Two Months At Site

Hey everyone!

I know it's been forever! My hard drive on my mac crashed so I had really no access to a computer outside of my smart phone. I just got another computer this past week but now that I am sitting down to write this, for some reason nothing is coming to me. A lot has happened in the past two months and I want to tell all of you about it but for right now I just can't bring myself to write this. My thoughts are somewhere completely different. 

Everything is going well overall. The Red Cross closed this past Friday so now I am only working at the District Aids Coordinating office. I will be off Christmas Day and boxing day. 

To everyone who has written me, thank you so much. You have no idea how much your letters cheer me up during the day. I have read them and reread them many times. All pictures/paintings/fun things that you have sent me are on the walls and make me feel so much more at home. 

I will probably do a big update some time after Christmas or the beginning of the year. Send me questions you have and I will answer them! Life her has become normal so I don't know what to tell you/show you guys. 

I just really wanted to let everyone know that I am alright and enjoying a simpler life in Kasane, Botswana. 

Love you guys and miss you so much! Christmas cards are on their way!

Have a wonderful and safe holiday season!

- Erica (Tebogo)

I'm At Site!

Hey everyone!

I arrived safely at site. I have been attending meeting after meeting since my arrival as well (some of them have been in English, some have not). Last week I spend the whole week with my wonderful counterpart begin introduced around the community. I have met about 2/3 of the NGOs and other organizations in Kasane and will be introduced to the rest when I get back from Francistown. My house is wonderful. It is really nice to have my privacy and to really get into a routine here. 

Kasane/Kazungula is a gateway to three countries: Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Being In Kasane, I have a constant stream of visitors coming through my house. Last week I have the lovely Julia Byrd who spent the night on her way to Zambia. This weekend I am going to have two Namibian volunteers staying here. So, while my weeks are filled with work, my weekends are great chances to meet people. Most, if not all of you guys have been seeing my pictures. I am located right next to a game reserve, which is really great. I haven’t been on a game drive yet but that is soon to come. I also need to go on a boat cruise down the river as well. I constantly have baboons (terrifying) and warthogs (weirdest animal ever) roaming the streets near my house. They are really kind of  a bother more than anything especially when they get in your yard and more importantly in your trash.

Baboons have the tendency to stand there and bark at you. Yes, bark. I was sitting on my porch one night and I heard something barking at me… sounded like the strangest dog I had ever heard… it was a baboon.  Ever since then whenever I walk by them I give them a bit of distance because it was scary. Also warthogs can also be quite horrible. I was walking down the stairs to get to Kasane and I go over the hill, and there in front of me are two warthogs fighting. All the Batswana were walking giving them a bit of room but overall just walking to work as normal. I on the other hand was stuck at the top of the stairs just staring at them and wondering what to do (and getting laughed at). I tried to follow everyone else’s lead and just walk around them. It would have worked if something hadn’t spooked them from the other side. So here I am standing awkwardly on a path while warthogs are running straight at me. So I ran. Got laughed at some more. Ran some more. I was fine… promise.

I had heard coming into Peace Corps that your highs are really high but your lows are really low. After two weeks at site, I can confirm this. You can even go from extreme high to extreme low in a matter of seconds. Let’s just take yesterday for example. Saw a cat next to my house in the morning and got waved at by children on my way to work (high… it’s the small things alright). Got mean stared at (there's a difference) on my way into work then got talked about in Setswana in front of my face when I got to work (low). Got hit on by a superior (lower). Got hit on by a colleague (lower). Got talked to like I’m a child (lower). Got hit on by another one of my colleagues (lower). Got randomly hugged by a group of school children (super high). KFC ice cream (high). Got to see my friend Kim who was in the Department of Health reviewing data (high). Random guy in the street does that horrible tss thing at me and after I turn him down for a date asks me to marry him instead (low). Get home fell altogether very alone (low). And it goes on and on. I honestly feel mildly bipolar here. I do hear that this constant flip-flopping of emotional highs and lows is normal among volunteers though so I guess that’s good?

