Week 31: Happy Commonwealth Day!

Happy Commonwealth Day! Commonwealth Day is the second Monday of March and is celebrated in 53 countries around the world. The commonwealth is headed my Queen Elizabeth II of England. At Modisi Primary School we celebrated by each grade level performing songs and dances, I gave a speech, and then the kids did a variety of sporting activities.

Later in the week the Psychology club from the University of Botswana came to Modisi to lead a workshop on effective teaching methods for the teachers. The purpose of the club is to engage the students with rural communities and provide a practical application for the material they learned in class. One of the guys in the club is from Moshana and I am hoping he will continue to be involved at Modisi and encourage the students to take their education seriously.

Peace Corps Botswana has a committee “Peer Support and Diversity Network” which I applied to and this week I found out that I have been selected for.  The main purpose of this group is to offer mental health support to other volunteers. Mental health is a passion of mine and I am extremely excited for this opportunity.

Week 30: Back to the Village Life

Cultural sensitivity vs. being a doormat, this is something that I struggle with. I feel like I am a guest in someone else’s culture and never wish to be offensive, however, I have come to the conclusion that some things are not cultural they are rude. Even if the intent was not meant to be rude, it matters how I perceive the comment.

Talking about people’s weight is common here. At times the comments are meant as compliments where as in other cases they are snide remarks. My favorite compliment was from a friend of mine:

“Did you notice you are gaining weight?”

“No, I don’t think that’s true, my cloths fit the same”

“My eyes don’t lie you are gaining weight. Be careful or your family will think you are not missing them.”

In case there was any doubt, don’t worry family and friends, I miss you terribly regardless of my fluctuating body size. On the flip side I am also told:

“Lesego, you are gaining weight!”

“Ah, in my culture that is not nice to say”

“But what should I say, so you know you need to loose weight”

This is meant as just a fact, however, I do not hear it that way and thus I have started to put my foot down and been more adamant that yes I am in your culture but I still have my own culture.

On the flip side coming back to the village it was great to see how much I was missed =)

Week 29: From Gabs to Jo-Burg to Maputo to Tofo (and back)

We have arrived! And it is amazing! Tofo is a small beach town on the coast of Mozambique and it is complete with fresh coconuts, pineapples, cashews, and other such tropical delights. This is a world away from Botswana with its mostly desert like climate and land locked borders. However Mozambique also highlights the strides that Botswana has made in development.

Botswana has a population of just over 2million, which greatly effects what the government can do for its people. As a result shantytowns are not seen around Botswana and in most instances people are quite spread out. Driving from Gaborone to Johannesburg (the first leg of the trip) is a short 5-6 hour ride that involves beautiful countryside and the potential to see members of the big five. On our trip we saw zebras and elephants! Then entering the outskirts of Jo-burg there is immediately a different feel, according to our taxi driver there are about 5 million people in the city its self with the population of Soweto (South West townships) almost doubling the population. Although I have not been able to verify these numbers, what is important is that in this urban center there are more people then all of Botswana in fact at least three times as many people. We only had a brief layover in Jo-burg but it was time enough to eat dinner and for me to feel at home in a city. My favorite fact to share with people in my village is that I am from a city that has more people then their entire country (hoping this may help explain some of my seemingly odd behaviors, like wanting some personal space).

Highlights of Mozambique include practicing at an incredibly beautiful yoga studio, eating fresh avocadoes (all day every day), and meeting some incredible people who illustrated that there are many different ways to live your life. My favorite being this amazing South African woman I met before a yoga class who has had an extensive career working for the UN and other International aid organizations but is now focusing on her writing and moved to Tofo to do this. One day we went on a snorkeling trip with the hopes of seeing whale sharks, which are common in the area, unfortunately we did not see any but all was not lost since I had a lengthy conversation about HIV in South Africa with the South African man sitting next to me on the boat. You can take the Peace Corps Volunteer out of the village, but no matter where they are, they are still a Peace Corps Volunteer.

Week 28: All Night Busses and Early Morning Border Crossings

The week began with decadence at one of the fanciest hotels in Botswana as Peace Corps Botswana celebrated 10 years of being back in Country. Peace Corps was in Botswana from the late 1960s to 1997 and then left since Botswana was doing so well as far as development. However then HIV struck and Festus Mogae the then President asked Peace Corps to return to Botswana to focus on HIV and in 2003 Peace Corps Volunteers were back in country. Fun fact, the government of Botswana gives the Peace Corps more money than any other of the countries that the Peace Corps serves in, with some countries not providing any money at all.

After the all-volunteer conference, I was off to Mozambique with a few other PCV friends to enjoy the ocean and a bit of a respite from village life. In order to get to the tropical paradise there were numerous buses and multiple border crossings, my favorite being the crossing from South Africa to Mozambique, which happened at 6am after an all night bus ride.  There was a gentle mist and slight fog, which in my sleepy state promised adventure.