6 Months In

In the middle of Botswana's hot season. The landscape is very dry - buttery yellow with bursts of straggling orange and green foliage. I am partial to lush, tropical and forest environments, but the dry season here emanates a surprising beauty, soft and subtle, under the intense direct sun rays. The position of the setting sun has shifted so much that I can no longer easily watch it from my front porch. But I can still take in the sunsets during my regular (aspiring to daily) runs. In the absence of a coastline and the therapy of waves, the descending sun over the Chobe bush, no one in sight, centers and rejuvenates me. I also have gained a running (and yoga) buddy because a Berkeley PHD student has come to live and do research in Kachikau for the next year. She also has a car, and Sex and the City on her computer. My life has suddenly changed!


Work is slowly progressing. Sometimes I find myself exhausted from constantly inventing things to do with my day so that I feel some sense of productivity. I am learning to be happy with accomplishing one small goal a day (or even week) rather than expecting to complete an entire list of desired activities. Sometimes I feel that I have been here a long time and that I am "integrated" into the community, but then something will happen to remind me there is still a lot to learn and many of the projects I want to work with will take much more time to develop well.


Here are some projects I'm focusing on:

Kachikau Youth Center - working on obtaining funding to buy sports equipment, art supplies, and resources to hold Life Skills sessions there

BOCADOL - this is an organization which offers various educational courses, including JC and BGCSE courses. JC and BGCSE are certificates earned when students pass certain levels of high school. In the Kachikau, the pass rate for the JC certificate is 50%, and many people in the village do not have not successfully passed one or both of these levels of education. The idea is to bring BOCADOL services to Kachikau, so more people would have the opportunity to continue their education without having to commute to Kasane (whose BOCADOL center is already very busy and cannot accept all applicants)

Circles of Support - program based in the high school that is starting up. It will recruit and train two adult volunteers from every village (there are 5) in the Chobe Enclave to provide psycho-social support to families of orphaned children and children who are not doing well in school (who have dropped out or are close to dropping out). This type of work overlaps with part of the job description of social workers in Botswana, but the social work offices in Chobe are understaffed and underresourced, so this program is meant to give attention to cases that are currently being neglected, though not by choice

Library Club - weekly, the local librarian and I meet with primary school students to read, write, and draw. We do activities and play games that are meant to help improve the students' English skills, encourage them to read (for learning and recreation), and increase their abilities to think critically and for themselves

High School Girls Football - training with the girls football (soccer) team at the high school. The team is relatively new but the girls have great energy. We are working on building their football skills, and getting them needed equipment like cleats, shinguards, and uniforms


Even though it's been hot and dry for the past month, we have had a couple nights of rain which has felt amazing. The last storm was a full-blown lightning and thunder storm. It was awesome! I've never been in a storm with so much lighting so close.


The other weekend my friend, another volunteer, came to visit and we went camping outside of Kasane. The campsite looked like a parking lot but there was a nice outdoor bar and restaurant by the river. I ate the biggest and best eggroll of my life there! Later, we went for a dip in one of the hotel pools in Kasane and spent a ridiculous amount of money on a buffet dinner at the hotel. I have to say, I was a little disappointed in myself because I definitely did not eat my money's worth. I did get to try kudu though, and the coffee ice cream was heaven.


Done playing tourist until December when I'm spending Christmas in the delta (Okavango) and heading to Swakopmund, Namibia for New Year's. Planning to sandboard on the dunes and party on the beach, then safari through Etosha National Park in northern Namibia. I will also become skilled in driving stick on the wrong side of the car and road. Thanksgiving week, I'm taking a long trip to Hukuntsi, Botswana for an intensive Setswana language week and a Thanksgiving feast with fellow volunteers. The hosting volunteer couple apparently live in a "mansion." Just the two of them in a place with many bedrooms and bathrooms, which has made it difficult for them to convince people in the village that they are volunteers who don't have a lot of money.


Other things I've been occupying my time with: trying out new recipes from the Peace Corps Volunteer Cookbook (the best written resource the Peace Corps has given us :)), my latest creation being vanilla yogurt; listening to the BBC on my trusty short wave radio (big thanks again to my dad for finding BBC's frequency for me!); reading (I've found some pretty good books at the local library, but I think I am the only person in the village who ever has and ever will read some of them); drawing (badly but aiming to improve in the next year and a half); spraying big beetles/roaches and spiders with Doom while listening to gigantic moths try to get inside my house by flying themselves violently into my screens; taking cold baths.


Upcoming entertainment and activities besides the travels described above include: a bunch of baby showers (here they consist of asking the pregnant woman questions, giving maternal advice, baby gifts, drinking sangria, and having to eat baby food whenever you laugh -- at least this is what we did at the last baby shower I went to), and the national World AIDS Day (Dec. 1st) commemoration in Kasane this year.


Check out some new photos at: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2418435&id=3611995&l=4ecbcce0e8