I was recently asked by a friend to write a little about our work

here, so I thought I would share the short overview of our work and

experience with the Peace Corps in Botswana.

In Botswana, everything that the Peace Corps is involved in is

centered around addressing the HIV epidemic that has hit the country

so hard.

(there are many theories about why the southern africa has been the

worst hit by far, and currently the best explanation centers around

the cultural practice of having multiple concurrent sexual partners.

HIV is most communicable during the first few months of infection. In

Botswana and other regions of Southern Africa it is a common practice

for people to have multiple sexual partners at the same time and

because this means the disease has a "super-highway" for transmission

because as soon as someone is infected they unknowingly pass the

infection on to all of their other partners. To make matters worse,

the disease is often not detectable during the first few months of

infection. Thus, during its most communicable time period the disease

is also difficult to test for and with people sleeping with multiple

partners it has spread fast, or so the theory goes).

Even though the prevalence of HIV is extremely high in the country, it

is still a very taboo subject and although students have rote

memorization of all of the basic information regarding the disease,

people are still reluctant to ever acknowledge actual infections and

deaths that are related to HIV. Botswana has the 2nd highest

prevalence of HIV infection in the world. There are three categories

of volunteers: NGO, Health, and Education. I fall under the education

category and have been assigned to work at Tsabong Junior Secondary

School (students are the equivalent of 7th-9th grade aged) where my

primary assignment is to work with the guidance and counseling staff

to improve the students education in life skills which covers just

about everything that falls under "good to know in order to live a

happier healthier life". I teach a few classes each week with

different classes of students where I try to incorporate games and

activities while teaching them about nutrition, relationships,

contraceptives, personal finance, etc.

The country is on its way to falling under the "first-world"

classification and so people here have access to running water, paved

roads in most towns, satellite television, and internet which has

helped them begin to connect with the global community more and more.

The students are all very interested in American media (movies, TV,

music) and we have had a lot of fun talking about things from back

home. A secondary project that I am doing at the school is to improve

the students' computer awareness. The school I am at is lucky enough

to have a sort-of-up-to-date computer lab with limited access to the

internet. So the computers work well for teaching computer basics but

are not very functional when it comes to teaching the students to do

more than send emails and setup facebook pages (which most already

have figured out anyways). I focus on teaching typing skills and using

the Microsoft office programs.

Those are some basics regarding my work here. Hayley's job is involved

in using her Masters of Public Health degree experience to work with

the district health management team to plan and coordinate initiatives

and events. She is currently attempting to compose a questionnaire

that will yield statistically valid data for further analysis and

planning with regards to community health needs.

Our daily life consists of walking to most places that we need to go

around our village which is home to 7000 residents and is about 5

square miles in size. Most volunteers live in villages that do not

have grocery stores so they take weekly or bi-weekly trips to the

nearest large village to do their shopping. Our village, however, does

have its own store and we walk about 30min to get there and then 30min

back with our groceries. It has been an adjustment to be car-less but

we have found that life in Lawrence, KS had helped prepare us for some

of the walking because we used to walk to campus and Mass St a lot. We

had considered getting bikes, but have scrapped the idea for now

because there is no law enforcement of the speed limits on the roads

here and the legal blood alcohol level for driving is 3x that of the

US standard and it is common for drivers to be drinking and or clearly

drunk while operating their vehicle, especially during the after work

hours and at night. But Botswana has a basic public transportation

system that is well regulated and allows us to travel around the

country when we need to.

Our free time is mostly spent relaxing at home, especially in the

summers when it is around 90 degrees both day and night and we just

want to stay out of the sun. But now that winter is starting it is in

the 40's and 50's in the mornings and at nights while the days are

usually in the 70's. We hear that it will eventually be 40 degrees all

the time, and without any airconditioning/heating in the houses here

we are prepared to spend most of our time in a sub-zero rated Marmot

sleeping bags!

We watch a lot of movies and TV's shows on our computer and also read

books on our Kindles. While we have only made it through 6 or so books

each, we can proudly claim to have watched over 100 movies and every

more TV show episodes! I think that clearly indicates where our

priorities lie... :)

I hope that this information has helped to answer a few of your

curiosities about our lives and work here. I am happy to answer other

questions anytime!

Trip to Maun

Recently, we travelled to Maun over the Easter Holiday. Maun is a

large tourism-centered village in northern Botswana. It is the seat to

most of the country's Okavango eco-tourism, and while we were there we

made sure to get in some excursions to see the wildlife of Botswana.

We stayed at The Old Bridge Backpackers lodged and paid a small fee to

setup a tent and camp there. The lodge offered bathroom and bathing

facilities so we weren't roughing it too much. There was also a bar

and a restaurant that allowed us to enjoy burgers, wraps, and pizza

most all of the day!

A batch of our fellow Bots11 volunteers joined us at the lodge and it

was fun to see our friends and go on excursions with them. Also,

during our time at the lodge our group became friends with some other

backpackers that were travelling through the area. Cameron and Jake

were a couple of Australian guys that had be travelling through

Namibia, S. Africa, and Botswana on a holiday. We all got along great

and their research of the areas offerings allowed us to do some things

we might not otherwise have known we could do. Firstly, we went with

them on a plane ride over the Okavango where we were able to take in

the vastness of the region and also see some animals (hippos, crocs,

elephants, zebras, impalas, giraffe). The one hour plane flight cost

~P500, which is a little expensive in terms of our meager Peace Corps

allowance, but it was worth it! Later that day we also took a relaxing

boat ride through some of the Okavango tributaries that were near our

lodge which was located on the bank of one of the rivers.

After a day of rest, we embarked on a full day 4x4 trek through the

Moremi game reserve. The Moremi reserve is one of the three major

reserves of Botswana's Okavango region. The drive started at 6am, the

open air truck we were sitting in with 6 other volunteers was pretty

chilly as we drove the hour or so to the reserve. Once we arrived at

the reserve our tour guides setup a cereal and coffee breakfast for us

and after eating we got started with the game drive.

During the drive through the Moremi reserve we first saw a small herd

of zebra and impala grazing only ~10m from the side of the trail! And

then up ahead we were able to spot our first giraffe and elephants.

The animals were generally uninterested in us but would occasionally

watch us closely for a few minutes and then would walk off into the

brush. The impala, giraffe, and zebra were plentiful for most of the

drive, and on the way back through the game reserve at the end of the

day we encountered a lot more elephants that were making their way

from the shade of the trees out into the open areas were they could

get more water and food.

Lunch was setup at the turning-back-point of the game drive in a large

open field. In the distance a large herd of elephants enjoyed their

time at a watering hole and it was the most memorable lunch we have

had in our time here thus far!

After lunch we loaded up in the trucks and made out way back through

the game reserve hoping that some large cats would be out as the day

was beginning to cool down. However, no cats were spotted that day but

the other truck took an alternate route home and happened across a

wildcat which is a species of cat that looks strikingly like a house

cat but is actually 100% pure wild animal (it is not to be confused

with feral cats, which are domesticated varieties that have adapted to

life in the wild). We were told that the wildcat was about twice the

size of a standard house cat and was napping under a bush near the

trail.

Instead of seeing a wildcat on our truck's drive back through the

reserve we were treated to an up-close hippo sighting. The hippo was

grazing a little ways away from its waterhole, and as we sat and

watched it grazing it began to make its way back to the water. The

hippo was accompanied by oxpecker birds, or something like them, that

hopped around on its body eating debris and bugs and also picking at a

pretty large gash on the hippos side. The guide said that lone

elephants and hippos are usually male because unless they are breeding

they tend to live solitary lives in their own separate territories.

The hippo was surprisingly graceful in its walk and stopped to stare

us down after sliding back into the water. As many of you might

already know, the hippo is Africa's most dangerous animal in terms of

actual attacks and deaths each year. They are notoriously territorial

and highly aggressive and kill more people than any other large

animals here. But the hippo we saw wasn't too interested in us and

allowed us to go on our way without any fuss.

After the hippo sighting we game across another large herd of impala

and learned that most heard as populated by many females and a single

dominant male. The male is interchangeable and often challenged by

other lone males that are looking for a harem of females to travel

with.

The last major sighting of the trip was a large herd of 20+ elephants

that were making their way across the trail. They were led by the

dominant female elephant and a small calf. And as the female came to

the road about 10m in front of our truck she turned and balked at us

by stomping her foot, flaring her ears, and snorting. After their

gesture the rest of the herd stopped coming our way and turned around

and quickly retreated back into the trees. The instance was very

intimidating, given that the female was about twice the size of our

truck. But, as the guide explained, she was just unsure about what we

were up to and so decided to gesture towards us to make sure we

weren't planning on doing anything threatening to her and her herd.

After checking us out from a distance she and the calf retreated into

the trees again too.

That is all of the stories we have regarding our animal adventures.

