 |
| Swearing in Ceremony |
Monday, June 29, 2009
Photos from Swearing In Ceremony
No Fourth of July celebration in BW, but Happy Sir Siretse Khama Day to all of you, which we are celebrating tomorrow on July 1. I have posted our still pictures from the Swearing In ceremony on Picasa. To be taken to the album, just click on the picture below (yours truly with Maureen, Riccardo our host family grandson and Mma Seboko, our host family grandmother. No password or obligation. If you do want to order any prints, click on the "print" button above the pictures at the Picasa site, choose your selections and printing company.
Sunday, June 28, 2009
ANNIVERSARY AND BODY PARTS
We have finished our first week at site in Ramotswa and are gradually settling in. Peace Corps says that the first two to three months are for integrating into the community, exploring the workplace, its resources and its people. We are explicitly advised not to get deeply involved in work tasks initially so that we can evaluate our community situation and formulate a plan for our primary volunteer project. I have been doing interviews with the other people in the District AIDS Coordinator’s office including the Coordinator, the Monitoring and Evaluation Officer and the UNAID volunteer. Maureen has been doing the same with the Head of School, the Heads of House and some teachers. The school is modeled on the British system with the students divided into 5 Units or Houses. She discovered that that are 400 resident students as well as the majority who walk to school. With our professional backgrounds and experience with patients, we find these interviews relatively easy to do and often quite revealing about the people and the Botswana culture. We also attended several committee meetings and made a visit to Taung, one of the four villages that are in our district, but which are outside of Ramotswa. This visit confirmed what we have been told, which is that BW is really one big, closely connected village where everyone is related to everyone else and news travels fast. Sitting in the Taung Kgosi’s office, we were introduced to the Assistant Kgosi. She turned out to be the wife of Maureen’s boss at the school!
We have been coping with the very cold night time temperatures by bundling up once we are home. A heater is in the offing, but we have had to go through the government red tape to get it authorized. I have hit on a new get-rich-quick idea---the hooded sweatshirt built for two. Any investors interested?
Yesterday, June 27th was our 38th wedding anniversary. Although who would have predicted it on that eventful day in Boston in 1971, I can’t think of a better way to remember that special day than being in the middle of Africa with my Sweetie. Our major productive activity was giving each other hair cuts.
Our last lesson in Setswana before we left Molepolole was to learn the parts of the body. This sounded fine. The second objective for this section however, was to be able to describe at least five different illnesses. This didn’t sound quite so appealing. Our instructor presented us with a large amount of health-related vocabulary and more than enough ways to describe how we could be, or would be sick.
The last Tuesday before we left our host family, were watching the news in Setswana all together. Eating dinner in front of the TV is a nightly tradition in my host family’s house as they are very interested in the news and watch attentively. It is also fostered by the fact that there is no light in the only room in the house with a table, so sitting there would require eating in the total dark. Since arriving, I have always wanted to positively identify anything I was eating before it entered my mouth, so I was happy to go along with custom.
That day we had learned THLOGO, the word for “head.” There, on the news was “DITHLOGO” meaning more than one head. I asked if that meant “talking heads” but they seemed to not be familiar with the term. It does however mean “headlines”. A breakthrough! I was overjoyed to immediately put my health lesson to use.
Actually I was glad it didn’t mean “talking heads” since that raised the possibility that I might have to watch that incredibly annoying female scandal monger on CNN who has the voice that sounds like fingernails on a chalkboard in a Southern accent. Avoiding any contact with her was one of my primary reasons for leaving the country.
Our host family is always quite eager to discuss the content of the news. It often involves politics since there is an election upcoming in October, and all the politicians are trying to get TV exposure. I do catch bits and pieces of the content in Setswana although after a half hour of staring blankly at the screen, not really knowing what I am listening to, I have given new meaning to the term “idiot box”. There is often a segment showing some African leader dressed in a military uniform. Last night when that came on, I showed virtually everything I knew about African politics in one sentence by asking “Is that Patrice Lamumba or Idi Amin?” This did not get much of a response from my host family. Maureen later informed me that this was probably because one of those guys was a mass murderer and the other had been dead for over 20 years.
Having destroyed any credibility on current events that I had with my host family, I wanted to forge a comeback strategy before we came to Ramotswa. Although it didn’t happen, I was hoping that Obama would show up on TV so that I could show them that I could in fact, accurately recognize world leaders. I think I still remember what he looks like and he doesn’t wear a uniform.
