Claire Vs. Plumbing

Hello Adoring Fan Base!

It has been an interesting past few days and I thought it was high time to update you on all things Tlotlo! Firstly, I’m pretty sure I have quite the lobbyist working the Big G upstairs for me because even when things go wrong in my life, they tend to go pretty right, example: I came back to my house two days ago after a frustrating time in my clinic and had a little “adventure.”

It is my second day at work and I spent the whole time in the caravan waiting to either a.) go to Sefare to meet the hospital staff there or b.) be of any use to anyone at all…ever. I ended up brain storming projects and did actually have a brief but insightful chat with the lay counselor about issues within the community. That aside, I was still pretty frustrated, so when I got home I had ZERO patience left to deal with the fact that my sink was making a high pitched squealing noise.

Let me fill you in on my bathroom/ dishwashing/ laundry room. It is the only room in the house that has water, and so it tends to get the most action in my everyday goings on. The toilet leaks out of either the handle or the bottom part of the tank, or possibly both. The faucet is lose so if it is turned even a little off center it starts to whistle. The pipe leading to the sink is funky, so it also leaks and occasionally whistles. There is a cricket living somewhere within all those drippy pipes and right around 7:30pm at night it starts to make its little cricket noise and doesn’t stop until around 5am. Normally, none of this would be an issue, but since the wall between my bathroom and my bedroom doesn’t reach the ceiling this cacophony of sound gently rocks me like a hurricane to bed every night. I had come to deal with all of these things though since I realize, as a Peace Corps Volunteer, I have it very plush and lovely compared to some. I had even begun to figure out what I affectionately called “the dance of the toilet” meaning the back and forth of me putting a used yogurt container below the tank to catch the dripping water, and then putting it back into the tank so there was enough suction to flush.

But today I was just not having it.

Me being me, I got out my leatherman and faced the singing sink head on. Let me preface this by saying my plumbing skills consist of identifying a leak and then calling a plumber. I attempt to tighten the bolt that connects the main pipe to the flexible cord that leads to the tap, and after one twist the sound had quieted a bit. I thought to myself “Go me! I rock, I could totally be a plumber, this is not that hard at all.” So I twisted it again, and again the sound lessened. After another lengthy pat on the back I went for one more twist…oh lordy pants, why didn’t I stop at two? The pipe freaked the heck out and began spewing water all over my bath/dish/laundry room at a rate I had not previously thought possible in Africa. I freaked the hell out and attempted to “untwist” the bolt (people, you cannot untwist what has been twisted) and the thing began exploding.

I run outside my house just in time to find my kindly old landlady walking back from her job teaching pre-schoolers. I explain to her what is happening with wild hand gestures, in a pitch that is a few octaves higher than a preteen at a Backstreet Boys concert, with some crock story about how I was “just washing my hands.” She smiles at me… and asks how my day at the clinic was. My reply was something like:

“Itwasgreatbutcanyoupleasecomeandseethebathroomitisexploding”

She takes her sweet time coming into the house and then laughs and ambles out to turn the water off, at which point the leak has devoured my bathroom and started flowing into the kitchen. Then, and get this, she begins to mention how worried she is that I won’t be able to bath tonight (it’s “bath” here, not “bathe”) and tells me to go about what I was doing so that she can mop up the mess. If I knew how to say “angel” in Setswana I would have called her that. After repeated wave offs of me asking if I could help in what I like to call “Setswinglish” she cleans the floor, calls a plumber, runs out to get the part that is needed and wishes me goodnight. 

NOT ONLY, does my faucet pipe not squeak anymore but the plumber saw my yogurt cup and the rust lines and said he would come back to fix that this weekend, which Mma Monyatsi said was great, since it was overdue that this bathroom have a checkup. I’m also pretty sure that the tidal wave may have taken out the nasty little Pavaratti that sang me to sleep every night. Claire 1; Plumbing/Cricket 0.   

As an aside, I will be taking pictures of my house and the village and adding them to the blog super soon, so watch out!

