November 2006 Archives

Seeing as today is Thanksgiving in the U.S. I thought I would make a list of the things I am thankful for this year. We have many blessings, but these are the big ones:

• First, and foremost, I am thankful for Brian. He is my best friend and life partner. He is funny, smart, caring, ambitious, thoughtful and many more adjectives than I have words for. We push one another and support each other in our ambitions. I am certain that after making it through Peace Corps we will make it through anything.
• Secondly, I am thankful for our friends and families back in the States. Whether it’s packages, cards, pictures of nieces and nephews or phone calls we are constantly receiving love and support from them.
• I am also thankful for our Peace Corps family. We have made many lasting friendships here that are too many to name (especially for fear of leaving somebody out!) Brian and I are traveling to Maun on Friday to celebrate Thanksgiving and our friends this weekend at Dave and Wendy’s house. I have been looking forward to this since last year when we missed the celebration. It is going to be awesome.
• I am thankful for this experience we call “Peace Corps.” Living and working in Botswana has been more of a roller coaster than I ever imagined. Work especially has been a struggle, but projects like the young women’s groups are very satisfying. I’ve also learned more about the technical aspects of my job than I could have hope for. What really makes me want to stay here forever is my love of our day-to-day routines – cooking dinner, cleaning the house, mowing the lawn, doing laundry, tending the garden and playing with kids in the neighborhood. There have been ups and downs, but altogether it has been incredibly rewarding.
• I am thankful for simple luxuries like running (hot) water and electricity; ice in the freezer; internet access and air conditioning in the office; our choice of three grocery stores (with a fourth on the way) in Molepolole; and occasionally finding treats like plain potato chips, Snickers or Pepsi.
• I am thankful for our opportunities to travelwhile living here. We’ve visited places here that I would never have dreamed of while living in the U.S. Our trips so far have included the Kuru Dance Festival, the Okavango Delta, Elephant Sands, Cape Town, Victoria Falls, Planet Baobab and Namibia. After Maun this weekend, we’ll return to Elephant Sands for Christmas, travel to Kasane for the New Year and then to Mozambique in January. Traveling is definitely a big highlight of Peace Corps.

Brian and I have been super busy these days preparing for World AIDS Day (WAD) commemorations. Okay, Brian is super busy and I’m just on the sidelines helping out. Technically WAD is celebrated on December 1st, but the schools in Botswana start summer break this Friday so the date of celebrations has been moved up in many villages.

Last Friday WAD was celebrated in Kopong where our friend Libby lives. Kopong’s WAD was a big deal because it was also the launch of a project Brian has been working on called “Zebras4Life Test4Life.” The project is the brainchild of two PCVs who thought of using players from the national soccer team (the Zebras) as role models for HIV testing and behavior change. The PCVs pitched the idea to the Katherine Canavan, U.S. Ambassador to Botswana who loved it and agreed to provide funding. Brian is on the committee of PCVs involved in planning the details of the project and, since we are close to Gabs, has become more heavily involved because he can attend most of the meetings.

There are two stages to the Zebras4Life Test4Life project: the first stage was launched in Kopong on Friday and that is increasing the visibility of Zebra players as role models for HIV testing and behavior change. You should have heard the excitement from the audience when the players were introduced. It was like they were rock stars with everyone going crazy. Of course it was all in Setswana so I didn’t understand anything they said. One player gave a longer speech, but all four players that were there said something. It was great.

The second stage will be the introduction of bracelets like those from the Lance Armstrong Foundation. The bracelets will be given to people who test at Tebelopele Voluntary Counselling and Testing Centres. They’ll be Botswana blue and have “Zebras4Life Test4Life” imprinted on them. (I’ve seen a mock-up of the design and they are going to be so cool. I’m tempted to go to Tebelopele just so I can have one. ) This stage will hopefully be launched early next year.

As a side note, let me brag about Brian for a minute. I wanted to say that this project really illustrates what Brian has accomplished as a PCV. Being on the District level he has access to a lot of resources and he is always looking for ways to mobilize those resources to benefit PCVs in the district. Funding for my Young Women’s Empowerment Project is one example. Launching Zebras4Life Test4Life in Kopong is another. The committee could have launched the project anywhere but since Brian was in the meeting and knew what events were happening in our District he was able to be an advocate for launching in Kopong. There are not many PCVs on the District level who are able to accomplish what Brian has. What contributes to Brian’s success is that he has a great counterpart who is easy to work with and respected within her own circles. The other major part of his success is that Brian is so respected by everyone he works with that they’ll do just about anything he suggests. That’s the result of a lot of patience and hard work on Brian’s part.

This week was the final training workshop for the young women’s empowerment project. They are now fully trained peer educators who have activities planned for the next several months. I cannot tell you what a relief it is to be finished. I mean there is still so much information that I want to give the girls but ultimately I knew that I needed to draw the line somewhere and let them get started. We’ll work out the kinks as they come up.

The income generating project is also getting off the ground. In mid-October we had mini-meetings where I taught the girls how to varnish the beads (we didn’t have time when we had the IGA workshop in September because they have to dry overnight) and distributed the materials to get started. In the week between that meeting and the start of our training workshop one of the girls from Mogoditshane sold five necklaces. I was so excited about that. I haven’t distributed the fabric yet because there is a pretty good chance that the DMSAC will purchase a sewing machine for each group. With sewing machines of course they products will turn out just that much better so I’m holding on to the fabric we get that figured out.

Our next big event is “graduation”, a.k.a. giving the girls certificates printed from work. Brian has negotiated it so we can give the girls their certificates at our District’s World AIDS Day commemoration to be held November 24th. At first I was surprised how excited the girls were when I told them what was going to happen. When I thought about it, however, I realized that I shouldn’t be surprised that the girls want to be recognized for what they are doing in front of a large crowd. The idea that participating in this is an honor for them is a highlight of the project altogether for me.