Crazy Stuff Claire Does in Africa

LOTS OF STUFF TO CATCH UP ON!

I'm so sorry I have been not on here at all as of late, it has been a nutso last two months, but that shouldn't prevent me from sitting down and writing a little bit now and again. Since I have failed in doing this, I am going to sit down right now and write a ton...all in one go.

In attempts to make this easier to navigate, I'm going to break this down into a "Novel" like format with chapters and a table of contents and everything!

Table of Contents
-Alex's Trip
-MST
-Mural Painting Insanity
-Kalindi's Trip
-New Projects
-Plans for Life PPC (post Peace Corps)

Alex's Trip

My first visitor from the United States of America was a TOTAL WIN! I think things went really well and based on what he was telling me, he thought the same. 

So first there was the emotional reunion at the Jo'burg Airport where I continually kept repeating things like "I can't believe you are actually here" and "you are real" while touching his arm. It was the first real mixing of my life in Bots and my life in the US so how can you really blame me? 

Getting back to Botswana was a laugh and a half and aside from some worries about me having forgot my work permit papers, all went smoothly (the lady didn't end up asking for them...I like to think this is because I am such a smooth Setswana talker, but I'm guessing in all reality it is more likely that she just forgot.) Once in Botswana we met up for dinner with a few newly COSed, RPCVs who were on there way to bigger and better things. This was wonderful because Alex got to meet a few of my close friends who are on the other end of this crazy ride (I'm talking about you Susan and Amelia!) After a delicious Indian dinner we went back to the Metcourt and crashed before a big day of travel. I would like to point out that Alex was highly enjoying his two nights in Africa in a hotel, and eating out at fancy restaurants...little did he know. 

The next day we hopped on a bus and went out to my village. I finally got to introduce Alex to the lady in my shopping village who is convinced she is going to be his future wife, and Alex got a nice feel for what the transportation system here is like. 

Alex: "What time does the bus leave?"

Claire: "Noon...or 1, sometimes like half one, but if he is not there by 2 then he isn't going to be coming."

Alex: "Why wouldn't he be coming?"

Claire: "He might be in church, the bus might have been broken, he could have hit a cow...that happened a few weeks ago and the bus was out for a month."

Alex: "Oh"

Luckily the bus did come and so not only was Alex treated to my favorite bus guy (his name is Rra Tlotlo, which everyone jokes means he is my Dad) but a brief little driving tour of the village as well, since this particular bus will drive all the way out to my house instead of dropping off at the kgotla a mile away.

Family meeting the family :)

The few days we had in my village were a good time; Alex got to see a slice of my life which included weighing babies, hanging out with my preschoolers, and generally just talking with and mingling around the village and the people in it. It was also awesome for me to get a fresh perspective on some of the issues that go down here, and brain storm with him possible future project ideas. 

First traditional meal! Those little bug lookin
things above the brown meat...are bugs.

The ultimate part of this trip though was being able to show him places and introduce him to people that I have been talking about on this blog, through emails and in letters since I got here. When I reference "the clinic" Alex knows what I am talking about now. He has a mental picture and a much more clear idea of how I live, the stresses I go through and what my job is like. He is the first person from home who has seen this, and I couldn't be happier to have that kind of ally. 

After Rams came my belated 24th birthday party up in Francistown. After deciding I wanted to have some

sort of theme party, and then also realizing that it would be hard to materialize a costume in these settings, I settled on the theme "Beerlympics: A Night of Competitive Drinking." That way we get to combine my two absolute favorite things: beer and competition. Get this people, my most awesome cousin even chipped in to get a trophy engraved....IT WAS AWESOME! It is at this point I will note that never in my service have I been more aware of the USD to BP exchange rate:

Claire: "We can't buy _______, it's like p300!!!"

Alex: "Claire, I can cover the $35, it's not a big deal"

Chad won!

At which point I would remind him that I live on about $300 a month. Still, now that I am looking at jobs for when I get back into the US, it makes me feel pretty good! But more on that later. 

Beerlympics was an amazing success with the slightly controversial win going to my friend Chad. Chad is now in charge of hosting the next one so that the trophy can be passed down to the next generation of PCVs. At this point I would like to introduce you all to my friend Justin, who provided the meat and a good bit of the alcohol for the whole celebration. This included bush meat, which meant that Alex and I got to try Zebra which was really cool, and pretty nice tasting (my vegetarianism doesn't extend to "taster" portions of meat I believe I would not be able to try back in the states.)

