Where and How I Live: The Okavango Delta

Hello everyone, I am sorry that this is coming so late.  Things have been hectic here, over the last few weeks I have been out of my site or have had visitors, consequently not leaving me with much time to blog.

But without further delay, let’s keep moving with the theme Where and How I Live and talk about the Okavango Delta Region.  Now before I began I want to apologize for this post brevity.  Pretty much everything that could be said about the Okavango Delta Region has been said because Botswana’s Delta is one of the most pristine and preserved natural habitats in the world, and being such attracts thousands of tourists, scientists, and wild game enthusiasts every year.  So instead of giving you the Wikipedia version, which I would recommend reading anyway, I will give you the Okavango Delta through my eyes. 
 
First, the thing that immediately jumps out at me, and even a year later still leaves me awestruck, is the presence of wild animals.  This was too be expected because Gumare does border the Moremi Game Reserve which is home to wild animals like Lions, Giraffe, Zebras, Elephants, Buffalo, etc., but what was not expected was how much these animals are a part of people’s lives here. 
 
I mean the stories I hear are almost akin to the stories back home of a neighbor complaining about rodents.  I swear it’s like hearing a next neighbor telling you how a rodent keeps getting into their vegetable garden, but in this case it’s elephants, hyenas, and wild dogs getting doing the damage. 
 
For example, the volunteers up here this region befriended a guy who manages a game farm just outside of Gumare, maybe like 15miles out in the bush.  The first time we went out to the farm he is showing us parts of the fence around his game farm (when I say game farm it is an area of land that is fenced so people can come and hunt wild game like Kudu, Impala, etc….don’t worry it’s all licensed and regulated by the government) that have been torn down by elephants.  He is telling us how he goes back and forth with the elephants in trying to figure out ways to keep his fence up.  One time he even cemented the poles down so the elephants couldn’t push them over, but the elephants just broke the pole in half and walked through the gate!      
 
Another illustration is just today I heard that the Wildlife Department was auctioning off all types of animal skins like Leopards, Lions, Zebras, etc.  This is not something I am used to everyday so I naturally walked up there to see what’s going on and maybe buy a Lion or Zebra skin for my sister’s wedding gift (I thought it would be a nice rug for their new house or maybe up on the wall as a story about how they went hunting in Africa).  Unfortunately the auction was last week and everything was gone (don’t worry Jocie, there might be another one a few hours south so the hunt is still on).

But while I was there, I asked the Wildlife Officer where they got the skins from and he said they people shoot the wild animals when they kill their cattle or become a nuisance on their farm.
 
These stories are pretty specific and don’t even take into account the handful of times I have seen elephants on the side of the road just casually eating from a tree or the countless stories people tell me of elephants raiding their farms and buffalos crossing the game fence to mate with their cows (which by the way causes a disease that essentially has shut down this areas beef industry).     
 
So I kinda mean it literally when I say that Lions, Elephants, Buffalo’s, etc. are the Okavango version of annoying rodents.   
 
Other than the animals, the only other aspect of the Okavango that I should mention which you won’t get on Wikipedia is how spread out and small the villages are from one another and the resulting difficulty of people getting even the basic resources.  For example, Gumare is the largest town in my sub-district, and it only has 8,000 people.  The average village in this area, by my very crude estimate, is probably around 1,000 people if not less.  And most of these tiny villages are tucked away in hard to reach bush areas only accessible by dirt roads.  To make things worse, some villages are “overseas” (just over the river) and only accessible by a very slow moving barge and very rocky roads.

With this type of geographical layout, just getting to people in these villages is an all-day adventure, I couldn’t imagine trying to figure out logistics of building clinics, schools, water and power utilities in these areas.  I am not saying all of this shouldn’t and can’t be done, because it very much can and should be, but only to paint a picture of the vastness of the Delta region and the difficulties it creates in really every aspect of life. 

Yet, I am really enjoying being up here and couldn’t have asked for a better region in Botswana. Again, I recommend doing some google searches on the Okavango Delta to see just how beautiful it is up here.

