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.   

Where I Work and What I Do: Gumare Counseling Center (GCC)

Hello again everyone, I am going continue on with the theme Where I Work and What I do.  

This time I will be highlighting my secondary project, the Botswana Christian AIDS Intervention Program’s Gumare Counseling Center, or as we like to call it GCC.  Like the name suggests we working specifically with HIV/AIDs counseling and prevention.  At the office in Gumare we have three full time staff, one coordinator, Emmanuel Segotso, and two HIV testers/counselors, Golesego and Lesiela.  Outside the office, we have about 26 part-time staff throughout the Okavango that implements numerous programs made possible through a grant by our very own U.S. Agency of International Development (USAID).   Below spotlights a few of those initiatives:

•         Orphan and Vulnerable Children’s campaign where volunteers run kids club at schools and teach them about HIV/AIDs prevention.
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•             TB and HIV Prevention campaign where volunteers go out to the community and give health talks about the TB-HIV relationship (TB is an fatal opportunistic disease that people with HIV contract because of their low functioning immune systems) and HIV prevention like condom use and abstinence.
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•            TB Care campaigns where volunteers enroll TB patients into the program do an initial assessment of their TB and then provide non-clinical follow up care like referrals and wellness advice.  They do this until the clients “graduate” from the program.

Similar to Sekgele, I help more with the organizational part of all these programs and do not really do the implementation.  For instance, just last week my coordinator was busy preparing for his upcoming wedding, so I went with a full-time counselor and did all the monitoring and evaluation of these programs.  That meant we traveled throughout the Okavango, collect the volunteers papers, and then transferred the data onto excel sheets for submission to the main office.  Recently this type of administrative help is mostly what I have been doing. 

Last year we applied for a grant from the U.S. Embassy to build sort of meeting hall where we were going show movies once or twice a week and organize other community events like talents shows, plays, and concerts.  Since there is not much here for entertainment the idea was that this would be a good outlet for kids as well as a adults and also a great way to get out more information about the work we do.  We are still waiting for the U.S. Embassy to get back to us about our grant, but the lady who coordinates the grant really like it so we are optimistic.  I’ll keep you up to date on how that goes. 

That’s pretty much it for what’s going on at GCC.   It’s been slow at the moment because my counterpart, Emmanuel, has been on break for his wedding, which was last Saturday, but when he gets back there are more ideas we are floating around about programs and generating income.  Ill keep you updated. 

Oh, pictures of GCC will be up on Flickr tomorrow.  Thanks for reading.  I miss you guys and hope all is well back home!