Saturday, January 19, 2013

13 Jan 13: Sarah Gets an Office, Sarah Meets Tiro and Has a Knife Throwing Contest


Howdy everybody! I hope this second week of January has found you warm and dry! I heard that there was a day of nice weather in Kentucky- it was all the news on Facebook.

Millie loves to watch movies
So yeah, school started this week! On Tuesday morning, I was greeted by two hundred tiny smiling faces. My first order of business at the school was setting myself up an office. I am technically under guidance and counseling, so I need a semi-private space where children can come and talk to me if they like. The teachers are convinced that the children will be flocking to me en masse to discuss their problems. My school has a classroom that has been designated as the library. For some reason, the library has been locked up and out of use for the past two years. TWO YEARS! I discussed the possibility of using the library as my office with my supervisor and she thought it was a great idea.

All that was left to do was unlock the door and set up shop. I enlisted the help of the two cleaning ladies and boy was I glad that I did! When we opened the library door, we were greeted with two years of dust, sand, mice poo, and dead insects. We really had our work cut out for us. We spent the whole morning dusting, sweeping, and mopping. We had some kids move a teacher's desk into the room. I was really shocked that the library had been so long out of use because there were TONS of books. After having lunch at home, I went back to school and organized all of the books into fiction, nonfiction, nature, etc. I even made myself a little sign for my desk that says "Mme Maduo," which means "Ms. Maduo." On Thursday I made labels for the books shelves. After two days of hard work and lots of dust, I am proud to say that the Tshane Primary School Library is ready to go!
She really got into "Man on Fire." She loves Denzel
Washington.

I mentioned last week that sometimes I have to remind myself that I'm in Africa. That happened again this week. Everyday the teachers left between 12:30 and 1 o'clock. Some of the kids hung around the school but most of them went home. I thought 'no wonder these kids are failing. The teachers only teach for half the day!' I felt like a real a-hole when I found out that the reason the teachers dismissed the students early is because the school doesn't have any food to feed them right now. They would have had to sit all day without eating. It is not unusual for the school to go for weeks without having food for the kids. This is Africa.

I spent the rest of the week interviewing people and passing out surveys to finish my community assessment. I surveyed 25 police officers, the teachers at my school, the health educator, as well as some of the employees at the meteorology office. I found out that my community wants correct and relevant HIV/AIDS information, computer classes, income generating projects, and even aerobics classes for women! I am compiling all of this information into a report that I will submit on January 21st. Speaking of next week, on Sunday I am traveling to the capital of Gaborone for two weeks for In-Service Training. I am excited to see my friends and discuss everyone's ideas for future projects.

So I worked hard this week. I put in a lot of miles walking around the village. I talked to a lot of people about what they would like to see happen. To top it off, I even made a trip to Jwaneng, my shopping village. It was definitely the most pleasant trip to Jwaneng I have had so far. Phiri told me that he was going to Moshupa to check out his new job at the Moshupa Boys Prison. He gladly agreed to drop me off in Jwaneng on his way. So instead of spending 4.5 hour in a stinky, hot bus I got to ride in a brand new, air conditioned prison vehicle! We listened to Phiri's favorite bands, Boston and The Beegees, and I worked on a needle point project. Very pleasant!

I was able to do my grocery shopping and get to the bus rank in time to catch the noon bus back to Tshane. Unlike every other time I've ridden the bus, it wasn't full. I took a seat and waited for the bus to leave. A young man, smelling of cologne and heaven, sat down next to me. An old lady got on the bus and proceeded to try to sell her magic cure-all powder, yelling over the noise of the engine about all the great things the powder will do for you. The young man and I struck up a conversation as he translated what the woman was saying. As it turns out, the man was coming from Gabs to Hukuntsi to visit his mother. We talked the entire way home, which made the bus ride much more enjoyable than it usually is. His name is Tiro, he is a hospitality management student, he works as a bartender at a 5 star business hotel in Gabs, and he lives alone. Also, HIS HOUSE HAS AIR CONDITIONING. He had never been to this side of the country before and he didn't realize how little there is to do in this place. Compared to where he lives in Gabs, this place is a real drag. We decided that we would get together on Saturday and hang out.

