Snap, Crackle, Pop

This is the story of how with the help my wonderful friends Snap, Crackle, and Pop (aka: Rice Krispies Cereal) I became a renouned baker of Mokwena Ward, my neighborhood in Serowe, Botswana.

It all started with the idea to make rice krispy treats for my family. Many trainees have cooked American food for their families to facilitate the cultural exchange that is oh so important to Peace Corps. Me, with my limited repertoire of pancakes, French toast, and mac –n- cheese, decided to focus instead on dessert, and what could be better, or easier, than a gooey, crunchy rice crispy treat!

Using the only marshmallows sold in Serowe, bright pink ones, I successfully made a batch of ooey gooey treats! My family absolutely loved them and raved about them all weekend! My mother made sure to save some for other relatives close by. Over the weekend I even had personal visits from family members to tell me how delicious my desserts were!

Come Monday, after the rhino sanctuary, the raving had died down. I was studying in my room as my mother knocked on my door and said in her heavily accented English, “KEFILWE, let’s go do…something.”

Thinking she was just going to show me something outside, I grabbed my jacket and headed out the door. My aunt was waiting outside with her car. We get in the car and start driving away with no identification of where or what we are doing. A Few kilometers away, we end up at my aunt’s house. We help her unpack her groceries…and as I’m lifting a bag I catch a peek at what else but a box of rice krispies! And lo and behold there are marshmallows too!

My aunt loved them so much that she bought the ingredients and brought me to her house just to teach her how to make them! Even better, as I was doing the demo, there were two random young men laying tile in her kitchen. They watched the whole time and got to lick the bowl after!

Dessert isn’t much of an item here and I doubt any of my host family had ever had these pink sweet treats before. This was such an endearing experience and made me feel so loved within my family. As much as I am learning from them about Batswana culture, Peace Corps is also about sharing American culture so it was incredibly exciting to be a part of this cultural exchange! Who knew that Rice Krispy Treats would be such a bonding experience!

Sunrise Safari

As you all may know, last Monday was labor day, wooh!

I don’t know what holiday it actually was here in Botswana, but schools were out and we got the day off. So what do you do when there is a holiday and 74 trainees?

You do the obvious and go on a rhino safari, yay!!!!

We went to Khama Rhino Sanctuary which is about a half-hour’s drive outside of Serowe. It is mostly a game park to house white and black rhinos but also had other “diphologo” (animals) as well. In total we saw 5 white rhinos two of which were babies, 1 black rhino,  giraffes, zebras, wildebeest, ostriches, springboks, exotic birds, and, of course, lots and lots of impala. The wind chill was killer and I was up and walking to the bus before dawn, but it was entirely worth it.

We all needed this to remind us that, hey, we’re living in Africa, which is pretty awesome!

 

Setswana Word of the Day: Tshukudu- Rhino

Ga Ke Na Matata

Internet is sparse.

Therefore this post will only be a brief summary of the last 3 weeks, but it should be implied that everyday is packed to the brim with cultural, social, and educational activities; stories of which you will have to hear from me personally one day!

Side-note, peace corps is all about the acronyms so you better get them down because soon these posts will all be written in code.

Currently, I am not a Peace Corps volunteer (PCV) but a Peace Corps trainee (PCT). As a trainee I go through what is called Pre-Service Training (PST). During this time, we live with a host family and have different language, cultural, technical, and safety training throughout the week. This will continue for 10 weeks till we are officially sworn in as PCV's mid-October, yay! PST is exhausting. We have class from 7:30 am to 5pm everyday and then go home and do chores and cook with the host family (which can be taxing in itself, but also super fun and rewarding!). By the end of it, we should all have the skills we need to be set loose at our own sites, all alone. This is a great chance for us to bond as a group while also learning Batswana cultural norms.

I love my host family. My mother is in her sixties and is a sweet woman very intent on teaching me all the cultural experiences I need to know. She had six adult children but currently only two of her sons live at home during their vacation from university. Also living in the house are two of my mother's grandchildren, my host niece, Yaone age 13, and my host nephew, Lesego age 10. Extended family is huge here and there are other family members sprinkled all throughout my neighborhood including aunts, uncles, cousins, sisters, and more young nieces and nephews. Often, family members will stop by for a visit unannounced sometimes even spending the night.

