Go Ledzwa (Happy New Year!)

After two weeks of the most movement I have ever seen from our power company, coming randomly multiple days within those two weeks (there are no appointments, I leave the house with the intention of sprinting back at some point after the phone call "We are at your house, where are you?"), but it worked out, a couple times they actually picked me up across the village, and riding in a car is always a treat. I like to just ride around for hours with the ambulance driver because she always lets me sit in the front (and what lacking-in-independence-Peace Corps Volunteer doesn't LOVE the front seat? You show me a PCV who doesn't get even the slightest inner joy and I'll show you a LIAR). We are not allowed to own or drive cars during our service, unless you are on official leave.

Due to a tiny issue, I haven't gotten to really use it yet. I got the power hooked up, it all works, but I only have 2.38 units. The power here, same as phone airtime (minutes, data), is prepaid. SO you go to your local general dealer, buy some electricity, type some numbers into your box fixed to your wall that shows how many units you have left and boom, a magical Bots fairy comes and throw electricity glitter into your house. Long story short I can't upload units onto my box until it's registered and everyone was on holiday forever and ever. But it should be good to go in a week and you will never have to listen to me again because I'll be in "Posh Corps" and will be too busy flicking on and off my lights to appreciate the wonders of Afrika.

The one night I had my lights on in my house was scary. I had always thought that my house had fewer bugs than others, so I took in silent smugness that I was just naturally a superiorly clean person. Well, that may not be entirely true (shocking Mom, I know), turns out lights and bugs are like fucking magnets. I understand light attracts bugs, I have seen a stoplight and know it is supposed to resembles the moon or whatever. But it was like an army invasion in my house, with species I had never seen before. Then they all panic themselves with the sudden dose of extreme light and drop dead on my floor. I've been using candles since (plus I can't afford the units until I put more on).

For the holidays I was lucky enough to be able to spend a week on the beautiful Indian Ocean in Mozambique. I love traveling and noticing exactly how different each African country is, and now, even though I am still an outsider in Botswana (and forever will be) I feel like it is not a foreign place. I know exactly where I stand in Botswana and generally what to expect from Batswana, but I love the feeling of complete oblivion that accompanies a foreign country. There have been times where I have been fully relient on the help of strangers to navigate some aspect of a new country. And it is amazing because when a stranger pulls through for me, actually goes out of their way to help, it gives me a little more faith in humanity. 

After being gone for the holidays readjusting from being surrounded by 3-7 people every single minute of my day, to being surrounded to no one every single minute of my day is an emotional rollercoaster. Let me set the scene. The first day is nice, you're exhausted from traveling and cranky because you've smelt like a foot for the past three days, so the alone time to take a proper bath, walk around naked, or sleep for 14 hours is appreciated. The second day rolls around and you are convincing yourself being alone is wonderful and you are 'discovering yourself' but now you are starting to go through pizza withdrawal because you made the noble decision to eat pizza every.single.day. on vacation. The neighborhood kids come over and expect a friendly welcome, but you have not uttered a word to a child in two weeks and the thought of mustering up fake enthusiasm for toy cars is exhausting, so no, no thank you. 8pm comes and you are stare longingly at the phone, willing it to buzz, but it's OK if it doesn't, you like being alone. It rings. You rejoice. Third day, you are mentally writing down things to say to your friends once the internet works, most likely very humorous and nothing pertaining to anything of importance. You realize you have thoroughly 'discovered yourself' so move on to making lists of all the hobbies you can pick up to keep you busy through the year and/or new year's resolutions (because why have just one when you have 22 hours of free time a day?). Fourth day, you are planning return trip to hang out with friends asap.

BUT ALAS, I am home, the schools started up today and I will start working probably next week, when everyone REALLY goes back to work. My projects this year will probably be very similar to last year but I am going to focus mostly on a nutrition initiative at my clinic. I received some awesome materials to make a vegetable garden  and we are going to try to get food donations from around the community so we can create a direct feeding program for the severely underweight and malnourished kids under five in the community. The plan is the parents bring them in 2-3 times a week, preferably even more, for a substantial meal and nutritional education. There are a number of things that need to happen in order for this to be a success, so we shall see. I am also really looking forward to starting the fitness classes up again at our Brigade (technical college) as it was pretty popular last year and I love it. Nothing brings friends together like ten people sweating up a tiny classroom in Africa heat. As of today I have a little over 9 months of service left.

** I'd like to throw a shout-out to my papparoo who went to multiple stores in order to obtain Starbucks' pumpkin spice latte mix for his daughter to put in the Christmas care package. He sure must be bored in retirement.**

352 days to go.

As of mid-October I have been an official PCV for one year. Half the battle is over! Peace Corps is really just a bunch of smaller battles. Like battles to get the amenities you are entitled to (gas for cooking, beds for sleeping, chairs for sitting, etc) which every PCV has different luck with. Some volunteers are driven to the furniture store where they select brand new pieces that they want in their house, and some people are dropped off thirty year old wooden-framed broken-springed love seat and chair. But I know volunteers who never even got the furniture they were supposed to, or they ended up buying their own (I was lucky enough to get a lil sumpin sumpin). Good thing I got the lower end of the deal because declawing a cat would be a laughable request here, so Boi has been sharpening her claws on most of my furniture, and I only stop her when it's my bed at 3am.
Battles with yourself. I fight myself often to do things because, well for one I'm really not doing anything else, and two I know I will feel better after doing it. It is so incredibly easy to shut yourself off from you community by staying in your house all the time. Just leaving the house, even for something simple, is work here. No matter where you go, or how used to seeing you they are, people are watching you more often than not, and chances are they are talking about it. Most days I would LOVE to sit in my house and binge watch some horrible TV show, and I'm not going to lie to you, I most likely would, if I could. But not having electricity has, in the grand scheme of it all, been more of a blessing than a curse. It forces me to go out and if I do want to watch a movie that night, I have to sit and socialize with my neighbors, or walk to a friends house, in order to charge my computer. I always feel happier after a day of interacting, even if 86% of the interactions were awkward or confusing. Plus, every dinner is a sexy candle-lit dinner at Gaone's, how will people know when I am TRYING to seduce them? There is still talk of getting me electricity. I'm actually texting with the person who is waiting at the power company to pay, right now, as we speak. Will it work? Will a dragon swoop in and brutally terrorize Francistown which will divert them from paying? Will Gaone ever get power/will it even be a good thing for her socialization skills? Stay tuned.
A Common PCV Battles with...
...neighbors over not sweeping our lawn. They are dirt lawns.
...neighborhood children over the correct time to use the word 'lekgoa' (that time is never).
...neighborhood children. Trying to like them every day is hard.
...supervisors who either 1) don't give a shit that we are there and have no suggestions on projects, or 2) give way too much of a shit that we are there and think we should be there forty hours a week.
...technology-everywhere. Everywhere you go there is failing technology.
...our bowels. Sometimes for no reason, sometimes for reasons you know all too well.
...the bus 'schedule'.
...Africa time.
All of these make up a good Peace Corps service. Many are cultural differences that I will just never understand because I wasn't raised thinking that way, but that is why we are here, to figure out these differences and try to understand them. If we cannot understand them, accept them and move on (unless it is to justify beating a person or an animal, then NOPE). We aren't here to change anyone's culture, nor would we want to. We're here to squeeze ourselves into their lives for two years, cross our fingers, and hope something good happens.
Here's to the weirdest year of my life so far, and probably an even stranger next year.

Sunday Funday

Let me just break down this past day for y'all at home.

