I finally got to a fast enough computer to upload some of my pictures. I will up load more in the future. Hope you all enjoy!!!!!

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/ptowens26/album?.dir=/318d&.src=ph&.tok=phUkRxDBhvXAxW0N

Well, I have been here almost a month and I have to say life in Botswana is very interesting. I guess you can tell I use the word interesting a lot because life here is just so different from America. First, the main reason HIV/AIDS is so bad here because a lot of the people here do not practice monogyny and have concurrent sex partners and the men do not believe in using condoms. For example, a person could have like four partners in whom they have sex concurrently and if one of them become HIV infected then there is higher possibility that they will give their partners HIV because you are more likely to spread the virus when you first get infected. So that one person could infect that group and the others who are sleeping with someone from that group. The men here control everything when it comes to sex they control when they are going to have sex and how many children the family is going to have. Second, the role of women here is another thing that is nothing like America. You will never see a woman smoking in public because it is look down on for women to smoke. Also women are encouraged to get pregnant at a young age to show that they are fertile which would make them more attractive to get married. But most of the men do not marry the women and many of the women I met had several children from the same man but he wasn’t any where in the picture. But wait before a man can marry a woman he has to give her family at least 8 cattle with the highest being 12 cattle. If he doesn’t have the cattle he has to give the family the money and 1 cattle cost 1,000 pula. To help you understand the value, $1 is worth around 5 pula. Also all the laws here are geared toward men for example, a woman can not press charges against her husband that he raped her. So if a woman’s husband rapes her there is nothing she can do. Last, the men here hold hands in public and they are not gay. So you will see men walking down the street holding hands. It still seems funny to me to see but all ages do it. Homosexuality is against the law and if anyone is caught engaged in a non heterosexual act could be sentenced up to 7 years in jail.

I attended a funeral this past weekend while staying with my host family. My host mother’s nephew had died of AIDS and he was only 37 years old. The funeral stated at 6:30 am on a Saturday morning. Funerals here are outside of the house where the family lives and anyone in the village can come to the funeral even if they did not know the person. And all the women sit on one side with their heads covered and the men sit on the opposite side and their arms covered. After the service everyone walks to the graveyard for the burial. After the burial everyone walks back to the house and all the women get together and eat and all the men get together and eat.

Even though I have only stayed with my host family 2 weekends since I been here they have really welcomed me into the family. I have 2 more weekends to stay with them. My Setswana name is Tebogo. The family consists of seven children, 4 girls and 3 boys with the ages ranging from the oldest 30 and youngest 2. The funniest thing they think that I don’t like to eat because every time they cook I only eat a little bit and they always pile my plate up with food. But anyone who knows me knows that I love to eat but I just don’t like the food my host family cooks. And I don’t want to eat too much so I will not have to use that outside toilet. My host sister has a son and his name is Tlamelo and he is 8 years old and he just loves me. I wish I could adopt him and bring him back to the States with me. He gets so excited when I say I am going to take him to America with me. I know if I stay here I will stay in contact with my host family during my two year stay.

Well, I have 5 more weeks of training so I should be finding out soon my site placement. I am hoping that it is in this town called Laboste which is about an hour away from the capital. I am hoping that since Laboste is a town and not a village they will have inside plumbing. I hope everyone is doing well and keep in touch.

PS. As soon as I get to a fast enough computer I will upload my pictures and send them to everyone.

Duelmalang (Hello Everyone),

Well, I have made it to Africa and it has been an experience all ready. It is so hard to communicate here because you can’t buy phone cards and finding Internet access is very hard because I am in a village doing training. And when you do find a phone it is hard getting through to the US. I am in training in a village called Kanya, which is about 40 miles from the capital of Botswana. My group of PST (Pre-Service Training) consists of 10 people including myself. The age range varies from the oldest being 59 to the youngest being 25. But we are down to 8 because 2 people have already quit. Training has been interesting because we have to learn Setswana, which is the cultural language of Botswana. We are staying at a learning center so the rooms are like dorm rooms from college. This past weekend I stayed with my host family. Let me tell you that was an interesting experience. First, the family did not have any running water and an outside toilet. So they ran water for me to take my bath and wash my hands before dinner. The family was really nice and the young boys took me hiking up these huge hills in their village. I didn’t like the food and barely ate and just drunk the tea they gave me. The dinner here consist of a lot of starch because the people here are really poor. I slept in a separate room outside that could be locked. These villages are like several decades behind the US. Staying with this family and the environment reminded me of the movie The Color Purple. There were chickens everywhere, donkeys pulling carts, cows roaming around, women washing clothes by hand, dogs barking and dirt roads.

Since we are still in training I don’t know where I am going to be placed. Basically, I will be working as a project manager doing Business Development for a NGO (Non Governmental Organization) which we call back in the US a non-profit organization. Many of these NGO’s are grassroots and need much development so they don’t have much money but at the same time they are suppose to provide housing for us. So am getting concern because from all my reading and emailing this girl here that is a Peace Corps Volunteer everyone in her group got governmental housing which is nice. But my group was told by the PC director at the airport in Johannesburg that our group was going to be poor PCV (Peace Corps Volunteers) because the government wasn’t supplying the housing and our funds were coming from the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS relief. PEPFAR is Bush’s initiative that he signed that designated $20 billion in helping countries directly affected by HIV/AIDS and Botswana is one of them targeted countries. I already can tell we are in for a challenge in helping these NGO’s which I don’t have a problem with but if the housing is anything like my host family I am not going to accept a position with the Peace Corps. I don’t mind working hard but I can not live for two years without running water and a bathroom. In all my reading it was clear that if you wanted that PC experience of living in a mud hut then you would be disappointed with an assignment here. I am really surprise at the level of poverty here since they have diamonds minds. So if I am placed some where and the housing is like my host family’s house then I will be coming back to America. But I have seven more weeks of training so I am going to keep an open mind and hope for the best. Please keep in touch write or email me because I feel so disconnected from everyone. I would be nice if some of you could take the time drop me a letter since getting to the Internet while in training is hard. Here is my mailing address again Pearson Owens c/o Peace Corps, PB 00243, Gaborone, Botswana.

Tsamaya Sentle, (Farewell)

Pearson

Everyone,

The time has come for me to leave for Africa. I will be leaving for Johannesburg on September 8th. I really want to thank my family, friends and associates for all your encouraging words, parties, dinners, gifts, cards, etc. Having your support is really important knowing that I am about to face one of the biggest challenges of my life.

I will be in training for the next three months. So for all those express interest in visiting you will be able to visit me any time after these first three months. And for those who will like to write since my Internet access will be limited while in training my address is Pearson Owens, c/o Peace Corps, PB 00243, Gaborone, BOTSWANA.

Peace,

Pearson