Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Week 6: Pula Pula Pula (Rain Rain Rain)



In a little over three weeks I will move to a small village of roughly 600 people to teach in their primary school and I could not be more thrilled. Moshaneng will be my home for the next two years and I am sure many adventures await me there (Will I lovingly pat strangers like I know them? Will I be able to find my way home?). Due to the size of the village I will travel 20K (12.5miles) to Kanye to do my grocery shopping. My potential house has electricity and a stand pipe on the compound thus I will not have to go far for water. Outside of this I know very little about Moshaneng and what the next two years will look like, however, all of the current volunteers and staff say that your time here is what you make of it. With this being said, it does not seem to matter whether or not I have plumbing but instead how I spend my days, the people I interact with, and most importantly my attitude.

I am very passionate about individual empowerment and self-confidence and this week was a good lesson in practicing what I preach. We received the results for our first language test this week and my score was higher then I anticipated. Instead of congratulating myself I was determined that there was some discrepancy. My language teacher then assured me that had she given me a score based on my performance in class she would have given me the same score. That conversation was reassuring as well as a friendly reminder that perhaps I need to practice what I preach and have a little more confidence in my own abilities and myself.

Although a little more confidence would be a good idea, it is best not to take myself too seriously. Sometimes when I interact with groups of children they want to be my best friend other times they just look at me and laugh. Depending on the day this is hard for me to handle but then I remember that although I think I am a Setswana maven what I actually sound like is probably closer to, “HELLO, H o w a r e YOU.” So if I was a 7 year old native Setswana speaker I would laugh at myself too.

People may remember the delicious Magwinya recipe I shared a couple weeks back, well this week was quite Magwinya heavy and I told my host mom that I should eat less Magwinya. She proceeded to teach me the word for fat and I thought we reached an understanding. Until moments later I told her a friend would be dropping by after class and she said, “Great I’ll make Magwinya!” Needless to say I don’t think my Magwinya consumption will be decreasing until I am on my own and I am okay with that. Bring on the Magwinya!

Today was cloudy, windy, and 60 degrees, which is a rarity. The forecast called for rain, which did not come, however, it is much needed and fingers crossed it will come tomorrow.

Pula! Pula! Pula!

Fun Fact
The currency in Botswana is also called Pula and before a traditional wedding the women in the grooms family go to the bride-to-be’s house and say, “Re kopa metsi” “We are asking for water” Needles to say water and rain has a very high value here!

Mail has been taking about a month to arrive so from here on out please address all mail to:

Dawn Bangert
c/o Modisi Primary School
P.O. Box 177
Kanye, Botswana

And a shout out to all who have written me letters, I have loved everyone of them!

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