Regional Athletics Competition

Three weekends ago there was the regional athletics competition for primary schools. Seventeen schools gathered to compete from Friday to Sunday. The host village was Lentsweletau, a village nearby, which was very nice and convenient for me. Usually the kids travel and sleep in the classrooms of a school nearby the hosting school. Since Kgope is close, the kids just slept at our school along with two other schools we hosted.

Leading up to the big competition we had small competitions at school on a crude track marked around the soccer field at our school. I should clarify that by ‘athletics’ they mean only running and jumping (long jump, high jump) events. We only practiced for a few weeks, but other schools had been training for months.

Leading up to the competition the kids were very excited. The team was about forty kids although some came along but didn’t participate. The events were supposed to start Friday morning, but in true Botswana fashion there were transportation problems. I can imagine what a logistical nightmare it is to transport seventeen schools. When the transportation did come on Friday it ended up being a big truck that looked like was for cattle. We were told it was the only option, so the kids all piled in. I was lucky enough to score a seat in the front, and didn’t have to cram in with the well over fifty kids in the back. I also got to enjoy this nice conversation with a gentleman in the front (these are the highlights):

“Are you married?” – This was the first thing he said to me, after checking out the rings I wear.

“Do you have a boyfriend?” – I don’t know why he even bothered asking, because he completely disregarded the answer.

“He is far, maybe he is artificial.” - ?

“Why are the Peace Corps here? Are you a spy?” – This was the first time I’ve been asked this, but I’ve been told it’s not an uncommon question. I calmly asked the man why he thought the U.S. government would care what was said in the front of a truck on the way to an athletic event.

“I want to come visit you at your house.” – Classic. When you read this imagine 'visit' in exaggerated air-quotes. I get this a lot; the answer is always no.

After this lovely conversation we arrived, and the competition began. I won’t go into the details of each race, but we did fairly well and it was fun cheering them on. The absolute highlight for me was the singing. Most of the cheers took the form of songs; I love Setswana songs so I was thrilled. There were many songs, but the song that became our anthem went like this:

Siruru-bele, siruru-bele sa Kgope School (2x)

A o batla go bona, sirurubele, sirurubele sa Kgope School? (2x)

It means: Butterfly, butterfly of Kgope School

Do you want to see, the butterfly, the butterfly of Kgope School?

Saturday when we got back to the school after the day’s events had finished I was dancing with the kids to that song. They always get surprised and happy when they see me dancing, or hear me singing in Setswana.

For the competition they divide the competitors into divisions by age. They couldn’t do it by standards because in each standard the age can range greatly. My friend’s school had a seventeen year-old in standard six. Our school took first in the senior boy’s long-jump and the intermediate boy’s high-jump. We took second in the senior boy’s high-jump, and the intermediate girls 4x4 relay. Overall we came in sixth of the seventeen schools! It was an exhausting weekend, but a lot of fun.

Dirurubele di fofile – the butterflies flew :)

Adventures in Kgope

On January 4th I accompanied some people from the village to check out potential tourist sites in Kgope. It was me, the VDC (Village Development Council) chairman and his wife, some VDC members, the kgosi, and some village elders. There were about ten of us in total and we piled into the kgosi’s truck and took off into the bush. I always feel a little weird calling the landscape ‘the bush’, like I’m not being politically correct or something, but truly that’s what it is. There are lots of trees but they are all relatively small and have low limbs making them look almost like bushes.

We took the dirt roads into the bush: and I am using the word ‘roads’ generously. At times there was a dirt bath wide enough for the car. Other times there were two faint trails of dirt spaced apart like the wheels of a car. The trees were frequently so close to the car that they raked against it, and I literally mean raked because many of these trees had thorns the size and sharpness of nails. You could hear them dragging against the outside of the truck. Three times we had to stop because one of the men in back of the open truck had their hats knocked off of their heads.

The "road" through the bush.

 

After twisting and turning down the paths (and I had no idea how they knew which path to take when it split) the car finally stopped in what looked to me as an unremarkable stop. I was told we were going to see a potential tourist spot, but nothing else. At this point we all had to go to our knees and pray. I was told that failing to pray at this spot might mean that we wouldn’t reach our destination. After praying, we took off on a small trail through the trees. It was easy to follow the rest of the group although the trail constantly kept me on my toes. On the ground were a lot of small rocks that needed to be minded so I wouldn’t trip or stub my toe. Up higher were branches that constantly had to be ducked because they had, like I mentioned earlier, ridiculously large thorns. I’m sure I was doing an uncoordinated bob and weave the entire time.

When we finally reached our destination it was beautiful. The ground was interesting. It was open rock that looked like it had been formed by mud and smaller rocks being cemented together over time. Running down the middle of a dip in the rock was a small stream. Occasionally the stream would flatten and run through a patch of grass in the rocks, only to emerge and tumble lower. Three of the men had brought water bottles to take the water with them. I asked them why they wanted the water and the response varied from just wanting to drink it, to something that definitely had to do with traditional healing/witchcraft.

 

It was nice hiking over the rock. It was nice just seeing running water in Botswana. While we walked around a few people were collecting a small shrub that was growing in the shade of the rocks. They said they could brew a tea using the leaves that would lower blood pressure. It was a nice afternoon. On the way back we stopped at one more place, and then headed back to the home. We were driving on the road when suddenly the kgosi stopped and pointed to the road. Less than thirty feet in front of us there was a huge snake crossing the road; at least six-feet long. I tried to get a picture but only caught the tail of it. They told me it was a python. They then proceeded to tell me that ‘yes pythons can kill you but they’re one of the nicer snakes’, also that this was a ‘small one’. I’m sorry, what? A small one?? ‘Oh yes, the blue mambas are a lot meaner and more deadly’. Oh good.

