Things Starting To Pick Up

Hello everyone, sorry for the delayed response.  The last few weeks have been pretty busy with trainings and projects starting to move past the planning page.   With that being said, those projects will be the primary topic of today’s blog post with a conclusion of some random stories since we last spoke.  To make the organization of the projects easier to read, I’ll discuss them in list form.    

Gumare Women’s Group

Since our in-service training a couple weeks ago things have started to pick up for some project.  For instance, as soon as I got back from the training a lady from a women’s group that Dave and I are helping with came over to seek some advice on registering her group as a non-profit.  When she first called and explained this I expecting maybe an hour or so to discuss a plan for registering, but this was not the case.  She wanted to get this group started and do the application at the meeting. 

So not having anything else going on, Dave came over and we sat in my house with this lady writing a letter to the ministry here that handles non-profits outlining what the group’s objective; coming up with ten possible names; and calling the members for a meeting to formally record minutes from a meeting discussing registration. 

Even though Dave and I were somewhat caught off guard, the outcome I think turned out okay.  Below are the objectives of the group:

·         Provide quality, caring, and nonjudgmental support in a manner that fosters self-respect and independence in persons experiencing intimate partner abuse.

 

·         Lead the effort to end domestic abuse through advocacy, outreach, and community education.

 

·         Have the knowledge and expertise for directing persons experiencing abuse to the proper professional care providers

The next steps with the group will be organizing training for the members around these objectives; introducing ourselves to the community through some marketing; coming up with programs and projects around the objectives; and finally come up with some sustainable methods for resource development.

PACT Club and Camp Glow

These projects are essentially the same: Working with the youth around Gumare to develop their confidence, decision-making, and other important life-skills that will help mitigate their chance of contracting HIV/AIDs.  

Dave and I are currently running one PACT Club with about twenty kids aged 10-14 at an elementary school on Wed afternoons.  Basically, we start off with interactive learning about a like-skill topic and then play games the rest of the time.  It usually lasts about an hour and half. 

In addition, the PCV’s in this region, myself included, will be putting on a Camp GLOW for about thirty elementary school kids.  The camp will be for a week and link life-skills with avoiding teen pregnancy, which is pretty high in this region.  Hopefully this camp will happen at the beginning of December. 

Sekgele and Gumare Primary Counseling Center

These are my two primary assignments so I spend most of my time there, but I am not doing too much project implementation.  Currently, I am just working on developing some training in basic computer skills, Microsoft Office, and business skills.  Hopefully next month we start doing these trainings at least twice a week.

After the trainings, I hope to start getting incorporating what we learned into more projects that the organizations have going on so look for more posts on that in the future.

When I am not doing these trainings, I am helping my organizations with any administrative help they need whether it is creating fliers or inputting data on a spreadsheet or helping write grants. 

Random Happenings

So these projects are basically what I spend most of my days working on and like I said earlier they all started to pick up more after the training.  It has been good to busy, but I do get some time to relax and do things I like. 

For instance, I have started to play soccer on Mon and Wed.  Actually, it is not really playing as much as it is me embarrassing myself.  I have not played soccer in probably over ten years and don’t really know what I am doing.  In fact, the first time I played I didn’t even know the positions.  One of the guys told me I was positions 11 and everyone started calling me top striker with big smiles on their faces.  I was laughing along but then had to finally stop and say where does the top striker go and what does the top striker do?  This immediately got more laughter, but eventually someone answered me.   With all this said, it has been really fun and a great workout.  All the guys are government workers here at the hospital, schools, or government offices so they do speak English.  Also, like everyone else I met here, they are extremely friendly and never get upset if I do something stupid like completely miss the ball when trying to kick the ball off a bounce.   

In addition to playing soccer, I hope to start going fishing regularly with a group of guys that go every weekend.  The idea happened about two weeks ago when I hitched to this lagoon area with an old Zimbabwean guy going fishing.  I didn’t plan of fishing that day, but ended up sitting with this guy for five hours and talking about politics, Africa, and the US while he was having barely any luck with the fish.  After the five hours, we exchanged numbers, and he told me that a group of guys usually goes out every weekend and to call if I am interested.  Hopefully, I can get a fishing pole soon and join them.  But again, like soccer I am not much of a fisherman so it will be interesting and potentially embarrassing experience. 

