27 Oct 12:10 Baby Chickens, Sarah meets Frank, Jensen kills a spider and saves the day

That red dot is Tshane, my permanent site

27 Oct 12

Good afternoon, everyone! I am writing this from the lawn of the Kanye Public Library. After school today, my friends and I purchased some meat pies and had a little picnic. The library does not password protect their wifi so I thought I'd have a picnic and steal a little internet.

This week has proved to be the most stressful week I have had in Botswana so far. I had to travel to the capital, Gaborone, on Monday and Tuesday for a supervisors workshop. The workshop was held at the Big Five lodge, the same lodge I stayed in when I first arrived to Bots. I met the woman who will serve as my supervisor for the next two years, the head master at Tshane Primary School. She is a kind, older lady and I like her very much. The last session of the two day workshop was about housing and transport to site. The supervisors had not been told that they would have to arrange transportation for the volunteers. Many expressed that they were not given enough time to arrange transport or that the resources weren't available. Some trainees do not even have a house arranged, so I guess I am lucky in that regard.

I found out for my supervisor that I have a government-owned house in the teachers' quarters. The Ministry of Education is required to provide furniture and as of Tuesday, they had not delivered it. Despite the MoEd's promise to have our furniture delivered by the time we arrive at site, it is not uncommon for volunteers to arrive at site and they don't have a bed (or any other furniture for that matter.) So, I'm a little bit stressed out about getting to Tshane and what I will find in my house once I get there.

This is what I see on my way to school everyday! 

I spent the remainder of the week in training sessions, including bystander intervention, how to fill out MoEd forms, and alcohol abuse awareness. Alcohol abuse is a huge problem in Botswana. To reduce the prevalence of alcoholism, the government introduced a 45% tax levy on alcohol sales. 45%!!! Can you imagine paying a 45% tax on your Budweiser?

Proud mama with her chicks

Good news! At the beginning of October, one of my 2 remaining lady chickens (someone stole the other one) was not coming home for meal time. I thought she had been stolen so I asked Lizzy if she had seen her. As it turns out, she was in the neighbor's yard under a bush sitting on her eggs. Lizzy carefully moved the mama chicken and her eggs into our yard so they would not be taken. As of a few days ago, we have 10 little baby chickens running around. They are so cute and fuzzy. The mama chicken digs holes with her feet and then the chicks search in the dirt for bugs to eat.

tiny baby chickens

"Wait for me, Mama!"

You all know about what kind of bugs we have around here, but I killed one this week that takes the cake. I was watching Rome on my computer (watching tv on my computer has become my new favorite pasttime), when Jensen comes running into my room asking me for a can of Doom. I realized that for Jensen to ask for bug spray there must be a pretty amazing bug that needed killing. I followed him down the hall to the door of the closet where we store food. Beside the door was an 8-legged creature the size of a small cat. Ok, I'm exaggerating, but it was a HUGE spider. It had furry, spiked legs and fangs the size of my pinky nail. Legs and all, it was about the size of my palm. Jensen sprayed that spider with Doom and then I sprayed it with Doom, for good measure. The spider was so fierce that even the Doom couldn't touch it. Jensen went and got plan B, roach spray made to kill the 2+ inch long cockroaches that are all over this country. Jensen sprayed the spider and it immediately started doing back flips. By this time, Lizzy had joined us. We all stood there watching the spider acrobatics. After about 3 minutes, the spider curled up into a ball and went on to his next life. It was by far the most intense bug killing I have ever been part of. Welcome to Africa!

Botswana turns green after the rainy season! PULA!

The water came back on this week...for one day! Before that, Lizzy and I had been carrying jugs of water from the communal water tank. The jugs are so heavy that we are only able to carry one at a time. On Tuesday, we were hefting our jugs home when a tall, young man came out of his house, walked up to us, picked up a jug in each hand, and carried our water all the way home for us. I was so impressed by his gentlemanly nature, that I persuaded Lizzy to help me make some fatcakes for him. Later that evening, I took him the fatcakes and asked him if he wouldn't mind to come over the following day and fix the broken light fixture in Lizzy's room. He just couldn't say "no" after I had give him 3 magwinya (fatcakes.) He came and fixed the light as he had promised and we talked for about an hour afterwards. The next day he had to come back to fix another light and we talked for about two hours. I made him tea and gave him some more fatcakes. His name is 29 years old, he has no kids, and he is a heavy equipment mechanic at the diamond mine in Jwaneng. He commutes from Kanye everyday to Jwaneng and back. When I move to Tshane, Jwaneng will be my shopping village (coincidence?!?) He is from a village in the Tuli Block to the north west. My name is Sarah and I have a crush on a Motswana man.

How could Frank resist?

Lizzy and I sat down to talk about how we can get Frank to take me on a date. Her idea was that she would go to his house and say "Sarah is a good girl. I want you to marry my girl!" I was able to persuade her to give him my phone number instead. She went by his house last night and he wasn't there, so she has enlisted a neighborhood child to go to his house every couple of hours and to run and tell her when he gets home.

Two weeks of training left and I'm off to Tshane!