If you look closely, on the left you can see the last half of the snake crossing the road.

 

If that wasn’t eventful enough, about a mile or so later we heard a hissing noise that was, not a snake, but the sound of the air quickly leaving the back right tire. We had driven over one of those nail-thorns and it had punctured the tire of the big truck. Nature here does not play games. The irony was that as we were driving to the site I kept thinking encouraging thoughts like: ‘you could get stranded out here and no one would find you’, and ‘how would you give them directions? Oh yes, take the dirt path until the thorn tree, turn left on the other dirt path, now there’s going to be a fern blocking your view but if you look carefully there are tire marks right past the brown cow and it’s calf, if they’re still sitting in the same spot….’ etc. Of course I’m being ignorant here because people know their way from experience. I am clearly just blind to the signs, but still…

 The joke’s on me though because the situation was under control. The kgosi and another man walked off into the bush almost immediately. The rest of us hung by the car while the VDC chairman called people at his farm (maybe a tractor could come get us), and the police officer (his car was out of fuel) but we had no luck. I settled in for a long stay. About an hour or so later the kgosi and the man came back with a tire and a pump. A farmer nearby was letting them use his spare and was on his way with the jack. I thought that was great community spirit. We were shortly after on our way, and made our way home with no more problems (except the hats getting knocked off). It was a nice trip and I’m glad I was able to tag along. Almost as glad as I was to be inside the car when I saw the snake. Yikes. More adventures to come!

Kgope!

Where to start! As I’m writing this I’ve now been at site for a little over six weeks. My village is called Kgope, and is a small place in Kweneng North region. By private car I’m about an hour’s drive away from Gaborone the capitol. Without a private car it can take anywhere from one and a half hours up to forever (more on this later). The 2011 census says Kgope has 368 people although I’ve been told it’s wrong and there are around 550; like I said, it’s small. Kgope is what people call ‘the lands’ meaning that it’s mostly farms. In Botswana if you are a citizen you can apply to the Land Board and after a long process they give you land. It’s a radical idea compared to our private property America. This leads to many people having their house in one village, and their lands in another. I’ve been told Kgope founded because people decided to stay and live at their lands.

Needless to say, Kgope is very spread out. I know I haven’t even begun to scratch the surface. I’ve been told some of the kids walk almost 10k to get to school. The good news (the best news!) is that there are a lot of fresh vegetables and water rarely runs out. Life in Botswana really drives home the fact that water is life. We are very lucky in the U.S. to have not only easy access to water, but plenty of it. Botswana is in large part a desert. Water is taken from boreholes in the ground. I am lucky in Kgope because I’ve been told we rarely lose water and if so, it’s only out for an hour or so then its back. I know people in villages where the water will be out for days, come back for a few hours, and then be off again. In that time they frantically have to fill up every bucket/container on hand. Enough about water right now though, because like I said Kgope is fine on that front.

In Kgope there is one primary school: Kgope Primary School. For all other educational levels the children have to go to another village. In my two years of Peace Corps service I will be primarily helping at the school. My focus is Life Skills. I will try to explain this as best I can, but it’s a bit vague and up for interpretation. In every school there is a teacher called the Guidance and Counseling teacher. In primary schools it’s just a title and that teacher also teaches one of the standards (remember these are grades). Every class once a week has a guidance and counseling class. In primary this, like every subject, is taught by the main teacher. The Ministry of Education in Botswana has created a syllabus called Living; it’s a series of Life Skills books. They want these books to be taught not only during the guidance and counseling class, but infused into every subject. They believe that if children are taught better life skills, it will lower their chance of contracting HIV. My main task is to help with this ‘infusion’.  I’m also supposed to help with community projects, and bridging the school and community together.

One good and bad thing is that ‘life skills’ is extremely vague. Whenever someone asks me ‘what is life skills?’ I always have to think about it. It could be almost anything. In upper levels Sex Ed would definitely fit in here, but that would take some sensitivity to address it with the young kids. I’d like to focus (if it’s even possible) on confidence, decision making, and communication. I’m not sure how I’m going to tackle life skills yet – but I have two years to work it out, right?

Back to Kgope. There’s one school like I said, with one class at each level. There’s a health post with one nurse, a health educator, and a cleaner. There’s an agricultural office, one church (only the Roman Catholics have their own building), one general store, one bar, two depots (drinking places, but only selling the cheap Chibuku alcoholic drink I’m not sure how to describe), and the kgotla. The kgotla is a traditional center for village meetings with the kgosi (chief). In Botswana, instead of throwing out the old system of governance, it was adopted into official law. Each village has a kgosi who is in charge, and is (usually) the eldest son of the previous kgosi. There is a book of law, and within that law he can rule on disputes in the village. One example I heard of (from the police officer) was if a man was beating his wife/girlfriend. They would collect evidence, and then bring the two before the kgosi. If the man was pronounced guilty the kgosi could decide to fine him, or order him lashed. Maybe it’s wrong, but I find something really satisfying about the idea of someone getting lashed for beating another person. It’d be like castrating child molesters: that’s justice you can feel. But I digress…

 There are two police officers in Kgope and they’re both extremely nice. One has been here for many years and one came just a few weeks ago. It’s nice for me because the old officer is taking the new one around to show him the village. It’s the perfect opportunity for me to tag along. They’ve been very nice about accommodating me.