The healthcare teaching in training has been interesting, although it does have it’s idiosyncrasies in BW. The people of Botswana, the Batswana, are notorious for being indirect and often answering questions incompletely or not at all. Apparently there is also some prohibition against saying that you are really sick. You must say
“I am just fine, but…..” Therefore I have been trying to learn the phrases
“I am just fine, but I feel I may throw up” and “I am just fine, but
I am being killed by my intestines.”
You may remember previously that I described pronunciation in Setswana being straightforward, and that one usually pronounces the syllables just as they are spelled. I did neglect to mention one significant exception which is the sound for the letter combination -TLH. This syllable is colorfully described in our PC handbook as “the sound you make when you are trying to hawk a loogie.” (True statement) And, for better or worse, this is quite accurate. The first 20-30 times I tried to say this sound, I spent the ensuing five minutes wiping the spit off my instructor’s face.
The initial phrase that we were taught which included this –TLH sound was “Ke tlhatswa diaparo” or “I am washing clothes” (usually by hand in a large bucket). Since this is a phrase that I hope never to personally use in connection with my own activity, I was content to forge a mutual non-aggression pact with the -TLH sound.
I subsequently found out that this sound features prominently in the phrase
“Ke tlhaka toelete” or “I need a toilet”. Therefore I reluctantly again began attempting to become friends with this sound. Whenever my language instructor sees me now, she immediately puts on a raincoat.
Prior to our leaving Molepolole, the public had been clamoring for it. Paparazzi had been camped out for weeks in front of our house just to try to get THE picture for the tabloids. Trying to boost circulation for the blog, I paid a large sum to get what everyone is talking about—a photo of Mr. Jack, our rooster, sunbathing. And no folks, he isn’t wearing his Speedo.
I guess I will sign off for now. Ke tlhaka toelete thata gonne ke tsogile sentle mme ke bolawa ke mala wa me. (I really need a toilet soon because I am just fine,
but I am being killed by my intestines).
Kgosi Kip
We have been coping with the very cold night time temperatures by bundling up once we are home. A heater is in the offing, but we have had to go through the government red tape to get it authorized. I have hit on a new get-rich-quick idea---the hooded sweatshirt built for two. Any investors interested?
Yesterday, June 27th was our 38th wedding anniversary. Although who would have predicted it on that eventful day in Boston in 1971, I can’t think of a better way to remember that special day than being in the middle of Africa with my Sweetie. Our major productive activity was giving each other hair cuts.
Our last lesson in Setswana before we left Molepolole was to learn the parts of the body. This sounded fine. The second objective for this section however, was to be able to describe at least five different illnesses. This didn’t sound quite so appealing. Our instructor presented us with a large amount of health-related vocabulary and more than enough ways to describe how we could be, or would be sick.
The last Tuesday before we left our host family, were watching the news in Setswana all together. Eating dinner in front of the TV is a nightly tradition in my host family’s house as they are very interested in the news and watch attentively. It is also fostered by the fact that there is no light in the only room in the house with a table, so sitting there would require eating in the total dark. Since arriving, I have always wanted to positively identify anything I was eating before it entered my mouth, so I was happy to go along with custom.
That day we had learned THLOGO, the word for “head.” There, on the news was “DITHLOGO” meaning more than one head. I asked if that meant “talking heads” but they seemed to not be familiar with the term. It does however mean “headlines”. A breakthrough! I was overjoyed to immediately put my health lesson to use.
Actually I was glad it didn’t mean “talking heads” since that raised the possibility that I might have to watch that incredibly annoying female scandal monger on CNN who has the voice that sounds like fingernails on a chalkboard in a Southern accent. Avoiding any contact with her was one of my primary reasons for leaving the country.
Our host family is always quite eager to discuss the content of the news. It often involves politics since there is an election upcoming in October, and all the politicians are trying to get TV exposure. I do catch bits and pieces of the content in Setswana although after a half hour of staring blankly at the screen, not really knowing what I am listening to, I have given new meaning to the term “idiot box”. There is often a segment showing some African leader dressed in a military uniform. Last night when that came on, I showed virtually everything I knew about African politics in one sentence by asking “Is that Patrice Lamumba or Idi Amin?” This did not get much of a response from my host family. Maureen later informed me that this was probably because one of those guys was a mass murderer and the other had been dead for over 20 years.
