Always Bring a Book and Never Ask "Why?"

Lots to catch all you wonderful people up on! Here is the dealio, I have been moved. Yes, moved by the people and the culture of Botswana, and of course moved to better myself as a person, but also physically moved. Due to some extenuating circumstances, myself and my wonderful trainee friend Nate, have been site swapped. I am not going to get into the details, but I think this is going to be for the better of our communities in the long run. Though I am sad to say goodbye to Kanye, and my wonderful, amazing host family, I am happy about all the new challenges and adventures that await me in Ramokgonami!

Here is the low down: Ramokgonami (Rams as I will be calling it from here on out) is a 3,000 person village located about 3 hours north east of Gaborone. It is a 45min hitch/kombi ride from Pahlapye (my shopping village, which you should be able to find on a map if you are super interested) and an 8 hour ride from Maun. I will be working in a midwifery clinic as a Community Capacity Building volunteer and will also probably be finding some projects to do with the local schools and library. My house is going to have running water in the bathroom and electricity, and I just found out that the library has wifi, which means I can keep in touch with each and every one of you good looking lads and lasses.

I’m pretty pumped about my new assignment, and I really just can’t wait to start working and getting to know the village and actually start planning some projects. The volunteer whose spot I will be taking set up a formula and milk distribution center for mothers in the PMTCT program. I also hear, from that crazy Peace Corps grapevine, that she was incredibly ingrained within the community; so I am going to have some pretty big shoes to fill. A lot of the general work I will be doing with have to do with the PMTCT program, as well as distribution of ARVs and breast feeding demos. The clinic has had 3 volunteers prior to me, so they should know their way around the program by now, but I was to try and distinguish myself as an individual by trying to come up with projects that are very different from my predecessors.

On a more up to date note, I think I am going to go veg, or at least give it a shot. I have been pondering the thought for a while now, and had an interesting experience today that kind of solidified it for me. The training for the day was in Gabs and we got to have a walk through tour of one of Botswana’s diamond polishing plants. It was actually really amazing, since I think all of us went in there with some pretty nasty pre conceived notions about what the diamond business looks like in Africa and that was not at all what we found. Since it was Friday everyone in the plant was in jeans. The nice Israeli guy who runs the operation, fielded all of our charged up questions about how he knew his diamonds weren’t covered in blood with grace. When someone asked how long shifts were, and if employees were expected to stay until the job was done, the man in the cutting room said it was an 8am-5pm shift with a tea and lunch break and if you weren’t done with a particular diamond prior to you “hauling off” than you just came back to it the next day.

Anyways, this is all besides the veg point, but before we leave this train of thought, I would like to add that I got to hold a 17 carat “rough” diamond and a 10 carat finished, yellow diamond. These rocks were GIANT! The lady in the finishing room took my hand, and literally placed the yellow diamond on top, between my two fingers so I could get an idea of what a ring that size would look like. It blew my mind. THEN she proceeded to put a princess cut, pear cut, round cut and some other kind of cut, between the rest of my fingers, the smallest “only” being around 3 carats. I had hundreds of thousands of dollars of jewels on my hand, and all I could think about was the fact that these little shinny rocks could pay off all my student debt, or buy me a house, or build a clinic in my soon to be village, or feed my entire village for at least a year. Don’t get me wrong, when I find that special someone, I would like a ring, but I don’t think I am ever going to be able to look at a diamond the same way again. The rough one looked like a freakin piece of glass, or maybe even a slightly more translucent piece of quartz. We pay so much for something that comes from dead animal and plant matter and it just seems so…weird.

ANYWAYS, I got home from the crazy diamond experience and found that my host mother needed help washing the car. It was getting late so when she said I need to scrub down the windows I couldn’t really see what the sticky stuff I was scrubbing at was…that was until she told me about her afternoon. My host mother had been out at the cattle post (something I am going to have to describe later) and on her way back she had run into a friend with a dead cow. Since the friend needed a hand to get the carcass back to Kanye, my host mother had offered to help…by putting it into the family kombi.

People of America (and this only applies to those of us whose close encounters of the bovine kind are in a grocery store or between the toasted buns of a McDonald’s sandwich) a cow carcass is HUGMONGOUS! There was blood all over the seats, and windows and the whole car stank of blood. As I proceeded to help my mother wash everything down, and slowly got more and more blood water spilled on me I realized that this whole meat thing might be leaving a sour taste in my mouth. Afterwards, when I was heading back into the house and found a leg of cow in the sink, these thoughts became a little more solidified. Finally, after scrubbing myself down and coming out of the bathroom to find my host sister making fried cow intestines, I had this beautiful moment of clarity and decided to swear off meat, here and now. So I am going to give this whole herbivore thing a go and if it works, neato frito, and if not, at least I gave it a shot.

Seriously people, I was like the ranch hand version of "Kerry"

Alright, that is going to be about it for me today. I will try and post an address as soon as I get to site so all of you dedicated readers out there (love you Mom) can send me letters and packages and pictures, and anything else you can fit into a standard envelope/ flat rate box. Also note, if you don’t want to send me a package, but still have some sympathy for my dietary situation, taco seasoning and macaroni and cheese (the cheese packets) fit into an envelope! (Thank you Aunt Beth)

Ke rata mongwe le mongwe (I love everyone)

~Claire/ Tlotlo

p.s. the title of this post is the running motto of Peace Corps Botswana