Sally and the notebook

Here are some photos of our newly acquired kitty, Sally (for When Harry Met Sally – dad I know you appreciate the name).  It is amazing how great having a pet again is.  It really helps with loneliness.  J 

Tracy

Quite a curious lump

Oh, it is a cat

Sally at a distance

She looks sweet

But wait..

Crazy KAT!!

 Notebook

Since arriving to Botswana I have been missing one key element to my life.  That is a good notebook that fits in my pocket.  I recall having scraps of paper litter my pockets for a long, long time.  Through factory floors of Amazon, sitting in comfy chairs at various call center jobs, and a moleskin that traveled to 3 of the four corners of the USA.  Maybe 2 and ½ corners since I am not sure where the south-western corner lies, it was close anyhow.  When I arrived here I got a notebook that could fit in my backpack and then a smaller one that fit in backpack, but I never really captured more than my “to do” lists.  I am not one to open up a backpack and retrieve a notebook if I see an interesting thing during a morning assembly much less walking the 15 minutes through the baked streets of Hukuntsi.  I finally got one a week or two ago and it is working pretty well.  The main thing I forgot about capturing the vignettes of everyday life is that the more you write down small things, the more you want to write about anything.  My blog posting went up and I am getting more done at work even.  My day planner today reads:

August 13 Monday – Day 1

7:30 Start of classes for Term 3

9:30 Make copies of EDC forms

14:00 Go to Makgakgane Primary to meet the school head

With the help of my notebook:

                I began the morning with learning to tie a new knot for my blue tie.  I have not worn a tie since before mid-June and instead of it feeling like a ball and chain, it makes me feel confident and ready for the day.  It is like a superman cape for the front of my body and it seems like it could stop bullets or at least the discouraging things I am likely to hear on the first day of the term.  I arrive early to school, which can be a challenge on some days, and catch up with some teachers I have not seen for a couple of months.  We go to morning assembly with most teachers present, but it still looks like a small showing.  The students are standing around and one of the Heads of Department is making his way through the tightly packed crowd.  It takes me a few seconds to comprehend, but he is making students take off their sweaters.  It is easily cold enough to see your breath and I was berating myself 15 minutes earlier for not remembering my gloves.  He has a mountain of clothes balanced on one arm and will later advise the students this will happen every day they do not follow the dress code.  While he is going through this the students are being informed they are missing about 7 teachers since they have gone for further studies and no replacements have been found.  I knew before the last term ended on June 29^th which teachers were being sent for further studies so I ask myself why with more than a month there is not a teacher for every class.  This question echoes around my head for a while until the sound waves diminish below from bouncing around.  When I next pay attention I hear the students need to behave while not being taught or supervised.  I don’t think that is going to work well, but who knows.  I look down at my tie and realize it is not in fact blessed with the gift of repelling bad news.

                I am planning on bringing in my computer to entertain some classes until replacement teachers are found.  I hope it goes well and if the past is any indication the kids will find a way to make it through.  I spend the rest of the morning on the phone and in the computer lab making some copies for another project I am working on.  Overall, good things.  When I head out I stop by a shop that sells everything a PCV could hope to buy with our needs and budget.  I buy an immersion water heater that has a picture of how to use.  It shows two wrong ways and one right way, but the only difference I see is the bucket tops’ color.  I believe they are telling me to use a pink bucket but I am not certain yet.  I will have to run this one by the wife.  The reason I am picking up the water heater is that our gas for the stove is very nearly out.  It keeps flickering off and we have to watch it close to not have gas pouring in the room.  My program manager is on it though, so I think this will be taken care of soon.  I called him on Friday and he was worried about what we were eating all weekend.  It will be nice to have a backup water heater anyhow so it is worth the money.

                After lunch at the house I collected fresh dried clothes off the line.  Then I went to a primary school about 10 minutes away from the house and had one of the most productive meetings of my life.  I am going back Thursday to interview some teachers and kids.  I got to listen to Arcade Fire on the walk there and Avett Brothers on the trek back.  Also got a fist bump and a handshake by a 5 year old girl walking the road by herself.  Things are different, things are going well, and things are going by too fast.  We are having a get together in September to celebrate being in Botswana for a year.  A full year already, unbelievable.