More to come, much love to all,
Claire

Cha-cha-cha-cha-changes!

It hit me yesterday how much my life has changed in the past couple of months. I thought you guys might get a kick out of some of the comparisons:

-Saturday night 6 months ago: go out to the bar/ a party with some friends, maybe find a place to sing a little karaoke, have a few drinks, come home around 2am, and go to bed.

-Saturday night Bots: go to the local bar, have one beer (two if I am feelin fancy), walk over to Nate’s house to watch him kill a chicken, get home before dark (around 6:30pm), watch a Disney movie in bed, and go to sleep

-Taking a walk 6 months ago: head out with my dog and go where ever I want, generally get ignored by anyone I didn’t know, maybe wave to the neighbors.

-Taking a walk in Bots: walk somewhere along the main road, get constantly pointed at by small children and cat called by drunken men; attempt Setswana but then switch to English when people only laugh in reply.

-Food 6 months ago: I could eat anything under the sun depending on what I was craving. Thai, Chinese, Greek, Italian, seafood, sushi, burger, anything I wanted and get it within an hour of wanting it.

-Bots food: I can have anything I want as long as I want some combination of chicken or beef, rice or noodles or sorgum, carrots, potatoes, onions and tomatoes. Now that I am a vegetarian you can exclude the beef and chicken.

-Tactics to get people to show up to your party 6 months ago: tell them there will be a dj and a keg

-Tactics to get people to show up to your party in Bots: tell them you have a toilet and some floor space to crash on

-Things that excited me 6 months ago: leaving for Botswana, a night on the town, dressing up for a date, family game night, a trip to the cottage, a new movie coming out

-Things that excite me in Bots: cheese, toilets, hot water, internet access. 

-Concerns 6 months ago: what am I going to do after college, how am I going to maintain my relationship, how am I going to get enough money for graduate school, how am I going to find a good job.

-Concerns in Bots: how am I going to get to my shopping village to get food, if the water goes out do I have enough stored up, how many kettles of hot water do I want to heat in order to take a warm bath, how long can I go without a bath before the locals start noticing.

-Ways to blow off steam 6 months ago: put on my favorite tunes, dance around the kitchen while cooking up something tasty

-Ways to blow off steam in Bots: put on my favorite tunes, dance around the kitchen while cooking up something tasty.

The reason I threw in the last one was because at the end of the day, I may be changing but I am also still very much the same person I was when I left the states. My physical expectations may have changed, and my day to day needs have certain changed, but the things that make me happy, and the moments that bring joy to my life and a smile to my face, are still very much the same. In fact many things that wouldn’t have brought a giant smile to my face (toilets) now do, because my expectations for how I function are different. 

My life is both significantly more simple and significantly more complicated all in one go. I think something important to remember while serving in Peace Corps, not everything has to change, and not everything will.

Much love,

Tlotlo

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

Pictures!

Hello everyone! I will try and post more later but I realized it is faster to load pictures here than on facebook. More to come!

My new haircut!!!

Me finding out that I am going to be shadowing in Dutlwe

Some primary students from Dutlwe

Me showing you my fabulous new buff (thanks Mom and Dad :) )

Ryan and Boo making our submission to the cooking competition

We made "peanut sauce" with veggies :)

My placement in Kanye, Botswana

Our volunteer map

A lady pounding millet, she was much better at is than the volunteers that tried (no offense Mignon)

A slightly more dramatic way to pound millet, there is a song that goes with this

Spreading cow dung on the floor of the meeting place in order to deter snakes

The traditional dancers that we saw at the cultural village

My host home!

The training center

Walking home from the training center and down to the "mall"

More walking home

New haircut! (again)

The lodge we stayed at during our first night in country

My host bedroom

Jobs

I finally got to meet up with my counterparts! Another pro to being in Kanye is that since they are so close I was actually able to meet both of my counterparts whereas all the other NGO volunteers who are working with two organizations only got to meet up with one. Both of them seem pretty chill and though there wasn’t a whole lot of time to talk to either one of them (there was an issue with accommodations on the part of the Peace Corps and putting up the counterparts, so there was this very dramatic negotiation secession in the middle of the day that took up a lot of time) it was still nice to put in my mind two faces that I am going to be working with for the next two years.