The last thing about Kgope I’ll mention today is my house. I love it. The government provides housing for the teachers, and it worked out that a house was free and I am staying in teacher’s housing. I’m right across the (dirt) road from the school and can see the health post from my house too. I have a kitchen, three rooms, and two-ish bathrooms; the toilet and a sink are in one small room, and the bath tub and a sink are in another. I have running water, but no electricity. I have a gas stove in the kitchen. I really don’t mind not having electricity. At the moment I get by using my headlamp, flashlight, and candles. Everyone keeps telling me to get a paraffin lamp which I’m sure I’ll get around to eventually. At the moment I’m content with my candles.

One thing I’ve noticed about not having electricity is how much more aware of the sun I am. You get a feel for exactly when the sun sets, and what a difference it makes. It’s amazing that the sun can be setting for some time, but once it hits the horizon it could be a ten minute difference between light and pitch dark. I could write a whole blog entry on the sky here and sunsets. When I look at the pictures I’ve taken of Kgope so far they’re mostly of sunsets; and the pictures don’t even do them justice. The sky at all time of day mesmerizes me. Try to think of how many times in a day you look at the sky. Most days it’s probably not even once. That’s kind of sad isn’t it? Here the sky is so vast and so beautiful it can’t be ignored. At night it’s equally amazing. I won’t go into how many stars I can see at night, because that’s a whole other wonder.

I think this is a good introduction to Kgope. Everyone has been very nice and I’m enjoying myself. I read a lot. All the time I’ve been too busy to read for pleasure, is finally being equaled out by the massive amount of reading I’m doing here (via the lovely Kindle Martin gave me). Life is good.
Don’t forget to write me letters!

Elizabeth Wallis (or Elizabeth Tshepo Wallis)
Kgope Primary School
Private Bag 24
Lentsweletau
Botswana

Swearing In

November 15th was Swearing In. When I arrived in Botswana on September 13^th it was as a Trainee. The Swearing In ceremony officially marks becoming a Volunteer. Swearing In was on a Thursday and earlier in the week leading up to it, our training schedule was finally relaxed a bit. I know I haven’t mentioned training very much, but it was exhausting. We were at the training center from 8:30-4:30 every weekday and 9:00-1:00 on Saturdays.

For Swearing In they wanted two volunteers to give speeches in Setswana. One was to thank the staff, host parents, Peace Corps, etc. The other was for the volunteers. After thinking about it for some time, and being encouraged by some friends I decided to do one of the speeches. The other girl, Kristin, and I decided that she would give the ‘Thank You’ speech, and I would give the one to the volunteers. We would each give our own speech in English and read the Setswana version/translation of the other one’s speech.

After I wrote my speech I had lofty dreams of translating it into Setswana by myself. The combination of our busy training schedule, and my limited Setswana dimmed that dream. My LCF (Language and Cultural Facilitator aka Setswana Teacher) Tiro was kind enough to translate it for me. After I got the Setswana version of Kristin’s speech I practiced every night. I’m not even exaggerating; I practiced that speech for almost a week.  There are some Setswana words that are not for the faint of heart, and needed practice if I didn’t want to completely butcher them. One such word was: ikiteileng. Another: motlhotlho. Kristin definitely got some of the harder ones in the translated version of my speech like: mmantswitswidi (poet) and my personal favorite tlhakatlhakaneng (mixed feelings).

On Swearing In day the speeches were my favorite part. Kristin went first and I read the Setswana version. Everytime I finished a section I got a huge applause from our host parents and any Batswana in the room. It really helped because I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t shaking like a leaf (I’m not a big public speaker). The constant postitive reinforcement was nice.  The best part was how impressed everyone was with Kristin and I. They looked at us like we had just whipped Setswana out on the spot, and were translating on the fly. One of the speakers at the main table even mentioned he had a son looking for a wife. Classic. When that same man stood up to give his speech it was in English then he randomly switched to Setswana. He then proceded to look straight at me speaking in Setswana (since of course, I had just proved with the speech that I was fluent). I just smiled and laughed in time with the Batswana in the room understanding about a quarter of what he said. I guess I was convincing because later other Volunteers thought I had understood him. I love things like this.

I really liked the speech I wrote too and it went over well. In a nutshell, that was Swearing In. It didn’t feel like a big deal, more just like the end of training. I’m glad I was able to give one of the speeches. I’m even more proud I made it through the Setswana one. I even got a marriage offer; this is one of the many reasons I love African cultures; that would never happen in America. It was nice to officially be able to call myself a Peace Corps Volunteer. The next day we all left for our sites.  

Host Family Party

With training coming to an end, we were told that we were having a thank you party for the Host Families. We split into committees for the party: Cooking, Ushering, Shopping, and Entertainment. I was on the Entertainment committee and we spent a couple weeks planning what we wanted to do. I really wanted to do an acrostic poem. For those of you who don’t remember, those are the poems where you spell something (like in this case ‘Thank You’) then say ‘T is for ______, H is for _______’ etc. down the line.  Maybe it’s just having been a kindergarten teacher, but I thought it would be nice. I took it upon myself to write the English, and then had help translating it into Setswana. My friend helped me write the letters THANK YOU! on one side of a paper and RE A LEBOGA (we thank you) on the other side. I got people to volunteer to read each letter and the two sentences with it then at the end we flipped the papers and said “Re a leboga” together. The families loved it; I think they were the most happy to hear us speaking Setswana.

