Wow! So where to begin? Sorry that it has been so long since I last wrote, but things have been busy here which is good because it means training is almost over and I am about to head out to my village and dive into the good stuff! So the last time I wrote I think I mentioned that we where going on a fieldtrip for a "cross-cultural surprise"- this was awesome! A fun day of traditional dancing, cultural skits, authentic costumes, and a truly Botswanan lunch! I have a bunch of pictures and I am planning on sending the first batch home to get uploaded once traning is over- so hopefully in the next few weeks they will be on here. Also once I get to my site I will have a laptop (no internet) but I will be able to write up posts as things happen and hopefully pictures too and simply post them when I get to internet service.
After that, it was pretty much just building anticipation for our site assignments, which we received on May 30th. It was a very exciting day, to say the least. We all met at the local lodge and had a big ceremony where we were called up one at a time and matched our names with a place on the map. So I was number 55 out of 56 to get called up, and my village placement is Semolale. This is a small village in the triangluar part of Botswana where Zimbabwae, South Africa, and Botswana all meet on the East side. Basically my village is the last place on the road before Zimbabwae. (I just heard today, that the current ruler in Zim has announced that he will go to war before he relinquishes power. I am not the person who stays up to date on political happenings, but this president has been in rule for a long time but the country has started to fall apart and he has been voted out of office but he is refusing to leave. so many Zims are fleeing the country and setting up refugee camps here in Botswana, including my village and some of the surrounding ones. That's a brief explanation of the situation, as I understand it for now. But basically just keep me in your thoughts, especially if things escalate as it gets closer to the end of this president's rule and what actions he takes in response to this- hopefully not war!) LAst week, I spent several days in my village and the surrouding areas. My village has about 800 people. It is very small. It has a clinic, primary school, kgotla (traditional government place), a social work office, "library", 2 bars, 2 tack shops (which sell small candies and soap, etc.), and a few churches. That is basically it. There is a tar road, which means that a bus comes through at various times but most of the transportation is donkey carts. I am about 30K from Bobonong, which is a fairly larger village and where our sub-district offices are located (including the District Aids Coordinator and District Health Team- DAC & DHT). This is also where I can go for essential groceries and services. Silibe-Phikwe is the next closest town (2 1/2 hrs. by bus) and this is very Westernized with almost all amenities- shops, bank, restaurants (including a great Italian one where I can go to treat myself when I can't eat cabbage or phaleche or beans on more time!), etc.- this is where I will have to go for internet access. My sub-district is the Bobirwa Sub-district. The people here speak a dialect of Setswana called Sebirwa, which means I have a lot of studying to do and I must try to conquer another language! With that said, being a small village means that most people cannot speak or understand English and literacy is low so learning a new language that cannot easily be written down by those who know it should prove challenging- but essential. I am so very jealous of Tim's ability and interest in new language acquisition because that would be very helpful to me right now, but I'll plug away at it and get really good at charades in the meantime!
The best part about where my town is located is called Tulli Block Game Reserve. This is about 20K in the opposite direction (right on the boarder). There are nice lodges, campgrounds, game drives, and safaris here- so this will be my nature sanctuary for the next 2 years! Plus I hear there are great animals like lions, elephants, etc. so come visit I've got a great little place to put you all up in!
My house is a small, independent building on a family compound. I have a cute little porch, bathroom with running water (cold), flushing toliet, and bathtub, my bedroom, which is decently sized and will be quite cozy once I get it set up with some curtains, bedding complete with mosquito net, and maybe a rug- cement floors get VERY cold!, a living room with 2 couches and 2 chairs and a coffee table, and a large kitchen with fridge, stove/ oven and lots of room for dinner parties- with a little Jaclyn touch it will feel like home in no time! Oh and the best part is the orange trees that grow behind my house so I can go hide out in the green with a book and go to my zen place. There is a larger house on the property where my "mom" lives (my "dad" stays at the lands outside of town with the crops and cattle). There is also another woman and her 4 children who live on the compound and the children are always running around and putting a smile on my face! They are all very nice and treat me like family. Even though I have most "amenities", the first night the water went out (I learned it does this often sometimes for a few days sometimes for a few weeks, so I must store buckets of water in my house), the electricty also went out, my gas cylinder that runs the stove was empty (and the water comes out white so I can't drink it without boiling it first), and I had no pots, bedding, etc. and my mom and all the neighbors (it was a collective effort since they each knew about 3 words in English along with me trying to speak Setswana to a population who speaks Sebirwa) got me all set up with sheets, pots, dishes, candles, buckets of water-- and it was Home Sweet Home! I think I have the perfect placement- My small village where you know everyone and they know me and you never know what will come up, but access to amenities if I need them or want them. I feel totally safe in my village and home. We have dogs on my compound and like I said everyone knows me already (I kind of stick out) and I am following a well-loved volunteer who just left a few weeks ago after finishing her 2 years of service.
