January 2006 Archives

• Apartheid Museum at the Nelson Mandela Gateway on the V&A Waterfront: The museum by itself is just okay, but it is definitely worth a visit while waiting for your ferry to Robben Island. A lot of the interactive features weren’t working which I found really annoying. Once those features start working I think the museum has a lot of potential.


• Tour of Robben Island: This is a must! First they take you on a bus around the island, show you the rock quarry where Nelson Mandela and others worked, etc. The highlight of the visit is a tour of the maximum security prison with a former political prisoner. I wish that our tour guide had told us more personal stories, but it was still interesting to learn what life was like in the prison. You even get to see the cell where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned.

Phew! Now that we’ve had a few days to recuperate from our whirlwind trip to Cape Town I think I’m finally ready to start conquering how to tell you all about it.

First, an editorial: I’ve decided that Cape Town is my most favorite city in the world. It is everything you could ever ask for – a real city, with tall buildings and a pretty big population but it doesn’t feel overwhelmingly huge. You have mountains, beaches, outdoor activities galore. Good food, good shopping. You certainly don’t feel like you’re in Africa anymore, but it doesn’t feel like Europe either. A very unique experience, I highly recommend it!

Okay, that being said, the only way I could possibly cover everything is with the highlights of each day. We spent day one just driving around getting acquainted with the city. Here are the highlights:

1. Taking a wrong turn on our way to Lions Head and getting our first view of the ocean. It was spectacular!
2. Playing in the water on Camps Bay. We had friends tell us before we left that Cape Town isn’t much for swimming because of the wind and cold water, well they were right. That didn’t keep us from at least wading though!
3. Visiting Greenmarket Square and St. George’s Mall. I love shopping for crafts and these markets are right smack in the middle of the city. Great location.
4. Tried visiting Bloubergstrand Beach for the “classic view” of Table Mountain but it was so windy it felt like you were being sandblasted!
5. Dinner at Mexican Kitchen off Long Street. Best Mexican food I’ve had in Africa, yum!

P.S. Click on the picture if you want to see a bigger version.

We are back from Cape Town! It was unbelievable. Loved loved loved the city. We have tons to say about our trip but I'm too exhausted to even begin to process it. For now, you'll just have to live with my scheduled posts that didn't work while we were away. More to come!

I know that when we were getting ready to come last year clothing was one of my top concerns. I was working in an office where we dressed professionally nearly every day. For me that meant a lot of business suits. I think Peace Corps’ advice on clothes was something like “semi-professional” – what the heck does that mean? I knew suits were out of the question, but what exactly should I wear?

Let me say that I think the advice Peace Corps gives in the invitation literature is somewhat conservative. One volunteer in our training group brought only skirts because she thought that was the only acceptable thing for women to wear. Another volunteer I know picked up on the “no sleeveless tops” and didn’t bring a single thing without sleeves. Neither of these extremes is necessary. While wearing business suits and pumps to work is not required, you do need to dress in a way that will garner respect from others. I do not believe it is possible to dress too conservatively here, but by all means don’t let that keep you from bringing your sleeveless tops and slacks. 

Most of the people in my office (the District Health Team) are promoted nurses so they wear their nursing uniform (e.g. navy blue or white dresses. Most of the nurses who work in my office do not wear slacks, but I do know several who work in clinics that do.) The women administrators in my office (who are not nurses) wear what Peace Corps appropriately pegged as semi-professional clothing – slacks or skirts with nice tops.

In general I would probably categorize work appropriate clothing as “business casual.” DAC volunteers should probably lean more towards the business side while NGO and CCB volunteers can probably get away leaning more towards casual. I usually wear cropped khaki pants or a skirt with a nice t-shirt or button up shirt. That is probably leaning towards “casual” but I fit in just fine. If I need to dress up I usually wear a skirt. The only thing I would change is if I had known that I’d be working in an office I probably would have brought a nice pair of slacks.

Maybe it’s just me, but it is important to remember that you will have time outside of “work.” Just about anything is appropriate outside of work. Shorts, jeans, ratty t-shirts, tank tops – all are fine. Wow, that was easy. :)

Okay, I’m running out of time. As always, I'd love to answer any specific questions you have. I'll also write more later about shoes. I’ve got lots of opinions on shoes!

One of the best things about not owning a television is that we end up listening to a lot of music. We have over 12 gigs of music saved on our computer so one of my favorite things to do is open up Windows Media Player, go to All Music and play everything shuffled together. When we do this we end up listening to a lot of Nirvana, Metallica and Indigo Girls (some of our long-time music favorites so we have a lot of their albums.) Since coming to Botswana we’ve accumulated some new music from friends and family, here are some of my favorites:

