Busy busy!

Here's a silly picture of the little furballs that now live with me (and yes, I am giving them away when they're old enough, I don't want to become a crazy cat lady afterall). But they sure are cute, and help keep me company.
Things have been very busy- planning for 2 camps with the kids from my program and the GLOW camp I mentioned previously. I'm also in the midst of writing a proposal for a drama/dance project that would allow the kids in my program the chance to learn performance art and then tour around the district advocating for positive change among youth in Botswana. Wish me luck!
Lately huge thunderstorms have been frequenting the area, bringing with them torrential downpour which has turned the dry, brown sand and shrubs into a luscious emerald green scene- a change I've long been waiting for. Unfortunately the combination of storms and the surge in power use by those with air conditioners has brought about frequent power outages for the rest of us- my power goes out at some point nearly every day. But I'm still thankful to have power at all!
Recently there have been some tragedies among my Peace Corps friends- my best friend's boyfriend died suddenly of a heart attack, and another friend of mine very suddenly lost her mother. Events like these remind me of how much I take for granted, and I'm so thankful that my loved ones are alive and well!
Speaking of being thankful, us Peace Corps volunteers will be celebrating Thanksgiving together- in the absence of family it will be nice to have some sense of community. And lots of delicious food! Happy Thanksgiving to everyone back home.
Things will be crazy busy over the next month, but I'll try to write when I can, hopefully before Christmas.

Summer heat and Camp GLOW

From the refreshing cool of Oregon back to the excruciating heat of Botswana... it hasn't been an easy transition back! But weather aside, things here are going well. I recently attended a facilitation training in Maun, a town in the northern part of Botswana which is the gateway to the Okavango Delta. I've been selected to accompany 3 HIV positive girls from a great program in Gaborone to Camp GLOW, a leadership camp that will take place in December. Adolescent girls and boys from all over the country will be at camp for a week, with activities addressing everything from relationships, self-esteem, and leadership to prevention of HIV addressing stigma related to being HIV positive. It should be a great experience to be a part of.
Work has been very busy, trying to get everything organized before we have our holiday break in December. I'm trying to figure out travel plans, as this may be the last chance I'll have to travel before I finish Peace Corps next May or June.
Sorry for the lack of pictures, I'll try to post some soon!

Pictures of New Kids, New Center

Some of the new kids at Stepping Stones; My new office; the main hall of the new center

New Center and Kids!

Last week we officially reopened Stepping Stones at our brand new, beautiful and huge center. We just added an additional 30 kids to our program, making the total close to 60. The new kids are really funny and cute, it's been nice to see some new faces! They seem to be enjoying the program- so many of them don't have anything to do after school otherwise, so it's a nice treat to play games, get help with homework, do art, etc. A lot of them are coming from difficult home situations- I recently found out that one kid has been repeatedly sexually abused by her brother who suffers from a mental illness; most of the kids in our program are living in poverty and caring for younger siblings; most are beaten at school (corporal punishment is acceptable here) and often at home as well. It makes me really sad to hear about the issues they deal with, but it's great to have the opportunity to help them grow and learn to be kids- giving them a chance to play and have fun with other kids their age, even if just for a few hours a day, is such a good reason for me to be here. Nothing can compare to the sense of fulfillment I get from seeing these kids smile and have fun.
In addition to working for Stepping Stones, I've started volunteering for Baylor Clinic- a fantastic clinic for HIV+ kids in Gaborone. They do monthly teen club meetings with activities such as sports, group talks, field trips, etc. Since kids come from villages all over to attend these teen club meetings, and since many are from Mochudi, I'm helping to start up a similar teen club in Mochudi. It amazes me to see how much being on anti-retroviral (ARV) treatment has helped these kids to be healthy and maintain reasonably normal lives. Botswana is one of the only (or perhaps the only?) country in Africa that provides free ARVs for all citizens. Thanks to these drugs, the average life expectancy has increased dramatically. Of course, like any public health program, it's not perfect, and a lot of people still don't have access to the care they need, but it's a step in the right direction.
I'll post pictures of the new center and activities soon!

