Until Next Time.

My last few weeks in Botswana were a whirlwind. There were parties, tears, dancing, chocolate tequila shots, braiis, goat slaughter, chakalaka, baskets, photos, a few squeezed in projects, one last camping trip in the bush, frantic packing and repacking, and lots and lots of cookies (thanks, Becky).

My experience in Botswana was truly everything I hoped it would be. I'm already missing my great big African sky, my kiddos, the ODC, and Etsha 13. 

"How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard."
-A.A. Milne, Winnie the Pooh

The Things I Know Now

I've been in Botswana for over two years, how crazy is that? Of course living in a small, rural village in a developing country across the world from my home has taught me plenty about myself, Botswana, development, public health, etc etc etc, and so many things that will never be summed in a blog post. But I do love lists, so...

I know:

• how to make a party cup using an empty pop can and a can opener
• how to slaughter a chicken (and yes, they do move around quite a bit when their heads are cut off)
• you don't want to get between a hippo and the water
• how to get reasonably clean in 1/3 bucket of water
• zebra is delicious
• I'd rather love and hate something than be bored and apathetic
• behavior change is hard

• how to cook! chowders, hummus, yumm sauce, tortillas, curries, steak, lentils, beans...
• I will never be able to basket weave
• what it feels like when an elephant charges you
• how utterly freeing it is to be the village weirdo
• that sometimes, you just need to jump off the bridge. 
• all sorts of ways to use the internet using less data. o.facebook.com anyone?
• flies buzzing around your face are slightly more obnoxious than bug bites on your feet. slightly.
• all those pretty butterflies love feces and garbage
• crocs bite
• it's much easier to have never had something than to have it taken away
• kids pretty much the same everywhere
• the art of hitch hiking
• part of my heart is always going to be in the Okavango

Stomp Out Malaria

One of my projects was highlighted on the Peace Corps 'Stomp Out Malaria' site!

http://stompoutmalaria.org/building-the-capacity-of-volunteers-as-malaria-peer-educators-in-botswana/

Tsodilo Camp

In January, thirty youth living with HIV and ten facilitators took to Tsodilo Hills for a youth retreat, with content on life skills, healthy living, and plenty of fun. The event went incredibly smooth for a camp in Botswana, and kids and facilitators alike had a great time among the hills and ancient rock paintings. Highlights included sessions on identity, self esteem, maintaining health, and hiking among thousand year old rock paintings. 

Youth seeing the rock paintings of Tsodilo, many for the first time.

One of my favorite comments: It feels like we're on top of the world!

Decorating a tool for medication adherence.

From Peace in the Home to Peace in the World

In Botswana, most women will experience some form of violence in their lifetimes, and that’s with the amount reported estimated to be about 24 times less than what is actually happening. One in ten girls’ first sexual encounter is rape, and it is not uncommon for teachers to have relationships with students with others turning a blind eye, woman to lose rights to any property if their spouses die. In my short time here, I have heard countless stories of and seen the damage of rape, sexual abuse, physical abuse, and murder suicides, sensationalized as “passion killings” by the local media.

For a country often herald as the ‘gem of Africa” and whose citizens pride themselves on their peaceful nature, there is staggering amount of violence against women and children and a slew of unhealthy relationship habits to boot.

Cue Voices of the Community, the fledgling group of women and men working together to eliminate violence from relationships in my district. The group ran a 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Based Violence campaign; an accomplishment not only in those we reached, but for the juvenile group to run such a large event. The team held a youth day full of art, healthy relationships, and games of course; outreach at the center of town, distributing white ribbons (symbolizing standing up against violence) and discussing GBV with the community; members went to their churches to videos and leading discussions; we held a final closing event that, in spite of an all day downpour and non functional cell phone network, had solid attendance and engaged the audience.

 One of the highlights of a long, frustrating, and satisfying two weeks was the  In Her Shoes activity for government workers, which teaches empathy for those experiencing abuse. This activity provided some of the most wonderful and surprising moments of the 16 days- we had open, nearly tolerant conversations about homosexuality and managed to approach it as a human rights issue, and this in a country where homosexual acts are outlawed. There was also a member of the District AIDS Office that I frequently work with; he is often found feet propped up and newspaper out in the office. Yet for this activity, he actively participated and made meaningful comments about gender, the role of service providers, and wants us to do more of those trainings for other offices.

In spite of all of the running around Gumare in the heat, stressing over transport and whether or not the ribbons would arrive in time, and downpouring rain when you least want it, 16 days is the perfect example of a project coming together (albeit often late and occasionally looking nothing like what you planned) and making it all worth it.