Having destroyed any credibility on current events that I had with my host family, I wanted to forge a comeback strategy before we came to Ramotswa. Although it didn’t happen, I was hoping that Obama would show up on TV so that I could show them that I could in fact, accurately recognize world leaders. I think I still remember what he looks like and he doesn’t wear a uniform.
The healthcare teaching in training has been interesting, although it does have it’s idiosyncrasies in BW. The people of Botswana, the Batswana, are notorious for being indirect and often answering questions incompletely or not at all. Apparently there is also some prohibition against saying that you are really sick. You must say
“I am just fine, but…..” Therefore I have been trying to learn the phrases
“I am just fine, but I feel I may throw up” and “I am just fine, but
I am being killed by my intestines.”
You may remember previously that I described pronunciation in Setswana being straightforward, and that one usually pronounces the syllables just as they are spelled. I did neglect to mention one significant exception which is the sound for the letter combination -TLH. This syllable is colorfully described in our PC handbook as “the sound you make when you are trying to hawk a loogie.” (True statement) And, for better or worse, this is quite accurate. The first 20-30 times I tried to say this sound, I spent the ensuing five minutes wiping the spit off my instructor’s face.
The initial phrase that we were taught which included this –TLH sound was “Ke tlhatswa diaparo” or “I am washing clothes” (usually by hand in a large bucket). Since this is a phrase that I hope never to personally use in connection with my own activity, I was content to forge a mutual non-aggression pact with the -TLH sound.
I subsequently found out that this sound features prominently in the phrase
“Ke tlhaka toelete” or “I need a toilet”. Therefore I reluctantly again began attempting to become friends with this sound. Whenever my language instructor sees me now, she immediately puts on a raincoat.
Prior to our leaving Molepolole, the public had been clamoring for it. Paparazzi had been camped out for weeks in front of our house just to try to get THE picture for the tabloids. Trying to boost circulation for the blog, I paid a large sum to get what everyone is talking about—a photo of Mr. Jack, our rooster, sunbathing. And no folks, he isn’t wearing his Speedo.
I guess I will sign off for now. Ke tlhaka toelete thata gonne ke tsogile sentle mme ke bolawa ke mala wa me. (I really need a toilet soon because I am just fine,
but I am being killed by my intestines).
Kgosi Kip
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Last of this movie series
This contains the further individual introductions of our volunteer group.
Whoa! Just found out it is going to be 25 degrees F tonight. Last night we wore hats, gloves and hoodies to bed and it was only 32. It will be 73 during the day today and 72 tomorrow, so go figure.
Whoa! Just found out it is going to be 25 degrees F tonight. Last night we wore hats, gloves and hoodies to bed and it was only 32. It will be 73 during the day today and 72 tomorrow, so go figure.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
First of a series of movies
I want to begin to show the movies that I took at the host family thank you party ten days ago. In addition to some shots of the celebration, I took brief clips of all the trainees introducing themselves. The whole thing is too long to upload at once so I have broken it up and will upload it in segments.
Saturday, June 20, 2009
cultural site visit
A relatively short blog post this week. We have arrived in our new home village, Ramotswa on Friday, having been sworn in as Official Peace Corps Volunteers by the American Ambassador to BW, Stephen Nolan on Thursday. It is so good to have our own space and be able to prepare our own food. We have been unpacking our belongings and settling in. The first day of "work" will be tomorrow for both of us. We came in to the office today Sunday to use the internet and had our first Skype call, which does work. We are looking forward to be able to communicate with any of you that are Skypers, now that we are here. I will have pretty regular internet access each work day. Maureen's may be less frequent at the school, but no doubt she will come over here to stay in touch. We hope eventually to have internet in our house, but that may be a 3-4 month process, so we are told.
For now, enjoy the movie below. This was taken about four weeks ago at a cultural heritage site that we visited. I also took some brief video of all the volunteers in our group, but did a better job at getting the males than the females before they hustled us off to see the ancient rock paintings. I have several other videos that I will be posting in the near future, including close-ups of most all the trainees at our final host family thank you party. Stay tuned
For now, enjoy the movie below. This was taken about four weeks ago at a cultural heritage site that we visited. I also took some brief video of all the volunteers in our group, but did a better job at getting the males than the females before they hustled us off to see the ancient rock paintings. I have several other videos that I will be posting in the near future, including close-ups of most all the trainees at our final host family thank you party. Stay tuned
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Two Firsts and a Last
This week we had our first period of rainy weather. It is winter here and considered the Dry Season so this was unusual. It rained steadily for three days (think cold hard driving rain in New England in November). We all felt like damp drowned rats by the time we got where we were going and most of the buildings are not heated, so it was definitely COLD. Remind me of this when I complain about the summer heat.
