Recently in Heather Category

I'm going to let the picture do the talking on this one. All I'm going to add is that Botswana has the most amazing sunsets. Especially out in the villages. They pass quickly but they're almost always brilliant like this.

Have you seen the first episode in the BBC series Planet Earth? One of the major story lines features water coming into the Okavango Delta in Botswana. I love that episode. (And if you haven't seen the entire Planet Earth series go out and watch it. Right now!)

The Delta (as we called it for short) is one of the most amazing places I've seen in my life. This picture is just from the edge of it, taken at Swamp Stop in Sepopa. We were so lucky to be able to visit a couple of times during our Peace Corps service.

In pre-service training you learn all about "community entry" - basically the process of becoming accepted among the people you live and work with. As part of our community entry strategy Brian and I made rice krispie treats and brought them over to our neighbors. They were a big hit.

My time in Salt Lake has absolutely flown by. I fly late tomorrow on the overnight flight to JFK and then make a connection to Baltimore. School starts in 10 days. Uh, hello! I feel like being in this transition place has kept me from readjusting completely. It's just hard to feel normal when you're not totally unpacked and you know that there's another big step ahead of you coming up so quickly.

I also thought that since we visited just last July-August that the transition would be easier. It didn't feel that difficult when we came and I thought it would be similar. That is totally not the case. I can see now that our heads were definitely back in Bots while we visited last year. We just weren't processing everything because we knew we'd be going back soon. But now? I live here. That is just so weird.

That being said, here are a few highlights of my time in Salt Lake:

1) The first day I drove I pulled out of the driveway onto the wrong side of the road and proceeded to make an immediate left turn onto the left side of the road. Oops. I was definitely confused. Fortunately there was no traffic and my dad was able to calmly say "We drive on the other side of the road here." I thought that since Brian & I didn't drive much in Botswana that adjusting to driving on the other side of the road here wouldn't be an issue. It took a day or two of driving to be completely comfortable.

2) I went to Kohl's by myself during my first week. Spent about 2 hours inside the store, made four trips to the fitting room and walked out with 4 items. They were having a buy one get one free sale and there were a lot of options.

3) After my Kohl's experience I am glad that I made my first grocery store trip with somebody. I don't have any words to describe it except for completely and totally overwhelmed. It's all the options! Brian and I felt lucky to have relatively "decent" grocery stores in Gabs. They are NOTHING like the ones here. I said to my mom, "I don't even remember what we used to eat!" Seriously. What did we eat before Peace Corps? What can I eat now? I can't even comprehend all the options I have. (As a side note, I really feel like the grocery stores in Utah are larger than average. It will be interesting to see in Baltimore.)

Right now I am really missing having a routine. We had such a great life in Botswana. It wasn't like we had a ton of structure or anything, but I'm really feeling lost as to what to do with my time. I'm looking forward to school starting. It will probably be structure to the extreme, but I really think that's what I need right now before I can start to feel normal again.

I sometimes get questions from people who read the blog and are getting ready to join Peace Corps with a spouse. They want to know what it’s like to serve as a married couple. Do you fight more? Is it harder or easier than being single? The first thing I always write back is that Peace Corps is rough on a relationship but probably not for the reasons you think. It’s also great for a relationship, but also not for the reasons you think.

One big benefit to doing Peace Corps as a couple is having another person to bounce ideas off of and just hash issues out. Having Brian around has been totally invaluable for me in this respect. In fact I can honestly say that I would not have made it through my first year without his support. At the same time this can be a source of difficulty. When one spouse struggles it puts a strain on your entire relationship. Our first year was especially rough because I was struggling with counterpart issues and for Brian there was basically no way to escape it. We lived together, worked across the parking lot from each other, ate lunch together and did everything TOGETHER. That was hard. Coming to Gabs for our third year has allowed us to be more “normal.’ I work in one direction from home and he works in the opposite direction. We’ll sometimes get together for lunch, but for the most part we don’t see each other during the day. Feeling normal really helps.