                It is good to remember things you learned before and even better when those things help you to remember where you are and why you want to be there.  So see everyone all those pens are getting good use!!!

Love,

John

MiniRegional and GLOW Camp

Tracy and I went to a “MiniRegional” during the weekend of July 20th through the 22nd in Tshabong.  Peace Corps normally has a Regional meeting once a year, where PCVs get together to share experiences and ideas with people in their program area and to meet others in their area (to work on joint projects and the like).  So it is also a great time to see friends and meet new people.  This year was the first MiniRegional ever (in Botswana (to the best of my knowledge)) and it was a blast.  While I have not really asked why they decided to start it up I think it was for people to meet the newest group of incoming volunteers and so they can get out of their villages and hang out with other Americans – aka blow off some steam.

PCVs arrived via hitches, buses, and even an airplane.  The Hukuntsi volunteers (which include Tracy and I) got a hitch with a policeman that was going well above the speed limit so he could get home to watch Formula One racing, no joke.  We were able to stay with another couple from our Bots 11 group, Michael and Haley and got dropped at the door!  We hung out and met their kitten until it was time to meet up with everyone.  We forgot the camera in Hukuntsi, so I don’t think we got any snapshots of the meeting or Tracy and the cat.  Their kitty was talkative the whole time we were in Tshabong, which Haley advised is not normal!  It is always weird seeing another side of your pet and seeing how much they can change.

The MiniRegional was at another PCV’s home so we took a walk and enjoyed seeing another Botswana village (town?).  Motswana claim to only have one city (Gaborone) and a few towns (Francistown, some more…) everything else is labeled a village.  The times I have slipped up and called Francistown a city they get a frantic look and extent the previous explanation.  We had homemade pizza and talked about the challenges some of the new volunteers were experiencing.  Nobody had anything too serious bothering them and I look forward to see them in a few more months to see how things worked out.  We packed it in kind of late and made plans for the next day.

Not everyone was able to go along on the next day’s event but those who went were in for a real treat!  We hitched 10 minutes outside of Tshabong and visited a camel park!!  Most of us rode them for a lap or two around the enclosure and got all kinds of information from the people running the site.  Our hosts were Kenyans, but they were leaving in a few weeks and the park will be run by all local Motswana.  It was an inexpensive activity and worth every thebe.  We also go to see a porcupine’s home (a deep hole) and learned that they feed off of the bones of other animals.  They need the calcium for their quills and bones are good for that.  I found out from my mom that I did indeed ride a camel way back when the Louisville Zoo offered it.  Getting on one now I wonder how I handled the experience as a kid.  I am sure someone went up with me but it is kind of intimidating.  You do not mount a camel the same as a horse.  Instead the camel lowers itself when you get on and then rises with a zigzag motion that changes your weight around.

We ended up heading out the next day, but met up with some of the crew the next weekend in Kang for a meeting about a GLOW camp.  GLOW stands for Girls Leading Our World.  We are trying to put together a weekend event for some Form 4 and Form 5 girls from the Senior Secondary School in Kang.  Some of the workshop topics we are thinking about are: self-esteem, healthy living, decision making, Gender Based Violence, contraception, peer pressure, and leadership skills.  Since it is the first meeting we spent a lot of it brainstorming different aspects of the camp.  I am going to be looking for funding through some government agencies here in Botswana and Tracy will be putting together a budget and doing a budget template for others who want to start GLOW camps in the future.  This will be some of my first attempts at writing grants so if anyone has any tips or templates I would greatly appreciate it.

John, Michael, Tracy, Tate, Dominique, Haley, and Jan.

We stayed at Jan’s place and ate like kings and queens.  Jan likes to cook and she does it well.  We had zucchini bread galore and on the last night had a great pasta dish.  I ate more than I should have, but it was well worth it.  After the meeting we went to a dancing session that Tate (the newest Kang PCV!!Woohoo!) invited us to.  She stays on a family compound and they are having a wedding on August 18th, so she has been asked to dance.  This was just a practice session so we were able join in and have some fun.  There was a drunken guy that invited himself and had some MOVES!  He is in front of Tracy in the video and that is why she is having such a hard time following the others.  The video we are posting does not do the dancing fellow justice.  I will have to create a montage of his moves and post it another time.  That is what we have been up to lately!

