One Year Left

As of today I have less than a year until I close my service here in Botswana and get to return home to the United States. The Bots 8 volunteers are packing up their things and saying their goodbyes as they prepare to leave this next week. The Bots 10 volunteers swore in earlier this week and have now moved to their sites. To think only a year ago I was doing that and just embarking on this experience and now I am down to the last year. Before I know it, it will be time for me to go. I just hope I will have made some sort of a difference in my village. The past few weeks things have been very slow. All the public workers have been on strike since the beginning of April. This is the first time in Botswana's history something like this has happened, so it is very exciting for the citizens, but makes it hard to get anything done project wise. I should relish in all the free time I have to sit and chat and form relationships with my community members or just reflect on the past 14 months, but the American in me still wants to be a busy bee and get as much accomplished as she can. The next year still feels like forever away but I know it will go by quicker than I realize, so I worry it will pass by and I will have done nothing substantial these two years I have been here. Once again I see why Peace Corps is a 27 month (26 months in my case) commitment. It really does take the first year or so to get integrated and acclimated to your community. I have heard from previous volunteers that after Mid-Service Training things start to pick up and you will have lots of projects to work on.

Speaking of Mid Service Training, mine is in a little over a week. It will be nice to see some of the other volunteers from my group I haven't seen since our In-Service Training back in August. This will be a time for all of us to reflect on the past year, recharge and dig in with new hopes for the next year. After the training my family will be arriving!!!  I am super excited for them to come and visit! It will be great to spend some time with them. I miss them soo much! We have a pretty awesome trip lined up. They will get to see my village (some of my friends here are eager to meet them), see some wildlife, and experience one of the 7th wonders of the world among other things. I will post updates about our trip when I get back.

"Finish everyday and be done with it. You have done what you could; some blunders and absurdities crept in- forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day. You shall begin it well and serenely"

I also wanted to make a shout out of congratulations to my two brothers! Congrats on both of your graduations! I am so proud of both of you and I am terribly sorry I couldn’t be there to celebrate your accomplishments. See you soon :)

Saturdays are for Funerals

A few weeks ago I got a call from my counterpart at the clinic that one of our clinic staff had passed away. I wasn't very close to Edwin, but I did see him on a daily basis and it is sad that he is no longer there. I am not sure why he died. He was a little bit older and I know he had been hospitalized for a few days back in January. I think he was prone to seizures or something, so maybe that had something to do with his death. Still it is always sad dealing with someone dying.

Botswana has a high rate of HIV/AIDS so there are many people who die. It has become such a norm for the people of this culture that every weekend there is a funeral going on. Sometimes even multiple funerals in the same village. Funerals here are a little different here than in America. With the death of Edwin at the clinic I got to experience first hand what a funeral is like here in Botswana.

When a person dies the whole village becomes involved in the death preparations, and here in Botswana there are a lot of preparations for the deceased. The body can only be buried on a Saturday. Sometimes they will bury someone on a Sunday but this is not as common. From the day the person dies until the Saturday they are buried the family and community goes into mourning. There are services held every morning and evening at the family's compound until the burial. These services are for prayer and remembrance of the person and so people can come and console the family members. Anytime one is to come to the service there are certain things you have to wear out of respect for the deceased. Women are to wear skirts or dresses and no pants. They have to cover their heads and wear a shawl or a jacket to cover their shoulders. Men are to wear nicer clothes and maker sure to wear some sort of jacket.  I attended the Wednesday evening service for Edwin. It was all in Setswana but there were some prayers said and songs sang and a few words said about Edwin by the priest.

Throughout the week before the burial many community members will come to help out the family. They will come to cook and clean for the elderly family members and just be there as support for the family who has lost a loved one.

