June 2006 Archives

Botswana PCV Melody Jenkins was featured in a Daily News article today under the headline Nata website raises funds. This is the second national article on Nata's HIV/AIDS-related website, with the last appearing in the Mmegi on Thursday in an article titled Nata village gets website.

Melody came to Botswana in our training group in March 2005 and was assigned to this small village in northeastern Botswana on the main road between Maun and Francistown. Nata is most known for its white sand and palm trees and its proximity to the famed Makgadikgadi Pans (salt flats). You can visit the village's website at http://natavillage.typepad.com/ to see photos, video clips and latest happenings there.

In Setswana there are not separate pronouns for male and female. For example you say “O bidiwa _____________” for “His name is ______” or “Her name is _______.” A lot of people, therefore, have a hard time using the correct pronoun in English. For the most part if someone says she and I know they mean he I just ignore the confusion.

So a few weeks ago I was at a clinic visiting the PMTCT Lay Counselor. Somehow in the course of the conversation it comes up that I need to meet with the Sister in Charge. “I haven’t met her before,” I say

“Do you know where his office is?” she asks. Now, I just assume she’s confusing the pronouns so I say, “No, I’ve never been to her office.”

Well sure enough the Sister in Charge is a man. It’s just the title used for the head nurse at a clinic – male or female. How was I supposed to know that?

I know that it’s been a while since we’ve posted anything on here. I’m sorry. Life just has this way of getting out of control. I’ve also noticed that I go through spurts. I’m either really good at responding to emails and write nothing here or I write a lot here and become really bad at responding to emails.

Of course I really don’t know where to start. To me it’s just life as usual here so I never know what I should be sharing with you all. My biggest project lately has been writing an annual report for PMTCT and Routine HIV Testing. Let me tell you just what a gigantic undertaking that all is. I’ve basically been working on it since April and will hopefully be finished by the end of this month. (I absolutely have to be done by the end of the month, because it’s also the end of the first quarter for the next fiscal year so I need to move on!) In the report I analyze all the major indicators for PMTCT for the whole district, then by region and on an individual facility level. We have almost 30 facilities in the district so that’s a huge project in itself. I also go through “writing moods.” Sometimes I’m really into writing and I just cruise along making a lot of progress. Then I get moody and start beating myself up for all the reporting problems I didn’t catch through the year. Or I’m angry at the fact that people just don’t know how to fill out the monthly report form when it’s really not that difficult. (Do people turn off their brain when they fill out the reports?) Then I feel like, why am I doing all this work? Does anybody really care? Needless to say when I’m moody I don’t get a lot of writing done. Anyway, the annual reports will be done by the end of the month and then I’m going to forget them.