Tiro takes a throw







I was really excited to have a friend to hang out with and come Saturday morning I anxiously awaited his arrival. Because there is no transport into my village, he had to hitch hike, which took him about an hour and half. I met him on the road where he was dropped off and we walked back to my house. We made a picnic lunch of guacamole, tuna, and fruit. We packed it up and set to walking the mile and a half to our picnic spot. We found a shady spot in the bush, spread out a blanket, and ate our food. We layed around relaxing and talking until we decided that we were ready for the main event: a knife throwing contest. Of course, Tiro had never thrown a
knife in his life. His first throw was perfect. He hit the tree square on the point of the blade. My next few throws, I took the lead. He caught up and we were tied. Then I scored, then we tied, and eventually we decided that whomever hit the tree next would be the winner. Tiro hit the tree and was declared the victor. We packed up our picnic and walked back to my house.
My turn!

Perfect throw! One point for me!
When we were on the bus, I told Tiro that I was into yoga. He was so excited when he heard that because he had always wanted to learn to do yoga. Let me tell you something about Tiro: he is a weight lifter. He has biceps that could choke a bear. To say he is muscular is an understatement. But if he wanted to do yoga with me, I wasn't going to turn him down!





When we came home from our picnic and changed our clothes, I put on the music I had prepared. The night before, I designed an hour long routine and set it to music. I started us off with some stretching, then we did sun salutations, standing balance poses, floor exercises, and finally meditation. Several times we had to stop to drink water and wipe off the sweat that was dripping off of us. He was really impressed by how difficult yoga is, despite the fact that it looks easy. After meditating, we had a little snack and relaxed. Because he would have to hitch hike to get home, we had to leave the house around 4:30 to ensure that he would get home before dark. I felt guilty making him walk alone while he waited for a car to come, so I went with him. We walked for about an hour and a half before a car came and picked him up. Exhausted doesn't describe how tired I was when I finally got home. Luckily, a car picked me and brought me home shortly after I started walking. I had a light dinner, a bath, and went to bed.
Tiro, knife throwing champion!

I invited Tiro to hang out with me and my friends one night while we are at IST. Tiro is funny, willing to try anything, not to mention good looking. I am excited to have a friend that lives in the capital that I can stay with when I have to go there for Peace Corps business. I am also excited that said friend works at a nice hotel with a pool and a gym.

I can't write an update without mentioning Millie, my sweet little lady bug. I am typing this laying on my stomach on the floor of my living room. Millie is snuggled up to my right side taking a nap. How precious is that? She is growing like a weed. She even has the beginnings of a little feathery tail. She's been eating lots of butterflies, moths, and mosquitoes! I have plans to build her a nice house when I come back from my two weeks of training.

I don't really have a lesson to share with you this week. I guess maybe I found out that it's nice to be busy after the downtime from the holidays. It felt really good to get the school library up and running and to get a desk. I now have somewhere I can put all my work-related papers and things like that. I made myself a rule that after I walk in my front door, I will not do anything related to my work. If I want to think about a project or look at notes from my community assessment, I have to do it at my desk at school. This really motivates me to work hard during the day so I can relax in the evenings.

One more thing: a special thanks to my family, specifically my dad (Frank), stepmom (Denise), aunt (Amy), and uncle (Carl) for sending a large box of books for the Tshane Library. The librarian was sooooo excited to receive the books. She is reorganizing the shelves to have a "new books" section, something that the library has never needed before. She went around the village to all the offices telling people that the library has novels now. While I was visiting the library, I saw a lady come in and peruse the new romance novels. Thank you so much!!!

Sarah and Millie-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------9

PS- those random dashes and "9" are Millie's contribution. She stepped on my computer when I wasn't look and added that.

6 Jan 13: NYE in Botswana, Sarah and Dimpho Build a Garden


Happy 2013 y'all! I have to admit that I facebook stalked some of you and I'm very jealous of the exciting New Years Eve parties you guys went to! For my first NYE in Botswana, Ashley, Emma, and I hung out at the house of a volunteer in Hukuntsi for whom Emma was house sitting. We enjoyed cider, mashed potatoes, cheese, crackers, cookie dough, and best of all : SITTING ON A COUCH!!! Neither me, nor Ashley, nor Emma have furniture so it was a real treat to get off the floor. All three of us got to sleep in beds too. Woot woot!
Millie on bug patrol

The government of Botswana got it right when they scheduled the national holidays. Not only is New Years Day a holiday, but also the next day. So, in effect, you get two days to recover from your Happy New Year hangover! Genius! Being that most of this week was a holiday, I really didn't do much by way of community assessment until Thursday. But what I did do was equally as important: I took some time to take care of myself and I released myself from any guilt that I might've felt for slacking on my assessment.

