Traveling, PCV style

So I got to go up to the delta for a few days- 9 including 4 days of traveling!  It was a lot of fun- some PCVs in Shakawe (sha-KA-way) organized a huge half-marathon/5K run and health fair, so a lot of other PCVs went up to run and help at the health fair.  While we were up there some of us went to Tsodilo hills and on boat rides on the delta near Sepupo.

I’ll post a bunch of pictures and stories from my delta trip, but I wanted to show first how I got there and back.  Since we don’t have cars as PCVs, we rely on public transportation, hitching, and spending the night with fellow volunteers to get places.

So this is a map of Botswana with my route marked on it, from Salajwe to Shakawe and back. The green and black are the trip up, alternating with each leg of the trip.  The yellow and red are the trip home.

Day 1: Hitch from Salajwe to Letlhakeng- 1 hour.

Wait in L for a hitch for 2 hours, meet up with another volunteer going with me.

Take combi from L to Takotakwane – 45 minutes.

Wait in T for a hitch for 2 hours.

Get a hitch all the way to Ghanzi- 4.5 hours.

Spend night in Ghanzi with 3 other PCVs and a German volunteer.

Day 2: Wait in Ghanzi 1.5 hours for a hitch (now there are 6 of us).

Get a hitch to Sehithwa- 2.5 hours.

Meet up with 2 other PCVs and another German volunteer). Wait for a hitch- 1 hour.

Get 2 almost simultaneous hitches to Shakawe (There are now 9 of us)- 4.5 hours.

Return trip! (2 nights in this mess, not saying where bc I don’t know who told Peace Corps what*)

Starting from Sepupa after the boat trip, about 10 of us.

Get a hitch to Gumare- 1 hour.

Wait for bus- 30 minutes.

Bus to Sehithwa- 2 hours, about 7 of us.

Wait for a hitch- 30 minutes.

Combi/bus to Ghanzi- 2.5 hours (with some extra time to have a blow out and change a tire)

Wait for hitch in Ghanzi- 3 hours.

Bus to Kang- 3 hours- 3 of us.

Wait for bus in Kang- 30 minutes.

Bus to Morumisu - 45 minutes- my 2 friends keep going.

Wait for hitch- 1 hour.

Hitch to Letlhakeng, by way of going back to Kang to get gas and then to L- 3 hours.

Wait for hitch in L- 1.5 hours.

Hitch to Khudamalapye- 30 minutes.

Wait for hitch HOME- 45 minutes.

Hitch to Salajwe!- 30 minutes.

* Peace Corps has a policy that you have to tell them what village you are sleeping in.  PCVs have a policy of not ratting out their fellow volunteers if some choose not to follow this policy.  Hence I’m not naming where we spent the nights on the way home, because I don’t know who told Peace Corps what.  On the way up I happened to know that we all told PC where we were, because our country director was also spending the night in Ghanzi (he went to Shakawe with his family and he and his wife ran the half marathon!) and we saw him a few times there.

Take me home, country roads

I've realized that I’m listening to a lot of folk music recently.  It’s good for quiet nights in a small village where you start thinking about lots of things.  I've always liked some folk music, and Peter Paul and Mary have always been one of my favorite groups.

Here in Botswana, I’m listening to John Denver a lot.  This probably makes my mom smile, because she really likes his music, and would play it when I was a kid.  And I’d run screaming out of the room because for some reason I hated it when I was around 10.  I didn't like anything having to do with country music, except maybe Johnny Cash, until I was in college.

The song I listen to the most is ‘Take Me Home, Country Roads’.  I've never lived in West Virginia, but I lived in Southwest Virginia most of my adult life, and the Blue Ridge Mountains and Shenandoah River are a bit of home to me.  And the song makes me think of my home in Maryland, and my family’s homes in South Carolina as well.