The rest of the weekend we were able to relax and enjoy life near the

water. It was shocking how much relief we were able to enjoy was being

near a large body of water. The sounds of the water and its wildlife

along with all of the green vegetation and trees were therapeutic for

us and all of the other volunteers from our group that are stationed

in the desert regions of the country! At out site we rarely see water

outside of our sinks as it only rains about one time a month and

usually for only a short amount of time.

The trip from our village to Maun took us an entire day, and required

us to hitchhike for about half of the journey. But, as we have

mentioned before hitching is an expected part of travel in the remote

regions of the country because the national bus system's coverage is

sparse on the western side of the country. If you live on the Eastern

side, near the larger villages you are able to find taxis, buses, and

combi's (mini-buses and vans) that run regular routes all over the

place). But, when hitching you are usually able to negotiate with the

driver so that you only have to pay the price of the bus fare for your

distance of travel. Although there are some fancier cars in this

country most people either drive beatup Japanese trucks or corollas.

After spending most of my driving life in my own Toyota Corolla, it

was been a strange experience to see so many around and to be riding

around in cars just like the one I used to drive back in the US.

All in all, while travel in Botswana is usually an exhausting day-long

event, the time we had in Maun with the wildlife and our good friends

we well worth the effort! And we are looking forward to seeing more of

the country soon. But for now, school is starting up again and we are

both back at work. However, the maintenance people that have been

slowly working through each of the teachers' houses have finally made

it to our home. They are painting the interiors and also replacing the

kitchen counters and cabinets. To insure the safety and respect of our

property I have stayed home and worked on the computer while the men

went about their business updating our home.

Each day during this maintenance process goes as follows: 8am, the

painter shows up and starts mixing his paint bucket and then

disappears for an hour or two. During his absence the counter and

cabinet replacers may or may not show up. But eventually they will

make an appearance before leaving for 10:30 tea break. Everyone

returns for a flurry of work around 11am and then leaves again for

lunch around 12:30pm. By this time about 1 full hour of work has been

done on any one job. After lunch, the painter really gets going and

usually finishes up a room (our home has a living room, bathroom,

kitchen, bedroom, and short hallway). Needless to say, I will never

ever ever take American work ethic for granted when it comes to

contracting laborers for maintenance jobs. Even if there might be call

for complaint if workers leave a mess or are a little slow in the US,

it is a night and day difference when compared with the efficiency and

thoroughness of work in the US. I am sure this blanket statement

doesn't go for all of the maintenance workers of Botswana, but the

ones that have been contracted at our school leave a lot to be

desired. But, with that complaining aside, we are about a half a week

away from having our place to ourselves again were we will be able to

enjoy a nice fixed-up home.

And to top it off, we have a kitten to share our home with now too! Of

the three kittens we attempted to rescue and hand raise from the time

they were about 3 days old, only one of the kittens has survived. The

first kitten only made it a day or two and passed away. But the second

kitten was the one we had hoped to keep while giving the third to

another volunteer. However, after returning from Maun we collected our

two kittens from the volunteer we had left them with and brought them

home. The one we were going to keep (named Gizmo, after we noted the

similarity in the noises he made with the noises made by the cute

mogwai in the movie Gremlins) was not gaining weight and growing like

the other kitten was. And seemed to be developing some respiratory

issues. We consulted online/email vets and did as much research as we

could online but were never able to find a way that we could do much

to help our kitten get better without veterinary assistance. There are

vets located in Botswana, but they are in the larger villages that are

a days travel from our site. And after a night of labored breathing,

Gizmo died. It was a traumatic experience and after all of the work

and love that we have put into raising these kittens we are pretty

sure that we will never attempt hand-raising orphaned kittens again.

But the experience has been interesting and it has given us a new

distraction from the stresses of service.

The remaining kitten is doing very well and has transitioned into the

learning-to-pounce-and-stalk phase, so we have had a lot of fun

playing with her and trying to not let her get too used to playing

with our hands (as we have heard that too much hand-play can create a

cat that loves to bite and play with hands when they get older). We

are still working on picking out the perfect name for our kitten, but

here are a few of the names we are trying out: beardy, grey beard,

motsomi (hunter in setswana), girlfriend, one tusk, and fang. The list

goes on, but we will eventually settle on whatever seems to fit her

best. But for now, she will just be the kitten with a thousand names.

I will let my rambling account of the past few weeks experiences end

here. We are always available to talk by phone or email so if you have

any other questions or just want to say he, let us know!- Michael

As the first term of the school year comes to an end, we have

completed the first 6 months of our service. The reality of Peace

Corps service being about relationship building is very clear now that

we have finished the first quarter of our time here, and we are still

primarily trying to build relationships and understand the current

systems that we work within.

The relationships that I have been focusing on are with the students,

teachers, and administrators at the school I work with. Unfortunately,

after becoming close friends with some of the teachers at my school,

many of them have received their long awaited transfers to work in

other schools closer to their homes and families (alright, so it is

unfortunate for me but it is definitely very good news for them!).

My current plans are to continue working with the PACT club (a peer

counseling club) and to create clubs for bother English and Test

Taking/Study Skills. The teachers and administrators at my school

believe that creating these clubs will help improve the 56% passrate

at the school because students will become better readers of English

which is the language that their tests are written in. As it stands

right now, many students simply do not understand the questions posed

to them on tests and I often see tests in which the student has

rewritten the test questions in the spaces provided for their answers.

The students and English teachers also hope to create a school

newsletter in the English Club. Aside from that, I plan to incorporate

movies, internet, and various reading materials to help the students

become more comfortable reading English through materials that they

are interested in.

Next month, the new group of volunteers is scheduled to arrive in

Botswana. They will be Bots12, and have a very active Facebook group

already. Only 7 months ago Hayley and I were trying to come to grips

with the idea of moving to Botswana after two years of wading through

the Peace Corps system and were frantically talking with people on our

facebook group to learn more about what we were getting into. And this

seems to be exactly what the upcoming group is doing as well. I do not

envy their task of packing their suitcases! It was a two week process

of packing, weighing, unpacking, eliminating items, repacking, and

reweighing suitcases into the early hours of the morning.

As some may have already seen on Facebook, we have taken in a few new

born kittens. They had been crying through the night for a couple of

days in the abandoned lot next to our house. So once we were able to

locate them we kept tabs on them a day to see if there was any sign of

a mother and when we saw they were unattended to, we decided to adopt

them and try to take care of them. After two days one of the kittens

stopped eating and remained asleep all the time until it died. We put

it in an empty hot chocolate box and buried it a little over 1ft under

the sand in our backyard. We even took the time to make the grave with

an old floor tile that had been trashed in our backyard. After two

years, we discovered that the box had been exhumed and the kitten had

been eaten… We suspect the pack of dogs that roams the school grounds

at night. They are friendly dogs during the day that pal around and

get into trouble afterhours.

The other two kittens are doing very well. One has a grey tabby patter

and the other is black and white. The past week has been spent

beginning the weaning process and we are relieved that they are

finally starting to eat on their own now. Getting the kittens to

transition from bottle to wet food has taken a lot of time and almost

more patience than we could spare! I have a new found appreciation for

mother cats, and all mothers in general, for their innate ability to

care for kittens, and babies in general. I had not idea how much time

and effort goes into feeding and cleaning new borns until now!

We mash up dried cat food and mix it with milk because there is not

kitten food or wet cat food available in our village. Like all things

gourmet, items like fancy cheese, wine, wet cat food, etc are

available in plenty in the major cities of Botswana, but we live too

far away to take advantage of these offerings.

We plan to keep one of the kittens. News travels very fast through the

Peace Corps Volunteer grapevine, and another volunteer asked if she

could adopt the other one only a few days after we had made the

facebook posting about our new found kittens!Although I began this post while school was still in session, I am

wrapping it up now that school is closed. The last week of school was

a free-for-all for the students because they had completed their end

of term exams over the previous two weeks and during the final week of

school the teachers spent their time in an in-school workshop and also

grading tests and inputting the grades into the schools networked

database. During this time the students were mostly left to their own

devices and spent their time talking with friends and playing games.

Now that the equinox has passed, the weather is changing noticeably

from week to week. Three weeks ago the morning began to be very cool

while the days remained hot. Two weeks ago the equinox passed and the

days were filled with very nice cool breezes. And now over the past

week the days have been on the cold side. We were disappointed to see

that the enjoyably cool temperatures of fall only lasted about a week

and not we are on a speeding freight train into the coldness of

winter. However, I am not sure if they are actually cold or they just

feel cold relative to the extreme heat we have become accustomed to.