We also planned three skits. People seem to love skits. The three skits were: cooking, washing clothes, and pets. We were trying to show Americans in the funniest light possible. The cooking skit was about adding crazy things to food, since some of the things we cook get a strange look. The two volunteers who wrote it also stressed smelling food since here that’s not considered polite. Culturally, smelling food is implying something is rotten and so it is a big no-no. (Of course we learned this the day after I smelled all the spice mixes in the house trying to figure out what they were – go figure.) The pets skit was about how American’s love animals and treat them like pets. Dogs are kept strictly outside the house. There are used mostly for protection and are definitely not coddled. In the skit the two volunteers had the American naming every animal she passed and trying to bring it in the house as a pet. It went well.

The last skit: washing clothes was done be me and my friend Kate. She was the host mother, and I was the American. We joked about me being 25 and not even knowing how to wash clothes, when a Batswana would have learned how to at five. Then I wrestled with a sheet in my attempt to wash it. My favorite part was parodying a Setswana song. Let me preface this by saying: I love Setswana songs. It’s a great way to learn the language and culture, not to mention that the harmonies people sing here are beautiful. My favorite song is sung by a woman working in a field. Translated, the lyrics go: Aunty, please carry my child. I’m in the field plowing and I’m alone. You can see that I’m plowing, and I’m alone. For the skit we changed the words to say: Aunty, please carry my Sunlight (brand of soap). I’m trying, I’m washing, and I’m alone. It was a big hit. Like with the poem, I think they liked the fact that part of it was in Setswana.

Site Announcement

On October 19th we had a special day half day of training. Everyone was only half paying attention because we were all focused on the afternoon and site announcement. That was when we would find out where in Botswana we would be spending the next two years. It was actually really nice and they made the site announcement all official. They cleared us out of the training classroom, and wouldn’t let us in until it started.

While they were setting up, we went down stairs with the LCFs (Setswana teachers) and they taught us some traditional games kids like to play. My favorite was dodge ball-esc. Two people stand about 25 feet apart and have a ball. Between them there is a shallow box, crushed cans, and a team of four or so people. Using their feet, the people in the middle have to pinch the cans and toss them into the box. In the meantime, the two on the outside are trying to peg them with the ball. When the person in the middle gets hit they’re out. Speaking as one who was in the middle – it’s a lot to keep track of, especially when you’re the last one. I’m sure it’s also funny to watch as the middle person frantically flips cans in between dodging the ball. It was a lot of fun.

That was the morning, then the long awaited site announcement! When we got to the classroom the chairs were in a big U facing the front where there was a map of Botswana with 34 pins in it for our sites. It was easy to immediately see that we were all mostly together except for a few on the fringes. Since my group is all Life Skills volunteers, we’re all in the southern half of the country. The room was decorated with balloons and streamers. After we had all taken our seats they told us to reach under our chair and find the paper there. Each paper had a number on it, and that was the order in which we were called to find our sites; I was number thirteen. I took it as a good sign since we are Bots 13 (the 13th group in Botswana since the program re-opened) and we arrived on September 13th. They called our name, we went up to get our site, announced it to the group, pinned our name on the map, and then we got to take a drink and a giant cookie with our number on it.

My site is…. *drum roll*… Kgope! My school is Kgope Primary School. Primary school here is Standards (Grades) 1-7. Some people are at Junior Secondary Schools: Form 1-3 (Grades 8-10) and two people are at Senior Secondary Schools: Form 4-5 (Grades 11-12). If what I just wrote doesn’t make sense, what I’m trying to show is that instead of saying “Grades” they use the terms “Standards” and “Forms”. Back to Kgope! Kgope is a small village of around 500 people in Kweneng District. It’s fairly close to the capitol Gaborone and another large town Molepolole. I’m the first PCV in the village which is what I was hoping for. There will be no groundwork in place, but it also means no expectations. It sounded like a perfect placement for me. On a funny note, if you google ‘Kgope’ the only thing the Wikipedia page says is the District and that there’s a Primary School; that’s me!

Cultural Village

A couple weeks ago we were able to go to a cultural village to see traditional dancing, and learn more about traditional Batswana culture. It was nice to take a break from the training room. I wanted to post pictures but the internet is refusing. So I'll try another day. To continue the story:

After the dancing, they did a mock-traditional wedding so we could see what it’s like. One of the volunteers was a good sport and allowed us to marry her off. Her birthday was the next day so we thought: ‘what could be a better present than a Motswana husband” right? It started with the lobola being negotiated. Lobola is dowry for the bride. The standard rate is eight cows. The husband-to-be has to give the cows, or a cash equivalent, to the woman’s family before they can be married. Once lobola was decided in this mock-wedding they shook a bag of bones/rocks and tossed them to see if it was going to be a good marriage. To be honest, I didn’t really understand that part – but I guess she passed the test.

Then the new husband and wife went to their hut. Apparently traditionally the older women in the village peek through the windows to make sure the girl is struggling because that means she’s a virgin? It was definitely awkward. The best part was that they told the guy and the girl how to act. So in the “morning” after the girl comes out crying (success?!) and the guy came out strutting. I think that meant the deal was sealed. It was a lot of fun seeing it and everyone was a good sport.