I also got my first illness—nothing serious-- just a three-day head cold. We went to a candlelight vigil AIDS memorial service last Sunday attended by 150 people. Everyone wanted to meet and shake hands with the new folks. I think I probably picked it up there, but our language instructor also had a cold, so I may have gotten it from him. Fortunately it has passed and I am back to normal. The candlelight vigil was filmed and I hope to get access to that movie to post here. It was very moving and a real highlight.
It is also our LAST week of training (hear sounds of a trumpet fanfare in the background). We had our final Language test today (this is the one that counts). Our party to thank our host families was Saturday. Next week brings two more days of training, a shopping day in Gabarone and our formal swearing in ceremony as official PC volunteers on Thursday. Friday we are off to our sites with Pre-Service Training (PST) behind us. Everyone says PST is the most difficult time of the whole PC experience so it will be great to get through with it and be in our own place.
Things I like most about Africa so far:
--The children’s smiles. They are so warm, friendly, appealing and forthcoming. A single child can light up a room.
--The ease with which the Batswana laugh-- hearty, infectious and much more often
with us than at us.
--The joy that people show when we try to speak Setswana, even when we mangle it
--The taxicabs in Molepolole. They are frequent, dependable and cheap. It costs 3 Pula (35 cents) to go anywhere in town, no matter what the distance. The drivers are safe, courteous and a great source of Setswana conversation
--The sunsets. They are consistently spectacular
--The clean air, totally smog free.
--The fact that we find out that we can live quite normally with less STUFF
Things I don’t like so much about Africa so far
--Most daily activities are twice as hard and take three times as long to do.
--It seems difficult to get anything really clean—your clothes, your body or your house.
--If there is electricity, the inside of houses are so dimly lit that it is hard to read.
--Despite being able to get along with less STUFF, there are no places to put the STUFF
you do have. No shelves, no hooks, no closets and few drawers.
This last issue creates several other issues. You tend to put your STUFF in piles under or on top of other STUFF. So when you are looking for a particular item of your STUFF, you spill most of your STUFF on the floor. Therefore you begin to make all the piles ON the floor. Now when you need some STUFF, it is invariably at the bottom of the last pile of STUFF you look through or is temporarily absolutely missing. This seems totally incomprehensible since the room is small and you know that you had this piece of STUFF just 10 minutes ago.
When you are fresh and energetic, you simply keep looking through your STUFF over and over until you find the STUFF you are looking for, but spend another 10 minutes putting your pile of STUFF back together. These piles now are usually in a different sequence than any system that you used originally, so that when you next go looking for STUFF whatever sense of order you once had, has now changed, and finding the next piece of STUFF becomes even more challenging.
After a long tiring day however, you have little patience and just want to find your STUFF. This can often lead to tossing your STUFF and into new disorganized piles, usually on the bed. On a rare occasion you toss a piece of your STUFF over onto the other side of the room so that it lands on your wife’s STUFF. When she observes this, she playfully throws it back, onto your side and it may lead to a fun romp where you both laugh and start throwing STUFF at each other like a pillow fight.
This does not always occur however, and if she too is tired, she will angrily
throw your piece of STUFF back at you (usually at your head) saying”I have a hard enough time finding my own STUFF, I don’t need your STUFF on my side.” She then reminds you that the two of you made a pact, signed in blood, which created an invisible, but well-defined line down the middle of the room, so that her STUFF went on one side and yours on the other. You vaguely remember this, but thought it was never passed by Congress, or was phased out with the Monroe Doctrine.
In the extreme, your spouse has “had it” and is at the end of her rope finding her own STUFF. When a piece of your STUFF falls even a millimeter over the invisible line, alarm bells sound at NORAD and a vast number of laser-guided nuclear missiles are automatically aimed at you and your STUFF. Her index finger appears twitchy on the button marked “Fire”. This may be accompanied by a suggestion that you “Get STUFFed”, and if one more piece of your STUFF ends up in her territory, the marriage is ended. At this point she bears a strange resemblance to Lorena Bobbitt, and you rapidly look to remove any knives or scissors from the room. There may follow a lengthy period of stony silence. If your marital communication is good, the two of you apologize and decide that you never should have said all that STUFF. A productive discussion ensues, where you decide that “We both probably still have too much STUFF, and you decide to give away some of your STUFF. Perhaps we can live without virtually any STUFF at all.