The day before the burial, Friday, is a big day. Men in the community will go to the graveyard to help the family dig a grave for the burial. While this is going on other community members, mostly women, will come and help assist with cooking for the day. They have to prepare food to feed the men who helped with the digging and prepare bread and tea for anyone who has come to visit with the family. At some point during the day one Oxen and anywhere from 2-6 goats will be slaughtered. Friday evening there is one last memorial/mourning service. This is when the funeral parlor brings the prepared body to the family's home. Bodies are always buried and never cremated. Most people are buried in caskets. Around 10pm there will be a prayer service and it will last all night long. During the service people pray and mourn for the deceased. This goes on until the morning. During the service some women and men are off preparing food for the next day. The men will be cooking the slaughtered oxen and goats and the women will be making tea, bread, papa, samp, porridge, and vegetables.  Around 1 or 2 am people stop mourning to have some tea and bread. Then around 3am more prayers, words of encouragement and consolation are said and then the community continues with their mourning. At 5am the coffin is opened and people are allowed to go in to see the body and say any last words to the deceased. 6:30am Saturday morning there is one last service before heading to the burial grounds. Here relatives, friends and co-workers talk about the decreased and explain how he died. Although with the stigma that goes along with having HIV/AIDS most of the time the family will not say their loved one died of HIV/AIDS, they will often say they died of flu or a headache or something like that. After some speeches are made about the deceased some family members will read any messages people wrote to be buried with the casket. Then the casket is decorated with the messages and flower arrangements. Some songs are sang and more prayers are said. In most cases church members of the decreased will come dressed in robes to help run the service and the burial proceedings. Once this is done the casket will be carried to the hearse. For Edwin's funeral people from the clinic were chosen to carry the casket, which I though was interesting, because in America mostly male family members carry the casket.

Once the casket is in the hearse everyone drives very slowly, with their hazard lights on out to the burial grounds. The car transporting the priests will be first, then the hearse with the body and most direct family member (eg. Wife, mother, etc.) and then everyone else. Once at the burial grounds no one is allowed to talk. Everyone then gathers around the grave and the family members sit under a tent that has been set up. The casket is brought to the grave. Everyone first prays for the grave and then everyone begins to sing as the casket is lowered into the grave. For Edwin's funeral, there was another community members funeral going on at the same time. Their graves are dug right next to each other so there was a massive amount of people around and when the singing began is was very loud. This  was interesting to see and hear.

Most of the decorations are left on top of the coffin, but they will leave a few flower arrangements to decorate the grave at the end. Once the coffin is in the ground the priest will throw the first handful or soil followed by relatives. Then a few selected community members will shovel the rest of the soil into the ground. While all this is happening the rest of the community members will be signing songs. When the grave starts to be filled they put what is called a shade on top of the grave. This has the name of the deceased, date of birth, date of death and rest in peace on it. It is much like a tombstone, but they use this shade because they believe that they need to provide some shade for the deceased's body to keep them out of the sun. Once all the dirt is piled on top of the grave and a nice mound is made some women will but some flowers and or other things that represent something about the person who died. For example if someone was a farmer they might but a plow in the dirt mound.

After this is done everyone heads back to the family's house. The family then thanks the community for all their assistance during this time of loss. Then everyone eats the food that was prepared the day before. When it's time to eat men are served separately from the women, because they are served seswaa (pounded goat or cow meat) with tripe (goat intestines). Also the younger girls and boys are supposed to serve the elderly and men before they are allowed to get a plate for themselves.

After the funeral the family is supposed to maintain the grave by pulling and weeds and watering any plants that were planted around the grave. If a child dies their mother has to put on a black, green or blue wrap on their head for 3-6 months. If a man dies their spouse has to wear blue, black or green from head to toe for 6 months to a year. If a woman dies her spouse has to wear a jacket and a blue, black or green bandana on their upper arm for 6 months to a year.

As you can see funerals here in Botswana are a big social event where the community comes together to help out the family of the deceased. Anyone is allowed to attend a funeral. They often because a huge event because it is common for people to attend who never even knew the person or their family. I find this to be a little strange because in the US I would never go to a funeral for a person I didn't know or wasn't close to their family. On the other hand it shows how much people look out for each other here and lend a helping hand to those who truly need it.

"Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it."  Helen Keller

Trip Up North

Sorry I haven't updated in awhile. Have been having internet issues at my site, but it is working again so I wanted to update about my Easter Trip.

Over Easter Sunday we had a long weekend so I went with a few volunteers up to Maun. We stayed at the Old Bridge Backpackers, which is owned by the same people who own Jungle Junction. It was a cool place and I am excited to stay there again when my family comes and visits. 

On Saturday there was an International Derby going on, so a group of us went to watch the races. It was a good time. There were tons of people. It was funny to see all the people piled into and on top of trucks and other vehicles along the fences to see the horses. We watched a few races, I couldn't really tell you who won, because all the riders had on the same yellow "Mascom" t-shirts (the derby was sponsored by Mascom). In-between races there were some entertainers. They had a stage where people were singing and dancing and then on the track there were people riding horses and doing tricks, which was fun to watch. All in all it was a good time.

