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.

Salajwe

So I've been at my site for week and have been keeping moderately busy.  That will change now that school is out until January, so I have nowhere specific to go on weekdays, and all of the teachers are gone for the break.  I've met a lot of the teachers, brainstormed a little bit with my counterpart and another teacher interested in running clubs, gone by the clinic twice, met the village chief, and seen the primary school. Now I need to get to know people in the village over the next month outside of my school- the 3 small shops, the clinic, random people at the hitching post.

My school has a lot of opportunity and a lot of problems.  Academically, it's the worst in the country.  I think more than 90% of the kids are failing.  This is due to a lot of factors, including lack of motivation and language barriers.  So far I've only interacted with teachers, but I hope to get to know the students well once term begins again in January.

It's hot here, but I have a fan when the electricity is on (70% of the time?).  I also have a bed, a couch, a huge table and 2 chairs, and.... a fridge!  Woo!  I also have a stove but no gas tank yet, so I'm using a hotplate.  I've got a house that has 4 rooms, none of which connect, so they all open to the porch.  I'll have to post a picture for it to make sense.

I've rigged a clothesline with Roses' help out of wire and ribbon, mcgivered my bednet up with ribbon, a pocketknife, and more help from Rose, and broken and fixed a door.  We've had rain, a fierce lightning storm (that sadly killed someone in my village), and a duststorm that sandblasted me before I managed to get inside off my porch.

I celebrated Thanksgiving with Rose, consisting of beef, a beer, pea salad, squash, and mashed potatoes... and watching Mary Poppins.  Then I walked home and almost ran into a cow (this was due to darkness and me still learning the way between our houses, not the 1 beer.  I'm a lightweight, but not -that- much of a lightweight).  Also I got to talk to my mom, aunt and uncle in the states, which was awesome.

I can now officially start listening to Christmas music as I try to play with kids, talk to people, and chase goats off my porch.  Hopefully I'll have more reliable internet in about 2 weeks, but for now, I'm hanging out in the Kalahari - practicing my Setswana, reading, star-gazing, and trying to figure out what I can do with and for the people of Salajwe.

I'm officially a Peace Corps Volunteer!

And now for a few random pictures while I still have free internet...

The sunset at my homestay

Mananeo, the mama of all the puppies in my compound.  She understands the Setswana for, I have no food!

And now for swearing in!  Me with the flags of the day before the ceremony.

Stephanie in her awesome Nelson Mandela skirt!

Our country director, the 4 guys in our training group, and the regional director of Peace Corps in Africa!

Tim (our CD) speaking during the ceremony.

Kristan and Liz speaking in English and Setswana during the ceremony.

Me and my host mom

Me and Tonic, one of my awesome language instructors.

Our group with the U.S. Ambassador to Botswana.  This was actually yesterday because she couldn't make it to our swearing in, but she took the time to meet us when we were in Gabs. (She's the one directly to the right of the PC sign in the background)

Tomorrow I go to my site, wheee!  Not sure how often I can access internet in the beginning, so if I'm quiet on here assume no news is good news :)

Almost a volunteer!

This is our training room, where we've spent way too much of our time lately.

At least this time we were making party decorations!

Kate, Eden, Jess and Liz.  I think Jess looks like something out of Willy Wonka's chocolate factory :)  (That's a LOT of paper chain right there.)

Prepping for the party, Luis makes a LOT of pasta!

Spaghetti, garlic bread, coleslaw, and baked beans- American food that the Batswana sort of liked.

We had a craaaazy thunderstorm after the party.  This was at the cafe we like to hang out at, where we got caught for about 45 minutes.

Not sure if you can see how the streets are flooded after the storm.

Puppies!  Of course it was necessary to re-enact the lion king since the puppy was named Tau (lion).

The puppies loved Emma.

I kinda want this girl, not gonna lie.

MoFengke, the fun 8-year old in my house.

Tswaname and Maudu :)

Thankfulness

The last few weeks of training have been rough, because some of the subject matter is heavy, and we are so ready for training to be done.  But the last couple of days have been a lot better, as things are finishing up, the end is visible, and we’ve been planning for a party.

