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