The next day, out of the goodness of his heart, Justin offered not only to drive us up to Pandamatenga, and also to put us up in a lodge for a night. This was awesome for a few different reasons, the first being that I have never been to Panda, the second being because it meant a big chunk out of lodging and traveling expenses and thirdly because we got to go to the going away party of a volunteer that is getting ready to move to Maun for her third year extension. 

The party was awesome, and the lodge was comfortable and we made a bunch of new friends...really what more could we ask for?

The next day Janina, Aimee, Alex and I were off to Livingstone, Zambia to have our awesome Victoria Falls adventure. The whole trip to the falls was awesome, we staid in Fawlty Towers Hostel which was not only comfortable, but cheap! We saw the falls, relaxed by the pool, played card games and hung out, and almost died while white water rafting...

Did you catch that last one?? The part where I told you we almost died??? I could be over dramatizing a bit here but we did sign up for a half day white water rafting trip which took us through rapid 11 all the way down to rapid 24. During said trip Janina was ejected three times, and the boat capsized once. For those of you who have been white water rafting before, let me assure you that the Zambezi is a whole different animal, and that we were going on high water season, which means that it was a big, fast, scary, just got poked with a stick, kinda animal. Our raft (as you can see from the picture included) went into a class 4+ rapid, capsized end over end and then pitched us all into the water, under the boat, only to go through the rapid again blind, dazed, and lacking the ability to get air.

The guy who is looking like he is hanging out in an invisible lawn chair is Alex. I am the slightly lower of the two orange helmets to the right. At this point in the trip Aimee is kinda sittin on me. 

After making sure everyone's head was above water, and getting back into the raft, our guide handed us all an apple (it was like a healthy treat for surviving!) and we just kinda sat there for a second. After a moment I believe it was Alex who said "so...did anyone else actually think they were possibly going to die just then?" to which we all exclaimed that we had, and that this was quite the rafting trip. Apparently if you go on the full day one you cap 2-4 times. I think sometime after the 2nd I would probably risk getting eaten by a hippo and just insist that I walk the rest of the way, but who knows?

We had a great time in Zambia, Janina even bungee jumped which was insane. Mad props to the people that are willing to jump off an incredibly high bridge with only rocks and a river and some crocs to catch you at the bottom. I have the feeling I will probably leave this world never having done it, and I'm very much okay with that. We also got to briefly touch a toe into Zimbabwe (the bridge you jump off of spans the two) which officially made this a four country trip for Alex and I, which I thought was kind of cool.

Prior to leaving Panda we had made arrangements to meet up with Justin on our way back down and have dinner out at a friend of his lodge. We piled back into his truck as he drove us out into the middle of the bush. When we got to the place our minds were pretty much blown. 

Man, life in Africa is SOOOOOO hard!

Kazuma Lodge is what you imagine in your dreams when you think about safaris in Africa. It is a place that is screaming monocles, afternoon tea while you stick your pinky out, chatting about Kippling and admiring the the water buffalo you just shot. It is fancy scotch, "cheerio ol' boy" and the epitome of "Bush Luxury"
(emphasis on the "luxury" and not so much the "bush".) When we drove up, the natural watering hole had 5 elephants around it, and over the duration of our 4 course meal, about 25 more showed up just for our pure entertainment. The food was amazing, the view was astounding, and for a second I actually felt like anything other than a peace corps volunteer (which may or may not be a good thing.) It was a once in a life time experience and I can't thank Justin, as well as the lodge owners, enough for facilitating it for us. 

I think we pull it off

The last night before we went back to the capital was spent with Aimee, Alex and I in the pans, camping out under the stars and enjoying a relaxing bon fire chat with some of the managers. Don't get me wrong, I'm all about sleeping under the stars but sleeping under the stars, in Botswana winter, on the salt pans (which have zero wind protection), is not the best way to go about things.

In the morning Alex and I went off and had a four wheel adventure over the pans, and got as close as you can get to wild meerkats, saw an ostrich running at full speed, had a nice little breakfast, and got to zoom around on a four wheeler with our heads wrapped up like Lawrence of Arabia. 

