Peace Corps Thoughts-ish : Shadowing week

Well I’m back in Serowe after a few days in Mathathane shadowing a current Peace Corps volunteer named Hollis. Shadowing was fantastic and exactly what I needed right now. It was so nice to get away for a little while and explore a new part of Botswana. Getting to see how an actual volunteer lives and works was also really beneficial, it took away a lot of my stress and worry about where I’m going to be placed for the next two years.

My friend Megan and I took a three-hour bus ride to the town of Bobonong. From there we met Hollis and hitched a ride to Mathathane, which was another hour away. Hollis is lucky enough to have both hot running water and electricity, so I felt very pampered. Not only that, but she went to great lengths to cook us all kinds of great food we’ve been missing and craving. She made cheesy quinoa, banana bread muffins, homemade hummus, cucumber salad, and excellent pasta. I was pretty much in food heaven. Also, I immediately became obsessed with her pet cat and carried him around from room to room. No surprise there.

Anyway, Mathathane is a pretty small village and Hollis has been a health clinic volunteer there for two years. She extended her service for six months so that she can finish her current project: building a reading room for Mathathane. The project is a huge undertaking and we got to learn about the complications of getting funding and budgets and getting enough materials for construction. I was really impressed by how much she managed to put together considering the limitations with transport and funding. There are several NGOs in the US that managed to fundraise and get around 2,000 books sent to her. I was so inspired by all the possibilities in her village once the library is set up. There could be book clubs and resume building workshops or even creative writing workshops. The next volunteer who works there could work to get some computers set up and teach computer literacy. Seeing a project in the makes got me thinking about all the possibilities that I may or may not have once I get to site.

While we were there we managed to create a mobile of the solar system and hung it to ceiling in the reading room. We also spent some time in the clinic and got to know the pharmacist working there. He had a very frank discussion with us about HIV in Botswana and his experiences working in country. He also asked us to help him re-organize the pharmacy. We moved all the regular medication into the room where the ARV medication is kept. He hopes that this way it will be easier to keep track of medication and it will help reduce the stigma on HIV patients. Everyone will now have to go to the same room to get medicine. All in all, a great week.