Semolale Lady

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

This is just a note that Peace Corp required that I add:

The content and views expressed on this blog are not reflective of or endorsed by the United States Peace Corps.

The Nitty Gritty of Life in Botswana

Hello, Hello Everyone!

I got out of class early in the day yesterday so I used this opportunity to check my e-mail and was delighted to find that I had so many! So thank you all for the love, believe me it is appreciated more than you know! For those few moments, Botswana doesn't feel like it's 8,000 + miles away and I'm right back in the loop. I love hearing about everyone's summer plans and must say that I'm a little jealous that I'll be missing out on the beach, seafood, concerts and all those wonderful things that make up a Baltimore summer (I won't be missing that humidity though!). Yesterday I was able to walk through my village and take in a lot more of my surroundings since my mind wasn't consumed with Setswana or where I need to be next for training (always a fun guessing game!) or getting home before dark. I got to enjoy the wonderful African sun and meander through the village while the community was at the peak of activity. I met so many people along the path that I got to stop and converse with (trying my best to get out a few sentences in Setswana before reverting back to English). The kids were all getting out of school and were full of excitement and energy as they headed to the football (soccer) field and surrounded me with 20 smiling faces asking questions and giggling and being kids- it was great! I think that walk put a smile on my face for the rest of the day and made me really excited to get to my own village and make those connections within my community.

So I've noticed some common questions in my e-mails so I thought I'd address some of them here:

First of all, you all must know how picky of an eater I am because you are all very concerned about my food situation here. Some of the typical foods that you will find in Botswana are maize and maizy meal which looks like mashed potatoes but don't be confused because it will not taste like them; or much of anything actually, sorghum porridge, beans, cabbage, tomato, carrots, eggs, chicken (we have a bunch running around the yard and my mother informed me that she would like to slaughter a chicken (koko) for me before I leave- hopefully I won't have to help), meat (this can mean anything really goat, sheep, beef parts that I have not seen before, etc.), rice, potatoes, beets, pumpkin (this is my favorite; it tastes like sweet potatoes). My family is super accommodating and have altered my dinner based on observations so this has been great because I am able to eat things I like and not worry about offending them. Some things I like to change into a "teachable moment" it's like that nursing thing never really leaves. For example, the prepare a lot of foods in oil here and they cook veggies until they are very soft. I tell them that in America I do not cook with that much oil because it isn't "good for my heart" (I don't know if they really understand cholesterol) and I also told them that I like my vegetables crispy or raw and"then they retain more nutrients". They also boil a lot of eggs but they do not cook them all the way like we do so I got to talk about e.coli in eggs and chicken and how it can make me sick, etc. So now they boil or steam most of my food or give me some raw veggies, which is great. They also serve huge portions here. Most dinners will consist of meat, potatoes, rice with a veggie sauce (they call it soup and it's made from seasoning packets that contain a lot of Msg), some cooked cabbage and maize meal all heaped up on the plate. Dishes are generally rather bland unless they have those spice packets or salt on them. Everyone cleans their plates too! I told them that in America I do not eat that much, that usually we have meat or fish and salad or steamed veggies and one rice/pasta/potato dish. I joke with my mom that she is trying to make me fat- she thinks I'm funny; although she did call me fat the first day I was here, but I think it's seen as a good thing from the older people because it means that you can afford to eat well. So now they give me smaller portions so I can try some of everything and not feel bad about wasting food. As far as what's available in the stores, I think I will be able to do fairly well once I'm on my own. I'm really excited to start cooking for myself. Most of the large villages have a descent supply of fruits and veggies and unlike Ghana, they love meat in this culture and also have milk. Some things they don't have: of course seafood doesn't exist in a land-locked country so you know being a Baltimore girl- I'm gonna miss that the most and the Old Bay! Cereal and granola bars are few or non-existent. And my deep love for Italian food: They do have garlic but I have not found the other delicious essentials like pesto, sun-dried tomatoes, basil, and parm cheese- whatever shall I do?! Christmas without Italian food! Oh NO! haha well, that's kind of extensive in the food department but since there was so much concern I wanted to let you all know that I am not starving in Africa.

Food is a large part of the culture here and since I've tried touched on that, let me know try to paint a picture of the landscape that surrounds me. I can only speak so far of the south east corner since that's where Gabarone, Molepolole, and Mahalapye are all located. The earth is mostly sandy dirt with small shrubs and tall grasses. When you are traveling outside of the villages you can look out over the savannah and take in the vastness of this space. The sky is huge! And some amazing sunsets can be seen going down along the horizon with the low- lying trees against the colorful backdrop. This is my favorite part of the day as I take my evening jog. The sky is also fantastic at night. There is hardly any light pollution in comparison to the states so even outside of your own door you can look up and see some of the most bright and brilliant stars and the Milky Way is beautiful! I can't wait to get out on some camping trips to really take it in. I have been told that there's great camping in the game reserves and rhino sanctuaries where you can also go on game drives and see all the wonderful animals that inhabit this part of the globe. In Molepolole, the only "wildlife" I see is donkeys and goats and occasional cattle along the road. I also really want to get to the northern part of the country, the Delta region, and see some water and greeness to make my heart content. Being in a land-locked country is going to be a challenge for a girl who loves the beach more than anything and taking her kayak out anywhere she finds water and climbing mountains that have trees on them, but I'm going to enjoy the beauty of this country while I can before I return to my water and trees.

