The site announcements were made this morning and……….Ta-Dah…… We are going to Ramotswa (pronounced like "remote" control with a SWA on the end. It is town of about 20,000 which is 30” drive South of Gabarone, virtually a suburb. Although we have not visited it yet (we will have our site visit this week), one of the volunteers shadowed there and spoke highly of it. Both our host mother and a pharmacist we have met have family and friends there. The PC also thought it would be a good place for us given our mental health backgrounds and my interest in a secondary project to do with mental health, since the only psychiatric hospital in BW is in Lobatse which is close by. We will have more to say after return from the site visit, but we are pleased.
I now have been in BW long enough to make a few unsolicited comments about Setswana, the BW language, and even suggest a few improvements. I know, I know, Setswana has been around for over 1000 years without any help from me, but I am an American and we are always trying to build a better mousetrap. It’s in the genes.
One of our guest speakers at the training described SWINGLISH which is the combination of Setswana and English that is very common here. You can be listening to a conversation which says:
blah blah blah CELL PHONE blah blah blah.
Or the Newscaster will say:
blah blah blah ECONOMIC CRISIS blah blah blah or
blah blah blah DOWN JONES PLUMMETS blah blah blah.
These latter two are especially disturbing because you can’t figure out just how much further your pension 401K has shrunk, but you know it isn’t good.
So number one, I am all for Swinglish and want to add some word combinations of my own. They will be easy to say and convey their meaning when you hear them.
Secondly, Setswana has 15 classes of nouns! (I am not joking here folks). In addition, when you want to say “my, your, his/her, our, yours, theirs, it, me, you, him/her…) you must use the correct marker for the subject, object and adjective depending on which class of noun is used. Each of these markers may be different in the same sentence and requires the appropriate “e o a ee aa oo rone lone bone le la go mo or ma”—to name a few.
Therefore for my other suggestion I want to introduce the new word RUFUS.
(Don’t ask. It just came to me as an inspiration in the middle of a night when our rooster, Mr. Jack was loudly auditioning for a spot on Botswanan Idol). The plural is RUFI (pronounced RU-FEE which avoids the unpronounceable RUFUSSSSES). “RUFUS” or “RUFI” would only need to be said once, and would take the place of all the markers anywhere in the sentence.
Some examples:
Instead of the phrases: thowswane onnye (Little flies) or tsiakope tsenye (Little grasshoppers), you could just say “Rufi itti bitti”. It is of course helpful when you can point to what you are referring to. So you could point and say
“Damit, lotsa rufi itti bitti”
Instead of needing to learn a whole lot of phrases for one-ton animals like: lekolonkwane kgologadi (a huge young elephant), kwena etona (a big crocodile) or natshana ee bogale (the angry bull water buffalo that waits in the bushes to attack the hunter), you can cover them all with one phrase “Rufus enormus”
BW would need only one yellow road sign warning of large animals likely to block the road “Rufus enormus crossin”. With the signs the way they are now and you are cruising at 60 mph, it is very difficult to accurately read which large animals are in the vicinity. Ultimately it makes little difference, since if there are none present, you have already whizzed past the spot before you translate what animal might have been there. If they are present and you survive the impact, you aren’t going to get out of your car anyway until people with water cannon show up.
A more urgent warning comes when you are about to hit one of these large animals in your car and then you can warn the driver “Aieeee watchee rufus!!”. This is usually accompanied by the universally accepted gesture of crossing your arms in front of your face in an X.
“Rufus” also becomes quite helpful to use with food, particularly mystery meat, food such as tripe (intestines) or the delicacy of sheep eyeballs. With my suggested improvements, it would be much easier to point and say “Yum Yum rufus”.
It does occur to me however that in my two years here, I may never have need of the phrase “Yum Yum rufus”. It is more likely I would exclaim “Rufus me gaggin”.
As a cultural side light, the eyeballs of a sheep are traditionally offered as an honor to the chief or Kgosi. Since my Setswana name is Kgosi, I am, for any ceremonies, changing my name to Ithsogobegela Setlhare which translates “one who stoops to hide behind a tree”.