Hope everyone is doing well.  We love and miss you all.
John

Last Day of School (June 29, 2012)

Sadness enters my heart when I think of the solitude of the next six weeks.  I did not realize how attached I have become to the kids at the junior secondary school.  Walking through the school often I feel like I am in middle or high school again as I see kids staring at me and wonder what they are thinking.  All the self esteem issues and worries flood back into my mind.  It was often hard to just walk through the school wondering when kids talk among themselves and laugh while looking at me or saying my name if they are making fun of me. 

Over the last few months I have become more and more comfortable there as my self confidence has built and I am better understanding the issues the kids have to deal with on a daily basis such as lack of an adult support network they trust.  The kids have to worry about their physical safety as it is a boarding school with almost 250 boarders split between boys and girls hostels.  For each there is 1 body matron looking after the kids.  This is not enough.  The kids are left to run free basically unsupervised during the evenings and weekends.  This term has been a rape (not the first the school has seen either), and just last week one of the boys attempted to break into the one of the girls hostels with a knife attempting to attack her.  Luckily the night watch heard something and caught him in time. There are also interaction issues between the students and teachers.  Rarely do I hear a teacher or staff say anything positive to the kids even when they do something well and my heart goes out to them as I think of the stresses they are managing.

There have been a few times when I have just gone on to campus and started talking to someone just to look up to find myself surrounded by 20 kids all listening intently to what I am saying and barraging me with questions about everything from life in general, my personal opinions, lifestyle, and the US (these are mostly girls as I think they feel more comfortable talking to a female).  It is an overwhelming feeling but amazing at the same time.  There are a couple girls who specifically told John they wanted to talk to me, so I can and found them during study period just to find out they wanted to go over a test they just took. Between that, playing cards, helping John with the computer club, and watching them with the teen pregnancy workshop I have developed a huge amount of respect and fondness for the kids I have gotten to know personally.

Yesterday was the last day of school and John and I handed out the contest awards during assembly.  We spent the night before baking brownies for all entrants.  Everyone got certificates as well as the 1^st-3^rd prize winners getting books and a feedback form identifying their strengths and weaknesses. Mma Masweu (Guidance & Counseling) and Rre Stoffel (Deputy Headmaster) helped us hand out prizes while Akiko (Japanese volunteer) took pictures for us. Afterwards two of the kids came up to thank me (John was getting permission forms for kids who wanted to be a part of the computer club over the summer) and wanted their photos taken with each other, Akiko, and me. A couple of the kids actually gave me a hug too.

I walked around the school after the kids left and it was too quiet, almost eerie after hearing the constant sounds of kids everywhere.  I know I will be seeing some of them while working on projects over the summer or just walking around, but it is not the same.

I had intended to post the above blog, but our internet stick stopped working, I here is an update for the weekend.

Monday was a holiday here and we had a couple friends over to share recipes and cooking.  This is the second time we have done this, so I will post pics from both events.  We are hoping to make this a monthly event.  Our biggest worry initially was the cost of food, but this has been remedied by everyone bringing some of the ingredients.

The first time we made a pizza and calzone with Moitshephi and Goitseone.

Monday we made fajitas with Caroline and Moitshephi (using soya not mince because mince is no longer available in Hukuntsi).

 

A roller coaster day

Tuesday (June 26, 2012) was an amazing day in both the positive and negative respects. I went into work at the RAC and my CCE (Community Capacity Enhancement) Project Manager in the DAC office where I work reminded me that it was the day of the Teen Pregnancy Workshop at Lehutshelo.  How this project worked is a group of us went into the school and had a Community Conversation with a group of the kids (50).  I was not available when the first conversations went on but I was able to attend some of the follow-up conversations.  Through the conversation the kids identify issues at the school and narrow it down to one they want to tackle, Teen Pregnancy.  They then come up with a solution, a workshop for the students where teens who have gotten pregnant come and share their stories with the other students.  The final step is to implement the solution.

