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