Friday, February 20, 2009

Living in the Boondocks . . .

After spending January and most of February nearly exclusively in Semolale, I have made it to the big city at last! Enjoying all of those lovely things like hot water, bug-free sleeping arrangments, regular cell phone service and wireless internet . . .

Post- Holidays always provides a bit of a slump, but as everything here . . . it’s longer in Botswana. So I spent a good portion of January on a roller coasters constantly flip-flopping from good to bad, fast to slow, uplifting to frustrating, busy to bored . . . and I don’t know if it has evened out til now, almost the end of February! Basically everyone stays on “holiday” if not physically, definitely mentally for most of the beginning of the year. This of course means that even though I came back from my short holiday vacation completely refreshed and ready to go, I wasn’t exactly met with equal enthusiasm from others who I work with on various projects.

At first things were slow and I was enjoying the relaxation of being at home, reading, jogging, doing yoga and catching up with people around the village. And then things started getting hectic . . . I’m now working in the primary school almost every day. After a lot of scheduling and trying out different ideas, we have finally established a schedule of sorts that allows me to meet with each class once a week for about an hour. We started our pen pal program and sent our first group of letter off to the states at the end of January and are now anxiously awaiting their responses! I’ve continued the past few weeks with lessons on reading, English grammar, composition writing, parts of a story . . . and whatever else. Ultimately, I want to address different health topics but sometimes you gotte give a little before you get the freedom to do what you really want. I’ve really enjoyed working with the teachers and getting to know them better so we can form a nice cohesive team approach to education. I have gotten a lot of positive feedback so far and many teachers are coming to me seeking advice on how to approach different topics and how to incorporate new teaching techniques into their lessons. (Who would have guessed that all those hours spent “playing school” in the basement with my sisters would actually pay off! Haha ) Hopefully since they seem so receptive and are observing the benefits of a more interactive teaching approach, they will adapt them into their own lessons so that the students are ultimately “learning” rather than memorizing and regurgitating information that they don’t understand.
I have even gone out to join the students at the grounds after classes to train with them in “athletics”, which is basically track and field. They always find this quite hysterical but it definitely makes them more motivated and excited about going to exercise in the blistering heat. This experience in the school is one of those very tangible successes that I have as a volunteer. I receive instant gratification and results, which is extremely rare. So it’s also a good confidence booster in terms of morale as a volunteer to keep me motivated and plugging along at the sometimes impossible task put before me. And nothing can quite turn your day around like a bunch of smiling, laughing, energetic kids! No matter how exhausted or frustrated I feel, within minutes at the school I absorb their positive energy and develop a whole new look on the day!

And the other group that I am enjoying more and more is the Secondary School students from the GLOW club. I really like working with the kids in this age group. I feel like they are most often the least understood and ones that adults most often do not know how to relate to—are they to be treated like kids or adults?? I think they feel open with me because I can relate to them without a large age gap and can be seen as a peer role model, rather than a feared, elder. It’s kinda like being a big sister for a ton of brothers and sisters, but that’s a role that I’m used to filling and really enjoy. Since the beginning of this new school year, we have also introduced the GLOW club to male students. I really like this development in the group because it definitely adds a different and positive dynamic. I have observed that boys and girls have VERY different opinions on many issues and one of the best learning tools in terms of developing awareness and introducing new perspectives is by creating an environment where they can openly discuss issues with each other. With this said, there is still something to value in the comfort they feel when only in the presence of their same sex. So we have tried to devise a schedule where they meet once during the week as separate groups and then on Saturday mornings we meet together as co-ed GLOW. So far this approach has been very successful and each week more and more students are showing up to get involved. Part of this is due to our new focus on involving the school body as a whole in more GLOW activities—our goal is one a month. Last week we organized a mock protest among the students. The topic of debate was whether students or teachers were to blame for the underperformance and poor discipline of students. I could go into a long winded explanation giving you the arguments of each side, but I’ll say that for another time . . . either way it was a fun day filled with poster making, campus marching, chanting, rallying and debating.
At the Secondary school, I’ve also started to meet with the teachers in the English department to begin implementing a pen pal. Cultural exchange program between our students and those on Tanna island (a school Tim is working with), so hopefully they will begin corresponding in the next few weeks.
I’m also hoping to introduce more youth-friendly health services to students. I haven’t quite figured out how to do this yet, but I’m thinking something along the lines of monthly health topics addressed to all of the students followed by myself and the health auxiliary (another young co-worker) remaining on campus for a day for private “consultations” (a term I use very loosely) and counseling for those students who feel too embarrassed to approach the clinic staff with their health concerns (physical, mental and emotional)—especially those relating to abuse and sexual health: contraceptives, STIs, puberty, etc.