Saturday, a week ago, I made a drastic lifestyle change in the hopes that I would feel energetic, clear-headed, and just generally healthy. After shopping in Jwaneng on Friday, I adopted a paleo diet. Paleo? What's that? Basically, you eat like a cave woman. The idea is that humans evolved as hunter gatherers and it wasn't until relatively recently in our history that agriculture was invented. In "going primal," as some call it, you don't eat any grains, pasta, legumes, refined sugar, or anything processed. But you can eat as much meat, vegetables, eggs, and fruit as you like! I knew that this type of diet would be difficult for me to maintain because the main components of the Botswana diet are pasta, white rice, and various thick, tasteless side dishes made from maize meal. The first two days, as my body was getting used to having fewer carbs, I felt like crap. I was dizzy, light-headed, and I had a headache. But after a week of "going primal" I feel great! I made a commitment to improving my life through a healthy diet and it is paying off already.
Can you spot Millie? I spy a chicken...
I also started incorporating more exercise into my daily routine. I've always loved to strap on my camel back and head out into the bush. This week I found the original road to the next village, Lehututu, that was used before we had a paved road. It is sandy, totally secluded and very peaceful. I also got to practice with my new throwing knives (thanks Mom!) Guess what? It's REALLY hard to throw a knife at something and have it land with the pointy end stuck in whatever your were throwing it at. Most of the time I just threw my knife at a tree and it bounced off with a loud "bong!" Yeah, I'd say about 99% of the time. But that 1% when I threw it just right and the tip stuck in the tree was so sweet! When I wasn't walking around the bush, I was doing zumba or yoga videos that I've downloaded onto my computer from other volunteers. That got me thinkin. I've been to about a bajillion yoga classes in my life. Yoga has soooo many physical and psychological benefits. Why can't I share yoga with the people in my community?

On Thursday (back to work!) I marched to the prison, found my best friend Phiri, and proposed that I start a yoga class for prisoners. He said "YES MADUO! That's where you stand for like two hours and be quiet?!? YES!" I don't know if he really liked the idea of meditation or of the prisoners standing for two hours being quiet. I described to him what yoga really was and he loved the idea! As long as the new officer in charge is ok with it- Phiri is transferring in about a week- I will be teaching a weekly yoga class beginning in February at Tshane Prison. I am planning to have classes of about 10 prisoners lasting 6 weeks. When the 6 weeks are up, a new group of men can start the class. I think that this project will be just as beneficial for me as it will be for the prisoners and I'm really really excited about it!
I Spy #2: Can you spot Millie?

There is a lot of stuff going on in my village right now. School starts on Tuesday so some of the kids are leaving for their boarding schools and some are coming back from spending the holidays with family. All of the teachers have returned from leave. I have neighbors again! The rainy season is still hitting us hard and heavy. Wednesday night we had a scary storm and I ended up having to let Millie in the house. She is scared of lightning bless her little maize-eatin heart! We sat on the floor in my living room and watched a movie on my computer. Speaking of Millie, she lets me pet her now. She also thinks that she lives in my house. Whenever I open the door, she sneaks in. I'll come out of my kitchen and Millie will just be chillin in my living room, relaxing. I'm pretty sure that I'm the only person in all of Botswana that has a pet chicken who has a name, eats three square meals a day, and gets to lounge in her human's house.

After I got home from the prison on Thursday, it rained some more. By Friday morning, the weather had improved and I went to meet my friend/health educator, Dimpho, at the clinic to go to town to get shade netting for my garden. Dimpho told me that, as a result of the rain, the groundwater had been contaminated and an outbreak of bloody diarrhea had occurred. As of that morning one child from my village had already died. Everyone was advised to boil their water (I filter my water) until further notice. Sometimes I forget that I'm in Africa, where people still die from diarrhea. The whole area, including the villages the other volunteers are in, has been affected by the outbreak. I'm sure about the status of the outbreak now but I do know that several villagers were bitten by scorpions over the weekend.