CCEP & ADAC (workmates)

Mma Masweu and the organizers

Initially they were trying to find both mothers and fathers, but in the end only mothers were willing to speak.  They gathered the kids (only girls since girls were speaking) in three groups by form.  The first two mothers that spoke did so in person and the second two wanted to be anonymous so they wrote a script and had someone read it.  Some were in English and some were in Setswana, but all were amazing!  It was also impressive that they implemented this themselves basically.

After the first group, I asked if I could record it and they were fine with it.  The sound for the recordings was not great, but the kids love watching it.  Today I asked one of the girls who spoke, who I have become somewhat close with, if they would be willing to record it again and maybe we can make a video for the school or others to use.    She is interested and now I have to gather some of the other kids to see what they think.  School is done for 6 weeks beginning tomorrow, so I have to hurry.  I am going to miss the kids. L

I also spent the morning reading some of the short stories submitted for the Poetry and Short Story Contest.  The writing is tremendous and I am excited to give all of them their certificates and prizes tomorrow.  We are also planning on baking brownies to give all the participants.  There were only 14, so it is manageable this time.  I am also really excited about seeing the kids faces when they receive their prizes and the feedback forms.  Instead of just choosing winners, etc, we decided to put together some feedback forms to tell the kids their biggest strengths and areas for improvement along with how it was graded.  This was amazingly hard to do because often Kabo & I did not agree with how the graders graded plus we have been developing personal attachments to some of the kids we work more closely with (exactly why we didn’t grade).  I don’t often see the kids getting positive reinforcement, so us spending 30 mins or more per entry was well worth it.  We also know how to change the grading sheet to factor in things we didn’t think about.  I am also working on putting together a file to share with all the volunteers here to make their life easier if they choose to do it, so if any Botswana PCVs are reading this I promise I will do it soon so you can have it before the next term begins. 

Now, let’s move on to the ‘worst’ part of the day.  After this I came home to grab lunch before heading off to football practice at Makgakganye Primary School.  I am helping coach the boys’ team there and absolutely love it.  Actually it is an odd mix of fear and excitement every time I go.  Every time I head down there I am thinking “what do I really know about soccer”.  I played 12 years, but it has been 15 years since I played, which would put me at 27 if I started playing out of the crib…ha ha.  I digress.

Upon walking up to my yard something looked different.  The house looked so lonely and there was too much tan coloring.  Five of our trees were gone.  John had already seen it and warned me, but that didn’t really lessen the blow.  Luckily they left the big one in the front of the yard, but for how long…aarghh.   I almost lost it with a mix of anger, frustration, and sadness.  I saw years of growing in a climate with little water just sitting outside our fence in messy little piles.  It is not like there is a surplus of trees in our little semi-desert and they were a slight feeling of home and comfort.  I still have no idea why and need to talk to the landlord.  John tried to talk to the family member that cut them, but his English is not great and our vocabulary does not quite cover what we are trying to ask as well as the concepts of human desertification.  Hopefully this weekend we can take some time to go over there and speak with one of the family members who knows more English and we can study up on our environmental terms in Setswana.

I had the hardest time forcing myself to go to practice, but I am glad I did because it was amazing and made me feel tremendously better.

That’s all I have for now, but more will come soon I am sure.  On the walk home I heard John muttering something under his breath about wanting to do a blog post when I said I was going to write one.  Hopefully he will cover the computer club because it is going amazingly well!  Initially I did not think there would be need for me but with the number of kids coming both nights. Also we have been staying way late.  Normally we have to kick the kids out because it is already way past dark and we need to get home to cook, bathe, etc.

Wame aka Tracy

Computer Club and Packages Info

I have started a computer club for the students of the Junior Secondary School.  There was a large amount of interest when registration began about a month ago.  Around 57 kids signed up.  There are only 22 computers in the lab so I assigned either Wednesday or Thursday for each student and decided to split the club in two.  (A quick note:  There was a strike of all government workers, including teachers, which occurred before we arrived.  All clubs and sports at the school had been postponed until the issues were resolved, with the end result of a bunch of bored students.  Many of the students live in dorms and room on school grounds.  They have little to entertain them on weekends so I thought a club would help.)  The first week of the club only 1 student showed up.  The sports and other clubs had finally started, but that meant this new computer club was a distant memory for them all.  As interested as the kids are with computers and technology, soccer (or football as the English influence has it called) is king.  Needless to say I was discouraged and upset since I had set aside two days a week instead of just one like I had planned.  A good friend and fellow teacher assured me there were plenty of kids that were not playing sports, but were merely watching them or just hanging out in other places.  He advised me to target those groups rather than kids that registered.

