I’m sitting on the floor of my bedroom, typing by the light
of the only light bulb that currently works in my little house. The electricity is currently on, which also
means I have the gentle breeze of my fan keeping me cool. The rain has let up in recent days and its
heated back up again during the day.
I found out 2 days ago that my bed was actually a temporary
loan from a neighbor, who was told the ministry of education would be providing
me furniture within a week. Er, or several months it looks like. So I bought a foam mattress to sleep on and
returned my bed to its rightful owner.
We’ll see how I sleep tonight.
The rest of my furniture: stove, chairs, table- are on loan
from my school, and I can keep them for the two years I’m here. I can’t use the stove because I also have no
gas tank, so I’m using a borrowed hotplate.
I don’t think that will be repossessed, but I’m not sure.
Internally, I've been very frustrated with Peace Corps and
the ministry of education lately, but somehow losing my bed has forced me out
of the denial/anger/sadness/mostly anger into acceptance. Peace Corps is bureaucracy, but they have my
back on important things like my safety if I push them. The ministry of education is bureaucracy on
steroids and I will never believe a word they say again. Today they proved incompetent at using a fax
machine. So if they never show up with a bed, I’m okay with that. If they randomly repossess my refrigerator,
the only thing they have given me, I’ll deal.
If they take 12+ months to pay my rent and I get evicted, I’ll call
Peace Corps and have them sort it out.
This probably sounds like I’m really angry, but I’m actually
not. I’m just stating reality and
getting used to it. It’s the same
reality facing my school. There are
missing teachers, not enough supplies, etc.
All things the ministry promises but never provides. But they say they will, so if you go looking
for them elsewhere it’s not okay, and it’s hard to battle an organization that
says it’s on your side but constantly lies due to incompetency.
Please don’t think I don’t like Botswana, or the people
(Batswana), or my village, or my school, or my landlord, or the people I interact
with in Peace Corps. None of this is
their fault. (Well, a small amount of blame maybe to Peace Corps for not having
more of this sorted out before we went to site.
But they were short staffed, and battling the same ridiculous bureaucracy,
and they are fighting battles for me, so not sending much blame/angst their
direction.) It’s just frustrating to see
all of the flaws in the system and not be able to do anything.
But. I’m a Peace
Corps Volunteer. I work at the
grassroots level, not at the top. So I’ll
work with the teachers I have, with the supplies available, and hang out with
students. I have blackboards and chalk,
old but functioning computers in the computer lab, and plenty of open space to
play games. I have teachers wanting me
to do things with them and school administrators that care.
As frustrated as I’ve
been/am, I’m trying not to miss the forest for the trees. This country has been independent for less
than 50 years. In that time, they have
built roads, schools, and hospitals. Their
government, although parts are filled with bureaucracy, isn’t corrupt. The country is peaceful. There are schools, and kids are in them, even
if they aren’t learning as much as we’d like.
There are clinics, and people receive medicine at them, even if there
are shortages of medicines occasionally doctors. There are roads, and people get around, even
if there are transport problems and lots of accidents. I’ll expand on my thoughts on development in
another post.
Botswana really does seem to be going in the right
direction, and I’m glad I’m here. Even
if I have to deal with the ministry of magic, er, I mean education, from time
to time.
