half way through training

Things I’ve learned: a toilet seat is in fact unnecessary, as is toilet paper. and a shower head. im sure this list will progress as time goes on...

This woman demonstrated how she made the traditional baskets that are apparently made all over Botswana, but predominately in the North.

Some other interesting info: Marriage for women is negotiated in terms of cows. In order to marry, the cost of a bride is typically about an 8 cow minimum (each cow being 1,500 Pula or approximately $250). If you can’t afford this then you don’t approach the girl’s parents and therefore do not marry. Also, on the family compound the girls are given a particular plot of land on the compound, allocated towards the building of their home when they are young girls. This is evident even in my host family situation. They built the round house on my compound when Galaletsang, the oldest daughter, came to be a teenager and she lives there as her own home, but still very much sharing communal spaces such as the kitchen and outhouse. She will stay there until she marries in September and then will move to the place of her husband and his family. Oftentimes here, families of about 15 people share one bathroom facility or one pit latrine and bathtub and sink…I tried to explain to our Language and Cultural Facilitators (LCFs) or our teachers that the only time my family is that large and sharing such a communal bathroom is at Thanksgiving and Christmas and the tension and stress of that makes me wonder how families here do it so efficiently and peacefully. Imagine what I would sound like to say that it isn’t too uncommon where I’m from for each person in a house to have his or her own toilet.
This past Saturday, we made a visit to the Kumakwane village near the capital, Gaborone. There, we went on a tour of a small scale village with the round houses and saw the work of a tanner and a blacksmith using early tools and techniques to give us an understanding of the more traditional labor and layout of a Botswana village. We also were able to try the traditional fermented alcoholic drink made from maize that tastes like a mild acidic bile. Been there, done that….it’s about the like phane (worms) in that I’ve tried it and now I know.

The was the elder that facilitated the dancing and the ceremonial side of the event and she was a cute and sassy old woman.

I may have mentioned about the multiple concurrent partnership (MCP) deal that occurs here as a socially accepted practice…they reference it in terms of big house/small house. The big house being the residence of the marital spouse, and the small house(s) are those of the mistresses. (Nowadays women have their multiple misters too…a strange attempt at gender equality maybe?) Also, this is a large campaign in the HIV/AIDS field to reduce MCP or raise awareness on the health risks involved with this kind of behavior. Anyway, the referencing to big houses and small houses comes from the layout of the early villages. Because polygamy was practiced in earlier Botswana culture, each compound had multiple round houses. The status of the lover was essentially identified by the size of the house and the smaller houses belonged to the respective mistresses. It was neat to see this aspect of Botswana culture in a more formalized and commemorative way. While I was here, I couldn’t help but compare this experience to something like the Kent House plantation home in Louisiana. Seeing this, it feels like a pathetic comparison, but what I mean is that it had the same kind of memorialized feel to the setup with showing a particular way of life in a particular cultural and historical setting.
We were also treated to some traditional foods and some GREAT dancing. I have a couple of videos that I would love to load on here, but I can’t figure it out. If you know how to do this, please email me or message me on facebook about it. I’d love to share this with you. I have tried loading the photos on facebook but the internet is just too slow and incapable, which may be the same case for my blog too.

I feel the need to comment on my host family here and then I feel like I don’t have sufficient vocabulary to convey my appreciation for them. They have literally given me a home and space where I feel like I can simultaneously escape from things for a while or fully engage in and embrace this new life and cultural setting (pending the day and my mood). I’ve learned to be even quicker to laugh at myself, b/c in any uncertainty, we both resorts to smiles and laughing. These women work 6 days a week and come home to continue working and spend their free day working at the cattle post or around the house. In any case I’m always bid farewell with a couple of oranges from the yard to take to school and greeted with a warm smile upon my return from training each day. Although my mornings and evenings are more interactive than I would normally be, I try to remember that I’m here for opportunities such as these to learn to communicate and operate on a new schedule in a new culture. For instance, sometimes I’m not ready to practice speaking Setswana at sunrise before I’ve even brushed my teeth, but I’m grateful for the real exposure and experience I get in living with this family.
On another note...we find out our site placement on Saturday! I am wishing this week away in anticipation. I have these whims of anxiety and then excitement and then some mixture of the two. My mind is in a weird kind of resignation knowing that I really have little control over where I will be placed, but then I have these thoughts and aspirations to go far north into the delta or stay far south near the South African border. The truth is that I will accommodate and acclimate to wherever I am placed and find a home in the village I am given. Much of this experience is really about your attitude and what you make of it and how you choose to perceive things. Well, doesn’t that sound like a ridiculous motivational speaker yacking away…so, now you have a little exposure to the mantra and self-motivation that occurs in my head on a daily basis. In any case, I am excited to find out!

A great lookout spot we found in Kanye on our one free day, Sunday! This was on mother's day and followed by a great pseudo mexican feast for Karen's birthday!