The next week I made sure to remind the students about the club on the assigned days and got 5 or so students.  After an introduction of themselves and gauging their knowledge I asked each of them what they wanted to learn about computers or what they wanted to do with them.  They all replied in a very similar way “I want to know everything about computers.”  It is a weird feeling trying to guide a class where the students have no expectations or understanding of the possible rewards.  I am still not sure how to keep them interested since most of the goals I tell them about are too abstract to be real motivation.  We are getting there though.  We did some training with Mavis Beacon (the typing teaching program) and they are not ready for secretary jobs, but they are hunting and pecking much faster now.  The last club meeting had 15 students and we watched tutorials on Excel usage.  The progress has been different than I had expected, but it has left me hopeful for the next term and next year.  My next initiative will be a study club that offers tutoring.  This is not directly in line with my Peace Corps mission (as I understand it) but the school can certainly use it.

After Junior Secondary School, which I teach (and is equivalent to our middle schools in the USA) the student has to make certain grades or gets removed from the school system.  There are some other government options for the kids such as the brigade which focuses on skilled labor work i.e. making bricks, electrical work, plumbing, etc.  I don’t know how easy it is to get accepted or enrolled in this option.  In the JSS system there are Form 1, 2, and 3, 3 being the last year of the JSS.  Right now the students are writing their exams for the end of the term and I was looking over the shoulder of an English teacher and saw a Form 3 student that got 0 out of 50 on her exam.  I have heard the student answer basic questions about the text the exam was on so I am left wondering how they prepare for these exams.  The highest score was 36 out of 50, so it is a widespread issue.  I am hoping to get the new materials together and come up with some good techniques for studying ASAP.  The good news is the students I have spoken with showed interest and seem willing to put forth the effort.  Either way I will remain optimistic and keep on keeping on.  Also I will try to get some photos up next time.

Packages:
When you send a package please email us that it is on the way, so we can keep an eye out for it.  Also please write down the Customs Declaration id number located above the spot for your last name.  We have had a couple of package go missing and they advised we can track them using this number.  It has been suggested that when you send a package you can write a religious saying on the package – we have been told it helps “ensure” proper delivery.  Who knows if this is true, but it is worth a try.  Thanks again for all the support and goodies - they make our worst days into our best ones.  

Love John and Tracy

Every day conversations

One of the most amazing things about serving in the Peace Corps in Botswana include the conversations that happen.  This morning I am working in the DHMT (District Health Management Team) helping with April’s data compilation and reporting. 

I started talking with a friend and coworker, initially it was about the weekend which turned into a conversation about her friend who passed away late last week.  This family has had a very hard couple of months.  The woman who passed away was young, not yet married and didn’t have kids yet.  One night she had a really bad headache and neck ache but it did not seem like anything out of the ordinary crick in the neck from sleeping wrong. The next day she never woke up. 

To make it worse, last month her brother, who was also somewhat young, passed away.  What this means on this side of Botswana is every day between the point when the person died and the burial (from Thursday of 1 week to the Saturday of the next week in this case...10 days) around 5pm friends stop by the family’s house for a vigil.  The family of the deceased feed dinner to all the guests, and in some cases lunch.  This can be a huge expense and large stress.  She mentioned that on the other side of Botswana this has been changed to where guests are only fed on the day of the burial which is much more manageable for the families of the deceased.

Later we ended up discussing the specifics of her position (TB health educator) and how to battle some of the main issues she works with such as lack of transportation for patient home visits and delays in contact testing for large groups such as the prison. Which later turned into differences between Botswana’s main struggles of basic health issues and access to food and clothing for many vs those in the US (some do have those struggles, but we also have more resources to fight against higher level thing such as child/domestic abuse and whether disabled people have access to public facilities).

