Week 106: Sister Visit No. 3!

I am extremely lucky to have had each of my family member's visit me at various times in my service. This week brought the last of my sisters!

Week 105: “Runnin Runnin…”

I believe that is a Black Eyed Peas song I was trying to sing there…

Back in June I was going through a rough time and felt that I needed to set some long-term goals to keep me energized and purposeful. Running to my shopping village, Kanye, became that goal. Kanye is only 10 kilometers from my home and this weekend I was able to make the trek. It was incredibly satisfying to be walking around Kanye knowing that nothing but my feet and the air in my lungs took me there. Admittedly running along a highway that Semis use was rather less enjoyable than running in the bush, where I usually run, which reminded me that its about the journey not the end result. Although it was great to not have to wait for a combi to take me to Kanye, I can recall many more pleasant runs after work in June and July than this one. Regardless of how the final run felt, it did the trick, two months have gone by and I am in a drastically different headspace. I am happy to have two more months with the people I care about here and grateful that I did not leave in June as I had considered. My knees may be telling me to ease off the running and so my next goal is to reread Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina, as I did when I first arrived.

Week 104: Meeting the New Trainees

This week 76 new Peace Corps trainees arrived in Botswana. When I close my service (COS) on October 14^th they will be swearing in as new volunteers. I had the privilege of meeting these folks at the airport where there were more smiling faces than I expected after such a flight. I then stayed with the group as they spent their first night with their new home stay families (who they will live with until they move to their sites’) fielding questions about how to navigate different religious views and the names for the different types of bread.

The energy and enthusiasm of this group was contagious. I feel content with my past two years and what I have and have not been able to accomplish and was delighted to share this with the new group. The timing was excellent, as I know that at other points in my service I may not have had as many nice things to say. As much as I enjoyed the energy I was reminded that adjusting back to the faster pace of life in the States will no doubt be a challenge. However, I am confident that just as I adapted two years ago, I can do it again and in fact I am excited to.

Week 103: Red Lipstick and Water

Water is essential to life, however the access to and quantity of water that one has can vary. When I was away at my conference something happened to a pipe that brought water to a third of the village. Since this happened I have continued to hone in on my ability to wash my body, essential clothing items, and my hair all with the same liter of water. Even though my house does not have running water, there is a standpipe 10 yards from my front door that only my landlady and I use. However, since the trouble with the pipe my landlady and I now travel further to a neighbor’s house to get our water.

Recently a package came for me that contained red lipstick and as it was a Saturday where I had no plans I decided to try on the lipstick. Immediately following this my landlady knocks on my door with two wheelbarrows saying its time for us to collect water. So there I went following my landlady as we traipsed through the village with our buckets and my red lipstick. I left simultaneously absurd and like there is no better reason to celebrate with a little red lipstick then getting water.

Week 102: Lock Down

The final three months of Peace Corps Service are to be spent in the volunteers’ village, lovingly referred to as, Lock Down. A part of me is feeling sentimental about leaving and eager to spend time with the friends I have made in my community. Then this morning I went into work, only to find the place deserted and no one having communicated this to me. To be fair the kids are on break and it is the morning after a public holiday that the teachers had off so I should know better then to expect my coworkers to be at work bright and early. It was also a good reminder that although my life is about to undergo a serious shift, my coworkers and friends lives will continue with the same natural highs and lows. I may be eager to be with people, however, that does not stop their family members from getting married, their kids from getting sick, or their cars from breaking down. I know that over the next three months there will be many more tea times, meetings, and even a few parties to allow us all to say goodbye and in the meantime I guess I will enjoy my surprise day off.

Week 101: Close of Service Conference

The time has come for my Close of Service Conference (COS). I have been in Botswana with my fellow Bots 14 intake group since August 2013, we arrived at 61 and 42 of us have made it to our COS conference. I am told that this is considered high or on par with other Peace Corps Countries retention rates. I am proud to have made it this far but support all of my friends and peers who have left for various reasons. I applied to Peace Corps on a whim three years ago one Saturday as I avoided writing a paper for one of my then classes. It was early in my final year at University and I was stressed about what my next step would be. Having been involved in community based social issues theater projects, I felt that solutions needed to come from the community itself and I believed that as a peace corps volunteer I would become a part of what ever community I was living and serving in. Oh how I could not have been more wrong. After two years I am still an outsider and know that after twenty more years I will remain an outsider, however, I am loved and respected and I am grateful for the community of Moshana and the people who patiently shared their culture and way of life. I am clear that it is time for me to move on to my next chapter however; I will miss the friends I have made and the families that took me in as one of their own.

Week 100: GLOW Camp No. 3

 After many meetings and debates over what would be served for tea, the teachers and I pulled off a GLOW (Girls/Guys Leading our World) camp for the standard six students. Our camp was held over two days and Modisi teachers taught sessions on HIV and high risk behaviours, leadership, and gender. Sustainability is the name of the Peace Corps game, however, more often then not that is an impossible standard. Although I took the lead on organizing this camp I am confident that my coworkers could have succeeded without me. Initially we tried to get funding from an outside source, which fell through, however, the organization promised to put room in their budget next year for a GLOW camp. At this point that is only a promise and the budget will not be made until the end of the year, but regardless I am proud to say that I had a hand in that and that my coworkers will continue to make these camps happen, or at least I can tell myself that. A job well done Modisi teachers!