That’s pretty much it for this blog post.  Sorry it was so random, but things here are always random, so it just makes sense to do the same for my blog post.  I hope you enjoyed.  For my friends and family, I miss you all very much and hope everyone is doing well.   Please send me some updates through email on how you all are doing. 

Oh, I put some pictures up on Flickr and will keep adding them slowly but surely. 

Reality Check: I work with HIV/AIDs in Botswana

Hello again everyone, I know it’s been awhile once but it is funny how life is getting so normal here that nothing really seams blog worthy anymore.  I mean at first I wanted to write about everything I did because it was so fresh.  However, the novelty of being Africa is starting to wear off and the reality of the challenges the country face, and the reason I am here, are beginning to come overwhelming clear.

This realization first hit me on Fourth of July.  I was sitting on this old navy green cot eating a steak and drinking a beer while watching the sunset go down over the palm trees and small concrete houses that make up my front porch view.  Eventually, the kids I mentioned in the last past became curious to what I was doing and sat down with me.  I didn’t think anything of it and actually was trying to explain that steak (or your preferred BBQ) and beer was the traditional American meal on the Fourth of July. 

But then something caught my eye.  It was this little white dot on Great’s, the one year old, arm.   I asked Nila, the ten-year old, what it was and she said it was a shot for a disease.  Almost immediately I was thinking of how babies born to mothers with HIV/AIDs get ARV medicine to prevent transmission (ARV stands for Anti-Retroviral Virus and lowers the viral load of HIV in a person).   At this point I was staring at Great and wondering if either he or his mother had HIV/AIDs.  And this is where it struck me that I am in a country where these thoughts are not that far-fetched.   In my district, the Okavango, Orphans and Vulnerable Children (orphans are classified as having lost one parent) are a priority for the District Aids Commission.   The HIV/AIDs prevalence rate for working age adults is close to 30% or almost 1 out of every 3 working age adults.  The life expectancy in Botswana is barely over 50 and death has become so normal that funerals were once commonplace on Saturday.  In fact, funerals were so commonplace that Unity Dow, a former Botswana judge, wrote a book call Saturday is Funerals that tells the stories of different Batswana living with HIV/AIDs as an introduction to the many different causes and issues of HIV/AIDs.     

Now, I have since come to realize that babies do not get ARV’s through shots, so my thought process was actually not really justified.  But nonetheless it was there and I couldn’t these statistics out of my mind. 

Having been in the country for over four months and gone through two months of rigorous training where these stats were given to us over and over again, it might seem crazy to some that I am just starting to get the picture of HIV/AIDs in Botswana now.  To be fair, Botswana has done such a great job treating people with HIV/AIDs that you don’t really see these statistics.  What I mean is that people who have HIV/AIDs don’t seem like the stereotypical HIV/AIDs patients that you might think of.  People living with HIV/AIDs in Botswana are healthy and can live long productive lives, which is great and a testament to the countries response.  However, it does make it hard to really grasp the situation unless you have lived here for most of your life. 

So what got me with Great’s arm was that it connected the HIV/AIDs statistics with children and I couldn’t help but think that all too frequently children are growing up in Botswana with either one or both parents dyeing of HIV/AIDs.   

To emphasize this point, I recently just attended a retreat two weeks for thirteen orphan and vulnerable children (OVCs) and fifteen of their caregivers.   These twenty eight people were from one small village, Etsa 13.   All of the OVC’s had lost one or more parents to HIV/AIDs and most were disabled.  One OVC, a seventeen old year old boy, was deaf, mute, and lost both parents to HIV/AIDs.  The OVC’s caregivers were relatives like a grandparent, sister, mother, or brother.  None of the participants had a great deal of resources.  In fact, two deaf and mute boys where, I was told, living with their mother underneath a tree.

Yet, despite all that I have seen, and relayed to you in this post, the people in Botswana have responded with such care for one another that at times you just sit back and watch in amazement.  I mean at the retreat most of the people met for the first time, but the familial feel was overwhelming.   The government workers responsible for organizing and funding the retreat seamlessly blended with their “clients” and laughed with them like they were best friends.  Even more impressive were the caregivers.  Like I mentioned earlier, most of the caregivers were poor, but despite all this they took in their relatives and treated them like sons and daughter. 