At the moment we don't have a thermometer and so are unable to really

gauge the day to day temperatures be they feel like they are in the

60'sF which probably wouldn't feel so cold if these temperatures had

been more of a gradual change and had not been dropped on us within a

week. Anyways, the we were told that the winters are extremely cold,

especially in the desert region (the geological and environmental

conditions conducive to creating desert regions are known to bring

about extreme heat in the summer and cold in the winter) that we live

in and we are now starting to appreciate just how cold things will

become over the next month or so. One of the major downsides to the

winter season that we are starting to see is the fact that our clothes

take at least a full 24hrs to dry when in the summer time they took

only an hour or two.

Finally, we are planning to visit the Okavango region soon and so we

have high hopes for seeing the famous wildlife of Africa! So, soon we

will share pictures and stories from our first R&R excursion in

Botswana.

We continue to receive packages from family and friends on an almost

weekly basis! And they are all very much appreciated. These points of

contact with our home culture and love ones make the tough times more

bearable and the good times even better!

- Michael

Current State of Life in Botswana

I have just returned from a two-week mandatory workshop put on by the

Ministry of Education for myself and the other Life Skills volunteers

that work in schools around Botswana (our counterparts were also in

attendance). The upside of the workshops was that we were able to

spend two weeks working closely with our counterparts (we are each

assigned a counterpart to work with at our school), and we also had

some interesting cross-cultural exchanges. But, overall the workshop

was not very educational which may be due to the fact that it was

planned at the last minute in order for the Ministry to use up some

extra funds before the end of the fiscal year.

The cross cultural exchange gave us an interesting look at the way our

two cultures approach critical thinking and constructive criticism.

The workshop was focused on the topics of Guidance and Counseling

along with Emotional Intelligence. During the Emotional Intelligence

workshop we were given a very scripted presentation that included a

lot of semi-dated information and was mostly aimed at being a

self-help seminar for us and our counterparts rather than being

formatted to teach us more about how to help our students. Emotional

Intelligence, or the ability to deal with emotional issues in a

healthy way, is something that many of the students in schools here

need. And, in fact, this need also extends to many of the teachers

because emotional intelligence and life skills education is still a

growing field in the school system here which means that many adults

here have not been exposed to healthy ways to manage the emotional

pressures that they face. This state of affairs is one of the primary

reasons we have been assigned to enrich the impact of the life skills

curriculum at our schools because this could prove to have a positive

impact on the HIV/AIDS concerns in Botswana.As I mentioned earlier, the Peace Corps volunteers were always eager

to learn more from the presenters by asking further questions about

the slides and information they were showing. However, the questions

which were aimed at critically assessing the information we were being

given were often glanced over or ignored altogether. In fact, during

the first week's workshop these questions were taken as an affront to

the presenters and there were moments of poor cross-cultural debate

when this happened. During the second week's workshop, which was led

by a different group put together by the ministry of education, the

questions were mostly ignored and the scripted format was stuck to.

Our counterparts often mentioned outside of class that they agreed

that some of the information was mistaken and/or that certain aspects

of the workshops were poorly planned and unorganized. However, they

added that it is a cultural norm to show the presenters respect by

taking in everything they say and not asking critical questions. The

tension between the peace corps volunteers' desire to delve further

into the information and the presenters' desire to share their

information and be done with the workshop kept things on edge, but

things never got too hostile, save for a few confrontations during the

first days of the workshop.Aside from enduring the two-week workshop sessions during the day, the

life skills volunteers were treated to two-weeks of time to reconnect

and be with our friends/fellow volunteers. We have a great group of

people with a diverse range of backgrounds that has coalesced into a

fantastic group of supportive friends. Most of the nights were spent

having dinner at the lodge or eating at restaurants nearby. Our meal

expenses are supposed to be covered by the ministry through a

reimbursement process. However, like most all reimbursement processes

(both in the US and in Botswana) things can get complicated quickly

and often payments are delayed for excessive amounts of time. I am

just now beginning the process of wading through the countless forms

that I need to fill out.The workshop also presented Hayley and I with an interesting

experience in that Hayley's program is not Life Skills education like

mine. So, she stayed behind at our site while I traveled 8hrs away to

Molepolole to attend the workshop. The time away was a new experience

for us because we had rarely had reason to spend 2 weeks apart in our

lives in the US. But we stayed in contact by phone and were very happy

to be back together when the workshop was over and I made it back to

my home village.So, now that the workshop is over and I have returned to my site

Bots11 (the group of volunteers that I came over here with) have just

passed the 6 month service. At times, it feels like we have been here

much long because of the sheer immensity of new experiences and

interactions that we encounter each day. However, when I look back at

my actual work accomplishments it feels like I have only just begun.

The standard Peace Corps approach to looking at your service is that

most of your first year is spent relationship building and testing the

waters for projects that will only really get into gear during the

second year of service.The feeling of having not gotten much done is made worse by the fact

that the timing of our arrival in Botswana put us into a meeting cycle

that has only given us a total of a few solid months at site. After

Pre-Service Training we were sent to our sites for 3 months in order

to conduct community assessments. During this time we were instructed

to not become engaged in the work of our primary assignments, instead

our job was to get to know the community and our places of work. After

Pre-Service Training we were called into Gaborone for In-Service

Training for 10 days where we processes our first few months at site.

After this we were given another month or so at site and then were

called in to participate in Regional Meetings where we met with

volunteers serving in our area of Botswana (the farthest southern

portions). This lasted over a weekend, and then the Life Skills

volunteers were sent to Molepolole to participate in the Ministry of

Education's workshop (the one spoken about at length above). Amidst

all of these workshops we have not been able to really get projects

going, because the ones that we have attempted to start get

interrupted by our having to leave site for workshops. Now, the hope

for any and all of our efforts here in Botswana is that our projects

will be sustainable. Meaning, they will continue on without needing

our presence to keep them going. Building sustainable partnerships

within the community requires a lot of time, however, and so we are

still working towards the goal of sustainability and we are really

hoping that next block of time that we have at our site will allow us

to get things going in a sustainable way (we don't have another

official Peace Corps meeting until the beginning of next summer here,

which would be the beginning of next winter in the US).

That's all for now! Thank you for reading, and please let us know what

you think!Best,

- Michael

January 29, 2012

In-Service Training

Recently, we were brought into Gaborone for a workshop that has lasted about 10 days. The focus of the workshop was to give us further training sessions and also to help us process the first couple of months that we had spent at our permanent sites. Mostly, though, everyone in our Bots11 group has been focused on reconnecting and having fun with all of our fellow volunteers.

In an experiment in light packing, we decided to try only bringing a few sets of clothes. So far it has been manageable but washing out clothes in a sink with a bar of soap has been interesting. This part of the country is much cooler, and on top of that our rooms at the lodge are air-conditioned, so the things we wash don't dry near as fast as they do at our home in the Kalahari Desert.

The lodge has a few odd animals that wander around the area inside its walls. One is a large leopard tortoise that walks around the edge of the area by the wall doing orbits of the lodge's campus. There is also a small flock of guinea fowl that are pretty noisy in the morning and in the evening when they go through there territorial rituals. Lastly there is a pair of white rabbits that seem almost tame but act like cats when you approach by just barely staying out of reach. It has been a nice change of pace to see these animals in place of the usual batch of goats, cows, and chickens that we usually see at our house.

We recently took a trip into the downtown area to purchase a mobile USB modem from one of the local cell phone service providers but didn't have any luck because all of the shops closed early due to the African Cup of Nations soccer tournament that Botswana is playing in. The mall we went to is a lot like a smaller version of the Town East Mall in Wichita, KS. Facing the masses of people and heavy traffic has been a very strange experience after spending the past couple of months at our home village in a rural section of the Kalahari Desert. During these first few months we were tasked with conducting a community assessment which we were trained to do by conducting interviews, making friends, and shadowing people at work. Basically, it has been a time to get to know our new home and start integrating into community. I spent most of my days at the school. However, we arrived in our village two weeks before the schools closed for the Christmas break and classes started about two weeks before we had to leave for Gaborone in order to attend the In-Service Training that we are currently at.

The beginning of the school year here is interesting because it seems like most of the administrative work and scheduling of classes/teachers doesn't really get done until classes are supposed to have started. So, during the first two weeks of school the students have been left to sit in their classes rooms and go to classes in which there is usually no teacher. Sometimes the teacher doesn't show up because the schedule isn't completed and other times I have observed teachers cutting classes because they don't really feel like working. This fact of life here is one of the things that I intend to put a lot of time into addressing. The general lack of teacher motivation is somewhat understandable given the poor teaching salaries and the general neglect of the ministry of education in listening to and supporting the teachers. But, in the end I would like to think that working with the kids of the school would supercede these issues and that the teachers would continue to work hard in the face of the challenges that they are facing, but this doesn't seem to be the case (of course, not all teachers skip classes and neglect their responsibilities. There are some teachers at my school that are passionate about their jobs and are eager to help the students).