Occasionally I’ll be envious of single PCVs who get to be independent and live on their own. Then a bug will come in the room, Brian will kill it and I’m over my envy. For me, however, the big deal breaker is trying to imagine NOT sharing this whole experience with someone Peace Corps is life altering in so many ways and I just don’t know how single PCVs feel complete when there’s nobody who understands it completely. So ultimately I think Peace Corps is great for relationships because you have the person you love most sharing your life altering experience and that person will know you and love you all the more for getting through it together.

On Saturday Brian and I got news that a fellow Peace Corps Volunteer, Cathy Saltwick, was killed in a car accident. The official Peace Corps news release is available here. Automobile accidents are the second leading cause of death in Botswana. Only AIDS kills more people. The two leading causes of accidents are 1) people swerving around livestock in the road and 2) drunk driving (it's not unusual to see people openly drinking in th car. I don't think there are open container laws like there is in the US.)

While Brian and I were not super close with Cathy we knew her and like her very much. She had a very calming presence, a great laugh and got a long with everyone. She spoke at the COS lunch this year and gave her speech entirely in Setswana along with two other volunteers. Since Peace Corps returned to Bots in 2003 less than a dozen volunteers have been able to speak Setswana that well. It was a testament to her hard work to be a part of her community. What I think is especially tragic about Cathy's death is that she just finished two-years with Peace Corps and was getting ready to extend for one more. She will be missed not only by her family but by her community and friends in Botswana.

A website her memory is available at: http://cathysaltwickmemory.blogspot.com/

In just under 18 hours I will start my 39 hour journey back to the U.S. (Gabs - Joburg - Atlanta - JFK - SLC, thanks Delta.) I can't believe this whole adventure is finished. Once again I have no idea where this week went. With the office move, giving up Fanta, our friends getting married not to mention the million things you have to get signed off by Peace Corps the week was hectic. It's been a great way to wrap up.

So this is it for me. I'm officially NOT a Peace Corps Volunteer. Whoa. I plan to conclude my Encyclopedia of Life in Botswana series back in the U.S. and when I'm finished I'll be starting another blog somewhere. In the meantime Brian's off to Uganda and has a few more weeks until he leaves. I'm sure he'll do some updating here as well.

write an email and send out text messages telling everyone you know that you're leaving. People write back lots of nice things. :)

No, not the movie I'm talking about my office space here in Bots. You see, I've been kind of spoiled since graduating from college and have always had my own office. Therefore sharing an office with my counterparts in Molepolole (Nancy and then Mma Maphane) took some adjusting. I think that sharing an office in the US probably wouldn't be that bad. Here, however, it usually means usually means that your officemate will go through your desk or rearrange the stuff on your desk at anytime. That was pretty annoying. For example, the DHT didn't keep toilet paper in the bathroom. Instead the supplies lady (Mma Noko) would come around every couple of weeks and issue everyone their own roll. (They also did this with pens.) I tended not to use my whole roll and usually had more than one hiding in a desk drawer. If I was gone for a day it was guaranteed that any stockpile of TP would be gone. When I came to BOTUSA I originally shared a portacabin that had several desks in an open space. Within a few days, however, construction was complete on a new portacabin with actual offices and I was the first to move in. I was thrilled to find out that not only would I have my own office but it came completely furnished with guest chairs and a bookshelf. I will never take having my own office for granted again.

During our visit to Moleps last week we had lunch at our favorite place in town: Hot Favorites. The food at Hot Favorites isn't anything to rave about, but it's better than most places and fills you up.

The basic gist of eating out in Bots is as easy as picking a starch a meat and a salad (or two). Starches usually include pap, madombe (dumplings), samp & beans or rice. Meats include fried chicken, stewed chicken or beef while salads include beetroot, coleslaw, or mashed up butternut squash. My all-time favorite thing to get is madombe with fried chicken and soup (gravy.) Yummm. It's hard to find places with madombe because they're more time consuming to make than rice or samp. Therefore even though Hot Favorites was a hike to get to from work we'd make the trek at least once a month because we could almost always count on them to have madombe. (Unfortunately last week they didn't have madombe and I just couldn't get my head around having rice so I skipped lunch.)