50 Years of Peace Corps...and Botswana is HOT!

   Last weekend was the 50th Anniversary of Peace Corps party. Volunteers from all over Botswana, Peace Corps staff and their families, Returned Volunteers (RPCVs) and their families, and special guests such as an ambassador attended the party. There was food, some dancing, and there were also crafts that volunteers brought from their villages. It was great to see Bots10s, Bots9s, and the new Bots11s, who I met for the first time at the party. A couple of the RPCVs also spoke, and it made me think about how short my time here really is and how quickly it is already going. I left the party feeling very uplifted and grateful to be here.
   It has gotten very hot very quickly during the past week. Temperatures have been around 102F pretty consistently. People are calling this a heat wave because it is still only spring! Pretty soon it will be summer though. I'm trying to be better at storing water since summer in Botswana means the water is out more frequently. I thought I was doing a good job of storing a couple of buckets of water that I can boil and drink when the water is out. However, when it is 102 degrees out, the last thing I really want to be doing when I get home and out of the hot sun is to boil water before I can drink it. I don't know what I was thinking or why I didn't think of this sooner, but when I visited another Bots10 last weekend I noticed that she had multiple bottles of water stored in her fridge. She had gotten the idea from some volunteers who have already been through a Botswana summer. It was a simple idea, but not something I ever had to think about before coming here. I am now collecting any bottle or container I can to store water in. Most of the time I have been pretty lucky because I have had water. There have been a couple of times when the water has gone out for just a couple of days though. Also, during the afternoons the water comes out of the tap hot now that is has been so hot outside so it is nice to have cold water in my fridge.There is something kind of cool about learning to appreciate things like cold water or having water in general though.

A Sense of Belonging

10/9/11

    Developing genuine friendships in my village has been something that I have found challenging, but this weekend I've made some strides in that area. I was invited to a goodbye party for one of the nurses who has been most welcoming to me  and is being transferred to another village. I didn't really know what to expect for this party. All I knew was that it was being held at one of the nurse's houses on the nurses' compound and that there would be food. I brought some fried rice that I made. When I got there, there were only 3 nurses there and myself. It was nice because I got to help them set up a little and just chat. When more people arrived I realized that I knew some of them because they are teachers at the schools I've been going to and that my landlord's daughter, who is close to my age and I knew a little was there. We ate so much food. I had a gigantic piece of fillet (beef), and was so stuffed afterward, but everyone kept saying that I was "a real Motswana" because I ate so much fillet ha ha. A couple of people asked me why I wasn't drinking alcohol because some of them were, but when I explained that sometimes I do drink a little but just didn't feel like it right then, they stopped asking. Many of the people at the goodbye party had plans of going to a bar and then another party following that. I went to the bar for a little while to see what it was like because I had not gone to any bars in my village yet. I had just one drink and talked to people. A couple of guys started to harass me a little, but the people who I was with watched out for me, and the guys who were harassing me backed off easily. A lot of people commented on the fact that I wasn't drunk and seemed surprised, but they weren't commenting in a way that was insulting. It was more like they were curious about it. I said they were right  and that I wasn't drunk and explained that I had just wanted to come out to socialize and meet people more people and celebrate with my friend who is moving. A couple of people told me they thought it was nice that I came there to meet people and not to get  drunk. I was glad that they sort of understood and that it was clear that I wasn't drunk because I wouldn't want people to think that I was, as getting publicly drunk in my village is not something that I want to do.

   Something else cool that happened was that one of the older nurses who has been really supportive to me offered to help make me a dress! She is from Zambia and I had commented earlier in the day about how beautiful her dress was. She told me that it was a traditional Zambian dress, which looked very similar to traditional Botswana dresses. She said she wants to get fabric for me when she goes home to Zambia to visit soon because the fabric is less expensive  there and that she could help make a dress for me. I was so touched by this. If you met this nurse you would understand why because she is literally one of the sweetest people I have ever met. She is also one of the few people in my village who has reached out to me to ask me how I'm doing and never asked for anything from me. I will of course pay for the fabric, but the fact that she thought of getting fabric for me and helping me with this is so touching. I'm really looking forward to the dress making process when the time comes.  I needed a weekend like this. Even though I have known that people in my village are kind, I feel much more connected to some of them now. It is a good feeling.