Let me now close this entry since I just heard the newscaster say “blah blah blah DOWN JONES PLUMMETS blah blah blah”. I now figure that my entire 401K will buy two cows and a sheep. My challenge when I return to the States is to stretch out the organ meats from these animals to feed the two of us for the rest of our natural lives.
Your Botswana correspondent on the scene,
Ithsogobegela Setlhare me gaggin
(one who stoops to hide behind a tree to vomit after eating a sheep’s eyeball)
PS attached is a movie of the great cookie baking experiment. Unfortunately I think the major consequence of this film hitting the Internet is that Maureen's imitation of Mr. Jack will go down with Howard Dean's "rant". It has probably cost either of us any chance at running for the White House.
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Sunday, May 24, 2009
message and movie
May 24, 2009
We are now over half way through our PST or Pre-Service Training. It’s hard to describe how tiring this is, even though the PC does an excellent job of trying to mix up the instruction with language and discussion groups. Having finished the second practice language test, the next big item on the agenda is the announcement of site placements which will occur on Saturday, May 30. The staff posted a list of vacancies for the various tracks, so obsessive speculation and guesswork among the trainees about where they will be placed is rampant. We have been told that it is all meaningless though, since the PC has a number of priorities to take into account beyond one’s personal preferences. Maureen and I have really taken the approach that all of the sites will have advantages and disadvantages, and our experience will be mostly what we make of it, so we have held our anticipation in check. In all reality it is very hard to know what to wish for, not knowing the various towns and worksites in any depth. I guess it is much like what I used to tell college applicants applying to schools. You may think you know where you would like to be, but you can’t really know for sure. The admission department has a much better sense of whether or not you would fit on their campus than you do. In the end, most college experiences turn out well, and our PC experience will too. We are trusting that the PC will find an appropriate site for us.
Since Botswana is a high desert like Colorado, the temperatures vary a lot during 24 hours. It may be 70 and sunny during the day and dip to the low 40’s during the night. Since the homes are unheated, the inside temperatures dip with the sun. As I type, I figure it is about 55 degrees in our room. (Maureen is wearing her outside jacket…you get the picture!) In an effort to minimize G and R (see our previous post if you do not know what G and R is) I broke out my sleeping bag. It is due to get even colder over the next month before it begins to warm. Maureen says she doesn’t want to use her sleeping bag yet, because doing so may somehow make it less effective when she really needs it. I am sure there is some logic there, but I can’t quite figure it out yet. It must be a woman thing.
One of our fellow trainees told us of the experience at her host family. She had come home after a particularly draining day of training and began washing her clothes. Out of the corner of her eye she saw movement, which on closer inspection turned out to be the family rooster having his way with one of the chickens. In her description however, it was more of a sexual assault than a romantic tryst. Afterwards, the chicken appeared somewhat dazed and disoriented. The host family daughter came out, broke the chicken’s neck and the family ate it for dinner. The trainee mused “And I thought I had a bad day…”
We have been observing our family rooster, Mr. Jack for some weeks now. Although I am not a farm boy and am not totally sure I would recognize chicken sex if I saw it, there has been nothing resembling this on our premises. We have put this together with the fact that our host Mother has said that she bought the chickens for eggs, but none have ever appeared. This therefore has lead us to wonder about Mr. Jack. Although he struts conspicuously, we have considered suggesting a veterinary consultation. My concerns have been heightened by the fact that when I sit outside, the chickens have taken to pecking at my leg. I cannot decide if I am being hit on by the chickens or if I have begun to smell like corn.
That’s it from Lake Woebegone for this week.
Kip
Below find another movie. I took this one on our shadowing experience two weeks ago in Charles Hill and includes both Mike the host volunteer and Steve who is a fellow trainee from Idaho.
