Akantses tswa mma Seema: April 2006

Homestay

My home right now is in an impressive village southwest of Gaborone. Our village is huge – spread out over three rocky hills and then the flatter surrounding land. Almost everything you need can be found tucked away in some part of the community. There’s your typical “general dealer” – little shacks that sell soap, toilet paper, sometimes even milk and eggs, depending on the latest delivery. There’s also a Choppie’s “supermarket, and of course there are bars or shalseers (little shacks where the local drunkards spend their day), a central post office, police station, day care center, a primary and junior/senior secondary school, and tons of churches.
Each family has its own little compound, usually marked off by a hedge, wire-fences, or, in our case corn stalks. :)
Roosters, chickens, goats, donkeys, and cows roam around as they like in and out of everyone’s yards. Somehow, each and every animal in this huge village, belongs to somebody… naturally the most common case brought to the village Kyotla is some dispute over who owns this donkey or that chicken.
I live in a big bungalow with my mother, Mme Lillian and her older brother. Mme has retired from her work as a counsel secretary but is the most active little lady in our village – attending various committee meetings and planning council events, etc. I am one of the luckiest PCVs – this house has BOTH indoor plumbing and electricity…
My favorite times of the day are early morning and late evening I wake up at 6-ish- quite easily actually, because even though it’s still pretty dark out by this time, the roosters have been up for a good half-hour. I get out of bed, boil my water, take my bath, drink tea (I’ve become an avid tea-drinker!), eat breakfast, “sala sentle”! and leave the house for training. Then I make my way down the gravel road towards the village center where one of my classmates stays.
… after a long day I return from training, chat with Mme Lillian and whoever has dropped by, start dinner, etc. Mme stores her food in the cellar outside. (in a fridge :) –mind you –in the cellar outside) and by the time dinner has finished its time to put away leftovers etc., the village is completely dark except for the sky. And when I’m running between the house and the cellar just outside, I love looking up and seeing more stars than I’ve ever seen before right above me.
… Anyway, these are the moments that make me so happy to be right where I am…

This cat can’t go to bed

It is 1 am in Gaborone and I can’t fall asleep – still jet-lagged. I’m sitting outside this secure compound/motel that’s entirely enclosed by high walls and barbed wire. As far as I’m concerned, the most dangerous encounter I’ve had yet involved a spider the size of my hand hanging out in the bedroom. Tomorrow is a very big day for us. Well be riding out to the village to meet our host families. I have two ideas of how this might go one- that ill be totally useless at communicating with my family, our meeting will be made up entirely of wild gesturing, nods, shakes, grunts, etc… but nonetheless my family will love me for trying!
The other idea is that the latter part wont happen
But in complete seriousness, I am a bit nervous about this meeting not only because ill be a guest in my family’s home for one entire month, but also because I probably don’t fit their image of a typical American… and given the history between Indians and Africans I cant help but worry that they may be disappointed…

dumela bo mma le bo rra

Hello my friends
I'm here just outside of Gaborone and it's about 740 pm . I just finished a big dinner of grits, "flaky fish", carrots in pineapple juice, butter beans, and of course, fanta =). Tomorrow I go to my training village to finally meet my host family - I'm so nervous and excited but definitely ready to start this next stage. This village will be very typical to where I will work for the remaining 2 years after training.
So far we've had some great language lessons - there's one instructor for every 3/4 trainees for both language and cultural lessons - very individualized so very nice. Ican say only a few greetings now, the peace corps strongly believe in their own "methods" - no dictionary, no english translations (bc with setswana direct translations don't really apply properly), just listening closely, observing body language, and repetition galore! figuring things out in that way is definitely different than any other language class i've been in but it seems to work well if if keep practicing....some new things ive learned....when one goes to visit another house, at the door they might call "ko ko" (kind of like knock knock/ hello there)...and then the host can let them in (or not! =/), t's and g's are kind of silent - t's are clicked and g's are like throaty h's...it's actually quite fun=) hehe. anyway hopefully i can tell you more soon...i don't expect to have computer access regularly - esp in the next 2 months...but please do send letters and I will try my very best to reply.
The people here (other pcvs and batswana) are all wonderful, friendly, interesting, (very interesting actually) I feel lucky tohave found such a good group of people to spend the next 2 years with...i'm getting to know many of them gradually and we're all looking forward together... I have been thinking a lot about the work I'm hoping to do....I wouldjust love to work in the orphan home-care program but if things don'twork out that way - and that may be the case - I'd really like to work with some pcvs to start up some sort of recreational club/group for the kids - apparently most of the younger kids just don't have that in the rural parts - no football teams, no clubs....something to be apart of, something that is somehow empowering and just fun=)...those are my thoughts I hope you are all well - missing you all...love, me!

PCV’s

It turns out there are 44 (I thought 20 – HA! ya right…) of us in “Bots 5” - to be divided into 3 groups come Monday I don’t think I’ve ever been surrounded by so many enthusiastic, accomplished, and simply amazing people. We have a saxophonist, a trapeze artist, and a forensics expert… and these are just side interests.

I just can't believe its only been 6 days ... I'm feeling as if its been at least a few months ... since I left everything familiar and everyone I love. Suddenly, I've been meeting all these new people. I've been fed all this information, every single day. The first few days in Philly and in Jo'burg, I'd have dreams about home and everyone there - Id actually wake up confused and just kind of sad knowing that home was a dream, and this will be my new life. But there’s some funny magic in a good long bus ride (of course the passing scenery from Jo'burg to Gaborone helped, as did the sappy soundtrack blasting through my headphones) :) ... it was a good time to dream of amazing opportunities and a fresh new start.