PACT Clubs

10/6/11

   Yesterday I attended the JSS PACT club meeting and brought up an idea that a couple of the students and I had talked about a couple of days ago to the whole group. The idea is for the students to make their own film to show at an assembly at the beginning of November for the whole school. They watched a STEPS film with teenagers talking about different issues that another PCV and I showed them a while ago and the really enjoyed it. A few of the students had brought up the idea of acting out skits and video taping it and showing that to the school. When we brought up this idea to the rest of the PACT students yesterday they were all for it. I broke them up into three groups: Acting, Singing, and Topics. They could choose which group they wanted to be in. Then I asked them to work in their groups to come up with skits to act out, songs and/or dances that relate to the issues that the PACT club learns about and teaches their peers about, and topics to discuss in the discussion portions of the film they are making. They were so enthusiastic and mature about coming up with ideas and are already putting a lot of thought into this project.  A couple of the students asked me "How are we going to act these scenes in front of EVERYONE".  Many of them are very shy, and I reassured them that I would help them practice their ideas many times and promised there would be no taping into everyone felt ready. Next week during the meeting they are going to start practicing their ideas, and I'll check in with each group, and then maybe the following time I will ask each group to present to just the rest of the PACT club so they can start to feel more comfortable. 

   Today was the first day of the new primary school after school club that I'm helping to start for standard 6 students (kids ranging from ages 11-14).I had gone to this primary school a couple of times for an arts and craft activity for the young kids and then for  a couple of STEPS presentations, and had met with the guidance counselor and school head there a few times. They said that they have been asked to set up a PACT club at the primary school for some of the older students since there have been more cases of pregnancy and substance abuse amongst the older primary school students and also to help them gain confidence in speaking English. The hope is that some of the same students will then join the PACT club at the JSS.There were 29 Standard 6 students who came to the meeting today, which was a good size for the group. One of the standard 6 teachers helped to  facilitate the meeting. I started out by explaining what PACT club is and asking them to help come up with a list of group rules that they would all agree to follow. The teacher made sure that all of the kids understand what we were doing by repeating some of it in Setswana. I was really impressed that one of the rules that they came up with completely on their own was that they should all work together to become more confident. I talked with them a little about this and about how one of the group rules is going to be that they try their best to use English during the meetings and asked if they all thought they'd be able to give it a try. They said yes as a group, but there were some nervous giggles. I let them know that it was ok to make mistakes and to ask for help and reminded them about their teacher being there to help if I couldn't understand them or they couldn't understand me. I also made fun of my Setswana speaking a little and told them that I understand how hard it is to learn a new language. After we finished coming up with rules they played the game "Pat on the Back". Each student traced their hand on a piece of paper and taped it onto his or her back. Then each of the other students wrote nice things about them on his or her piece of paper. We asked them to try to write in English so that they could learn new English words and reminded them that they could ask for help. 

   Overall the game went very well.  The kids asked for help when they got stuck on thinking of a word in English and were smiling and laughing. However, at one point I noticed that one of the older girls in the group looked like she was struggling to think of something to write so I asked if she needed help. She looked at me confused, and then a student standing next to her said "She can't use English". I tried to explain in my best Setswana that it was ok if she needed to write it in Setswana and that we could translate it for her after, but she still looked upset and/or confused so I  quietly asked the teacher if she could talk to her and see if she could help her because I couldn't tell if she could understand me or not.The teacher meant well, but  she shouted across the classroom to the student to ask her if she needed help in front of everyone, and the student stopped trying,walked away and started to cry. I took her aside and asked her if she could understand me at all, and she said yes, she could a little. I asked her if she thought she was in trouble because she couldn't write in English, and she said yes and was still crying. I told her she was not in trouble and that I was proud of her for trying and was glad that she was going to be in the PACT club. She smiled and the teacher ended up coming over too and telling her it was ok and that she just had wanted her to know she could have help with translating from Setswana to English.  I gave her a high five, asked if she was ok, in Setswana she said yes, and we walked back over to the group and told her that it was her turn to have people write on her paper this time. I checked in with her after to make sure she understood what nice things the other students wrote to her.  The activity ended on a positive note because they were all so eager to read the hands on their backs and were all smiles! I reminded them that we would meet every Thursday. The teacher and I checked in at the end, and said she liked this group and was looking forward to next week as well. 