Fun with Setswana

As part of our PST we have 120 hours of language training. Setswana and English are the national languages of Botswana and life is easier if we know both. Being confident in our English abilities, we get 120 hours of Setswana. I won’t try to go in depth and tell you about the language; I’m still untangling it myself. I will tell you some things I enjoy about Setswana that also help give some perspective on the culture here:

1) Dumela. It would be un-Motswana of me to start with anything but dumela. Dumela is the greeting here: THE greeting. Everyone must be greeted. You are considered very rude if you pass someone (unless maybe in a city or large town) and don’t greet them. If you want to ask someone a question in the supermarket, or an office, it’s important to greet them first. As one Motswana speaker put it in training: “greeting someone is acknowledging that they are not a tree”. This belief is tied in with the word:

2) Batho. Batho literally means: I am because you are. The culture of Botswana is extremely communal.  By greeting someone you’re acknowledging them as being: as existing.

3) Monna and Mosadi. Monna: man/husband. Mosadi: woman/wife. If you say “my man” you’re saying “my husband”, and vice versa. What fascinates me about this is that it speaks to the culture. In Botswana you are considered a “youth” until you’re 35 years old. In the language you cannot be what we would consider an adult (man/women) until you are married. Before then, you’re still considered a child.  This also is interesting to me because if gives insight as to why some young women have struggled to be treated as professionals here: technically, we’re still children.

I’ll try to post more “Fun with Setswana” when I riddle more out. . .

Interesting Sights (First month and a half)

1) A goat’s head in my kitchen. (I was not nearly as phased as I thought I would be).

2) A chicken go from clucking… to dinner. (Chickens are stupid and cannibalistic. One walked right by where her friend had been murdered seconds before, then later another tried to eat feathers plucked from the dead chicken. It was also really interesting to see the inside of the chicken. You could see what would have been the next day’s egg inside the hen. There were round yolks of different sizes that you knew were eggs to come.)

3) A cow folded up in the back of a minivan like a beach towel. (I saw two legs sticking up, but otherwise it was folded really nicely. I’m kicking myself for not getting a picture of this.)

4) An official school function where a dog sat down in front of the table of speakers, and started cleaning its boy-bits.

5) Two styles of traditional dance. In one the men wrap their calves in (what looks like) animal skins, hairy-side in, and during the dance hit their legs in a way that it reminded me of step dancing.

6) An albino spider the size of my palm (now deceased).

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

Peace Corps Botswana: Pre-Departure, the Flight, Arrival.

As many of you know, I have been applying to the Peace Corps for a long time. I submitted my application March 2010. After being told I’d depart June 2011 then getting delayed for a year for the death of an immediate family member; in May 2012 I finally received my invitation to serve in the Peace Corps. The country: Botswana. I’ll admit that my knowledge of Botswana before was entirely from my International Corruption class. Botswana is a shining example in the world of a country with a very low level of corruption. Knowing only this, I was excited to get Botswana as my country of service; it was in Africa (which I was hoping for), and it’s a safe enough country to mollify the folks worried about me going to Africa.

On September 11th I flew to Philadelphia for a day of training called Staging. There I met the other 34 volunteers that would make up my group: Botswana 13. We are the 13th group to serve in Botswana since the Peace Corps went back. Staging was good although I can safely say that I was not at my best. It could have had something to do with packing last minute – but really it could be anything right? Some might ask what was I doing my last week if I wasn’t packing? The answer is eating. Based on previous traveling experiences I could safely predict that cheese, meatballs, and cookie dough flurries would not be in my future anytime soon. So adopting the same philosophy that a squirrel does when it’s getting ready for winter – I ate like it was going out of style. No regrets.

On September 12th they woke us up at 2:30 in the morning to board a bus to JFK (no one could reasonable tell me why the wake-up was so early). We got to JFK with about four hours to spare until our flight. I got to see my Aunt Claudia in the airport right before I went through security and though it was a short visit, it was nice to see family right before I left. I also have to mention that when I was leaving Albany, the lady checking me in for the flight to Philadelphia gave my mom a special pass to go through security, and sit with me until boarding. That was definitely a nice way to start this Peace Corps journey.

To put it mildly: the flight was a beastly 15 hours. Luckily I was in the center four seats and there were only two of us, so I was able to lie down for a while; I watched four movies. We arrived in Johannesburg, South Africa, September 13th and caught our flight to Gaborone, Botswana. We touched down in Botswana in the afternoon, and were met at the airport by Peace Corps staff. They took us to a lodge nearby and finally the luggage lugging ended.

Welcome to Botswana.

This is my group: Bots 13.

Wrapping Up Korea

Though many of you know that I have started a new adventure, I feel weird talking about it without wrapping up my time in Korea. My last entry was from April and my contract in Korea didn’t finish until early July. Below I’ve put two posts about significant things I did in Korea that I never got around to writing about. 

I have to say overall that I loved my time in Korea. When I think about the things I did and the people I met, I’m very grateful I had the opportunity to go. I had always thought about teaching abroad and I’m very glad I did. I’m even gladder that I got the chance to do it in Korea. Korea is a country I never thought about visiting. Though I would like to travel the whole world, (honestly) Korea never held much interest for me. That’s one of the reasons I wanted to go there the most, when I was given the opportunity. It sounds strange, but I liked the idea of choosing to live in a country I knew I would not want to visit as a tourist; and it was amazing.

If you haven’t tried Korean food – you must. I’m sitting here missing the food just writing this. If you don’t know where to start try galbi (Korean barbecue), or bulgogi (marinated beef); you can’t go wrong with either.