The best part of is that the familial feel is throughout Botswana and seems to fuel the hope and smiles that are seen in every village across the country.  Again using the retreat as an example, despite all the obstacles facing the seventeen year old boy I mentioned earlier he had a big smile on his face during the retreat and shared with the group his ambitions to be a sign language translator. 

Now, not everything is one big happy family as the rest of the post can attest, but the care for one another that I have seen so far, and experienced first-hand with my homestay family, has truly been one the best parts of living in Botswana.   So, on that good note I will leave you all. 

Like always, please send me updates on how you all are doing.  Oh, I just got internet at the house so no more excuses for slacking on the blog posts.  Also, that means pictures will be up by the end of the week (use the Flickr link on the side to access them).         

 Thanks for reading!  Hope everyone is doing well. 

Readjustment After Readjusting: First few weeks in Gumare

Hello everyone, sorry it has taken me so long to write another blog post.  I just got to site a few weeks ago and internet has been non-existent until now.   To make up for the lack of updates, this post will fit in everything that has happened since I left for Gumare on June 13^th, including traveling up here and the first impressions of site. 

Even though I was excited to get to site and really start settling into my new home for two years, it was bittersweet leaving PST and the good friends I made over the two months.  But these thoughts were quickly overwhelmed by a whole new array of aspirations, challenges, worries, and awkward situations. 

For instance, I knew the drive to Gumare was going to be long, but I didn’t realize just how long.  Depending on the route and the frequency of stops, the trip can be anywhere from 9-13 hours.  Our driver decided to take to longer route because it had more government fueling stations, which also meant we were going to stop more and the trip was going to take even longer.  Nonetheless, we aimed to make the trip in one day and were on track to do so until around hour 10 (7pm).  At this point, we were only three hours from Gumare and planned on making a fuel stop in Maun (entrance village to the game reserve).  When we arrived in Maun, we started to drive around a residential neighborhood made up of government housing.   I have become accustomed to plans changing last minute so I didn’t think much of it, but then our driver pulled into a yard, got out, and started chatting with a woman.  After about fifteen minutes of Dave and me sitting in the car wondering what was happening we decided to go over and ask what was going on.  It turns out the women worked in the government transportation office and they were trying to figure out how we to get gas for the 3 more hours to Gumare.  After a few minutes of deliberation, it was decided that there was no way to get fuel from the government posts and no other cars were available.   So on the first night out of Kanye, Dave and I stayed in Maun on volunteer couches. 

The next morning we left Maun after filling up at a government station and planned to arrive in Gumare around 10am, but again plans changed.  Just about an hour into the trip, and maybe a 100miles from Gumare, we again made an unannounced stop, but this time it was on the side of the road.  The engine was overheating!  At first, Dave and I thought this was because how many times we accelerated and then stopped for cows, donkeys, goats, ostriches, and wild dogs passing the road (cows and donkeys were in the road maybe every five miles or so).   So the driver added water and let the engine cool, but after a few hundred yards the engine overheated again.  Once more we pulled off the side of the road and our driver inspected the engine.  After looking closer he pulled off the engines’ fan belt to show us it was completely ripped part.  Having no extra fan belt, the driver had to call the Maun transportation office for a maintenance tow back to Maun.  We were officially broken down on the side of the road in Africa right outside of the Kalahari Desert.  However, it was not as excited or dangerous as I thought.  In fact, it was kind of like being broken down on a remote highway in Arizona (or what I imagine it would be like since I never was broken down there).  We just sat there and talked for about two hours until another car came to pick us up and finish the trip to Gumare.  There were no wild animals walking around (not even the donkeys or cows), no people at all besides the few cars and trucks speeding back to Maun, and the scenery was that of the high desert.      

 After the break down, I can happily say that there were no more hick-ups and around 2pm we pulled into Gumare.  At first impression, Gumare seemed much less built up than what I was expecting.  I read that Gumare had about 8000 people with shops, restaurants, government offices, four schools, and paved roads.  While it does have all of these things-and actually a very nice government office that houses many departments-the town is still very rural: the shops that I was talking about are locally owned general dealers and co-ops; the restaurants are chicken take-away places, also locally owned; and the paved roads only make three.  It actually reminds me of a town that would be staged in an old western movie.   Granted it would be in Africa and more modern, but the general layout remains the same: one main dusty road surrounded by shops like a general dealer, a co-op, bank, bars, and other every-day activities of a local economy.  In Gumare, there are no chains or big box stores, only local people and local trade, and I have really enjoyed this so far.  For example, it was so easy to get a grill (they call grills braai here and grilling is also braaiing).  All I had to do was ask someone in the shopping area where I could buy a grill and they pointed me to a house a few yards away.   The guy who was occupying the house turned out to be a welder.  I told him I wanted a small grill and in a few hours I had a small grill that he welded together out of an old tire hub, metal grate, and metal posts.  All of this was done for 200pula or about $30US!   

