Time is the longest distance between two places.

Hey everyone!
So I know it's been a while. Things have been busy this past month. I was lucky enough to start the new year with some wonderful friends, sparklers, puppies, and sparkling wine. This past month I was at IST (In-service Training) for almost three weeks all together. It was eventful and overwhelming at times but overall a great experience.
But I have a fun story about the trip down to Gaborone.

So to get to Gabs I have to take a combi (22ish person bus that is crammed to the breaking point with people and luggage) down to Francistown (6 hours) then another down to Gabs (another 5-6 hours). Theresa and Kim were staying the at my house to get an early combi out but I had to leave earlier than them so I could get to Serowe (extra 2.5 hours) to stay with my dear friend Anne. So at half 5, I left my house with my 45L bag on my back and my daypack on my front and waddled down the steps to the Kasane bus rank to catch the 6am combi to Francistown. When I got to the bus rank there were two combis there. One had clearly broken down and the second was leaking something. Both clearly safe... almost. So I got on the one that was leaking (aka the backup) and we started driving toward Kazungula… it was then that I realized that the combi was smoking a little. I was only a little worried so I stayed on. So here we are driving through the bush toward Pandamatenga and we here a BANG. The combi pulls over and apparently the tire has popped. They decide since we are only 20 minutes outside of Panda, we should probably just try to get there. So we get back in the combi and start driving away. The only problem is now the combi is shaking but it’s not horrible so we keep driving. Five minutes later we pass two hyenas running across the road 1k later we are shaking so violently the driver has no choice but to pull over.  Meanwhile I’m sitting in the back like “Uhhhhh did you not just see those animals that can kill us?!” So we pull over into the bush and all the men get out to stare at the flat tire. It is clear that none of these men have ever changed a tire before as they start doing all appropriate steps in reverse order. I’m standing in front of the combi at this point just watching them in disbelief. I turn around and just down the road (not even 1k) I see two elephants cross the road. All I could think was “This is where I die.” I was freaking out on the side of the road being made fun of by the Batswana that were with me and playing with a little girl I didn’t know. Great ways to pass the hour and a half wait for a backup combi. Also the mother of the little girl I was playing with was genuinely hoping I would take her and may have offered me money at one point... But, after the wait and an imagined animal attack on my part (I was ready to be one of the videos from “when vacations attack” or whatever that show was) I promise, I made it safely to Francistown and subsequently to Serowe and Gabs.
So I spent almost three weeks at a hotel in Gabs for IST after that. I got to sleep in air-conditioning for a majority of the time I was there and was able to take a hot shower or fifty. I was living in luxury. We learned a lot and spent a lot of time with each other which was probably the best part. I didn't realize how much I missed everyone until I saw them in Gabs.

So, it's been six months since I came to Botswana and I can honestly say I have not only gotten used to life here but it is really beginning to feel like home. When I say I want to go home now, I am talking about my little house in Kasane, not my home in the US. Things are becoming so normal it is hard to distinguish what is new and what is old.
These past six months, a lot has stayed the same but a lot has changed. I have gained and lost friendships and relationships. I have become friends with some of the most wonderful people I have ever met. I have learned to (roughly) speak a completely different language. I learned a lot about myself and what I am capable of and a lot about human nature. I have learned what I require out of a working environment and I am learning to lower my expectations of the people around me and of myself (which may sound like a bad thing but it is the key to sanely making it day to day sometimes). I have learned a lot about happiness and as cliche as it sounds, the negative (and positive) effects of western culture. It takes very little to be happy and the constant greed and wanting that is engrained in some cultures is detrimental to the integrity and mental state of its people.
I think the most important thing I have learned in the six months I have been here is that I can do anything (again super cliche, but oh so true). I have sat through more meetings than I can count that are held in a language I do not fully understand but I am able to catch enough to pose relevant questions and get people to think from another perspective (sometimes). I am helping an organization write a grant for a project aimed at giving female sex workers another avenue to make money (I have never written a grant in my life). I have stepped so far out of my comfort zone I may as well be in a different country (oh wait). I pulled myself out of some pretty low spots (you know the whole frustrated to the point of punching things, crying hysterically, and wanting nothing more than to leave immediately). I think the accomplishment I am most proud of right now is my ability to walk down the road and greet people, not because I am just greeting people (what I did for the first few months), but because I actually know them.

It's been an amazing experience so far and I am very much looking forward to the next year and a half in Botswana. This is home.

Erica

Happy Valentines day! Hope you all have someone special to spend it with (even if it's your pet or a bowl of ice cream and a horror movie). 

The Baboons Destroyed My Compost And An Elephant looked At Me Weird

So it's rainy season in Botswana. Which basically means I never have clean clothes, everything smells like mold, there are mosquitoes everywhere, and my lawn is about to attract snakes...

But on the bright side, the animals have started staying in the bush a bit more so no elephants roaming the streets ruining fences (yay), everything is SO green (Botswana was a dry barren place when I first got here. It makes sense when you think about the fact that the country is 3/4 desert), mangos, and cooler temperatures (cooler than skin melting that is). 

I am at the very end of my community entry phase of PC service. I will be back in Gabs for the first time in 5 months next week. For the past few months all I have been doing is getting to know the place I will be working. I have done a lot of watching and question asking. I have met more people than I actually know. I probably meet a good 10 people a day. I also go on more walks than I ever have in my life (walking 4-12 miles a day). I am now putting together a massive report for Peace Corps relaying all the information I have found out about my community. I will also be putting together a rough outline of issues and suggestions to solve them/suggested projects. 

I'm ready to really start work about now. Come February I will be hitting the ground running with my counterpart at the Red Cross. I will also be the new (stand in) Monitoring and Evaluation officer for the District Aids Council (basically I get to gather data, put it into an official report, and send it off to the national agency). I'm actually really excited about this one. I'll get to know a lot of really important people pretty well this way. But besides that I am hoping to put together some kind of young woman's club in the lower socioeconomic area of Kasane called Kapamadi. Then there will probably be a few smaller projects. I'm really excited basically. There's a lot of work to do and not much time to do it. 

So actually the main reason I wanted to write this is to tell you guys about this wonderful thing I am doing instead of a new years resolution. A full year of behavior change is super daunting to think about but something like a month seems much more manageable and will also result in more behavior change (in my opinion) than trying to rough it for a year. So what I am doing (an idea that was in a PC news letter a few months ago) is doing a year of "month of". A different thing for every month. and once the new month starts, the previous "month of" does not have to be continued. Some of these are harder than others and some are strategically placed. But here it is, my new years resolution. 

2014:

January- This one's kind of personal.

February- Daily meditation

March- Daily journaling

April- Daily new music 

May- Vegan (p.s. I'm not veggie anymore. So this will be interesting)

June- Reading (at least 10? books in the month)

July- Home cooked (Everything I eat must be home made. It's something I have always wanted to do)

August- Daily exercise 

September- Daily exploring 

October- 1/2 hour a day job searching/grad school research

November- Daily gardening/yard work

December- Letters (because this year's christmas cards went so well... I still have them)

So those of you that can or talk to me often, push me to actually do this. So far so good :)

Questions? Comments? Nothing?

Cool

Erica (Tebogo)

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.