Mail. Oh mail . . . this is a big to- do here. About one day a week, our PC staff comes from Gabs with letters and packages that have arrived from home and there's all kinds of excitement like Christmas morning! I am still waiting for my first piece of mail. I have learned that the Botswana- Vanuatu mail transit leaves much to be desired. My mom and sisters have all received letters from Tim saying that he is doing well living with his Mom, Dad, and 3 brothers. They love that he plays the guitar and sings for them- I wouldn't expect anything less! He assures us that he really is in Peace Corps and that it's not all a tropical paradise . . . he has to fight off the bugs and humidity when he can't escape to the beach haha. But really this is the best I can do for an update as my letter is still "en route" so I will wait patiently. I think in general, "waiting patiently" is going to become a favorite past time of mine here in Botswana! Meanwhile people please send pictures and stories about life and all the fun summer events that will be coming up. I have a whole empty album that needs to get filled! I have found that picture uploading takes a really long time so I think I will wait until I have more and send them home on a CD so hopefully someone (please val, shell, mom) can put them up here on this website. I promise they will come!

That's about it for now. . . I'm about half way through training at this point and all is well. Tomorrow I am going to an International AIDS Memorial Candlelight Service in a neighboring town and then it's another week of training. More to come later. Keep sending the messages, I love it! Take care of yourselves!

Lorato le kagiso (peace and love),
Jac

Life in Moleps

Hey Everyone!

I apologize for the rather brief, uninteresting update but a lot has happened in the past 2 weeks and I'm not quite able to bring it all together in a comprehensive way yet. But since I have the rare opportunity to use the internet I want to take advantage and bring you up to date.

The past few weeks have been very full and interesting. I am now in my second week of my homestay. I am living with the Makwati family in Moleplole. My Setswana name is Gorata (to love). My Setswana is coming along at a very slow pace- but I have 2 years (If I don't give up first). So a typical day of training starts with a morning of Langauge with my teacher and 3 other trainees. Then by afternoon we meet with the rest of the CCB's (Community Capacity Building) to learn about the Batswana culture, how to immerse ourselves in our community, statistics and facts out HIV/ AIDS in Botswana, and a bit of reality input from current volunteers.

The days are usually very long and tiring, but interesting as we figure out how to adapt to our new environment, create relationships with our Peace Corps family, and try to get a grasps on what the next 2 years will be like.

My family includes my mother, 2 sisters (28 and 22) and a brother (18?). There are also 2 nieces (14 and 11) who visit from Gabarone and a younger boy(11) who stays at the house sometimes. My house is a living room, small kitchen and 2 bedrooms. I have a very spacious room and am quite comfortable with my double bed. My house has electricity but no running water- so I have still had the opportunity to perfect the art of a "bucket bath", use the outhouse before it gets dark, hand wash my laundry, and boil my drinking water. I am fortunant that my family gives me plenty of personal time and independence, at the same time, making me feel comfortable and at home. Usually I try to take a jog right after training and then bathe before the sun sets and it gets cold. It's winter now so it's still 70s or 80s duringt he day but around 35-40 degrees by night. The sun also sets by around 6 or 6:30 so the days are rather short. I try to help my family make dinner (or treat them to an American meal) and then settle around the TV in the living room for supper, tea (a huge tradition!), Setswana news on TV, and a variety of American and Botswana and South African/ British music videos, sit-coms, soaps, etc. Sometimes I can interest my family in playing cards or helping me with my Setswana lessons. If not, I usually get overwhelmed with the TV by about 8 and head tro my room to read, journal, do Peace Corps homework, and write letters. I am actually reading a great book right now that I recommend to all of you for a really great perspective on the AIDS pandemic from all angles and part of why I am here doing this kind of work. It's called "28 stories of AIDS in Africa" by Stephanie Nolan (I think).

Molepolole is a large village with grocery stores, internet cafe, etc. On the weekends we get to explore the town and meet up with volunteers who are staying in different wards within Moleps. I have had the opportunity to go to a wedding. Everyone is invited- just show up! It's very westernized with white gown and tux, wedding party, food, dance, and drink (a little later). I have some pics that I will try to get up soon. They have the wedding celebration in the Bride's hometown one weekend and than at the Groom's family's house the next weekend. It was very fun!

Right now, I am in a town called Mahalapye shadowing a current volunteer. I will be here until Sunday. We live with and go to work with a volunteer to get a better feel for the next 2 years of service once we get to site. My host has organized a soccer tournament for teams of women over the age of 30 along with an HIV testing event which is happening tomorrow. So I will be helping with that event this weekend and a lot of other volunteers and trainees will be coming into town to help as well, so it should be a fun weekend!