The trip ended back in the capital with me crying hysterically (okay...maybe not "crying hysterically" as much as "weeping stoically") and waving to Alex on the bus from the street corner. I do have to say it was incredibly hard to see him go. Not only did we have an amazing trip, but we got closer and he was able to bring a bit of "US home" back into my life. I can't thank Alex enough for coming out and visiting and being the amazing, supportive, wonderful cousin that he is. Alex, you have been with me through this whole insanity, and never once let me doubt or question myself. You are an amazing person, and I'm proud to be your cousin. :)

Some other random pictures from the trip:

<I FOUND A STATE FAN! & Me after pans trip

The guy whose job it is to get the meerkats
used to people

<Alex being a baller & bridge in Vic Falls

MST

So I head back to my village after cleaning myself up a bit (crying in public is so rare here, some passing students asked why my "face was sweating") and have a week to get things in order before I went off to MST. 

MST (Mid Service Training for those of you who haven't read the "terms" page) was hands down the most successful Peace Corps training I have gone to. We talked about life after Peace Corps, how we were coping with our service thus far, diversity (lead by the most excellent Dominique; diversity point person for PSDN), emotional health and different resources we had at our disposal. It was also just wonderful to see the whole group together again and catch up with people I haven't really seen since IST. 

Bots 12 is an amazing group of individuals who are not only passionate about what they are doing but are really freaking good at doing what they are doing. We have projects all over the boards from reusable menstrual pads for girls, support groups, condoms in taxi cabs, shade projects, recycling ARV bottles in order to make pill counters to help with accountability, gender based violence campaigns and advocating for the rights of people wit disabilities. When we get together it just gives me hope for the world, hope that people like this aren't a minority, and that ultimately those working towards positive change vastly out weight those working against it. 

The few days together was awesome and also gave me a chance to talk with my peers about potential future projects (which we will talk about a little later down the page.) It was a wonderful time and it is weird to think that the next time we gather in a large group it will be for our COS conference and we will be getting ready to end service together and move on to the next phase of life. I wish all of my fellow volunteers luck in the next year, and sincerely hope that I am able to see you before then.

I know there aren't any pictures in this chapter and it is only because it would look like a standard conference from anywhere.

Mural Painting Insanity

Dana and I have been talking about doing a mural in my village for a while now, and finally sat down and picked out some dates. We decided on the week after MST because right before that was Alex's visit, and after that Kalindi would be coming to visit, and after that Dana would be heading to COS, so this was really the soonest possible date we could manage. 

If ever here was a stereotypical Peace Corps project, this one was it. 

We had issues with transportation which meant that we got to my village late, but were still pleased to find a group of about 8 women who had showed up for the meeting at the Creshe (its the word for preschool here.) Dana has this wonderful program set up, and this is actually the fifth mural she will have completed within Botswana. In a nutshell she gets together some members of the community as well as some of the youth and asks people what they want to be represented in the mural. What are some of the issues facing the community? What are people proud of? What makes this place special? Then she asks them to show her some of their favorite places in the village and she goes around taking pictures (actually in this case she let the youth take pictures) and from that she creates a mock up. 

After showing the mock up around and getting more feedback there is a final sketch and then the painting begins. Priming, coating, sketching, painting and whatnot and then voila! Beautiful public art!

At least that is how it is supposed to go. So we had the 8 women and after the initial discussion we decided we would meet back there the next morning at 9am. I show Dana the wall, do a quick tour of the village and then we head back to my house to get settled. The next morning we show at the preschool at 8:45am and wait for people to show...and wait...and wait...and wait...and then we hit 11 am and only one woman has come (surprisingly enough it was someone who wasn't there at the first meeting.) We get her opinion and then call the head teach to find out what the heck happened only to hear that there was a kgotla meeting and then is why no one showed up and that they had all decided to move the meeting to tomorrow at 9am...you know...without telling us. 

Okay, so tomorrow at 9am, not a problem. Dana and I head to the library, I check in at the clinic, we get some groceries and head back to cook dinner. Next morning 9am, it is Friday so at this point we are a day behind and I have to spend part of the morning at the clinic to help weigh babies. I send Dana on ahead and tell her I will be there in an hour and she should just start without me. While listening to the end of the health talk, who do I see walk in (a this point it is about 9:30am) but the head teacher for the preschool...with the keys to the preschool. I quietly go over and ask why she isn't at the meeting to which she responds that she has to weigh her baby. I ask for the keys so I can run them over and let the rest of the people into the building, only to find when I get over there that "the rest of the people" is still just Dana. 