That’s pretty much it for this post, I know it was short and not really detailed, so if you have any questions or comments please feel free to email at jefflyle30@gmail.com. Hope everyone is doing well.  

Oh, one more apology, sorry about not getting the pics up.  Flickr’s slow uploading has not been going well with my lack of patience, but I am going be home all weekend so will try to get some pictures up then. 

Apologies for Pictures

Hello everyone, I just wanted to say sorry because I promised to have the pictures up but unfortunately wont be able to keep that promise.  The internet has been too slow to upload any pictures, and I will be leaving for mid-service training soon.  Ill try to get them up when I am back at the end of June.  Thanks and all the best. 

Where and How I Live: My Village, Gumare

Hey everyone, sorry that this is a week late.  I have been in and out of my village and lost track of time, but to make up for it I promise to post pictures by the end of this week.  That is that for apologies, so let us now move on the theme of Where and How I Live and talk about my village, Gumare (pronounced Goo-mar-eh). 

I have mentioned a bit about Gumare in earlier posts saying how it is very much a rural cowboy village in the north of Botswana but instead of elaborating on this and subjecting you to my best efforts at literary competency as I try to describe what Gumare looks like in words I will just show you in pictures.  What this means is that this post will be less about what Gumare looks like and more about the people who make up Gumare. 

Really it is the people who I will most likely remember more than the actual village of Gumare itself.  This is even true with the reality that I am surrounded by wildlife (i.e. just yesterday I saw an elephant standing on the side of the road) and is because the people of Gumare represent a wide range of ethnic and class diversity that is packed into this small village of roughly 8,000 people. 

Before I get into what I mean by the diversity of classes in Gumare, lets start with something that is more straightforward and easier for me to write about thanks to Wikipedia and local history books, Gumare's ethnic diversity.  Now, you may be saying why does Jeff need Wikipedia to write about the ethnic diversity in a village he has lived in for a year?  Doesn't he talk to anybody?

The answer to those questions is representative of the ethnic diversity in and of itself.  For instance, if I were to question those most knowledgeable about Gumare's history, which is the older generations, I would most likely get five different answers in five different languages corresponding to the five different ethnic tribes who live in Gumare.  These ethnic groups are in no specific order the Bayei (Ba-yea-e), Bahereo (Bah-her-rare-o), Batswana , Koi (Coy) San, and Bambukushu (Bam-boo-koo-shoo).

So for those who know me and know it is not for my lack of the willingness to ask questions, I need outside assistance because I lack the language capability to fully investigate Gumare's ethnic diversity.  For example, I learned from Wikipedia and a quick Google search the Bambukushu actually originate from Angola, but have migrated down to Gumare during the civil strife that took place in Angola during the late 21st century.  From the Bayei's tribes written history I know that the Bayei, the largest ethnic group in Gumare, for the last decade tried to legally establish Gumare as its cultural and traditional capital. 

With this said, I still have been my inquisitive self (or annoying depending on who you ask) peppering locals with questions about their tribe and history.  And it is from these conversations that I have learned that all these tribes livelihoods are primarily linked to the surrounding delta.  For instance, the Bayei are known for fishing and the Bambukushu are know for using the delta's reeds to make beautiful handmade baskets.  Moreover, I have learned that Koi San are actually one of the oldest tribes in the world (some say they are the initial cradle of civilization tribe) and for years have been roaming Botswana's delta bush hunting and gathering to survive.  Unfortunately, these traditional ways of living are all under threat, if not extinct, because of Botswana's designation of national parks and protected areas.

Finally, I have learned from talking with people that the Bahereo woman's huge colorful dresses and horn shaped hats represent two unique aspects of their culture. First, the colorful patterned dresses come from the fact the Bahereo originate from Namibia, which was colonized by Germany, and thus are actually traditional German style prints.  Secondly, the Bahereo are primarily known for their cattle and to represent how important cattle is to their livelihoods the woman wear hats that look like horns you would see on a bull.  Ill try to get a shot of one these woman but if for some reason I cant and you are really interested just Google images "Bahereo tribe of Namibia" and a picture should come up.