We were able to spend Monday and Yesterday in Gabarone, which is a very westernized city. Botswana is much more developed than Ghana (my only source for comparison) and this is especially apparent in Gabs. It's almost alittle surreal sometimes until I remind my fact that I'm not here for infrastructure development but instead to educate and counter this spread of HIV/ AIDS and try to curb its negative effects on the advancements Botswana has been able to make in the past to get it where it is today.

Like I said, it's not terribly detailed but a brief summary is better than nothing so this is what I have to share so far . . . please continue to send e-mails and letters (I haven't gotten any yet) I want to hear about everything going on back home! Stay well!

Love and Peace,
Gorata

A mother's perspective

As a mother it is hard to drive your daughter to Philly and drop her off knowing that you may not see her for over 2 years. You just want to hold her, but you know you have to let her go and live her dream. Jaclyn has talked about doing this since she was in high school. It makes me proud to see her fulfilling her dreams and so willing to share herself with others, to make things better in this world.

As her sisters and me were driving back down 95, the car was very quiet for the first half hour, then we starting talking about it's not going to be that different. Jaclyn was always off traveling somewhere, whether it would be college, Australia, Italy, Costa Rica, road trip across the USA or spending months in New Orleans helping in the lower 9th ward. She was never home very long. Jaclyn has always had a hunger for new adventures, travel and a desire to help where she is most needed. (Believe me it was not at home cleaning her room.) So when we got home, we decided to see what clothes and shoes she left behind, because Jaclyn always had the cutest clothes and shoes. They were quickly divided up. (sorry Jaclyn, they would be out of style when you got back anyway.) I had the chore of cleaning her room of the mess she left behind, some things never change.

As we got back into our hectic lives, we wonder what Jaclyn is doing and how she is making out, but mostly we go on living our lives and dreams too. With all the new communications options it will be easier to keep in touch. (Look at me I figured out how to post on a Blog site.) I know it brightened my day when I received the e-mail that invited me to blog. I was amazed at her blog site, because Jaclyn was not very techy type person. I guess it is pretty easy, huh?

Well I will keep you updated with my insights as Jaclyn is off in Botswana. Jaclyn there are many wishes and prayers going out to you from co-workers, clients, friends and family. Comet was in your room last night crying, silly dog. Look forward to hearing from you and following your journey.

I love you sweetie,

Mom

Botswana At Last!

Dumela rra. Le tsogile jang? (Good evening. How are all of you?)

Hey everyone! Well, I have made it through the first portion of my journey. I (and all my luggage) have arrived safely in Botswana! So I guess you could say I am now “home”, since this will be my home for the next 2+ years. My group consists of 59 (2 dropped out at the last minute) volunteers. We are a very diverse group with people from all age groups and many awesome life experiences. Everyone is great and so interesting, it’s just been hard to get to know so many people- but I guess I have another 2 years! The most stressful part of the trip is over- our 16 hour flight from NY to South Africa. We were greeted by some of our in-country staff, Heather, Pinny, and Kumo. They got us all squared away with luggage and converting our money to Rand. Johannesburg was very westernized so it hasn’t really sunk in that I am here. We stayed in a very nice hotel and a group of us all hung out at the bar to relax after the taxing flight. Since we were so close to the airport, there were a lot of other international travelers and we met some guys who were from Australia and they were excited to hear about our upcoming Peace Corps experience. Today we made the next leg of our journey on land from Johannesburg to Gabarone, Botswana. The drive was pretty cool because we were able to take in a lot of the scenery. The land is mostly flat and prairie-like. There are several hill, but they are not forested like back home so they look very odd. There were a lot of small tress and cacti and shrubs growing with some areas being greener than others. Most of the homes and stores seemed to look like those in Costa Rica, which are slightly nicer than the ones in Ghana. We went through immigration and walked across the boarder into Botswana- we have finally arrived! We were greeted at our hotel in Gabarone (the capital of Botswana) by many of the Peace Corps staff and volunteers who are currently serving. We had a quick orientation and then got to meet and ask questions to the current volunteers who were all so friendly and helpful with clearing up some of our uncertainties. We also enjoyed a nice dinner at the hotel with all of the other volunteers and staff. I think tomorrow we are going to get cell phones so I will soon have a new contact number for all of you. From home, you can by calling cards and call my international phone without me using any minutes. Other than that, it is about $1/ minute for me to call any of you. Also, as far as contact goes, we have been told that there are about 3 internet cafés in Molepolole, which is the town I will be in for the next 3 months of training. With that said, our allowance is not enough that we can afford to use it everyday, but I am hoping to be in contact at least once a week. Tomorrow our training begins with language and culture lessons- and a lot of immunizations (up to 6) and apparently I’m first since I am the first in the alphabet so I guess I will have something nice to wake up to tomorrow haha. We will also be introduced to the custom of have tea twice daily, once in the morning and once in the afternoon. Finally, tomorrow night is our fancy dinner with the US Embassy representatives. I’m sure there will be a lot more exciting things happening in the upcoming days so I will try to keep you posted. For now, I am having a great time enjoying the company of everyone and am excited to finally be here. So for now, I send my love to all of you. Please keep in touch and I will write again soon! Robala sentle (Goodnight)!