Voices showing off their white ribbons

Youth Day

Our fearless leader on Youth Day

Community outreach

March against gender based violence in Gumare

Blind condom races, always a favorite

The Voices team!

This & That

I haven’t been the best blogger of late, but here are a few updates on my life and work from the past few months:

Malaria Week:

As rainy season was just beginning in mid November (the time when malaria outbreaks become a risk), the Clinic and I put together a malaria campaign. We held health talks in the morning, hung the net display, and the health volunteer team and I went house to house with a flipchart presentation. I'm always surprised by how few people in my village know that malaria is transmitted by mosquitoes, in spite of the ability to identify malaria quickly, meaning we had plenty to teach! The event was a great success, reaching around 25 households and engaging patients at the clinic with our display and talks.


Evidence Based Planning
EBP is the week that the stakeholders gather together in a fancy lodge and plan out how to spend our funding for the next two years. It was also one of the most frustrating weeks I have experienced in Botswana. In spite of being put up in a nice hotel room all to myself, complete with aircon, a hot shower, and free meals, I felt as though my teeth were being pulled out, one by one, for most of the week. One of the most challenging aspects of working in Botswana is the bureaucracy; there is protocol for everything, though somehow the proper protocol varies widely depending on who you ask. In addition, EBP is full of people who want to get their ideas funded, badly (myself included). So arguments ensue, the occasional bigot shows her face (in which I actually had to walk out of the room I was so angry about her attempt to deny services to certain groups), and the "evidence" we used is meager at best; but, eventually we created a plan that prioritizes key areas and names potential activities to reach our goals. It was an frustrating and exhausting, but I managed to place numerous Peace Corps driven activities on the agenda for the next two years, so I'm counting it a success. 

World AIDS Day
Always a big commemoration in a country with the second highest rates of HIV in the world, my village and I recognized WAD with an event at the Kgotla (village center). From skits, songs, a fact contest, and some of kids’ HIV-inspired art display, Etsha 13 came together.

Teen Club Christmas Party!

Teen Club is a group I co-facilitate for youth living with HIV, and we had a fun holiday party for the youth complete with parachute games, a plastic Christmas tree, and lots of dance performances. Not your average holiday party, but certainly a memorable one!

How I met the President of Botswana
While at a craft market during December, we were perusing the baskets and baked goods when I heard a “Dumela, Mma,” from behind me. I half-turn around, put my left hand to my elbow, and casually said “Dumela, rra.” With a double take, I realize that the person I just shook hands with was the President of Botswana, apparently out and about Shakawe.

The Holidays
I spent the holidays visiting friends across the country, starting with multiple Thanksgiving celebrations, one in Maun with a real turkey (NOM) and another in Shakawe with the NW Okavango crew, both with incredible food of course. Christmas was magical, full of delicious food, fireworks, and good people, complete with a PCV Santa clad in a leopard print santa hat and a pillow stuffed in her shirt. In spite of ninety degree heat, this year actually felt like Christmas with my Peace Corps family coming from near and far. New Years was spent out at the lodge near my village, with a legitimate fireworks show over the lagoon and somehow managing to make it to watch the sun rise over the water (while at 8:00pm I was worried I wasn’t going to make it until midnight).

Gender Committee 

In mid January, I attended my last official Gender Committee meeting. It was a particularly productive meeting, in which I have an exciting new project for the tail end of my service, involving a country wide activity utilizing some of the copious funding available for gender-based violence projects at the moment. I've really enjoyed my time serving on the PC Botswana committee!

PC Botswana's Gender Committee

Mozambique

So I went to Mozambique. It was awesome.

Highlights include: sitting on the beach, eating a whole lotta seafood, seeing a giant leatherback sea turtle, swimming with whale sharks, five dollar fancy cocktails, and relaxing. 

Lowlights: The truly absurd amount of bus travel it took to get there and getting money stolen. Worth it. 

Photographic Evidence of a Real Good Time:

Night sky on our nightly walk back!

We made prawn and calamari curry! 

Our first seafood meals, the first of many.

Fishing nets on the Indian Ocean

We made friends and took him up on an offer to make traditional Mozambican food. The family had piglets! SO excited!

Ready to eat some delicious seafood and matapa!

Learning to open and shave a coconut!

We saw a leatherback sea turtle on the beach! Even the turtle researcher in the area had never seen one like this before.

Hanging out in Inhambane

Enjoying the warm waters of the Indian Ocean!

