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.