Hiking to the Top of Africa

From Sept 10-17, me and 7 others hiked, trekked and camped along the Machame Route on Mount Kilimanjaro, summitting at the top of Africa (19,200 feet) Saturday morning September 15. Myself, Joseph Peralta and Ann Devaney were part of a Team First Descents group that raised nearly $6,200 for First Descents, an organization that offers young adults a free outdoor adventure experience, helping them live beyond their diagnosis and defy their cancer.  

http://teamfd.firstdescents.org/2012/fd/kilisummit2012/

I'll let the pictures tell the story of our hike, summit, safari and recovery on the island of Zanzibar, as much as pictures can do justice to the wonder that is Mount Kilimanjaro National Park. 

 

Our group the night before the trek started

I promised that if we raised $5,000 or more for First Descents, I would shave my head. This is the "before" shot

This is me making good on the promise

Waking up to an amazing sunrise on Day 2. 

Me, Amanda and Ann

Kilimanjaro as seen from the Machame Camp

Camping in the shadow of Kilimanjaro. 

Amanda and Paul one of our Guides

Bryson, the owner/founder/leader of Bryson Adventures the tour operator we used. 

Kyle and Dr. Hook with Kili in the background

Our Amazing porters, guides and cooks the Bryson "Dream Team"

These photos take us up to the day of the Summit. I will post photos from the Summit, our safari game drive, and Zanzibar very soon.

Teaching Entrepreneurship at the Refugee Camp

One of the nice things about our Peace Corps assignments is that we are expected to look for secondary projects outside of our main work assignment. As a District Community Liaison in Sowa, there is an even greater expectation that I find secondary projects in and outside of Sowa. Right now my main secondary project and most rewarding work I’m doing here in Botswana is teaching small business and entrepreneurship classes at the nearby refugee camp. Due to the strict protocol and security clearances needed to teach at the camp on a regular basis I had to wait quite a while (8 months) to actually start the project and it was worth the wait.

I recently completed the first term of Entrepreneurship Classes I was teaching at the camp. I worked with the business school at Winthrop University, USAID Business Development in Botswana, the Botswana College of Distance Learning (BOCODOL), combined with my business experience to create 9 classes in basic business skills needed for aspiring Entrepreneurs. I am working at the camp with Skillshare International, an international Non-Governmental Organization NGO that focused on providing job training and work skills to underserved or economically disadvantaged populations. At the camp here in Botswana, Skillshare runs classes in dressmaking, auto repair, computer skills, catering, and retail ownership, to name a few of their programs. My first students were women participating in the dressmaking program. I started teaching at the end of June and the first term ended on August 21. I taught two classes a day, 1-2 days a week from 10:00-11:30 am and again from 2:30-4:00 pm. At first I’m not sure my students understood the value of what I was teaching, and I was probably going too fast with the material. Over time, I slowed down and the students began to appreciate how they could use the information they were receiving from the lessons and discussions to come up with a business idea and how to create a plan to launch their business idea, whether it was opening a dress shop, starting a small garden to sell produce, starting a car wash, or buying some chickens to create a small poultry project.

The women were from all over Africa – Zimbabwe, Zambia, Namibia, Congo, Angola and Somalia. They left their homes and lives to come to Botswana for various reasons – political oppression, fear of violence by their government or armies, economic collapses, rape, and leaving a failed state. Some of the women have dreams to return home (many of the Angolans are going back over the next 6 months) to start a business, or take their skills and knowledge and resettle in a country like the U.S, Canada or Sweden. Some may end up trying to start a business in Botswana. All of them want to have more control over their lives and to be able to provide a living for themselves and their families and not depend on handouts from Botswana and other international NGOs, and I was happy and honored to help them learn some basics about starting a business so that they could fulfill their dreams of business ownership.

All 24 women who took the final exam on August 21 passed with scores of 70% or higher and will earn certificates of entrepreneurship from Skillshare. I will continue to work with some of the dressmakers on managing tenders (basically RFPs) to make school uniforms for poor families in our region and will start teaching another group of budding entrepreneurs on September 26.

Below are some photos of me and my first group of Entrepreneurship students. 

