This and That

No, we have not fallen off the edge of the earth, but it has been an exceptionally busy time. First and foremost we have changed our residence, moving from one side of the village of Ramotswa to the other. You may or may not be aware that we had been having problems with theft at our house. It’s a long story and I won’t go into all details, however after the most recent one involving Kopo’s purse, Peace Corps decided that we “had” to move. Actually, if it had been left to us we probably would have stayed since we had secured the house from further incidents and the most likely things to be taken (computers, DVDs, cell phones and other electronic equipment) were already gone. I also didn’t want to leave my garden and we both didn’t want to go through the hassle of packing everything for just four months. There was no choice though and the district gave us two options to consider; one a freestanding house very similar to the one we were already in which had not been occupied for about six months, and the other, a 2nd story apartment in a relatively new fourplex. Once we looked at each, it was clear that the apartment was the better option. Normally I don’t think of apartments as being particularly spacious but this one is – even larger than our old house. It is on the second floor and therefore much less open to theft. Once we decided, the whole process moved rather quickly (almost astonishingly fast for Botswana.) We were packed up and moved in about three days. I have attached some pictures of the new place. It’s really quite civilized and almost doesn’t feel like Africa. Kopo and I quickly got things settled and put up our wall hangings to make it feel like home. The apartment is closer to work and now only an eight minute walk to the office. It is on the side of town that is closer to the main road so it is just a brief walk to the bus stop if we need to go to the capital city. It will do nicely for our remaining time here.

Shortly after we moved in we took our planned leave to join family members (my parents, our two daughters, their husbands, our granddaughter, and my brother) for a delightful cruise in the Western Mediterranean. We left out of Barcelona and went to two of the Canary Islands, Madeira (a Portuguese island), through the Strait of Gibraltar and on to Malaga in Spain before returning to Barcelona. It was a wonderful trip and most of all a happy family reunion. We were supposed to stop in Morocco where we hoped to meet up with our former Peace Corps director who had been transferred there, but because of unrest in the country, the stops in Morocco were cancelled by the cruise line. The level of unrest was nowhere near that in Tunisia or Egypt but as always, the cruise lines are quite conservative about any perceived dangers.

On the last day of the trip, Kopo and I both picked up a vicious upper respiratory infection which I’m afraid we passed on to most of the family. Fortunately their course seems to have been more benign than ours and they are mostly recovered. I in particular, have been really knocked for a loop by this. It’s the strongest and most long lasting virus I can remember in a long time. It is now 16 days since it started and I finally think it is going away.

As Paul Simon says Maureen "hung another year on the line" on March 19th. We celebrated with a cake and small party at her school attended by a number of her teacher/administrator colleagues, followed by a dinner of tacos and wine at home. (Tacos are about as "special" as we can prepare here, since we both like it and Mexican food is rare to non-existent).

Last week we had the Peace Corps formal “Close of Service” conference for 3 days. Although we still have approximately 3 months left in country, this conference needs to occur because there are many pieces of protocol (paperwork, medical and dental exams, closure and transfer of projects we have started, as well as packing up and dispersing our belongings) that need to be done before mid-June. The conference itself was quite helpful in bringing to light the issues that need attention as well as saying some goodbyes. We will see some of our colleagues who are close by to Ramotswa before we leave, but we will not see many of the people who are in the northern and western parts of country, many 10 hours by bus from us. We have had a particularly close-knit group of volunteers and some will remain life-long friends. There was a formal luncheon with many Botswana dignitaries, PC staff, all the volunteers and their Botswana counterparts on Tuesday. I got to give a speech partially in Setswana and partially in English celebrating the 50th anniversary of Peace Corps which occurs this year and the 40th anniversary of Peace Corps” in Botswana. (See below)

We still have much activity at our various worksites and secondary projects to complete before we leave, the most notable of which is again teaching the mental health module at the University of Botswana medical school which will last a month during May. Nonetheless as might be expected, our thoughts and discussions have begun to focus on coming home and “what’s next.” No firm decisions have been made other than the fact that we are coming back to Denver in late June. We plan to take the months of July, August and September to get resettled.


Never fear, the Kalahari Khronicle is alive and well and I hope to have a new edition in the next blog post.
Kgosi