That pretty much wraps up what I meant by ethnic diversity, so lets move on to the class diversity.  I know inequality exists everywhere and in Botswana more than most places, but I was not expecting to see such a clear distinction in my small rural village.  Yet, when I got here it was immediately clear that their was a class distinction. Pretty much all of this has to do with Gumare being the seat of the sub-district's government, which as a result has flooded Gumare with a minority population of well-educated and relatively well-paid bureaucrats. So what you see in terms of class distinction is generally a gap between the well-paid bureaucrats and those who are from Gumare living on subsistence farming.  Those government employers generally have cars, nice clothes, nice government housing, and talk the best English whereas those living in Gumare might only living in mud huts and barely and drive around town in a donkey cart or on a horse.

At this point, I should make it clear that this is just a generalization and really not a cut in stone rule.  For example, I know many business owners who are from Gumare, earn a good living, drive cars, and have large houses.  In addition, I should also make it clear that his generalization is not meant to judge either class, because as I will mention below everyone here is very friendly and welcoming.  Rather, I make the latter observation so you can getting a better picture of my village. 

Like I mentioned, regardless what class or ethnic tribe someone is the people in Gumare have been, for the most part, extremely friendly.  Not a day goes by when someone doesn't stop me with a big smile on their face and say Hello (or in their language "Dumela").  Nor is it uncommon for me to be laughing like I am best friends with a person I just met.  So all in all, I cannot complain about the people in Gumare and am fortunate that I got placed here. 

I think that is a pretty good place to stop.  Next time I will either talk about Gumare's growth in the last decades or move on to discussing the Okavango Sub-District on whole.  Thanks for reading this post and as always I hope everyone is doing well! 

Where and How I Live: My Ward, Kgosi Ward

Hello everyone, sorry to be a day late, but here is the second part of Where and How I Live.  Today we will be focusing on my ward, the Kgosi Ward.

 

First things first, what do I mean by my ward?  Well, Gumare and every other villages, town, or even city in Botswana are broken into different wards that represent their historical chiefdoms.  For instance, Gumare has seven wards (I don’t know them all so will not attempt to name them) and seven corresponding sub-chiefs.   All of these sub-chiefs are born into their positions, which are passed down from generation to generation for that specific family living in that specific chiefdom.  Today these chiefdoms and chiefs act as more localities and local elders who have the final authority on traditional matters.  But legally they also have the power to sentence criminals to traditional punishments like lashings or fines.  This traditional punishment can be in addition to a formal court ruling, so in essence if you say steal someone’s property and get caught you could get lashed (yes, when I say lashed I do mean being hit in the back or buttocks by a stick) by the traditional court and then sentenced to jail time by the formal court. 

Now, as their name suggests the sub-chiefs are under the purvey of one ruling chief that has the final say in all the traditional and social matters of Gumare.  Finally, I tell you all of this because my ward, Kgosi Ward, houses this one ruling chief.  Thus, the Kgosi Ward literally translates into the Ward of the Chief, and this fact is one of the more interesting things about my immediate surroundings. 

Almost weekly, I walk past the Chief's office (see picture on Flickr next week), which consists of a five-roomed one story brick building, an outdoor community meeting space where the chief hears cases and complaints, and the main Krall where cattle is bought and sold.  As you can imagine, this is a hotbed of activity and it is not unusual for me to walk past while traditional court or community event is being held.  In fact, with my work here in Gumare I have helped organized and put-on some on these community events.

Other than the chief’s office, the Kgosi ward’s next biggest attraction is the hospital, which is just a five minute walk from my house.  It is the only hospital in all of the Okavango Sub-District and services residents from up to 200km away, though there are clinics in every village in Botswana.  With this said, Gumare Hospital is not what I would call a hospital.  It is small and under resourced compared to many of the hospitals in Botswana.   Yet, it is does have things that the clinics don’t like a maternity ward, which makes an invaluable health asset to the Okavango Sub-District. 