We are now busily preparing for our Run for Life! A 10K race aimed at promoting healthy lifestyles and risk reduction (because everything has to be related to HIV in some way!). The race date is March 14th, which is quickly approaching! I hope to focus attention on the young population since March is also the Month of Youth Against AIDS (MYAA). There will most likely be a large number of youth gathered so I have invited the Dept. of Youth and Culture to come address them on this year’s theme: “One Me, One Partner, One Life”. I would like to see the youth group getting involved in entertainment and educational drama presentations, as well as, the GLOW clubs to increase their community presence. I have recently begun to meet and hopefully revitalize the Men’s Sector which is rather self-explanatory, but a group aimed at mobilizing men in the prevention of HIV. I’m hoping to train them in some of the interactive educational activities we were doing at the World AIDS Day event and have those activities going on for runners to participate in after the race. Some fellow PCVs are planning to come in to assist with the event so it will be a treat for me to finally host some of my friends and colleagues here in Semolale—since nobody ever makes it out this far without a specific reason!

As usual, I have balanced work with play and taken the opportunity to have some fun and interesting social and cultural experiences:

It’s been party time here in Semolale . . . many of our clinic staff are leaving on transfers so we have had farewell parties which always provided a lot of fun seeing everyone out of their work environment. My sister-in-law hosted a “kitchen party” the other weekend, which is like a bridal shower several years after a couple has been married. Guests (all ladies)come with different gifts for the kitchen and then ask her questions about her husband and her marriage and once she is finished being drilled she is presented with the gifts (if she answers satisfactorily). But she’s blindfolded and has to identify each item and who she thinks it is from. Once this portion is completed, the women all go outside where the “groom” and his friends have been preparing the braii(barbeque) on the fire and we all enjoy the food, music and dancing!

I finally had the opportunity the other weekend to go to my family’s cattle post. Cattle are probably the single most important thing in Botswana culture. It’s how a family’s wealth is measured, how it is determined if a man is suitable for a woman to marry (he must produce btwn 8 and 12 cattle to his potential wife’s family as lebola- so Tim you better start trading in your pigs for cows!) and no matter how long a person has spent in the city, their pride is always in the family cattle post. Since my brother is home in Semolale on his annual leave (1 month vacation- mandatory for all govn’t employees—nice huh?!) We packed up the truck early one Sunday morning with my brother, sister-in-law, 2 youngest daughters and my father and headed down the dirt road toward the border . . . in just a few miles the terrain changed dramatically and became lush, green, cooler and with significantly larger trees! It was such a welcomed breath of fresh air! Just the simple variety that it offered definitely helped to spice up the dull, dry, dusty days passing by in Semolale. So I was shown all of the brothers’ herds of cows, goats, sheep, and the crop fields and chicken . . . I had to pick out a goat that is now “my goat” to be “nice and fat before the family comes so we can celebrate with a feast!” I don’t know how they keep track of them but now I technically have a goat, haha Val I got one before you! They wanted me to have a cow too but I thought the acquisition of one livestock was enough for the day. . . maybe next time. My favorite part by far was the 400+ orange tree grove! So hopefully I’ll get back there more often because I really enjoyed it; I’ve been promised that I can go anytime to “check on my goat”. Ha!

Well, time has escaped me once again . . . Time to wrap this up! As you are all hoping spring is shortly around the corner, I’m looking forward to the impending cooler weather. Did the groundhog see the shadow? I wonder if Groundhog Day works in this hemisphere? Can that tricky little groundhog also predict how fast winter is coming?! Stay healthy, happy and safe . . . until next time . . .

~Love, Jaclyn

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