Last night, at about 8pm for all those night owls, I was closing up shop (getting ready for beddy), when I walked into my back room, the one without the curtains, and noticed my neighbors tree was on fire. Under normal circumstances....actually, it's pretty weird to find someone's neighbors tree on fire so I don't have an acceptable response for this, so I tried to call their phone because I didn't want to walk the twenty steps to their house because, ya know, night time and all. I like to use the 'it's not safe card' with lots of stuff here, because to people who don't know where I live, I could say that perfectly justifiably. But when I say I 'don't like to walk to the general dealer-it's near a bar and eish, you know men' I really mean 'I was WAYYYYY too lazy to even consider walking 800 meters to get tomato for dinner. Rice is fine.' I can handle walking by a bar and the twenty steps to the neighbors are quite safe. So anywhoooo. I bucked up and walked to my neighbors house (her phone was off) to tell them their tree was on fire. He looked at the tree and said 'well, that tree does cause shade sometime, I'll put it out'. It didn't matter that it was ten feet from my house or anything, it causes shade.
This morning I slept until SEVEN AM. Extraordinary. I proceeded to have breakfast with Americans. I think it was probably quite normal for people to dine with other Americans so I won't go into detail. After, I immediately had two children at my house, eager to use my colors and subtly ask for food. At this point I realized I'd been awake for nearly four hours, so quickly shuffled them out and rested for three hours. I don't like to wear myself out.
After playing 'wordsearch' on my ipad for thirty minutes I decided to go buy airtime, because fuckit, I like Internet and lack self-control. The tuck shop (tiny little shop that sells random goods) next to my house was CLOSED. Tragedy. I decided to go sit at my neighbors house until it opened. While there I was told by a five year old (bffl for last post) that my nails were too long and dirty, I needed to clean my feet, and that I had dots all over my body (acne/freckles/moles/white people marks, I can only assume). Then he found his mothers bra, wrapped in around his head, and did karate in the living room. I also adamantly fought, to the point of fist pumping and chanting 'Scooby Scooby', that the nine year old change the channel from Nickelodeon, where they play strange shows about weird child ghosts, to boomerang where they were playing Scooby, obviously. I hid the remote on top of the TV.
Their littlest boy, Tumo, aged 1.2 has apparently been talking. I knew he has been saying my name for a while-Gaone. When I first met him a year ago, I didn't see him smile for the first three month, and no laughing until 6 months. Now, the kid can not look at me without bursting into his two-front-teeth-only fits of giggles. I very vainly thought that the only word he could say was, in fact, Gaone. Apparently, all that other baby babble he's been spewing for months is actually words, just baby version. I call it Setswanyana. For those of you who don't know, you can add 'yana' to the end of any word and make it baby form! Pudi (goat)/pudsana (baby goat), ntsa (dog)/ntsanyana(baby dog), Setswana (setswana)/Setswanyana (child Setswana). See, it works.
My village is what I like to call a ghost town, because compared to the closest nearest villages near me, it's insanely quiet. I can walk from my house, across the entire village and not meet anyone along the way. I love it. Generally there are a lot of cars around, because it's a mining village so it is wealthier (people are buying more cars), and because the mining buses pass my house a lot as it's on their route. But I like know there will be people around, they just always aren't. It is a copper mine, called Mowana Mine, if you are wondering, not diamonds. This may be a reason that the HIV rate is so high here, but honestly it is high all over Botswana, so I'm not sure how much worse it is. There are a lot of orphans, but to be considered an orphan here you only have to have lost one parents, which I assume is because of the immense amount of single-parent households here. Most orphans are orphaned because of HIV, but of course not all. Orphans very rarely go into foster families, although they do exist here, because there is such a STRONG sense of family here. I could go to my great uncle's twice removed, brothers, step- sister, ask her for twenty pula, and BOOM, I'd have myself twenty pula. So taking a family member's child here is a no brainer.
After braving the walk to the further away general dealer (but don't worry, I could still see it from my neighbor's house) with my two pals, I acquired my $2.50 worth of internet money and will continue to relentlessly check facebook zero, which is the super boring/free version, without pictures, for the remained of the day.
For my Auntie JoJo: I am honestly not sure how the teachers will work for the preschool if it happens. Right now the school is not looking promising, not enough time and not enough help from the community members. I should have started the project earlier but I honestly just did not think it would be able to happen, I didn't think we would have the funds to start one. I recently found out that we would possibly be able to use a classroom that already exists in the primary school, meaning we wouldn't have to try to build a whole new building, so when I found that out I thought it could be done, but I found that out a little too late I think. I do know that the preschool teachers don't have to be licensed, they only have to be qualified, which is awesome and I feel like there wouldn't be trouble finding some. It will still be a bit of a challenge getting money to build junior-sized outhouses and sink, and pay the teachers. I think their school fees would cover food and some class materials (although a school fee will still be hard to pay for some families). My struggle now is trying to get the kgosi (chief), school head, social worker, and head VDC member to meet and discuss solutions to this problem before Tuesday.
The water treatment business hasn't opened yet. They have gotten the money in their account and are waiting on the water purification machine, there seems to be some trouble getting in contact with the company. But I expect it to be in production as soon as the machine is here, and the people are trained! Clean water! PULA!
So that's the Sunday Funday. Now all I need is a mimosa, Stephanie, get on it.

Sweet. Sweaty. Summertime.

Today I'm focusing on the good things going on in Botswana.
1. I can do bikram yoga for free, at anytime of the day!
2. I'm so comfortable with my lack of electricity that I opted to not watch my neighbors awesome TV alone, but sit at home and stare at my cat.
3. I didn't even feel like having a full conversation with my cat today. I'd say a success.
4. I got a hitch in about five minutes today. Wasn't even a race-special ride, they didn't even want to take me at first! Hurray!
5. I scheduled a meeting to schedule a meeting to start a preschool. Half the battle is over.
6. Not many people can say they 'got dragged to a funeral they didn't know about, for someone they didn't know, and accidentally sat with the family because there was an open seat and the planning didn't make sense'. Unique.
7. I got a shit load of free food this week.
8. I ate ten cookies in about five minutes.
9. I have decided firmly that you will never see a more beautiful sunset or sunrise than in Botswana. It can't be done.
My sad news: My neighbors/BFFLs Prince, Luda, and Tumo (aged 4, 8, 1.2, respectively) are out of town for two whole weeks. Which, for real, is about the longest I've gone without a Tom and Jerry date in quite a few months. But I'm weirdly getting a lot of yard work done....huh.
All joking aside now. I have been a little bad about keeping up with my blog. I just do not have the motivation and often times I feel like there is no point in writing a blog if it is not going to be funny (I still think that is true) and I have not felt particularly funny lately. I'm going to be more like Stella and attempt to find my groove, or maybe more like the emperor and just try to get a whole new groove. I haven't fully decided. Either way, I'm going to stop making really awful movie references about movies I've never seen.
Things about going well here. No huge projects or anything huge. Biggest thing is trying to start a preschool; refer to #5 above to see where I'm at with that. I am also starting to teach women how to make Zulu (a tribe mainly in South Africa) necklaces and sell them for profit. I live in a peace corps time where I'm the one teaching the African women how to make African necklaces...because I learned it on the Internet.
I also live in a peace corps world where the post office lady drops my packages off at my house because she wants to leave work early. This I am incredibly and exuberantly happy about. It's like someone handing me a birthday present (which I know sounds normal, but no one hands you things here; you have to walk three miles in 100 degree weather to obtain a shred of American love). Or you could catch a ride with one of the numerous donkey carts that travel my roads. I never do because I feel so damn bad for those donkeys.

I feel like I could write heaps more but I hear most of my friends/family have 'lives' to go about doing and I'm just rambling.

Big Bertha. Eating up all that flour.

In the past couple months some wonderful things have happened. I made a sourdough starter and named her Bertha, got my friend to also make a sourdough starter, Bubbles, so we could raise our yeastlings together, and Boi killed her first mouse. It was a horrible death and I thoroughly believe she intended it as payback for forcing her to wear a pink collar with a bell as well as making fun of her constantly for being a bad hunter (her feelings get hurt easily). In fairness, she used to only hunt the neighbor's puppy, or the neighbor children. But seriously, I do not even know what happened to the mouse and I am a "stronger person for having cleaned it up". For those who do not know Boi, she is my cat and yes, I need to get a life. Moving on.
However stellar those first few gems were, the best thing that has happened was my parents braving the 20 hour plane flight to visit lil ol' me. Considering before about 1.5 years ago they knew little to nothing about the country of Botswana (I am not exempt from that either), I would say that they enjoyed it. My mom was obsessed with the monkeys and elephants and my dad was too focused on trying to drive stick shift left handed to really see anything. Just kidding, he loved it, and he drove like a champ. They saw that I do in fact live in a house, not a mud hut, and they even washed their clothes by hand like true villagers-so proud. Everything worked out swimmingly and the only bad part was two weeks was just not enough. We could have spent two weeks in Cape Town alone! I even brought along my boyfriend, who they had never met, on a 20 hour road trip through South Africa and we are still together so that is saying something, amiright?
I got the news while on vacation that the grant we have been working on was approved, yaaaaa buddy! Mosetse Village will have another small business rolling out the red carpet in a couple months. And that is about it for the work I have been doing.
In 7 days we will have been in Botswana ONE WHOLE YEAR. And guess how much Setswana I know? Yup, not much.
And for those wondering, the sourdough bread turned out quite well, thanks.

