Ministry of Magic

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.