But anyway besides the lows, I am actually having a great time. It’s hard and there are bad days but overall I am meeting some wonderful people and experiencing some amazing things.

Miss you all!

Erica

"How do you feel about apple pie?"

I have been telling everyone who will listen that this is a hard experience to put into words because, well, it is. There is no way for me to accurately express what I am feeling here. I am the happiest I think I have ever been here. I feel more at peace with my environment and myself than I have since camp… 3 years ago. I know without a single doubt this is what I am meant to be doing right now. The experiences I have had and the people I have met (both PCTs and host country nationals) have been life changing. I don’t think I will ever look at things the same way as I did when I came here. It’s incredible to think of where all of us were when we came here. Some of us had all these pre-conceived notions of what we would find and what we would experience. Everything I ever thought about Peace Corps, Africa, or Botswana was both completely wrong and also completely right… Which I realize makes no sense whatsoever… But it’s late and I can’t think of a better way to explain it right now.

In 3 days I am going to be able to say that I am officially a Peace Corps Volunteer. In four days I will be dropped off at my site, in the middle of a village I have never been in before. This is both a terrifying and overwhelmingly exciting to think about. I have been anticipating this day for almost two years now. It is incredible to think of how quickly this time has passed and just how much I have learned. It’s hard to decompress after all these long days in training. Lately, I have been trying to take long walks around Serowe just to think.  Somewhere between silently facing off with roosters and goats and declining marriage proposals, I have been able to really think and rationalize everything I have experienced here and the truly heavy nature of the commitment I am about to make.

I feel so incredibly lucky to have had such an incredible experience in Serowe and to have another two years of wonderful adventure to look forward to.

 My counterpart and I at the counterpart workshop.

Info on my site:

I will be in Kasane working at the Red Cross. Specifically, I will be working with youth programs and a bit on Malaria prevention. I hope to be able to work with and partner with all the amazing NGOs in that area as well. I signed up to take a Grassroots Soccer training session during IST so I am really hoping to make that into a major project for the kids in my community.  We’ll see how well that ideas sticks after community entry.

Oh, so I should probably mention that for the first two months I am at site I will be doing what is called the community assessment. What that basically means is that I will spend the next two months getting integrated into my community. I will be spending a lot of time in the Red Cross office to get a good grip on how things operate there but I will be spending even more time in my community just getting to know the people I will be serving and what their needs are. Peace Corps really tries to be a grassroots organization and work with host country nationals to help them achieve the things they want to achieve (while still meeting our goals). So a key part of the process is really understanding the community and what the needs of that community are. That is what I will be doing for the next two months.

I am more excited than I can express to be starting this amazing journey in less than a week.

As always, if you have any questions or comments, let me know and I will answer them! I may be without internet for the next two weeks or so (I really have no idea what my internet situation will be) but I will get to you eventually I promise.

I miss you all and hope things are going well stateside!

Erica

You Sleep Like a Goat!

This is going to be a long blog post so I’m sorry. I will try to update more often for the next two months or so while things are still new and interesting. So much has happened in two weeks that I’m finding it hard to figure out just want to start this blog with.

So on September 2^nd my cohort and I went to Khama Rhino Trust. The rhino reserve was absolutely amazing. It was my first ever safari and I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. We saw wildebeest, springbok, zebras, an amazing eagle, impala, and a white rhino. The reserve is home to something like fifty white rhinos and five black rhinos. It has giraffes, hyenas, and occasionally big cats. It really was an amazing experience and it was the first time we didn’t have to be in the training center all day which was a much-welcomed break.

