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