What they didn’t tell you in pre-marital classes however, is that by saying “WE have too much stuff” she really means “YOU have too much stuff” and need to get rid of it. In America, this may be true since most of your stuff has an electric cord or a battery and comes under the heading of “Toys”.
“We have too much stuff” does not mean that she thinks that SHE has too much STUFF. Beyond clothes, most of her STUFF consists of jars, bottles and cans of various “Products”. You know about these “products” because they accounted for 65% of your overseas luggage weight allowance. Each of these ”Products” is dedicated to beautification of a particular body part. She insists that without the daily application of all of these “products” she will rapidly look like a peach pit. This concept is so scary that you agree not to have a 50/50 division of STUFF, and to try to live your masculine existence with essentially no STUFF. African men have been losing this battle and giving up their STUFF for centuries. I think this lead to the development and rapid proliferation of the loincloth.
Our next post will be from Ramotswa.
Kip
I also got my first illness—nothing serious-- just a three-day head cold. We went to a candlelight vigil AIDS memorial service last Sunday attended by 150 people. Everyone wanted to meet and shake hands with the new folks. I think I probably picked it up there, but our language instructor also had a cold, so I may have gotten it from him. Fortunately it has passed and I am back to normal. The candlelight vigil was filmed and I hope to get access to that movie to post here. It was very moving and a real highlight.
It is also our LAST week of training (hear sounds of a trumpet fanfare in the background). We had our final Language test today (this is the one that counts). Our party to thank our host families was Saturday. Next week brings two more days of training, a shopping day in Gabarone and our formal swearing in ceremony as official PC volunteers on Thursday. Friday we are off to our sites with Pre-Service Training (PST) behind us. Everyone says PST is the most difficult time of the whole PC experience so it will be great to get through with it and be in our own place.
Things I like most about Africa so far:
--The children’s smiles. They are so warm, friendly, appealing and forthcoming. A single child can light up a room.
--The ease with which the Batswana laugh-- hearty, infectious and much more often
with us than at us.
--The joy that people show when we try to speak Setswana, even when we mangle it
--The taxicabs in Molepolole. They are frequent, dependable and cheap. It costs 3 Pula (35 cents) to go anywhere in town, no matter what the distance. The drivers are safe, courteous and a great source of Setswana conversation
--The sunsets. They are consistently spectacular
--The clean air, totally smog free.
--The fact that we find out that we can live quite normally with less STUFF
Things I don’t like so much about Africa so far
--Most daily activities are twice as hard and take three times as long to do.
--It seems difficult to get anything really clean—your clothes, your body or your house.
--If there is electricity, the inside of houses are so dimly lit that it is hard to read.
--Despite being able to get along with less STUFF, there are no places to put the STUFF
you do have. No shelves, no hooks, no closets and few drawers.
This last issue creates several other issues. You tend to put your STUFF in piles under or on top of other STUFF. So when you are looking for a particular item of your STUFF, you spill most of your STUFF on the floor. Therefore you begin to make all the piles ON the floor. Now when you need some STUFF, it is invariably at the bottom of the last pile of STUFF you look through or is temporarily absolutely missing. This seems totally incomprehensible since the room is small and you know that you had this piece of STUFF just 10 minutes ago.
When you are fresh and energetic, you simply keep looking through your STUFF over and over until you find the STUFF you are looking for, but spend another 10 minutes putting your pile of STUFF back together. These piles now are usually in a different sequence than any system that you used originally, so that when you next go looking for STUFF whatever sense of order you once had, has now changed, and finding the next piece of STUFF becomes even more challenging.
After a long tiring day however, you have little patience and just want to find your STUFF. This can often lead to tossing your STUFF and into new disorganized piles, usually on the bed. On a rare occasion you toss a piece of your STUFF over onto the other side of the room so that it lands on your wife’s STUFF. When she observes this, she playfully throws it back, onto your side and it may lead to a fun romp where you both laugh and start throwing STUFF at each other like a pillow fight.
This does not always occur however, and if she too is tired, she will angrily
throw your piece of STUFF back at you (usually at your head) saying”I have a hard enough time finding my own STUFF, I don’t need your STUFF on my side.” She then reminds you that the two of you made a pact, signed in blood, which created an invisible, but well-defined line down the middle of the room, so that her STUFF went on one side and yours on the other. You vaguely remember this, but thought it was never passed by Congress, or was phased out with the Monroe Doctrine.
