Let's Be Tea Leaves

Pre-Service Training may have ended but the acronyms will live on forever. On October 15^th 72 of us took our oath to change from PCT’s (Peace Corps Trainees) to PCV’s (Peace Corps Volunteers)! Now, officially, our two years of service begin!

Many of us took extra long bucket baths to prepare for this day and dressed to the nines in our locally made “German print” skirts or shirts. There was a short ceremony with speeches from the Botswana Country Director, Kgosi (chief) of Serowe (our training village), the Charge d’Affaires from the U.S. Embassy to Botswana, and some of our own volunteers (yep, I can say “volunteers” now!).

The local Kgosi delivered a heartwarming speech about a rock, an egg, and some tea leaves. I know what you’re thinking, those don’t sound all that heartwarming, just wait... You take these three things and add boiling water. For the rock, nothing happens. It is placed someplace new yet it doesn’t change. For the egg, the environment changes it. It becomes something completely different than before the water was introduced. Finally, the tea leaves. When you place tea leaves into the harsh environment of a tea kettle, the tea leaves work with the water to become something new altogether. The tea leaves form a symbiotic relationship with the water to change their environment into something tasty and refreshing!

Therefore, as PCV’s, we should be tea leaves. We are entering new communities to be community mobilizers, mentors, teachers, and collaborators. Our goal is not to cure HIV or to “save” the world; rather we are placed here to work with the community towards common goals; to create sustainable change, and to share ideas, friendships, and cultures. Together, with the people of Botswana, we are going to make some delicious tasting tea!

Lwapa La Me (The Fam!)

As PST winds down and moving to sites is nigh upon us, I'd like to take this post to thank my host family and give everyone a glimpse into the lovely people that have been my temporary home away from home.

Living with a host family is not always easy. Living in any strangers house, even in America feels awkward. Many things become lost in translation (I just recently learned my brother's name yesterday even though he's been present the whole time!). I get strange looks when I put peanut putter on my magwinya (also called fat cakes, basically fried dough or unfrosted doughnuts), get laughed at when I eat paleche with a fork (a maize flour substance that looks like mashed potatoes with the texture of sponges and tastes of nothing), and am followed by children everywhere who express unquenchable interest for anything in my room.

But, I would also be lost without them. My host mother has a big smile for me every time I walk in the door. She asked me how school was and what I learned. She also loves to point out cultural practices like cooking over the fire and wearing traditional clothes.

At the party all of Bots 15 hosted to thank our families

My host brothers (the ones that live at home) cook dinner every night even making extra so that I have leftovers for lunch the next day. My host sister (who lives a few houses away) makes magwinya every day and who am I to complain about these fried balls of deliciousness!

Game was having none of this picture taking! She refused to turn around and smile.

My nieces and nephews, my constant source of joy, annoyance, and information all bundled into one, keep me company (sometimes too much) and teach me Setswana. 

It is one of the greatest feelings in the world to hear Game (2 years old) shout "Laura!" and run to give me a hug when she sees me. She doesn't speak English but will ramble to me all day long! 

Theresa (8) is pure energy. She has taught me multiple hand-claping rhymes and loves braiding my hair. 

Lesego (10) is incredibly helpful from helping me with Setswana homework to drinking tea with me at night, he has become a quick favorite. 

Yaone (13) is the first person to greet me every morning as she warms water for a bath. She taught me the proper way to do laundry and shares my love for the Frozen soundtrack.

And finally the cat, who my family lovingly (or not so lovingly) calls Katse, the Setswana word for cat. My stress-reliever is to come home in the evenings pet this cat and watch the sunset. Surprisingly, last week I found out that this cat isn't even owned by my family! She is actually a neighbor's. And not only that, but she has two kittens who have been hiding under a car in our yard.

Even though I am incredibly excited to move to Kang this week, it will be sad to say goodbye to the family who has taken me in and taught me the basics of Botswana culture. Serowe is about 10 hours from Kang so I may never meet them again, but I will always remember their hospitality and love they've given me!

Old Mcdonald

Welcome to Serowe Story Time!

A cow, a goat, and a donkey were riding in a taxi. When the taxi reached the cow’s stop the cow got out, paid her and got the right amount of change.

TO THIS DAY, the cow stands on the side of the road waiting patiently for the next taxi.

When the goat’s stop came, the goat ran out of the taxi not paying anything at all.

TO THIS DAY, whenever a car drives by the goat runs away so that the driver cannot find him and make him pay.

When the taxi came upon the donkey’s stop, he was forced to pay both his fare and the goats fare.

TO THIS DAY, the donkey stands in the middle of the road waiting for the driver to get his change.

Zebras never cross my path, elephants don’t run into cars, and giraffes aren’t looking in the window. Much of Botswana is packed full of farm animals. Village life isn’t complete without seeing goats, cows, donkeys, and chickens. This little folktale shows everyday life here in Serowe, traffic laws hardly apply to drivers and never apply to the animals!

Things are going good. PST is dragging a bit, but in 3 short weeks I will be on my way to my new life in Kang! I’m feeling so ready to get started!

From Desert to Sekakeng

After an anxious and nail-biting couple of weeks, the sites for Bots 15 were finally announced this past Thursday!

We all filed in through a balloon filled doorway into the "great hall," aka the multipurpose room of Serowe Teaching College, to take our seats and impatiently await our sorting, ahem, I mean placement throughout Botswana.

Taking a page out of Oprah's well-loved book, we were told to reach under our chairs to find a number #1-73! Following the order we each were given a secret envelope, read a proverb, and added our names to the map in our new home!

Being #58, my palms were sweaty and my heart racing by the time I was called. I read my proverb, "how you greet a stranger means more than the way you greet a friend in..." KANG!

I don't know much about it yet, but I'm excited! It is a village set in the middle of the Kalahari desert in the Kgalagadi district of Botswana. Its a village of about 5,000 people and I'll be replacing a Bots 12 who just completed service. As I'm a Clinic and Health Team worker, I'll be working in the clinic helping them with HIV/AIDS outreach, education, and service, while also helping to strengthen their capacity to provide for the community. Its also the home village of my favorite Setswana teacher!!

From the desert of Arizona to the desert of Botswana I'll be making lots of sand angels, sand globes, and sand art along with tending to many sunburns! It seems google didn't have much to say about Kang except,  "If your forte is for long and uneventful drives through a flat desert environment, then this is the journey for you."

On October 15th I will be sworn in as an official volunteer and move my life to my new home! Here's to the next two years!

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