Two weeks in the Delta.

For the past two weeks I was camping in the Okavango Delta, the main hub of all things safari in Africa-google it, with 35 orphans from my village. There were also about eight social workers and maybe seven other helpers, so in all roughly 50 Motswana.....and me....for two weeks. Ok fine, Mike was there too. He was nice enough to talk all the social workers into letting me come, we badgered them to the point of annoyance, they even told me so. The camp was a wilderness therapy camp aimed at counseling the orphans on dealing with their rough home lives and encouraging them to talk about their feelings with orphans like them. Mike and I went along to lead a Grassroot Soccer (GRS) camp simultaneously, we were supposed to be given an hour each day to do our lesson. GRS is an interactive program for HIV prevention and education that involves different football-esque games that can be related to HIV, it is really a pretty cool program. Unfortunately, the facilitators did not exactly seem like it was crucial so they did not have enough time for us for about three days straight in the beginning. Granted, it is only an hour, but we still felt like we were doing something, when we weren't given any time we awkwardly hung around the camp, chopping vegetables and being told how we were doing everything wrong. They have one way of doing things here, and any other way is wrong. Normally I can deal with the occasional comment like that because I can just go home and eat whatever I want and do whatever I want, but two weeks of constantly being told I was doing it wrong became slightly frustrating. There were some communication issues and cultural differences that made this experience not the most enjoyable at times. There are certain things I will never be ok with here, like not using the word 'please', or whipping children. And now I know to never agree to an outing longer than a few days in total isolation with 50 people from a completely different culture. I would have regretted not going, though, because the children were great and I had fun whooping someone's ass in chess everyday. I used to say how non-competitive I was and how much I did not care about winning, well, after getting obnoxiously angry multiple times and acting like a six year old, I have concluded that I was wrong, when it comes to chess I am very competitive. I have to have rules about when I can play or it will just ruin my whole day. Exhausting. It also gave me vivid flashbacks of eight-year-old me sitting behind the big chair in our living room, crying because I did not win at the board game Sorry. I guess I have not really changed much.
If you are wondering how you take a butt load of kids on a really cheap safari, let me tell you! First, you get a huge truck-like the ones you would carry half of a house in or a wind turbine propellor (oh Iowa, I miss you). Next, you throw 35 kids in it and drive around a game reserve for 13 hours until the kids are freezing, dehydrated, exhausted, and covered with dirt from dodging branches all day. It was like a really sketchy roller coaster with absolutely no safety guaranteed. I am honestly surprised no one got hurt or fell out of the truck. We were passing white people in safari trucks all day, I tried to take pictures of them in their cars because they were taking pictures of us in ours, it seemed fair. We came across a part of the dirt road where the trees had grown together at the top and created a sort of archway that a normal safari vehicle could maneuver under but our truck was way too big. Well at this point, our driver decided to just take down the archway; branches, dirt, and spiders pelted all the lucky people in the back, who were all crouched and covering their heads, much like we had to do during tornado drills in elementary/middle school (again, heavy sigh, the Midwest). It was hilarious only because of how absolutely ridiculous everything was. As far as the safari is concerned, we got to see a surprising amount, considering how loud our truck was; you can tell the animals are used to the constant traffic. We saw elephants, hippos, monkeys, baboons, a leopard, giraffes, lions, antelope type things that I can't remember the name of, warthogs, and wild dogs. We also saw ostriches on our way home, and two hyenas on our last night at camp. Lion King nailed it when they depicted the hyena. They are very creepy and big enough to take down a cow. It had jerky head movements and I initially thought it was a wounded leopard because it's movements were so odd. He was probably only twenty feet away and didn't run away when we shown the light on it, two of them sat there watching us, waiting for us to go to sleep so they could search the camp. Hippos were constant visitors at night, we were camping down by the riverside, so we got to listen to them talk all day, too.
The monkeys and baboons were all over our camp. They knew our feeding times and came daily to ransack the grounds for our leftover food, or steal food on the table if they were fast enough, and they were a couple times. One managed to get into our store room, I could hear the screaming of the kitchen ladies to get him out. He flung poop everywhere; it was all very sanitary. I kept referring to them as racist monkeys because every time I tried to shoo one away from our food, it would come after me! Naturally, I would scream and run away. If a Motswana shoo'd one, it would leave. Damn tourists, ruining my street cred with the monkeys. They expect white people to feed them, not chase them away. Quite a few of the baboons would come with their babies which was pretty damn cute, I could watch them all day. They looked like little aliens.
Other than the camp, I have just been hanging out in my village, dreaming up some nutrition projects to start implementing. I also helped a group of women submit a grant for a machine for their water purifying business. It was a very short, simple grant, but this is Botswana, so it took about four months to complete. I understand now how some volunteers spend two years completing a grant. It took four months to ask for one machine, I cannot fathom the pain and stress of a whole building. Just the thought makes me sick.

Travelin' fool

Time is flying by. The days are long, the weeks are fast, and actually sometimes even the days are fast. I peg this on my contentment of my life here, I have no desire to go home early or even for vacation. I refuse to stay in my village too long, I mean, I am only living here two years, I NEED to travel Africa. I congratulate those who are able to stay in their village for month on end, but it is not for me and I would go stir crazy. I do get very happy, though, when I know I have a weekend of nothing going on and I can just hang out, reading in my hammock or playing with the neighbor boys. From now until June 22, when my parents arrive, I have absolutely nothing planned. Perfect time to start my garden.

Beginning of April was glorious because I was on vacation and travelled to Lesotho with another volunteer, Mike (who is conveniently my boyfriend and closest neighbor). Lesotho is one of two small landlocked countries that resides inside of South Africa, along with Swaziland-which I would also love to visit. The country (with the exception of the capital, Maseru, which really is not very beautiful) is absolutely amazing and plucked straight from a National Geographic. Maybe you can blame it on seeing the same dry, arid landscape for eight months, or the fact that we have not been able to leave Botswana yet and we were getting anxious to peace out and explore, but regardless, it was wonderful. I can say that with confidence because my blisters that completely riddled my feet last week are healing quite nicely and the memories of me pathetically hobbling over mountains with my bandaged feet are starting to fade and be replaced with the beauty of waking up every morning surrounded by insanely isolated villages. Let me just throw in a little back story here. A few months ago Mike and I started to look into hiking through Lesotho, because it had always been a dream of his since realizing he would be living in Southern Africa. I was just like everyone else, meaning I finally went and googled 'Lesotho' after he talked about it enough times and it seemed likely enough we could travel there. I looked into pony treks, which is what the country is famous for, and then remembered I was not especially fond of ponies and I would much rather backpack, Mike agreed. I should have realized by the complete lack of any reviews of backpacking in Lesotho, that not many people did it, and now I know why. We did four days three night backpacking with a guide, which we absolutely needed or we would have been lost in roughly 25 minutes. We stayed in remote villages along the way, in predetermined and booked huts. It was four days of going up, and down, and up, and back down. Which makes sense, they are mountains, but we were unprepared for how hard it would be. I do not remember the mileage but it was between 8-10 hours a day. Luckily, we had amazing views to keep us going. By the fourth day I would have given my left kidney for a Sherpa or a minibus, and don't you worry, I attempted to find both. But alas, we happily (haha) limped back to our lodge, Mike with a painful knee, and me with a couple bum and blistered feet. I am ready to start planning our next trip.
The lodge, Malealea, was great and I would go back. It had a great backpackers vibe and we were lucky to meet some interesting people from all over, including seven Americans. I thought it was strange to talk face to face with another American that is not in Peace Corps, considering I had not actually done it in eight months. It was exhausting. It's easy enough my write out 'Yeah, everything is great here and I love Botswana' in an email, but actually having to talk to someone about it, and to stay positive is really hard, I was not expecting it. It's not that I don't like Botswana, because I do, but people want to hear about PC as this awesome life changing, doing amazing projects and stuff, and that's just not me right now, and I don't like to be a negative nancy. I think most volunteers agree that we have a weird on again off again relationship with our host country.
The projects I'm doing now are fitness classes still, computer classes, I've done one nutrition talk with many more to come (these I actually do quite like), trying to get the HIV support group functioning, trying to work with mothers of malnourished children under five. Trying to get a couple grants done with some community members. Lots of trying, little doing. But I'm ready to bust out these next few months and start some good stuff.