Working in Sowa

So the question about what it is I actually do in Sowa pops up pretty consistently and I’ve only vaguely addressed it in my blog. I work at the District AIDS Coordinating (DAC) office in Sowa. There are DAC offices in main health districts of Botswana, and while there are many Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs) in the DAC offices in Botswana, not every DAC office has one. My official title is District Community Liaison (DCL) meaning that I’m based in the Sowa DAC office but am responsible for “Liaising” with the surrounding community, which is basically a fancy way of saying that I’m expected to spend a lot of time on secondary projects around or outside of Sowa. Given the small size of Sowa and the fact that we’re kind of in the middle of nowhere out on the Sua (Salt) Pans there’s not a lot of community to liaise with. One project I’ve been working on since November is designing a small business and entrepreneurship skills class to teach to refugees at the nearby United Nations High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR) and that project may be finally ready to begin in mid-June after months of various bureaucratic hurdles, security clearance issues, and official certifications. There are a handful of other projects I’m working on that could start in the next 2-3 months and as those happen I’ll write more specifically about them. My primary job in the Sowa DAC office is working with the Assistant District AIDS Coordinator (ADAC – we love our acronyms here in PC) to provide HIV/AIDS education to Sowa and the surrounding communities.

That’s a broad mission but it is crucial because it’s estimated that 1 in 4 people here in Sowa are HIV positive. Now the Botswana government provides free Antiretroviral (ARVs) to Botswana citizens who test HIV+ which is helping people live longer but unfortunately the rate of new infections (Incidence) continues to rise here and Sowa, and throughout Botswana.  The reasons are many, but the main ones are low condom usage and a culture where it’s accepted for people to have multiple concurrent sexual partners (something we call MCP). Sowa is a mining town where many workers (mainly men) live away from their primary families, with a number of truckers servicing the mine, and therefore commercial sex is major factor here as it is in mining and trucking towns throughout Botswana and neighboring countries. Our office is promoting education and awareness of all these issues, but ultimately we are looking to affect change in people’s behavior when it comes to their sexual activity. That is a very difficult thing to achieve, because human behavior being what it is, is very hard to change, especially when that behavior is linked to such an intrinsic part of our personality – sex. Most adults know what they should do and not do with regards to sex and HIV/AIDS, but they engage in risky behaviors anyway, especially when alcohol is involved, and many times here in Botswana and especially here in Sowa alcohol is involved. There’s not a lot of illicit drug use in Botswana, especially compared to surrounding countries, but alcohol abuse is definitely a factor and strongly linked to the high HIV/AIDS rates here. Our interventions with adults 20 and above are very targeted and usually involve testing for HIV. Many people are probably HIV+ and don’t know it so the first step is to get tested so we have a lot of testing events. We’ve also launched a Safe Male Circumcision (SMC) campaign here in Sowa as statistics have proven that men who are circumcised are 50% less likely to contract HIV or infect someone with the virus as compared to men who are not circumcised. Testing and the SMC Campaign are significant percentage of our adult education and prevention programs.

Our main focus though has been with youth education and prevention, because if we can intervene with education and options before youth become sexually active then maybe we can create different or new behaviors and choices with regards to sexual activity and hopefully stop risky behavior before it begins. In the last 2 months we’ve held a number of events targeted at the youth here in Sowa, debates about sex education, movie screenings about HIV/AIDS issues and topics, and HIV/AIDS education workshops. There are two schools here in Sowa, the main government high school (called Junior Secondary Schools) and the private, English only school, Flamingo School which basically is the equivalent of a K-12 private school. Flamingo School has a pretty active debate club, while TT (the ADAC here in Sowa, short for Thatayaone) and I have worked with the guidance counselors at the government Junior Secondary School (Nxakato) to start a debate club and from January to March this year we held 3 debates, one at Nxakato, one at Flamingo and a “cross-town” debate between the two schools. The debate topic was “Sex Education Should Be Taught in Schools: Pro/Con.” The debates were a huge success with the students and strongly supported by the teachers and parents here in Sowa. Very candid discussions and well-thought arguments were presented by all the students involved about the role of sex education in Botswana schools. 

Surprisingly given how religious (mostly protestant Christian) many Batswana are and how conservative and traditional culture is here about sexual matters (conservative in that its considered private) discussions about and presentations of sexual education have not been that controversial here. Maybe it’s because the issue here is literally life and death that people are more willing to talk about it. A total of 24 students participated in the debates and all three combined were attended by just under 300 people.

The film screenings have been very popular as youth are always more interested in watching a movie than having an adult lecture to them. The films have been both documentaries and fiction and involve a wide-range of topics whether it is the plight of HIV orphans living on the streets of Zambia, to soap opera type melodramas that effectively (and entertainingly) demonstrate the risks involved with having multiple sexual partners and not using condoms, to the plight of a school in Soweto (South Africa) where 75% of the students (ages 14-17) tested HIV positive. I’ll write more about the films and their impact in an upcoming blog.