We are now over half way through our PST or Pre-Service Training. It’s hard to describe how tiring this is, even though the PC does an excellent job of trying to mix up the instruction with language and discussion groups. Having finished the second practice language test, the next big item on the agenda is the announcement of site placements which will occur on Saturday, May 30. The staff posted a list of vacancies for the various tracks, so obsessive speculation and guesswork among the trainees about where they will be placed is rampant. We have been told that it is all meaningless though, since the PC has a number of priorities to take into account beyond one’s personal preferences. Maureen and I have really taken the approach that all of the sites will have advantages and disadvantages, and our experience will be mostly what we make of it, so we have held our anticipation in check. In all reality it is very hard to know what to wish for, not knowing the various towns and worksites in any depth. I guess it is much like what I used to tell college applicants applying to schools. You may think you know where you would like to be, but you can’t really know for sure. The admission department has a much better sense of whether or not you would fit on their campus than you do. In the end, most college experiences turn out well, and our PC experience will too. We are trusting that the PC will find an appropriate site for us.
Since Botswana is a high desert like Colorado, the temperatures vary a lot during 24 hours. It may be 70 and sunny during the day and dip to the low 40’s during the night. Since the homes are unheated, the inside temperatures dip with the sun. As I type, I figure it is about 55 degrees in our room. (Maureen is wearing her outside jacket…you get the picture!) In an effort to minimize G and R (see our previous post if you do not know what G and R is) I broke out my sleeping bag. It is due to get even colder over the next month before it begins to warm. Maureen says she doesn’t want to use her sleeping bag yet, because doing so may somehow make it less effective when she really needs it. I am sure there is some logic there, but I can’t quite figure it out yet. It must be a woman thing.
One of our fellow trainees told us of the experience at her host family. She had come home after a particularly draining day of training and began washing her clothes. Out of the corner of her eye she saw movement, which on closer inspection turned out to be the family rooster having his way with one of the chickens. In her description however, it was more of a sexual assault than a romantic tryst. Afterwards, the chicken appeared somewhat dazed and disoriented. The host family daughter came out, broke the chicken’s neck and the family ate it for dinner. The trainee mused “And I thought I had a bad day…”
We have been observing our family rooster, Mr. Jack for some weeks now. Although I am not a farm boy and am not totally sure I would recognize chicken sex if I saw it, there has been nothing resembling this on our premises. We have put this together with the fact that our host Mother has said that she bought the chickens for eggs, but none have ever appeared. This therefore has lead us to wonder about Mr. Jack. Although he struts conspicuously, we have considered suggesting a veterinary consultation. My concerns have been heightened by the fact that when I sit outside, the chickens have taken to pecking at my leg. I cannot decide if I am being hit on by the chickens or if I have begun to smell like corn.
That’s it from Lake Woebegone for this week.
Kip
Below find another movie. I took this one on our shadowing experience two weeks ago in Charles Hill and includes both Mike the host volunteer and Steve who is a fellow trainee from Idaho.
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Extra special!
Really big news!! Our daughter Meghan got engaged to her long-time boyfriend Joey. He popped the question on Saturday after calling us on Friday to get our blessing, which we readily gave. More important, Meghan said Yes. The ring is beautiful and was designed by Joey to incorporate a stone from his great-grandfather--very special. No details on a date or other details. They are both just basking in the glow for now.
Glad to say that the second practice language test is completed and we both survived. No results for a few days though. I won't make this a long post but I do want all of you to look at the last post from Sunday. It has a movie of our host family's house. Just go to the website http://doranafrica.blogspot.com and you will see it. Apparently I posted it but no email notice was sent out. Oh the vagaries of the internet!
Kip
P.S.
Glad to say that the second practice language test is completed and we both survived. No results for a few days though. I won't make this a long post but I do want all of you to look at the last post from Sunday. It has a movie of our host family's house. Just go to the website http://doranafrica.blogspot.com and you will see it. Apparently I posted it but no email notice was sent out. Oh the vagaries of the internet!
Kip
P.S.
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Update
It’s time for an update. On the theory that a picture is worth a thousand words, I am also trying to upload a movie to the blog, but it takes a very long time to upload. I tried to do so last weekend but ran out of internet time after uploading for 45”. In any case, I wanted to put up a word post to let you know that we are alive and thriving.