Moreover, the constant flow of people has enticed some entrepreneurs to open up little stands and a butchery/restaurant right next to the hospital.  So it is here where I get some of my lunches like meat-pies, beef, chicken, and bread (again, all included on Flickr and I will explain more about the food in the next chapter of the blog).    

And it is also at these lunchtime stops where I get a sense of my integration.  For example, at first when I walked into the butcher by the hospital the owners would look at me like any other foreigner and ask what I was doing there.  Fast forward to today and now they not only know me but comment if I have not come by to see them in a while or joke with me about my language skills.  Like a wise person once said, you truly feel like you’re part of a community when the local butcher knows you by name. 

Other than the hospital and the Chief’s office, Kgosi ward is mostly made up of a mixture of compounds like mine that have some brick houses intermingled with the more traditional mud hut rondaval.  I know this was short, but I’ll post pictures next week of everything I wrote about here so you can get a better understanding of what I mentioned.

As always, I hope everyone is doing well and please feel free to drop me an email to let me know how you are doing (jefflyle30@gmail.com).

Where and How I Live: My Compound

Hello again everyone, I am going be switching up the theme for the next probably three posts and will be talking about where and how I live.  This will include everything from seeing into my house to the surrounding delta around me.  I have mentioned these places before in some of the earlier posts, but with this theme I hope to go into more detail. 

First things first, let us start with where I really live, sleep, eat, and do some of my works: my house and my compound.   As you can see in the picture, my house relative to some other Peace Corps countries is pretty nice.  It has two bedrooms, a full kitchen, bathtub, toilet, sink, pretty large living room, running water, electricity, and internet hook-up.   Also, all of my furniture is taken care of by the District Aids Coordinating office and as you can see in some of the flickr pictures not that bad.   For instance, my bed is a queen size and probably one of the nicer beds I have had in my life. 

With all of this said, there are some things to get used to because it is still different than what I am used to in the U.S.   Take, for example, the bathroom.   In the U.S. we are used to the toilet, sink, and bathtub being all in one room.  Here in Botswana about every house I have been to the toilet, sink, and bathtub are usually in separate locations.  Like in my house, as you can see in the pictures on flickr, the toilet and bathtub are in their own separate small rooms and the “bathroom” sink is between the two.   That’s probably the biggest difference but their other subtle ones too like here my whole house is made of concrete and has a corrugated steel roof, which keeps thing cool in the winter and hot in the summer. 

So far though, I have really been comfortable in my house.   I do, on occasion, have to deal with the water and/ or electricity not working for maybe a few hours or even sometimes a few days, but you get used to that and prepare by having candles and bottles of water stored away.  In fact, I actually enjoy when the electricity goes out sometimes because then the whole village becomes dark and the sky at night is as clear as it would be if I was camping.

Now that is just my house, but really I am not living in just a house.  No, I live on a compound with about three to five other people living in separate living spaces that drastically differ from one another.  For example, the structure closest to me on the right is just a one room thatched roof hut made of clay.  Yet, in this hut my landlord’s son has a fridge, a T.V., a bed, and a hot-plate.  The farther structure on my right is a little bit bigger than the hut.  It has three rooms and one common space where the tenants share a hot-plate, fridge, and T.V. Neither structure has a bathroom, so they use an outhouse at the far corner of the compound (shown in flickr). 

I mentioned in an earlier post the kids who were living here but a few months ago they and their sister who was taking care of them moved to another compound.  Replacing them was a group of guys working at the construction company updating the roads around Gumare.   There is one girlfriend who stays with them and is home usually most of the day.  This new group of people has been really nice and we get along fine.  In fact, it’s at the point now where I feel safer because they are here.  I even ask them to take of the dogs when I am gone. 

That’s pretty much it for the first chapter of Where and How I Live, in the next I will focus more on Gumare as a whole.  Hope everyone is doing well! 

Where I Work and What I Do: Voices of the Community

First things first, the answer to last posts riddle: The horses name is Sunday (i.e he left on Sunday the horse and came back on the same Sunday the horse).  I don’t know how many of you got that, but if you didn’t, don’t feel bad because no one really gets it either, including myself. 