The Braai Stand

Amidst this rural setting, though, my house is unexpectedly nice.  It has two rooms, a living room, a kitchen, and all the modern amenities like running water (hot running water included when the geyser is fixed), electricity, a refrigerator, and a gas stove.  My house is the main house on a compound with about three other one-two room houses whose renters are younger adults, one of which who has three children (aged one, three, and I think seven or eight) that come over now and then to use the soccer ball I brought from home.  These kids don’t really know any English so it has been interesting establishing boundaries.   The two older kids walk in my house saying “ballo, ballo”.  At first, when I gave them the soccer ball I brought they would kick it around on my porch while the little one year old waddles back and forth in my doorway looking at me and then walking away with a kind of Tim Duncan expressionlessness (for those who don’t know Tim Duncan, he is an NBA player who is famous for his lack of demeanor change on the court).  The walking in and out still happens, though much less frequently because when I am home I leave the balls outside, but now I tell them to go play in the yard by their house.   Currently, I think this has established a nice pattern where I provide them the ball and they go play somewhere besides my porch so I can do some work.

My House

Even with this pattern established, I still get nervous with the kids around because I am now the owner of three Peace Corps legacy dogs.  The last three volunteers before me took care of, and eventually owned, three brown dogs that look like different size versions of my old dog Baby (see attached pictures).   Now for those who know Baby, they can attest that she was harmless and never really got excited over anything besides digging holes and Mount Washington.  However, my new “Babies” are very different.  They chase donkeys, goats, and other dogs that come near them.  Being more aggressive than the average pet you would find at home, I am a little concerned about how they will act around the kids, but so far they have been very calm around the kids.  In fact, the kids are starting to pet the dogs and yell with me when they chase goats.  All of this, I hope, will establish the kids as part-owners of the dogs.

The Dogs (from right to left: Scrappy, Buster, and Lady)

As I hope you can tell, I am starting to settle into my house and environment, which for me is essential to settling into work.   Like I mentioned in the last blog, my host organizations will be Sekgele Training Home Society and Gumare HIV/AIDs Counseling Center.  Everything I said about Sekgele in the last post remains the same, though now it is just more realistic and more tangible as work plans start coming into fruition.  Also, I met the board and the other staff member, Ogomoditse, who are extremely nice, kind, and welcoming.  GCC was a little more of a mystery to me because I didn’t get a chance to meet anyone beforehand, but having met the staff for first time yesterday I am very excited to work with them.  They are a satellite of a Christian organization and have seven employees, all of which are young adults, who primarily work in the community promoting faithfulness, abstinence, testing, and counseling.   Even though I have met them just once, they were very friendly and I can tell it will be a great time working with them. 

That is basically the skinny on what has been happening with me the last few weeks.  Before I go, though, I have to mention how nice it is having other volunteers around.  This past weekend a few of us got together for braai and it was good to just talk about our first week in all its frustrating glory.  I am especially lucky because I get to do this daily with my friend Dave (we have been going to the local chicken house for lunch or a coke/tea about every day).   His encouraging words and willingness to act as a soundboard for my rants have been much appreciated.   

I guess that is it for now.  I’ll try to send out more than once every month, as it seems that’s what I am on track for, but either way please send me updates on how everything is going with you guys back home.  Hope all is well!  Talk soon.  Oh, Ill try to post more pictures as soon as I can. 

Links to Google Images

Sorry I forgot the links to Google Images......here is the one for the Delta and here is the link for the Moremie Game Reserve.

Living in the Desert and Site Placement

As I wrote in the last post, my first few weeks in Botswana were spent adjusting to a new way of life.  However, eventually living with a family in Botswana became the norm.  As a result, this post will be less about the adjustment process and more about training, especially because training can no longer be described in the general terms I used in the last post. 