I left Dimpho at the clinic as he was trying to prepare for an emergency kgotla meeting and went to get the shade netting by myself. I hitch hiked to Hukuntsi, spent a quarter of my living allowance on 15 meters of shade netting, and dragged it the 12 km back home. Dimpho promised that he would come on Saturday after the kgotla meeting and we would get to work on my garden.
Posts and wire in place!

Yesterday morning, I was sitting on my porch drinking tea with Millie and Dimpho walked up, huge smile on his face. The kgotla meeting had been cancelled because he wasn't able to get a speaker system to announce to the village that there was a meeting. We walked around gathering materials that we needed and set to sinking poles to support the shade netting. We sunk 5 poles in the ground, ate a nice lunch that I made, and I spent the afternoon sewing pieces of shade netting together. By 5:30, I had finished with the netting and I was spent! I scraped together an easy dinner, bathed, and went to bed.
Dimpho measuring!
This morning, Dimpho came back over and we continued with the garden. We put up the netting and sewed it all together using expired bandages. I now have a nice shady garden structure, ready to go except for the gate which Dimpho will finish this week. As soon as I return from my 2 weeks of training at the end of this month I'm gonna plant beets, onions, tomatoes, herbs, carrots, and spinach! Hopefully, I will be posting pictures this week!
Me sewing shade netting together

Shade netting draped over garden structure
The garden is finished!
Because I'm living on mostly vegetables and eggs, I am almost out of food despite having just gone to my shopping village a week and a half ago. Phiri is going to check out his new job for a few days this week and he has agreed to drop me off in Jwaneng on his way. That means I will only have to ride the bus one way! Score!

I have two weeks left to finish my community assessment. I plan to survey the teachers at my school and interview some of the police officers and meteorology employees this week. I am excited to wrap up my assessment so I can really get started on my projects.

So this was a good week. I explored the bush outside of my village, discovered a cool road, built a garden, adopted a paleo lifestyle, hung out with Millie, ate clean, shook my booty to some Zumba, read Game of Thrones, and worked my body and mind with yoga. Moral of the story? If you're gonna devote two years of your life to helping people, for God's sake, help yourself first. You know those yellow oxygen masks that fall out of the ceiling in the airplane when the pressure changes? There's a reason that you're supposed to put yours on before you help the person next to you with theirs. You can't help somebody else if you're struggling for air. This week, I put on my oxygen mask and now I'm ready to help my neighbor with hers.

Namaste!

Sarah and Millie Moo Stewart

30 Dec 12: Sarah's First Christmas in Botswana, Millie the Chicken Moves In


Tiny Little Lady!
Happy early New Years! It sounds like everyone had a truly blessed Christmas: lots of food, lots of gifts, and most importantly, lots of family. I won't lie and say that this week wasn't hard for me. While most of the other volunteers got together to spend the holiday together, I decided that I didn't want to travel and that I was fine by myself.  I'm a strong lady, I should be ok alone on Christmas, right? I would just go hang out with my Zambian friend, Florence, and everything would be peachy. I was wrong but I didn't realize it until it was too late to go anywhere.

I had this great idea that on Christmas eve, I would drink some wine and watch romantic comedies. Yeeahhhh things didn't go exactly as planned. I started the evening with an impromptu solo dance party in my house, which was fun. But then some sad song came on and I ended up sitting on my bedroom floor having a little boo hoo. I crawled into bed feeling sad and missing my people. Being a million miles away from your family on the holidays + getting drunk by yourself = a one way ticket on the Hot Mess Express. "ALL ABOARD! The Hot Mess Express is leaving the station at 9 o'clock from Sarah's Bedroom! ALL ABOARD!"
My front yard: nature's lawn mower
On Christmas day, I woke up at 4:15 a.m., slightly hungover, to shouts of "AMEN! AMEN!" The church near my house was having one of their all night worship services. And believe me, these folks know how to worship!! Usually I can sleep through the singing but the "Amen!"s were just too much. So I got up and set to cooking for the holiday feast Florence and I had planned. I made mashed potatoes, home-baked bread, and a carrot cake with peanut butter frosting. Florence had invited about 4 people from one of the neighboring villages. We were to be 6, so I made enough food for 10 since these people love their starches! At noon, Florence called to tell me that our guests had decided to go to church all day. That's ok, more food for us right? At 12:30, I went to Florence's house and we had a nice little picnic in her living room. With the delicious roasted chicken she made, we stuffed ourselves and watched a Christmas program from South Africa.  Needless to say, Florence got to eat the whole carrot cake and I ate mashed potatoes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the rest of the week!