I have so much love an appreciation for the quirks of modern Korean culture. What I once thought was strange: couples outfits, etc. I now just smile and say ‘oh Korea’ fondly. I miss Korea a lot; I miss my friends and my lifestyle there. The obvious follow-up question to that is ‘would you want to live there?’ and the answer is no. Will I go back to visit: absolutely.

I had a great year there, but the wandering continues…

My final kindergarten class

A Korean Wedding

The weekend of my birthday was my former co-worker’s wedding. She had left the school a couple months earlier, but not before inviting us to her wedding. I was very excited to see a Korean wedding; it was definitely a different experience. First off, there’s no sense of “I’m the only bride in the world on this day”.
Let me explain what to do/expect at a Korean wedding.

The wedding was held on the floor of a large reception/conference type building. When you get off the elevator you see a large dining room to your left, a wedding hall straight ahead, and a small decorated room and some tables on the right. First you want to go to the small room. It’s beautifully decorated and there you see the bride sitting on a bench posing for pictures with friends and family. We went there (all 6 of us teachers) and took pictures with her. In a funny ‘Oh Korea’ moment, one of my friends was moved away from the bride and to the back row because her face was too small and it would make my friend, the bride’s, look big. Korean women are really into having small faces. You know you’ve been to Korea when you receive a compliment (or just a comment) on the size of your face.

After taking pictures you go to the desk where you sign a guest book and leave your gift with some men in charge of collecting them. You always give money. Then they give you a ticket so you can get into the dining room later. It leaves you feeling like you’ve just paid for your meal, but considering the price of weddings, that’s not so bad. Then you go (we went) and sat in the wedding hall. That room was spectacularly decorated and you could see the wedding before just finishing their pictures. It seems strange that the same room could be used for multiple weddings. Coming from an American perspective, it doesn’t seem unique enough. You want everything to be tailored to you, and in the Korean setting that’s not possible. At least at the wedding I saw. Everyone has the same colors and the same flowers. I thought I would really dislike the whole atmosphere because it’s not as personal – but I actually liked it. The decorations were really nice. They had professional pictures of the couple projected in a couple places and overall it was really nice.

Sarah (my friend) wore a white dress, but her parents were dressed in hanbok, traditional clothing. The ceremony was short, and all in Korean so I can’t comment on its content. My favorite part of the ceremony was when the groom sang to the bride. It was really sweet. After the ceremony we hung around for a few pictures. They did one with all the family, then one with all the friends.  After the pictures we went to the dining hall. It was a huge room with galbi tang (beef rib soup) on the table with the usual overload of sides. There was also a buffet set up where you could get more food. Sarah and her husband changed into hanbok and came around to see everyone. When we finished eating, the wedding was done and we left. I don’t think Sarah and her husband sat down at all. It was nothing like an American wedding that’s so focused on the reception. I had a great time, and Sarah was a beautiful bride.

Temple Stay

In May I finally got around to doing a temple stay. Even before going to Korea, a temple stay was on my to-do list. What happens in a temple stay is that you go to a Buddhist temple and are able to stay overnight. I’ve had limited experiences with Buddhism, but they’ve all been extremely positive. What’s not to like about a religion/philosophy that at its core is about being a good person, and not doing harm to others.

I went for the temple stay with twelve other people, none of whom I knew. There’s a great company called Adventure Korea that organizes trips for wayguks (foreigners). When I saw they had an upcoming trip to Geumsansa temple for a one-night temple stay, I signed myself up. The temple was a few hours down the west coast from Seoul, by bus. We arrived on Saturday and they gave us time to walk around the temple grounds. There were about four buildings (for praying) and a big bell. After we walked around we were given our temple clothes. Everything about the clothing style was meant for comfort and freedom of movement. If I didn’t look like such a block in them, I would have loved to take a set home. The complete look was loose-fitting pants, and a loose shirt. That night we did many things: met the monk who would be with our group, had tea with him, had dinner at the temple, made a paper lantern, and said the nightly prayer. We went to bed early because the morning prayer was at 4:00am.

Sunday everyone got up for the morning prayer (they were surprised since it was optional) and after that we did 108 bows. The number 108 is very significant in Buddhism. I don’t remember the exact math of it, but I know it holds great importance. Every morning the monks do 108 bows. This bow is not just bobbing your head. The full bow starts with you standing legs together and palms touching. Then you put your knees on the ground making sure your right elbow, then your left, are also on the ground. Your whole forearm on both sides should touch the rug/mat. Then you touch your forehead to the ground. While your forehead is touching the ground you bring your palms up, then put them back face-down to the ground. Then you stand. Then you repeat 107 more times. While we did the bows the monk held a bamboo stick he would slap against his hand to signal us to bow again. Lucky for me, he kept count (I lost track around 40). He told us while we were doing it we should think about our past, or our family. I tried to focus on individual people for a couple bows, then switch. When you didn’t focus on the strain of the motion, they were a lot easier to do. When he signaled we were doing the last bow, I actually thought we were only somewhere around 70. This was by far my favorite part/accomplishment during the temple stay. I won’t pretend though, that I’m as skilled as the monks: my legs felt like jelly when I walked down stairs.