One last experience that I have had in the schools that has had an impact on me is witnessing the implantation of corporal punishment (hitting kids with switches). This punishment is executed on a daily basis on any students that cause trouble in one way or another. During the first to weeks of school, when the students were generally left unattended, corporal punishment was very common. This was because in being unattended and unsure about where they were supposed to be and where their teachers were the students had to manage things by themselves. Usually, the students stayed in their classrooms. Some classes would actually work on studying their past years notes and others were full of commotion and students terrorizing the classrooms. Thus, the teachers were randomly patrol the classrooms and make examples of the more troublesome students by beating them in the front of the classroom. One teacher described this practice as "an African solution, for an African problem".

I am very opposed to corporal punish in any part of life, but I am certainly going to put some effort into the issue here in the hopes of improving the Teacher-Student relationships. As it stands right now, most all of the students are terrified of their teachers and this has had many obvious ramifications on the students' ability to perform in the school. This is because they are less eager to participate in class, and are especially afraid to approach teachers outside of class when they need help with homework or want assistance with some other issue that they are facing.

After two losses (the second of which was really bad 1-6 when Botswana played New Guinea) the Botswana team only has one more game and it isn't looking like they will make it into the next round of the tournament. This reality does not seem to disappoint the locals too much, which is probably because Botswana has never had a team that was able to perform well on the international level. But news stories do talk about the country's efforts to improve their professional sports programs in the hopes of putting together an Olympic team. The prospects of this, however, do not look to promising because there is currently is little to no sports training taking place in the schools here. After a teacher strike a few months before we arrived, the teachers have stopped doing any extra work to coach school teams and lead sports clubs in after school activities. This is because the teachers feel that these types of endeavors should come with extra paychecks and until the ministry of education pays them more there will not be much of a chance of getting sports back into the schools. The students here make due with pick-up games of soccer whenever they have a chance, and one teacher at my school even continues to conduct Karate classes a few times each week.

I apologize for the long lapse in our posts. Once we are able to obtain a mobile modem we should be able to keep you all updated on our activities and experiences!

At the school where we live in Botswana, Africa, there is a mural with a caption in big red letters: "Girls: U Can Prevent Pregnancy/HIV". I tried to film a video of me talking in front of the mural about how the words send a flawed message to high school students. Basically, the mural's words imply that HIV and teen pregnancy prevention falls solely on teenage girls' shoulders. It is an issue here in Botswana that is too complex to try and sum up in a few words for a video camera, so I decided to write about it instead. Because the gender issues surrounding HIV are so dear to my heart and purpose in the Peace Corps, I am sure this will be a topic that I revisit time and again during my two years here in Botswana. Unfortunately, teenage pregnancy and several types of sexually transmitted infections including HIV are prevalent for Botswana teens. It is unfair for a mural to depict prevention as an issue for girls only. There are many people who influence or affect this situation including: boys, men, and women in the community, parents, teachers, school counselors, health professionals, local and national government, media, foreign aid, etc. (The list could go on and on.) However, teenage girls are blamed for unwanted pregnancy or for bringing HIV “into the family”. When a girl becomes pregnant, she must take an HIV test at the clinic or hospital where she receives antenatal care. If found to be HIV +, the partner or family often blame the girl/woman for bringing the virus into the family/relationship and accuse her of acting promiscuously. However, rape and defilement are often culprits of teenage pregnancy. During my staff meetings at the hospitals, it is not uncommon for me to hear about young girls being raped by their uncles, friends, or other acquaintances, so it is important to note that most rape cases occur domestically and by someone the girl is very close to. Additionally, there are “transactional relationships” that influence teenage pregnancy and HIV infection. This is when young girls are enticed by older men to sleep with them in exchange for some gift such as a cell phone, food, clothes, etc. Sometimes families are even aware of these relationships and do nothing to prosecute them as defilement cases because they know the girl is bringing goods into the household or they consider the man to be worthy of marriage and trick themselves into thinking that the daughter will marry the man someday. Some families even encourage girls to enter these relationships for “the sake of the family”. Since the girls are much younger than the men in these transactional relationships by anywhere from 10-40 years and because of long standing gender inequalities surrounding sexual behavior, girls are unable to make the man wear a condom. In addition, men often tell the girls that since they are getting a provision of some sort for the sex, it is not their place to stipulate condom use. Girls who want to attend secondary school (high school) but live too far away from the villages the schools are located in must live at the school as a boarder. This can be a dangerous situation for girls because they are often sexually abused by the boys who board at the school. This is an infrastructure problem because of the way the boarding houses are managed and because of how close together the boys and girls dormitories are located. In some situations, there are only one or two “boarding masters” for 200-400 children living at any one school. These boarding masters are supposed to keep a close watch on the children after school hours but are not always “manning their posts” properly or are unable to regulate all illegal and dangerous behavior of hundreds of children at once. Gender inequalities, poverty and economic opportunities, and education are just three of the major areas that go into preventing such a deep seeded issue like rising teenage pregnancy rates and HIV infection in Botswana. I am not by any means the foremost expert on the issue and have only lived in Botswana for four months, so I'm afraid I have not done the issue justice with this short note. I hope to readdress the topic at some time in the near future. However, I hope I have driven the point home that girls face a tremendous amount of stigma surrounding teen pregnancy and HIV in Botswana and that this issue is one that falls on the shoulders of many different people, not just girls. If you would like to get a better understanding on why the HIV prevalence is the second highest in the world here in Botswana, please check out a book called, The Invisible Cure: Africa, the West, and the Fight Against AIDS by Helen Epstein, particularly the chapters on Southern Africa. The book is not about Botswana only but it does address the contributing factors in Botswana. Also, you can read Saturday is for Funerals by Unity Dow that is strictly about the HIV epidemic in Botswana and is written by a Motswana writer. Thank you for taking the time to read about this issue that is so dear to my heart and I hope you will continue to follow our blogs and facebook postings! -Hayley

1.) Get yourself on "Africa Time" asap; it can be quite nice if you learn to embrace it

2.) Expect everything to happen or nothing to happen at any given moment

3.) African insects are genetically superior to all other insects around the world

4.) Carry toilet paper or kleenex with you everywhere b/c all toilets and latrines are without TP

5.) Carry handi-wipes or soap with you b/c even hospitals do not have soap in the bathrooms

6.) Livestock animals are everywhere; get used to it and go ahead and embrace them using your yard as a giant litter box

7.) Pretend those roosters crowing outside your window from 2:30-6:30 AM are a sound machine, lulling you back to sleep

8.) Learning everyone's Setswana name is next to impossible but you must keep trying even when you feel like an idiot for asking people to repeat their names five times

9.) Drinking room temperature water (90-100⁰ F) in the Kalahari Desert will drive anyone crazy after three months 10.) Just relax. You live in Africa now and to survive, you have to go with the flow

Today we spent the day satisfying a couple of invitations that had been extended to us earlier in the week. First was lunch at the home of Indian immigrants that Hayley passes by on her way home from work. She often stops and talks with the lady of the house (Sumaya) when she sees her in the front yard watching her two children (Azan and Ayan). After becoming acquainted, the family asked us to join them for lunch and we gladly accepted (the family is very kind and friendly, and we love Indian food!). At the luncheon we learned that they have lived together in our village for over five years, and that the husband (Nasim) has been here nearly eleven. He owns and operates a food deli that sells meat pies and other quick meal options to the people that work in the downtown—downvillage—area. Needless to say, the food was fantastic and Hayley is looking forward to helping Sumaya cook some dishes in the future. After eating we sat and talked with the family for another hour before heading back home to wait for our ride to pick us up and take us to a recreation lodge on the outskirts of the village (earlier in the week an Afrikaner woman named Cornel had picked up Hayley as she was home and gave her a ride. After getting to our house they sat in the car and talked for a bit and Cornel invited us to go with her to a lodge outside of town on Sunday). The lodge is setup in the countryside with some cabins and camping areas and offers visitors the chance to see some of the animals that live in the area (this includes: an Alpha lion and two young male lions that are vying for the chance to take over as the current Alpha becomes older, many different birds, blue wildebeest, aardvark, ostrich, various antelope, and many other typical African animals excluding elephants and Rhinos which avoid the desert locale and instead live up in the wetter regions of Northern Botswana).The lodge is operated by a pillar of the community (Jill) that has an amazing history of work and study throughout the region of Southern Africa. She has worked as a nurse, biologist, and community leader for much of her life and even spent time living with a KhoiSan settlement as part of a team put together by a group in London to catalogue social, environmental, and linguistic information on some of the most at-risk indigenous societies of the world (Native Americans, Indigenous tribes in South America, Inuit, aborigine, and the San bushmen). Our ride to the bush lodge was provided by Cornel, her two children, and a friend of hers. They often go out to the lodge for a few hours on the weekend to relax, enjoy the scenery, and chat with Jill and others that might be staying at the lodge. We ate a Jell-O cake while enjoying good company in the cool air of the late Botswana afternoon. Normally, the weather is not so cool but the past week’s heat was broken up by rainstorms which were brought in by merciful cold fronts that brought the temperature down to bearable levels!We got to see some pretty birds and pet some friendly dogs that live at the lodge. After being in Botswana for around three months we have been deprived of quality time with friendly well behaved dogs, because the standard care for dogs in Botswana in severely lacking and most of the dogs are hyper and/or terrified of humans because of the mistreatment they are subjected to. However the dogs we met today, owned by Afrikaners, were like so many of the dogs we loved to pet back home. They included some small, fluffy terriers, a laidback hunting dog mix named Blue, and a Boerbol (named Lola) that must have weight at least 140lbs!.The warmth and openness that these people, and others, in the community have showed us over our first few weeks here have given us a lot of hope for our future in the village and made the transition much more enjoyable as we try to figure out how best we can be of service here. These experiences are not unique to us as volunteers in Botswana. Many of our fellow volunteers have said the same thing about their communities and experiences. This shows that, for the most part, the people of Botswana are very friendly and eager to bring visiting strangers into their homes and show them a level of hospitality that is rarely seen today.