My house is a lot nicer than I expected with running water and electricity though both do go out occasionally. The flooring is all tile and the kitchen is tiny, but otherwise an average house. There is no hot water and no shower so I take heated bucket bays instead. It's taken mea while to establish the people way to bath (yes they say "bath" here instead of "bathe ") but I think I'm finally getting it; at least I haven't started smelling bad so I must be on the right track!

Daily life consists of Setswana lessons every day but Sunday with my wonderful LCF (language and cross cultural facilitator) Last Lucia, and a couple other trainees, and carps lessons addressing HIV signs, gender empowerment, how to deal with unwanted attention, etc. I have a 45 minute walk to and from school everyday and must always be home before dark for safety reasons. When I get home I often hang out with my family, eat dinner, bath, then retreat to my room to read and go to sleep by 9:30.

The food here is interesting. I haven't had any bad experiences but all of it is cooked with lots of salt and oil and can get a bit repetitive. Breakfast normally consists of a cup of rooibos tea, and a fat cake or moguina (basically just a ball of fried dough!) spread with peanut butter. Dinner seems to be either one of two meals. We often have rice or pasta with a sauce they call " soup" because it's made from powdered soup packets (minestrone seems quite popular) with some potatoe, onion, and carrot chunks, butternut squash, coleslaw made from cabbage and tangy mayonnaise, and chicken. Or on alternate nights we have paleche (looks like mashed potatoes but is really maize flour added to water till it gets stiff, kinda tasteless), beef, and morogo (bean leaves that taste bitter like seaweed). My lunch usually consists of leftovers from dinner the night before or an occasional fried egg and fat cake.

I am enjoying my house family and training bit I am excited to eventually be of on my own. Training, being so scheduled, can be tiring and you hardly get any time to yourself. BUT tomorrow, we will be taking a break from training and going to the rhino sanctuary in Serowe which should be a blast! And in another week we have site visits where we travel to stay a few days with an existing volunteer to see what actual life in the field is like! AND in 3 weeks, we find out our site placements; where we will each be placed in Botswana do for the entire two years!!

Tsamaya sentle

Go well

Bua Gape, Say Again

Dumelang from Botswana!!!

Unfortunately the internet is too wonky to upload any pictures, guess you'll have to read my boring words instead. Seriously, my exhausted mind and body along with the exhausting internet leads to a pretty drab post that in no way does justice to the excitement of this journey. 

After a long day in the airport, a 15 hour flight to Johannesburg, and a final flight to Gaborone, Botswana our group of 75 volunteers finally made it to country!

The past few days have been filled with endless information on home stays, Setswana (the native tongue), safety, peace corps staff, and medical interviews. Tomorrow, us and all our hundreds of pounds of luggage, will travel to the village of Serowe to meet our host families, where we will be living for the next two months. 

Orientation recap:

-malaria meds that double as acne medication, yay!

-after traveling across the world and all being separated from everyone we love, making friends is almost instant!

-I already crave chocolate

-Setswana has a lot of syllables

-Setswana also has a lot of confusing pronunciations (can you pronounce lwala because I sure can't!)

-tea time is the best!

-and Botswana sunsets may surpass AZ's and that's saying something!

In Serowe I might not have internet for a while, but I'm sure I will have plenty of stories!

City of Love

Dumela!The day has finally arrived!

Yesterday I arrived in my hotel in Philadelphia for staging. It was quite bittersweet saying goodbye to family and friends, there's no denying that tears were shed. That look back after getting through security and seeing their faces one last time possibly for two years was heart wrenching! After a quick 5 hour flight, I got a fantastic speedy night tour of the city from my wonderful friend Britney, who had taught with me in India and currently resides here. 

Today will be whirlwind of butterflies and excitement as I meet the other 78 volunteers! Its a bit of an orientation of sorts where we'll learn what Peace Corps expects from us and some basic safety info before hopping on a bus at 2am, thats right 2 AM, to drive to JFK. From there its just a 15 hour flight to Johannesburg and another short flight to Botswana's capital Gaborone!

My attempt at packing light. Alas, I did not make it into the exclusive "one bag club," but I can carry them all by myself which is an accomplishment!

During my speedy night tour I got to see a lot of the neat buildings full of character throughout the city!

Now the true adventure is about to begin! Next blog will be from Africa!

BOTSWANA!

I'm beginning to truly believe that my attempt to plan out my life is futile. God and fate have continually impressed this upon me lately, or rather, have drilled it into me after each setback spins all my planning to the winds. Mozambique must not be in the cards. 