Sights, sounds, smells and tastes of Botswana

Sorry everyone for neglecting to write for so long. Over the past few weeks I've been reflecting on the differences between back home and Botswana (vast as they are) and realizing all that I've grown accustomed to after being here for over a year. So I thought I would summarize some of the things one might see, hear, smell, and taste if they were in my shoes for awhile...
I see women carrying everything imaginable balanced carefully on their heads; women sweeping their sand yards with handmade straw brooms; cattle, sheep, goats, donkeys, chickens and sometimes horses roaming everywhere (even in the roads); emaciated dogs scavenging for food (and cowering in fear at people trying to beat them); bright blue sky with rarely a cloud in it; reddish sand covering the ground in every direction, divided by thick dry bushes and long white grass; shrubs with spikes resembling toothpicks growing in abundance (I'm careful to avoid running into them); bugs larger than I've ever witnessed- grasshoppers nearly as big as my hand, 'corn beetles' the size of a mini candy bar (with creepy thick exoskeletons); the one small river in Mochudi- a murky, greenish, slow-moving body of water with the occasional fish surfacing for food; white toyota vans going in all directions as public transport (they're called combis); old rickety buses spewing black exhaust; people flooding the streets of my large village at all hours, every day of the week; tiny kids without supervision running barefoot, chasing after hollowed out tires and tiny cars created from old wires; the "barber shops" that consist of a few strips of corrugated metal nailed to wooden poles in a shed-like structure, with electric clippers connected to a car battery.
I hear the customary greetings of "Dumela Mma" and "Dumela Rra" (hello ma'am and sir), the laughter of children playing; the braying of donkeys; cows, chickens, and all aforementioned wildlife calling out; the constant honking of combis looking for passengers; blasting traditional or hip hop music spewing from vehicles and oversized speakers in front of stores in town (always a good promotional tool); the early morning harmonic singing of funeral processions; religious music bellowing from the striped church tents; a distorted voice echoing through the village from the public announcement system (a government vehicle that circles throughout the village with a loudspeaker on top); "lekgoa"- the word for white person- being shouted at me at every opportunity.
I don't mean to sound negative, but some of the smells here can be rather offensive- being in close proximity with many people who rarely bathe or wash their clothes, and in the constant heat- body odor is one of the most predominant smells I'm exposed to, often overwhelmingly so; burning trash in the evenings; the occasional dead animal being burned along the side of the road; car and bus exhaust; but then there are the good smells- the frying of "fat cakes"- round balls of fried white cake flour, much like doughnuts but not sweet; fresh spinach and other veggies cooking; the occasional nice perfume that someone is wearing.
Though I often cook what would be considered normal back home (rice and beans, pizza, coconut curry), I do enjoy traditional cuisine now and then- salad made from shredded beets, butternut squash, phaleche or pop (maize meal cooked until thick enough to eat with your hands); madombi- large dumplings served with soup and vegetables; bean salad made from baked beans and chakalaka (a spicy tomato, pepper, and onion mix); and the occasional piece of chicken. And who can forget the traditional cup of rooibos tea, although the weather is too hot to drink it most of the year.
So that is just a piece of my life through the senses. It's amazing to think that all this has become normal to me, but it feels good to have adapted. I will post another update soon, looking forward to being back in Oregon in less than 2 months now!!!

Not sure what to name this post :)

The last few weeks have been fairly uneventful- busy with work but very few social events- just taking it easy, spending time in Mochudi and learning A LOT at work. We recently selected the 27 new participants for Stepping Stones- it was really difficult to choose who would be good for the program because we wanted to be able to help all of the applicants, but unfortunately we can only do so much. There were several kids with severe emotional trauma, history of physical and/or sexual abuse, problems with anger, and failure in school. It was really sad to read about these kids, but reassuring to know that we can help most of them. It will be interesting to see how the new kids adapt to the current participants and the program in general- we'll have over 50 kids in total!
I've been learning about proposal writing and program management, activity development, and methods for working with difficult kids. I'm gaining a lot of skills that will hopefully help me with future jobs and school. It's hard to believe I have less than a year left in Botswana, I'm just trying to figure out what my next step will be! There are so many options, hopefully I'll figure out which one will be the best for me.
Sorry to not have much exciting to report, but I'll be sure to post pictures/more exciting stories next time I travel!

The story to go with the pictures...