   I still feel like I'm constantly figuring things out here, but I hope I can continue to work with these two clubs because I'm enjoying it so far. I only learned a little bit about PACT clubs during training before coming to site. I have a couple of books with activities for youth that I borrowed from the Peace Corps and one that another volunteer mailed to me from her NGO, but other than that I'm just trying different ideas, listening to the students and guidance counselors about their ideas, seeing what works, and hoping that something I'm doing is right. I have experience working with kids, but Botswana is a very different place. We'll see how things go I guess. 

A Little Time in a Classroom

10/4/11

   Today the schools opened back up after the holiday, and I went into the JSS this afternoon to support some of the PACT club students who were making presentations in a classroom. Every Tuesday they present, and they asked me to come in to support them because they are left in the classrooms with their peers on their own without any teachers because the teachers are all in a meeting during that time. They said that they other students haven't been paying attention to them, and they also wanted some feedback about how they are doing presenting since they have not received any in the past. There were three PACT students who presented together in a form 2 classroom. They talked bout teen pregnancy and methods of birth control. A couple of them seemed nervous ahead of time and told me they were worried about how they would do in front of me, and I reminded them that I wasn't their to judge them and just to support them and make sure that other students were showing them respect. Overall the students presenting did a great job. They presented information accurately and maturely and spoke clearly and asked their classmates to participate and offer their own ideas. I saw what they had meant by their peers not paying attention though. There were students talking in the back, a boy was sitting on his friends desk and facing the back, and they were laughing instead of listening to the questions that the PACT students asked them. I ended up stopping the presentation to ask students who were talking to stop and for them to face the front of the room and show their peers respect. I told them that if they weren't going to pay attention they would need to step out of the room. One student made a joke about the stick that was left to the side of the room that is used for corporal punishment. Corporal punishment is something that is still legal in Botswana and is used in the schools. I spoke up and told the students that no, I was not ever going to beat them, but that I expected them to show me and the PACT students respect just like I was showing them respect. After this they were quieter and made more of an effort to pay attention to the PACT students and answered their questions. At the end, the students asked me if I had any "words of advice" for them. I asked them first what kinds of topics they would like to hear more about from the PACT students and then we still had some more time so I asked what some of their goals for the future were. Some of them said they wanted to be teachers, others priests or pastors, nurses, some said they wanted to be parents, others talked about going to Senior Secondary School. I asked them what kinds of things could keep them from reaching these goals and they  listed teen pregnancy, school truancy, alcohol abuse, and getting sick. I also told them that I was glad that they were eventually able to focus and show respect to their peers, but that next time that I come in, because I want to come back, that I hope that they are more respectful toward the PACT students from the start because I know they are capable of that since they are so smart and have all of these goals. They said that they would and clapped for the PACT students and thanked them.  Afterward, I checked in with the three PACT students who lead the presentation and told them that they did a great job and that I was sorry that their peers weren't being very respectful at first. We talked for a few minutes about the PACT meeting tomorrow, and about some skit ideas that they have. They want to prepare a bigger presentation for the whole school. I'm glad that they are enthusiastic. and I'm looking forward to continuing to work with them.

Half of a Year!

6 Months in Botswana!

   Today marks 6 months in country for myself and the rest of Bots10!  Here are some things that I've experienced, along with the rest of Bots10, so far over the course of the last 6 months:

Staging in Philly and meeting the rest of Bots 10!

The long flight to Botswana and all of the excitement and anxiety that came along with that!

A couple of days at Big 5 Lodge-starting to learn some Setswana, meeting some PC staff, and adjusting to malaria medication, adjusting to being far away from home

Meeting host families and moving to Kanye for the rest of Pre-Service Training (PST)

PST-2 months of Setswana lessons, trainings, getting to know other trainees better, learning from host families, learning to eat and cook new foods, exploring Kanye, shadowing volunteers, and finding out our site placements

Host family party- thanking our host families and saying goodbyes in Kanye as well as making a lot of food and having fun with a fashion show 

Moving Day- saying goodbye for now to other PCVs and moving to our new homes in our villages 

2 Months of Lock Down- Adjusting to living in our villages and away from the rest of our training class, getting to know people, conducting our community assessments, and figuring things out

IST-In-service training, being reunited with the rest of Bots10, more language learning, and adjusting to being around a lot of other Americans all over again…some of us felt a little overwhelmed at first

Past two months at site- Going back to our villages and saying goodbyes to PCV friends again after IST, but enjoying no longer being on lock down and being able to visit other volunteers and work on projects with them. Realizing that I'm still figuring things out and have so much left to learn and that's ok.