We got back from our shadowing experiences after VERY long bus rides (13 hours for Maureen and 9.5 hours for myself) but both of us got to see another part of the country. The west where I went is Kalahari desert, but unlike the “Sahara shifting sands” vision I had, it is flat and covered with shrubs and small trees. It is sparsely populated and maintains a slower pace of life. Many of the ethnic tribes live out there and several different languages are spoken. The San people are the original natives (don’t call them Bushmen as it is an ethnic slur) and are the low men on the totem pole. Like our own American Indians, they unfortunately get the least and poorest services. They make a beautiful form of jewelry out of ostrich egg shells into necklaces and bracelets so I purchased two as souvenirs of the trip. My Peace Corps volunteer host Mike Wigal was very congenial and has the distinction of having the only elliptical trainer in that part of the country. He is a big runner and has run the Boston Marathon 17 times, so he felt a strong need to have a training machine in his house, but don’t ask me how he got it up there!
The town I stayed in, Charles Hill is very small—only 300 people. I took a movie of the town and will upload it if and when I can. The town consists of houses, several shops, a café, a bar, post office, hardware store, food store and a private junior high school, but no senior high. It is not uncommon for students here to be boarding and 95% of the students are San from the surrounding cattle posts who live at school. The District AIDS Coordinator’s office (abbreviated the DAC office) is small and several of the positions have been vacant. The government of BW can assign employees to any position in the country regardless of where you live, so many of the staff come from cities elsewhere in the country. These employees live in government housing, often without their families, and travel home only on occasion or at holidays. It is not an ideal set-up to say the least.
I will be working in one of the DAC offices somewhere but the assignments won’t be made for another several weeks. What I came away with from the experience is that I prefer not to live in a village of this size. We get to express our preferences to the PC, but they make it clear that there are no guarantees as to where you will go. Couples’ placements are a bit more complicated since they have to find positions for both of us in the same town. Most of the DAC offices are in larger towns and villages. Charles Hill is something of an exception.
Maureen went up north to Kasane. It is a medium sized town and has a lot of tourists who fly in and are based there for river trips to see the wildlife via river boats. She and her fellow volunteers to Kasane went on a river trip and saw elephants, hippos, antelope, crocs, baboons and many beautiful birds. Nice perk! The price for getting there though, is a 13 hour Kombi ride (a 16 seat van) over a terrible road—more potholes than pavement. She also got to visit with Tom and Jana Bergdall, the PC Bots 7 volunteer couple that we have Skype’d several times. They have internet in their residence which is something that we dearly hope we can obtain as well.
A big piece of news that will influence our placement is that Maureen got a call from the Botswana PC Director asking her if she would consider switching programs from the NGO (Non-Governmental Organization) track to the Life Skills track which deals with students in the school systems. Apparently the PC has had her listed as a Life Skills volunteer right from the start but sent us the wrong information on her position. The Director said that this change would give the PC more flexibility in placing the two of us, compared to the options they had if they were to place us with her as an NGO. Maureen was agreeable, as was I. The upshot of this change is that she will be working in a school with teachers and students, and probably speaking English most of the day. English is the required language for classes and exams in all schools. It also means that as a couple we will likely be placed somewhere in the Southeast (more populated) part of Botswana, as that is where the Life Skills positions are posted. All in all, we think a good change for us.
Our Setswana lessons are 2 to 4 hours per day and were very difficult at first. It is simply a complicated Bantu language. Things are gradually beginning to fall into place and we are beginning to be able to make simple sentences. Small differences in one syllable can make a big difference though:
“Molema” is left and “molemo” is medicine.
“Mabele” is sorghum (a grain staple) and “mabele” is a woman’s breast
“Moja” is right and “mojo” means absolutely nothing in Setswana but came out of an old Austin Powers movie.