Snorkeling with whale sharks! SO COOL! We swam next the world's largest fish, no one had a camera that could go underwater but here's some more info on the giant fish: http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/fish/whale-shark/

Feeling five dollar fancy with cocktails!

(Caveat: some of the photos are mine, several of them are borrowed from my travel companions)

Not Your Average Girl's Weekend

While describing the weekend I spent in the bush with four incredible women is fairly straightforward, processing everything that happened and articulating everything I felt during that weekend is not.

 

The ladies and Xena on the floodplain

The courageous ladies and I rented an automatic Hilux and ventured into Savuti and Khwai, in Chobe and Moremi Game Reserves, respectively on a self drive safari.This time of year, Savuti is one of the most incredible places I have ever been (I was also there last year with my mom; the experience inspired last weekend). As I mentioned in my previous post, Botswana is an inferno right now. Everything is dry so animals flock to water, such as the Savuti Marsh. We saw incredible wildlife, and the weekend out in the bush challenged my companions and me in ways we thought it might as well as in ways we had no idea to expect. Aimee and I had done extensive research on how to this trip; we had no desire to become a sensationalized news story on five young women who disappeared, presumed to have been eaten by lions. We were warned of deep sand roads, where to watch for water crossings, to carry plenty of fuel and then some, to haul in our own drinking water, to make sure to have the tents completely zipped up (because curious animals may want a look), that if you do get stuck, to not under any circumstances to wander from the vehicle, and to bring shovel, because digging your truck out of the sand with a cooler box is no fun. I may or may not have compiled a very nerdy document full of safety information and tips. 

So, with plenty of fuel, water, and a last minute tossing out of an orange (elephants really like oranges, to the point of trying to get into your car to get them), we set off. We found the roads to be far kinder than expected, though full of bumps and I'm still glad I did so much research on driving in sand! The incredible sightings began early- within 15 minutes of entering the reserve, we see a pride of lions hanging out near the road! The rest of the drive did not disappoint, with plenty of elephants, giraffe, and other game. From there we set up and went back out on a game drive to the marsh, with stunning results.

After the first water crossing!

The first day was full of magic. Everything went as well as it could have; we spent time sitting on the marsh just overwhelming happy, handled the sandy roads with ease. A friendly guide in another vehicle even convinced me to drive through a fairly shallow water crossing to see a leopard on the other side (before leaving, I had decided we were just not going to mess with water. Throw a leopard in and guide who tells you 'Ah, that crossing is dry!' to encourage you and you feel like you could make it through a river). When we got back to camp, we were making dinner when we saw wild dogs (highly endangered!) across the stream. We watched them play for about 15 minutes; it was incredible to see them romp around like your own dog would. 

After such an enchanting first day, we were feeling pretty confident. We hadn't even come close to getting stuck; in fact, we hardly even needed four wheel drive. We had seen really incredible things in an 8 hour period. We had crossed water and bumpy, sandy roads with no problem in our tough Hilux, which we had dubbed Xena, Warrior Princess. We needed the reality check Day Two was to provide. 

The leopard print is circled...
and inches from the tent.

We awoke to sniffing noises in the early morning and then leopard prints, inches from the tents (actually pretty neat as opposed to frightening, as long as the tent is fully closed, creatures will not bother you). We continued on to yet another lion sighting, this time a pride munching on a fresh breakfast along the river. From there, we moved on towards the marsh. We came across another water crossing, and full of confidence, spent a short time discussing whether or not we should cross and see what all the cars on that side were watching. We eyed the depth, decided it was probably okay, and all leaned towards just going for it. Luckily, another safari vehicle (coincidentally driven by the guide who had taken out my mom and I) was coming our way, so we decided to sit back and see how it did. Well, as my foreshadowing suggests, there was no way we could have made that water crossing without a snorkel. There was a hole in the middle, which we would have hit and probably flooded the engine. There were several things that went wrong on this trip, but that was the easily the most stupid thing we did. So with our egos in check and a very important lesson learned, we continued on, in the opposite direction, to view more incredible game that morning. 