Can someone mail me an iced caramel macchiato? Thanks.

Mornings are my favorite and hands down the best time of the day. First, they are usually cool, cool to the point where I can sleep cuddling my heavy-ish faux wool blanket, and secondly, it doesn't matter if I wake up and get an early start or if I take advantage of the cold and sleep in, it’s great. Unfortunately, I am human so occasionally I wake up on the wrong side of the bed, and not because my kitten insists on trying to nurse from my furry blanket as I sleep, completely disgusted, next to her and I am too lazy to muster the energy to throw her out of my room (I eventually do though). No, sometimes I just wake up unhappy. Annoyed that I am awake and I have to get out of bed and heat water so I can have a proper bath (unless I am feeling up to a cold shower). Angry that I have to go and talk with people who may or may not be interested in what I have to say. Upset that I slept with my face on my insecticide treated bug net and probably am currently developing some rare malignant tumor on my face (why can’t it just stay tucked in?!). Overall, sometimes I am just a grumpy bear in the mornings. This makes my whole training-for-a-half-marathon-so-I-can-beat-my-mother thing a little tough, since it’s pretty much too hot to run any other time. And yes, the main (only) reason I am “training” for the Vic Falls half marathon is so I can beat my mother. Is this sad? Probably.

I think I am lucky, even if I do have my grumpy mornings, it never stays long and I pretty much always end my days happy. I have had a few moments where I think “If this is how I felt all the time, I’d leave”. I have never truly wanted to leave, because I know that whatever went wrong that day, it’ll be OK and I will move on. I also usually think about what I’d be doing at home and realize I’d be doing nothing of importance, and my grumpy mornings would be more like, “Oh God, there’s 7 people in the Starbucks line! I hope they don’t run out of feta and spinach breakfast wraps!”. Now I’m not saying that isn’t a legitimate concern because I know how good those are, but it’s just a reminder that no matter where I live in the world, I will always have those days. I generally don’t like to write about feeling down (or feelings in general) or being homesick, because it doesn't really matter. I don’t plan on leaving anytime soon because I genuinely like it here.  Every day is an adventure, and sometimes my adventure is watching baby goats fight, or practicing carrying a basket on my head (it’s impossible, they have flat heads or something).

So before arriving we were told about all the free time we’d have and how If there is anything we have wanted to learn or skill we wanted to develop, now is the time. You have two years of seemingly endless free time and I have been trying really hard to start learning all sorts of crap since arriving in country. I think I currently have like, ten books started? And none of them are super interesting to me, it’s all stuff I WANT to know, but there is a reason I don’t know it; it bores me. But, I continue to try and one day, I will know everything! Right now I just look at all the books, articles, and my harmonica, become overwhelmed, and then resort to making potato bread and reading Harry Potter. I stick to what I know, apparently.

I’m also considering trying 30 soups in 30 days. It’s always a party here in Mosetse. Please stay tuned as my blood pressure skyrockets. 

A rainy day is a happy day in Botswana.

Last night was (surprisingly) the first time my candles have generated a problem. Boi finally lit her tail on fire. Luckily, I saw right away how stupid she was and blew out the small flame. She proceeded to get pissed at me for blowing on her and began swatting me with her less-than-ferocious little paws. I’m now accepting ideas for cat proof candle holders. I even considered super gluing candle holders to the wall, but decided against that. I don’t think my landlord would appreciate a $1 candle holder inexpertly glued to her wall.

The big exciting news of my life is getting a new (to me) big bed! I can have visitors stay the night now, and they don’t even have to sleep in a hammock! I’m planning on having a little gathering at some point soon. Also, next week all 130(ish) Botswana volunteers are heading down to Gabs for the first ever all volunteer regional meeting. It will be exciting to meet all the volunteers from all the Bots groups, most of the volunteers have never met some of the other groups.

Last week I went to the primary (elementary) school to talk with the headmistress about downloading a fun typing program onto the 14 computers in the lab. She took this to mean I wanted to start teaching computer lessons and that I should probably do it four days a week. I talked her down to two days a week, and even that I thought would be something I did not want to do, but I reluctantly obliged. I went in yesterday, with absolutely no idea what to teach them except how to open the typing program, but turned out I had TONS to teach them. There were about 30 in the class (standard 6-age 11ish) and about 95% of them had never touched a computer. It finally dawned on me that it didn’t matter how little I knew about computers, I could teach them anything and it would be new. We started with the basics; it involved how to hold the mouse, and how to click the mouse. Watching them struggle with the mouse, I could see how foreign it was for them to use their hand that way. The right click and the left click on the mouse were hard concepts to grasp, but toward the end of the hour, most of them had gotten it down. I realized that this is how I probably look to them when I try to do anything new here in Botswana, like dance or make bogobe (porridge). I never remember being taught how to use a mouse, it seems like such a innate ability for anyone in America because we have used computers since we were seven (probably like two now, who knows). Overall, I really enjoyed the class and the hour flew by; this means I am excited for my next class today! They cannot wait to play games, but I figure they should learn how to open a program first, then they  can move on to the really fun stuff. It’s really exciting to be the one to teach them such a useful skill. Technology is becoming more prevalent in Botswana and when they go to University (and they better go!), they will need to know how to use a computer.

Me- “Hello, children. How are you?”

Children- “Hello, teacher. We are fine and how are you?” *erupts into hysterical fits of laughter*

Every. Time.

Hitchhiking, IST, and finally working-oh my!

Dumelang! Word on the newsfeed is that the US is still a little bleak-looking with the snow. Well, let me tell you, we’re in rainy season here and I love it! I’m rarely annoyed of the rain. The only time I ever curse the gods is when I am waiting for a hitch and the rain comes out of nowhere (I’m not kidding it rains when it’s sunny) and who wants to pick up a smelly, wet person? No one, that’s who. Oh, have I talked about how hitchhiking is the norm here?  Story time! So when we all first got our village assignments, the map showed my closest neighbour was only 45k down a road. That’s great! I asked around because the road on the map was labelled a ‘track road’, which I had no idea what that was. I asked some Motswana LCFs and they said it is a road directly to the village, but you can only ‘hike’ it. Hiking? I love hiking! Who knew there would be places to hike so close to me in Botswana?! How silly I was, they meant hitchhiking, of course. The closest grocery store is in that village, which is called Tutume, and it costs 10 pula to get there, or I can go to the main road and get a combi (mini-bus-type-van-thing where they squish 4 people in a row and it is never fun) and go to Francistown for 30 pula. It’s just the way of life; if you want to go anywhere you hitch or take a combi, both you have to pay for. Hitching is USUALLY more comfortable, considering you’re not crammed in a small van, it’s often just cars and trucks and they never make you share seats and I usually get a seatbelt. PC doesn’t like us to hitch (there have been problems in other countries, but very few issues in Bots), but it is not against policy, you just have to be smart about the hitches you take. If it’s just me and a car with 3 guys pulls over, I exercise my best judgement and kindly say “no thanks”. Just don’t be a dummy and you’ll be OK.