We had our first practice LPI (Language Proficiency Interview) and were both rated as Novice Mid-level. We will have another practice LPI next week, then the final one that counts in 4 weeks. They are oral exams only. I expected to sail right through, but as with most of the trainees, the person giving the exam was not our teacher and had a significantly different pronunciation accent. Even when I knew 90% of the words in the sentence, one or two small words kept me from understanding the question. The topics focus on greetings, questions about where we come from, where we are staying, what our work is and our activities of daily living. Having a chance to practice twice before the final is really essential to giving us the feel of what they want and how to prepare. The word on the street is that Botswana PC placed dead last of all the PC stations in the world last year in cumulative LPI scores. We therefore, are getting over twice the amount of language training that last year’s group got.
We are getting an excellent crash course in HIV/AIDs including the biology, the means of transmission, myths, treatments, the resources already in place and the BW governmental program to deal with the problem. BW has really made an extensive and multi-faceted effort to deal with HIV. Although all the BW residents with HIV/AIDS get a triple combination of the antiretroviral medications (the treatment of choice in the world) for free through the government, there is still a significant lack of manpower to educate, counsel and facilitate—which is where we come in. Today we had a panel of persons living with HIV who spoke about the stigma and discrimination, as well as how to combat it.
Well, enough for now. If you see another post today for the movie, I succeeded, if not, oh well.
Kip
We got back from our shadowing experiences after VERY long bus rides (13 hours for Maureen and 9.5 hours for myself) but both of us got to see another part of the country. The west where I went is Kalahari desert, but unlike the “Sahara shifting sands” vision I had, it is flat and covered with shrubs and small trees. It is sparsely populated and maintains a slower pace of life. Many of the ethnic tribes live out there and several different languages are spoken. The San people are the original natives (don’t call them Bushmen as it is an ethnic slur) and are the low men on the totem pole. Like our own American Indians, they unfortunately get the least and poorest services. They make a beautiful form of jewelry out of ostrich egg shells into necklaces and bracelets so I purchased two as souvenirs of the trip. My Peace Corps volunteer host Mike Wigal was very congenial and has the distinction of having the only elliptical trainer in that part of the country. He is a big runner and has run the Boston Marathon 17 times, so he felt a strong need to have a training machine in his house, but don’t ask me how he got it up there!
The town I stayed in, Charles Hill is very small—only 300 people. I took a movie of the town and will upload it if and when I can. The town consists of houses, several shops, a café, a bar, post office, hardware store, food store and a private junior high school, but no senior high. It is not uncommon for students here to be boarding and 95% of the students are San from the surrounding cattle posts who live at school. The District AIDS Coordinator’s office (abbreviated the DAC office) is small and several of the positions have been vacant. The government of BW can assign employees to any position in the country regardless of where you live, so many of the staff come from cities elsewhere in the country. These employees live in government housing, often without their families, and travel home only on occasion or at holidays. It is not an ideal set-up to say the least.
I will be working in one of the DAC offices somewhere but the assignments won’t be made for another several weeks. What I came away with from the experience is that I prefer not to live in a village of this size. We get to express our preferences to the PC, but they make it clear that there are no guarantees as to where you will go. Couples’ placements are a bit more complicated since they have to find positions for both of us in the same town. Most of the DAC offices are in larger towns and villages. Charles Hill is something of an exception.
Maureen went up north to Kasane. It is a medium sized town and has a lot of tourists who fly in and are based there for river trips to see the wildlife via river boats. She and her fellow volunteers to Kasane went on a river trip and saw elephants, hippos, antelope, crocs, baboons and many beautiful birds. Nice perk! The price for getting there though, is a 13 hour Kombi ride (a 16 seat van) over a terrible road—more potholes than pavement. She also got to visit with Tom and Jana Bergdall, the PC Bots 7 volunteer couple that we have Skype’d several times. They have internet in their residence which is something that we dearly hope we can obtain as well.
A big piece of news that will influence our placement is that Maureen got a call from the Botswana PC Director asking her if she would consider switching programs from the NGO (Non-Governmental Organization) track to the Life Skills track which deals with students in the school systems. Apparently the PC has had her listed as a Life Skills volunteer right from the start but sent us the wrong information on her position. The Director said that this change would give the PC more flexibility in placing the two of us, compared to the options they had if they were to place us with her as an NGO. Maureen was agreeable, as was I. The upshot of this change is that she will be working in a school with teachers and students, and probably speaking English most of the day. English is the required language for classes and exams in all schools. It also means that as a couple we will likely be placed somewhere in the Southeast (more populated) part of Botswana, as that is where the Life Skills positions are posted. All in all, we think a good change for us.
