Week 91: GLOW II

As I mentioned last week I just completed a GLOW (Girls/Guys Leading Our World) camp in the southern region with 7 other PCVs and teacher counterparts. GLOW camps were started by a group of PCVs and their counterparts in Romania in the 1990s and since then have spread to numerous Peace Corps countries worldwide. For this camp we took 67 boys and girls from 10 schools and hosted a four day camp that included such topics as leadership, gender, HIV, and self-confidence to name a few. These camps can be extremely rewarding and a good test of patience. You learn what to do with 67 kids when dinner is three hours late. How to get a group of 30 boys to go to sleep since you will be the one waking them up in 6 hours to start the fire to heat their bath water. Throughout the weekend I fine tuned my disciplinary techniques as I was one of the volunteers sleeping in the hall with the boys. It was after 11pm one of the nights and the boys were still being rowdy, all I could think of was having to be the one to wake them up at 5am and that finally did the trick as I calmly threatened the boys with moving my sleeping bag to where they were sleeping. One of the ring leaders said, “No ma’am we are afraid of you” At 11pm all I could say was good go to sleep. Although that was not a highlight of the GLOW camp for me I do think it showed my growth. I know that previously I would have placed a higher value on getting all of the kids to like me however this year I was more comfortable being a disciplinarian and getting the kids to like me was secondary. First I wanted their respect and some sleep. I was so happy that I was a part of the Southern Region GLOW camp this year and I am also okay that it was my last PCV driven GLOW camp. Next step is getting my school to transition from vocal support of the camps to putting one on themselves. The best part of having a GLOW camp at Modisi (the school I work at) is that at 11pm at night I will have been sound asleep for hours and not sleeping at the foot of a bunch of 15 year-olds beds worried they are sneaking out.

Week 90: Grieving

 This week a teacher who I used to work with at Modisi passed away. Before entering peace corps I was given material on how to deal with death of community members in my service. I am lucky that this was the first time the material was relevant. I have been to countless funerals here but never of people that I was close with. I went to show my support of the community since I had just arrived and because I thought this made me part of the community. This week not only did my co-worker pass away but two of my closest friends in the village had family pass away as well. I felt as though I was surrounded by death, I was sad for the family, friends, and children that the loved ones left behind and more than that I was sad that as a culture the Batswana have become accustomed to death. I am not saying that any of these deaths were related to AIDS, I honestly don’t know if they were, as it is still not common for people to disclose their status, even to close family. However, when the HIV/AIDS epidemic came in the 90s it ravaged the country and no family was left untouched. I believe in a small way it normalized the death of family members. I am not saying it made it any easier but it definitely made it more common. This devastating part of Botswana’s history has left the people stronger in my opinion. Upon hearing of the death of my co-worker and my friends’ family members I was distraught and unclear how to proceed. For each of my friends I could see that they were hurting but they each took it in stride and their lives continued just now there were more mouths to feed at home and no more visits from Uncle. Peace Corps is full of highs and lows and through out this week I was also working on last minute preparations for a GLOW camp that I will tell you about next week.

Week 89: A Week Well Spent

Lesego is back. Last week grumpy city loving Dawn was being grouchy around the village but this week smiling slow paced Lesego is back. I really am grateful to live somewhere with such beautiful sunsets and the time to watch them. This week I spent an entire afternoon making Vindaloo, finished working on some Gender Based Violence lessons, and worked with the Eye nurse that came to the village. I also was able to celebrate the birthday of a peace corps friend with cake and the knowledge that I have met some amazing people who continuously remind me to see the positive and eat more cake! Back in the village I was able to hang out with my friend’s kids and share the simple pleasure of a candy cane. All in all I would say I am pretty lucky, a week well spent.