For instance, in week 5 of training (May 7^th-May 14^th) I went to Kaudwane and shadowed a current Peace Corps Volunteer working in a school.  Kaudwane is a remote village bordering the Central Kalahari Game Reserve about four hours north from where I live now in Kanye.  It is so remote that the paved road, and consequentially the last bus stop, ends about 90km from Kaudwane.   For the rest of trip you have to a catch a ride with someone traveling the sandy and rocky 90km of road to Kaudwane.   While Kaudwane’s location made this mode of transportation a necessity, catching a ride with strangers is actually a pretty normal mode of travel in Botswana.  In fact, it is so ingrained that it seems most villages have unofficial carpool areas were people wait for passer-bys.  In many cases, including my experience going to and from Kaudwane, these unofficial carpool areas are just trees on the side of the road. 

After traveling the 90km to Kaudwane, the seclusion becomes even more apparent.   For instance, most of the 500 people living in Kaudwane are from the minority San group.   Since the San people are by tradition hunter and gatherers, the few residences in Kaudwane were separated by miles of shrubbery and thick sand.  This made the village seemed to house no more than a little over a hundred people. Consequently, not much is in Kaudwane: there is one school, one store with basic goods, a few shebeens (traditional brew houses), one clinic, one street lamp, and no paved roads. 

The volunteer I shadowed seemed to navigate this rural setting very well.  In fact, in addition to the rural setting he didn’t have electricity or a refrigerator, yet he seemed perfectly happy.   Living with him for that week was a refreshing, because I saw that living in a rural setting without many of the amenities was possible and actually not that bad.  For example, even though the area was remote the day still went by pretty normal: during the day my host volunteer worked at the school; after school he coached soccer; around six it was back home to cook rice and some type of canned vegetable and/or meat; and finally, after dinner we just hung out playing cards and/or watch a movie until bed around 10.

With this said, the other closest volunteer was 90km away down the earlier described rough patch of road, and when I put myself in that situation I recognized that loneliness could be an issue.   But after observing for that week, I also recognized the nature of working with the Peace Corps forces the volunteer to integrate into a community, whether that is the workplace or the actual village.  As a result, your social network becomes that community.   

While shadowing was definitely a highlight of the past few weeks, it was surpassed last Friday when Peace Corps told us where we will be living and working for the next two years.   As expected, my fellow trainees and I are going to many different places in Botswana and working with a variety of non-profits and government offices in variety of capacities.  For me, I will be living in a village called Gumare, which is in the northwest part of Botswana bordering the Okavango Delta and Moremi Game Reserve.   It is a small village of about 7000 and for most of my shopping I will have to go about 3.5hrs away to Maun.  This may seem isolated, but there are actually quite a number of fellow trainees around that area.  For instance, there is another trainee going to Gumare as well as 8 other trainees in about a 3hr radius.  In addition, I will have access to internet and will be living in a two-bedroom house complete with running water, electricity, appliances and furniture, a small yard, and a small porch.   Now if the description of my location ended there I would be happy.  However, it gets even better.   The region Gumare is in has been called the Garden of Eden and the Okavango Delta is one of the premier wildlife destinations in the world (click on links for images: Gumare, Delta, and Moremi).  So along with nice housing and close proximity to other volunteer, I also get to live in arguably one of the most scenic places on earth.   With all this in mind, I am extremely happy with the actual location of where I will be living. 

Even more important than the location, I met my supervisor for the first time just two days ago and he was telling me about some really interesting projects that I could potentially be working on.  For example, our NGO, Sekgele, is working with people of disabilities to empower them economically and is in the process of launching three income generating projects.   Along with these income generating projects, he also told me I would be involved in the NGO’s resource development, grant and proposal writing, organizational development, and joint programs with the Gumare HIV/AIDs counseling center.  On top of these primary activities, I have the opportunity to continue some really cool secondary projects the current Peace Corps volunteer has already established like teaching a business class and helping a youth club at the school.

So all in all, these past few weeks have been great.   Like I said earlier, the adjustment process is over, and I am really starting to feel more comfortable at my homestay, which means participating in more activities like going to my homestay brother’s soccer games.   But the best part was what I just mentioned about finding out my living and working situation.   Not only was the anxiety of being in a perpetual state of limbo gone, but I also was really happy with the location and the NGO.  Also, my supervisor was really nice and I am really looking forward to working with him on the many different activities of Sekgele.