We apologize for the backlog of posts. This is the accumulation of a

few weeks of adventures, so it is very long!Jwaneng Mine – Novemeber 4th, 2011

We arrived at the education center very early in the morning to begin

our trip to Jwaneng Diamond Mine, the 2nd largest open-pit mine in the

world, and soon to be the largest. The town of Jwaneng began as a

settlement town housing workers are the mine, but as the mine grew to

be more productive than the other three top producing diamond mines in

the world, the town grew and is now one of the larger towns in

Southern Botswana. In fact, Jwaneng will be one of our shopping

villages when we move to our permanent site this Thursday. The reason

our training coordinators wanted to take us to the mine is because it

is the source for over half of the country's income.

At the mine we were welcomed by the head of commercial and public

affairs and shown a brief introductory video of the diamond mining

process and our guide also gave us the rundown of the rules we were to

follow during our tour: 1) don't touch any rocks 2)Don't pick up

anything from the ground, even if you drop your sunglasses you have to

ask an official for assistance 3) don't even look like you might be

eyeing a particular rock or you will be sent back to the bus an 4)

refer to the previous three rules…

We were given boots, helmets, and eye protection as we set off to see

the mining site. As we rode a bus down around the rim of the pit we

passed by massive earth mover trucks (340ton and 400ton versions) and

we also passed by even larger piles of rock debris and kimberlitic ore

(the rock that diamonds are found in). We stopped at an observation

point at one of the far ends of the pit and from there we were able to

see the entire operation all the way down to the crews running cranes

and trucks at the bottom of the 300m pit. The number of diamonds that

come out of any one truck filled with ore is said to average around

1carat/ton, which we were told is amazingly high!

After hearing more about the mine and taking in the view, we were

driven over to a section on the rim of the pit to see the mineral rich

ore and giant trucks up close. The piles of green/grey rock were

littered with sparkles, which of course were the diamonds in the

rough. And the earth mover trucks nearby were even larger than they

had seemed as we drove by them on our tour of the pit. They stood

nearly as large as 3-4 story buildings!

At the end of the day, only one person in the tour group had been

caught pointing dangerously close to a rock and was sent back to the

bus until the next stop on the tour. They take security and safety

very seriously at the mine and, all in all, the mine was an impressive

sight to behold.Mr. Khan's Braii – November 5th, 2011

A community leader invited the training group over to his

home/business compound for a BBQ (called a Braii here). Mr. Khan owns

a butchery, and is a prominent member of his community. Over the last

few years he had become more aware of the Peace Corps's presence in

the city and was excited to lend his support and thus started hosting

braii's for each semester's training group.

When we arrived at the location of the Braii, we were greeted with the

scene of cattle being slaughtered for the holy day of Sacrifice. This

Muslim holiday commemorates the story of Abraham and Isaac in which

Abraham was presented with an animal to slaughter in place of his son.

And so, on this day Mr. Khan had many cows slaughtered and was

planning to give the meat to people in need throughout the community.

Cows, being a form of wealth in Botswana culture, are a very high

commodity (Our language and culture teacher even said that the average

dowry is around 8 cows). Six cows were slaughtered and prepared for

delivery around the community that night.

Many of us stood and observed the slaughtering of one cow, but decided

to take a break from watching the rest of the cows meet their end. The

scene of slaughter was a powerful sight because in order to keep the

meat fresh and clean for human consumption the men must allow the

still beating heart to pump out the majority of the blood from the

cows body by creating a large incision at the cows throat after

hog-tying it and laying it down on an incline so that the blood can

run off into a drainage gutter. They do everything they can to insure

the process is as humane as possible, but it is still hard to not be

affected by the spectacle (both the sight and smell of the affair are

intense!).

The cows that were slaughtered were not for us, other meat had already

been prepared for grilling and so after the slaughtering was completed

everyone returned from their areas of refuge away from the bloody

scene to enjoy a great meal of Tandoori seasoned chicken, lamb, and

goat with coleslaw, chips (French fries), potato salad, and beets. The

meal was one of the best we have had during training. Along with the

great food, was the great company of Mr. Khan, his employees, family

and friends, as well as some of our language and culture teachers, and

training staff. Mr. Khan is a very open and giving person and even in

first meeting him he presents you with an openness that makes you feel

as if you are old friends.

A second stop by Mr. Khan's house a few nights later with some

volunteers found us eating the single best Indian meal we have ever

had! It was especially nice to take home some leftover rice and dhal

with vegetables to snack on the next day while we waited to leave for

our permanent site.Swearing in – November 9th, 2011

We arrived at the Education Center early in the morning and waited

around in one of the rooms for a couple of hours before the event

began. It was a nice chance to talk with the other trainees and get

some last minute pictures in while we were all dressed up. Some people

even had traditional garments to wear that were made for them by their

host families!

The event was about 2.5hrs long and consisted of a bunch of speeches

(two of which were given by trainees that had prepared speeches in

Setswana). And then Michelle Gavin, the US Ambassador to Botswana led

us through the oath of service. FYI, contrary to popular belief, now

that we are volunteers we are not employees of the US Government,

technically. Although we are supported financially by tax money and

funds from the government of Botswana (GoB), we are serving as

volunteers for the US government and are in no way considered under

the umbrella of federal workers or diplomats.

After the event a small luncheon was provided for us at the service

where we had a chance to eat with the members of our host families

that had attended the swearing in ceremony. The meal was the standard

Botswana faire: chicken/beef cooked in stew-like spices, rice, poleche

(a very stiff and plain version of polenta), coleslaw, and beets.

After the lunch we went home and began packing so that we would have

free time in the evening to attend celebrations with the rest of the

volunteers. The celebrations were a great chance to say goodbye to all

of the people we have gotten to know and come to love over these past

couple of months. It has been amazing how fast you make friends when a

group of people is placed under such strenuous circumstances for such

a limited amount of time. The day was also shared by a few birthdays

and we had fun honoring those as well throughout the night with a stop

at a local bar, and then a braii (BBQ) at a volunteer's host-family's

home.Moving to our Permanent Site – November 11th, 2011

We left for our site a day later than was planned, but it turned out

that many volunteers had hiccups in their plans as well and were

picked up a day or two later than had been scheduled originally. The

school that Michael will be working for coordinated with the hospital

that Hayley will be working for to send a small SUV to pick us up. The

drive to our site took approximately 4hrs and was cramped for the

first half of the trip until we were able to meet up with a second

truck to disperse some of our bags to make more room for the extra

groceries and supplies that we picked up in Jwaneng along the way.

We stopped for a bite to eat for lunch at Nando's Chicken in Jwaneng

(the same town that is home to the enormous diamond mine of Botswana).

After the quick stop we drove over to a strip-mall in town and bought

some groceries, a fan, and cleaning supplies for our new home.

Upon arriving at our new home we were happy to find that it was

standing and had a few pieces of furniture that we need to start our

life here. The only major items missing were a refrigerator, a gas

cylinder to fuel our stove, and a mattress. (The mattress we had was

simply a 2cm thick pad placed upon a wooden slatted frame.) We both

commented that we had slept on cots, floors, and even grounds more

comfortable than our "bed." We will probably put a request in for a

fridge, but it is not a mandatory item and we can make do without it.

And the gas cylinder will be delivered soon, but until then we will go

out and buy a hotplate to cook meals on. As for the mattress we will

need to have the Peace Corps doctor write a letter explaining our need

for it and then we will have to collect three or four quotes for the

price of suitable mattress so that the ministry of education can

decide which one to buy.