I had almost forgotten to write about my trip when suddenly it dawned on me, as much as pictures are worth a thousand words, I should probably still write something :)
So my trip started out with a 12-hour bus ride from Gaborone to Windhoek, the capital of Namibia. Nothing much to note about that trip- the scenery was not too different from what I'm used to in my part of Botswana- dry, bushy, sandy. Still beautiful, but a lot of the same. Windhoek was shockingly clean, modern, and almost European-looking, except for its very wide streets- I felt like I had left Africa. I stayed at a very fun and cheap backpacking place and met up with my friends Tony and Jay- I knew Tony from my time at Willamette and Jay, his wife, was the person who had inspired me to join Peace Corps in the first place after I heard her stories about doing Peace Corps in Namibia in the 1990s. I was really excited to see them, although it was once again really strange to have my old life convene with my new one- sometimes I feel like I'm living on a different planet or in a strange dream, but seeing people from home just makes my old life seem that much more real.
I was really sad to hear that the depressing legacy of apartheid lives on in Namibia and in South Africa, as many Namibian and South African blacks live in terrible conditions on the outskirts of the clean, beautiful towns and cities, while the white people live in relative luxury. There are still difficult race relations in both countries, and crime against whites in predominantly black areas is quite common. It was sad to me that after having dinner with Jay's host sister from her Peace Corps experience and one of her friends, both of whom were Namibian, we were unable to drive them home because it wasn't safe for white people to drive in that part of town at night. It definitely made me realize one thing I value about Botswana- that sense of segregation is rare, and not present at all in most areas.
After a peaceful night's sleep in Windhoek, my friends and I hit the road- we drove from Windhoek to the border of Namibia and South Africa- a drive that was beautiful in it's dry, desert appearance, different enough from what I'd seen in Botswana to keep me taking pictures from the car all day. The landscape reminded me a lot of the southwest in the US- amazing rocky outcrops and desert colors, mixed with dry white grass and odd cacti. We stayed at a cute lodge in a place near almost nothing else- just a small vineyard bordering the place with a beautiful reddish rock hillside in the background. The lodge was a perfect end to a fun day- playing cribbage, enjoying Namibian beer, and eating a delicious fire-cooked meal with traditional side dishes.
Crossing the Orange River in the morning, we entered South Africa and headed further south to greener, somewhat more mountainous terrain. We reached a beautiful river valley with winding mountain roads, I was so excited just to see a flowing body of water for the first time in so long! Vineyards lined the valley, and we passed through miles of orange orchards. Everything seemed too beautiful to be true. Near evening we reached Cape Town and I was blown away to see the impressive and majestic Table Mountain immediately behind the town- it was partially engulfed in thick fog, but still shockingly close and magnificent. The city itself was clean, extremely modern, and more like anywhere in America I'd been since being in Africa. Skyscrapers and fountains, parks and condo complexes- it as a lot to take in. Our backpacking place was a quirky old house with all hardwood floors, elegant staircases, a bar, free internet and delicious coffee, and satellite tv- talk about luxury! And very cheap, I was relieved to find out.
While in Cape Town I rediscovered the excitement of delicious restaurant food- seafood, smoothies, wraps and gourmet sandwiches, cappucino, nachos, etc. I ate until I could hardly eat anymore! But food was inexpensive and too delicious to pass up, after so many months of my own cooking (which isn't awful, but access to delicious things is limited in Mochudi) :)
We spent a day just walking all over town- to one of the harbors on the Atlantic Ocean, through the heart of downtown, to an open air market with tons of beautiful arts and crafts, through a botanical garden, and eventually the several hour hike up to the cable car station on Table Mountain. We walked through amazing neighborhoods that held what I would consider dream houses overlooking the city and ocean below, up through tall palm trees, and finally, we were there. Unfortunately a cloud hung over the top of the mountain, but we made it up to the top by cable car anyway, getting amazing views along the way.
The next day we ventured out to Robben Island, home of the prison where Nelson Mandela was held for 18 years for his speaking out against apartheid. It was truly inspiring to hear about how he and other great leaders who were imprisoned there helped to educate the other prisoners and even the guards. Despite awful living conditions and discrimination, somehow these people managed to maintain their dignity and make the best of a horrible situation. We were given a tour of the prison by a former prisoner- a man who had been held for 15 years for being part of a protest against inequality in schools when he was in high school. It was horrible to think about being imprisoned and treated inhumanely for so long when so young and simply asking for basic human rights.
The lighter side of the island was that it was home to thousands of rabbits (they were everywhere!) and over 60,000 African penguins (although we only saw a few). And the view of Cape Town, with the crashing waves on the rocky shores in the forefront, was stunning.
The next day I reluctantly returned to Botswana, but I was thankful to have had such a great adventure, covering so much ground and experiencing so much in just a matter of days.