Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Happy late-Thanksgiving from a group of happy, completely stuffed volunteers~! 

Standing in the Limpopo River

Two weeks ago, Dr. Mashini gave two Peace Corps volunteers a wonderful gift: he invited Megan and me to join him on a Sunday to do malaria testing in the Tuli Block! For those of you who don’t know, the Tuli Block has a game reserve in the very east of the country with some of the most incredible and diverse wildlife in Botswana. Since it is not nearly as well known or visited as Chobe National Park or the Okavango delta, Tuli is often referred to as the hidden jewel of Botswana. Nonetheless, quite a few people live and work in the Tuli Block, especially monitoring the borders with Zimbabwe and South Africa, so Dr. Mashini wanted to make sure they also had access to malaria testing and treatment. As you can imagine, Megan and I were practically giddy at the thought of going.

Early that Sunday morning, we clambered into the back of an ambulance and held on for dear life while we trundled along the bumpy terrain in the Tuli Block. On our way to the testing sites, we peered through the tiny side windows of the ambulance to try to spot some wildlife. Suddenly, the ambulance lurched to stop and Dr. Mashini started frantically pointing out the window. It took me a couple of minutes to figure out what was going on, and then I saw them, five gigantic elephants casually picking leaves off of a tree. They were beautiful and gigantic and terrifying. We took pictures as quickly as possible, but sadly my crummy ipod camera does not do well with zoom and they didn’t come out to well. Nonetheless, we kept zipping around the Tuli block for the next hour or so until we reached the border post where the malaria testing would take place.

Once Dr. Mashini was well set up, he told us we could go explore a bit while he tested patients. A guide graciously walked us down to the riverbed where we had seen a crocodile. Across the way we saw a gigantic family of baboons and some elephants all watching us from the other riverbed.  I couldn’t believe I was standing in a riverbed, staring at all these incredible animals.

The big rains haven’t come to Botswana yet, so the river was almost completely dry. In a few months it will be full again and there will be hippos happily floating about. After the malaria tests were finished, we were lucky enough to have a tour guide drive us around in one of their game cars. We saw ostriches, kudu, impala, springboks, giraffes, baboons, warthogs, wildebeests, and of course, more elephants. At one point we were quickly veering through the bush, the car took a quick right, and suddenly, right in front of us was a huge elephant running along. Before the elephant could turn around and see us and decide to charge, the driver picked up his speed to scare the elephant into running away from us. After a heart-stopping minute, the elephant ran off the trail and into the bush. Elephants can be extremely dangerous when they feel threatened, so our guide took no chances and got us out of there.

Finally, another highlight from the trip was when we stood in the middle of the connecting point where the Limpopo and Shashe Rivers meet.  This point had us standing right at the edge of where Botswana, Zimbabwe, and South Africa meet. I climbed to the top of some big rocks, and took in the view.

This volunteer is home

Hello internet world! Please excuse the long absence in updates. I needed to take a little time to settle in to my new home and once I did that it took even longer to figure out how to get the internet necessary to post, but I can now proudly say that this volunteer is officially moved in!

I should start with the swearing in ceremony. On Wednesday the 16^th of October, Peace Corps Botswana welcomed 72 new volunteers to the Peace Corps family. The ceremony was lovely, many dignitaries were present, and the US Embassy’s Deputy Chief of Mission led us in taking our oath. My friend Isaac gave a speech that moved us to tears, and then my friend John gave a Setswana translation of that speech with such gusto that he had all of us shaking with laughter. This day was a particularly proud one for all of us; some volunteers have literally been waiting for this moment since they first started their applications years ago. I was reminded of my college graduation a few months ago and how happy I was on that day too. I really wish my friends and family could have been there, but I know I’ve got a wonderful support system cheering me on from a distance. After the ceremony ended there was nothing left to do but celebrate with my friends and internalize that we were all about to venture off on our own at last.

Fast forward a couple of weeks and I am now happily settling into my new home village. Any move requires adjustment, but I think it’s fair to say that this one requires quite a bit more than usual. My house is lovely and perfect for one; I am lucky enough to have both water and electricity, although both sometimes go out from time to time. So far I have met many of my neighbors and they are all warm and welcoming people. Since I mostly lived in big cities before moving to Botswana, being a part of a community is very new to me. Some highlights of my community life include: a neighbor came over on my first night with a plate of food to welcome me, one of my neighbor’s kids came over one night just to drop off some handmade Setswana flash cards to help me learn the language, and my personal favorite, once the neighborhood kids found out I had never been in a donkey cart and wanted to try it out, they showed up one afternoon with one and took me for a ride around the block.

I also started working at the clinic three weeks ago and am trying to learn the ins and outs of how things are run. Gobojango Clinic is actually more of a health post. The regional doctor, Dr. Mashini, comes twice a month for ARV (anti-retroviral) day to check up on HIV patients and do general consults. Dr. Mashini is from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and speaks fluent French, so I get to have someone to speak French with! Anyway, it’s fair to say that those two days are easily our busiest each month. When the doctor isn’t around, things get very quiet by lunchtime and I end up with ample time to read or try to practice Setswana. I was invited to join the student PACT club at the junior secondary school as well, so twice a week I walk over to the school and help the kids plan their projects. PACT club provides peer counseling and support to other students and tries to raise student awareness about various health issues that affect young adults.

Now that I’ve settled into a bit of a routine and have submitted my security forms to Peace Corps, I will begin work on my Community Assessment. Over the next few weeks I will interview members of the community and try my best to learn as much as possible about Gobojango.

I still feel like I have a long way to go in adjusting to being here. It’s hard to find my balance between wanting to integrate and form bonds as soon as possible and taking time for myself to recharge and be alone. It’s also quite an adjustment to go from being around American volunteers constantly to being the only American in a village of 2,200. Furthermore, since there is no guide book for what to do and there’s no one around me to compare with, I spend a lot of time wondering if I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing and puzzling over what kind of projects I can work on next year. For now, I just keep telling myself to trust the process, to stay present, and to stop worrying about what will happen months from now. A quick shout out to my friends and family: thank you for all the love and support, for all the emails and phone calls, and for your patience in waiting for me to update this blog! I couldn’t do it without all of you.