Scary Story Continued!

Alright, so this is coming a lot later than I thought it would, and it also isn't going to have pictures until a later date, but I figured I have kept you in suspense for long enough!!!

We left off with our heroes (Kalindi and I) being trapped in our tent by some unknown creature and very much being in need of the bathroom. It is at this point in the story that Kalindi hands me the wine bottle, which is the closest thing we have to a blunt bludgeoning instrument, and says "you live here, which means you have to go out first." I can't really argue with the logic of this, I do live here, and ultimately it would just seem plain rude to have a guest be eaten by some hungry beast first. So I took the wine bottle, put on my shoes, and crouched at the tent entrance. After hitting the tent wall, and making ridiculous loud barking like noises (I can only image what all of this must have looked like from an outside the tent perspective) I unzipped the tent an half jumped, half tripped out into the wilderness, ONLY TO FIND!!!

Nothing, I found absolutely nothing...

After doing a once around the tent, I let Kalindi know the coast was clear and that it was okay to come out and we both ran to the bathroom. I am guessing, based on the fact that the thing had fingers, that it was probably a monkey. But we will never know will we? Maybe it was a Tokolosi?

The rest of the trip continued on relatively as planned, and I have to say that Victoria Falls is no less beautiful the second time around. This time we opted for a slightly less adrenalin filled, half day canoe trip. There was a bit of a troublesome bull hippo at the start (our guide was awesome, and we knew it was time to high tail it out of there when he calmly started repeating "okay, there is a hippo, we need to get to the center of the river...right now. Quickly!") but the rest of the day went swimmingly and we got to see the beautiful upstream view of the Zambezi.

After Vic Falls we made our way, with a series of pretty decent hitches, over to Maun to stay with the Ferguson's a couple of days. Maun is awesome, and to be honest it was just great to hang out in a house setting with wonderful people, sharing the responsibilities of making and eating wonderful food, and just shooting the breeze. It was so wonderful in fact, that we staid an extra day!

At this point in time, it was off to Ramokgonami, for about a week of hanging out in my village. I would love to say that there were a whole lot of adventures had at this point, but Rams is pretty laid back. We hung out, we hiked around a bit, and I introduced Kalindi to all of the wonderful people that make up my daily life here in Botswana. Sharing my house with people I love is a major point of awesomeness for me. I may not be the best house cleaner in the whole world but I like to think that I am a pretty gracious host. Showing off my home to Alex and Kalindi and Dana and anyone else that makes it out my side is a pleasure and I wish I had the opportunity to do it more often. Its times like that when I wish I lived in a major hub, but maybe if it happened all the time it wouldn't be as fun?

Kalindi leaving was horrible, she is going to be the last person from home to visit until my parents come in February, and though I tried to keep it together at the airport, it was incredibly difficult. Maybe someday I will post a little more about what her trip meant to me, but for now we will keep it at that.

Youth Empowerment Camp: For realz this time!

After Kalindi left I had a few weeks to get back into the swing of things, and then it was off to youth camp! As regular readers of this blog know, I helped put on a youth empowerment conference a few months ago, but it was much smaller than intended because of funding issues. Well we got funding! This time around the camp was at the Gweta Lodge, and we had about 25 campers, and four PCVs helping out. 

We did a ton of awesome workshops on identity, community mobilization, leadership and self confidence. We had a fashion show, talent show, and a movie night for evening activities. Everyone had an awesome time and I couldn't have been happier with how things shook out. I am hoping we can pull things together to do at least one more before the end of my service, and I plan to shoot even higher that time around. 

Mural Painting Part II

So the mural at this point consisted of a clean and primed wall, and two slightly agitated volunteers, which isn't exactly the end product we were looking for. So Dana came back up and we decided to finish her up! Chad (you remember him, the Beerlmpics champion?) also decided to come down and lend a hand, and I couldn't have been more thankful for it. 

Man did we kick some serious booty :)

We painted everyday for pretty much a week, with help coming in from random community member that were walking by, along with some of the primary and preschool kids and the creshe staff. It was hot, it was dry, and at times the paints were incredibly uncooperative, but in the end we persevered, and the fruits of our labor were oh so very sweet! (insert picture of mural here...later)

What is great about this whole project is we added to the beauty of the community by putting what people are most proud of into the mural itself. We did it with other community members and even though the creshe is off of the main road, the mural is so big and beautiful that people and cars passing by can see it from the road. As self centered as it may sound it is also nice to do projects like this because it is tangible proof that I was here, that I worked and made something that makes the community better. I can look at that mural and say "that wouldn't have happened without me" and there aren't may projects that I'm involved in that have that type of tangibility. But that is part of what we sign up for I guess. 