The workshops have also been successful and well received by the students. They have involved a discussion about HIV/AIDS statistics and prevention. Here in Botswana we follow the “ABC” method of HIV/Education with youth – Abstinence, Be Faithful, Condomize – where we emphasize that the only 100% effective way to prevent HIV transmission and infection is to abstain from sexual activity. However we know it is not realistic to only teach abstinence, and quite candidly it would be irresponsible for us to present that as the only prevention method. We talk about being faithful to ONE partner and getting tested with your partner and to always use condoms if they do engage in sexual activities as we don’t want them to just think of HIV/AIDS (though that is the most important) but also sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and unplanned/unwanted pregnancies. The “Condomize” part of the workshops are always a highlight and get everyone’s attention as we go through step-by-step instructions on how to use a male and female condom. While there are always giggles by the students, you can tell they are taking it seriously especially when we talk candidly about what happens if they do decide to engage in sexual activity and not use a condom. Of course we prefer they don’t have sex until they are at least 18 and in a committed, monogamous relationship, but if they do, they have to know their status and they have to use a condom. Anyone who thinks this type of discussion might encourage youth to have sex is mistaken, as the graphic details of STI and HIV infection are not sexy at all but necessary truths that they need to learn and hopefully take to heart. Knowledge is power especially with youth, we have to educate and empower them to make the right decisions. Below are some photos from recent events - debates, workshops and screenings

TT demonstrating correct condom usage

Students gathered to hear about HIV/AIDS prevention and watch a movie

Correct condom usage is an art not a science

Students ready for the Big Debate

The judges are ready for the debate

The debate begins

Learning about the female condom

Students pack the Hall to watch the film "One Life, One Love" that was filmed in Botswana

Students engrossed by the drama of "One Life, One Love" a great film about HIV/AIDS

Hitching Around

As evidenced by the time its taken me to post this blog, blogging doesn’t come naturally to me, even with the semi-fast internet I had installed here in Sowa in January. I’m working on that trying to get myself into more of a habit of blogging and documenting my time here. Maybe I’ll treat it as more of a journaling exercise that I post online occasionally. One aspect of my daily life here in Botswana that never fails to generate conversation is hitch-hiking as a preferred method of travelling in Botswana. If you don’t have a car (and Peace Corps Volunteers don’t) then hitching is often the most convenient affordable way to get around, especially if you live away from the main Gaborone – Francistown “metropolitan” area where most of the Botswana population lives.

Public transportation here consists of combis (vans) that seat between 10-14 people, mini-buses that hold between 20-28 people, and regular size buses that seat 60-70 people. If you’re traveling between Gaborone and Botswana you can expect a bus ride to be between 5 and 5 ½ hours and to cost about 90 Pula ($10.25) each way. Traveling in a passenger car/truck/SUV can take around 4 hours if you don’t stop. The buses that run between Gaborone and Francistown run most of the day starting at 6 am and typically make two scheduled stops (Mahalapye and Palapye) along the way and occasionally make unscheduled stops to pick up people along the road, unplanned restroom breaks and police check points. So if you live in or near Gaborone or Francistown, or in one of the towns or villages along the A1 road that connects the two largest cities in Botswana then public transport will probably work reliably for you, if you don’t mind crowded, un-air-conditioned buses or combis. Buses are also reliable between Francistown and Nata and Nata and Maun. In the rest of the country public transit (such as it is) is often sporadic and variable making hitching the preferred option. The popularity and acceptance of hitching here boils down to convenience and economics.

The relative convenience of hitching was probably the biggest challenge for me, as I would happily pay for scheduled public transportation when available. Combis and mini-buses only serve Francistown from Sowa and leave regularly between 6 am and 10am. Occasionally, service extends beyond that and its not guaranteed. It takes about 2 hours to travel the 160 km (about 90 miles) between Sowa and Francistown depending on how many stops are made along the way – there are many little towns and villages on the A3 that runs to Francistown from Nata. Combis and mini buses from Francistown to Sowa start running around 11:30 am to 12:00 noon through about 5 pm. If you’re in Sowa and want to go to Nata, Maun or anywhere else north or west, then you need to hitch to Nata and either hitch again from there or catch a bus from there.