After our lunch, Phiri, officer in the charge of the prison, sent a car to pick me up and take me to his house on the prison compound. Because he is the boss, he gets the most luxurious accommodations. He has a whole 3 bedroom house to himself. Most exciting is that he has AIR CONDITIONING. Yes, air con. We relaxed in his living room enjoying cold air, drinking ginger beer and watching world news (for the first time since I arrived in Botswana.) It's the little things, folks!

That evening I got to talk to my whole family, which was really nice. I went to sleep and woke up Wednesday morning in a funk. I couldn't convince myself to get dressed and leave the house. I spent the whole day sitting around feeling a little sorry for myself and a lot discouraged. By midafternoon, I decided that the only way to pull myself out of the emotional swamp I was in was to go to Jwaneng for some curtain shopping on Thursday.
Living room with new curtains!!

So this is how I traveled to my shopping village for the first time: In the US, I took for granted how easy it was to go grocery shopping. Drive to Meijer, wade through the millions of choices, U Scan, BAM! Out the door. Not here. Thursday, I left my house at 5 a.m. so that I could hitch a ride into Hukuntsi to catch the 6 a.m. bus. I had two chances to get to my shopping village. If I missed the 6 o'clock bus, I could get on the 7 o'clock bus but that's it. If I missed both buses, I'd be done for the day. Go home and try again tomorrow. Well, I made it on the 6 o'clock! I rode that bus until 10:30, when it pulled into the bus rank in Jwaneng. I got off, stretched my legs, took a pee, and caught a taxi to the shops. I was in Pep pondering some curtains when my friends, Lisett and Jessica, arrived. I picked out curtains for my living room, kitchen, and bedroom, and we went next door to a grocery store called Choppies for some lunch. We had a mini-picnic of meat pies and ginger beer and hiked (I say that because PC volunteers are notorious for our heavy, overstuffed backpacks) over to a higher end grocery store called Pick n' Pay.

After a lot of research spurred by the fact that I feel fatigued and bloated most of the time, I had decided to try adopting a Paleo lifestyle for the next 30 days. Basically, you don't eat any grains or legumes. Fortunately at Pick n' Pay, I found a bunch of frozen vegetables and some exciting Indian spices. Lisett, Jessica, and I took our time going up and down each aisle, some more than once, as we knew that we would not be seeing another grocery store for a month. We loaded up our bags, got a taxi to the bus rank, and saw Jessica off on the bus to her village down south. Lisett convinced me that we should try to hitch hike home, in lieu of the bus, because it would be much faster. We stood by the side of the road for about half an hour, until a lady pulled over and picked us up. Her name was Margaret and she was a nurse at Hukuntsi Primary Hospital. Jackpot! She was going almost all the way to my village! She could drop me at the junction in the road and I could easily hitch into Tshane.

We dropped Lisett at her village of Sekoma and continued on. After driving for about 3 hours, Margaret pulled the car over. It had overheated. She popped the hood and we got out of the car. When I saw that the engine was smoking, I decided that I should probably try to get another hitch. I felt bad leaving my new friend to deal with the car on her own in the middle of nowhere, but it was imperative that I make it to the junction by sundown, lest I have to walk the 3 miles to my village after dark. I hitch hiked to the next village, Kang, with a South African couple on their way to Namibia. They were sooooooo kind, offering me sandwiches and water. They dropped me at a gas station and continued on their way. I found out that the same bus I would've been on if I'd decided not to hitch would be going through that village around 6 pm. I walked me and all my crap to the next gas station where the bus would be picking up. I waited there for that bus until 7:30, when it finally arrived. I saw one of my friends, Lazarus, from the prison, took a seat beside him on the bus, and we rode all the way to Tshane. I got off the bus at 8:30 and walked home. So...for a 3 hour shopping trip, I was in transit for 10 and a half hours. Yikes.