Okay, so now that the riddles are over, let’s move on to what I think is the fourth and concluding chapter of Where I Work and What I Do.  The organization that I will be highlighting for this final chapter is a brand new NGO that a crew of past and present Peace Corps volunteers have been working with for the past year called Voices of the Community or Voices for short. 

This group all started with one of the Gumare Peace Corps volunteers before me who recognized the need here for a group that specifically dealt with issues of gender based violence and children’s rights.  So with this understanding, she started to recruit members from the Gumare community who wanted to help start this group.  Initially, a small group of women met weekly to offer support for anyone facing abuse in Gumare as well as to plan for ways to become formalized.   This all started just as the previous Peace Corps volunteer was leaving, so they asked Dave and I if we would like to continue on helping. 

We both agreed that we would and first met the four-five initial members probably within just a few months of being in Gumare.  At first, Dave and I were just helping with the administrative chores of getting registered and drafting a constitution for the group.  Once we became official, it was obvious that we were going need help in training and planning for how to be an effective gender group so we asked for other local volunteers to assist.

 Fortunately, two local Peace Corps volunteers had experience working with gender groups before and were more than willing to help.   After these two Peace Corps joined the group, they organized trainings for the ladies and walked them through all the gender basics like what is the difference between gender and sex and the different types of gender based violence and abuse (i.e. mental vs. physical, etc.).  Dave and I again helped more with the administrative details like getting the word out about the trainings and making sure people would attend.   

These trainings took maybe two to three months to finish, but it was perfect timing because immediately after the local government office dealing with HIV sponsored the Peace Corps in the Delta to organize youth camps targeting teenage pregnancy.  These camps were the perfect venue for the initial members to get practice talking about their group, gender issues, and facilitating group activities. 

Those camps ended a few months ago, and since then a few more members, including some men, have come aboard, but not enough.  So right now we are going forward trying to grow the group and host events to spread awareness about abuse and gender based violence in Gumare.   

The first one of the activities was actually today.  We organized a Kgotla meeting (pronounced Kota and is kinda like a town hall meeting with the local village chief, a picture explaining what I mean will be included in flickr very soon) with government representatives talking on topics like the relationship between gender based violence and HIV, frequency of rape and other gender based crimes in Gumare, and the status of orphans and vulnerable children. 

With this being the third attempt at holding this meeting, I would consider it a success.  We had in attendance over thirty community members, twelve representatives from local government departments, the chief, and one local politician.  More importantly, people eagerly listened to the speakers and were interested in learning more about our group.  At least, twenty people signed up as wanting to attend our next meeting.    

That’s where the Voices of the Community stand right now.  It’s going bit by bit, but it is a group I am very much interested in continuing to help.   Finally, check on Flickr sometime next week for pictures of the Voices of the Community. 

Next week I’ll be changing the topic, so check back in two weeks for something different.  With that said, I’ll continue to update how things are going with the different projects.  Also, always feel free to email any questions or comments @ jefflyle30@gmail.com.

Hope everyone is doing well!

Where I Work and What I Do: The Schools in Gumare

Hey everyone, I finally uploaded the pictures of GCC, so check Flickr to see the office, compound, and of course at least one picture of the dogs hanging out their.  Okay, with the pictures uploaded of GCC that pretty much wraps up what I was “assigned” to do here in Gumare.  The rest of the Where I Work and What I Do posts will be about other activities that are not really official but just things I am involved in.  The first type of these activities that really takes up most of my time outside of “official work” is the activities Dave (for the those who don’t know, Dave is the other Peace Corps in Gumare that I work with a lot) and I do at the schools here in Gumare.   At each school we meet with a group of students after school one day a week to talk about life-skills like leadership, goal-setting, etc. and how they relate to what is going on in their country and life (i.e. HIV prevention). 