The natural variability of hitching, of not being able to plan around catching a hitch during an exact time frame was and is the most challenging aspect of hitching for me. A life of catching 10:54 am/pm flights (even when delayed) has led me to associate traveling, at least the flying part of it, with detailed planning centered around traffic to the airport, whether I’m checking luggage, am expecting an upgrade, weather, delays with TSA, etc.  As a natural planner, I developed a rhythm and routine around flying, that while never perfect, was manageable and worked well for me. That’s not quite how it works with hitching in Botswana, there’s a serendipity to it that takes a bit of getting used to when you’re a frequent flyer like me, or like I used to be. Having said that I’ve never waited any longer than 30 minutes to get a hitch out of Sowa and the longest I’ve waited since I’ve been here is 1 hour for a hitch that never materialized between Maun and Ghanzi, so I just went back to the bus station (rank) in Maun and caught a mini-bus to Ghanzi. I’ve heard stories of PC Volunteers and others waiting up to 4 or 5 hours for a hitch but those are pretty extreme examples. My average wait time to get a hitch out of Sowa has been about 15 minutes which is not so bad and often the hitch is faster than public transportation.

So it comes down to convenience, necessity (if you live in a more remote area) and economics. American/Western notions of hitching being “cool” or “anti-establishment,” or even dangerous are either outdated or not culturally relevant here in Botswana. Beyond convenience and necessity it really is “the economy stupid” to quote a former President. It is expensive to own a car in Botswana relative to the average salary and petrol (gas) is pricey as well, the equivalent of about $6.50/gallon at current conversion rates. There’s no romance to hitching here and unless you catch a ride in a truck going to Zimbabwe or Zambia there’s little danger, unless your driver has been drinking, something you definitely need to look out for on weekends and toward the end of the month when most people here get paid. And often, there’s not much interaction between driver and passengers/hitching, beyond the initial negotiation of price. Yes, you are expected to pay to hitch here, which in many ways means hitching can be considered a form of public transportation here in Botswana. The “fare” is generally the equivalent bus fare for your route. When I hitch from Sowa to Francistown it’s expected I pay the driver 30-35 Pula as the regular bus fare is P34.80. Most people who pick up hitchers here do so to supplement/offset the cost of petrol which is the main reason it is safe and accepted to hitch here. So if you can live with the “serendipity” of hitching it’s a pretty decent way to get around Botswana. 

Measuring One's Impact - Initial Thoughts

In my previous blog I indicated that I was going to write about traveling in Botswana but I’m going to wait until after I’ve flown on Air Botswana in a couple of weeks, that way I’ll be able to cover the full spectrum of traveling in Botswana: Public bus, minibus, combis, hitching and air travel. In the mean time I want to focus this blog entry on a popular question that I’ve had a number of people ask: “What about the work? Do you feel like you’re making a difference there?” I posted this on Facebook a few days ago and have since made some additions and revisions for the blog entry.

My initial response to the question of whether I think I’m having an impact here in Botswana has been “I hope so” or “It’s too soon to tell.” I have realized though that I need to really step back and consider the question as it is as relevant now 4 months into my Peace Corps service, as it will be when I leave Botswana in June 2013. The question of whether we’re making a difference in our respective communities is a question that all current, past and future Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs) ponder and debate exhaustively. Why? Because “making a difference” or “having an impact” is a primary driver in the decision making process for most of us and will be a key question to consider when we are trying to determine the “success” of our two years (or more in some cases) at our site in our assigned country.

At first it seems premature to even consider whether or not I’m making a difference after being in Botswana for just over 4 months. However, thinking it’s a premature question to consider is a good sign that when it comes to Peace Corps service I’m still looking for tangible results as a measure of success or impact and not considering the bigger picture in terms of my service here in Botswana. When you travel or live abroad you have a far greater appreciation of how much more results-orientated we are as Americans in comparison to much of the rest of the world. Our focus on results starts in school with grades and test scores being the primary methodology of determining the relative success of our education. The focus on results only increases once we enter the working-world, almost no matter our career choice. We are given goals, tasks and responsibilities and are evaluated based on criteria relative to the results associated with the given goals, tasks and responsibilities. Whether you’re a journalist, marketing executive, welder, trucker, professional voice-over actor, teacher, bartender, radio DJ, or CIA Operative, you will be judged by your results against a job description or financial performance or some other similar criteria.

