Eitha Everyone!! That means, "Hi Everyone" in Setswana!!!! I have just completed my first full week in Kanye, Botswana in Pre-service Training! I can't wait to share with you all of the crazy/exciting things that have happened!
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| The view from my street in Kanye. Lots of animals and trees! Isn't is beautiful? |
First, I thought I'd describe a typical day for me since me and my host family have developed a daily routine. I have training at the education center (a government building) M-F, 8:30am-4:30pm and Saturday mornings. My day starts at 5:50 am as the sun is coming up in Botswana. I allow myself two hours to get ready for school, which you will see is necessary after reading this. I take out my ear plugs-a necessity in Botswana as they frequently have all night church singing sessions and THE ROOSTERS ARE SO LOUD HERE- and climb out of bed. I put on some clothes and head to the kitchen. There is usually water boiling for tea when I get up because my host mom, Lizzy, and my brother have already been up for a bit. I make myself some tea and some sort of bread (i.e. a slice of bread w/ peanut butter) and eat it while my brother baths. Yeah, baths. That's what they call it. While he is bathing, I heat up my water on the stove. When he finishes, I head to the bathroom and wash myself including my hair and maybe shave with just the amount of water that fills up a bucket smaller than a standard mop bucket in the US. I'm getting pretty good at it. Then I make my bed, get dressed, put on my face, get my lunch together. Since we do not have a fridge, Lizzy freezes leftovers overnight and I take them to the school the next day. She unplugs the freezer at night so that it acts almost like a fridge. After I get all ready, I set out around 7:50 with my book and walk the mile or so to school or the house where we have language, depending on the day. We have training until 10:30 and then we have a tea break, which I LOVE. Then we continue and have lunch at 12:30. We have an hour for lunch and then continue until 4:30. This week, Lizzy has been getting off work at 2 so she usually has dinner ready when I get home. Sometimes before dinner, we have to go visit someone but we always return by 6:30. People, especially women, stay in after dark because it's dangerous at night. Botswana has a real problem with drunk driving at night so you just stay home. After we eat, I talk to Lizzy for a bit and then retire to my room around 7. I work on homework, read, and text other volunteers until about 8 and then it's time for bed. You have to go to bed early in Botswana because you get up so early. PST is by far the most exhausting thing I have ever experienced.
This week was especially tiring because we had to attend two wakes, as they may be called in the US. Wed and Thurs nights we had to put on dresses, cover our hair with scarves and walk to the home of a community member who had lost a family member. When we arrived, we found the men sitting in the yard away from all of the women. Gender roles in Botswana are very clearly defined and women and men are always separate at weddings, funerals, etc. There were at least 60 women sitting on the ground, in chairs, and standing on the small patio of the house. One at a time, a woman would enter the house (the door remained open) and say some words to the wife of the deceased man. Then, the woman would start singing and everyone would join in. Even in church in America, I have never ever experienced so much emotion and feeling in song. Each woman would sing a different song and there was no one (except myself) who did not sing along. It was the most melodic, harmonious, emotional noise coming from people that I have heard in my life. You could feel the sorrow in their songs, yet there was not a tear to be seen on any face. The Batswana (that's what the people here are called) do not openly and publicly cry or show extreme emotion. It was quite an experience. Then on Thursday, we did it again at another house. Funerals are a village event. Everyone attends not just family members.
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| Kgotla Nyorosi West |
On Monday, all of us trainees went to the Kgotla, pronounced "coat-luh", which is like a neighborhood meeting place where the kgosi, a chief's representative if you will, and members of the community meet to make decisions. There are 10 kgotlas in this village, so the trainess went to the kgotla in their own neighborhood. The kgotla is a very traditional and respected place. Women do not wear pants to the kgotla and men must wear a jacket. There were probably 15 of us going to the same kgotla along with several members of the community and the Kgosi. They called a special meeting just to introduce us to the Kgosi. We walked into the Kgotla and sat down in the plastic chairs that had been set up for our arrival. I sat down and the chair felt kind of sketchy and wobbly. I raised my hand and called over the Peace Corps lady who had accompanied us. No sooner had I began to say "I think this chair might break..." than the chair broke beneath me and I tumbled onto the floor. IN THE KGOTLA. Everyone screamed and I was so embarrassed I almost died. So yeah, I think my community knows me know as "the girl who broke the chair in the Kgotla."