Despite the hassle, it ended up being totally worth it! When I opened my curtains, they were the wrong size (of course.) I spent all day Friday and most of Saturday sewing. I altered 8 curtains by hound and now my house really feels like a home (even though I still don't have any furniture.) Best of all: no one can see me! People like to walk by my house and look in to see what the white lady is doing. Now they can't! Two cheers for PRIVACY!!!!!

So that was Christmas week: lunch with a friend, a day of moping, a day of shopping, and a day of sewing. New Years Eve, I am going to spend with my volunteer friends from the surrounding villages. Holidays should be spent with fellow Americans!
Introducing...Millie!!

This email has been kinda blue, so I am going to tell you something that happened to me on Christmas eve that has brightened my life here. Since the rains started, my yard has grown some kind of grass weedy plant things. I know that if you let the grass grow, it will get very tall and snakes will take up residence in it. I don't know about you, but I don't love the idea of deadly black mamba snakes chillin in my front yard. So, I decided that I would open the gate and let the donkeys and the goats come in and eat it (see picture on my blog next week.) Unbeknownst to me, a little chicken- too big to go through the fence and too small the fly over it- had wandered in. When I closed the gate, I realized that I had trapped her. I opened the gate, shooed her out, and went back in my house. 5 minutes later, I looked outside and there was that little chicken sitting on my porch. She had crawled under that gate after all my effort to free her. And that is how I was adopted by Millie, the sweetest little lady in the whole world.
Millie gets very sleepy after lunch. Millie goes to
sleepytown.

There are chickens everywhere here. Though they are used to seeing people, they are still of afraid of them. Not Millie. Millie's favorite thing to do is stand at my door and chirp until I come outside and sit with her. She nestles up against my legs and takes a rest. She eats ground maize that makes her very sleepy after lunch. She enjoys being read to, watching movies, and tea time. She also likes to sneak into my house when I'm not looking. Friday night, we had a terrible storm. The electricity went out and I was left to sew curtains by lantern. I had the door open and Millie walked right in, bold as you please, and took a seat on the living room floor. I didn't shoo her out because I thought she was a little scared of the lightning. MISTAKE. When it was time for Millie to go to sleep out on the porch (she has a little box out there), she decided she would rather live inside with me. I ended up chasing her all over the house until finally she ran out the door! Can you imagine me chasing this tiny baby chicken from the living room to the kitchen to the bedroom to the living room back to the kitchen and finally through the door?! That's another reason why I wanted curtains: so people can't see what kind of crazy things I'm doing in my house.

I hate to complain about this, but I feel its worth mentioning since it really defined my week. Saying "it was hot this week" really doesn't do the temperature justice. Saying "I live in a furnace in the bowels of hell" is more accurate. When Millie the chicken sits around panting, you know its hot. When the wind blows and you feel like you just opened an oven door, you know its hot. When you get a heat rash and salt burns on your face from being constantly drenched in sweat, you know its hot. When the water coming out of your tap is hot enough to make tea (and you don't even have hot water!), you know its hot!!!!

In closing, this week was tough but I learned a lesson, got a new best friend, made an important lifestyle change (I feel better already!) and made my house into somewhere I'd want to live. I made the mistake of thinking that I was Sarah the Strong, volunteer awesome, who doesn't need no stinkin' people on the holidays. I was partially correct, I am Sarah the Strong, but I'm also Sarah the Person. One of the mottos of Botswana is a Setswana word called "botho," a concept that is very important in this culture. It means "I am because you are." The lesson of the week: Sometimes I forget that I am a regular person, a person that needs other people, and that needing people does not make me weak.  Next holiday, I'll bite the bullet, get on the stinky bus, and go be with my peeps!

Don't touch that dial! Stay tuned for next week's episode: Sarah spends her first New Years Eve in Africa, continues her commnity assessment, does things the hard way, and learns another obvious, but painful, lesson about life!

Chirpity peep peep chirp!
(That's from Millie: "Here's to waving goodbye to 2012 and welcoming 2013!")

Sarah and Millie