On Sunday Morning a group of us went to the  farmers market to see what all was there. They had baby ducks for sale. They were soo cute!  The market is held in this place that kind of reminds me of a castle. It was a cool building and I guess the upstairs had a dance studio. We had brunch there, so I got to indulge myself in some good coffee and food! Yum yum!

The next place I went before heading back to my village was Planet Baobab. This is a really cool place to stay in Gweta, which is about halfway to Nata from Maun, right above the Salt Pans. The place is really neat looking as you can see by the pictures. We didn't stay in any of the huts, due to the expense, but we did go on one of their drives. On the drive we got to see some meerkats and even spend time with them. One jumped up on my head! After we played with the meerkats when then were taken to see the Salt Pans. This time of the year there is water on the pans, so it looks a little different than when I went back in September. It was pretty to see. After we saw the pans the driver took us to see the biggest Baobob tree in Botswana! It was huge! The guide told us it might even be the biggest one in Southern Africa. We had a picnic underneath the tree and then headed back to camp.

The Aardvark at the Entrance to Plant Baobab

Our campsite

The Pool

The huge Baobab Tree

The bar area

The next weekend was once again a long weekend due to public holiday's here. Monday was labor day here in Botswana so we got the day off. I took the opportunity to go pick up my new kitten. The volunteer couple who stays in Otse (a village near Gabs) had a cat who had kittens. They are volunteers from the group who came before me, so they will be leaving in June. This means they needed to find good homes for their cat and two kittens. I said I would take one. So meet my new kitten. His name is Dijo which means food! Haha! I hope no one will think because his name is Dijo that it is ok to eat him. 

“We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open.” –Jawaharial Nehru

Easter Time

I have been working with the preschool a lot lately, which is always fun and tiring at the same time. The kids always brighten my day and it makes me happy that they all know my name now! Usually I go in on Fridays and help out with the physical education lessons. One week I made a bunch of different sized circles numbered 1-10 and then spaced them out different distances. The children were to hop to the different circles in order, making sure they landed on the circles. Some of them had trouble hoping with two feet, but it was so funny to watch! The kids really enjoyed it!

Some of the kids hopping

This week, because of Good Friday and Easter I wouldn't be able to help with the Phys. Ed. Lesson, due to there being no school. I decided to come in this morning and help out with their craft activity. I told the Preschool Teacher that I would have something for them to do, so she wouldn't have to plan anything. It being Easter I had them practice their coloring, cutting , and pasting skills by making Easter Lily Flowers and Baby Chicks! As the kids were busy coloring and cutting the teacher asked me why during Easter time you see chicks, eggs, and flowers. I explained to her the eggs and baby chickens represent new life, just like when Jesus brought us new life by dying on the cross and rising on the 3rd day (Easter Sunday). Then I explained the Lilly's we were making are a type of flower that blooms during this time of the year in America. I had to explain to her that in America it is spring time so all the flowers are just starting to bloom. Here in Botswana it is getting colder and winter is almost upon us, no flowers blooming. Guess I didn't think about that when I decided to have them make Easter Lilies. They really enjoyed making them though and I think their crafts turned out very nice!

The Easter Chick and Lilly we were going to make

Some of the kids working on their chicks!

The Lilies Hung on Display

The finished product

After I left the preschool today I went to the Post Office to check my mail. I was pleasantly surprised to have 2 packages. One was from my friend Bri who is teaching English in South Korea! The box was a little damaged but I think everything was intact. Thanks Bri for all that awesome stuff you sent me! The other package was from my Mom and it was full of fun Easter things! Thanks Mom!

The box (damaged) that came from South Korea

All the goodies inside! Thanks Bri!

My Easter Package

All the yummy and fun stuff inside :)

Thank you everyone for all of the love and support you have shown me over this past year! I really appreciate it!

This weekend I will be celebrating Easter with some other volunteers in Maun look for an update about that in the next week or so!

Happy Easter!

"Easter spells out beauty, the rare beauty of new life."  ~S.D. Gordon

One Year...