Later that same week Chris, Mike, Muhammad and I went to a small NGO in Serowe called Little Friends. Little Friends is a preschool for orphans and vulnerable children (OVCs) that was partially funded by St. Vincent de Paul. They provide OVCs ages 2.5-6 lessons in language (Setswana and English) and math as well as a number of life skills including toilet training, good touch/bad touch and HIV/AIDS prevention (yes they start them that young). It is run by a wonderful elderly Motswana woman named Ellen who is incredibly passionate about providing this opportunity for children that are not able to afford preschool. She told us her dream is “to educate every child in Botswana” but their mission was to “ensure that every OVC in Serowe goes through preschool.” It was really rather inspiring to be able to talk with this amazing woman and really get the chance to pick her brain.

The week after (so the week of the 10^th) was shadowing week. Shadowing is where we spend three full days with a current serving volunteer to really see how life is as a PCV. I spent my shadowing experience with the wonderful Mia Sprinke in a small village northwest of Gabs, in the desert, called Metsibotlhoko (met-see-boe-klow-koe). Now when I say small… I mean small… 400 people in the entire village small. From Gaborone, it took us an hour-long combi ride and an hour-long hitch to get to her site. She lives in a small two-room (kitchen/sitting room and bedroom) home with no electricity and no running water inside (which means a lovely pit-latrine). She is lucky and the community tap is no more than 50 ft from her home. She works at the primary school in her village. Her main job is to promote and teach life skills in the school. So I was with her every day at school working with the kids in the library on this book report challenge she was running. Every morning we would go to school at 7am then leave around 11:30 to make lunch then we were back by 2:30 to work in the library. Each night we came back to Mia’s house only to find the kids waiting for us hoping to get some hula hoops, a tennis ball, or a jump rope to play with for the night. I had a blast reading to them and playing with them until it got dark. I even got a little boy named Kabo to read and write for me, something all the teachers had struggled with. Somehow I always forget how much I love children until something like this happens and I am able to really connect with a child (a child that spoke almost no English mind you). While there I got the pleasure of perfecting my bucket bathing technique and my squatting over a pit latrine skillz. So the thing Metsibotlhoko is known for is the salt pans that are there. The people all around the saltpans used to go there to get their water. They dig these primitive wells and use buckets to scoop out the water. Now that they have their community taps it is used as a way to water their cattle and donkeys. We walked out there one night before I left just to see it. It was really neat to see this flat place where nothing really grows in the middle of the bush. So if you can’t tell, I had an amazing time at shadowing. I still think my favorite part was when the bus driver, on the way back to Serowe, randomly starts blasting “Call Me Maybe.” Classic Africa.

THEN, on the 18^th we went to the only closed city in Botswana, Orapa. Orapa is the site of two of Botswana’s diamond mines. We started the day out with a fun introduction on security and the history of Orapa and the diamond mining there. We also got a super fun explanation as to why Botswana’s diamonds are the best because they aren’t blood diamonds. So, no my experience was not nearly as exciting as the movie… in case you were wondering. Most of the diamonds mined in Orapa are used for manufacturing purposes (saw blades, etc.). They are open mines so they are not underground. Anywho the most exciting part of the entire trip (in my opinion) was getting to climb all over this massive dump truck. I’m going to try to get a picture of it to post up here because it was wonderful. All my dreams as a child were answered by climbing on this truck that had tires that wee twice my height. My inner 8 year old child self was jumping for joy… no shame. It was awesome. We were supposed to see a piece of machinery called ‘The Crusher” but it wasn’t running that day and my inner 8 year old died a little. We were also supposed to go see the processing plant but that also wasn’t actually doing anything that day so we didn’t end up going. It was actually a really fun trip and I am happy I got to see the thing that makes Botswana famous and wealthy.

Alright, last thing, I promise. So the most exciting thing that has happened by far… I GOT MY PLACEMENT! On October 15^th I will be sworn in as an official Peace Corps Volunteer and get shipped off to my permanent village for the next two years. Now I have basically hit the Peace Corps Botswana lottery with this placement and immediately after you read this you should all go google image this place. I was placed in the beautiful village of Kasane, Botswana. My main project will be working with the Red Cross in Kasane but there are numerous other NGOs up in that area so I can diversify my service as much as I want while there. I will post more on this over the weekend. I'm thrilled to know where I am going and what I will be doing. 