After we bowed, we meditated with the monk. Then we ate a traditional monastic meal. The lesson of the meal was to appreciate simplicity of food, and not waste anything. We had four bowls: one for soup, one for rice, one for side dishes (radish, vegetables, etc.), and one for water to wash everything. We served ourselves, but told beforehand that we had to eat everything in our bowls; and I mean everything. At the end of the meal they gave us some rice water to rinse the dishes, and we used a pickled radish to help clean. After cleaning the three bowls (not the water one) we had to drink the rice water and eat the radish. Of course, the rice water was not delicious: it had pieces of vegetables and rice in it from the other dishes. The point though, was that the bowls were clean and nothing was wasted; that’s the Buddhist lifestyle.

After the meal we made Buddhist beads. Really, we were given string, and 108 wooden beads. They gave us an hour on the temple grounds to complete our necklace. The way you are suppose to do it, is each time you put a bead on the string you should attach a wish to it, and do one full bow. Maybe I didn’t mention that I had already done 108 bows that morning. I was able to do a full bow for 40 beads, but then I thought that Buddha would understand that at the end of it all, I would like to walk from the temple and not have to be carried. Overall, I really enjoyed the process of making the necklace. It’s harder than I thought it would be to attach meaning to each bead. Since I think Buddhist beads don’t hold the same superstitions as birthday wishes, I can tell you what I was thinking. For each bead I tried to think of a friend or family member. My wishes were usually health or happiness related. If I knew someone was having trials, I tried to focus on that for them. I know this necklace will be something I’ll treasure forever.

After the necklace was completed, we had tea, changed back into our clothes, and were on our way back north. I’m very glad I had the chance to do a temple stay; it was a great experience and one I always remember. 

I made this lotus lantern!

Getting Sick in Korea

In early April I got sick. It started out as a cold and ended up as bronchitis. I just wanted to mention it because of the stark differences in health care in Korea and the U.S. At first when I got sick, I thought it was just a cold and that I would get over it in a couple days. As anyone who has worked with kids would know, they are germy little things and you can't help but catch things from them from time to time. In Korea the first thing you do when you're feeling sick is go to the pharmacy. It's the same as in Kenya. You go to the pharmacy, explain your symptoms, and they can give you some medication right there. It's a nice way to skip the high price usually charged by doctors (back home).

The second time after I went to the pharmacy and explained that things still weren't better, and I had an intense pressure in my entire face, the lady's response was "go see a doctor". First, I have to say that I'm lucky in that there is a private women's hospital literally on the same street as my school. It was one of my busy days at school; I don't get any breaks after lunch except for one 20 minute break. I decided to go during lunch, and see if I could see a doctor in that hour slot. Everyone at the hospital was very nice, the doctor spoke a lot of English. I was in and out in under 40 minutes. The total cost without insurance: $13. My first prescription: $7. I ended up going back to the doctor twice more, but each follow-up visit only cost $9 each. The most expensive of the three prescriptions was the one when they finally gave me antibiotics which turned out to be a whooping $17.

I want to show you a picture of the way the give prescriptions here because I thought it was cool.

The pills are in their own little sealed compartments. They even wrote "M" "L" "D" so I know what meal to take each little pack with. (I think the dinner one had an extra something that might make you drowsy, hence why it's different)

Sometimes I really love Korea. On another fun Korea services note, tonight I got a new pair of glasses. I heard that they were cheaper here, and I haven't gotten a new pair in maybe five years. I went in, picked out the frames, and they checked my eyes free of charge. They assembled my new glasses in 15 minutes, the cost: $58. They even had glasses as cheap as $25 a pair. Part of me wants to stock up, but I know that's unresonable and just my bargain hunter-self catching the wind of a great deal. If you go to Korea though, I highly recommend getting some glasses. Although it's cheap, I can't really recommend getting sick...

Icheon Ceramics Festival

In April I went to the Icheon Ceramics Festival. I really enjoyed it because after going to a couple museums here, I'm kind of getting into Korean pottery. At the very least, I know the history more and can appreciate the simplicity. There's not a lot to write about this particular adventure but I wanted to share some pictures from the day. There were a couple buildings that you could walk through and purchase pottery. There were a lot of amazing pieces, but I'm not exactly in a place in my life where making a lot of pottery purchases makes sense. I can't exactly bring them everywhere with me. So instead I appreciated their beauty from afar. There was also a tea set competition that resulted in a lot of modern and cool looking sets. I'll post the pictures of my favorites so you can see.

The entrance

Inside the gate

One of the tea sets from the competition

Traditional style, Korean ceramics

Competition piece

The main building where you could buy ceramics

A wall filled with ceramic pieces!

A close-up of the wall

One of my favorite modern ceramics pieces

Another cool piece

Another :)

A metal tree filled with wind-chimes

My New Kindergarten Class: 6y-1

When I first came to Korea and LCI (my school) I was teaching the 7y-2 class. The kids were seven years old and had been taking English for two years. As I wrote earlier, in February those kids graduated and are now first graders in Korean school. That meant that starting in March I was getting an entirely new class. I now have the 6y-1 class. These kids had never studied English before.

I'll admit that getting settled with them took some time. I had been with my old class for eight months, and we had a rhythm. I was also spoiled because their English was already so good when I came. The first day with my new class we literally stared at each other. I was so nervous, and I'm sure the kids were thinking 'what in the world is this funny looking lady saying?'. They spoke to me almost exclusively in Korean. Whenever they said something to me that sounded like a question I just pointed to the bathroom because I was terrified someone would have an accident because I didn't understand them asking to go. The whole first week was a learning experience. On a positive note though, I do now know how to say 'bathroom', 'pee', and 'teacher help me' in Korean.

