This past week was a rough one. I didn't do the greatest job of budgeting my Peace Corps allowance this month, and then I didn't have access to my "emergency" American bank account because of an issue with my card. This meant that this past week my food supply was the lowest it has ever been in my entire life. The beginning of the week wasn't so bad because I still had some bread and a little bit of extra cake left over from the cake I made for the JSS PACT club end of the year party. By mid week though I was down to only having dried apricots left to eat, and I felt hungry and stressed out by not knowing when I'd be able to buy more food. I knew that I had a check for my electricity reimbursement waiting in my district office and that I'd receive my monthly allowance soon, but I didn't know for sure when either of these things would happen. Thank goodness another PCV and friend of mine who lives in Tsabong allowed me to stay with her Thursday night so that I could figure out my check situation Friday morning and cooked dinner for me. It was also nice to have the distraction of talking to a friend instead of just sitting around worrying. My check was not ready ( which is another long and frustrating story in itself), but thank my lucky stars we got paid our allowances on Friday so I was able to buy food!
Something else really cool happened on Friday. First of all I found PIZZA at the grocery store that was already made at the take away counter! I don't think I had ever been so excited to see pizza in all of my life. I got myself some pizza and took it to wait outside of one of the smaller shops near my grocery store to eat it because I was waiting for the smaller shop to open back up after lunch. The owners of the shop showed up shortly after I sat down and invited me to come inside to eat in their store, put a fan in front of my face, and gave me a free soda! The best part was that I wasn't being singled out as a white woman because they had invited a few Batswana in to do the same thing. We all sat and ate and watched a cricket match on tv. I found out that the store owners are friends of my PCV friend in Tsabong. I had intended on going in this shop anyway to buy some hair clippers, but these kind people didn't even know that I was going to buy anything! They were just being nice because they felt bad for those of us who had been sitting outside in the hot sun! I left to return to my village in much healthier frame of mind and with food. It was a great end to a long and stressful week!
Writing about hair clippers brings me to my next adventure. I had been thinking for a few weeks now about cutting my hair very, very short so that I just had some fuzz left. I had always wanted to donate my hair, and I also figured that there really isn't going to be another time when I will feel as free to cut my hair so short. I also figured that if I cut it soon it would have plenty of time to grow back before I go back home. I got clippers yesterday so the next thing I needed to do was find someone to cut it. I have some PCV friends who knew I was planning on this and were ready and willing to help me, but unfortunately I do not live so close to them. Today I decided to put myself out there and ask one of the nurses in my village for help. I know it may sound like it should be an easy thing to do, but I've just recently started to feel more comfortable here, and I sometimes struggle with asking for help anyway. Sometimes I even have a hard time asking the people I know well for help; it is something I've learned about myself from being here in Botswana. I ended up going into the clinic earlier in the day because I knew it was still open then and asked a couple of the nurses who were working if they knew how to cut hair, showed them my hair clippers, and explained to them what I wanted to do. One of them helped me so I now have very, very short hair! It feels sort of freeing and awesome! Life is good today.
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