Since I leave Botswana today, I figured I'd post a list of the things I will and won't miss mo Botswana. More stories to come about my last few days.... too many adventures and great insights into the workings of the US embassy!
Things I won't miss about Botswana:
Seeing donkeys with their front legs tied together so they can’t walk very fast or go very far
Being honked at by every taxi that passes
Silent TV dinners
Mosquitoes
Throwing my trash on the ground because there’s nowhere else to put it
People who assume I can’t speak Setswana
Foreigners watching the progress of their Batswana construction crew for hours from their air conditioned cars
Slow internet
Not really knowing how to cook anything I’ve eaten here
Kagisong
Food poisioning… Thanks program house leftovers
Being asked where my husband is by every taxi driver. Don’t have one? Then where’s your boyfriend?
Sticking out like a sore thumb
“Sori mma, ga ke je nama.”
Writing papers
Boys peeing everywhere
Passports
Prepaid phone units
Switches where off is up and on is down
Things I’ll miss about Botswana:
Boitumelo, Bonolo, Dimpho, Kabo, Kagiso, Katlhego, Lefika, Lesego, Leungo, Mpho, Naledi, Neo, Tabo
Long good byes outside Bull and Bush with flickering lights and massive audiences
The skies
Letsatsi
Mickey tags
April
Dirt roads
Riding in the back of pickups
Gabs, Kasane, Manyana, Maun, Mochudi
My host families
Maun Homeopathy Project
P10 lunches
Parks
Chibuku cartons everywhere
Dirt roads
Rain storms when the sky seems to rip right open
Rummy 500
Bush breakfasts/lunches/dinners
Brian
My hubby
Department of Wildlife and National Parks
Walking by the State House every morning and afternoon
Wild dogs
Wonderful conversations with strangers
Pap pap
The efficiency of the US embassy
Safari drives
Land Cruisers and Range Rovers
Sunset
Favors
Thunder that booms, crashes and rattles your ribs for thirty seconds
Ame
Diphologolo
Motogo
Sour fruit
Crunchy YumYum
The molapo
Having an MP dad
Random dance parties
Linga Langa
Forked lightening
Football
Thari Daycare Center
Kudu
Liver-looking banana-smelling fruits
Pula
Amarula
Walking by Embassies
LBRs
Weddings
BOFWA
Oranges and peaches right off the tree
Birds
The air-conditioned rock
Quiet picnics under a huge tree
Choppies
Webby
The cool side of Manyana’s river
The Botswana soundtrack
Mokoros
Throwing wine on Lesh
Free internet in the best places; Maun airport, Barcelos, Linga Langa, Equitorial
Trees everywhere
Elephants
My wonderful eating buddy
So many kids
Night time walks
Dinaledi
Mmadua
Monkey Gland Burgers
Backpackers’
Walking
Milky Lane
Being a tourist
Khombis
Bull and Bush
Ditonki, Dikgomo, Dipudi, Dikatsi, Dintsa, Dikoko
Comfy beds
Bucket baths
Booze cruise
Dula
History
Setswana
Backpackers
Beef juice
Amarula
My Birthswana
Namibian women wearing beautiful hats and dresses
Meeting Atlha
My four new families in a beautiful and wonderful country
BOITUMELO, BONOLO, DIMPHO, KABO, KAGISO, KATLEGO, LEFIKA, LESEGO, LEUNGO, MPHO, NALEDI, NEO, TABO
Showing posts with label BOFWA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label BOFWA. Show all posts
Monday, December 20, 2010
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Update Time!
here's what's happened in the last week:
presented at a primary school on the negative effects of drug/alcohol abuse. the students said they couldn't understand my english so my boss reviewed what i said. i'd been told presenting in english would be fine, but the kids certainly didn't think so. it was pretty embarrassing to be told to continue talking even after they said they couldn't understand me.
i finally learned the names of my three younger siblings: Tlotlo (boy. i think translates to pride) is 6. Peo (girl. translates to seed) is twins with Legae (boy. not sure of the translation) who are both 4.
my shoe broke at work yesterday so i stapled it 8 times and it held up the rest of the day.
i can successfully hail any combi or taxi going in my direction.
i visited Mochudi's museum with Ian, Katie and their students from a school for the visually impaired. it was super interesting to see all of the really old pictures and artifacts. there was one pot, probably a foot and a half deep with an opening about a foot wide that was used to bury people. someone was telling me there was little respect for the body of a dead person, so they were shoved into these pots and buried. after the museum, two students taught me to play mhele, a traditional game that's kind of like tic-tac-toe on steroids.
while i absolutely love the work BOFWA does, they don't really have anything for me to do. i sometimes read, sometimes talk to other volunteers, and sometimes do homework. or sometimes i leave early.
i've gone twice to Motswedi Rehabilitation Center with NT, the BOFWA employee I wrote about last time. It's super fun to play games with the kids. we do things similar to Simon Says and Duck-Duck-Goose. i have also sat in on physical therapy for young kids. that was super tough to watch because the kids were getting stretched out and screaming so loud. at the same time, there were older people (70s or 80s) who were from an org that works with people living with HIV. they were doing exercises to strengthen their muscles. they couldn't walk without a lot of support. their motivation to walk even just five feet was inspirational.
i went to a club friday night with Nt and Ian where live music was being played. we were interviewed for BTV (botswana tv). i also went to a party the police department was throwing because someone was retiring. a little weird to see police partying.
we discovered the Mochudi library, a cute little two room air conditioned building with books we can't check out and computers we can't use because we won't be here for two years. but they do have ethernet cables we can use and apparently it's the fastest connection around (i have yet to use it).
i've had a few more setswana lessons, so i keep trying to talk to people in the village and they laugh every time i do. but they're always impressed with how much we all know and how well we can get around town.