To start the week off we go to the Okavango Junior Secondary School- which is the equivalent of middle school-every Tuesday at 4:30pm and meet for about an hour with have 15-20 mostly girls aged between 14-17.  Right now we are in the midst of practicing the kids public speaking skills as we have 4-5 members each week give a short presentation on a topic of their choosing.  So far they have been great!  Surprisingly, many of the girls have given their opinions on very serious subjects like abortion, politics, and corporal punishment.  Yet despite some unfavorable looks from their fellow classmates they many continue to speak their mind with poise and confidence.  Like just last week a girl in the class stood up for her presentation and started attacking the majority party as corrupt.  Even though the majority party has been the majority in Botswana for the past five decades, they still have an almost blind loyalty throughout the country, so it was not surprising that she got a few heckles from her classmates.  But even with these heckle, she continued to make her point and finished without being dismayed.  This is just one example of why working with the Junior Secondary School is a highlight of the week.   After the “formal” kinda class room like setting, Dave finishes off the meeting with a few brainteasers and jokes.  The kids love this so much and have so many of their own that it usually goes on for about an hour.  Though, if we didn’t finally call the meeting they could go on for hours telling jokes and riddles. 

Following the Junior Secondary School on Wednesday and Thursday at 3pm are two primary schools: Gumare Primary School and KeleKele Primary School (equivalent of an elementary school).  At both primary schools we have the same purpose for our meetings as the Junior Secondary School but a very different style.  This is for two reasons.  For one, the kids at primary level do not speak English very well.  And two, they are much younger and only really come for the games.  With this dynamic we have tried many different tactics to at least try to get some message across before we lead them in games like Simon Says, Red Rover, Capture the Flag, Red Light-Green Light, Duck Duck Goose, and other children’s games we can remember from our youth.   So far we have tried everything from discussion groups to skits to artwork to group work.  Yet, the kids are still kinda crazy when we do the lesson part and are constantly talking, moving around, or just flat out not paying attention.  I understand this, they have been in a class-room all day and don’t really want to be sitting anymore, so we are going keep trying more interactive sessions to see how it goes. 

Outside of these clubs, I have just started to help with Okavango Junior Secondary School’s brand new basketball team.  I don’t get to their practice as much as I like because I am already committed to the clubs I just mentioned, but when I do it is really fun.  As most of you know, I love basketball and everywhere I have gone it has been a part of my life.  Here in Gumare, for the first time, that really stopped because there is no court, no one to play against or with, and really just no interest.  Now those challenges still exist, but since about a month ago one of the newly transferred teachers took upon himself to start up a hoop team with basically nothing but four basketballs and pavement. 

Literally, this is all they have.  I was walking to a meeting at the junior school and saw one of the teachers holding a basketball and a few kids without schools and still in their school uniforms throwing the another ball back and forth.  Immediately, I did a double take and thought I was hallucinating.  The only time people ever mention basketball is when they confuse it with some weird version called netball.  Yet, here I was seconds later telling this guy I used to play and how I would love to help out.  He said that would be great, any help would be much appreciated, and to show up when I can.  So needless to say, I have been going whenever I can make (usually two times a week) and helping run the kids through any drill I can think of that doesn’t require a hoop. 

And in fact, you would be surprised how much you can actually do.   For instance, I dug back in my memories and have made the kids do defense chops like the ones we used to do a local high school camp.  I have also put them through some rebounding drills we they have to box out enough to keep their opponent from even touching the ball right in-front of them.

So far it has been very fun and relaxing to be around basketball again.  With that said, it has also been challenging because some of these kids have not even touched a basketball before let alone dribbled.  It is work in progress but one that I am very excited about. 

That’s pretty much it for the schools; hopefully soon we can start taking our groups out on trips and show them a little bit of the delta besides Gumare.  I think doing this and getting them out of their environment might calm them down and help us get across our life-skill messages.

Before I leave though, I will give you one brainteaser that Dave has used for the kids.  If you are really curious and can’t figure it out, wait for next week and Ill post the answer.   Here it is…..

On Sunday, a man left for week-long trip horse trip through the local mountain trails and returned on the same Sunday.  How did he do it?

Oh on admin note, I will post pictures of the schools next week sometime, check back by Thursday.   

Finally, I would like to end by saying that my thoughts and prayers go out to the city of Boston, especially for those families that have lost someone in the bombings.