So let me lay things out for you a bit; BOFWA (Botswana Family Welfare Association) is going to be my “primary” assignment. I don’t exactly know what this means since by the sounds of things I am going to be splitting my time equally, and BORNUS (Botswana Retired Nurses Association) is actually the organization that found my house. BOFWA does a million different projects within the community, including: going to schools to give presentations on sexual reproductive health, running clubs for teenagers on a myriad of different health topics, and they also do the occasional home visit for HIV positive clients. They have six major offices around the country and there are actually three of us working for them (Trevor is working in Maun, and Emily is working in Francis Town.)

BORNUS does a lot of home based care which is going to be really amazing for me since I am going to get personal experience one on one with individuals living with HIV/AIDS. They have also been trying to get some educational talks at local schools off the ground but have been having issues getting schools to respond to them, so I am hoping I can help out with that.

My counterparts (the Motswana that are my partners while on the job) both seem very relaxed and I was happy that they were willing to take my suggestions when it comes to scheduling. Mon & Tue I will be working with BORNUS and Wed & Thurs I will be working with BOFWA. I will have Fridays as a “flex day” meaning that I could either go into whatever office I need to get some extra work done in, or I could use that time to focus on my secondary project. I think it is going to work out really well, and I am excited to hit the ground running. 

Much love, 

Claire/ Tlotlo 

BIRTHDAY UPDATE!

Ladies and gentleman, boys and girls, I have made it to Botswana! Sorry it has been such a long time since I was able to update but the internet here is a bit shaky and up to this point I have only had access through an internet café, in half hour slots, on Saturdays. I am crossing my fingers that now that we are entering week 4, I will be able to have some access at the Education Center on a regular basis.

So let me fill you in on all things Botswana. We arrived in Gaborone after a cumulative 20 some hours on the plane to be ushered into the wonderful and fabulous Big 5 Lodge. We only got to stay for one night but it was so wonderful to sleep in a bed instead of having to adjust myself into the upright position while attempting sleep. I have to say though, with my first walk around money from Peace Corps I bought one of those funky little neck pillows and it 100% made all the difference in my ability to be able to sleep on the plane. For those of you looking to travel long distances who don’t have one yet, just do it, it’s totally worth whatever you end up spending.

Anyhoo, we pretty much hit the ground running. At the Lodge we received our phones, mosquito nets and around 5 hours of debriefing. The next day we loaded the bus for Kanye and went straight to our “Matching Ceremony” in order to meet our new families for the next two months. I know this may be slightly baised but I got the best family ;) My host mother, Bonolo and my host brother, Tebo, live in the house and then I have two host sisters, Lame and Tshiamo, who don’t live in Kanye. Bonolo was unable to be at the matching ceremony but upon coming home that night exclaimed “where is my new daughter?!?” and I knew things were going to be just fine. I have been completely welcomed into the family and my mother introduces me as her daughter at any events we go to, and I think the vast majority of people we meet find this hilarious. Our house is equipped with running water, electricity and a toilet and is only a 10min walk from the training center. This is both awesome and a little unnerving, since my site placement could still be out in the middle of nowhere in which case many of the things I need to know how to do will be new to me. I guess I will cross that bridge when I come to it. 

As you can image getting used to Botswana has been a lot of ups and downs; not only Botswana herself but also life as a Peace Corps Volunteer. I have learned a few things:

·         White vinegar will take soap out of your hair and clothing and also works wonders as a meat tenderizer.

·         “You’re fat” and “you’re beautiful” can be said on the same breath in Botswana without any offense and are often followed by “marry me.”

·         The Batswana are generous and kind people on the whole and seem to find no greater delight than for a slow talking Lekoga (English/ white person) to attempt Setswana. Even if you totally botch it they are just happy you tried in the first place.

