Adjusting to Kanye

So I’ve been in Kanye for almost 2 weeks now and I’m still adjusting to the culture shock of living with a host family in a small, yet very spread out, village in Southwestern Botswana. All of us are very much living, eating, breathing Batswana (the people of Botswana) culture right now, which means getting used to the chickens, goats, donkeys that roam freely in the village and on the roads, running water as a concept not a reality, learning to like mmidi the corn/maize mixture that is in nearly every dish, and the very real fact that all of us, even the African-American members of our group, so obviously stand out, that we all might as well be wearing white robes and turbans at a suburban Cincinnati strip mall.  All of us will be living with our host families until the beginning of June, when we graduate from Pre-Service Trainees with the Peace Corps to full-fledged volunteers with the Peace Corps. Unlike the rest of Botswana which is very dry, hot, dusty and brown (80% of the country is the Kalahari desert), Kanye is in the mountains and is relatively cooler, greener, and lusher than the rest of the country. Most of Kanye can be divided into “downstairs” (Mafhikana and Gakebuang) which are settlements in the valley and “upstairs”  (Ntsweng) which is a collection of developments (called wards here) on the two highest mountains/hills here in Kanye. Most of our PST group (30) live in Gakebuang or Mafhikana while 9 of us (including me) live in Ngsweng and I specifically live in the Chibana Ward of Ngsweng. Which means that I live near the end of the last paved road on the main mountain, about a 30-minute walk downhill from the major “shopping” area (there are grocery stores closer to me here in Ngsweng) and about 45 minutes by foot from the majority of the group. Of course it’s 5-10 minutes by taxi or combi bus (shared bus taxis) but the walking is a nice way to pass the time, especially since it’s not nearly as hot here in Kanye as in the rest of Botswana. It’s been a mixture of sun and clouds since we arrived with highs in the upper 60s/lower 70s and lows in the 50s for now and the last few days it’s rained more than we were expecting and when it rains here it’s like someone turned over a bucket from the clouds. We’re in Fall now, with winter approaching in June which means that it’s going to get quite a bit colder with lows all the way down to upper 30s and high 40s and daytime temperatures in the 50s. Here in the Chibana Ward I live with Mma (Miss) Mpotsan Sephetsolo at her home which has electricity (yeah!) and what I’m calling “water on request.” She has a big (3 bedrooms), nicely decorated house and her son Snoek (his preferred nickname), who’s 42 and lives in the house next door. Mma Sephetsolo is 71 a little set in her ways and is not a big talker, especially when her nighttime soaps are on, but she’s nice and is proud to be hosting a Peace Corps trainee again – she hosted a volunteer in 1998.  My situation is pretty unique to the rest of my group since most of the time it’s just me and her here at the house. Many of the other trainees live with actual families, parents, kids, grandkids, nieces, nephews, etc. My situation is also unique in that I have a private bathroom and many in our group live with families that have pit latrines outside. We have two sources of filtered water, one that we use for washing dishes and for baths, and one for the kitchen tap for drinking water, which means I don’t have to boil the water, which is a huge relief. Even with the recent rain, water is a precious resource in this country so there is a big emphasis on conserving as much water as possible. Overall I like my situation with Mma Sephetsolo in that what I’m losing in more daily interaction with the locals I’ve gained by living in a relatively nice house and I’m VERY happy I don’t have a pit latrine for a toilet!