Creepie Crawlies and Projects

So last night I was getting ready to go to bed when I look over at my wall and see this looking at me!

It was pretty scary especially since I didn't have any doom in my house (doom is kind of like raid here in Botswana). I'm not normally afraid of spiders but this one looked like a cross between a spider and a scorpion as you can see, so I didn't really want it hanging out on my wall. After gaining some confidence I decided to grab my running shoe and my bug repellent. I sprayed it with the spray hoping to stun it or something . Then I slammed my shoe on top of it. The creature fell off the wall and landed on the towel I use to cover the gap in between my front door and the floor so no creepy crawlies get inside my house (guess the gap wasn't covered very well). After repeatedly slamming my shoe on the spider (that thing would not die) I carefully moved the towel outside and shut the door. I showed the picture of the spider to some of the nurses at the clinic and the one said that I shouldn't have been scared of it cause they don't bite! Haha! Guess I freaked out for nothing, but I wouldn't want that thing crawling in my bed regardless if it will bite me or not!

I am starting to get some projects started in my village. Yesterday I met with the Out of School Youth group to hear about their ideas for some projects they want to do. The one I decided to help them with for now is opening up a pre-school for the orphans and needy children in the village. There already is a preschool/day care center in Machaneng, but you have to pay to enroll your child in it, which can be pretty expensive so many parents don't have their children go there. The Youth Group wants to open up a new preschool/daycare that is free of charge so the orphans and needy children have a place to get the love, support, and education they need to be ready for primary school when they turn 6. I think it is going to be a really great thing, but it is going to take a lot of work. Right now we are in the process of trying to find a building. There are a few options as to which building we could use but first we have to get permission and now I am finding out just how much red tape you have to go through to get something done. The Out of School Youth Officer and I will be meeting with the District Commissioner tomorrow to see if we can use this old building that is not being used. If he says yes then we can move forward with our plans. If not then we have to go back to the drawing board and come up with ways we can get funding to build a building and convice the VDC (village development commitee) to use one of thier buildings. I hope we will be able to make this idea a reality.

Another thing I am trying to get started with one of the nurses is a support group for any government worker in Machaneng. Any job can cause stress and then if you add the HIV/AIDS pandemic and how that affects job performance you can end up with a huge heaping amount of stress in the workplace. There are many healthy and unhealthy ways to deal with stress and I thought it would be good to form a support group so people in the community can deal with their stress in healthy ways. I hope to teach them stress reducing techniques and also talk about other health issues. I am excited about this project because I can incorporate my background in Exercise Science into the group. We had our first meeting last week but only one girl from the police office came. I was a little disappointed but after talking to my Dad, he reminded me that you have to start somewhere, and that one is better than none. Hopefully the next meeting more people will come.