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!

Beef, Morogo and Phaleche!

Quick edit: 

I have learned a lot about food in the past few weeks. 

1. Batswana do know how to cook beef they just prefer it tough. 

2. The reason there is a bone in every piece of meat you get is because they like the connective tissue. It's like a treat. 

3. There is still an amazing amount of culture that surrounds the preparation of big meals (weddings, funerals, when the president decides at the last moment to come visit your district). I helped women cook 300 dipap this past weekend and it was so much fun! The women cook the bread and all the sides, the men cook the meat. This is what I have learned. 

I am literally learning new things every day here. Things I thought I knew turn out to be assumptions I made. I am 7.5 months in and still a baby when it comes to this culture. 

So here it is, the number one most requested post… Food.

The reason I have been avoiding this subject is not that I don't want to write about it, it's more because I don't know how to write about it. So Botswana is one of the most interesting places I have been in terms of food. It's not because there is this wonderful food culture with vibrant colors and flavors and a wonderful street food culture. No, it's not that. It's the exact opposite of that. There is no food culture here. I can tell you what people eat for every meal, every day, all year. It does't really change. The only thing that mildly differs is the kind of starch that goes with the meat and the spices they use (which don't vary that much to be honest). The food isn;t bad at all and in fact, I actually enjoy it. It's just that there isn't much variation of culture surrounding food. That being said, 

Typical Setswana meal:

• Extra large portion of starch- this can be a variety of different things from a porridge made of sorghum (with either sour milk or regular milk), phaleche (corn meal and water that is cooked until it's basically rubber. It's almost like grits... except not at all), or on very rare occasions, rice.
• Small portion of meat- Chicken or beef. The chicken is always butchered slightly oddly so you never know where a bone is going to pop out. In general the chicken is normally good and cooked well. The beef is either lovely dish called seswa (again the butchered spelling) which is dried, pounded beef that has been rehydrated. It's absolutely delicious when cooked well and salty, dry, and sometimes deadly (bones, bone fragments, large pieces of cartilage to choke on) when cooked badly. The other way they cook beef is to overcook it until it's so chewy you can't bite through it and you are left with this wad of partially chewed beef that if you swallow may get lodged in your throat (in fact as I write this I think I can feel a lump of undigested mystery cut beef in my throat from lunch). 
• Even smaller portion of green veg- Spinach or rape (yes this is a vegetable, kind of resembles and tastes like kale) that was either cooked to a fine mush or is dried into what I consider horse feed and rehydrated. It's often combined with cooked onions and enough salt to make a salt lick.

Other staples:

• Coleslaw (normal coleslaw with 'tangy' mayonnaise)
• Beetroot 
• Pasta salad 
• Potato salad (more 'tangy' mayonnaise)
• Seasoned steak fries 
• Samp (think mostly whole dried, cracked corn kernals) and beans (my favorite setswana food by far)
• Russians (weird, salty sausage hotdog things)
• Phologne (pulverized meat product… Basically bologna… almost. It's an acquired taste that I hope to never, ever acquire)

All of this is followed by a toothpick because of the beef that will inevitably get caught in your teeth. 

So when I come home and you all want me to make you a traditional Swana meal just be prepared for two servings of phaleche that had to be cooked until burnt on the bottom, mystery cut beef that has been cooked until you can't cut through it without a chainsaw, and a side of salty vegetables. If I can find samp I will cook it and you will love it. 

Now the thing is Botswana has some of the best beef in the world, but two variables contribute to how horrible it ends up being rubber and bones. 

1. The cuts are horrible. Cutting against the grain is a non-concept. Actually come to think about it I'm not sure how they cut their beef. I feel like whenever I eat meat there is a mystery bone in it. I don't know where these bones are coming from or, for that matter where on the cow the beef is coming from. 

2. Most people don't know how to cook it. I'm pretty sure it's just overcooked most of the time. I have never had beef this tough in my life. I always feel like a strange animal eating beef here. You will inevitably have to use your hands to help your teeth tear at the rubbery piece of "meat". 

I do not actually eat Swana food every day or even every week but I do really enjoy it whenever I eat it. Strangely it tastes like home. I just have to learn not to eat the beef… but it's so salty and nice. 

Oh I forgot to mention fat cakes and dipapata. Fat cakes are basically slightly sweet fried dough balls and are the best things ever. Dipap (as we PCVs fondly refer to them) are more or less like english muffins except fresh and warm and delicious…er. 

FOOOOD. I would post a song here but I'm being lazy and I won't, sorry. Not that sorry. 

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