All bots-14s were reunited for three weeks in January for our IST-In Service Training. This is the time when we were able to talk to our program managers about what we have planned for our villages and discuss the challenges our peers were facing at their sites. It was three long weeks. But I can’t complain, the hotel was awesome, I didn't have to cook, there was electricity, AND there was a pool. Oh lordy, I almost forgot the wifi! It was wonderful and beautiful. For those of you in America, make sure you give your wifi router a little pat on the back, maybe a French kiss or a quick snuggle, because it is amazing. I really lived the highlife there for a few weeks, but now I am back in my reality of candlelight dinners with my cat. I also came back to a broken toilet (which I kind of fixed with a rubber glove *pats back*) and an angry kitty. She was kind of pissed I locked her in the house for 3 weeks-whoooops. It’s tough being a mother.

The beginning of February brought the start of my full-fledged service. How many times can I write “this is when my service actually begins”, because I feel like I’ve said it quite a few times. But honestly, it really does begin now. Now all 56 of us our off lockdown and we are able to start implementing our projects and programs we’ve been dreaming up since October.  I’m working on a lot of stuff and my schedule is actually filling up pretty fast, surprisingly. Unfortunately, none of the stuff I am doing is really at the clinic where I am based, it is all community stuff. Here is some of the stuff I am doing/trying to do: weekly fitness class, HIV/AIDs support group (support groups are very different here, they involve singing and dancing and it confuses me), computer lessons at the primary school and the library, grant writing for a small business in the community, working on implementing nutrition education into primary school and community, and I am trying to start working at the refugee camp in the next village over! So yeah, that’s what I am doing in Africa, I finally have an answer when people ask and it isn’t, “I sit at the health post and watch babies being weighed”. 

It's too hot for kitten mittens.

Greetings! I’d like to start off this friendly post by saying that my kitten is better than your kitten. You don’t have a kitten? Well you should because they’re adorable. And they’re better than cats because they’re tiny kitten claws are not strong enough to shred the curtains and bug nets they continuously claw, but watch out because kitten claws do pierce flesh. But hey, skin grows back….curtains don’t. The ‘Kitten Facts’ on the back of the food I bought says they are “no longer considered kittens after one year”…so basically I have one year until she’s out. Just kidding......kind of. Oh, and another reason I'm glad I got a cat over a dog. Dogs you have to love and nurture and pay tons of attention to. Cats don't really care about you, so they do their own thing and you can just throw them in a room with some food and water, maybe a string if you're real nice, and BOOM it's like the Marriott..and they'll be OK for WEEKS! That is how that works, right?
You know that wonderful feeling of love and warmth you get over the holidays? Don’t worry, I still had that this year, even though I am thousands of miles from my beloved family, because it was 100 degrees outside (warmth) and the mosquitos wouldn’t stop kissing me (love, and by kiss I mean bite). No, really though, it was a good time. It was indeed very hot, and truly did not feel like Christmas. But you know what? That’s OK. We talked about it many times and it would have just been sad if it actually felt like Christmas and we were missing it. There was a group of about 8 of us who went down south to a friend’s house. It was a very fun time, and a nice break from village life. Plus, it’s not a proper Christmas without any snow!  I hear snow is a touchy subject in the Midwest, what with the ‘polar vortex’ and all. We all greatly enjoyed our sleeping arrangements, which involved a triple decker hammock tower! We only broke one burglar bar-success!
I’ve had two visitors come stay at my house and experience the thrill and raging nightlife that is Mosetse (just kidding, I go to sleep at 8pm). It’s been awesome because I have one twin bed that barely fits me and Boi (she’s a bed hog) and I offer my guests the next best thing, maybe even better-my hammock. AND THEY LIKE IT. How great is that? When else are you going to find people who are so comfortable sleeping in a hammock in a really sketchy looking, non curtained, litter box smell infused, spare bedroom?
On Thursday I leave for In service training (IST) for 2.5 weeks in Gabs, the capital. I’m a mixture of emotions about the whole thing and I can bet that I will be pretty much ready for my own bed again…and privacy after about a week. I’ve never lived alone, but I dig it. If IST is anything like PST, then we’re in for a real treat (start sarcastic voice now). We’ll get to do all sorts of fun games like talk about our feelings, and our personal struggles within our community. We’ll probably do some more wonderful safety talks that are forced upon us from Washington, and we might even do an ice breaker, just for old time sake. I really shouldn’t be complaining though as I will have a lukewarm shower, no dishes, decent wifi, no cleaning, countless friends, and a pool, every day for 2.5 weeks. Yeah, the more I think about it the more I think I’ll be ok.

New Years Resolution-stop eating popcorn for breakfast. Life is really hard.

Ke rata Botswana ka kagiso le thokgamo.

-I like Botswana for the peace and harmony. I use this when I'm either trying to suck up to someone and/or make them laughter.
I spend 80% of my day people watching, 10% reading, and 10% doing various other normal activities (baking, entertaining children on my patio, perfecting 'Oh! Susanna' on my harmonica, crying over my Setswana dictionary). I've concluded that I need no practice, I have watched enough mothers strap their children to their back with towels and blankets that I can do it. Store-bought, expensive, safety guaranteed, horn, air brakes, shocks, and 5 storage compartment stroller you say? No, thanks, I have a towel. I really wish I could post pictures to show the women rocking it, but it is probably exactly what you're picturing anyways. I've also decided this method of carrying children is awesome and if the, what I assume will be, unpleasant experience of motherhood is ever bestowed upon me, I will be toting my spawn via back towel. Just think of the back sweat that accompanies such a method! Yup.
The Batswana in general have some issues to work on in the hospitality department. I feel like I can say this without being offensive because I think it is common enough knowledge. When I am walking by a person, more often than not, they look kind of mean. Like someone you maybe do not want to talk to, but that is exactly what you should not do. When you do say 'dumela' to that person, often times something amazing happens! Their expression goes from utterly terrifying, to the kind face and warm smile of an old friend. It's frustrating a lot of times because it takes effort to say hello to someone who looks like they want to beat the crap out of me, but I do it, and I'm usually justly rewarded with friendliness. University of Botswana is graduating their first class of hospitality students, I think this year, which is awesome. Most store employees are also equally as friendly as the people on the street when you enter their store, it seems like an inconvenience that a shopper has entered, they have never been taught otherwise and are usually very friendly people once you speak to them. Botswana is trying to up their tourism game for 'when the diamonds run out', which is another huge question in the future of Botswana, and also one most people here never talk about. Fingers crossed that Botswana has magic lands that somehow continuously produces diamonds for thousands of years to come.
Batswana are proud that their country is known as peaceful and non-corrupt, and they will brag about it to foreigners. I think its great and I love them for that.
It has been about 1.5 months living without electricity and let me tell you, it's really really....not as bad as you think. It doesn't impair my life in any horrible way and if anything I'm gaining valuable life skills, right? The most frustrating thing is that I have to charge my computer and phone at the clinic during the day. All the PCVs here are given Nokia brick phones (T9 word anyone?) which are pretty great, the battery lasts forever! Ok, like a week, which is about a week longer than my stupid galaxy lasted in the states. It's quite a handy device for someone without power. I think it's probably good I don't have access to my computer all the time, or else I know I'd be watching shows and not socializing as much as I should. The second most frustrating thing is the fridge situation, man, I'd really like a fridge, if only for cold water. They keep telling me I will get it, still doubtful.
Gompieno ke letsatsi la matsalo wa me. Today is my birthday! I celebrated by walking all over the village telling everyone! Haha, not really....Kind of. Some awesome things happened today:
1. It was partially cloudy and the morning was cool enough to sleep with a blanket on! Score!
2. I got a free slice of pizza! So what if the sauce was 'tangy mayonnaise' and not red sauce? I'm not picky.
3. I watched THREE episodes of Friends. I saved my computer battery in preparation.
4. I found someone who will teach me basket weaving. She speaks no English so it'll be great.
5. Reptar ate the cockroach in my kitchen!! At least I think he did...
6. Prince, my 4 year old neighbor boy who may very well be the cutest thing ever, was wearing destroyed hot pink corduroy skinny jeans.

