Tshepo (pronounced Tsepo)

Two days after arriving in Botswana we were matched with our host families who we are staying with throughout the ten-week Pre-Service Training (PST). We had a matching ceremony and everything was very official. My favorite part was at the beginning where the Batswana present sang the national anthem, then they started playing our national anthem and after some confusion we all joined in. (I should mention that one person here is called Motswana, two or more are Batswana. There is no such thing as “Bostwanan”. It even causes some confusion, because an American accent pronounces Botswana as Batswana.)

 

All the host families are different, which means we’re all having different experiences. I am lucky to say though, that my host mom is awesome. My dad is a police chief and works and stays away from home, occasionally coming home on the weekends. My host brother lives and works in Gaborone (pronounced Ha-ba-ro-nae), the capitol. They are all wonderful people, but most of the time it’s just me and mom. One of the first things she did was give me my Setswana name: Tshepo. Tshepo means ‘hope’ or ‘trust’. Most people’s names here have meaning. Mpho: gift. Masego: blessings. Dineo: gifts. etc. A lot of the names we got mean ‘gifts’ it seems. I really like my name. Most volunteers go by their Setswana name at site and I plan on doing that too. Although Elizabeth is an easy name for people to say and remember, there’s just something nice about having the Setswana name. It’s also really entertaining for me to introduce myself, because nine out of ten times I say Tshepo as my name, I get raised eyebrows and a friendly laugh in response :)

Me in front of my host family's house