Razor

Trying to figure out ways to feed Razor without wasting food that the family needs. Razor is the name Dudu, my 8 year old niece, gave one of the dogs. My host mom just refers to both of them as dog. He is so skinny you can see all of his ribs (Razor is the one curled up in a ball). They don't pet, play with, or show affection for their dogs in any way.  Dudu told me her uncle kicked Razor and that's why he was limping today. Makes me cry! The dogs are very skittish because all they have known is punishment. I slowly have been approaching Razor and recently started petting him, even though he is filthy. He is sooooo happy to see me and actually ran and jumped with me a bit yesterday! I also showed Dudu how to pet him. She said he is soft and I think she liked it.

The next step is to try to teach Dudu how to care for Razor. She has become my shadow and carefully watches everything I do. Dudu is a goofy, smart, independent, funny, beautiful girl who wants to do everything with me and wants everything I have. It's hard for me to believe she is only 8! Yes, she does drive me crazy sometimes with he 8 year old antics!

I'll have to find out if there are flees and ticks around here.

Perma-gardening

We had a perma-gardening class yesterday. I'm so excited to start my garden, though not looking forward to turning over the rock hard soil! Things that grow well are kale, spinach, beats, and different types of peas. All of which I harvested last year on the Sierra Valley farm. For some reason my host family doesn't buy any of them. The only veggies I've seen are cabbage, carrots, onions, tomatoes, potatoes some green leafy stuff that's from some unknown plant and different varieties of squash. They also have hardened corn and told me they don't have sweet corn. Maybe it's too dry?  

I'm really enjoying the cool nights and sometimes enjoying the open ventilation in the house. Trying to savor every moment it's not too hot! I do need to figure out a way to cover the vents on the southern wall of my room since that is where the open fire is and seems to be where the prevailing wind is coming from.

My Botswana Family

When I got home from training I played soccer with my 11 year old nephew. He wanted to challenge me to one touch, only kick the ball once to get it back to the other person. I got quite the workout! He has a tournament next weekend and is confident that his team will win. They only lost one game so far this season.

I’ve really enjoyed getting to know my host family. The 2 year old has unbelievable amounts of energy and wants to always come and take something from my room. He can kick the soccer ball a few yards in the direction that he wants it to go! They call him the troublemaker. There are 5 cousins currently staying at the family compound, 2, 3, 8, 11 and 18, my host mom, their grandmother, and her 96 year old mother that can’t walk and just lays on a pad in her room, or outside if it’s nice out. Only one of the 3 sisters is married, though all of them have kids. It’s very common to have children and not be married, or divorced and for them to stay with the grandparents.

I have 7 brothers and sisters who all seem to really like to party! They range from 21 – 43 or something like that and live mostly in Gaborone (Gabs).

PC Boot Camp

Training is 10 weeks and it’s like boot camp! 10 hr days and 4 hrs of language on Saturday… the language is very difficult! We're done Oct 15 and I can’t wait to get to my site and have my own place. I do feel safe, there are mostly thefts and burglary, not assaults or violent crime, though someone took my water bottle from a wedding Saturday. Everyone from the village is invited to the wedding, so there’s no such thing as a wedding crasher. I've been afraid to carry my camera after what they said about theft. It doesn't fit in my backpack with all the books and papers, so there’s no way to hid it. We are supposed to get a couple days off for holidays and I’ll be going to a current Peace Corps site to shadow in a couple weeks and hope to pull it out then.

The wedding was long and the traditional dancers were great to watch, otherwise it was pretty boring. The speeches were in Setswana and my brother, sister and her cousin just drank all afternoon/evening. They drank mostly in the parking lot because people “don’t drink” in Botswana, I’m finding out that there are many things that Botwanans "don’t do” things that aren’t their “culture” yet many people still “do” them. They hide the alcohol at the wedding and tailgate in the parking lot!