I’m not judging American culture and its focus on results that can be measured. It is what it is, but it is not an adequate framework for evaluating my time as a Peace Corps Volunteer when much of the impact I am having and will have is intangible. Making a difference as a PCV is as connected to our day-to-day interactions and communication within our communities as it is to specific tasks we may perform or projects we are faciliating. Building a well, designing a water filtration system, teaching English, building a school, working as nurse in a clinic, designing an HIV/AIDS prevention strategy, setting up micro-financing for a small business enterprise are all examples of specific projects and responsibilities assigned to PCVs worldwide and are vitally important in the context of the local communities that are served by PCVs. Just as noteworthy, if not as important in the cross-cultural big picture, are the daily interactions of PCVs in their communities and countries.

I expect that work that I will be able to do at the United Nations High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR) refugee camp in Dukwi (about 30 minutes from Sowa) to be challenging, meaningful, and potentially very rewarding as there will be some tangible results of my work to point to – whether its increased funding for a computer literacy center, or setting up income-generation projects for the refugees, or working on a strategy to increase the number of refugees that voluntarily get tested for HIV, as my work there will be more project-specific and focused. I also expect my work here in the District AIDS Coordinating (DAC) office to be rewarding and impactful, as well as frustrating, because I am now a small cog in the big wheel of Botswana Government bureaucracy and what impact I have will happen slowly, and will be met with resistance by the very bureaucracy I’m working for. That’s fine, I knew that going in and nothing in my first 7 weeks at the Sowa DAC office has altered my perceptions about this. I’ve worked at large, cumbersome bureaucracies (SC House of Representative) or bureaucratic institutions (SF Opera) so I feel like I’m prepared for the reality of incremental change, as different as that may look to me here in Botswana.

Capacity building, especially in the context of HIV/AIDS and the cultural behavior change(s) necessary to positively impact the lives of my community is by nature subtle and methodical. Measuring success will prove more challenging, and in fact the most significant impact I could have here may not happen while I’m here or even become apparent to me (or anyone else) while I’m here or for many years after. It could be something as simple as reaching one teenager about the importance of not taking sexual activity lightly, helping him or her understand that here are consequences to their decision to engage in, or not engage in, sexual activity in a country with such a high rate of teenage pregnancies, sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and HIV infection. He or she might attend a workshop sponsored by the DAC office here when they are 12, but act (or not act) on the information in that workshop for 2-3 years down the road. It could be a mother-to-be who suspects she might be HIV+ deciding that she should get tested for her sake and the sake of her unborn child because she hung on to a pamphlet that she received at an outreach event in her village three years prior. I may not ever truly know or appreciate the measurable impact I can have in my two years here, and that’s perfectly fine.

What is equally important during my time here is how I interact on a daily basis with the members of my community. Two of the three Peace Corps goals are about the “intangibles” of our service, promoting positive impressions of Americans, and facilitating education and communication about our host country. In that context, I and all other PCVs are really on the job 24/7. When I smile and say “Dumela rra,” or “Dumela mma” for the umpteenth time, no matter how tired or cranky I am, I’m having an impact. Every time I hand wash my clothes, or walk to my office, or take public transportation to travel, or allow a neighbor’s child to tutor me in Setswana, I’m acting like a member of the community, not a visitor, or tourist and therefore having an impact. When I smile and laugh at the kids running towards or after me yelling “Lekoga!” instead of getting mad or frustrated or ignoring them I’m having a positive impact. When I keep my cool and try to go with the flow when hardships or challenges arise, as they inevitably do, like power outages, non-functioning ATMs, or empty grocery shelves, I am having an impact.

Am I perfect in maintaining my composure, my enthusiasm in engaging with and living in my new community? No, but I, and my fellow PCVs are mindful of this and try the best we can to live at the level of our neighbors and integrate into our communities. I have a feeling that the impact I have here may not be known to me for some time, if ever, and as long as I live in the present, focusing on my daily interactions and communications, then I should be ok and it will be a rewarding and successful time spent here on the Salt Plains. At least that’s what I’m telling myself when there’s no power and its 120 degrees in my house for the 8^th straight day. So yes, I and all of the PCVs here in Botswana are having an impact, every day, every hour. We, and our friends and family, may occasionally overlook daily interactions in our communities as part of the work we are doing because it’s not the “sexy” part of PC service (living abroad, traveling, learning new languages, teaching children) so often advertised and associated with life as a PCV, but it is a vital component of what makes our service so unique and hopefully fulfilling.