Things are going great here! As always if you have any specific questions please let me know and I will answer them!

Love and miss all of you!

Erica

Leina La Me Ke Tebojo

In a week and a half so much has happened I am finding it hard to even figure out what to write about. I could go off on a HIV crusade and tell you about everything I have learned about the crisis here. About how one in five people are living with HIV, about how just about every Batswana has lost at least one family member to AIDS. I could talk on my soapbox for pages on the topic of female empowerment through male empowerment and the exploration of masculinity (I realize I’m the only one interested in this… I’ll just wait for my future dissertation). I could tell you about the amount of death I have already seen and heard of in Serowe alone then go on to make inferences about life, death, and love. I could talk for pages about the gender dynamics and tradition in Botswana. I could talk about the Kgosi and the amazing traditional governing in the villages. I could talk about the dynamic behind the non-acceptance/illegality of the LGBQT community here. I could talk about the kindness of these people and their openness to change and new thought. I could talk about the food, the music, the lifestyle, the way we do laundry, and on and on and on.

If I wrote about everything I could write about I would be writing a novel and I don’t want to bore any of you that much. I have told a lot of people that it’s hard to put this experience into words. Most of the time I love it but sometimes I hate it. Sometimes I want to go home; sometimes I want to call this place home. I will look at the donkeys with their front hooves tied together so they won’t wander too far away and think gosh this place is different then I’ll go for a walk and hear Mirrors coming out of some child’s phone and I am immediately transported home. There are parts of the culture in Botswana that are so completely different but then there are parts that are so incredibly westernized.

I am having a blast learning everything there is to learn about the people, the culture, and the language. I guess our practical sessions about HIV are okay too. This week I am going for a practicum to a NGO called Little Friends. It is a preschool for Orphans and vulnerable children. We are going to interview a few staff to see how the organization is run, what its mission is, and the kinds of services they provide. In a week I will be leaving Serowe (most likely) to shadow a current volunteer for three days. I will live with them, go to work with them, and explore the wonders of public transport.

I will do a post on a few of the topics up there in a few days/weeks, but for now I just wanted everyone to know that I am having a blast and am happier than I have been in a long time.

Love you guys and miss you all!

Setswana phrase of the day: Leina la me ke Tebogo mo Botswana. Kwa Amerika ke Erica. (my name in Botswana is Tebogo. In America my name is Erica.)

If you just want to say my name is (blank) it's: Leina la me ke (blank).

Picture Time!

 On the left is a little girl at the bar just in front of the college where our PST is. She had fun posing for the camera. On the right is my friend's home. 

 Perma-gardening! We made six beds and planted rape and spinach!

Puppy time. This little guy was a little shy but still adorable. 

Mail

Hey everyone!
So quick note on mail. Just a reminder that my address is in the upper right corner of the blog. It's even in blue so you can't miss it.

Make sure you use USPS not UPS of FedEx. It will be cheaper for you and I won't have to pay to receive my mail. I'm poor. Yay!
It takes about a week for letters to arrive and a month for packages. If you have something small to send like a flash drive full of music/movies (hint hint) use those padded envelopes you can get at the post office. Those send like letters so I will get them quicker! If you have something, bigger double check with my mother to see if she is sending anything any time soon and you can throw it in that box. I think that is it for now if you have any questions shoot me an email, comment at the bottom or contact me on Facebook.
For the next twoish months I will have internet during week days from 7am until about 5pm my time (6 hours ahead If you are in Michigan/Georgia) so if you have an iPhone, iPod or iPad you can iMessage me and I will respond during my breaks.

If you are looking for more ways to contact me, again email (elynnj@comcast.net), comment here, shoot me something on Facebook, follow me on twitter (@urkalynn), or snail mail!