Exactly one year ago I woke up at roughly 3am to finish my packing say goodbye and head to airport to make my flight to Philly. One year ago I spent a night at a hotel with 56 other future Peace Corps Volunteers and started my journey. One year later I work up this morning packed my bag and got on a bus to GABS to stay in a Motel with a few other Peace Corps Volunteers and our Counterparts for a VAST Grant Workshop. Guess some things don't change too much....

Updates

Besides struggling with the ever inconsistency of running water in my village I have been very busy these past few months. Every quarter us PCVs have to report back to Peace Corps Headquarters on all that we have been doing. Reports are due Thursday so as I am compiling mine I have realized how much I have been doing. Here's a list of some of the projects I am working on, plus some things I did over this quarter:

-I started an aerobics class for the teachers at the Jr. Secondary School. They want to meet three times a week, but that has yet to occur. Right now the schools are on break so we haven't had it in a few weeks, but I hope to start it up again next week. 

-I was asked by the Athletic Director in early January to help coach the sprinters at the Jr. Secondary School. He said he wasn't familiar with how to train sprinters/runners and would very much like my help. I was very excited and began racking my brain for various workouts I did when I was a Sprinter on the Track Team in High School. I was able to coach a few practices and then all of a sudden I find out the Running season is over, and now the sports teams are practicing ball sports. This meant the sprinters/runners wouldn't be practicing again until next January! Bummer! After talking to the Athletic  Director we decided to form a small running/sprinter club with a few of the athletes. This was I would be able to continue to help the students learn drills and exercises so that when next season came they would reap the benefit of all their training. I had about 10 girls and 10 boys show up for the remainder of the practices. It was a lot of fun coaching them and I am looking forward to when practices begin again next week.

-My mother sent me a few children's books in some of my recent care packages. I have been using them to read with a few of the primary school girls in my village. The 9 year old girl who lives on my compound is the one I read with the most. She loves it! Some weekends when I am hanging up my washing she will come up to me and ask if we can read later! I am very excited to instill a sense of enjoyment in reading in these girls. Plus through reading these books they are gaining better English skills which is vital to them doing well in school. I hope in the next quarter to meet more regularly with the girls and maybe even set up some incentives.

Traditional Hut

Making Leather

-The first weekend of March one of the volunteers wanted to have a get together in her village to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Peace Corps. Her village is in Kaudwane, which is near the Khutse Game Reserve right under the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, which is basically in the middle of the country. Kaudwane is literally in the middle of nowhere. It is really hard to get to and the last few hours of the trek there you have to hitch, because not many vehicles go in and out of her village. During the weekend the volunteer had activities planned to learn more about the culture of the people living in Kaudwane. The first night we got to go to the campsite of the Leopard Ecology and Conservation Research team. There they told us all about how they track the Leopards in the area and other wildlife. It was interesting and looked and sounded like they had really awesome jobs. The next morning one of the friends of the volunteer from the village gave a talk about the people of the village. Kaudwane is another settlement for the San/Bushmen/Khwe (koo) people. These are the people who were living in the ancestral lands of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve. From the 1990s the government of Botswana wanted this group of people to relocate to Settlements so that they could receiver better education and medical care. Kind of like when our government forced the Native Americans into the Settlements, but Botswana handled this in a much more peaceful way. It was really interesting to hear about this part of Botswana's history, and to hear about it from someone who first hand experienced it. Later a few more of the villagers took us out on a bush walk. They showed us a traditional cattle post, different berries you could eat (and we got to try them), roots you could dig up and drink water from, and some of the crafts the locals make. It was really interesting and a great experience. Later in the evening we watched the Traditional Dance Group practice and then showed them some of our American Dances. It was a great time and a fun learning experience!

Making jewelry from ostrich shells

Teaching the villagers the Macerana

Showing us how to make leather

Getting water from a root

Riding in the back of the ambulance

 -The Privately owned farms/reserves near my village have many people living and working on them. It is very hard for these people to come into the villages whenever they are sick or need to see a doctor. The Government of Botswana is looking to set up a Mobile Clinic in a central location out of the reserves. One week I got to go with my counterpart and a few others of the clinic staff to find out how many people were actually living out there. I felt like we were census staff! It was fun getting to meet all the people and the land owners. Plus it was like we were on our own private safari will all the wildlife we saw those days!