watched the first half of Home Alone 2 at cameron's house.
considering how long it's been since i last posted, not too much has happened. a lot of down time and relaxing. i finished a book: Cyclops. i never though i'd enjoy a scifi book, but i did!!
presented at a primary school on the negative effects of drug/alcohol abuse. the students said they couldn't understand my english so my boss reviewed what i said. i'd been told presenting in english would be fine, but the kids certainly didn't think so. it was pretty embarrassing to be told to continue talking even after they said they couldn't understand me.
i finally learned the names of my three younger siblings: Tlotlo (boy. i think translates to pride) is 6. Peo (girl. translates to seed) is twins with Legae (boy. not sure of the translation) who are both 4.
my shoe broke at work yesterday so i stapled it 8 times and it held up the rest of the day.
i can successfully hail any combi or taxi going in my direction.
i visited Mochudi's museum with Ian, Katie and their students from a school for the visually impaired. it was super interesting to see all of the really old pictures and artifacts. there was one pot, probably a foot and a half deep with an opening about a foot wide that was used to bury people. someone was telling me there was little respect for the body of a dead person, so they were shoved into these pots and buried. after the museum, two students taught me to play mhele, a traditional game that's kind of like tic-tac-toe on steroids.
while i absolutely love the work BOFWA does, they don't really have anything for me to do. i sometimes read, sometimes talk to other volunteers, and sometimes do homework. or sometimes i leave early.
i've gone twice to Motswedi Rehabilitation Center with NT, the BOFWA employee I wrote about last time. It's super fun to play games with the kids. we do things similar to Simon Says and Duck-Duck-Goose. i have also sat in on physical therapy for young kids. that was super tough to watch because the kids were getting stretched out and screaming so loud. at the same time, there were older people (70s or 80s) who were from an org that works with people living with HIV. they were doing exercises to strengthen their muscles. they couldn't walk without a lot of support. their motivation to walk even just five feet was inspirational.
i went to a club friday night with Nt and Ian where live music was being played. we were interviewed for BTV (botswana tv). i also went to a party the police department was throwing because someone was retiring. a little weird to see police partying.
we discovered the Mochudi library, a cute little two room air conditioned building with books we can't check out and computers we can't use because we won't be here for two years. but they do have ethernet cables we can use and apparently it's the fastest connection around (i have yet to use it).
i've had a few more setswana lessons, so i keep trying to talk to people in the village and they laugh every time i do. but they're always impressed with how much we all know and how well we can get around town.
watched the first half of Home Alone 2 at cameron's house.
considering how long it's been since i last posted, not too much has happened. a lot of down time and relaxing. i finished a book: Cyclops. i never though i'd enjoy a scifi book, but i did!!
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
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
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
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Dumela, from Mochudi!
I found a great internet cafe in Mochudi, where we're doing our second homestay. I only have a few minutes left, so I thought I'd try to give a quick update on life here, although I've barely started to explore the village.
My family is fun. My host mom is more like my sister, she's just a few years older than me. She has three kids: a 6year old boy, and twin 4year olds, a boy and a girl. i think i have 4 other siblings (all in their late 20s and early 30s) but i'm not quite sure who's related to me and who's not. my grandma and grandpa also live at home. my grandma's adorable. she's really sweet. my first morning, as i was washing dishes (and we go through a ton of dishes with so many people and visitors!), she pulled me over to the fire where she was cooking traditional beer in a HUGE pot. she told me all about how she cooks it to sell.
i've been keeping busy by getting out of the house. my first full day in mochudi was spent at a wedding and hanging out with some friends from the program. yesterday, i walked all around the village. murphy, casey and i walked to the top of a hill and looked out over the whole village. it was beautiful, but also shocking because mochudi is SO MUCH bigger than manyana! the houses spread out farther than we could see. i can't wait to explore more.
today i walked into town by myself (about 40 minutes) and found the internet cafe i'm current at. i bought crackers and cheese at the store and had lunch outside with ian, jesse and cameron. we'll see what the rest of today holds!!
on monday, i start working with BOFWA, an organization that focuses on HIV/AIDS issues, especially those surrounding Mochudi's youth. i'm not sure exactly what work i'll be doing, but hopefully it'll be interesting and worthwhile.
email when you can! i want to hear from everyone and look forward to updates!!!!
love,
karen
My family is fun. My host mom is more like my sister, she's just a few years older than me. She has three kids: a 6year old boy, and twin 4year olds, a boy and a girl. i think i have 4 other siblings (all in their late 20s and early 30s) but i'm not quite sure who's related to me and who's not. my grandma and grandpa also live at home. my grandma's adorable. she's really sweet. my first morning, as i was washing dishes (and we go through a ton of dishes with so many people and visitors!), she pulled me over to the fire where she was cooking traditional beer in a HUGE pot. she told me all about how she cooks it to sell.
i've been keeping busy by getting out of the house. my first full day in mochudi was spent at a wedding and hanging out with some friends from the program. yesterday, i walked all around the village. murphy, casey and i walked to the top of a hill and looked out over the whole village. it was beautiful, but also shocking because mochudi is SO MUCH bigger than manyana! the houses spread out farther than we could see. i can't wait to explore more.
today i walked into town by myself (about 40 minutes) and found the internet cafe i'm current at. i bought crackers and cheese at the store and had lunch outside with ian, jesse and cameron. we'll see what the rest of today holds!!
on monday, i start working with BOFWA, an organization that focuses on HIV/AIDS issues, especially those surrounding Mochudi's youth. i'm not sure exactly what work i'll be doing, but hopefully it'll be interesting and worthwhile.
email when you can! i want to hear from everyone and look forward to updates!!!!
love,
karen
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