Stardate 20120605
Hello all. Yep, I’m
writing a blog post. Lack of internet in
my site kept me away in the beginning. I’m
living in a very remote village, and if you have looked at my FB page you can
see some of the sites. To get straight
to it and recap, Botswana is awesome!
Sure it’s dry and sandy, but not everywhere. Some places are pretty nice. When I arrived I got the best feeling from
the Peace Corps Volunteers, but people are the same all over the world. So far I’ve been to around 13 different
countries and nothing really surprises me anymore. Ya know, we came to literally the other side
of the world and we see the same stars at night. I remember sailing across the ocean in The
Marine Corps and looking up to see Orion.
I thought to myself, “Wow! The
same stars!” Duh… Right?
Same sky and all, but to romanticize it comes so easily to me. If you wake up in a different place, at a
different time, are you a different person?
Nah… Which for me is very
great. In the States, I loved the people
and here it is the same.
My host family was huge.
Three houses in one compound. 12
people eating all the big meals together laughing, teasing and having a
blast. I got the best host family out of
everyone. My host mom was strict. In Botswana, it doesn’t matter how old you
are unless you are the oldest, and mom was the oldest. She runs the house like a head mother and a
nunnery. But, you can do pretty much
what you want as long as you are home, safe and make a reasonable effort to
obey the rules and stay out of her sight when being naughty. She knows what we were doing, but it
disrespectful to do it in front of her.
I would come home late, after dark, day after day and she would be
waiting with that silence that tells you that you are in trouble. I would just sit and apologize like a good
boy. I tried not to make a habit of it,
but sunset at the time was around 9pm.
Now’s it around 7pm. The new
volunteer has it worse.
Swearing in day was my birthday and my host family through a
party for all the volunteers, plus I got a package from home so we ate and
drank and had Oreos and Chocolate Chip cookies.
I even got an Ostrich Egg for a birthday present. Awesome?
Yeah…it was. I still have it.
Pre Service Training was nothing. We sat in a classroom and talked, or listened
all day. We played games like summer
camp kids, talked about procedure, culture and whatnot.
Professionally, not difficult, and compared to Marine Corps Boot Camp…HA! So I switched gears and tried to work on some
of my personal goals for Peace Corps. It
was pretty sweet. I tried and did make a
great friend. (Don’t worry. I chose
wisely.) It was difficult once I started
working on myself. Very painful at
times, but I followed every impulse and trusted in the quality of PC Volunteers
to help. It was very intense and I’m
still thinking about it trying to learn as much as possible from that
time. Self-development lasted through
the end of PST and into site.
When we got to site, we were supposed to stay in site for
three months without leaving, in order to facilitate community integration. I stayed, but I can’t say the same for some
others. I kept working on self-development
throughout that period. There just wasn’t
much do to professionally because shortly after I was placed at my school, they
went on year end break. I skipped the
parties and whatnot trying to stay committed to following The Peace Corps way
of doing things. It wasn’t
difficult. I just remembered the tiny
amount of personal sacrifice that they were asking for. How could anything compare to the sacrifice The
Marine Corps demands, and both are government service organizations…and both
are “Corps.” Corps to Corps for me :-)
We went to In Service Training after the three month period,
and I had this indescribable time. I was
dizzy with the new territory I was in personally. Many times it felt so very strange…confusing…like
being lost in a giant ocean, which is doubly odd because, in The Marine Corps I
was once floating in the middle of the ocean with no land in sight. I don’t think I’ll really understand what all
that self-development phase taught me for some time, but I’m glad I took the
risk. It was certainly something I never
experienced…ever. It was once in a
lifetime for sure…
So I went back to site, started switching gears to
professional development, which seemed like a course in anger management. Coworkers were doing things in strange ways
that seemed to make no sense to me. I
would get angry every day. I still do to
some degree, but I just go home and calm down then try a new approach the next
day. You know me…I never quit
anything. They’ll just have to try and
kill me, but we all know that ain’t happening. Ha he ha ha.
I eventually found enough work around the village developing the entire
village and working at the school to keep me working enough to feel like I’m
doing some work. It’s still really easy
though. My schoolhead is great. She knows how to fix a school and cares about
her students. She’s not messing
around. Now I teach, run school clubs
for the students, advise village businesses, travel around Botswana teaching
Self-defense and HIV/AIDS awareness. I
even attended a Youth Forum for children that were HIV positive or at
risk. That was pretty intense. I got to play my guitar for them and sing the
boys to sleep at night. They really
liked one of the songs I wrote and would sing along with me. Now, tell me that ain’t great :-)
I went to Namibia with three volunteers. It was beautiful and we had a lot of fun
staying in hostels and eating food near the beach. It’s good to see the ocean when you live in
the desert. I liked it so much I plan on
going back three more times. I plan on
skydiving in every African country I can, but didn’t have the money to do it
then.
Nowadays, I string my days together one by one. I’m almost completely done with my
self-development project. I can’t say it
was a success. By that I mean, I don’t
really know how it affected me or what will come of it, but I tried real
hard. Am I quitting? No, but I certainly need a good long
rest. It was very very very very tough. I’ll tell you what…if you really wanna know
how people are, show them your soft vulnerable side and see how they
behave. It’s difficult and
exhausting.
I love the kids. I
enjoy everything that happens to me, even the bad stuff. I even smile while it’s happening. I have such a great life and an infinite
future. They say that Peace Corps is
what you make it, and I’m making it almost as big of a part of me a The Marine
Corps is, but it’s not there yet. I
still have over a year left. Who knows
what will happen.
I go to big fancy resort to spoil myself. The closest volunteer is 5 hours way. I have to hitchhike to go anywhere. I have waited 8 hours in the rain for one
hitch and I have to take two, then an hour bus ride to go to the grocery. Basically, it takes two days. Others hitch because they think it’s cool or
part of the experience. Shhh… Let me
tell ya… I’m perfectly happy using public transport when it’s available. If I were in their shoes I would act just
like them, but I’m not. I’m in my shoes
and around here, hitching is not just an option for cool points…it’s a necessity.
So you should be pretty much caught up now. Planet Botswana….. just come see it. And see me.
What’s coming up next? Well, I
might get to shake hands with the President of Botswana tomorrow, and get a
photo op. I was in the Huffington Post. My host family is having a
party for the new volunteer this weekend.
Their graduation is soon and I’m prolly going to Durban, South Africa in
July. I was trying to go to the London Olympics,
but a Peace Corps workshop cancelled that trip.
Ya know, dedication to service, dedication to the Corps and all that. Planning on jumping out of a plane while in
Durban, so I have that to look forward to.
Cheers to all of you. You people
really are amazing. Gotta go. A Jedi’s work is never done J Dream big. See ya
soon. Planet Botswana…Out.