 That’s it for this post.   The next three weeks we will be wrapping up training, so if there is anything worth mentioning I will update the blog then, but if not I probably won’t have much more to say until I get to Gumare on June 13^th.     

Thanks for reading, and I hope everyone is doing well!

First Blog Post Ever! (Sorry for the late)

Hello everyone, before I get to the actual post I just wanted to say three things.  First, I am sorry that this post is coming so late.  There have been some technical difficulties, but I also have been somewhat of a slacker.  Second, I also want to apologize for the lack of pictures.  My camera broke so no pictures in fact at all.  Finally, anything I post in this or subsequent posts are a reflection of my personal views and opinions, not those of the Peace Corps or the US Government. 

Now that apologies and disclaimers are out the way, here is the first update on what I have been doing since last time I talked to many of you:   

On April 10^th I officially began my Peace Corps training in Philadelphia where we went over travel logistics.  On April 11^th, we left for Botswana and a little less than 24 hours later arrived in Botswana.  From there we had a one day training session at a nice lodge near Botswana’s capital city, Gaborone.  Then on Friday April 13^th we went to Kanye (a Botswana village about an hour outside of Gaborone) where we were introduced our family that would host us for the next two months during our Pre-Service Training (PST).   The family that I was matched with is the Sentle’s (pronounced Seh-n-clay) and most of this post will be about the little more than a month I have lived with them as well as the one week I spent shadowing a current volunteer. 

While the day by day account may be a little much, it is a good snapshot of the whirlwind it has been since I have left.   There is so much I have been adjusting to that the processing of these new experiences almost becomes self-consuming.  This goes for everything from meeting my fellow volunteers, the Peace Corps staff, and my homestay family, to normal day to day activities like bathing, washing dishes, cooking, walking around town, and learning a new language and culture.    

For instance, my day usually starts with me getting up at 6:30 to sounds of roosters roosting or whatever they do, dogs barking, and my homestay brothers running around.  Though I get up at 6:30, I usually lay in bed until around seven.  Once I get out of bed, I “take a bath”, which means washing myself with a bucket.  Literally this means that I heat water in a huge kettle, or a fire outside if it’s the weekend, then pour the hot water into a medium size plastic bucket and proceed to splash water on my soapy self while sitting in an empty bathtub .  The water comes from either a JoJo (a huge plastic container that collects rain water) or the community water container that the government water facility fills up routinely.  Now I was expecting the infamous “bucket bath” that so many previous volunteers have talked about, so that is not surprising.  What was more surprising was that if not for a drought, I would not have had to take a bucket bath.  My homestay family has sinks, full bath tubs, and even a washing machine, but since there is no water they cannot use these benefits of living in a middle income country like Botswana. 

Once bathing is done, I make myself a PPJ or eat some cornflakes, brush my teeth, and then head out for my fifteen walk to the local education center where we have are training starting at 8:30.  As you probably can imagine, there are not many white people in Kanye, and for this first time in my life this makes me somewhat of an attraction.  During my walk little kids scream out “hi, hi”, people laugh when I say dumela rrra/mma (hello sir/mam), and others just stare.  However, for me the real attraction is the scenery.  There are two main roads near me and they are surrounded by family compounds that are accessed mainly through dusty and dirt roads.  These family compounds are pretty large plots of that consist of maybe a main house, a separate building that houses one to two other bedrooms as well as a bathroom, and then a pit latrine to use when the water is not running or if you don’t have enough income for flushable toilets.   There are no well-manicured lawns, but there are rather it looks like the high desert: dusty roads mixed in a little greenery here and there.  Walking amidst this high deserty terrain are other villages as well as seemingly random assortment of chickens, goats, and sometimes cattle.   The cattle are the most shocking and I catch myself just staring at them in fascination, though I try not to look for long because sometimes they stare back and are probably thinking of charging me. 

At first, I thought Kanye must be a rural town, but Kanye is actually one of the biggest villages in Botswana with over 60,000 people and the scenery has more do with Botswana’s development.  For instance, before Botswana found and developed their natural resources like diamonds, the Batswana (people of Botswana) here raised animals, tended their fields, and overwhelming lived of the land.  So while roads were being built and modern villages were being built with diamond money, the tradition of raising cattle and having a garden was kept.  It is not uncommon for someone who works full-time in something other than farming to raise their own cattle and tend their own fields.  In a sense, the cows on the road are a symbol of Botswana’s unique mix of traditional with the modern.  