Our Setswana lessons are 2 to 4 hours per day and were very difficult at first. It is simply a complicated Bantu language. Things are gradually beginning to fall into place and we are beginning to be able to make simple sentences. Small differences in one syllable can make a big difference though:
“Molema” is left and “molemo” is medicine.
“Mabele” is sorghum (a grain staple) and “mabele” is a woman’s breast
“Moja” is right and “mojo” means absolutely nothing in Setswana but came out of an old Austin Powers movie.
We had our first practice LPI (Language Proficiency Interview) and were both rated as Novice Mid-level. We will have another practice LPI next week, then the final one that counts in 4 weeks. They are oral exams only. I expected to sail right through, but as with most of the trainees, the person giving the exam was not our teacher and had a significantly different pronunciation accent. Even when I knew 90% of the words in the sentence, one or two small words kept me from understanding the question. The topics focus on greetings, questions about where we come from, where we are staying, what our work is and our activities of daily living. Having a chance to practice twice before the final is really essential to giving us the feel of what they want and how to prepare. The word on the street is that Botswana PC placed dead last of all the PC stations in the world last year in cumulative LPI scores. We therefore, are getting over twice the amount of language training that last year’s group got.
We are getting an excellent crash course in HIV/AIDs including the biology, the means of transmission, myths, treatments, the resources already in place and the BW governmental program to deal with the problem. BW has really made an extensive and multi-faceted effort to deal with HIV. Although all the BW residents with HIV/AIDS get a triple combination of the antiretroviral medications (the treatment of choice in the world) for free through the government, there is still a significant lack of manpower to educate, counsel and facilitate—which is where we come in. Today we had a panel of persons living with HIV who spoke about the stigma and discrimination, as well as how to combat it.
Well, enough for now. If you see another post today for the movie, I succeeded, if not, oh well.
Kip
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Botswana Arrival
Greetings to all our blog readers from Botswana. I will apologize now for the use of many abbreviations but the Peace Corps has many itself and I am big on shortening my typing. So from here on out we will use BW for Botswana and PC for Peace Corps.
Our trek has taken us from Denver to Washington DC last Thursday for a 5 hour staging on Friday to meet our fellow members of Bots 8, which is the identification of our group—the 8th group to BW since the PC returned. Although PC had been here for many years, it was not needed for a period of years in the 1990’s due to the country’s emergence from its poverty to a point of economic stability. Then HIV/AIDS hit and the government asked PC to return 8 years ago.
There are 59 members in Bots 8 ranging in age from 22 to 70, with 9 couples—the most of any group to date. There is a wide variety of backgrounds and life experiences—a number of nurses, one physician (myself), one attorney, several social workers, many with public health or administrative experience, and a number are directly out of college. It already seems like a very compatible group and we have bonded well.
The next afternoon we endured the 15 hour flight to Johannesburg’s very modern airport with no complications. We changed money to South African Rands, ate from a choice of fast food restaurants (Subway, Nando’s and McDonalds included) and took a short bus trip to a nearby hotel to get over the jet lag. The next AM was to be a relatively short (4-5 hour) bus ride to the capital of BW, Gabarone. We ran into momentous traffic getting out of Jo’burg and ultimately showed up fairly bedraggled in Gabarone, 10 hours after we started.
The Pre-Service Training (PST) started in earnest the next day with Setswana language lessons every morning and a variety of cultural, safety, role definition, medical and procedural sessions in the afternoon which involved a number of interactive, role-play and small group discussions. It is clear from the outset that this is a very bright and talented group top to bottom, with little shyness or discomfort getting up in front of a group.