The Village Life

Blog
What Up, Mosetse?!
If anyone has the burning desire to send me love notes (which is encouraged and appreciated):
Christy Nekvinda
PO box 131
Mosetse postal agency
Mosetse
Botswana
*To those who already sent me cards/letters-THANK YOU! I loved them all so much and they are proudly displayed on my fridge. Unfortunately, the post office here doesn't believe in carrying stamps apparently so I have the letters written, just need to wait for postage to become available!
I've officially been in Mosetse over a month! The people here are awesome and friendly and I've had no problems. My house is pretty great, I really wanted to post a picture of a mud hut and try to convince everyone it is my house, but of course, posting a picture takes way more Internet than I will probably have. It's a government issued house and there are hundreds of the exact same house all around my district. I only have one close neighbor, who is the head nurse/supervisor at the clinic. It has four solid walls, a lovely in-tact roof, and doors that almost all close (the important ones close, at least). I have a spare bedroom with absolutely no furniture in it, but my living room have a solid broken couch, chair, and a decent kitchen table. Please keep in mind my standards have drastically plummeted since leaving the US. My kitchen is really great though, tons of storage space, a pantry, working gas oven/stove, and a fridge (but I don't have electricity so I use it for decoration in my living room). I am told "the chief will put light in your house". I'm skeptical. I'm not sure if my house is actually nice or if I'm just so pumped that I actually have my own house for the first time in my life that I'm overlooking many things....like the fact that only half of my doors close. Also, it wouldn't be weird at all if I did indeed live in a mud hut, I'd say about 40% of the village does.
There is a lizard living somewhere in my house. What does he eat? Is he in my bag of rice? What if I step on him as I'm walking in the dark to the bathroom at 1am because I'm unable to sleep due to the fact that I'm POURING sweat? Does he want to cuddle? How do I feel about that? I know he's here because I saw him chilling in my pantry and he also scared the living bejesus out of me. I thought it was a snake because I've been told we have those since there is a river running through the village (Which is bone-dry, don't you worry). Anywho, I've named him Reptar and we shall be great friends (and he's definitely a boy because of the way he is). I also killed a scorpion in my bathroom that same day which was horribly traumatic and I was probably a little over-dramatic about the situation, but C'MON PEOPLE IT WAS A SCORPION. This also leads me to believe Reptar is doing a particularly poor job of eating the insects in my house and I'm considering reevaluating his tenant-ship. My friend killed a cockroach in my house the other day and said he felt bad because "I felt like I was taking a life"...BECAUSE THEY ARE MASSIVE. Men in Black style cockroaches.
The 'clinic' I work at isn't even really a clinic. It's technically a health post, which means it is very, very small. The staff is two nurses, one health education assistant, one cleaner, and one driver. The best part about this is we don't actually have a vehicle, although I've been told we used to. What does the driver do you ask? NOTHING. Welcome to Botswana, where nothing makes sense and don't ask why! But the clinic is right next door to my house. It is roughly a 30 second walk but let me tell you, 30 seconds in this sun is enough for me for the entire day. I usually only pull out my umbrella on walks longer than 60 seconds. In the morning the clinic is PACKED with people. There are only two rooms, and one storage room, which I've seen the nurse treat patients in before. Babies are weighed in the morning, rations are distributed, and the nurses see patients all day. Afternoons are very dead and we all just sit in the waiting area, which is basically a covered patio with benches, and talk. By talk I mean they all talk in Setswana and I sit there trying to understand at least one word every 5 minutes. I usually fail and just zone out. The staff is all really awesome though and everyone speaks English, they just prefer Setswana, which makes sense, it is their language. I have also been charging my phone, computer, and light at the clinic. My computer holds little charge so I don't use it very much, I've been able to watch a few movies though. I entertain myself by writing blog posts, reading, rewriting a cookbook by hand so I don't have to use power when using it, and baking! My oven is gas powered, terrifying, and the temperatures are either 'Might As Well Throw This In A Fire' and 'Off'. The bread cooks fast. I also play a fun game called 'How Long Until it Spoils?!' Milk last 2.5 days unrefrigerated until spoiling, by the end of the third day it's chunky. Stay tuned for various vegetable and fruits.
Although I barely do anything during the day, I'm exhausted at night. It's similar to that feeling you get after you've been in the library for 12 hours cramming for an exam the next morning, your brain is exhausted. Can you tell I just got out of college? And that I crammed a lot? This weekend my friend and I were literally dragged into a wedding, taken by the shoulders and pushed through the tent. Even though we got there way later than everyone else, they gave us a spot under the tent. They even tried to serve us before the rest of the table, but we refused, which was definitely the right thing to do. We are trying to integrate into this community, not be guests for two years. It was exhausting.
I sweat. All. The. Time. If any two parts of my body touch, whew, it is game over, I will sweat in that place. I sleep in snow angel position to try to get air to any place on my body that air will circulate. I often wake up in the middle of the night sweating. I've considered sleeping on the floor to cool off but ever since the scorpion incident, I'm hesitant. I'm going to find a battery powered fan ASAP, but everything takes about 5 times as long as it should in Botswana, so give me a few months.
A lot of kids here have told me they've never actually seen a white person, or 'lakgoa' as they call it, in person. And I think that's true for most of the young villagers. The population is about 3,000 and tons of kids everywhere (but no high schoolers, they all go to boarding school in another village). They've only seen a white person on TV, so no pressure or anything. An entire village's perspective on the Lakgoa's and the citizens of the United States is entirely dependent on a 22 year old girl who has no idea what she's doing 90% of the time.
Until Saturday, I thought there were only two languages spoken here, which was horrible enough, but now I found out there are three. People here really don't understand how hard it is to learn a second language, because they began learning their second language at the age of 5 and their third and maybe their forth. I am only focusing on learning Setswana, but that angers the Ikalanga people since this is more their region than the Setswana, and the third one is the bushman language (It's a dying language, Carly, get on it) and yeah, never in my life will I learn that. It has all sorts of clicks and noises that I'm simply unable to make with my mouth. Some older people won't even respond to me if I don't greet them in their language, but how in the world am I supposed to tell if they speak Setswana or Ikalanga? Eish.
A huge struggle for me is the water. I live close to the salt pan so the water is salty, but the bad part is that it is thick. I have no idea what makes it that way and I haven't heard of anyone else with this issue, but it's horribly unrefreshing, no one in the village drinks it, and my filter is already half clogged. Everyone drinks rain water, or carries their water in from Francistown, I'm still debating on if I want to carry in 80 liters of water a month on a tiny bus.

THINGS ARE HAPPENING

There are few things more cute in the world than a 2 year old speaking Setswana. The kids here grow up speaking Setswana until they start school, where they are expected to learn English. In Botswana, English is mandatory in every school, but often times (especially in smaller villages) English-only is not enforced. Our communication is limited to numerous high fives, fist bumps, and repetitive name-saying. I say 'Game' and she responds 'tee-tee' because the name Christy is practically impossible, then we laugh and make faces at each other. We repeat this roughly 20 times before we're both tired. The word 'ko-ko' is how they say knock knock here, so when you walk up to a door you say it. One time, my friend and I were sitting in my living room and we hear this tiny voice saying 'ko-ko' probably five times before Peggy (host sister/Game's mom) tells us Game is at the door waiting for us to let her in. She also calls my friend Mike, 'Mikey', which no one ever does so she made it up herself and it is hilarious. Anywho, I think I like her so much because she can't speak English. Oh oh oh! Have you seen that YouTube video of the little kid who laughs and then makes a serious face really fast, and then bursts out laughing (it's adorable, look it up)? Ok, well, she does that. I've been trying to get it on video, but taking out a camera here creates the same responds as throwing candy into the air, the kids go freaking NUTS.
So technically, I'm not actually a volunteer.....yet. I'm still a trainee, and if I were to leave bots now, I can't say that I have ever been a volunteer. Not until Tuesday! Tuesday is what we in PC world call 'Swearing In' and it is kind of a big deal. PC Botswana makes it a real ceremony full of speakers and food. Some other countries do not do anything celebratory, but our country director is pretty celebration-oriented. It is going to be at a really nice hall in the hospital here. We will each have our name called and everyone's host families will be in attendance cheering us on, then after we will all celebrate the rest of the day as full-fledged PCV's while we sit and tally all the rules we have already broken (.....just kidding). Wednesday though, it gets real. Every site is responsible for providing transportation to our village from Serowe. Mosetse is, I think, roughly four hours north of Serowe? I'm pretty sure I will be riding up with another volunteer who lives even further north than me. We are going to demand to stop in Francistown at a store called Game (actually pronounced like English game), which is the bots equivalent to Walmart. If we aren't able to stop on the way, it's going to be really hard to buy anything big for our houses because trying to fit a huge basin, a large fan, or a table on a bus will be horrible and awkward.
Right now, I know that I indeed have a house, which is great because some people have barely heard from their villages and may not even have a house set up yet. If that does happen, they are going to be forced to stay in Serowe another week until it gets sorted out. I also am supposed to have electricity, but they were still working on it, last I heard. All the houses have to be inspected and up to PC security standards, and if they are not, then the pcv will have to stay in Serowe until it is all secure. Crossing my fingers that everything is alright, because I'm really ready to go. I love my host family, but for the love of god I want my own kitchen....and privacy. I'm going to make Rice Krispies later and I almost do not want to because I cannot stand having four kids and often times Peggy surrounding me the whole time. Deep breaths. I have also not only increased my number of starch servings a day from 10 to 15, but I have actually been going out of my way to eat more white bread, they make the best damn rolls. Other than trying to wean off my addiction to bread (I feel like Steph), i'm also really excited to start introducing myself around my village. Some people are replacing a volunteer in their site, so they already have the scoop on the ins and outs of the village. While that definitely has some wonderful perks, it also has its downfalls. If you are replacing someone, you might have some pretty big shoes to fill. The villagers may always be comparing you and may not like it if you do something differently than the previous pcv. I'm basically trying to justify this to myself, because I am the first pcv in Mosetse. People are going to go CRAZY when I move into town. Tea for days! Let's all hope they speak English, for the sake of my sanity.