-At the Matlhako Library the Librarian hired a few new staff members. This gave me another opportunity to teach them how to type and use the computers. It is a slow process but I go there twice a week to work with them for a few hours. Every time I go they are very eager to learn. As the weeks have gone by they are getting better and better at typing! Last week the couple that funded the building of the library came by to visit and check up on how things were going. It was really cool to meet them. They are from America and have built 7 libraries all over Botswana. During this visit they were also meeting with women in the village to talk to them about a new project they want to help fund. This project is a micro-loan committee for individual women in the village wanting to start up small businesses. It would be a great way to build up the village and for the women to start generating income. They asked me to help the committee and women through the process. At the meeting there were around 15 women who all had ideas for small businesses they wanted to start. Some of them even brought samples of things they wanted to sell. I hope in the future as this moves forward I will be able to put together some sort of business workshop for the committee and the women seeking a loan. This workshop would talk about budgeting, finances, loans, business plans etc. I think it would be beneficial for the women so that they will be able to prosper in their business.

The group meeting

She made this

She made this preschool uniform

-March is designated as Youth Against AIDS Month. Here in Botswana many villages have been having rallies and events for this. Two weekends ago our Catchment Area village of Makwate had an event and I was asked to come help out. The day started out with some speeches, drama and traditional dance group performances. After the opening ceremonies were through then stations were set up for people to go around to. There was a place to get HIV tested, a condom demonstration and info table,  a station to get your blood pressure checked, another station to get your insulin checked to see if you have diabetes, and a BMI station. I thought it was cool that this event not only focused on knowing your status but had other healthy aspects to it. I helped out at the BMI station by calculating people's BMI's and then my partner would explain to them in Setswana what it meant and how they could get into or stay in a healthy BMI range. It was nice to finally be able to use some of my knowledge from my schooling.

At the BMI station

Demonstration how to use a Female Condom

All the people lined up to get their BMI

-I am still continuing to work with the preschool in my village. This past term I was helping them to teach Phys. Ed to the kids. I tried to teach them the game Red Light, Green Light. They didn't get it the first day but they seemed to enjoy it. Recently I have been helping the owner to get some funding to expand her school. The building that the preschool is held in is not up to standards and she is risking being shut down if things are not improved. I hope to help her get some grant money so she can build a newer, bigger building that will allow her to give these kids the best early child education one can offer. With a new building the preschool will be able to take in more kids, which would be awesome for the community.

Some of the preschoolers

The building

-The other day the Out-of-School Youth Officer asked to meet with me. She was the person who wanted to open up a preschool/day care center for OVCs in the village and surrounding areas that would be free of cost. This project has kind of fell through so now she has a new project she wants me to help her with. In Machaneng, there is not much to do. This leads to youth partaking in unhealthy activities, like drinking, fighting, and having unprotected and sometimes transactional sex. What the Officer wants to do is to build a place for the youth to go to hang out that is safe a fun. After brainstorming with her for a little bit we came up with a plan of what would be ideal. A large space with a playground/activity park, sports fields, and building that has a recreational room full of games, books and other fun things, a classroom where youth can get help with their homework, do distance learning, and have a space for people to come a teach the youth various topics, and a store room. Obviously this is something that is going to take a lot of time and work to become a reality. I told her I would be happy to help her. First we need to acquire some land and then find funding to start building parts of the Youth Center. I think it would be very beneficial to the youth in the community.

Ok so as you can see I have been very busy. As time goes on I am realizing that people are starting to see that I am here in the village to help. I see now why Peace Corps has us here for 2 years. It really does take the first year for people to figure you out and understand where you can help. Now that I am coming up on the year mark I feel like all these different projects are popping up on me, whereas just a few months ago I was feeling like I wasn't doing anything and not being used. I guess I just needed to wait a little bit. I hope I will be able to finish all the projects I start and impact a few people in the village before I leave next year. 

Metsi come Back

Dear Lords of the Running Water,

I know I am in a developing country and I should have water stored up. I get it. I have diligently stored up my water when I can. It's been 4 days since there hasn't been water and really it's Africa so it's hot! I sweat all day and sweat some more after working out. It would be nice to be able to turn on the faucet and take a bath, but I can't so I use some of my precious stored water so I won't be a smelly kid. My stores are running low, my dirty dishes are pilling higher and higher. It even rained today, so couldn't you just turn the water on for a little bit, so I can refill my containers?

Thanks!