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!