·         Personal space is a remarkably fluid concept in Botswana, and if the lady standing behind you in line at the electricity post wants to continuously hit you with her umbrella because she is standing close enough for her boobs to be on your back, so be it

·         When a Motswana says they want sugar in their tea or coffee, it means 6-8 spoon fulls, not 2

·         Possible road hazards: goats, chicken, dogs, cows and donkies…lots and lots of donkies

·         A Peace Corps staff member would rather have bamboo shoots hammered under their fingernails than divulge any scrap of information about your site placement before the site ceremony

·         It is not a Botswana ceremony unless there is singing and prayer

·         Africa, and the pace of life here, can be addicting

As it may be apparent by now, I am having a pretty smooth time adjusting. I do miss home, I do miss friends and family, and I do miss that certain level of comfort you can only really achieve within your own territory. That being said though, I am happy to be slowly stripping myself of the need to be on my turf and I think that will serve me well as a citizen of the world.

We are almost at our 1 month mark for training, and in two weeks I will find out where my site placement is going to be. After that it will be another 4-5 weeks of training before I am sent off for community integration period, more commonly referred to among volunteers as “lockdown.” This period will last for 2 months after which I will have IST (in service training) and then settle into life as a working volunteer. For those of you with the means, that will also be the time when I am allowed to have visitors, and if you have any desire to come to Africa, Botswana should be on your list of places to go.

With all the language, cross cultural and safety and security training as well as the occasional out of class room experiences (we did a whole lesson on perma-gardening on Saturday) I have been very busy. I’m enjoying my life as a volunteer thus far and at this point am just anxious to start the real work. My fellow trainees are wonderful and I am learning a lot.

More to come soon (hopefully)

Much love,

Claire/ Tlotlo ß My new Setswana name, it means “Respect”

Quickie

Hey everyone!

I only have 5 mins left on my internet cafe time. Just wanted to let everyone know that after the first 3 weeks of PST I am having a wonderful time and I hope I will have internet sometime soon in order to post a more detailed blog post about life here in Botswana. At some point I am also going to post a list of things I might be craving in your standard care package. For those of you that may be writing letters now, if you wanted to sneak a pack of taco seasoning in with your standard letter, I would appreciate the heck out of it.

I love and miss you all bunches, and hope this post finds you happy and healthy (I sure as heck am!)

~Claire/ Tlotlo (new Setswana name, means Respect)

I'M IN AFRICA!! Tehehehe :)

Hello Wonderful People of the Blog, 

I just wanted to send everyone a quick hello and let people know that I arrived in Gaborone safely a few hours ago. Staging went really well and the group I am traveling with are just an excellent collection of individuals. We are all so passionate about what we are doing and everyone comes from such a wide variety of backgrounds and experience. I could not be happier with the situation I am in currently.

We went from Philly to JFK at 3am, only to get to the airport to realize that the gate we needed to check in at wasn't open until 7:30am. Apparently this is a relatively common practice for Peace Corps, since every volunteer we have met in country has told us to get used to a lot of waiting. After getting 45 people checked in, and bags tagged, we hung around the airport until our 10:30am boarding time. I lucked out majorly on the flight since I was, not only on an aisle seat, but also had two empty seats between me and the next person. I bought one of those little neck pillows and had as decent as flight as one can have for 15 hours in an enclosed space. 

We hung out at the Johannesburg airport for about 6 hours after landing and all played games, walked around, got to know each other and napped on the floor. After a quick 50min flight across the boarder I landed safely in Gaborone (pronounced: Ha-bore-onie) and checked into the lodge. We met with our country director, had dinner, and hung out with some currently serving volunteers who came to meet us at the airport. We also found out we will be taking in 3 volunteers from Mali this weekend, since the country has officially been evacuated and they are looking to reassign the volunteers. Heading to bed under a mosquito net tonight (though the bugs have not been bad at all, I want to get used to the feeling) and then waking up tomorrow nice and early to travel to Kanye where I will be training for the next 2 months. I will also be meeting my host family! 