Love and miss you all!
Erica

Dumelang!

So I am here, safe, and oh so happy! Africa is everything and nothing like I expected. There are certain aspects like the livestock wandering the streets and the chickens, dogs, cows, goats, donkeys, or any other number of creatures waking you up at god-awful hours in the morning (Whoever said roosters only crow at dawn lied to us. They lied.), that I kind of expected but the kindness of the Batswana and the community commitment and mindset is something I didn’t expect. Here when you walk around when you greet someone they are eager to ask you where you are from, when you got to Botswana immediately followed by when you got to Serowe, and if I know any number of famous musicians.

Here, greetings are incredibly important to people. It is a way of acknowledging a person and saying, yes I know and respect the fact that you are here with me. As many of the Peace Corps documents say, “You are acknowledging their personhood, their being.” So when I say Dumela mma (hello, ma’am) or Dumela rra (hello sir) I am telling you that I value you as a human. It’s really fun to walk down the street and greet people. They all look at you like WOAH this white girl knows some of my language. You will always get big smiles and normally a little giggle especially if you follow it up with a “Le kae?” or an “O tsogile jang?” (both of them basically mean how are you). The other day I went to the mall (more like a bunch of small shops and produce stands) and had a decent conversation with one of the locals and the woman I was purchasing my airtime from. They thought it was hilarious that I couldn’t remember my Setswana name but could remember how to say thank you two different ways. For the record, I do remember my Setswana name now. The language has been slow but it is definitely coming along considering last week the only thing I knew about Setswana is that there are two distinct clicks that basically sound the same. Now I can ask you how you are about 7 different ways and I know a ton of random vocabulary.

I am living with a host family for all 2 months of training. It’s really been great so far. It’s just my host mother and I in the house. She has two grown boys who live and work in Gaborone. Most nights when I get home from training, we sit and talk for a bit, have dinner and then she will help me with my Setswana. My mme is a hoot. She’s a real spitfire. She is in her 60s and has arthritis so she tends to stay in a lot but I am trying to get her to go out and walk with me more. But she is so incredibly smart. We have had many a discussion about politics, the healthcare system in Botswana, language and learning (she was the head of the secondary school), HIV/AIDS, malaria and countless other subjects. That tends to be my favorite part of the night even though I have been too tired out for the past two days and have just eaten, studied, bathed and gone to bed.

My walk to the college every morning. That white wall is my home!

Training is not easy. Our days are long and full of lessons upon lessons on everything from policy and procedure to how to take care of ourselves when we finally get intestinal troubles… if you know what I mean. We start at 8:00a and end around 5:00p every day and then Saturdays we have language from 8:00a until noon. We get some small breaks but besides that it’s session after session all day.

And right about now (8pm…) I get exhausted and end up passing out.  So that being said, I hope things are going well stateside! I miss you all more than I can say and wish you could be here with me right now.

Erica

Staging!!

So the past few weeks have been emotionally overwhelming. I have said a lot of goodbyes and even more see you laters. I had a wonderful time with my family last Saturday at my going away party and a great past week with my friends and coworkers. I had my last meal with my parents and brother. My last day at work was Friday where I got a lot of love from everyone there. Everyone has been so sweet to me and I am so thankful for the time I was able to spend with the people I love. I will miss you all so much!

Second cousin Kate and I at my going away party with family!

Last dinner with my "little" brother parents. 

Staging has been fantastic! There were a few sessions on what to anxieties, hopes, fears, health and safety. Mostly we just all got to get together and meet the people we will be spending the next 27 months with. I am sitting here at JFK right now waiting to fly out. This has been a great weekend with old and new friends and I can't wait for what is to come in just 17 hours. 

I love you all and miss you. I will post when I get to Botswana and get settled. 

Erica

I'm In A Glass Case Of Emotion.

I have been having major mood swings lately.