In the extreme, your spouse has “had it” and is at the end of her rope finding her own STUFF. When a piece of your STUFF falls even a millimeter over the invisible line, alarm bells sound at NORAD and a vast number of laser-guided nuclear missiles are automatically aimed at you and your STUFF. Her index finger appears twitchy on the button marked “Fire”. This may be accompanied by a suggestion that you “Get STUFFed”, and if one more piece of your STUFF ends up in her territory, the marriage is ended. At this point she bears a strange resemblance to Lorena Bobbitt, and you rapidly look to remove any knives or scissors from the room. There may follow a lengthy period of stony silence. If your marital communication is good, the two of you apologize and decide that you never should have said all that STUFF. A productive discussion ensues, where you decide that “We both probably still have too much STUFF, and you decide to give away some of your STUFF. Perhaps we can live without virtually any STUFF at all.
What they didn’t tell you in pre-marital classes however, is that by saying “WE have too much stuff” she really means “YOU have too much stuff” and need to get rid of it. In America, this may be true since most of your stuff has an electric cord or a battery and comes under the heading of “Toys”.
“We have too much stuff” does not mean that she thinks that SHE has too much STUFF. Beyond clothes, most of her STUFF consists of jars, bottles and cans of various “Products”. You know about these “products” because they accounted for 65% of your overseas luggage weight allowance. Each of these ”Products” is dedicated to beautification of a particular body part. She insists that without the daily application of all of these “products” she will rapidly look like a peach pit. This concept is so scary that you agree not to have a 50/50 division of STUFF, and to try to live your masculine existence with essentially no STUFF. African men have been losing this battle and giving up their STUFF for centuries. I think this lead to the development and rapid proliferation of the loincloth.
Our next post will be from Ramotswa.
Kip
Saturday, June 6, 2009
Live from Ramotswa
An update on our site visit to Ramotswa. I think this will be a very nice place for the two of us. It is its own separate town of 25,000, so it is big enough to have services and some shopping, but definitely separated from Gabarone by about 22 KM (12 miles). Thus it has its own boundaries and feel, without being part of the “big city”. It takes about 30” to drive by car to Gabarone and about 45-60” on the bus depending on traffic and time of day. There is a fair amount of commuting in both directions during weekday mornings and afternoons.
Everyone has been extraordinarily friendly and welcoming, and seems genuinely glad to have us here. The District AIDS Coordinator (DAC) who is my counterpart and supervisor is a former nurse, as are most of the DAC’s. She has extensive experience with PC volunteers having worked with 6 of them at three different sites. She started in a small town 7 years ago and was been promoted to a larger post and now to Ramotswa. She is very friendly, easy to work with, and has spent much time making arrangements for us. We work in a mobile trailer (caravan) office, as do a number of the government workers here—there simply is not enough office space in the two Rural Administration Center buildings to house all the departments. Right now there are two offices for four of us, but a third office will be vacated next week. I suspect I will still have to share, but that is fine. The other two people in the office are Nthame, the Monitoring and Evaluation Officer and Duncan the UN AIDS volunteer. Both live in Gabarone and are quite affable and helpful. I will provide pictures and/or movies in a couple of weeks when we come back down for permanent placement.
Maureen is placed in the Kagiso Senior Secondary School (proniounced KA-HEE-SO) which has 1500+ students, 102 teachers and 52 ancillary staff. Her counterpart is the guidance counselor. They met with several of the other teachers and administration from the school, but the counselor had to be in Gabarone on Friday so Maureen came with us to meet the town dignitaries. She will get more integrated into the school when we return.
On Thursday we met the District Commissioner (known as the DC, and akin to the County Supervisor in the States), the Chief of Police ( who is a woman and who has actually been in Denver en route to a conference in Albuquerque several years ago) and the Deputy Kgosi of the town (the Kgosi herself was in meetings for the last several days). The Deputy Kgosi did not see much of the humor in the fact that my host Mother had given me the name Kgosi to go with her last name Seboko, since Kgosi Seboko is the exact name of the head Kgosi in this district, a female and his boss. Therefore from now on, I am going by one name like Sting and Madonna. I thought of using Rufus, but decided against it, since I could be nicknamed "Old Sheep's Eyes". I will just stick with plain old "Kgosi."
