I spent four days shadowing a current volunteer up in Sebina this past week. It was great to get out of Kanye for four days and see some more of Botswana. I took public transport in Botswana for the first time. I also learned how to hitch a ride, which is done very commonly here. There are places you have to hitch to in order to get there because there is no transport otherwise. Also, you pay the person you are riding with usually. We were lucky a couple of times that the volunteer I shadowed new the people we hitched with, and we didn't have to pay anything.
The volunteer I shadowed was based at a clinic. He also has volunteered in a 6th grade classroom and at a pre-school though. The other trainee and I who shadowed together got to go with him to the clinic for a while. There wasn't very much to do there because of government workers being on strike right now in Botswana. We then spent time visiting the social studies class that he volunteers in. When we got to the school the kids were in the classroom alone because their teacher was still on strike. It was now the afternoon time, and they had stayed in the classroom all day just sitting and reading even though there was no teacher present. I could never imagine kids just staying in a classroom in the US all day without a teacher! The kids were so excited to talk with us about Botswana and to hear about America from us and where we were from. We then played "heads up 7 up" with them. We then visited a pre-school, and the kids there were also adorable. They were all babbling in Setswana and Kalanga, another language that is spoken in much of northern Botswana.
I had a great time shadowing. It is refreshing to see that there are so many different projects I could get involved in wherever I end up for the next two years. It was also really nice to just relax outside of training for a few days and to eat some familiar foods! We went out for Indian food, made a vegetable stir-fry, omelets with toast, and had vegetarian chili!
I'm excited to learn which site I will be going to in a couple of weeks, and I'm also a little nervous!
On a side note, today is my brother's 24th birthday! Happy Birthday Ryan!
What a cool system of getting around! It sounds like you had a great shadowing experience. And those kids are amazing! I'll have to tell my mom about it (she teaches 1st grade here- they would be outta the classroom in a second if she wasn't around). Sounds like things have been going much better :)
ReplyDeleteSounds like a great shadowing experience. Those school kids are amazing! This sure is a lesson to our US kids!
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