During our afternoon drive, things got a little more interesting again. About 15 minutes in, we came up on some elephants close to the road. Certainly, we are not elephant experts, but I have been around many of the giants, sometimes very close, without them minding. As long as you’re respectful and go by at a moderate speed, they're usually okay with you, especially in the parks. These elephants did mind how close we were though, as we had unknowingly split them on either side of the road. So, in what felt like five minutes but was likely only a few seconds, we saw the matriarch (that's a guess) get all sorts of irritated and we hurried on our way past them, looking back to see her charging after us! In the charge itself, everything happened so quickly we didn't have much time to react, but it was when we came up against another herd of elephants crossing the road that our anxiety surged, building off each other. We crossed two more groups slowly, awkwardly, and full of anxiety before making it down to the marsh, where we promptly sat and discussed our feelings about the event (some parts remained of a stereotypical 'girl's weekend'). Discussion made it better; we were able to see elephants without cringing... well, for the most part. 

On the Marsh, with several herds of elephants around us (black specks)... when they no longer incited anxiety.

Savuti was kind to us the rest of the weekend, giving us another leopard sighting, a beautiful, juvenile male lion at sunset, BABY LION CUBS, four adult full mane lions (thanks to a friend we saw out there, he led us through three water crossings to get there!), and another leopard, which we spotted walking from across a water crossing that we weren't entirely sure where we had gone through, and again, all it took was a leopard to make me courageous.

Viewpoint for the Hippo Pool

From Savuti, we made our way to Khwai, an area in Moremi National Park. Again, we had been told to expect deep sand; not so much, though just a few confusing points in navigation, which with the help of several maps, a GPS, and finally, confirming by asking directions (to play into stereotypes- another benefit of an all women trip, no issues with asking for directions), we made it to Khwai after a sketchy bridge crossing and a few more animal sightings. Our time in Khwai had some surprises in store for us, the most notable being the fact that our rental car company had given us a flat spare tire. But I'll get to that; first, the crew took a drive out to the hippo pool, about 20km away from camp. We saw hippos, baby zebra, and some goofy horned creatures; it was a lovely ending to our adventure. Unfortunately, the um, most adventurous aspect of the trip was yet to come.

Our badly degraded tire in the morning light... but, we
made it back and saved the rim. 

About 15 minutes and 10km till camp, around 530pm, we clipped the side of a large fallen branch, resulting in a flat. A bit stressful so close to dark and at the end of the trip, but certainly nothing we couldn't handle. We expected a flat on this trip, so when it happened, Tate jumped out of the car, ready for her moment to shine (she had read up during the drive where everything was in the car... she was prepared). Aimee and Tate took charge of the tire, and all seemed good to go. Around half an hour until complete darkness we begin lowering the jack... And our stomachs drop with it. The spare tire is completely flat. The sun is about down. There have been numerous cat sightings today. Without much time to panic, we all jump back in the car, and decide to see if we can go really slowly on the flat without riding on the rim. We realize in about 30 seconds, we can’t. We have about 20 minutes of daylight left, and we're forced to make a decision: Do we sleep (well, try to sleep) in the car tonight, with the cooler in the back, and hope we don't attract anything unwanted (most likely just monkeys that would bother us… but…) and wait till someone finds us in the morning? Or do we try to change the tire back, which is punctured in such a way that it could probably, maybe, hopefully protect the rim to get back to camp? We decide that while there is a chance to do something about it, we might as well. I have only seen one person change a tire faster than we did the second time around and I do not know if I can put into words the relief we all felt once that tire was changed and we were all back in the car. I take over in the driver’s seat, and Aimee has her head out the window, keeping a close eye on the tire, while the women in the back take over navigation, making sure we don't make a terrible wrong turn through the unmarked and now-dark roads. Crawling at about 2km/hr, it takes a two and a half long hours to get the 10km back to camp. We could have walked faster, except for the whole lions, leopards, and hyenas thing. We kept an eye out for animal eyes (and we're a bit disappointed we didn't see hyena… well in the morning, after we had slept back at camp, and were safely on the road home), a close eye on the steadily degrading tire, and dodged a staggering number of potholes that threatened to rip the tire away from the rim. But, we made it, saved the rim, and left the spare tire in a condition that it could be repaired so we could make it back to Maun. We were a little traumatized... but also left with the feeling that we were able to handle a lot, that we were pretty tough, and that the weekend was full of accomplishment. 

Throughout this trip, gender roles were on my mind. In planning, we were asked, "Now, you girls are bringing men with you, right?" (that gem is from the guy who also told me it was exceedingly sandy… false.). To be fair, many people thought we would be just fine, and I did have my own doubts about our capabilities as well. This wasn't your average girl's weekend- we took on roles that girls aren't always encouraged to do, and thus didn't have some experience that others might. Yet, we managed just fine (thank you) and we didn't have to abandon traditionally feminine roles either; there were plenty of awws over baby animals and campsite discussions on feelings. This trip made me recognize how lucky I am to be in a position in which I can talk about how a charging elephant made me feel, while also having the knowledge, skills, and confidence in both to aid the group in getting out of a sticky situation involving a tire. It was really, really nice to move beyond some outdated, predetermined box set of roles and explore and test just what five young women were capable of, a little outside of our comfort zones. 