The weather is just like Tahoe late summer/early fall very dry highs in the 70s lows in the 40s you can see the milky way!! Stars are amazing!! It's getting hotter, soon to be in the 80’s… then 90’s summer is coming, but nights stay cool... Very dusty, Lots of sand

In Gabs, the capital of Botswana, to get a skin check at the dermatologist. I get to stay at a hotel! such a treat to have decent food and a clean place with a hot shower!

Pre Service Training

OK, I’m a bit more coherent now that I’ve gotten some sleep…

Walking through Philly to the liberty bell I was reading about the history of slave trade that dates back to well before Columbus discovered America. We were creating a free nation, but implementing slavery while other counties were abolishing it. What a great way to bridge to my service in Africa!

Leaving Philly at 2am we were on the road to New York. We drove straight down 42nd street, a blinding contrast to where we were headed. Gathering our bags and trying to get comfortable on the cold hard floor we waited the 2 hrs for the South African airlines desk to open. It already felt like we were in a foreign country. I started a crime wring of steeling luggage carts from the people checking in on their way to South America. We also collaborated on getting our bags as close to 50lbs as we could, trading toiletries and heavy items for lighter less bulky ones, these were the first true collaborations for the 75 of us headed to Botswana.

I’ve finished the first leg of my journey, getting to Botswana and completing the staging event in Philly. I’m now off to Sewore for Peace Corps Pre Service Training (PST). I’ve heard if you get through this you can get through anything! It’s supposedly “cool” to complain about PST. It’s a 5 hr bus ride to our matching ceremony where we meet a Botswana Khosi, chief, who will be the master of ceremonies.  There are 8 kyosia that represent the 8 officially recognized Tswana tribes. At the matching ceremony I meet my host family where I will be staying for the next 10 weeks. I found out today that they may think that I’m dirty if I only take one shower a day and that I may need to explain that I didn’t sweat that day. They take 2 to 3 baths a day! a stark contrast to the likelihood of me only getting 2 showers a week in Azerbaijan.

        

The people in my group are amazing and excited about spending the next 10 weeks getting to know them better. I’m sure we will all help each other get through the trials of PST and our new host families!

3rd World Issues in the 1st World

The last supper was some of the best sushi I've had!!

Flight to Philly... The cockpit lights showing errors on a new Boeing plane. The new video system not working at my seat. Once we were in the air they said the flight will only be delayed by 35 min, though we land 1 1/2 hrs late. I missed my connection and found another U.S. Air (American purchased U.S. Air) flight that wouldn't let me board.

I was told by one gate agent that American doesn't usually transfer bags to U.S. Air flights, but to go to baggage claim and see if I can report them and get them transferred. After going out of security and down to baggage claim the answer I received is that it could be 1 1/2  to 2 hrs to pull the bags then transfer them. I said I would prefer not to pull the bags and risk loosing them completely. I went to talk to the U.S. Airways baggage clam attendant and she said that my bags should be transferred automatically to the U.S. Airways flight that I was re-booked on.

I arrived in Philly without my bags!

I received very little sleep before getting up at 1:30am to take a bus from Philly to JFK. more to come... too tired and too much of a ramble and I need to board my 15.5 hr. flight to Johannesburg and then a 55min flight to Botswana.

It's happening again!

 

I'm having another out of body experience. Here I am packing, again. I'm moving so slowly that I can hear the Peanuts adult speak in my head.

Over the last few months I've often felt as if I'm watching myself going through the motions. I did have a great summer and there was at least one solid month where I was completely integrated, but now I'm watching myself repeat what I did 4 months ago.

I'm excited about going to Botswana and to have two consecutive summers will be an experience in itself. I've been following the weather on my phone and it's ironic, but their weather is almost exactly like ours, though without the unseasonable rain and strange humidity that we've been having. Hard to believe, but I think they actually have more sunny days than Tahoe.

The pic above is from where my 10 weeks of training will be. The city is called Serowe, I still don't know how to pronounce it! Well, back to the packing and I hope to write more when I get to Philly on Tuesday!