I also saw my first "real African" bug this week. There are animals everywhere here. They just walk around: chickens, goats, cattle, donkeys. They don't care. They go anywhere. People will throw leftover food (if they have any which they usually don't) out into their backyard for their chickens or whatever. I was walking to get a fat cake at lunch, which is a delicious fried dough, and I saw a grasshopper munching on an apple core. The only thing was that the grasshopper was the SAME size as the apple core. That bad boy was at least a good 4 inches long. HUGE. I could actually see his little grasshopper teeth biting the apple. Scary! Word is that when the rains come, the really scary bugs will come out, e.g. 8 inch long millipedes and flying cockroaches. I'm not excited about that.
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| The bugs are so big that a huge bug hitches a ride with a huger bug. |
We had lots of sessions this week as Peace Corps is filling us up with knowledge. We learned about the PC approach to human development, sexual assault awareness, diversity, and lots of cross cultural stuff. Setswana culture is very different from American culture. Like I said, gender roles here are very different. We had a session this morning about the kind of problems we will have when we go to our sites. Young, white volunteers (ME) have a hard time convincing people that they have any credibility whatsoever. Frequently, you will be ignored by the people you are trying to work with or treated like an "errand" girl. Starting up projects from the grassroots level is the way you have to do things and it can be incredibly frustrating. I'm ready, though.
I had my site placement interview yesterday. Because we are all life skills volunteers, we will all be placed in rural villages. I met a volunteer from Kentucky who lives in a tiny village. It takes him 8 hours to get to the nearest grocery store. Once per month, he leaves for the weekend to do his shopping. Hopefully, I won't be that rural but who knows! They teach us how to grow a garden so that we can have access to fresh vegetables for those of us who are in the middle of nowhere. I'm getting pretty good at Setswana language. We have interviews in a couple weeks to assess our Setswana skills. Some of us will be going to villages where a different language, based out of the Kalihari desert, is spoken. Some of us will be learning that language in addition to Setswana. I feel like people who are good language learners will be chosen for those villages so I think there is a good chance that I will be learning a third language.
I will hopefully have more internet access when I get to my site. I will probably purchase a net book and a dongle that gives me internet access all the time. For now, though, I can only email on Saturday afternoons. If you were planning to call, Sunday would be the best day for that. I have all day Sundays the do laundry and other stuff around the house. I would love to have a phone calls from home!!!!!!
Lizzy is working 2nd shift all week so I will be making dinner for myself and my brother. Mostly we eat meat and a starch. Sometimes there's a veggie in there. I made a fried apple this week and he said it was "delicious!" He is 15 years old and has little interest in socializing with me (probably because it is rude to address an elder in a casual way) but I think he is beginning to get more comfortable with me. To him, I am a mosadi mogolo, an old lady!
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| My host mom, Lizzy, in a traditional Setswana dress. |
In closing, I love it here in Botswana. Not having access to social media is the best thing ever. I don't have to worry about facebook or unwanted text messages. Life is slower here. There is always something to do and everything is an accomplishment. Laundry takes hours. Making dinner takes hours. Life here is about celebrating the small accomplishments like successfully washing my underwear and putting it on the line to dry or washing my whole body with only a gallon of water. It is refreshing and renewing. Although I do miss home, my friends, green trees, and grass, I am soo soo happy here. Although I'm busy, I have time to spend with my own thoughts. I haven't seen TV since I left the states and it has been a blessing. Start saving up because you have to come experience Botswana and "African Time."
All my love! Salang sentle (stay well)!
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