February 2007 Archives

As some of you may know my young women empowerment groups have been doing an income generating project called "Botshelo Beads." It's necklaces and earrings made with beads rolled from magazine paper. The beads are so cool because they're colorful and unique. I have even enjoyed rolling a few myself to experiemtn with colors, textures, etc.

Anyway we have been making so many beads these days that we are running low on our supply of magazines. (I've actually gone through my stacks of old Oprah magazines and pulled out the good pages, that's how desperate we are!) So, I thought I would put the word out to anyone reading this that if you maybe have stacks of old magazines that you don't know what to do with, we'd happily take them off your hands. There could even be a Botshelo Bead surprise for anyone willing to send us a few. Oprah's, Martha Stewart and photography magazines are always a goldmine, but anything you have sitting around would be useful. Contact me via email if you're interested. Thanks!

P.S. The title "Re kopa magazines" is Setswana for "We're asking for magazines" (Ke kopa would be I'm asking for) I like using "Re/ke kopa" because it just seems more polite than saying, "I want, I want, I want!"

We interrupt this blog about life as a PCV to bring you this advertisement:

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Cathy Zielske http://cathyzielske.typepad.com,
Stacy Julian http://stacysbigpicture.typepad.com, and
Freakonomics Blog http://www.freakonomics.com/blog

Had to get that off my chest. Google Reader has changed the way I'm online. It's briliant. Enjoy!

When we return to the U.S. and think of our time in Botswana I will think of basketball. Brian, I think, has written a little here about coaching a basketball team at the sports complex (stadium) in Moleps. I’d say that basketball has consumed a majority of the weekday early evenings in our time here. It started with him going to the stadium to coach just a couple days a week and play tennis with me the other days. Then he’d say that he was going to play tennis but once we arrived at the stadium he’d immediately be drawn to the court, leaving me to play tennis on my own. Now the season is over and he goes nearly every day just to play. I’m not complaining, though, because I love how much Brian loves it. He is a natural athlete and coach. Even I, a total lay person, can see an improvement in the guys who have been coming consistently for the time we’ve been here. There is an arc in their shots instead of a straight line, the players line up and complete drills with ease instead of the chaos that ensued when Brian introduced a new drill. It’s a nice reward after all the time and energy Brian has put into the team.

So the other day I saw an albino kid walking on the street with a group of other kids – probably coming from school. He stuck out amongst the group a lot, and it really hit home for me how much Brian and I continue to stick out. You see, I think that most of the time Brian and I feel like we’re fitting in pretty well here. Brian, especially, because he has learned Setswana so well and has many friends in the village. People at work treat us like everyone else – for good and for bad. I guess I thought that at some point, when we’d been here long enough, we would start “fitting in.”

Still, when I sit down and think about it there are reminders that we don’t “fit in” all the time. The albino kid was a kind of obvious reminder. People hawking goods on the bus automatically narrow in and harass us more than others about buying something – that’s a small reminder. Kids jump up and down in their yards yelling, “Hi! Hi! Hi!” when we pass on our bikes – even though we come by several times a week – is a small reminder.

Like I said, I thought that when we’d been here long enough we would start to “fit in.” Ultimately because of the color of our skin will always stick out. In a lot of day-to-day ways, however, we are definitely fitting in. Learning to work and make friends in another culture is something that comes with the territory of Peace Corps service and I think it's something we continue to grow from and are becoming better people through.

A photo diary of Zebres for Life--Test for Life was featured on the PEPFAR website. PEPFAR stands for the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. Basically, it is the umbrella for all U.S. funding to prevent new HIV infections and care for those infected and affected by the pandemic in target countries. Botswana is one such PEPFAR country.

I’ve had this idea for awhile to write an “Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life in Botswana” – alphabetized entries discussing the stuff that makes up our existence here. I cannot claim credit for the idea. First of all I was inspired by scrapbooker-extraordinaire Cathy Zielske and reading about her album track at CKU-A last year called “Encyclopedia of Your Ordinary Life.” The class preparation materials I downloaded from the Creating Keepsakes website inspired me to purchase a copy of her inspiration - Amy Krause Rosenthal’s book Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life. Like Cathy, the book changed the way I look at what I want to document and scrapbook about my life. (Not to mention it’s a very fun read!) I will eventually make a full-fledged scrapbook, but in the meantime I thought I’d start sharing some of the entries here. I hope to post at least once a week. Today we’ll start with the letter “A.”

ACRONYMS
The world of HIV/AIDS, especially in Botswana, has an entire language of acronyms. Most publications and reports will have a list of acronyms at the beginning so that everyone is on the same page. Just the other day I received a letter saying that the MOH (Ministry of Health) is undertaking a study to evaluate the capacity of NGOs (Non-Governmental Organizations), CBOs (Community Based Organizations) and FBOs (Faith Based Organizations) to undertake VCT (Voluntary Counseling and Testing) services. Considering how wordy writing that all out would be, you almost can’t blame people for picking up on acronyms.

In my opinion, the three most common acronyms n Botswana are PLWHAs (People Living with HIV/AIDS); PEPFAR (President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) and ACHAP (African Comprehensive HIV/AIDS Partnership; a partnership between Merck and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.) Then there’s the “national response structure” starting with NACA (National AIDS Coordinating Agency); MLG (Ministry of Local Government) and within MLG is ACU (AIDS Coordinating Unit). Then there’s DMSAC (District Multi-Sectoral AIDS Committee); DAC (District AIDS Coordinator); and VMSAC (Village Multi-Sectoral AIDS Committee).

Because we’re in Botswana, many organizations start with BO– such as: BOCAIP (Botswana Christian AIDS Intervention Programs); BONASO (Botswana Network of AIDS Service Organizations); BONEPWA (Botswana Network of People Living With HIV/AIDS); and BONELA (Botswana Network on Ethics , Law and HIV/AIDS).

Celebrations have their own acronyms, most notably WAD (World AIDS Day) and MOYAA (Month of Youth Against AIDS). (Interestingly Month of Prayer is NOT abbreviated MOP.)

Finally, most of the national programs have acronyms: PMTCT (Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission); HBC (Home Based Care); S&CD (Social & Community Development); IPT (Isonazaid Preventative Therapy - for tuberculosis (TB)); ARVs/ARVT (Anti-Retrovirals/Anti-Retroviral Therapy); IEC (Information, Education and Communication); RHT (Routine HIV Testing); and VCT (Voluntary Counseling and Testing.)