#5 Site Visit pt.2
Ahh another post. I had so much momentum after the last one and totally wasted all of it writing about all the books I’ve read on the main page, which was pretty fun, even though I didn’t manage to say anything of substance. But it was more for me from the get-go, because I’ve been reading so much that it is hard to keep them all straight. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, check out the main page (the one with “DUMELANG!,” Gram) and scroll down for a lot of rambling about books.
Anyway…onwards with telling y’all about my site visit! I even wrote an outline for myself for this one. Talk about being organized! I’ve realized that as I write these the current book that I am reading influences how I think/write, and I am currently reading A Gentleman in Moscow; I am sorry if it gets a little philosophical at times.
To re-set the scene for ya: I am at my site, which is on the banks of the Okavango. The president just left, so everything has sloooowed down. It was warm but being inside or in the shade is much better. Currently sitting at about a 3/10 on the uncomfortability scale. I’ve been told it gets much worse during the summer.
The rest of my time at my site was rather uneventful, save for three health talks I gave with my Health Education counterpart at the clinic. At the beginning of the week, Okgathile, my counterpart, brought me to visit the primary and secondary schools to meet the teachers and set up times for health talks. On Friday, we talked to about 200 boys at the secondary school. There was a projector and microphones, the whole set up. We talked about some contraceptive measures and showed them rather graphic pictures of STIs. You can imagine how showing close pictures of penises (penii?) and vaginas went with a bunch of 13-year-old boys. But aside from all the giggles, they were super engaged, and the talk went well. Monday, we talked to ~270 primary school students and then gave the same STI talk to women at the secondary school. It was my first time meeting all the kids, but from what I’ve seen of the village I think I’ll be spending a lot of time at the two schools. It was wild to stand in front of so many people during my first week at site, but I was extremely grateful for the opportunity, as many kids came to talk to me in the days after the talk.
The next step in the whole site visit was to shadow some current volunteers in other parts of the country. The goal was to see their housing, hear about their experience, and hopefully spend some time with them at work. Phoebe, the next closest volunteer, and I left from our sites Early in the morning to travel to the volunteers we were shadowing. After the bone-shaking, soul rattling ambulance ride up to Shakawe, we got on the bus to travel back. That evening, we met up with Linda, Dara, and Marc for a fantastic dinner at an Indian restaurant. It was really nice to hear about their work and their lives both here in Botswana and back home. The next day I continued on the bus another few hours to get to the volunteer I was shadowing, Noah. We met with two other volunteers for lunch in a nearby town before going back to Noah’s house. For the next ~day and a half, he cooked me AMAZING food, answered every one of the hundred questions I asked, took me to school with him, and gave me some incredible advice about service. He would barely accept any form of payment/thanks, except to request that I pay forward the favor and let someone shadow me in the future. Noah has been in Bots for just about a year already and works at a junior secondary school as a LifeSkills+ teacher. I truly enjoyed the short time I was with him and told him that I would love to host someone in the next cohort.
On my bus ride from his village down to Gabs, I sat next to a Tanzanian guy and we talked a little in Swahili. It was so cool to see his face lit up during the conversation. He helped me to the next bus amidst the chaos of the Gaborone bus rank. A fantastic example of how most people behave here: he liked to talk and helped me with Swahili and Setswana, and then took care of me when we got off the bus. I got back to Ramotswa, the village we are staying in for training, in the afternoon.
Since then, not a lot has happened. We had two quiet weeks of training, during which the highlights were learning how to permagarden (getting our hands dirty!! Best day of training so far!!), learning how to cook traditional Setswana food (also getting our hands dirty! But this time with intestines and dumplings and Chakalaka and other amazing stuff), and reading a ton. I carve out any time that I am not at training or spending time with my homestay family to read. Working my way through two books at once right now, which is new for me. Not sure how I like it.
That’s all for now, I believe. I’m posting more pictures every now and then, and you should see some gnarly food ones in the food album on there. John, Jasmine, and I have been exceedingly silly in the face of some challenges, and we continue to get closer. Almost every day we walk together to and from training, which ends up being 30 minutes of goofing off. Those hilarious conversations are what keep me going every day.