Initial Impressions of Sowa

Our team of 36 Bots 10 trainees was officially sworn in as Peace Corps Volunteers on June 8, 2011. This marked the end of our 2 ½ months of Pre-Service Training and the beginning of our new lives as District Community Liaisons (DCLs), Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) Capacity Builders and Community Capacity Builders (CCBs) working throughout Botswana in HIV/AIDS Capacity Building programs. I have been assigned to Sowa (pronounced “Sua”) near the giant Sowa Pan (Salt Plain) in the northeast of Botswana. Sowa is approximately 160 km (100 miles) west of Francistown, Botswana’s 2^nd-largest city with a population of just under 100,000. Sowa is a mining township of just under 4,000 people and most of the residents work at Botash, which runs the soda ash mine 5 miles west of Sowa (soda ash is used to make commercial glass), or for one of the local government offices/utilities in Sowa. In many ways Sowa is a “company town,” a planned community built by the mine in the early 1990’s, modeled after (in my opinion at least) after middle-class American suburbs that were developed around industrial cities like Detroit and Pittsburgh. Most of the houses are similarly structured one-story, 2-3 bedrooms, tile floored, tin-roofed structures that are painted various shades of beige, tan or cream, that typically look pretty bleached out because of the intense heat and sun that is prevalent most of the year here. With its paved streets, cul-de-sacs, industrial working vibe and transient population it at times feels very American, then you see random cows, chickens or goats roaming around and you realize that no Toto you really aren’t in Kansas anymore.

We have no stop lights or traffic signals in Sowa, but we do have a general store that sells basics like sugar, milk, sodas, eggs, etc., a butchery, a Barclays bank with ATM, an internet café, one take-away restaurant, a gym that’s no Gold’s but still pretty nice considering the small population base here, a small clothing store, a place to get haircuts and/or styling (not for me though, I have to go to Francistown to get a haircut, unless I want to buzz it all off), 3 schools, 3-4 bars and a Country Club for the Botash executives and government officials. It may at times feel like a small American suburb, but a lekogoa (“white person” in Setswana), much less an American lekogoa, is still an unusual site in the town, which has been clear to me every day as children follow me yelling “Lekogoa!” They don’t mean it derisively; it’s more that they are expressing their happy surprise at seeing something unusual. It would be akin in the US to children yelling out “Giraffe!” at the zoo or “Snow!” if they lived in Texas. Now that my predecessor has left I’m pretty sure I’m the only American lekogoa here – the other twolekoga  I’ve met so far both work at the nearby UN Refugee Camp and are from Holland and Canada.

The climate in Sowa is hot, dry, windy and dusty, similar to the climates of desert cities in the US like Phoenix or Palm Springs. Right now its Winter and pretty pleasant, with highs in the mid to upper 70s and lows in the high 40s/low 50s. Even on these short winter days the sun is very intense and I have yet to see a cloud in my 2 weeks here, but of course we’re not that far north of the Tropic of Capricorn down here so that’s not unusual weather by any stretch. The rainy season, such as it is, is typically in the beginning of summer in late October, early to Mid-November. From November to February, highs in the 100s will not be uncommon. The dust and pretty-constant desert winds will take some getting used to but I’m not all that worried about the heat. Of course it’s dead winter here; we’ll see how I feel in January.  I really lucked out on my housing here in Sowa, that’s for sure. The house I’m in was originally built for executives at the mine but was turned over to the Botswana Government in 2002 and has been utilized for Peace Corps Volunteers since 2006. It has 3 bedrooms, a bath tub and indoor toilet, a spacious living room and a kitchen. I have hot running water, a gas stove, refrigerator, and a nice bit of furniture in good condition that was left by the previous PCV. There’s also a guest house (originally servants’ quarters) with a running shower and bedroom, though unfortunately the shower is not connected to the hot water geyser (heater). There’s plenty of room here for me and for the many guests I expect to visit, other PCVs and of course friends from home. If the combi/minibus ride from Francistown (the closest airport) doesn’t scare you off, it’s not a bad place to visit, except in the summer of course.

Next post I’ll write about the adventure that is traveling around Botswana on public transportation.  

Here's some pics of the house.

More Photos

In lieu of a blog post I'm going to post photos from the last few days of our training here in Kanye, where it's been nice and cold. Today, June 7, 2011 we all swear in as official Peace Corps Volunteers. PULA!

Pictured from Top to Bottom:

• Me and Michelle at Sunrise in Kanye
• Me on the road to training
• Sunrise over Kanye
• Our Ntsweng language group at the Goodbye Party thrown by Mr. Khan (owner of Your Choice Super Store)
• Me and Rebecca before the Goodbye Party on Sunday
• Me and Clayton before the Goodbye Party on Sunday
• Me and Tija before the Goodbye Party on Sunday