With that, here are some more of my favorite wildlife photos from the trip:

We saw what felt like thousands of buffalo and elephants on the marsh!

They're just such goofy animals.

Pretty leopard sitting in a tree

We watched a pack of wild dogs playing from our campsite!

Elephant on the Savuti Marsh.

Very thankful for a friend's guidance and suggestions leading to four full mane lions!

Lion cubs... doesn't get much cuter!

*most of the pictures are mine, but thanks to go my travel companions for some of the group shots :)

October.

October in the States means crunchy leaves, scarves and boots for crisp air, rain, Duck football, pumpkins,
and halloween. Oddly enough, in the southern hemisphere some of my typical October identifiers remain; I still follow football and we have plenty of crisp and orange leaves, but that is where the similarities end.

October in Botswana means unrelenting 100+ degree days. Constant sweat dripping, a near inability to walk anywhere far from 10am-3pm, lots of sunscreen, walking around with an umbrella to protect myself from the intense rays (I swear I am getting wrinkles here), sleeping on top of the sheets to the whir of my fan, and cold bucket baths... sometimes twice a day for a little oh-so-sweet relief from the incessant heat. It also means nearly everything is dried up, and much of what remains green is poisonous to livestock, so they walk into houses in search of food if you're not paying attention. It means the bugs return in full force, from the mosquitoes to the drone of the cicadas. Oh, and the snakes come back out.

Not everything October brings means an increase in my general discomfort. Many of the trees seem to be bursting with purple flowers among all of the dried and crunchy bush surrounding them.

At least everyone says the rain is coming early this year. Plus, I have plenty of fun planned to escape (or take advantage of) the heat this summer!

All I wanted for my birthday...

Was to catch a croc. 

Checking that off my Botswana bucket list!

Monster Catch Up Entry

This is going to be a blog in three parts (and sub-parts), and will mainly contain pictures because I've had a pretty incredible time since my last post, but I don't really want to write that much and most of you don't want to read that much. So, here it goes...

Pre-America:

Aimee and I went to Kasane, met up with some wonderful people, ate some delicious Indian food, and saw a bunch of elephants. Also, I held some snakes. And we got a hitch from an overlander, which for those of you not in Botswana, are those giant tourist trucks that look like small buildings for people to come and live out of for several weeks at a time and trek across several countries. They are ridiculous and never pick up hitch hikers, so that was weird and awesome.

Sssss.

The Most Ridiculously Crazy, Fun, Three Weeks EVER

(Part I) So America is a pretty neat place, Oregon especially. It's also super awesome when two of your favorite people in the whole world get married to each other and your entire family is together for the first time in a long time and somehow the majority of your other college friends can make it into the Portland metro area and the Portland Brewer's Festival is happening and it's summer in the Pac NW (which is pretty much the best thing ever in itself). It was a whirlwind of food, beer, coffee, water, sunshine, and love. See photographic proof below:

Sushi and sisters.

McAlister & Friends Reunited.

Sisters.

Oregon Brewers Festival.

Bridal Party! YAY!

Ladies.

Paddle Boarding on Detroit Lake

(Part II) Also ridiculously awesome was that I spent the following week here:

Obligatory Eiffel Tower stop.

I'm still not entirely sure what they put on escargo, but it is ridiculously delicious.

Drinking wine along the Seine.

SO MUCH GOOD FOOD.

Hiking!

Rough life.

Returning to Botswana:

(Part I) AWA, or Africa Wins Again describes my return travel in which I discovered that an hour and a half is not a long enough lay over to get through the Joburg airport. So, my trip back to site was far more expensive and far less comfortable than I was expecting... AWA. Luckily, I had some really great projects to jump right into, which brings me to:

(Part II) Special Olympics is a project my friend Lindsey in Maun has been working on for quite some time, and Etsha 13 had a team going down. I was able to jump right into the prep work for our youth, my favorite part being training with the kids each morning leading up to the event. I'm not sure if I have ever been a part of such a joyful project. A great day with the kids, facilitators, and my fellow PCVs and a perfect way to jump back into my work.

PCVs involved.

Enjoying the races.

Some of the kids involved (those in black Choppies jerseys are from Etsha!)