I attended a monthly Agency staff meeting for four and half hours Thursday morning. If you think four and a half hour meetings are long in the States, wait until you attend one conducted primarily in Setswana! The entire staff was there including the principle officers, as well as the secretarial staff, the cleaning ladies, the drivers, the night watchman and the switchboard operator-- a true multi-disciplinary staff. Periodically they would talk in English or “Swinglish” so I could follow some of the goings on. The Commissioner announced his resignation to the rest of the staff since he has reached the mandatory retirement age of 60. He bemoaned the fact that he had worked with several younger PC volunteers, and just when he finally had an “age-mate” (me), he was leaving. The Associate Commissioner will run things for a time until a replacement is appointed. The DC has been attempting to instill good meeting process including a meeting agenda, minutes of the previous meeting and committee reports. The officers all understand and comply, but some of the line staff don’t see the need for these changes and are resisting. For the first time the switchboard operator had a report, and was greeted with a round of applause. She handed out a written list of concerns/complaints not all of which I could understand, but when she found out that I was a psychiatrist, she volunteered to be my first patient.
On Friday we went to the offices of the District Health Team—the major outpatient clinic in town. We spoke for some time with the Matron (Head Nurse) and the Director of Public Health—he wore a woolen overcoat inside his office for the entire time we were there, even though we were roasting in short sleeves. I guess when you get used to the summer heat, 65-70 feels like Winter. We then went out to the Bamalete Lutheran Hospital, BLH. It was founded 70 years ago by the Lutheran Church, but is now co-run by the church and the government. It has one of the best reputations for quality health care in BW, and has 11 doctors and 127 beds for OB-GYN, General Medical, Palliative Care, ENT, Surgery and Pediatrics. Last year they had over 150,000 patient visits for inpatients and outpatients combined. They have a counseling department staffed by a pastor from Germany (one of the few other Caucasians I have seen here), a psychologist and three Social Workers. They handle the whole gamut of mental health problems of which HIV/AIDS counseling is just one small part.
I have been droning on for a while, so I will just mention a bit about our housing. We have been assigned to a 1 bedroom 475 sq ft freestanding brick house. It has hot and cold running water, electricity and indoor plumbing. It was the residence occupied by the previous PC volunteer and is just across the street from the Junior High School and a flower shop which has apparently just opened, but has been unoccupied since we arrived. It is an easy 15 minute walk to our work sites. We will be investigating the possibilities for a phone line and Internet service in the house, but for now we have Internet access at the DAC office. Pictures will be more descriptive which will be forthcoming in a while.
We go back up to Molepolole Sunday for the final 10 days of training, our final language proficiency exam and the swearing in ceremony which is very formal and impressive, we've been told. We then officially become "PC Volunteers" instead of "PC Trainees." We are looking forward to it.
Go Siame (in Setswana it means Goodbye and/or It is OK)
Kgosi
Everyone has been extraordinarily friendly and welcoming, and seems genuinely glad to have us here. The District AIDS Coordinator (DAC) who is my counterpart and supervisor is a former nurse, as are most of the DAC’s. She has extensive experience with PC volunteers having worked with 6 of them at three different sites. She started in a small town 7 years ago and was been promoted to a larger post and now to Ramotswa. She is very friendly, easy to work with, and has spent much time making arrangements for us. We work in a mobile trailer (caravan) office, as do a number of the government workers here—there simply is not enough office space in the two Rural Administration Center buildings to house all the departments. Right now there are two offices for four of us, but a third office will be vacated next week. I suspect I will still have to share, but that is fine. The other two people in the office are Nthame, the Monitoring and Evaluation Officer and Duncan the UN AIDS volunteer. Both live in Gabarone and are quite affable and helpful. I will provide pictures and/or movies in a couple of weeks when we come back down for permanent placement.
Maureen is placed in the Kagiso Senior Secondary School (proniounced KA-HEE-SO) which has 1500+ students, 102 teachers and 52 ancillary staff. Her counterpart is the guidance counselor. They met with several of the other teachers and administration from the school, but the counselor had to be in Gabarone on Friday so Maureen came with us to meet the town dignitaries. She will get more integrated into the school when we return.
