Rachael's super cute round house
I spent the last week shadowing Rachael, a current PCV, in her
village of Morwamosu. I experienced the village life for the week; only about
600 people make up Morwamosu and she lives in a small round house without
running water. It was also a much-needed break from the daily grind of PST and
a glimpse into what I will get to do myself in a few weeks. It was a really
fabulous and well-balanced week with amazing food (we ate pizza twice! Woot),
interesting workshops, a braii (the Botswana version of a bbq) with Batswana,
and time with other volunteers.
But what everyone actually wants to hear- I saw my first
African wild animal! As I was on the bus ride out to Morwamosu, I hadn’t seen
anything interesting and by Friday I was getting disappointed when I still had
yet to see anything besides donkeys and cattle. I was just telling Rachael
this, when 10 minutes later our hitch (more on this later) nearly runs over a
baby ostrich and it’s family! The ostriches were unharmed, but I got a real
close glimpse of the giant birds.
So don’t freak out mom and dad, but I also gained more
experience in the art of hitchhiking last week. While not technically endorsed
by Peace Corps, hitch hiking is often a big part of transport for PCVs in
Botswana as the cost of gasoline is so high and public transportation is inconsistent
and only occurs in brief time windows. Rather than giving the thumbs up one
sees all over American media, which actually signifies that you don’t need a
ride, you just kind of flap your hand at the wrist. If the driver can’t/won’t take you he or she
will make one of several types of hand signals back, which I have yet to figure
out. After last week, hitching has become my favorite form of transportation because
it was often much quicker than the bus and I had way more space than in the
crowded combis and buses. While there are certainly things to watch out for
(mainly unsafe vehicles and drunk driving), you can always turn a hitch down
and wait for the next car to go by. Although the wait time on less travelled
roads is long, as I learned trying to go about 20km between villages. Rachael
and I waited several hours for a hitch only to have it get snagged by some guys
who only had waited about half an hour… needless to say I don’t think I will
let another long awaited hitch slip by me that easily again.
Along with hitching and ostriches, my favorite highlight of
shadow week was the PACT workshop I attended in another village. Rachael was
assisting another volunteer with the workshop in her village so I had the
opportunity to attend and help a little. It was so nice and refreshing to see PCVs at
work; I was able to translate all of the tedious training activities into real
life. The workshop centered on health and life skills in a school, with what I
guess were 10 to 13 year olds. Those kids were amazing. We arrived at the
school and they had the classroom ready to go and they were eager to be there as
well. And then we had this question box-
which I don’t know if anyone remembers having that in middle school or
whatever, but all anyone put in there was jokes, but these kids had the best
questions about all sorts of topics. I was so impressed! While I’m sure that
those kids were great to begin with, it’s also encouraging to see the impact
the PCV had on her community. Seeing stuff like that is the reason I joined
Peace Corps. Sure, filling up over 100 lubed condoms with water for a
balloon toss was fun, but sorting through those kids’ questions about topics such
as gender, sexual health, puberty, leadership, etc was amazing, especially knowing
that along with the other PCVs and Batswana in the room we would be answering
them and getting these kids comfortable with the topics. I’m so thankful for my
shadowing experience; it was a great
break from training but I am more ready than ever to finally learn about my
site… only a few more weeks until I get my own village!
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