with a frog. They really don't like getting near them. Snakes are another creature that are really feared and hated here. My host dad actually swerved in the road to hit a snake, I thought we were going to crash, and when he found out he had missed backed the car up. He then parked it and got out to throw rocks at the snake until it was dead. This took about 20 minutes in all.

At my schools I'm trying to get libraries started. We have the books, well we have old textbooks, and we have the space. We just need to figure out shelving, organization of the library and how to organize the books. If anyone has any suggestions on funding sources, methods or anything else please let me know.