Site Announcement

Peace Corps did a lovely job of making our site announcement ceremony special. We each got a number on a colored piece of paper. The colors indicated which sector we’re in (CCB, NGO, DCL). They randomly called our numbers. When we were called up we were told our village and we had to find it on the map (there were color-coded dots on the map). We had no expectations about where we might go, so we were surprised when we were called last and the only spot left on the map was the very northwest corner of Botswana. We will be serving in….Shakawe!!!

Shakawe is close to Namibia and Angola and is on the panhandle of the Okavango Delta. We couldn’t be happier about our location. It’s in a gorgeous part of the country and the village is a nice size. In addition to learning where we’re going, we also learned more about our jobs. I will be working for Botshelo Trust, an NGO based in Shakawe. Botshelo Trust has several projects including a daycare, afterschool program, out of school youth groups, and income generating projects for caregivers of orphans. Matt will work at Shakawe Clinic. He has requested that he does work relating to food security, nutrition, general health and baby weighing (see previous post!). We will also work together on a new perma-gardening initiative in the area. 

We are very excited about our site placement. We cannot wait to head way up north and start integrating into our community!

Shadowing

We split up for our week-long shadowing experience. Matt went to Chadibe, northeast of Gaborone and I went to Kasane/Kazungula way up in the northeastern tip of Botswana. We had very different experiences and we’re glad we got to see different parts of this beautiful country.

Bridgette’s Shadowing:

                Three trainees shadowed in the Chobe Region. It was great to get to know other people and have travel companions. Our first travel day was LONG. We left our houses at 4:00 a.m. and we didn’t arrive in Kasane until 7:30 p.m. Yes that’s right, we travelled for 15 ½ hours! We had a pleasant traveling experience because everyone was friendly and the scenery was gorgeous.

 I shadowed an NGO Capacity Builder PCV named Octavius. He works with BOFWA, a youth friendly clinic based NGO in Kasane. BOFWA provides physical exams, HIV testing and counseling, and community outreach. We helped hand out invitations to an event that BOFWA was organizing called “International Day of Families.” It was a good way to tour Kasane. We visited the police station, Kgotla, clinic and library. I got really excited when I saw the library – I just had tons of ideas of ways to work with the library if there is one in our village. I also attended a GLOW Club meeting at the elementary school. It was a group of girls who got together weekly to learn life skills and support each other.

Kasane is an interesting and beautiful place. You can see Zambia, Namibia and Zimbabwe from various parts of town. Also, it is home to Chobe National Park which hosts a variety of wildlife. At the end of the week, we went on a boat cruise on Chobe River. It was so great to see the park from a boat. We saw lots of animals including elephants, water monitors, crocodiles, hippos, baboons, kudu, impala, cape buffalo and lions! Also, the guide knew I was a birder so he pointed out all of the bird species to me. The most exciting part of the boat cruise was when we saw a buffalo and lion standoff. It was AMAZING!

Matthew’s Shadowing:

                I shadowed a Community Capacity Builder (CCB) in Chadibe, Botswana. Chadibe is located in the east-southeast part of Botswana. The closest city is Mahalapye, located to the west of Chadibe. Chadibe is a small town of ~3000 people, half of whom are under the age 16.

The volunteer I shadowed is based in a clinic, so I was able to see the daily routine of that clinic (each day is different though). When we were at the clinic, it was baby weighing day…a very entertaining sight to see. It involved babies (1 month – 5 years old) wearing a lederhosen-like harness and then hung from a scale. To get an accurate reading the babies had to hang from the scale while not bouncing for at least 5 seconds. Quite a difficult task for any kid hanging a foot off the ground from lederhosen! Weights were then charted against age and compared with a master curve. I wasn’t able to take pictures, but I’m sure I will do this in the future so I will take pictures then.  Following the weigh-in, the children were given a Vitamin A supplement. Mothers were then given a food ration that included three 2.5 kg bags of Tsabana, one 5.5 kg bag of Malutu and 2 liters of sunflower oil per child. Following the distribution of rations, the kids were strapped on the mother’s back and the food was carried home on the head, another impressive site to see.

The following day we attended a Standard 3 class (ages 7-9). We sat in on math, English, and Setswana lessons. Math included the addition and subtraction of money (Pula). The English lesson reviewed the alphabet, capitol vs. lower case lettering and when to use capitol letters. The Setswana lesson compared the way Setswana words were pronounced vs. the way they are spelled. All of which involved a lot of class participation and willing to participate from the students. Afterward, we met with another PCV based in the neighboring village of Sehare. In Sehare, we met Sister Francis, a nun from England who has been living in Botswana since the 1970’s. Some of her recent projects include managing an NGO called Mother’s For All, a local day care, and a Red Cross Educational Facility for children with disabilities. Mother’s For All is an organization that provides income generating projects and permagardening projects for mothers with orphans. They restored an abandoned building for the day care. It is now the premier daycare in the area. The Red Cross facility was funded by the US embassy with Sister Francis being the main driver of the facility.

After seeing some great projects in the area, six of us went to the Tuli Farm Block. The Tuli Block is a section of privately owned land along the southeast border of the country. Land use in this area ranges from farming (livestock, crops and orchards) to wildlife/land management and big game hunting. The plot we visited is owned by a friend of a PCV. The land was purchased in the 1960’s for some P 170,000. This included 800 head of cattle and approximately 6500 hectare (~16,000 acres). The land is used for cattle farming, big game hunting and land conservation, but the owner plans to expand to small scale maize farming. As for the beef he raises, it is delicious, and he exports all of it to Europe. Even though we weren’t hunting, he was kind enough to take us on a four hour game drive on his property. I saw more wildlife than I have ever seen before. Some of the animals we saw were grey wildebeest, warthogs, impalas, vultures, guinea fowl, foxes (bat ear and silver back), steenboks, kudus and giraffes. They were amazing and any description I give wouldn’t do them justice.        

We both had great times shadowing and feel lucky to have seen more of this beautiful country!