The house is a concrete one bedroom home with a kitchen, bathroom, and

large living room. There were no curtains in the house, but we had

heard that this might be an issue and so we brought along some extra

bed sheets that we hung over the doors and windows to create some

privacy. We also spent a lot of time hanging up our mosquito net

because the area seems to have a lot of mosquitos at the moment (they

are probably trying to escape the oppressive heat of 40-43 degrees

Celsius -- 90's-100's Fahrenheit). After all of the work, we made our

first dinner at the new house. It was a camping lasagna meal (just add

boiling water!). It was a simple meal, but it is a big comfort to

enjoy familiar foods and tastes whenever we can!

Soon, we hope to meet up with the other volunteer that is currently

serving in this community so that she might be able to show us around

town and help us get acquainted with our new village.Two Days after moving in – November 13th, 2011

After a few days of cleaning and unpacking, our home is coming closer

to a state of being as settled in as it can be. We are still without a

refrigerator or gas for our stove so when we do cook we either use our

electric kettle to boil water or we use our hotplate to cook meals. We

met two of our neighbors, both are teachers at the school (one teaches

Setswana and the other is a temporary math teacher that is hoping to

have a permanent contract beginning next year.

Today we were invited to go over to the other current volunteer's

house for brunch. The walk was long, but was totally worth it because

it was great to get to know the volunteer and she had cooked some

great brunch dishes using the cookbook that the Peace Corps gave us.

We had focaccia, soda cake, pumpkin muffins, apples and pears, and

iced tea!

The walk to the volunteer's house also gave us a glimpse of a new part

of the town. For being such a small village (~7000 people) the town

businesses are spread out a lot so it is starting to look like we will

have at least a 30 min. walk to reach any stores and without any taxis

around, the heat of the summer might keep us from travelling around

too much.The First Days of Work – November 14th, 2011

Today we each went to our respective jobs. Michael walked the brief 20

m down the road to the school grounds where he spent the day getting

tours of the school and hanging out in the teacher's lounge talking

with the various teachers that were there preparing to give their

students final exams throughout the day. This is the final week of

classes, and the school closes on November 25th, so Michael only has a

few days to get to know the teachers that he will be working alongside

before they leave for about month during their summer break. There are

a lot of people at the school to get to know, and the first day was

filled with an overwhelming amount of information and names to

process. But he already has a lot of prospective teachers that will be

enthusiastic to take on projects with him and his official counterpart

is great! She is a former science teacher that has taken on the role

of Senior Teacher of Guidance and Counseling. Counselors in the

Botswana school system also serve as the school nurses and teachers of

life skills lessons and helping with the life skills curriculum will

be Michael's primary assignment.

An interesting note about the Botswana school system is that students

pass from grade to grade regardless of their performance and grades in

class. This goes on from Standard 1-7 (the equivalent of grades 1-7)

and then they go through Forms 1-3 (grades 8-10) without anyone being

held back due to low grades. To move on to Forms 4-5 (grades 11-12)

students must have high enough scores, and if they get good grades all

the way through their years at school many are given the option of

having a government sponsored college education (they can continue on

full government scholarship in order to earn a degree of certificate

of their choosing).

We moved in with only one week remaining in the current school year,

so Michael has been observing the school and its teachers and students

during their week of final exams. It seems like a majority of the

students perform poorly on their exams, and that this may be a

repercussion of the students never having serious emphasis placed on

them to earn passing grades. The United States has plenty of its own

issues regarding effective education, and all of this is just an

observation made from one week of working at the school. To really

come to any real position on the matter will require years of working

closely with students, teachers, and administrators but at the moment

many teachers have expressed concern over many of the students' lack

of effort in school.

The Month Long Week – November 20, 2011

After completing the first full week of time at our permanent site, we

had a hard time remembering how long we had been here. The number of

new people we met, the multiple conversations about what to eat and

where we could get it, and the other innumerable new experiences all

added up to what seemed like months of time.

Our permanent village has most of the supplies that we need and/or

desire available within 30min of walking. The town does not have any

cabs, but occasionally we are picked up on the road by colleagues and

friendly strangers and given rides around town. Internet has not been

very easy to access and so our ability to respond to emails and update

our blog will continue to be varied and unreliable, but the school

that we live at does have a large computer lab that is hooked up to

the internet. However, the times that it is available for use are

during the peak hours of internet usage for this region of the country

and so the internet is unmanageably slow. We have heard that the

library has internet available as well, so we will try to make our way

downtown soon to check it out.

We ran into an issue with the storage of trash, recently. There is a

landfill just outside of town, but it is too far to walk to. The issue

came about when we decided to set our full trash bag outside so that

we wouldn't have to smell it while waiting for a chance to get a ride

to the landfill to drop off our trash. But, in the middle of the night

the bag of trash was irresistible to the giant pig that wanders our

neighborhood at night… So on Saturday morning we woke up to find our

trash scattered all over the sandy yard that surrounds our house.

We were told that the pigs seen in the area are the remnants of an

abandoned pig farm that used to operate in the area. For whatever

reason, the farm was left to its own devices and rather than starve to

death the pigs found a way out and have inhabited our side of the

village for years now. Nobody claims them, and so they are free to

roam the area like the rest of the farm animals that have made up a

vast majority of sightings of animals in Africa. We are still looking

forward to the day when we will get a glimpse of some of the more

famous creatures of Africa, but for now we are happy to hear that our

village is home to camels! They live on the opposite side of town, but

we saw a few of them by the side of the road as we came into town for

the first time a week ago.

On a final note, over the last couple of months here, we have mastered

the fine art of bucket bathing. The home that we lived in during

training and our current home at our permanent site have both had bath

tubs but in the interest of saving water and not spending hours

heating up a lot of water we routinely heat up a small amount of water

and add it to some cold water in a medium sized bucket. Then, while in

the empty bath tub we use the bucket of warm water to get wet and then

we lather up with soap and finally rinse off using the remaining water

in the bucket. It has been impressive to see that we can manage to

complete our baths with just one bucket of water which starkly

contrasts the amount of water we used during the average shower in the

US!Secret Pals – November 24th, 2011

Today was the final day of school in Tsabong, and the teachers

celebrated with a Secret Pals party (AKA Secret Santa). We were each

given the name of a staff member at the school to buy a P100 present

for. The event was held at the end of the night, and started at 6pm

Africa Time (which means it really got started 3 hours later). Once

things did get going, though, we had a great steak dinner and then a

very entertaining gift exchange. There was a lot of dancing and

singing and laughing. Michael received a space heater and Hayley

received a pair of traditional woven baskets.

After the Secret Pals party there was a going-away party for a member

of the teaching staff that is planning to move back to his home

country of Zambia. He is a very good painter and has taught art in

Botswana for a very long time. Many of the murals and decorations

around the school that we live at were done by him, so if anyone

reading this happens to visit we will be sure to point out all of his

great works!

The party was an extension of the braii (BBQ) that started off the

Secret Pals party. They continued to grill the meat that was not used

for the first party, built a nice bon fire, and moved the DJ equipment

over to the departing teacher's home. DJ's in Botswana tend to play a

lot of House Music side because that is what many people that go to

clubs here expect to hear. But the DJ's at this party were fellow

teachers that are DJ's on the side and they kept the mix of music

interesting by including popular songs from the US, Zambia, and

Nigeria.The Final School Dismissal Assembly – November 25th, 2011

Even though all of the school work and cleaning had been completed,

the students were required to attend one final assembly at the school

this morning. The assembly lasted about 10minutes, and was used for

last minute announcements, a song, and the official dismissal from

school. The assembly was very short but it got started late and this

allowed me (Michael) to talk with the students one last time before

they moved away from town during the holiday season. All of the

students have fun calling my name (Tshepo, which is pronounced

(tsae-po), and so it requires me to work hard to remember as many of

their names as I can. There are many groups of talkative students that

have kept me company through the afternoons at school when I do not

have much else to do. I am excited to have a chance to engage them in

projects and activities next year when school starts on January 10th!

The students like to discuss US culture and to hear how different life

in the States actually is in comparison with their views that all

Americans are rich which was built off of the movies, TV, and music

they enjoy from the US. Many students have been sad to hear that I am

not, in fact, friends with Lil Wayne and Beyoncé. Recently, a group of

students have continually led me into discussions about vampires and

werewolves because they have had fun reading the Twilight series and

watching the movies too. And, because I was lucky enough to spend a

year studying the philosophy of film as well as the history of vampire

lore with Dr. Coplan, these discussions are right up my alley and are

actually some of the last conversions that I would have ever expected

to be having in Africa. This seems to be some bit of proof that the

globalization of information technologies and communication really is

connecting people and ideas across all of the far-reaching parts of

world, including those that live in the furthest South West corner of

the Kalahari Desert!

