Big Developments

It has been a momentous week with lots of events. As some of you may have already heard from Alison and Jason, they are pregnant! Needless to say they, as well as we, are thrilled. Alison is due in February. All is well with the initial nurse midwife check-up, the ultrasound is normal and the heart beat is strong. They have decided to have the gender of the child remain a surprise until the delivery. Alison has been experiencing a fair amount of morning sickness, but as she is nearing the end of the first trimester, hopefully that will lessen soon. Jason says he has not experienced any weight gain or sympathetic labor pains as yet, but is going to be a very proud Dad. It is definitely hard to believe that we will be grandparents. I am too young to be this old!

The other big news is son-in-law-to-be Joey has landed a job as a political consultant for Carmel Valley an area near Carmel that wishes to incorporate as a separate town. The local town fathers (and mothers) will utilize his campaign advice before the election in November. There looks to be a permanent position with a political consulting firm in San Francisco in the offing after the election. Great kudos to Joey for his persistence in being able to land a position exactly in his field of interest in the economically devastated State of California.

BACK FROM THE HOLIDAYS

This week began with a two day holiday, President’s Day, making it a four day weekend. Everyone returned to work on Wednesday and the usual Wednesday morning prayer service was followed by an informational session for the 25 staff members at the Rural Administration Center. But how many of you had an office meeting this week with an informational session demonstrating the use of the male and female condom?
The Batswana are a very gentle, somewhat shy people by nature (think Quakers with musical ability and a great sense of humor). Their general demeanor has also been shaped by a long period of British protectorate rule, so openness about personal issues and sexuality in particular, has been quite limited. When the scourge of AIDS hit though, drastic measures became necessary, including frank discussions and education about HIV transmission. The government has mandated presentations about sexual behavior and AIDS protection measures at public meetings and in the workplace. Although there was still significant embarrassment and averted glances on Wednesday, the presenters did a great job. It sure is a wake-up call returning to work to be greeted with a condom demonstration at 7:45 in the morning.


DIPOLITIKI (Politics)

Speaking of the President and politics, 2009 is an election year here in BW. A little political background may be helpful in understanding the rest of this post. Since independence in 1966, there have been four presidents in BW, all from the same political party. The Botswana Democratic Party or BDP is the primary political group of the tribe from the Northern half of BW. The first President, Sir Sirhetse Khama, is the grand old man of BW, revered as the founding father and something of a national hero. Educated in England, he married an English Caucasian woman, which was absolutely unheard of in the 1960’s. Nonetheless, he and his wife became quite popular and honored. He was followed as President by Quette Masire, Festus Mogae and the current president Khama Ian Khama, son of Sir Sirhetse. Although not without his supporters who may in fact carry him to re-election, the current President Khama is seen as something of a shadow of his father, has only a fair approval rating and by report was a poor student in school. (Does this sound vaguely familiar?) The opposition, the Botswana National Front (BNF), has represented the tribes in the Southern half of the country, but has never posed a serious threat to the BDP. There are several other smaller parties, the Botswana People’s Party (BPP) and the Botswana Congress Party (the BCP)

Like all of his predecessors, the BW president in Setswana is called TAUTONA (translated the Big Lion). I suppose this is not as unusual as it might sound since we refer to our president as the Big Cat or the Top Dog. Occasionally, depending on the particular president, a better name would be Large Ass, even if he is not a Democrat.

In any case, I thought that having one party in power for almost 50 years would eventually lead to trouble, and I decided to form my own new political party. I know, I know, I have only been in BW for less than four months and it is strictly against Peace Corps policy to get involved with in-country politics. However it seemed so appealing, and both of the people that I talked to about the idea agreed with me.

Working diligently, I formed the Botswana Liberation Trust which readily became known as the BLT. Under funded and having a one-man staff, it has been slow going. The man in the street cannot understand English, therefore my campaign speeches are met with blank stares and small turnouts. Fortunately BW is not the same as America. Here, one can stand on a box in the middle of a public square ranting words that nobody understands without being hauled away for a psychiatric evaluation.
President Khama is far ahead in all of the straw polls which resulted in the recent story from the Daily News buried on page 32 “TAUTONA eats BLT for lunch”.

I hired a Brooklyn campaign manager off the Internet to come up with a party slogan, but the best he could do was “The BLT promises a deli on every corner and hold the mayo.” Not much traction from the Africans.

I thought then perhaps I needed a more dignified name to match TAUTONA. Having eliminated The Big Lebowski, The Whopper and The Whole Enchilada, I thought that something using RUFUS would catch on. Anyone who is new to this blog and does not know the storied history of the term RUFUS, should pause reading this entry and return to the post of May 30th for further information. I finally settled on
KGOSI RUFUS KALASUS.

The preliminary elections occurred last week without the come-from-behind victory I had hoped for. As a matter of fact, the BLT garnered only 0.0000001% of the total, or in raw figures, just two votes. This tells me several things: First, in addition to my vote, my Mother’s Botswana citizenship came through in time for her to cast her ballot.

Secondly, somewhat as expected, Maureen did not vote for me. She had been down on the idea of my taking office for some time. I think it began when that Daily News reporter asked her if she would like being the TAUTON-ETTE. She wasn’t quite sure of the meaning in Setswana, but I was able to speculate that it either meant
“The First Lioness” or “The Big Lion’s Temporary Wife.” Neither of the titles did much for her. It is somewhat embarrassing though, since she actually voted for the dark horse fourth party candidate, a deaf mute dwarf.


Grand-Kgosi to be
[this means in Setswana that I will have a bana ba bana “child of my child”]

Hmm…… this Setswana brings to mind a memorable lyric from “The Name Game” a classic example of Yankee intelligence and deep thinking---
“Bana bana bo bana, bonana fana fo fana, fee fie mo mana… bana.” The wisdom of this song is matched only by the truly inspirational and profoundly moving messages conveyed in lyrics "There she goes just a walkin’ down the street, snapping her fingers and shuffling her feet, singin’ Doo wah diddy diddy dum diddy doo" and
"Who put the bop in the bop she bop? Who put the Ram in the Ramalama ding dong?"
It just makes you swell with pride to be an American.