Week 53: "We have a Surprise for you"

“We have a surprise for you!” exclaimed Mma Pule’s standard 2 class as they skipped into the library shortly followed by Mma Pule. Usually this means a fat cake or someone wants me to do extra work, however, Mma Pule instead pulled out one of their readers and five kids stood up saying they could read the whole page in English. This was the best surprise I could have asked for and came at the perfect time. I wasn’t sure who was more excited, the kids who could read, Mma Pule, or me. Regardless it gave me just the boost I needed in my midweek slump and reminded me that although I cannot always see it, I am making a difference in people’s lives just as they are making one in mine.

This week the “Bots 15s” arrived and their energy and enthusiasm is contagious, hopefully I was able to share some experience with them and become infected with their spirit.

Week 52: Singing and Combis

 Every Monday and Friday Morning the kids have morning Assembly, which begins and ends with the children singing. The most common being a Christian themed song, “We are marching over to Jerusalem…” Clapping and foot stamping usually accompany the singing and inevitably I am singing it to myself all day long. However it is much more culturally acceptable to be walking around singing to one’s self here and thus I fit in.

The Moshana combis in and out of Kanye (the nearest shopping village) can always be seen full of bags of maize meal, sorghum, and other personal items while the owners of said items are in the midst of finishing their shopping else where. Since I do not buy maize meal in bulk and have had a hard time shaking my American distrust, I usually carry my shopping bags, however, having just stocked up on flour (and living in Botswana for a year) I decided it was time to trust a little and leave my bag on the combi. I then went to go buy airtime (minutes for my cell phone) only to return to see the combi pulling out of the bus rank. My American kicked in, and I was angry with myself for letting my groceries out of sight and mostly just sad that the snack I bought was now traveling further from me and closer to the place I wanted to be. I knew that my groceries were not gone forever, it would just be more of a hassle tracking down the combi driver later and maybe the butter I bought would be a little melty. Resignedly I walked to the new combi that is waiting at the rank and what do I find inside? My bag! The combi driver saw that I was not back yet and relocated my bag to the next waiting combi. Although I had to wait another hour for the combi to leave I sat happily munching my snack and grateful for small acts of kindness.

Week 51: HIV Lesson and Investing

Peace Corps Botswana’s mandate is to teach about HIV/AIDS. My motto is I can only fight one loosing battle at a time and the fight I have taken on is literacy. If you cannot read, that affects every other aspect of your life so I think that is a good starting point. Some my call my mindset pessimistic, but I call it realistic.  However, this week I was able to have an HIV/AIDS lesson with the standard 6 students. This was a short 45-minute lesson, however the planning process was not quite as short. Many meetings were held in order to pass through the proper protocol including one with my counterpart where he got up 15 minutes into the meeting to pass a message onto another teacher, never to return. It was only him and me in the meeting so 45-minutes later I go to the teacher he went to see only to find out he never made it to her, then I go to his classroom where I find him. He was shocked to see me and completely forgot we were in the middle of the meeting.  Luckily I was in a good mood that day and was able to laugh it off.

I was still laughing later in the day when I came across my land-lady’s eldest son traipsing through the bush next to our home. I greeted him and he responded with a mutter, “I am going to invest in property, not living things.” His mother on the other hand has invested in goats who have recently had babies and the little ones do not know their way home yet so Mpati was sent to retrieve them and had apparently been looking for some time. In his mind, property cannot go wandering away and is thus a better investment. As a result of the baby goats wandering they are now only allowed in the yard and have been continually trying to sneak in my house.