Week 16: Gnocchi for Dinner

The Peace Corps places a huge emphasis on community integration. The first three months at site we are not supposed to leave our villages and our main task is to gain the trust and respect of those around us by living in the same manner. This was one of the main draws for me to peace corps, before I left the states, community was a buzz word for me and I had a whole slew of romanticized images of what “community” meant, looked like, and how it made people feel. Combined with my people pleasing tendencies, I jumped into my new home whole-heartedly with both feet. I was no longer Dawn, but Lesego fela (only). After six weeks, I miss Dawn and I have come to the realization that I really don’t like full cream milk. I have been a vegetarian for over six years and although I was not vegan I never liked milk and only drank soy milk. Since I arrived in Moshana, I have eaten intestines, sheep, and other unidentified meats as well as drank the ever present full cream milk. I found soy milk in select stores but felt ridiculous buying it, after all drinking expensive soy milk was not “living in the same manner as my new community.” This weekend I realized that living with out water, in a rural village, where I cannot even use the pit latrine without saying hello to someone that I think I am allowed some small comforts and can still consider myself true to the peace corps mission. Usually I have some version of rice and beans for dinner, today I ate gnocchi with whole made cinnamon butternut squash chips and gave Lesego a rest while Dawn watched an American TV show, needless to say it was a quality evening.

Other Lesego highlights of the week include singing and dancing in a world AIDS day march which I am fairly certain made it on national television, alas I do not have a TV to confirm this fact. Celebrating Thanksgiving by eating Megwinya (Fatcakes) and when I tried to explain that it was an American Holiday I was met with the response “We are cleaning.” This conversation was all in Setswana and I was quite proud I understood what she said, but can only assume that something was lost in my Setswana explanation of the holiday.