We got the first series of shots (yellow fever, typhoid, Hepatitis etc), depending on what each person had already had, and began taking malaria prophylaxis medication. With all the newness, excitement and the effort put in to trying to begin Setswana, the days have been tiring to say the least. Wednesday evening we had a special dinner with a number of local dignitaries and the American Ambassador to BW, Stephen Nolan. He is from Philadelphia and a Villanova graduate (which will please my brother no end). It is clear the BW government is very supportive of PC and interested in cooperating in any way possible.
Virtually everyone has a cell phone here and all of the volunteers purchased one as well. It may take a while to figure out the operational details of the phone system (at least for us older folk), but Maureen and I will have a number for direct access to us while here in BW. More on this in the future. Apparently texting is the usual means of communicating, although we are both texting newbies.
On Friday we again boarded the bus for Molepolole, a village 45” drive from the capital where we will be staying for the next 8 and a half weeks. The Friday highlight was the lunch where we first had a chance to meet our host families. After welcoming speeches, the Batswana (the people of Botswana) sang their national anthem and we the Star Spangled Banner, (each quite stirring) before each of us were called up to the front to meet our own host family. Most families were represented by women—there are 12 women for every man in Molepolole-- but there were a few men or couples.
Our hosts are a grandmother and her 20 year old grandson. The grandson speaks excellent English which has made our adjustment quite easy. We were given our Setswana names—Maureen’s is Kopo (meaning “request, requested or wanted”); mine is Khosi (“Chief”). Needless to say I am thrilled with appropriate recognition of my status, although Maureen has so far refused to show the required respect and deference—this may be a losing battle. Their house is across town and spacious. We are fortunate in that they have electricity, hot and cold running water, indoor plumbing and TV (although it gets only one channel). They have hosted three volunteers from previous Bots groups and are accustomed to having guests in their home. The grandmother welcomed us then had to leave for a funeral—unfortunately a very common occurrence in BW these days because of the epidemic. We settled in to our room and unpacked at last, after living out of a suitcase for what seems like months. We walked around the neighborhood with the grandson and his cousin. Everyone on the road is quite pleasant and greeted us with a Dumela (hello), Eita (Hi) or Le kae? (how is it going?) There are many children—42% of the BW population is under the age of 15—and they are curious, smiling and engaging.
We met up with another volunteer and his host Mother, and had an extensive discussion about BW life and politics, both here and in the US. The Batswana have followed the election of Obama closely and are very excited about the possible changes that hopefully will occur. As we have found on many of our other trips, non-Americans are much more knowledgeable about our government than most Americans are about theirs.
All in all, we have to really pinch ourselves that this is our new reality. Our emotions have been running high…and when struggling with newness and missing our American life…running low. All we can say is that it is everything and nothing that we expected. Miss you all.
Kip and Maureen
P.S I wrote the above on last weekend but didn't have internet to post it. Today is Saturday May 2. We just got our assignments for "shadowing" a current volunteer who has been here for a year. I am going to Charles Hill right on the border with Namibia and 10-12 hours from where we are. Maureen is going to Kesane right up next to the northern border of BW and Zimbabwe. We are going on Wednesday and coming back on Sunday. Each of us with be with at least one other volunteer from our group. The current Bots 7 person will meet us at our destination and show us into the community for several days.
Training is long and hard, but we are surviving and actually learning some Setswana. Will add more at another time
Kip
Our trek has taken us from Denver to Washington DC last Thursday for a 5 hour staging on Friday to meet our fellow members of Bots 8, which is the identification of our group—the 8th group to BW since the PC returned. Although PC had been here for many years, it was not needed for a period of years in the 1990’s due to the country’s emergence from its poverty to a point of economic stability. Then HIV/AIDS hit and the government asked PC to return 8 years ago.
There are 59 members in Bots 8 ranging in age from 22 to 70, with 9 couples—the most of any group to date. There is a wide variety of backgrounds and life experiences—a number of nurses, one physician (myself), one attorney, several social workers, many with public health or administrative experience, and a number are directly out of college. It already seems like a very compatible group and we have bonded well.