The first thing I did was make signs with pictures for the class that said "May I go to the bathroom?" and "May I get a drink of water?". I figured even if they couldn't say it, they could at least point. It's worked very well, and has the added bonus of them not only now knowing how to ask, but doing so in a full sentence. From there we've kept moving forward. Now, three months later, their progress is amazing. It's so exciting and rewarding for me looking back on how we started and how far we've come. They're not reading yet but they are remembering some sight words. Whenever they speak to me they always use English (and a lot of gestures of course). One of our activities in class is poem and I do each poem for two weeks. Many of the kids are now able to memorize the poems! So far two that we've done that were the most popular were Fuzzy Wuzzy and Hickory Dickory Dock.

It took me a little while to get attached to this class. In the beginning I was certain that they couldn't compare to my old class. They've wormed their way into my heart though, and I know I'll be sad to leave them in a little over a month. I can only imagine how they'll be speaking in a year's time. I'll attach some pictures of my class below. We went on a field trip to a zoo and there are some pictures from that too. (As a side note, one of the boys in the pictures left my class, and now I have two new boys not in the pictures that started last week). I have 11 kids in my class now.

Me and the Director's wife

The entire kindergarten program.

Namsan Tower

I'm sorry that I've been on such a hiatus. I've been doing a lot in the last few months and I want to bring you some of the highlights. First: Namsan Tower. Namsan Tower is the Seattle Space Needle of Seoul. It's a tall skinny building/structure on top of a hill in the middle of Seoul. It allows you 360 degree views of the city. It was on my list of places to visit and in mid-April I went with my friend/fellow teacher Laura.

To get to the base of the tower your options are taking the cable car, the bus, or hiking/walking up the mountain. Laura wanted to hike so we did. I'm using the word hike loosely here because it was more like sets and sets of stairs. Here's how it looked "hiking":



The weather was perfect for our adventure. When you finish climbing all the stairs (I definitely had to take a couple breaks) you get to the top where the tower is. Even without going up into the tower itself there are amazing views to be had from up there. Here's a picture of the tower from the platform:

Before we went up in the tower we walked around. At Namsan there's a long fence that couples attach locks too. It's a fun tradition; couples will go and "lock up" their love at Namsan. For all of the couple things that I think are over the top here, I thought this one was kind of sweet. It was overwhelming to see all of the locks. They even had a box to throw away the keys.

I liked that underneath the new plastic locks you could see old metal ones rusting with age.

Seoul in the background.



After we looked at all the locks we walked around the platform. In the gift shop there was a wall where couples could buy tiles to write on in addition to the locks.

Those pictures that you see on the tiles are big in Korea. There are little shops you can go into and take those pictures then doctor them with hearts, stars, cat whiskers, etc. So cute (Korea's motto). Finally, after a full dose of couples and love, we went up into the tower. Here are some pictures of Seoul from the top.

It was really amazing seeing Seoul from the top of the tower. I've visited so many neighborhoods in Seoul but I never really had an idea of where they were in relation to each other. It was cool being able to figure it out. Afterwards Laura and I were even confinent enough that we decided to walk down the mountain to a neighborhood called Itawon that we've been to many times. Itawon is the foreigners district. We definitely took the long way, but we successfully made it there. It was nice to end the day in a cute little bar drinking amazing drinks. Of course, I have to share those too :)

The bar was called Bermuda Triangle

 A mojito and Kiwi makgeolli (a Korean rice wine)

More Couples Paraphernalia

Couples. . . where to even begin? It's well known now, how hilarious (and odd) I think the couple culture here in Korea is. In some earlier posts I was able to show you pictures I took of Korean couples walking down the street, and at Everland. Now I want to bring you, what I think takes the cake as the weirdest piece of a couple's outfit. . . couples underwear. That's right. At any store here that sells underwear, you can find a nice set for couples. In fact, almost every underwear window display shows couples underwear.

This is one riddle I just can't crack. I can't figure out if you call your boyfriend/girlfriend in the morning to make sure they wear theirs? Do couples get a kick from knowing that extra layer is matching and no one else can see? I thought the whole point was for people to see! Couples underwear has me completely baffled.

Korean dating has its own barriers too. Here most people live with their parents until they are married. It's too expensive to move out, and chances are you wouldn't move very far anyways. So when Korean couples are dating they both have parents to go home to at the end of the night. It's one of the reasons why "love motels" are so popular here. There are also places called DVD-bong (bong means: room) where they have a lot of movies and you can rent one and watch it in a room there with a large screen. All my Korean friends have told me those are big places for Korean couples to go. The rooms are VERY private.

I still can't figure out where the couples underwear comes in. I feel like there must be no spontaneity in many Korean relationships. If you're wearing your couples underwear, then you're hoping to see the matching pair, right? I just keep picturing a couple going to a love motel thinking "I can't wait until be both get down to our underwear and we match!" What is that?! I don't get it! I also can't imagine being 25, 28, over 30, going out for a date and knowing first you'll have dinner, then you'll get ice cream, then you'll go the love motel, but you can't be there too long because your parents are expecting you home. All eloquence gone: that would suck.

Anyways, I wont say anything more because I coule rant about couples for hours. You all are in luck thought, because I have pictures of couples underwear. I felt like the creepiest person taking these photos, but I think it was worth it. Enjoy:

 Couples phone charms.

The most modest couple pajamas EVER. I feel like if you ever get to this stage in a relationship, it's time to re-evaluate.