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.