Life is becoming more routine, Its funny how fast that can
happen. The first two months in Botswana are Pre-Service Training (PST) before
Peace Corps Trainees (PCT) are sworn in as Peace Corps Volunteers (PCV) for two
years with the potential to extend. In PST PCTs (The Peace Corps loves their acronyms) live with a host
family and have a structured schedule Monday-Friday 8-5, with either Setswana
or another activity on Saturdays. These first two months are quite different
then how I anticipate the next two years to be. The days are long but the weeks
are short. Some days begin with a session on Diarrhea, where as others take
place at the Kgotla, which is a local meeting place and at the heart of
community life.
Although it is very dusty here you would not be able to tell
by looking at a Motswana. It is common to “bath” twice a day here. This may
seem strange for a region experiencing a drought, however, I am definitely
using less water in my two baths combined then one shower in the States. Batswana
take great pride in their appearance. Women frequently wear heels and
everyone’s cloths are freshly pressed. Of course this is a culture full of many
different types of people and what is true for some of the population is not
true for all. However bathing twice a day is not uncommon here and chances are
the Motswana next to you looks better then you do.
I am fascinated
by the remnants of the British, who were here until the 1960s, juxtaposed with
Botswana traditions. Come 10:30am its Tea time, however there is no PG tips in
sight, Five Roses appears to be the black tea of choice. Additionally Bush Tea
(Rooibos) and Ricoffey (an instant coffee with chicory) can be found as well as
a plethora of sugar. I am not sure if diabetes is a problem nation wide or just
within the demographic that my host mom’s friends are in, however based on what
I have seen of people’s diets, I wouldn’t be surprised. Meat, Starch, and Sugar appear to be the
main food groups, which could arguably be said about America as well. According
to my host mom hyper-tension and diabetes are a large problem in Botswana.
Lucky for me my host mom is aware of these things and embraces my meat free
diet and takes note of how much salt I do or do not put on my food as well as
my sugar intake, what she doesn’t see is the American Chocolate in my room… but
I suspect she eats differently when I’m at school as well.
My host mom is extremely loving and welcoming, she makes me
feel like I have family here. Also she is in her 70s and well off yet I, with my
55 pounds of luggage feel like I have a ridiculous amount of stuff in
comparison. I feel like Batswana in general have less stuff, however, this is
not rooted in anything except what I see and how I feel.
This may have been the first official week of training but
already it feels like I have been in Botswana for months. I feel like I know
how to deal with the water going out, I expect tea by 10:30am, and at 7pm I
watch the news in Setswana usually falling asleep before the news in English is
finished at 8:30. I would argue I am integrating into my community by adopting
the life style of my 74 year old host mom, however then she makes me look bad
by going to bed later then I do. Well you can’t win ‘em all and in the mean
time I am going to continue my newly adopted sleep patterns.
Random Botswana Facts
Botswana (Prounounced “Boatswana”) is the Country
Batswana are the people (Plural)
Motswana is one person (singular)
Serowe is the largest Village in Botswana with over 57,000
people however it is still considered a village because of the way of life.
3 of the 4 Presidents of Botswana have hailed from Serowe
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