My village has a lot going on and also alot of opportunities for growth. I am very excited to get settled in there and learn more about the people and what issues they would like to see attention given too and to become an active part of the community. Technically, I will be working through the Semolale clinic and the PMTCT (Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission) program. My clinic is very slow paced and even though it serves 2 other neighboring villages, they only have about 5 babies born each month and there is no PMTCT counselor. Still I am hoping to work with this program and get into the community, both myself and encourage the other health personnel from the clinic, in order to increase the effectiveness of these programs and increse health education in the community in hopes of preventing future health issues. I am also excited to work with the woman who runs the clinic garden. I'm anxious to dig around in the dirt and learn new skills and look for ways for this project to grow to its full potential and get more of the community involved. Her garden is gorgeous! It has beautiful trees with orange blossoms and perfect little rows of greens, veggies, and herbs. The best part is that I know I will have access to these great foods in my diet- unlike those volunteers placed in the desert. The other thing that I am very excited about is the Youth Group. There is a group of 15 very motivated young people (aged 16-29) who have formed and wrote a proposal and was recently granted funding through the government to open a youth center. The hope is to provide life/job skills, create income- generating projects, mentoring, education, and positive forms of recreation for the out-of-school youth who are mostly not financially self-sufficient or productive within the community and have a lot of free time to engage in risky behaviors, which is contirbuting to the spread of HIV through this younger generation. There is a lot more to talk about, but I feel confident that this is not the last time I will tell you about this group, so I will keep you posted once I get out there and really dig in. I know when I left some people were asking about possible care packages or things that could be sent to help out in my village. Obviously, I do not have a great grasp on everything at this point but while I was visiting, I already started brainstorming. One need that I already identified within the community is computer skill training. Right now I believe the only computers are in the clinic (only 1 out of the 3 work) but nobody likes using them because they complaing that they do not know how to type fast enough and they do not know how all the applications work. The youth group is going to use their funding to purchase 2 computers for their facility also in hopes of training the youth in typing and other skills useful for employment. Currently, they ask me to type things for them because I can do it faster; however, this is not a very sustainable concept because I will be leaving in 2 years- and I was not sent here to be a typist. So I was thinking that if anybody has any old tutorial CD-Roms (I'm thinking way back to the Apple computer days at St. Joe's where we learned the basic- basics) but something to teach typing techniques and navigation through computer applications like Word and Excel. Or even books. You all know that I am not the most computer oriented person so me being a "techie" is a funny concept, but that's how they see me. So for now, I have made them cardboard "keyboards" to take home and practice locating the keys and familiarize themselves with it. But I am hoping to do a more official kind of training for the clinic workers and the children but I am looking for suggestions or materials to help- so please help me out! Along those lines, I was also thinking of things that could be useful to help start up the youth center, which the budget does not allow for like office supplies (paper, pens, staplers, hole punches, paper clips, markers, etc.), old books, DVDs, magazines, computer games & programs (they are buying a TV so they can do movie nights, etc. since the only night time entertainment here is the bars. They are also hoping to have a book loan area), board games, cards, balls- soccer, football, frisbee . . . I do not want these items to be a "give out" because we are trying hard to disassociate Americans from money. I think most of these things could be one-time gift type things that will really be needed in the beginning and not a continous cost that would cause dependence. I am also thinking of ways for the to "earn" anything that you all do send over; such as, have them start an income generating project and earn "x" amount of profits to show that they are motivated and that they will have continual fnding for their project and for their success, donate some things to the center. Another issue is to get the youth involved and active in the community. Another incentive I was thinking about was encouraging "service hours" like we all had to do in the states and once they have collectively volunteered "x" number or hours, I would donate some new things to the center. This was they will be having a positive impact on the community and the resources used for this youth center will be enhanced as they are shared to others and have a positive impact on the community as a whole. So this is just some things that have been running through my head. My mind was racing the whole time I was up there with just ideas and excitement for the possibilities for the next 2 years! Okay, well with that, I am going to go. I have written way too much, but I know that I had a lot of catching up to do and many of you were anxious to here all the details of my new home for the next 2 years- so here it is! You will get a much better picture as time goes on, but this is a start.
This will be my last week in Molepolole. I will miss my family dearly. They have been wonderful to me and I truly appreciate everything they have done for me my opening up their home to me and allowing me to share in their lives these past 2 months. We has a Host Family Thank-You party yesterday. We entertained them with skits and words of appreciation along with a true American meal. I was of course on the cooking committee and we prepared salad, spaghetti with meat sauce & garlic bread, sweet and sour chicken stir fry, slaw, and apple crumble. It was a great success! My neices came in from Gabs for the weekend which was great. They are all planning on visiting me in Semolale and a possible camping trip to Tulli Block. We will have our Swearing In Ceremony on Wednesday before we depart for our sites on Thrusday. Then I will be an official Peace Corps Volunteer!
Okay, the internet cafe is about to close so I must go. Stay well and Keep in touch! Miss you all very much! Kagiso le Lorato
~Gorata Makwati/ soon to be Ndodole
Sunday, June 15, 2008
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