• From the Ground Up by Antigone Rising: I am generally a sucker for music by women who play the guitar (e.g. one of my all-time favorite groups is the Indigo Girls). I first heard about Antigone Rising on an Amazon.com promotional CD and was able to get a copy from a friend here who picked it up at Starbucks in the U.S. They have a great sound – some country and a lot of rock influences. They don’t really fit in a category at all. I especially love how the first two songs – Hello and Waiting, Watching, Wishing –flow together seamlessly. It took me a few listens before I figured out they were two separate songs.
• Songs for Silverman and Rockin’ the Suburbs by Ben Folds: Ben Folds has been around a while but I just recently discovered him. I read a good review of Songs for Silverman in a magazine and then Ken happened to include it in a music DVD he sent us. Then I was able to get a copy of Rockin’ the Suburbs from a fellow PCV. I was in love immediately. (Plus, like women who play the guitar, I’m a sucker for anyone who plays the piano. See Coldplay below.) I can’t say in enough words how talented I think he is. Some of my favorite songs include: Gracie (makes me want to name my first daughter Gracie just so I can sing the song to her), Landed (especially the strings version at the end of Songs for Silverman), Luckiest (brings me close to tears every time I hear it) and Rockin’ the Suburbs (just makes me laugh!)
• X&Y by Coldplay: Man I love Coldplay. They have such a unique sound. Plus, I can hardly resist a group that includes the piano. I want to say that X&Y is their best album yet, but it pains me to put A Rush of Blood to the Head and Parachutes in second or third place. I love to listen to all three albums shuffled together because every album Coldplay has done is pure genius.
• The Mamas and The Papas 20th Century Masters Greatest Hits: There is something sentimental to me about The Mamas and the Papas. We must have listened to their music a lot while I was growing up. I love that the women sing in a key low enough that I can sing along. My favorite sing along song: California Dreamin’. I’ll listen to it on repeat a few times so I can sing along to all the parts. How silly is that? This album is a perfect collection for someone like me who is not an über-fan but loves all the classics.

Peace Corps must be sending out invitations for the next training group because we’ve had four emails in as many days from new PCTs who will be arriving in April. The training group in April will have a combination of all three programs in Botswana: District AIDS Coordinators, Community Capacity Building and NGO Development. We love answering questions from future PCVs because we emailed with a couple of volunteers before we left and their advice was invaluable. I decided to start this series of posts “Getting Ready for Peace Corps” to address a lot of the frequently asked questions. Brian and I are also each working on posts about our jobs that will hopefully answer some of the questions we get about our work.

So, today we’ll start with everything electronic – computers, blogging, MP3 players, internet acess, etc.

On Monday we leave for a 7 day/8 night trip to Cape Town with four other PCVs – Scott, Suzie and Fallon. Originally it was Scott, Suzie, Rachel, Brian and I who planned the trip and we added Fallon around Thanksgiving. It’s a good thing Fallon decided to come because now Rachel was really sick this week and decided that gallivanting off on vacation after being so sick wasn’t a great idea.

Everyone going has been so excited for a very long time. Fallon’s been counting down the days since a month before. When Brian and I were on our way to Nata for Christmas Fallon sent me a text message with the number of days left before leaving. I told Brian and he said, “Sounds like Cape Town is the new Christmas.” This immediately gave me the idea of doing a “12 Days to Cape Town” countdown. Every day since January 4th I’ve sent out a text message with the number of days left and a “Cape Town Tip of the Day.” It’s been a fun way to build excitement – not that we really needed it!

The Molepolole Branch Library received a dozen new titles from Gibbs Smith Publishers to add to its circulation. The books were accepted with great enthusiasm this morning by the Assistant Library Officer on behalf of the library and community. The donation featured a broad range of books, including those on leadership, business management, fun cooking ideas and children’s storybooks.

Molepolole Branch Library has a decent collection for a village in a “developing country” or however Botswana is categorized. Nevertheless, many of the library’s books are a few years old and it is in need of additional books that appeal to children and youth so it can foster a culture of reading in Molepolole. The library wants to significantly upgrade its collection, but must wait until it moves to a proposed larger building on the other side of the village. The donation from Gibbs Smith is timed to allow the library to add a few new books while it waits on its future relocation.

Gibbs Smith is a small publishing company named after its founder and headquartered in Layton, Utah. Its head offices are still located in a converted barn even though a few of their recent books made it onto the New York Times bestseller list. Gibbs Smith is most known for publishing textbooks, particularly various state histories.

I’ll just say upfront that this is not so much a product review as it is answers to common questions and advice for future Peace Corps volunteers considering whether or not to pack along a guitar. If you want to read something on the Martin LXM by a seasoned reviewer than I encourage you to check out ZZounds or do a little Google search of your own. My remarks on the Martin LXM appear near the end of this post.

Junior, Eric and Kgotla stopped by today to play with my guitar. A few weeks ago, Heather spotted the boys playing air guitar in the street. I ran and grabbed my guitar while Heather went and invited the boys over for a demonstration and quick lesson. Since then, the boys ask almost everyday if they can come and play the guitar. Today I game them a special treat by helping assemble a three-set complete with drums, harmonica and kazoo. It wasn’t very pleasant to listen to, but it was a lot of fun. The boys took turns rotating between instruments and experimented with different ways to make sounds.

Basimane is the Setswana word for boys (plural). Mosimane is the Setswana word for boy (singular).