A very Motswana wedding

What we call a reception in America, they call a wedding in Botswana. With few people in attendance, the couple gets married the day before the reception. In general, everything Batswana do is a celebration and there is always food involved. You can't hold a meeting without having 'tea', which is really just tea and food, like sandwiches and bread. If you don't offer tea, don't expect anyone to show up. Anywho, I've had the opportunity to go to two weddings here and I will say, they know how to party. If I were Motswana I imagine weddings would be awesome. It's essentially just a huge neighborhood block party with all of your friends from the ward, and I feel like there are quite a few weddings (not nearly as many as funerals, but that's for a different day). Well, I'm not Motswana so I don't think they are awesome, I think they are slightly nerve-wracking and incredibly awkward. I would throw out a guess that most PCV's feel awkward attending new celebrations/stores/streets/neighborhoods (are you grasping that I mean everywhere?) during training, and especially alone. We get stared at everywhere and no matter how fluently we speak Setswana they WILL laugh at anything and everything we attempt to say in it. We have been told numerous times that the laughing isn't meant to be mean, but it isn't exactly encouraging when they laugh every time you state your name.
Peggy, my host sister, asked me this afternoon to go to the wedding with her and we would meet mma there. I am usually really busy and unable to attend such functions, but finding my whole afternoon open, I obliged (even though I really just wanted to lay on my bed and try to nap because it's COLD today and awesome because it rained, that's right, it rained here, it's a big deal). We walked the 3 minutes across the street to the wedding and immediately we are handed a spoon and told to start serving. There are at least three serving stations full of women throwing food everywhere (which are all equally terrifying to walk up to) at this place and roughly 200 people in attendance, but it's hard to tell because people are just moving all over the place. There are seven bowls of food and you would think it would be easiest to just form an assembly-like line to pass the plates through, but no, we just randomly grab plates and scoop food on whatever is in front of us, with many plates missing multiple bowls. After about thirty minutes of scooping semp, Peggy pulls me out of the line and battles her way through not one, not two, but three serving lines to get me a plate of food she thinks I will like. I love her. The meal consisted of a meat substance called seswa that I like to pretend is pulled pork (it really looks like it after you get passed the veins, bones, and creepy trachea-resembling tubes in it), pumpkin-squash, semp, cabbage, and even fresh salad greens. After eating we walk back to her place, find some random guy in her lawn to deliver the leg and rib cage of a dead and skinned cow from the bed of his pickup truck, help him move it into her kitchen, and then went back to the wedding. As we were watching the bride walk in with her second dress on, a little kid just throws down his drawers and pees right in front of me, then the song 'Silent Night' comes on. Not one person is phased by either of these things.

Site announcements

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Site announcement
After discussing this with a couple of people, I realized that when thinking about the PC life for the past two years, I rarely gave any concern to PST (pre service training) . PST was just a 2 month blip that, in the grand scheme of things, meant nothing to my overall service of 27 months. Well, right now I wholeheartedly disagree. It feels like we have been here for years and thinking that I have only known my fellow trainees for six weeks is practically mind blowing. We have concluded that they make this 2 months long and grueling just so we all bond a tiny bit better. Well done peace corps, well done.
The site announcements are a huge deal and staff makes it a ceremony, complete with cookies and tears (usually of joy...usually). In the weeks before placement, the staff sits down with each trainee a couple times in order to get a feel for the needs and wants of the PCV (although many people feel that it doesn't really matter what you preference and they just do it to seem like you have some say in where you end up, they give you what they give you). I decided from the very start of the PC process that I do not care where I go. I have this feeling that wherever I get placed in the world is fate and I should not mess with it, it will all work out. Plus, one of the reasons I did PC was to challenge myself and go outside of my comfort zone. I made no preference to what country, or even continent, that I wanted and I could not have been placed in a country better than Botswana. As for my village, my only real concern was that I would be placed far from other volunteers. For those who know me (especially my roommates), know that I dislike being away from people and will often sit in the living room yelling at people until they come hang out with me. I also really wanted the north but I did not want to say that out loud, for fear that if I said it and did not get it, I would be disappointed, and you really can't be disappointed if you just don't care. For those wondering, the north has all the wildlife and is hotter, while the south is not as scenic but is cooler. Once again, the PC gods helped me out and handed me just what I needed, a village called Mosetse. For those looking at a map (I'm talking to you, Janet!) it's in the central district of Bots, about 100km northwest of Francistown, and a little to the right of the Sua Pan. The trusty Wikipedia told me that in 2001 they had a population of about 1,600. And that, my friends, is literally all I know about this village. I have no idea what my house will be like, or if I will have electricity or running water. I know that it is in the region that speaks the Ikalanga language, which is pretty unfortunate because the last six weeks I've been learning Setswana. But don't worry, "you will still need to know Setswana". I'm skeptical, but again, I will figure it out. I am placed about 50km from a couple other volunteers and there are probably about seven or more within 150km. I will not be completely alone! It's great because I can live in my small village with my few amenities, but when I get really desperate I can go crash with people who live in larger villages nearby and have, what I assume will be, nicer places (meaning they might have showers and grocery stores). Or I could have a nice, new, amazing house with all the bells and whistles.
I'll be working in the clinic, probably just weighing babies and passing out food for kids until I can figure out what projects the community needs and work on those. I really want to start a garden and do some sort of nutrition workshops but I really can't do anything for the first few months because we're just supposed to be watching, doing our community assessment, and integrating into the community. It's called lockdown, we are not allowed to leave our village at all except to go to our shopping village. Many volunteers break this rule immediately.
I went into PC with average to low blood pressure, now I'm pretty sure I'm hypertensive. The amount of salt Mma adds to the food is unreal. I do not even want to purchase salt when I leave Serowe. Food is the main reason I'm pumped to be done with PST. I lucked out with an awesome host family and housing situation, but god almighty I really can't wait to cook for myself, and have my own kitchen. Everyone feels pretty much the same about that. I'm excited to eat food called whole grains (if those even exist here, I'm not too sure), and buy skim milk. Ah yes, the milk. When I first arrived I saw full cream milk in the fridge and just assumed it was for Game, the two year old. Unfortunately, I was wrong. Full cream milk is the norm and you have to go out of your way to find skim milk and pay an extra ten pula. I also am excited to just wake up in the morning, walk out of my room, and be completely alone.
In every site each volunteer is supposed to have a counterpart they work with in their village. Well today, all 58 counterparts are supposed to be coming to Serowe for a two day workshop where we talk about our feelings or something along those lines. PC loves having everyone talk about their feelings for extended periods of time, it's really great. We've heard stories of really awful counterparts and really great ones, so it can go either way. We shall see!
2.5 weeks until site!