   I've been thinking a lot during the past week about how lucky I am to be here and for the experiences I've had so far. I feel enthusiastic for the next 20 months because I know this is only the beginning. There is so much that I still want to do here and so much that I am still learning, and that is a little scary, but it is also pretty exciting. Bring it on!

Part of the Beauty of Being Here

9/27/11

A Rainy Night 

   I've been told that it only rains about 5 times a year in the part of Botswana that I live in. I experienced some incredible thunderstorms when I was in training in Kanye, but I've now been living in my village for almost 4 months, and it had not rained here at all since I moved here. Earlier tonight, when it was just beginning to get dark, I heard thunder in the distance. I was so excited that I shut my music off to listen and opened my door to see if there was any rain yet. For a couple of hours I could only hear thunder and there was no rain, but then it started to downpour, and there was more thunder and some lightening! I opened my windows to let the cooler air  and rain smell into my house. I put on some comfortable clothes and stood out on my patio in the rain for a few minutes. I'm sure my neighbors thought that I was absolutely insane for standing outside in the rain, but I didn't care because it was absolutely wonderful. It poured for about 20 minutes, and then stopped suddenly!

Good Night! 

A Child in a Tree 

9/28/11

   Something that I am learning is how much the children here really bring me a sense of hope and fulfillment. I wrote about how discouraged and frustrated I felt last week, but a major part of what got me through that was thinking about the projects I have planned for working with youth here and some of the children I have met here so far. This week the schools are closed for break so I have not been able to work on projects I've started because of this. I honestly was feeling quite aimless and bored at the start of this week because I knew I wouldn't be able to start the after school group I'm working on with a guidance counselor at one of the primary schools yet or  meet with the PACT students at the JSS this week either or work with the guidance counselors there on the ideas we've discussed. I really am eager for the students to be back. I have had some positive and funny interactions with children around my village this week though. Today I was walking down the street and a group of children were playing and stopped to yell out "hi" over and over again, and I stopped to ask them how they were, and they then continued to say "hi" to me until I was out of their sight. This was not an unusual occurrence, but even though it is common, it is still very precious to me. As I walked a little further down the street, I heard a little voice saying "hi" and looked around confused because I did not see any children around. I then looked up and there was a child in a tree!  Maybe you had to be there, but it was one of the most adorable and funniest moments I have experienced here so far. I went from feeling bored and a bit lonely to feeling very lucky to be here and experience moments like these. The positive experiences don't make the negative ones go away, but they definitely stand out much more, and I hope they will have the greatest impact on me. 

The Other Side of a Rough Week

   I will start by sharing a couple of difficult things that have happened in the past week because I think it is important to be honest and write about the tough times here as well. 

   Normally once a week or every two weeks I am able to ride in the ambulance with clinic staff to go to a village about an hour and half drive away to get groceries or take care of other business I may need to take care of like getting my electricity cheque or meetings related to a project I'm working on with Tourism. When I've gone other times I've  been able to get a ride back with the nurses in the ambulance without any issue. There is never a set time when the ambulance will leave to return to my village, but it is usually later in the afternoon, and if they have left earlier the nurses have called me to let me know. This past week I went to wait in the usual spot where the nurses gather and wait for the ambulance at the end of the day and was told by someone I know who happened to be sitting there that the ambulance for my village had already left. Nobody had called me. They had forgotten me there. I was a bit upset by this but was assured that I could ride with some staff from a clinic in a nearby village and that I would be brought to my village. I trusted this and went with them because I knew the person who told me to go with them.