So that is pretty much how my first two days in Africa have been. I am still a bit jumpy from nerves but so far the experience has been excellent and I can't wait to see what tomorrow will bring. Since we will be starting training this may be my last post for at least two weeks, but I will try and work something out to stay in touch.

Smooches, 

Claire

Night Before

Finally the night has come, the one that I have known since the start of all this was going to be the hardest. The mix of emotions is hard to put into words but it something like the urge to cry, scream, throw up, jump around, run laps, kick, punch, dance all at the same time. It is almost too much for my system to handle but I know it will all be better once I can just get on the plane and focus on the task ahead. It is not the "going to" that is creating this mixed bag of emotions, it's the "leaving from." My family, my friends, my comfort zone, my favorite foods, my music, my ability to transport myself freely around where ever I damn well want at any given time...my toilet...all these things that I have grown to take for granted in my life and now I have to go and see what life is like without them.

I'm scared, and I think that anyone that is at the point that I am at right now and isn't feeling the same hasn't thought about how much of a game changer this all is. My family and friends have been so amazingly supportive and wonderful and kind and caring and fabulous and I can't even begin to say how much I love them and how blessed I feel to have them in my life. They are amazing beyond words and I am going to miss them more than would be possible to describe.

I'm going to try and pass out now, get a few winks before waking up and heading off to philly. Will try and update when I can.

See you on the other side ;)

Love,
Claire 

My Timeline

We had an open house for some friends and neighbors yesterday night, and as a mini-project beforehand I decided I would type up a timeline of important dates, thought it may be helpful for people looking at applying to see my whole process rolled into one. 

Claire’s Peace Corps Timeline
    -November 15^th, 2010: I start my primary online application
    -December 2010: I submit my application
    -January 19^th, 2011: I submit fingerprints and primary skill documentation
    -January 31^st, 2011: Peace Corps (PC) Interview
    -February 1st, 2011: Nominated for a Sub-Saharan Africa placement with the Health Extension program  to be leaving in the fall
    -February 2011: Receive medical packet
    -April 12^th, 2011: Get all clear from the doctor’s office
    -May 23^rd, 2011: Send all needed paperwork, shots, x-rays and history files into the PC office in DC
    -June 6^th, 2011: PC grants me dental clearance
    -June 7^th, 2011: PC informs me that my original training group for the fall is full and that because of federal budget cuts they are putting all new nominations on hold.
    -June 21^st, 2011: PC begins a medical review of my file
    -June 27^th, 2011: Asked to submit additional paperwork for a secondary medical review
    -July 5^th, 2011: Discover I have a blood clot in my right leg after family vacation
    -July 9^th, 2011: I am told by PC that because of budget cuts I will not be leaving until somewhere around January of 2012.
    -August 1st, 2011: I submit the second round of medical paperwork
    -August 4^th, 2011: I’m medically cleared to serve
    -August 11^th, 2011: My file is moved to the placement office
    -August 21st, 2011: My undergraduate degree in Comparative Cultures and Politics is conferred from Michigan State University. 
    -September 22^nd, 2011: I have my placement interview
    -October 6^th, 2011: I am told that I have an invitation and my kit is in the mail!
    -October 11^th, 2011: I receive my invitation to serve in South Africa as HIV/AIDS Prevention and Mitigation volunteer departing January 23^rd, 2012
    -November 29^th, 2011: I am put on medical hold for a blood clot
    -December 19^th, 2011: I am officially removed from the South African training group
    -January 27^th, 2011: I see a specialist and he clears me to go off meds
    -February 8^th, 2011: I receive word that a second invitation is in the mail!!
    -February 13^th, 2011: I receive my second invitation to serve as an NGO Capacity Building volunteer in Botswana J
    -February-April: Preparation to leave, throw fabulous party!
    -April 10^th, 2012: Leave for Philly

April 11^th, 2012: Leave for Kanye, Botswana to serve as a United States Peace Corps Volunteer until June 10^th, 2014

So there it all is, lined up and pretty. This has been quite the journey and I haven't even gotten on a plane yet!

~Claire