Oct 10th

We were supposed to go on a trip to a smaller village in Botswana to

shadow a current volunteer for one week, but we came down with some

intense flu-like symptoms Monday and Tuesday. But after two days we

had recovered enough to make the 5 hour trip to visit the volunteer

for about two days before returning home. We had been through a

session on traveling in Botswana and were expecting it to be a lot

more challenging that it turned out to be. We got a ride to the Bus

Rank in town and waited around for an hour until the combi left one

the first leg of our journey. Combis are mini-van style vehicles that

are used for transport between villages. They use charter buses for

more popular destinations, and taxis are also available but are very

expensive when traveling outside village limits. The first leg of the

trip was about 2 hours long and was a very cramped experience because

16 people were seated in a combi made for 12 people! After that ride

we got to wander around the bus rank area of Molepolole until the next

combi left on the next leg of our journey heading West across Botswana

(we have been advised to be vague about our travel destinations for

security purposes). The next two combis were just as crowded as the

first, but we made it to our destination without any major issues

other than the usual dehydration that we are constantly battling

because the dry air evaporates our sweat so quickly we often do not

realize how much water we are losing.

During the one full day that we were at our shadowing site we got to

visit the school that our host has been working at for the past 1.5

years. The school was a boarding school with hundreds of students from

the surrounding villages that live at the school when it is in

session. Like this school, most schools teach only in English, so we

were able to sit in during a few class sessions and observe the

teachers at work. Over all the classroom experience seems comparable

to the United States in that it varies greatly from teacher to teacher

depending on the methods that they use. At the end of the day we were

assigned to complete a focus group discussion with some students at

the school in order to gain more data for the Peace Corps regarding

the current knowledge and needs of communities around Botswana. Our

focus group was comprised of some very well-spoken students that had a

lot to say regarding the current state of Botswana's economy, social

issues, and corporal punishment in schools.

Also, during our stay with our host we were treated to some great

meals! They were simple, but their similarity to dishes we ate at home

made them a very welcome treat in our diets! Our host had made pizza

from ingredients she bought while visiting Gaborone recently. She also

made spaghetti one night. Both dishes tasted great, and were a very

nice break from the usual cornmeal, cabbage, beets, and tough meat

that we usually have. Our diets at home have kept us full, but we are

always craving the comforts of familiar tastes from home.October 25th

Last week we learned the location of our permanent site. The village

we will be moving to has a population of about 7000 people and is in

the Southern Kalahadi District which is home to the sand dunes of the

Kalahari desert. We will be living in the teacher housing of the

school that Michael will be working at with the guidance counselor and

Hayley will be traveling across town to work with the district health

office. We were pretty sad to learn that our village has us separated

from everyone in our Botswana Group 11, so we don't expect to have

much of an opportunity to see the people that we have gotten to know

so well over the past weeks of training. But, there are a few other

current volunteers in our area that are very nice and we look forward

to getting to know them better and collaborating with them on projects

with them.

More information on our permanent sites and the things we are learning

about it will be posted soon! And on an unrelated note, we have yet to

experience much of the stereotypical African wildlife (so far we just

see birds, cows, goats, and chickens every day). But a group of

trainees that we usually walk with to school came across a bright

green chameleon crossing the road before we met up with them!

During the first week with our host family, we had the chance to meet

all but one of the members of our new family. A brilliant aspect of

Botswana's education system is that many people in the country are

bilingual. English is taught to students throughout the years of their

education. This results in many Batswana being fluent in English, or

at least highly proficient. This aspect of the Batswana culture has

made the transition for us much easier, but it may become a crutch as

we get further in our Setswana language learning.

While our host family is very large with an extended network of

"drop-ins", I will only highlight those members who live with us on a

daily basis. There is our host mother who is in her 50's and works 70+

hours as a supermarket assistant manager. She is amazing and provides

financially for everyone! She has six sons, two of which live at home

(ages 27 and 29). There is also a niece (22) who moved in many years

ago to do all the cooking and cleaning for the family. Additionally,

there is another female relative (32) who has been living here

temporarily to help out with the cooking and cleaning. She has a very

cute 1 year old daughter. Then there is our host mother's 5 year old

granddaughter. Her father lives in Gabarone but the child lives here

and goes to a local preschool. We enjoy interacting with the kids and

it makes us miss our niece back in the states who is at about the same

stage developmentally as the 1 year old.

Regular language classes have finally started this week. We have been

assigned to small groups of four trainees and one teacher, and we meet

at one of our fellow trainee's homes for language classes during the

first part of each day. So far we have had instruction in the basics

of greeting people, introducing ourselves and our profession and

purpose in Botswana and taking leave. (Ex. Dumela, mma. Leina lame ke

Hayley. Ke tswa kwa U.S. Ke nna mo Kanye. Ke moithaopi wa Peace Corps.

Translation= Hello miss. My name is Hayley. I am from the U.S. I am

staying in Kanye. I am a Peace Corps volunteer.) Soon, we will begin

learning grammar, but for now we are learning vocab and phrases. The

language has not been terribly difficult, but as with any new language

it isn't easy either. Setswana is a tonal language with high and low

tones for the same phrase or word which results in different meanings.

Our teacher is very good, and we have a great language group, making

our Setswana classes very rewarding.

After our morning language sessions, we walk to the education center

and attend various presentations by the Peace Corps in-country staff.

The topics cover everything from security, safety, and cross cultural

differences to programmatic principles and the administrative aspects

of the Peace Corps. The most interesting sessions have been the ones

that cover Botswana's and the Peace Corps's in-country approach to

HIV/AIDS and the sessions discussing cross-cultural differences

between the US and Botswana. It is amazing to be reminded that we are

in the midst of a centuries' old culture that has been around longer

than much of what we think of as "ancient" in the West.

On two occasions we were taken to the Kgotla (the town's cultural

center) where we were introduced to the various chiefs in the area. As

per tradition, women are required to wear long skirts or dresses at

the Kgotla and men are expected to dress as nice as possible. On a

particularly eventful night, the Peace Corps changed our schedule at

the last minute as we were wrapping up for the day so that we could

all be taken to the Tourism Day celebration at the main Kgotla in

Kanye. The event is held to celebrate tourism among the nations of

Africa and there were representatives from local traditional dancing

and choir groups as well as people from Angola, Ghana, and other

countries in Africa. Seeing the traditional dance known as setapa was

one of the most amazing experiences we have had so far. It is a very

rhythmic dance in which the dancers wear shakers on their ankles and

sing songs while completing choreographed dances that involve slapping

the inner parts of their calves in various rhythms. The food at the

event was a dish called seswaa. Given that it contained mashed beef

and intestines, it left most of the volunteers uneasy and ready for a

snack when they got home that night. During dinner, the men all

gathered on stage to eat their meals separate from the women. The men

were given seconds and thirds straight from the pot while the women

remained in their seats and received a much smaller serving.

Early this next morning (Sept. 27th), we will leave for Gaborone to

complete our immigration process. We will only be there for half a day

and have been told that we will not be given any free time to enjoy

the city, which is a disappointment for many of us because certain

food cravings have been overwhelming the group over the past week. In

particular, many of us are in withdrawal from the lack of familiar

foods like pizza and just an overall lack of food variety. There is,

however, one restaurant here in Kanye called the Ko Gae Café where you

can enjoy to local version of a burger or garden salad. On our Peace

Corps living allowance, though, dining out is hard to budget and we

have to rely on the local foods that our host family provides or that

we cook for ourselves. So far our diets have been extremely heavy on

starches (maize meal, samp, rice, cabbage, potatoes) and fat (goat,

cow, chicken, mayonnaise, oil) with very little fresh fruits and

vegetables. Therefore, many of us are experiencing the frustration of

lacking a balanced diet and the occasional foods we would rather pass

up such as tripe (boiled intestine).

It looks like our internet access will remain constricted throughout

training. So we will probably only be able to respond to emails and

blog replies once a week at the most. And thus far, we have been

unable to utilize a secure enough source to check our real gmail

accounts. We are working on that, though, and hope to take our laptop

to the town center this weekend instead of having to use the desktop

computers located in the internet café. But we can receive calls and

texts at any time, so feel free to communicate with us by phone!October 2nd

We had our first adventure in family cooking today when we were

suddenly tasked with cooking lunch/dinner after returning from a walk.

We ended up trying to make a spaghetti sauce using tomatoes onions and

salt, along with boiling some spaghetti pasta, and cooking some

chicken using the small bottle of Gates BBQ sauce we brought. In the

end, the sauce must have contained at least a weeks-worth of sodium

(we added chicken noodle soup spice hoping it would make up for the

lack of Italian seasoning like oregano and basil…but it didn't help),

but our host family did seem to like the BBQ chicken. The dog ate very

well tonight.