   The ambulance stopped several times on the way for people to run errands, and it was getting dark. I was a little worried because there are a lot of road accidents at night in Botswana because it is so difficult to see the animals on the road at night, but I knew it was better to stay with people who I knew were bringing me to my village rather than getting out and trying to get a ride with someone else and possibly not having a ride at all. As we got closer to my village, about 40k away or maybe even a little less, the driver pulled over and stopped on a nurses compound. I was  then told that was as far as they were going bring me because my village was past that village and that they could drop me off on the side of the road to hitch the rest of the way. By this time it was dark, I didn't know this village, and there was no way that it would have been safe for me to be hitching from there. I told them that I had been told that I was getting a ride to my village and that if I had known that they were not going to be driving me all the way there I would have tried to get a ride with someone else who would. I also explained that it was not safe for me to be hitching at night. One of the nurses in the car seemed to feel badly but still wasn't going to drive me to my village herself. She asked me to get out of the car and talk with one of the other nurses and see if I could convince them to drive me to my village. Then the nurses who had been  riding with and the driver left me on the nurses compound and went home. I sat there with these two other nurses who I had never met before and explained my situation. Their only responses were "Well, what are you going to do then?" and "Don't you have any friends in your village who could pick you up here?".  I told them that at this point they were my only options for a ride home because of these other people leaving me when they had told me that they were going to drive me to my village. They said again "But don't you have any friends?", and I began to cry a little out of frustration and told them that I haven't been here very long, I'm getting to know people, and that I do not know anyone well enough in my village who has a car who I could ask to come and get me. I even offered to pay p10 to whoever would drive me to my village. Then they said that fine they would give me a ride, and I thanked them. I was so glad at this point just to have a ride home.

 The car was safe and the driver drove slowly to watch for animals, which I was thankful for. However, both people in the car  laughed at me for crying and said "Don't you like it here? Why were you crying". I told them that it is not an easy thing to live far away from home, get used to a different culture, and that I had a bad week and that feeling forgotten about and like people didn't care about me or my safety was upsetting to me and now they were laughing at me, which didn't help. I also told them that I get along well with people in my village, but that developing strong friendships with people who don't always get where I'm coming from isn't easy and takes time. They seemed a little embarrassed about laughing at me after that and changed the subject to other topics like bugs and snakes. They did bring me home safely and when I offered them the p10 they wouldn't take it.

   The experience described above was the final straw of a long week of feeling angry and upset with various things. Earlier in the week at one of the schools I had met a teenage girl who had a bandage wrapped around her head and a black eye. She was sitting by the main office at the school when I was waiting for a meeting with the head guidance counselor. She looked very sad and like she wanted to say something to me but was hesitating. I said "Hello, how are you?" and smiled and she said "I am fine" and gave a slight smile back but was then quiet. I waited a while to see if she would say anything else, but she didn't. A while later when I was meeting with the guidance teachers I told them that I had met a student who looked like she had been very hurt and upset. I asked what had happened and was told in a very nonchalant way that she had been beaten by another student in the village. I was saddened and surprised by the calmness with which they said this, as if it was very common. The thing that surprised me the most was that I genuinely like these guidance counselors, and they do typically express a lot of concern and seem to care for students so the fact that their reaction to this student having been beaten just didn't seem to fit. I spent two hours meeting with the head guidance counselor that day, first listening to her talk about how she feels a lack of support from others and how difficult it is to get things accomplished and listing off all of the things that were supposed to be planned and weren't working out. We came up with a list of some things to work on together. When I left her office there were several teachers sitting around playing cards, and I felt irritated by this. In addition to these things I had received some difficult news from home. I did not like the way I was feeling by the end of the week at all and felt frustrated with myself for feeling this way. 

    The good thing about bad weeks here is that they do get better. I had spoken with one of my PCV friends about how I was having a rough week, had received some upsetting news from home, and feeling frustrated and angry and hated feeling that way, and she invited me to her village for the weekend to "escape" for a bit. I took her up on her offer, and it ended up being very helpful. We went to a birthday party for one of her Motswana friends from work, and everyone at the party was so kind, welcoming, and incredible that it was a wonderful reminder of the fact that there are people here who are genuinely caring. We spent a lot of time talking, not only venting about the difficult moments, but about the positive experiences as well. We talked about the things we can't control, here and at home,and the things we can, and I finally started to feel like myself again.  We also spent time talking to children and playing with puppies and of course ate good food and laughed a lot too, which is always a good thing. I returned to my village feeling refreshed, focused on the positive, and motivated to spend time with good people and work on the projects that I feel good about. I feel like myself only a little bit tougher.