One moment I'm smiling, laughing and excited. Completely content with my decision and exceedingly happy about life. 

Two seconds later I am crying and a nervous wreck, questioning my decision and my intentions. 

I'm pretty sure the people around me think I'm a crazy person and I kind of feel like a crazy person. It was a huge decision to join the Peace Corps. The next 27 months are full of too many unknowns to count. This journey that I am about to start makes every other adventure I have had (which is quite a few) look like child's play. Everything is about to change. Everything and everyone I know is here. That being said I am so incredibly excited I can't think straight most of the time. This has been a year and a half in the making and it's finally about to happen. There are people I am going to miss dearly while I'm gone but I know I have their support which is an amazing feeling. 

A lot of you have been asking about things that I need for my trip so I will be posting a pre-departure list of things in the next few days. Now, I seriously don't expect anything and I think you are all too nice even asking. When in doubt give me a card with a nice note in it that I can read on the plane and a second note to open when I'm having a rough day in Botswana. Things like pictures, music and letters are invaluable to me. 

- Erica

This. Bahaha.

The Beginning

After one and a half long years of waiting, I am finally about to leave! I remember sitting on the porch of twin house for hours watching youtube videos from current ad past volunteers about everything from a tour of their home to the progression of their projects. I read blog after blog reveling in all the strange new things these incredible people were experiencing. In May of 2012 I submitted my application to the Peace Corps with high hopes and, I'm sure, a nervous giggle. Soon after I had an interview with my recruiter online while I was at camp. One day later, I had my nomination in hand: Health Extension in Central/South America. Then in early February I got my first invitation to Zambia as a Community Health Improvement Project volunteer. A day after my birthday I learned I was not medically qualified to serve in Zambia and then two days after that I had my new and current invitation in hand. Now a lot has happened between then and now. But the important part is that I am so incredibly ready to head out on this incredible 27 month adventure.

I graduated from the University of Georgia in December with a degree in Psychology. Since my third year of undergrad (yes it took me 4.5 years to graduate), I had planned on going straight into grad school to get a PhD in Developmental Psych. Clearly that isn't what happened. I love academia and miss it more than I ever thought I would. I plan to go back at some point after service...
So, I graduated and moved home to help my mother who was going through treatment for breast cancer (as I type she is at her final, all clear, appointment in Tulsa!). To fill up my time I ended up applying to a few jobs around the area. Somehow I ended up at Pier 1. I don't think I could have found a better part time job. The people are amazing. They are supportive, fun, and hard working. They have become like a second family to me and I will miss them all dearly. 

Now, my assignment. I know you are all bursting with excitement to learn about my assignment. 

I would add my technical job description and potential duties but that would be long and boring and no one wants to read that. NGO/CBO is Non-Governnment Organizations and Community Based Organizations. From what I gather, NGO volunteers can be placed just about anywhere in Botswana in just about any organization (anything from an after school club to a well known, well developed organization). So I know very little about my job for now. I will learn much more once I arrive in country and begin training. 

I leave for Philly the morning of August 11th for staging. Staging is just a day where we can all gather in one place and go over a few health and safety things before flying out (at ridiculously early, let me tell you). We leave from JFK on the 12th and fly for 16 hours to Johannesburg, South Africa. Then it's only a quick hop to Gaborone, Botswana. 

I think I have bored everyone to tears enough for now. If you have any questions, comments, blah blah blah, I would be happy to answer them. I will hopefully be able to keep this up while I'm in country to keep my family, friends, and future PCVs updated on all the new things that I experience!

- Erica (Urka)

OH, some things I had on my Zambia blog that I thought were really interesting. 

I don't know why she talks so slow but I'll leave this here.

A blog post about volunteering in the Peace Corps. It explains a lot. I found it really helpful. 

And then of course there's Poop In a Hole. Watching this again it actually seems kind of depressing… ehh whatever. Still a comedic interpretation of this experience.