The mural finished up just in time for us to attend the community cultural day at the library, and even though the giant meal that Dana and I got in on wasn't for our mural specifically we decided to pretend that it was. We filled or bellies, chatted it up with community members, and then found Dana a lift back into town. I went home incredibly satisfied and only slightly exhausted. It was an amazing way to wrap up three months of crazyness. That whole circle of life, if you know what I mean.

New Projects in the Works

So there are a few new things that might be happening in the next couple of months, and I feel like if I write them up here, the universe will keep more more accountable for them. 

-SOP project for the clinic: I want to write a document that goes through different "stations" at the clinic, step by step, and lets the user know how much time it should take to complete each task. I think this will help for training new staff that come in when there is turn over. 

-Moringa: I actually started this one yesterday by planting a few of these on my compound, but I really want to start spreading the word about this amazing tree to the whole community. My hope is to get my hands on more seeds and then to give workshops on harvesting and uses a few times a month at the library/ clinic until most people know what they are doing. 

-STEPS Movie Nights: STEPS is a program that creates awesome movies, many of which are in the local languages, about certain health and social issues. The point is to watch a movie and then facilitate a discussion afterwards. I got the librarian to be on board with the idea of having a once a week movie night, sometimes STEPS and sometimes other entertaining media to keep people interested. I think this will not only be a great way to get community discussions going, but also a sneaky bit on getting more people to come to the library. 

-LeGeBiBo Documents: So I haven't been super open with my involvement with LEGABIBO here, but I want to post this because I am proud to be working with them and I don't want people to think any differently. LEGABIBO (Lesbians, Gays and Bisexuals of Botswana) is the only LGBT organization in Botswana which functions under the BONELA umbrella out of Gabs. I have been getting involved in a few of their projects and as they have begun to grow, I want to be able to make sure they have the structures needed to expand. That being said I am going to create some documents for them (grant requests, support group starter kits, resource lists) so they can more easily accommodate a growing movement. It may not be as exciting as the other projects, but I love it equally. 

-English Lessons: I have begun teaching English lessons at the primary school twice a week for the Standard 3s. These guys are a bit older than my preschoolers (8&9) and present a whole different bundle of challenges that I am looking forward to meeting. :)

There are a few more minor things in the works, but that is about it for now. I will post more, as more happen.

Plans for Life PPC (Post Peace Corps)

So these are a bit all over the place at this moment, but why not try and work them out of my head online for everyone to see?

At this point I have figured out that I am not going to stay an extra year...but that doesn't mean I won't apply for a 6 month extension. The current plan runs something like this: apply for 6month extension with LEGABIBO, probably get turned down because that job would involve a whole lot of politics (I 100% support Peace Corps stance on not getting involved with politics in any given country. It is what helps keep volunteers safe, and the organization legitimate), plan awesome COS trip to Southeast Asia, go on said trip, come home and readjust while looking for a job that can hold me down for about a year. After working said job for a year, find a more fulfilling job in a city and move there. See what happens after that. 

I would love to get involved with grassroots movements and I would love even more for that job to involve people, writing and activism. I am also painfully aware that I am not the only bleeding heart out there, and that these types of jobs have a lot of people competing for them, but that doesn't stop me from wanting it any less. I am not opposed to moving to Canada, and I think that everything works itself out in the end. 

At some point a few of you may be saying: "But Claire, when you left you said you were going to come back and go to graduate school!" and you would be right, I did say that....almost two years ago. 

I have figured out that I don't want to work in development all my life, and I can't thank peace corps enough for enlightening me on that one. I think activism is going to be more my thing, but there isn't exactly a graduate program for that. As it stands, the last thing I want to do is spend time and money on a Masters I won't use, so I am going to put it off for a while. Doesn't mean I won't come back, but if I do, I will be damn more certain of what I want than I am right now. 

In the case my 6 month extension is approved, I will move to Gabs and work for 6 months before doing the aforementioned plan only slightly later. As I said, I'm not thinking this is going to happen, but I am also not ruling it out. 

So I kind of have a plan...I guess? It just has a lot of holes...and unknown parts...and bits that aren't filled in. But what is the saying? 

"Men make plans and God laughs"

Will add some pictures later, hope this finds you all well :)

Claire