Peace Corps Life?

Hey everyone! I have been trying to write something for basically the entire month. Cleraly that has worked out well… I have been writing entries that are way to personal or just not interesting enough. I have written about fears, love, and baboons throwing their poo into the courtyard of my office. Yet somehow I can’t bring myself to actually post any of these. So I wrote one I CAN post. 

Life is normal here. I put on my business causal every day and walk to work, at one of two offices. It doesn’t change much. So I figure I will post my normal schedule for the day. 

This is boring to me but hey, you guys asked.

5:30 Wake up

5:31 Fall back asleep

6:00 (about) Wake back up for real this time

• Make coffee in my French press (what I wouldn’t give for some real filter coffee)
• Stare at the things in my kitchen trying to find something that sounds good for breakfast
• Can’t find anything
• Take coffee outside
• Turn on some music
• Check to make sure my shuffle is on the charger
• Sit on my couch and stare at the wall contemplating life
• Finally get up and find a dress/skirt and top
• There’s sand in it… and it kind of smells bad despite being clean… wear it anyway.
• General hygiene things and makeup if I’m feeling really motivated.
• Pack bag
• Feed cat
• Try and find shoes that aren’t trashed… put on Chacos anyway
• Stare at things in my kitchen… try to make lunch… put 3 apples into my bag instead
• Make sure doors to my room, kitchen and bathroom are closed, pet cat.
• Lock door
• Pop in headphones

7:10 Walk to work

• Greet people I know and people I don’t
• Give high fives to some of the kids I recognize/know
• Talk to some random person who has seen me walking before and wants to take me out drinking/wants a picture/wants money/wants to be my friend.
• OR talk to someone I am actually friends with which always makes my day
• Look out over Namibia and appreciate the beauty of my placement
• Avoid dogs/warthogs/baboons/elephants/drunk men
• Sweat… a lot… too much for walking down hill while it’s still a nice temperature

Then my day goes one of two ways:

Monday:

7:30 Arrive at work

• Get computer up and running
• Work on different formats for forms/planning meetings/work on schedule
• Get very overwhelmed by the amount of people in the small office all talking as loud as possible in Setswana

10:00 Finish all foreseeable work

10:10 Make coffee… drink coffee.

1:00-2:00 Lunch

Rest of the day:

• Eat apples
• Type thoughts
• Update schedule again and realize I have nothing to update
• Attend Meeting(s) mostly in Setswana and only understand about 50% of what is being said if I am concentrating a lot.
• Read a book
• Text people
• Walk to Spar (Grocery Store)/Hot Bread Shop (delicious) to get food
• Go to one of the NGOs to talk to the coordinator about some project or just to say hi
• Walk to the DHMT (District Health Management Team) to get some data or double check something
• Go talk to some of the women who run little produce stands outside the petrol station
• Try to understand what is going on in my office… emphasis on the try.
• When I run out of things to keep myself busy, I normally go home

Rest of the week:

7:50-8:00 Arrive at work

• Visit OVCs
• Plan meetings
• Attend meetings
• Fill out reports
• Update schedule and list of things to do
• Visit important members of the community (dikgosi, VDC, Government officials etc.)
• Visit different branches around the district
• Create plans of action for current and future programs
• Distribute aid
• Work through lunch
• Any number of other activities and programs

After work:

3:30-4:30 Walk home

• Go grab a small snack from one of the stands (sweet reed, cheese puffs, gum, coke, dried fruit, mango… or not
• Stop to talk to someone I know
• Stop in one of the shops to look at things I can’t afford
• Avoid stairs as long as possible
• Walk up hill and get to stairs
• Look up towards the sun, wipe sweat off face, sigh, tell a man no, I don’t want to give him my number or have him walk me home
• Sigh
• Walk up three flights of stairs in the burning sun
• Greet people I know and don’t know
• Give children high fives
• Slowly walk home

4:00-5:00 Get Home

• Prevent my cat from escaping the house as I open the door
• Complain about the heat
• Mop sweat off my face and chest
• Try to open windows to cool down the house
• Cat escapes
• Run after cat like a crazy person
• Catch cat
• Close windows
• Get a bottle of cold water and go outside
• Turn on music 

5:30 Walk to my counterparts house or meet my counterpart somewhere for a walk/run

6:30 Walk home

• Repeat process with cat
• Stare at the things in my kitchen trying to find something to eat
• Make an alright dinner (sometimes it’s great! This week I made spaghetti!)
• Turn on TV show/movie on my computer and eat dinner
• Do dishes while boiling water for a bath
• Pet cat
• Fill my bucket with half boiling water, half cold water
• Hear cat on the counter in the kitchen (normally the clattering of dishes falling clues me in)
• Remove cat from kitchen entirely because she cant handle that responsibility
• Sit in larger bucket, tub thing
• Bath (pouring yogurt cups of water from other bucket over my head)
• Hygiene things
• Make tea
• Take tea outside, turn on music
• Lock doors
• Fix mosquito net
• Lay in bed and read a book/write in my journal

9:00-10:00 Fall asleep

Sorry, I know that was boring. But it is literally what I do almost every day. For weekends, replace all the work things (let’s be real here not all of them because we always have events on the weekends), with doing laundry, waiting for laundry to dry, sweeping, mopping, cleaning house, and raking my yard/pulling weeds. Also add a lot more movies, tv shows, and spontaneous dancing around the house.

P.s. The President is coming to Kasane on Sunday. So I might meet the President of Botswana. It also means I get to help cook swana food all day!