I really want pulled pork.

The past few days I was shadowing a volunteer who lives in Mokgomane which is about 3 hours south of gabs. Most of us went to different villages/towns to shadow, but I had another trainee with me, so there were three of us. The village is small with about 800 people. Her sector is life skills, so her primary assignment is to work in schools. After those few days, I am happy I am not life skills. I am not very good with kids and it doesn't seem very appealing to me. However, I did have a really fun time, and the kids were very excited to have us there! We decided it was probably the most white people they have seen at once. They just sit and stare at us, and often run away when you try to approach them, it's pretty entertaining. Her house was big, lacked furniture, no running water, but she had electricity!
We find out our site on Thursday and everyone is freaking out about where they are going to be placed and praying it will be close to other volunteers. I have no idea where I will be placed, and I had no requests when they asked. I'd rather be rural than in a bigger city, it would be very hard to meet people and integrate into the community in a larger village. The south is cooler, but the north is better scenery-wise. I will make the best out of anywhere I get placed. I do hope I am placed in a clinic and not an office, we shall see.
Today is exactly one month since entering botswana, and it feels like YEARS. We are only halfway done with training, which is crazy because I feel like we've already talked about so many things, I'm not sure what else they are going to try to throw at us. Sessions are very long, and usually boring. We even have homework......which I should probably start actually doing. It's not very motivating to do the homework when you know you aren't being graded and the last thing they want to do is kick you out of peacecorp after they have invested thousands of dollars in you already.
I'll post on Thursday where I will be placed for the next two years!


Also, I'm craving pulled pork and ice cream. And basically anything American.

Ramblings.

Ramblings.

Talking with everyone else about their host family situation is probably the most common conversation we have with each other as PC trainees. The more we talk the more I realize how awesome my house is. I get fed often, and a lot. My mma isn't overly protective like one I know of, but she still cares a lot and she lets me pretty much do my own thing which I greatly appreciate. She usually cooks every night while I still awkwardly stand in the corner learning how to cook the way she does, and she always over feeds me, unlike some of my starving classmates. If we have extra food we are supposed to bring it for those whose families may not have the most. The only problem (and its not even a problem, really) currently is that she really wants me to go to church with her. And sure you could say "well gosh Christy, this woman took you into her home as a total stranger, the least you could do is go to church with her".  Well let me tell you something...she was at church for EIGHT HOURS TODAY. The actual church part is four hours, then the next four they go around preaching to those who can't make it to church. I'm all for expanding my cultural knowledge of Botswana, but no, no thank you. I can hear the church next to my house three nights a week praising Jesus as I try to go to sleep at 8:30pm, so I feel like that is plenty. I explained to her and a couple others today that I just don't go to church, and that blows their minds. Motswana are usually quite religious so it's uncommon to have someone come who isn't.

Today was very productive. I got up at sunrise, about 6am (which is common now since I go to bed at roughly 8:30) and took off with a friend to walk pretty much all over the village and to the top of a hill that overlooks everything. Then came home, made an epic egg and tomato sandwich while the kids watched us cook and grabbed egg off our plates with their dirty hands. Oh yes, sanitation. Let's talk about that for a minute. I've realized that it is much better to actual not watch anyone prepare food if you have any sort of standard for cleanliness in the kitchen. It's common for some of the families to cut raw chicken with a knife and then cut a salad without washing the knife. Luckily, my fam is and cleans pretty well. Some of the stuff they don't refrigerate, like mayo, so I went for a while eating it and not even realizing they don't put it in the fridge, and I'm still alive, so that is a relief. Anywho, I also cleaned my room, did my laundry for the first time, and helped Peggy cook dinner.  Boom, productivity at its finest. 

Bits and pieces

I have officially eaten white rice four nights in a row and three lunches this week. I cannot explain to you how much Motswana love carbs. It's not uncommon to eat porridge, spaghetti, and bread all in one meal (all white, unfortunately). My host mother is literally trying to fatten me up, she told me so. They all want to be fat here and "look like the chief's wife". Statistically speaking, women tend to lose weight during PST and gain it during their service, so we shall see, but if my mother had her way I'd be eating about 3,000 calories a day in damn starch! I have to watch her and grab the plate away after about the fifth scoop of rice. Along with rice or spaghetti we have usually chicken cooked with spices, or beef (which I fricken love) that she cooks with spices, too. Super simple recipes but all pretty good, haven't had a problem yet except that she just gives me way too much and I never finish it. 

I don't know if I've touched on the bathing situation very well yet. Aside from taking bucket baths, which in all honesty I don't mind very much, we are supposed to take at least two baths a day. For pretty much anyone who knows me, is aware that bathing that much is a huge struggle and I had to lay it down right in the beginning, "Mma, I only bathe once a day". She just shook her head and walked away, and we've been swell ever since. Also, I dress roughly five thousand times nicer here than I did at home. Dresses pretty much daily, sometimes I really doll myself up with some mascara, I can see that ending pretty quickly, though. 

After class today (Friday) we got out early and they took us to the gym on campus and it was a blast. We all did yoga, basketball, ran, just blew off some steam after a week of being stuck in a classroom. After that we went to the bar right outside the college campus and it was even better. The locals were filming us in the bar because everyone was dancing and singing and acting crazy at 4pm. But, alas, we all have to be home before dark and all the zombies come out, so we left by 5:30pm. Great end to our first full week of PST. Here's to the next 9!

Oh oh oh, PS! They have great cheddar *flavored* popcorn. I don't care  if it's real cheese or not, as long as it tastes good, and it does. 

A nine year old is my best friend.

BOTSWANA

Botswana- the country

Batswana- the people 

Motswana- a singular person from Bots

Setswana- the language of Bots, although practically everyone speaks English, especially the young.

I have been in bots for about a week, and at my host families for 5 days. My host family is comprised of my host mother Mesego, and her grandson Lesego, who also lives in the house. Lesego's mother and three other children live next door with her 87 year old mother, as well as a plethora of her sisters whose names I cannot and will not ever remember or be able to pronounce. The community has been incredibly welcoming to us and we've had quite a few ceremonies to meet city officials as well as chief of our wards. There are many wards within the village and each ward has a chief who is born into the role. Their job is to oversee their designated community.

Every volunteer gets a Setswana name from their families when arriving and community members will always ask your English and Setswana name. No matter what, after you say your Setswana name, they will laugh. I've realized they aren't laughing at me, it's just what they do. Most people get names like "blessed one" and "gift from God" but nope, I am Gaone which means young one. I like it, I think it's endearing and not cheesy, it's the name she calls her children. 

Things I've learned about Botswana....a vast generalization:

1. Motswana  women have hands of steel. They can pick up a metal kettle that that has boiling water in it and think nothing of it, while I, very clumsily try to pick it up with a towel while also trying to not light the towel on fire and swearing profusely. It's an ordeal. I'm pretty sure she takes baths in boiling water.

2. They LOVE cooking oil and salt. I've grease stained 3 articles of clothing so far. It's been 5 days.

3. I don't know if it's peace corps or bots, but we clap....at EVERYTHING. "Oh, you stood up...*clap clap clap clap*"

4. Get this, cows actually WEAR cowbells. And they are everywhere! I watched a little boy chase cows through my front lawn last night.

5. They love sorghum. I hate sorghum. I love corn flakes.

6. Donkey carts are an acceptable method of transportation.

7. Every single family is different. It's awesome comparing our homestays with other volunteers because often times they are quite different, for example: I have electricity, a stove, a fridge, a TV (although there is only one channel and I'm already sick of it), and my room is huge. Some people don't have any of that and some people have that plus more. Also, many people have had to kill their dinner with an axe...not my cup of tea. 

8. Walking around topless of near topless in front of PCV's is ok (luckily, I have not experienced this). 

I could go one for hours, but I will leave it at that for now. I barely have Internet so who knows when I'll even be able to post this.