We open the building, I run back and weigh babies, and then run back to the preschool to find that Dana is still the only one there. We have one woman who shows up, sees that there is no one there, goes out to make "a call" and then we watch her walk completely away from the whole thing. 

At this point I am furious, I have put some of my own money into this, Dana has come all the way up from Molepolole, and this is a project that the preschool said they wanted! We both go back to the clinic around 10:30 and find the head teacher and let her know that we are done. No one has showed up for two meetings, we are the only ones who seem to want to do this, and we aren't going to be doing it on our own since it is not our jobs to do things for people, but to do things with people. She apologizes and asks for one last chance, Dana and I have a powwow and discuss a few things like how we are now two days behind, and that we are going to need to prime tomorrow at the very least. We decide we will give it one last shot and if no one shows up she will go home and I can donate the paints to the next project she does. 

FINALLY the next morning we get about five people to show up and prime the wall. Wealso get some youth who happen to be passing by, and the head teacher puts some pep into her step to get people to show up. Ultimately it is too late to finish the mural, and Dana goes home having only primed, but she is coming back next week to finish things and has come up with an amazing sketch so I still have a lot of hope that this is going to be an amazing project. 

I would like to note that Dana is in fact the shit. 

Kalindi's Trip

Kalindi is a wonderful friend whom I've had since high school. She decided that she was crazy enough to come out and visit for three weeks and seeing how special and amazing I think this woman is, I couldn't have been happier to have her here. 

Kalindi's trip was actually very similar to Alex's (including the fact that I kept saying things like "I can't believe you are here" and then touching her to make sure she was) but because she was here for an extra week we were able to get up to Maun as well as have a whole 6 days in my village instead of Alex's 3. She came in and we had a fun starting two nights in Gabs. The first was in the Metcourt and the second was at Shannon's house. Shannon lives just outside of Gabs and was nice enough to be willing to put us up. This was great because Kalindi got to meet everyone and we got to hang out with Lola and Noodle, Shannon's dogs, who are wonderful in their own right. 

The next morning we met up with Dana and Raquel and traveled up to Mathatane to visit Hollis, who lives right next to the Tuli Block and was already hosting a bunch of people (do another super special shout out to her.) We got up there late, and tired and pretty much fell asleep immediately. The morning after we made our way out to Tuli to poke around a bit and then set our sites for Lepokole Hills! This site is not only beautiful but is the home to some astounding cave paintings. Of course, it being Peace Corps, there was no guide (Janina and I made do since we had been out there before) and the gates were locked (we jumped them and hiked from there) but we made do and finally made it to this sacred site. It is one of those places that is no less moving the second time around and I feel blessed to have been able to go out there twice. 

From there we pushed on, on our own up to Kasane and after a lovely hitch with a Zimbabwean truck driver, were able to meet up at the camp site with Aimee and Boo. Camping was fun, Kalindi and I went to the Chobe River Lodge for lunch over looking the Chobe River and had a beer while viewing elephants from afar. It is one of those "pinch me I must be dreaming" type things. We met two awesome guys at the camp and hung out for the evening before retiring back to the tent...which is when things got weird. 

We accidentally forgot to bring Kalindi's leftovers with us into the tent so around 2am in the morning we woke up to animal sounds. Now, in Africa, "animal sounds" tend to be a lot more dangerous than they would be in the places that most people camp...like Sleeping Bear Dunes...or the beach. Having ruled out the Big 5 (Elephant, Lion, Water Buffalo, Rhino, Cheetah) I decided that at the very least it was a Monkey and at worst it was a Warthog...which would actually be a pretty bad thing if you know anything about Warthogs. We made some noise and punched at the tent wall and thought it may have gone away. After laying back down I felt something up against my leg...the leg that was on the far side of the tent. 

Kalindi swears she looked up to see a hand pushing into the side of the tent, all I know is that I started freaking out and trying to scare the thing away. It was after this we both realized we had to pee...which meant exiting the tent...

At this point I am going to have to stop because the library is closing which means I get no more internet. I'm going to post this little cliff hanger as is, and will add pictures and the rest of the stories to it on Friday. Thanks for tuning into this episode of "Crazy Stuff Claire Does in Africa" and I implore you to check back in, in a few days to hear exactly what happened when Kalindi and I left the tent!!!!