BOFWA

with constant access to super cheat internet, i'll hopefully be updating every few days. (it's less than fifty cents per 30 minutes!!) and it's fast. :)

i started my internship at BOFWA (Botswana Family Welfare Association) yesterday (the link is in this post somewhere). it's an NGO and i work in the Mochudi branch. it's been super low key so far. yesterday, i got dropped off around 10. my initial impression was confusion. the building is bright orange with purple trim. there's three buildings with a tennis/netball court in front and a huge tree for shade over a cement picnic table.

i anticipated BOFWA as being an ngo that worked only on HIV/AIDS, since that's how it had been presented to me. turns out the mochudi facility has a full clinic that treats anyone who comes, and a lot of people come since it's not a government clinic and has shorter lines. they also do hiv testing and peer education/counseling. but in addition, it's a youth center. kids come after school to hang out and play games. Kex teaches karate everyday, which is something i told him i'd try a few times!

i got a tour of the facility from the man who runs it, Ke a leboga (translates to thank you) or Kex. he didn't have anything for me to do, so after asking questions and chatting for an hour, he drove me half way to a cultural fair outside town. i say half way because we ended up driving behind the van of an organization we partner with, Stepping Stones. so they pulled over, i hopped in their car and Kex headed back to BOFWA. i couldn't understand much of what happened at the culture day because most of it was in setswana. but the botswana police's full band was there (about 20 people in it) so it was fun to hear them play. a school for the blind also performed on the marimbas which was cool. in the audience was Miss World, 2008 (she's from botswana), the UN Ambassador to Botswana and the Paramount Chief. In order to get a ride home, i hitched with Daniel, who's from my program and his supervisor at RADP, the org. he's working with in Mochudi. Once i got back into town, i met up with a few friends. we went to where they work for what we thought would be just a few minutes to finalize their schedules. instead it turned into more than an hour of meeting everyone they'll be working with.

today was a little crazy too. i showed up half an hour early because i thought the combi (public transport) would take longer than it did. i met two new people who had actually been at the culture fair but didn't know who i was so didn't say hi. Nt remembered me and knew i'd been wearing a blue dress though. i walked with Nt to her house because she had to take her ARVs at 8am sharp. we talked for awhile about her status. it was incredibly interesting because i've never had a conversation with a person living positive before. she told me she's known for 6 years, she had tests done this week and her doctors now want to change her meds, that her parents initially abandoned her when they found out but that her boyfriend was very supportive. now her parents have accepted her back, although she can't forget the hurt they caused. i was so touched she was so open and i'd literally met her 20 minutes before.

once we got the keys to go in, there wasn't much to do, again. we're meeting with teachers tomorrow about a spelling bee. the words are all relating to medical issues, so the point is to teach kids their definitions. three of us copied all of the words and definitions (more than 7 handwritten pages) before i was told there was a copier. efficiency isn't always a priority. also, there's a computer and printer. i would have been happy to have typed everything up and printed out four copies. that way, they also would've had the words on file. after that, i hung out with the other local volunteers.

my internet time's almost up so i'll sum up the rest of my day: walked to lunch with Nt and another girl where we had the traditional lunch of phaleche, name, le morogo (phaleche, meat and greens). went back to bowfa and hung out. took a 40 minute power nap on a couch. hung out outside with the local volunteers again. then took a combi to town where i shopped at Choppies and came to the internet cafe.

that's it for time. hopefully next time i'll get to my family.

until then, i love and miss you all!!!
Lorato