Surprisingly enough, Batswana also seem to like John Denver, because I've heard him on the radio at least 2-3 times.  The first time was in a combi driven by Peace Corps staff during training last fall.  We were going to Gabs for the day and there were about 14-15 of us in the combi, having 8-9 different conversations with the radio on in the background.  All of the sudden ‘Take Me Home, Country Roads’ comes on.  Everyone in the entire combi stopped all of their conversations and we proceeded to belt out the chorus each time it came around, with several of us singing all the verses as well.  We burst out laughing at the end, chattering about how unexpected it was to hear John Denver on the radio in Botswana.  And our driver, Zeeman, slowly changed the radio station while giving us a look of slight terror, as in, WHAT just happened?!? Crazy Americans…

As I listen to the song, it sometimes makes me homesick, sometimes makes me wonder if I should be here and not at home, and always makes me realize how much I love my home, my country, and the opportunity to live abroad.  And as I sit here thinking of home, I know that for the rest of my life, hearing ‘Take Me Home, Country Roads’ will make me think of that combi ride, and of my time in a small village in Botswana.

"I hear her voice 

In the mornin' hour she calls me 
The radio reminds me of my home far away 
And drivin' down the road I get a feelin' 
That I should have been home yesterday, yesterday 

Country Roads, take me home 
To the place I belong 
West Virginia, mountain momma 
Take me home, country roads "

A fun weekend

I had a whirlwind of a weekend/week, and spent an awful lot of time on combis.

Last Thursday Danielle, a PCV in Moleps, came to my village to help clean out Roses house and pack her stuff to be sent back to the USA.  (Rose was the other volunteer in my village.  She got really sick in January and got sent home by PC in February.  She will be fine, she just had to cut her service short, which was a huge bummer.)  So we spent all of Thursday doing that, and I had horrible allergies due to the dust and cat dander.  Then we spent the night at my house and went to Moleps the next day.  [combi 1] Danielle went to work and I continued on to Gabs [combi 2], where I had lunch, and then got on another combi [3] to Jwaneng.  Jwaneng is known in Botswana as where all of the diamonds are.  It might be the largest set of diamond mines in the world.  I stayed with another PCV, Christina,  there for Friday and Saturday nights.  Saturday I took a bus [combi-ish 4] to Keng, to go to a wedding.

Now, how I got to this wedding is sort of a funny story.  A teacher in my village invited me because she was going to be a bridesmaid.  She got me an invitation and everything.  When I get to Jwaneng, Christina tells me that the wedding is of a former PCV to a Motswana, and several other PCVs are going!  Which was true, as well as some Canadian volunteers that knew the bride.  So I stayed at the wedding for several hours, got to eat delicious wedding food (Batswana go all out for weddings.  I’m pretty sure they slaughtered 2 cows and several goats for this one.),  meet some new people, and see a new village.  I hitched back to Jwaneng before dark and showed Christina the wedding pics.  And took a lot of pictures of her dog, who is adorable.

Sunday I went back to Moleps, stopping in Kanye [5] to see my host family from pre-service training.  The 1 year old is now almost 18 months and is still super cute.  I got to hang out a bit with my host mom, sister, and brother.  Then I caught another combi [6] to Gabs, and then another to Moleps [7].  At this point I was kinda tired of combis.  I stayed with Danielle and we made burritos which were AMAZING.  I miss Mexican food a lot.  

Monday I helped my counterpart facilitate a workshop on lifeskills to teachers at a school in Moleps, which was fun and I think it went really well! Considering we were trying to condense a 5 day workshop into 2 hours.   I watched Argo at Danielle’s house that night and really liked the movie.

Tuesday I attempted to get home early, by going to the store at 8:30am and heading to Letlhakeng soon after.  [combi 8] And then I could not get a hitch to my village for the life of me.  I got to L at 10:45/11.  I didn’t get back to Salajwe until almost 4.  I spent half of that time in Khudemalpye with Aileen, as she kept me company at the hitching post.   And then I took a bath, enjoyed being home in my village, and slept almost 12 hours :P