Because my Moz invite was rescinded due to kidney stones, the Peace Corps was able to offer me a new invitation to a country that can handle my condition in the chance that I pass another stone. The only problem was that all of the countries leaving right away were already full of volunteers. 

BUT I'm excited to announce that I will now be going to BOTSWANA (hence the title of this post!)

I won't leave until August, so a little more waiting must commence, but all I've done is wait so far in this process, so I'm a veteran of waiting.

My title is "Clinical Health Team Worker" and I will be working to address community health issues and primarily HIV/AIDS through clinic health education outreach and district level research, data-analysis, and coordination of programs. 

The Peace Corps entered Botswana in 1966 working in multiple areas of development. Botswana experienced remarkable growth since their independence from the United Kingdom. In 1997, the Peace Corps withdrew from the country due to its success. In 2002 volunteers returned again to combat the severity of the AIDS epidemic. Botswana currently has the third highest prevalence rates of HIV in the world, behind Swaziland and Lesotho. 23% of the population ages 15-49 are positive for the disease.

For now, I'll just enjoy my summer!

Little Bit Longer

This is a hard post to write. 

According to all my calendars and countdowns lying around, I should be scrambling to pack and prepare my life for my departure to Mozambique in two weeks.
But this isn't the case.

Little over a month ago, I still had yet to receive final medical clearance, even though I was supposed to leave in less then sixty days. I was corresponding with the nurse going over my file making sure I had everything turned in. There didn't seem to be anything standing in my way of getting that final clearance. I am healthy and all my tests came back normal. I thought maybe they were just backlogged.
My heart nearly hammered out of my chest and tears stung my eyes as I read the message with their final decision:

"The Peace Corps Medical Officer in Mozambique and our Medical Advisor have both been consulted regarding your case. Unfortunatly, you will be removed from your class."

I was devasted to learn, quite suddenly, that I would no longer be going to Mozambique. Instantly, my status on the portal went from "invitation accepted" back to "nominated"; a huge backward leap! What happened, I thought, I'm healthy; I was supposed to leave in 50 days! Apparently, because I passed a Kidney stone two years ago, the Peace Corps are worried that should I pass another one during my service, I wouldn't be able to get the urology support that I would need in Mozambique.

Normally, medical pre-clearance catches medical conditions such as this and you will only be nominated for countries that can care for your needs, but I, for some reason, got passed through without anything being written on my chart, even though I had submitted specific paperwork about my kidney stone. Finally, once I got to the final clearance stage, they realized that I can't serve in that country, even though according to myself and my urologist, my kidney stone history doesn't pose a current problem. I argued and pleaded and tried to negotiate my way back into Mozambique, but they were set in their decision. The nurse going over my file did apologize and seem sympathetic for the mistake that was made in my case, but I'm still a bit miffed that I never received an official apology.
I know that peace corps volunteers have to be flexible, but being pushed back three times feels like a bit much.

Devastated is only the brink of what I've been feeling. To have the rug pulled out from under me so suddenly has broken my heart. This whole journey, I've waited and waited hoping for the best only to be thrown off by one worst case scenario followed by another, and I haven't even left yet. Each set back, I've told myself that "its only a little longer, I can wait just a bit more," but that little bit longer has turned into over a year of extra waiting beyond the estimated year Peace Corps tells you to be prepared for. A "supposed" temporary time of living at home and doing boring office work because it doesn't make sense to find another job, a job within my field or one that isn't so mind numbing,  if I'm leaving in only a little bit longer has turned into a year of just waiting.  I haven't been able to work towards anything, or accomplish anything because every couple of months my situation changes for the worst and I'm thrown completely off course. It is completely out of my character to not be doing something. I've been having a lot of personal pity parties; which is completely outside of my normal sunny disposition.

I know things aren't all bad. There have been some smiling moments within all the angsty ones, and I'm even grateful to have been living at home as my family has been living through some setbacks as well. But that doesn't stop this news from being heart-breaking, especially right before I would have left. Their decision can't be changed; all I can do is move forward. My patience is wearing mighty thin, but I've wanted this for so long, waiting just that little bit longer can't hurt too much.

The Peace Corps was able to offer me another invitation, which I accepted,  to a country that can take care of me in the off chance that I pass another kidney stone, but that is a post for another day :)