This week we will be learning where we will be completing the

shadowing portion of our training. We are going to be assigned to stay

with a current volunteer next week, so that we can see what our jobs

might be like and how they have adjusted during their time as a Peace

Corps volunteer. It sounds like we will be split up during this

portion of training because we each have different job assignments

(Michael is assigned to work with school counselors on implementing

Life Skills curriculum and Hayley is going to work as a District

Health Supervisor).Oct. 7th. (Kgosi Coronation Ceremony Day)

"Don't take the last piece of bread from the table because someone may

still come who is truly hungry."

We were lucky enough to attend the Coronation of the Paramount Chief

of our district. This is a traditional public position that is passed

down from father to eldest son. Disagreements and conflicts within the

community often are taken to the chief for resolution before the

governmental courts are involved. The event was about six hours long,

and because we'd only applied one layer of SPF30 sunscreen we were

pretty sunburned by the end of the event, along with most of the rest

of our group. In attendance were hundreds of people, including

international diplomats (ambassadors etc) as well as national

diplomats like President Ian Khama and his ministers. After the event

wrapped up we were invited to a catered lunch, however by the time we

made it through the line most of the plates were gone and the food had

been thoroughly picked over. Luckily our Language and Cultural

Facilitator (Lesego) saw that we had missed out on the food and

managed to get some for us. Along with this, many of our fellow Peace

Corps members offered to share food with us as well. Over all, the day

was another of many days in which we were forced into Africa-time

which is much more laidback and distinct from the standard American

sense of time and efficiency.We have been given a shadowing assignment in which we will be spending

the next week with a Peace Corps Volunteer that is already established

within his/her community. After talking with our shadowing host, we

have learned that we are traveling to a very small village in which

only 30% of the local school population continues their education

beyond elementary school. This means that most people speak little to

no English, so we will finally feel some pressure to become more

comfortable conversing in Setswana. So far, life in Kanye has made the

transition from English to Setswana very low-impact because most

everyone here is fluent in English. We are excited to see what

volunteer life is like in Botswana and also to meet a new volunteer.

We have become very close with most of our Botswana Group 11 members

and we look forward to getting a sense for our place within the larger

picture of Peace Corps efforts in Botswana.

September 13thWe got on a plane from Kansas City to Philadelphia at 6am. After arriving in Philadelphia and catching a bus to the Holiday Garden Inn, we checked into our room and had 1hr to rest before the staging event began. Meeting people at the staging event was exciting because everyone was very friendly. The group contains a wide variety of ages and experiences.

After the staging event (which briefed us on various Peace Corps policies) we were given the rest of the evening off until we were to be picked up by a bus at 2am for the ride to JFK airport in New York. We were already exhausted from the day’s flight and staging event and so we stayed at the hotel and had dinner before trying to get some sleep. Unfortunately, our bags managed to unpack themselves very quickly in a small amount of time and so we were left with a lot of repacking to do, and were too anxious and excited to sleep much. September 15thSo, with even more exhausted systems we got up at 1:30am and got on the bus to NYC at around 2:30am. On the ride in through the gloaming of the early morning we were able to spot a few of the sights of NYC (Brooklyn Bridge and Chrysler Building).

At the airport we had about 4hrs to kill until we were able to check in for our flight and so we were able to chat with more volunteers and continue to get to know everyone a little better. This time reaffirmed the fact that our group is comprised of great people and we cannot wait to begin our training on Monday.

The flight from NYC to Johannesburg was pretty miserable (as is to be expected with any flights that last more than 5hrs, and this one was 16hrs long! The first few hours went well as we watched movies and napped. And then stiffness began to set in and only got worse as the flight went on. Hayley’s back did well, though, because she had heat packs and got up every two hours to stretch and walk. The flight also started rationing water in the last 5hrs, and our travel dehydration only got worse. But, once we landed we were able to use US Dollars to purchase bottled watered at the Johannesburg International Airport.

After a 3hr layover in Johannesburg we got on a plane to Gaborone (Ha-Bore-On-ae) we took a 45min plane ride to the capitol of Botswana and were greeted by the in-country Peace Corps staff. We and our luggage were loaded onto busses and driven to the local hotel that we were told would be the fanciest location we would stay in during our time in Botswana (we would later find that our host family has set us up with very nice accommodations!). After unloading at the hotel we had about 30min to prepare for more orientation and ice-breakers (I can say that I am worn out on the use of skits to convey information, because I get distracted from the pertinent information. Or maybe it’s because acting has never been my thing). We were given a shot and assigned a malaria drug at the end of the night.

September 16thThe next morning we had breakfast and were then given our medical kits, mosquito nets, and cell phones (contact us via email if you would like our numbers. It is free for us to receive calls and texts, so we will answer whenever we can!) The US could learn a lot from Botswana’s cellular system because it is very straight forward and affordable, which starkly contrasts the complicated and overpriced mess we use in the US). We then got on a bus to travele to the town (Kanye) where we would meet our host families and move in with them. To say it simply, we were extremely nervous and it turned out that the families themselves seemed just as anxious to meet us.

The host-family ceremony began with speeches from the leaders of Botswana (e.g. chiefs “kgotsi” from the various districts and representatives for even the country’s President, Seretse Khama Ian Khama!). After the speeches they called out numbers that we had been assigned earlier along with the name of our host parents. When each trainee’s number was called they were asked to come up to the microphone along with their host family. At the microphone the family first said our name and them we said theirs. Our names can be a lot more complicated than we realize (although as Stolzles, we have become used to mispronunciations).

We met our host mother who warmly greeted us and has immediately made us feel a part of the family. The family also contains some men and women around our age along with a few younger children. ALL of the people we are now connected with as family have been very welcoming and helpful to us! They are a relaxed family that gives us a great balance between having our own space and keeping us involved in the daily life here. We are currently trying to build a vocabulary and learn our way around the neighborhood and so far everyone has been very helpful with all of it!

September 17thThe roosters start crowing around 3am and really get going by 6am. But as a heavy sleeper, Michael does not have much of an issue catching up on sleep. Hayley combats roosters and dogs barking with her ear plugs. After waking up we had a small bite to eat (the Peace Corps had not yet dropped off our weekly food baskets, which they provide to compensate the family’s food supply so that they are not burdened by having to provide for us) and were led on a walk around one part of neighborhood by one of our host-brothers. Tomorrow we plan to check out the other half.

More of our host family traveled in from out of town so we have gotten meet even more people! After a lot of trial and error we have learned everyone’s name and can pronounce them clearly enough. But it has been a tremendous help to find that most everyone in the family speaks at least some English (which will be hard to get away from once we start our language lessons in Setswana). The rest of the day was spent resting, listening to music with our host brother, and eating a great dinner of beef, maizemeal, and a vinegar cabbage dish.On Monday we are supposed to be picked up at a nearby 4-way stop, however, neither us nor our host-families are clear about which 4-way stop this refers to… We will have to work on getting a hold of someone tomorrow in hopes of figuring out where to catch the Peace Corps van to our Medical Interviews and first day of training (where we are supposed to be given more immunizations and provide any extra information about our health status to the medical officers of the Peace Corps here).

These stories are just accounts of our trip to Botswana. We are currently in the middle of our first week of Peace Corps Training and we will update this blog with stories about those experiences soon!

Due to a back injury that I experienced right before we were scheduled to leave for Albania, we will not be serving in Albania March 2011-June 2013 as originally assigned. The medical hold that is required for this back issue to heal has caused us to miss too much of the Peace Corps training in Albania. We were therefore taken out of the running for this assignment.

We are still hopeful that once this back injury has time to be treated and resolved, the Peace Corps will find another country for us to serve in. We will keep everyone posted and hope to continue this dream to serve full time in the United States Peace Corps.

Our many thanks to everyone who has supported us along the way and who continues to provide their support as we deal with this major road block in pursuing this dream of service together.

-Michael and Hayley

Hi Everyone!

We used to have our Peace Corps Application/Acceptance/Clearance/Invitation time line up on this blog; however, we had to take it down. If you would like to view it, then please just let us know and we can share it with you. Thanks!

1.29.10 - Application Submitted

1.29.10 - Couples addendum requested

1.30.10 - Couples addendum submitted

2.4.10 - Contacted by Recruiter

3.9.10 - Interview

3.10.10 - Nomination to Eastern Europe

3.22.10 - notification that our Medical Kits have been mailed

(we had to schedule, cancel, and reschedule multiple appointments because we did not realize we would be given notice when the Medical Kits were put in the mail. We advise that any potential nominees wait for confirmation that their medical packets have been mailed before making appointments)

3.27.10 - Medical Kits arrived in mail!

March 20-21, 2010

Two of our dearest friends are getting married...to each other!!!We made our first big purchase as a married couple...a new mattress.KU lost before making the sweet sixteen; K-State won and made it to the sweet sixteen for the first time since 1988. We found out some really exciting family news that will soon be shared but not yet...And to top things off...the health care reform bill passed!