On Thursday we met the District Commissioner (known as the DC, and akin to the County Supervisor in the States), the Chief of Police ( who is a woman and who has actually been in Denver en route to a conference in Albuquerque several years ago) and the Deputy Kgosi of the town (the Kgosi herself was in meetings for the last several days). The Deputy Kgosi did not see much of the humor in the fact that my host Mother had given me the name Kgosi to go with her last name Seboko, since Kgosi Seboko is the exact name of the head Kgosi in this district, a female and his boss. Therefore from now on, I am going by one name like Sting and Madonna. I thought of using Rufus, but decided against it, since I could be nicknamed "Old Sheep's Eyes". I will just stick with plain old "Kgosi."
I attended a monthly Agency staff meeting for four and half hours Thursday morning. If you think four and a half hour meetings are long in the States, wait until you attend one conducted primarily in Setswana! The entire staff was there including the principle officers, as well as the secretarial staff, the cleaning ladies, the drivers, the night watchman and the switchboard operator-- a true multi-disciplinary staff. Periodically they would talk in English or “Swinglish” so I could follow some of the goings on. The Commissioner announced his resignation to the rest of the staff since he has reached the mandatory retirement age of 60. He bemoaned the fact that he had worked with several younger PC volunteers, and just when he finally had an “age-mate” (me), he was leaving. The Associate Commissioner will run things for a time until a replacement is appointed. The DC has been attempting to instill good meeting process including a meeting agenda, minutes of the previous meeting and committee reports. The officers all understand and comply, but some of the line staff don’t see the need for these changes and are resisting. For the first time the switchboard operator had a report, and was greeted with a round of applause. She handed out a written list of concerns/complaints not all of which I could understand, but when she found out that I was a psychiatrist, she volunteered to be my first patient.
On Friday we went to the offices of the District Health Team—the major outpatient clinic in town. We spoke for some time with the Matron (Head Nurse) and the Director of Public Health—he wore a woolen overcoat inside his office for the entire time we were there, even though we were roasting in short sleeves. I guess when you get used to the summer heat, 65-70 feels like Winter. We then went out to the Bamalete Lutheran Hospital, BLH. It was founded 70 years ago by the Lutheran Church, but is now co-run by the church and the government. It has one of the best reputations for quality health care in BW, and has 11 doctors and 127 beds for OB-GYN, General Medical, Palliative Care, ENT, Surgery and Pediatrics. Last year they had over 150,000 patient visits for inpatients and outpatients combined. They have a counseling department staffed by a pastor from Germany (one of the few other Caucasians I have seen here), a psychologist and three Social Workers. They handle the whole gamut of mental health problems of which HIV/AIDS counseling is just one small part.
I have been droning on for a while, so I will just mention a bit about our housing. We have been assigned to a 1 bedroom 475 sq ft freestanding brick house. It has hot and cold running water, electricity and indoor plumbing. It was the residence occupied by the previous PC volunteer and is just across the street from the Junior High School and a flower shop which has apparently just opened, but has been unoccupied since we arrived. It is an easy 15 minute walk to our work sites. We will be investigating the possibilities for a phone line and Internet service in the house, but for now we have Internet access at the DAC office. Pictures will be more descriptive which will be forthcoming in a while.
We go back up to Molepolole Sunday for the final 10 days of training, our final language proficiency exam and the swearing in ceremony which is very formal and impressive, we've been told. We then officially become "PC Volunteers" instead of "PC Trainees." We are looking forward to it.
Go Siame (in Setswana it means Goodbye and/or It is OK)
Kgosi
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Permanent Address
We have arrived in Ramotswa and now have a permanent mailing address for the next two years. It can come to me at the office which is very dependable. Address any letters or packages for either of us to :
Christopher Doran
District AIDS Coordinator's Office
District Administration
P.O. Box V 137
Ramotswa,
Botswana
There is no Zipcode
Several of you have written saying that you cannot get the movies to play. One thing I would suggest is to always go to the blogsite address http://doranafrica.blogspot.com and view the postings and the movies there, not by just opening the email notice that you get about the new posting. some times they don't play from the email although you can see the opening picture
More on our site and house this week end
Kip
Christopher Doran
District AIDS Coordinator's Office
District Administration
P.O. Box V 137
Ramotswa,
Botswana
There is no Zipcode
Several of you have written saying that you cannot get the movies to play. One thing I would suggest is to always go to the blogsite address http://doranafrica.blogspot.com and view the postings and the movies there, not by just opening the email notice that you get about the new posting. some times they don't play from the email although you can see the opening picture
More on our site and house this week end
Kip
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)