Side note….An example of things I took for granted in the US was that all kids on sports teams (or most kids in general) have shoes.  I started helping coach one of our primary school’s football teams and noticed that only 2 of the almost 50 kids (both boys and girls team) had shoes.  The govt does not fund primary schools sports equipment (although it does fund secondary schools) and many of the parents cannot purchase them.  It is also important to realize that there are burs all over the sand and in some cases large stickers (one went right through John’s running shoe). The kids are going to be in a tournament in a week and many of the other teams have shoes.  I worry for my kids toes.  L  We are discussing ways of acquiring funding.

The funniest thing is that at the end of any event the kids want me to say something to them. I used to never be prepared, but I have gotten pretty good at thinking quickly and having someone translate because thinking quickly in Setswana is never an option. One thing I still haven’t gotten used to is being introduced at any public event along with the honored guests, no matter how far back I try to hide myself. Now back to my previous stream of thought.

About 10 minutes later One, who I had met a couple other times, stopped by the office looking for someone and we got to talking about a few things.  Such as how she used to work with kids doing environmental education which then led to a conversation about the environmental club at Lehutshelo.  One thing led to another and she invited me to a bridal shower for someone I do not really even know.  This will be my first bridal shower, so I am excited to see any differences here.  I have been to a few baby showers, one for a woman I only barely knew and another for a good friend.  It is amazing the difference that makes.  My friend had me sit by her and explained what was being talked about when I did not understand. As far as I can tell some baby showers are a time to completely embarrass the mother to be.  (Now I have another reason to wait to have a baby although everyone keeps telling me we should start our family here and just stay.) I am excited to meet her baby in a month, which will probably be walking and maybe saying a few words when we leave Botswana (and only a few months behind our new niece). 

Then a couple hours later I found myself in a co-worker’s office giving him some training material for Microsoft office and he mentioned how he was going the next week to Gabs to deal with an ongoing court case. Several years ago he was robbed at gunpoint. This of course turned into conversations about the criminal system, etc. This got me thinking about a random 5 minute conversation we had with a street vendor we have gotten to know. (disclaimer…I have no idea how far from the truth this is) She mentioned that Botswana does have the death penalty and it is not done by lethal injection. She said there was some sort of chair used that basically hangs the person by lifting the head.

Sometimes I come home at the end of a day and feel like I have only had superficial conversations, mostly niceties.  I wonder how often days like this happen and due to the lack of attention to detail I completely miss them. 

Go siame!

Tracy

May 23 – International Candlelight Memorial

This post is a few weeks overdue, but I am finally trying to catch up. Hopefully you will see a few more soon

On May 23 the DAC office worked with several other organizations in our subdistrict (such as Men’s Sector, BNYC, Minister’s Fraternal, and the local Kgosi) to put together a beautiful memorial for those lost to AIDS.  The event was at the Kgotla in Moselebe which is the village touching Hukuntsi on the other side of our salt pan and was schedule to start in the afternoon.

My workmates

As expected there were a few hiccups during the implementation of the event such as transportation availability, and the event starting on time. The main reason the event did not start on time was that our guest speaker cancelled at the last minute and we had to find a substitute. Luckily Masita, who is the Assistant District Admin Officer and performs the legal portion of weddings for Kgalagadi North. He is an eloquent speaker and has the ability to draw the listener in to the mood of the event!

Speakers during the event included several local ministers, the DAC, two local Dikgosi, our district Councilor, one of our S&CD officers, and Miss Stigma Free.  Miss Stigma Free’s speech was beautiful, heartbreaking, and emotionally charged.  Of course it was all in Setswana but I was able to pick up pieces here and there and a friend was kind enough to fill in the gaps when I asked.

After the speeches, attendees were asked to pick up a stone for each person they personally knew who died of AIDS then place them in a pile in the front of the Kgotla and candles were handed out to everyone. Songs were then sung while a cross was placed with a white linen cloth in front of it and two large candles were lit. The rocks were then gently moved to the cloth and it was all carried to a display of red candles arranged as a ribbon in the sand. A procession of people began lighting their candles and carrying them over to light the candles in the sand.  Another speech followed this and eventually the event wrapped up.

It was a beautiful and breathtaking event as well a good reminder of the amount of pain and loss that HIV and AIDS have had on Botswana…has had on my friends. The longer I am here the more normal everything seems. It is good to have a reminder of why I am doing the work I am doing and what is truly at stake.

Wame aka Tracy