The next afternoon we endured the 15 hour flight to Johannesburg’s very modern airport with no complications. We changed money to South African Rands, ate from a choice of fast food restaurants (Subway, Nando’s and McDonalds included) and took a short bus trip to a nearby hotel to get over the jet lag. The next AM was to be a relatively short (4-5 hour) bus ride to the capital of BW, Gabarone. We ran into momentous traffic getting out of Jo’burg and ultimately showed up fairly bedraggled in Gabarone, 10 hours after we started.
The Pre-Service Training (PST) started in earnest the next day with Setswana language lessons every morning and a variety of cultural, safety, role definition, medical and procedural sessions in the afternoon which involved a number of interactive, role-play and small group discussions. It is clear from the outset that this is a very bright and talented group top to bottom, with little shyness or discomfort getting up in front of a group.
We got the first series of shots (yellow fever, typhoid, Hepatitis etc), depending on what each person had already had, and began taking malaria prophylaxis medication. With all the newness, excitement and the effort put in to trying to begin Setswana, the days have been tiring to say the least. Wednesday evening we had a special dinner with a number of local dignitaries and the American Ambassador to BW, Stephen Nolan. He is from Philadelphia and a Villanova graduate (which will please my brother no end). It is clear the BW government is very supportive of PC and interested in cooperating in any way possible.
Virtually everyone has a cell phone here and all of the volunteers purchased one as well. It may take a while to figure out the operational details of the phone system (at least for us older folk), but Maureen and I will have a number for direct access to us while here in BW. More on this in the future. Apparently texting is the usual means of communicating, although we are both texting newbies.
On Friday we again boarded the bus for Molepolole, a village 45” drive from the capital where we will be staying for the next 8 and a half weeks. The Friday highlight was the lunch where we first had a chance to meet our host families. After welcoming speeches, the Batswana (the people of Botswana) sang their national anthem and we the Star Spangled Banner, (each quite stirring) before each of us were called up to the front to meet our own host family. Most families were represented by women—there are 12 women for every man in Molepolole-- but there were a few men or couples.
Our hosts are a grandmother and her 20 year old grandson. The grandson speaks excellent English which has made our adjustment quite easy. We were given our Setswana names—Maureen’s is Kopo (meaning “request, requested or wanted”); mine is Khosi (“Chief”). Needless to say I am thrilled with appropriate recognition of my status, although Maureen has so far refused to show the required respect and deference—this may be a losing battle. Their house is across town and spacious. We are fortunate in that they have electricity, hot and cold running water, indoor plumbing and TV (although it gets only one channel). They have hosted three volunteers from previous Bots groups and are accustomed to having guests in their home. The grandmother welcomed us then had to leave for a funeral—unfortunately a very common occurrence in BW these days because of the epidemic. We settled in to our room and unpacked at last, after living out of a suitcase for what seems like months. We walked around the neighborhood with the grandson and his cousin. Everyone on the road is quite pleasant and greeted us with a Dumela (hello), Eita (Hi) or Le kae? (how is it going?) There are many children—42% of the BW population is under the age of 15—and they are curious, smiling and engaging.
We met up with another volunteer and his host Mother, and had an extensive discussion about BW life and politics, both here and in the US. The Batswana have followed the election of Obama closely and are very excited about the possible changes that hopefully will occur. As we have found on many of our other trips, non-Americans are much more knowledgeable about our government than most Americans are about theirs.
All in all, we have to really pinch ourselves that this is our new reality. Our emotions have been running high…and when struggling with newness and missing our American life…running low. All we can say is that it is everything and nothing that we expected. Miss you all.
Kip and Maureen
P.S I wrote the above on last weekend but didn't have internet to post it. Today is Saturday May 2. We just got our assignments for "shadowing" a current volunteer who has been here for a year. I am going to Charles Hill right on the border with Namibia and 10-12 hours from where we are. Maureen is going to Kesane right up next to the northern border of BW and Zimbabwe. We are going on Wednesday and coming back on Sunday. Each of us with be with at least one other volunteer from our group. The current Bots 7 person will meet us at our destination and show us into the community for several days.
Training is long and hard, but we are surviving and actually learning some Setswana. Will add more at another time
Kip
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