I say modern, because Botswana in many ways is very developed.  For instance, though we wash dishes by candlelight, we also watch T.V. in a living room while eating dinner; though I bath using a bucket, many of my fellow Peace Corps trainees have running water and showers; though cows and goats still walk the streets, Kanye roads are better than those in New England; and though the family compounds have no address, most (mine included) have electricity, living rooms, dining rooms, and bedrooms complete with many of the amenities developed countries enjoy. 

This overlap between modern and traditional can also be seen in the way Botswana’s governance system is structured.   In Botswana, the traditional method of governance, tribal Chiefdoms, coexists with a more modern representative and constitutional government.    Each Botswana village has a Kgosi (Chief) and several different headmen who were born into their position and have powers that are not symbolic.  These Kgosi and headmen have the power to settle disputes and even enact corporal punishment.  For example, we met one of Kanye’s headmen and he said when there is a public nuisance the police first bring the offender to the him.  The offender is then tried at a Kgotla, the traditional community meeting place, where the community can debate and offer opinions.  Once the community meeting is adjourned, the headman has the right to basically whip the person with two lashes.  Afterwards, the offender goes through Botswana’s constitutional court proceedings were they could face further punishment like a fine or prison sentence.   While the Kgosi’s role may seem out of date, they do more than just apply corporal punishment.  In fact, they are now becoming more like civil servants and help on a variety of issues including HIV/AIDs. 

Moving on from what became a very lengthy diversion based on scenery, at the education center I am trained on language, culture, and/or technical skills for my future work with HIV/AIDs.  There is not too much to say about training besides that it has been enormously informational and extremely helpful for a HIV and Setswana novice like me.  My language teacher, Phenyo, has been very patient with me and the two others in language class.  We stumble our way through and he is constantly encouraging us and telling us to keep practicing. 

Training is done around 5-5:30, and from the education center I head back home.  Once at home, I continue to stumble through Setswana with my family (they enjoy this immensely), learn what it really means to live in Botswana, and ask a lot of questions (yes, I warned them that I ask a lot of questions).  More importantly, this is time that I get to laugh and relax.  My homestay family is so nice, welcoming, and very funny.  I have two homestay brothers (10 and 16) who actually laugh at my jokes, which is just me trying to speak Setswana, and a homestay mom who tells me funny proverbs and Setswana sayings.  Relaxing doesn’t mean I don’t do anything to help around the house.  From time to time I help prepare dinner.   Most often this consist of a starch like soft corn (Maize meal), Sorghum (porridge), or Samp (boiled corn); vegetable mix like cabbage, beets, tomatoes, onions, and/or carrots; and a protein source like chicken, beef, eggs, or beans.  Whoever cooked usually dishes the food out and then serves the family sitting in living room.  Once the family is done eating, the dishes are taken out back to a separated one room building where I help my homestay brothers boil water once again and scrub the dishes in a big bucket by candlelight. 

One thing that is interesting to note is that in the Botswana culture the kids do most of the work. For instance, my 16 year old brother cooks many of the meals, does the majority of the laundry (by hand), and cleans the house.  He does this all without complaining and many times without any prompting.  This isn’t to say that my homestay parents don’t do anything, because my homestay mother does all the same things while working full time as an administrator in the school system.  As for my homestay father, he is in charge of the cattle posts, the families’ fields, and regular maintenance around the house.  I have yet to see these roles really change any.

Finally, around 8-8:30, I head into my room and read until I go to asleep around ten.   As for other things, the training has been intense and the language has been hard.  We are just starting to scratch the surface on HIV/AIDs and probably most of the other posts will deal heavily around this, especially when I get site.  My fellow trainees are great, which makes being around them for hours at a day something I look forward.   Saturdays we get to hang out at a café and drink the local beer (which is pretty much Black Label for me) and eat Indian food from this small general store next door.   

I guess that is it for now, but before I go I want to end with saying how great my homestay family has been.  They have been nothing but welcoming, generous, and patient as I stumbled through these first few weeks in everything from washing the dishes to cooking to speaking Setswana.  There kindness has made it much easier to get over the initial first few days where I was missing home, my family, and friends.   

I could go on and on about them, but since they don’t know I wrote this I will just leave it at that. 

Thanks for reading and again sorry for the late post.