So on a lighter Thanksgiving-ish note, here are 30 things I’m thankful for, in no particular order:

1.  My host family.  I've had good conversations with my host mom, fun hanging out with my host sister and her adorable little girl, and Thato and I officially treat each other like brother and sister, aka half of our interactions we are laughing at and making fun of each other J

2. There are the cutest puppies EVER in our compound

3. Beginning to shop for some things for my new home at my site.  My nesting instinct is going craaaaazy

4. Obama won the election! (Not trying to throw politics at anyone, but this did legit make me very happy)

5. Our internet works again at school

6. I got a care package from my mom

7.  My fellow trainees- I’ve had some great conversations with people this week that really make my heart sing

8.   Current PCVs- there are a lot of really awesome people serving here in Botswana, and they have been very welcoming/sympathetic/friendly to us trainees

9. Cadbury chocolate

10. I can walk to school- I’d be going waaay more crazy if I wasn’t getting any exercise

11.  Fatcakes and meatpies

12.  I’ve lost 10-15 pounds.  Granted, this is mostly a result of getting rather epic food poisoning several weeks ago and subsequently not eating much meat, but I’ll take the silver lining.

13.   Being able to read hundreds of books on my kindle.  I’ve seriously read 25+ books since I’ve been here

14. PST dance parties

15. Orange and Pineapple Fanta

16. E-mails from friends back at home

17. The feeling of accomplishment I get when washing my laundry by hand

18. Gorgeous sunsets

19. PC staff, especially our language instructors.  They put up with a lot of complaining and crazy Americans and still manage to like us J

20. Catching up on my favorite web comic

21. The skit my friends made this last week about PC safety policies, which had the line: “hide yo chickens, hide yo wife!  Avian flu is comin’!”

22. Generations, the South African soap opera I’m sort of addicted to

23. The little kids in my neighborhood that yell HIII!!!!! when I walk by twice a day

24. Ridiculous thunderstorms

25. I’m going to be a junior secondary school, aka mostly working with teens

26. A fun party for our host families last Saturday

27. No more language tests for a few months

28. PC got a Sekalagadi teacher so I’ve been able to learn some Sekalagadi

29. I become an official PCV this week!

30. I’m in freaking Africa! 

Rinse Cycle

So I knew it would be hard to explain my two years of Peace Corps service to people that have never experienced it.  What I wasn’t prepared for was how draining pre-service training would be, and how it’s really hard to explain the insanity factor to people who haven’t experienced it.

I feel like I’m in a washing machine.  Everyone tells you it’s a good thing, you are going to get clean and ready to be used.  Woo!  Except you don’t realize how long the wash cycle takes.  It’s a lot of fun in the beginning when you are tossed in with all of these other people along for the ride, and you don’t think much about the water filling up until you are spinning around.  And even that is fun in the beginning, until you begin to get a little seasick from the spinning and the close quarters and the constant reminders that you aren’t clean yet but you will be if you hang in there.

And sometimes the spin cycle pauses and you are thankful for the lull, and then you begin to go stir crazy from the lack of movement.  And then you start spinning again and think, thank God, something is happening!  Except then it won’t stop and it’s so repetitive. Spin, pause.  Spin, pause.  And throughout the whole process you are aware that it will end soon, but not soon enough, but when it does you’ll miss being close to everyone, even if your introverted tendencies are not happy about being submerged for this long, thank you very much.

Also you begin to wonder if the whole process is actually worth anything, because you are pretty sure they forgot to add soap, so you’ll have to clean yourself when you get to site anyway.  Currently you are just soggy and slightly seasick.

Then you realize they did put in something like soap, but it’s not actually soap- so it won’t get you as clean as you want and need to be, and you’ll probably have to scrub it off at site later.  It also burns your eyes at inopportune moments.  Those frustrations on top on of the spinning and closeness makes you want to jump out of the washer not infrequently.

At this point, we are counting the days until we are done soaking and spinning and are clean enough to swear in as Peace Corps volunteers.  At which point we’ll go to our sites and find all the stuff that pre-service training didn't wash out or prepare us for and be frustrated all over again.  But we’ll be free of the washer for a while at least.

I don’t know if this made sense at all.  Sometimes I feel like I really am going crazy.  If I ever see another flipchart again, I might do something drastic.  Then again, I helped come up with a rap yesterday about taking malaria prophylaxis, so the drastic might already be happening :P

Finally some pictures!

It takes sooo long to upload pictures at school, but I was finally able to get a few up today.  Here are some snippets from my Botswana life :)

 Cows at my host family's cattle post.

 Dancing at the cultural site!

 They made us dance too!

 Botswana chess.  I'll let you know when I figure out how it works.

 Yummy food.  Clockwise from the white stuff on top: Paleche, grilled chicken, cabbage, seshwa (pounded beef, in the middle), and a roll.

 Maudu, the adorable 1-year old in my house at her birthday party :D

 My host family: Me, Tswanama holding Maudu, and my mom.  My brother Thato wasn't there.

This was during a crazy thunderstorm we had a few days ago (actually the same night hurricane Sandy came ashore in the US).  This was at night, lit up by lightning.