I'll post pictures later...that's too much of an endeavor for now

Leagang hanging out at the house.

I’m back in Kanye from my site visit to Moshupa. With only a week of training left I wonder what happened to my first two months in Africa. I’ve made small accomplishments and slowly realized how fostered my experience has been thus far. The epitome of my Peace Corps experience is moving to a remote village on my own and starting to integrate into my community and figure things out. Now that the time is here, I’m a bit nervous, but thrilled all the same. I’ve made friends here at training and found a support group that is still going to be accessible but not necessarily on a daily basis. Anyway, I’m sure I will elaborate on the progresses in my new village in the coming months, but for now I should fill you in on the details of my new living conditions.

Upon arriving in Moshupa I was taken to my house. I thought I was going to be living in government housing, but it turns out that I was provided with a house on a family compound. I am so lucky with this house in regards to amenities because there is a wall unit air conditioning contraption in the living room and I have running water and electricity. The “geyser” for hot water takes about 2 hours to heat, but I’m not complaining. Just having an indoor bathing area would have been sufficient! There is no stove or oven, just a little two burner electrical hot plate. I’m going to be an innovative little chef when it’s all over. I have a refrigerator but I question its reliability. There are three houses within this gated compound and a large yard that is mostly occupied by garden space (yessss!). He said last year he grew so many tomatoes that he ended up selling them to the locals in the village, but I’m sure that with me living there, the surplus of tomatoes will no longer be an issue. I asked if I could have my own garden space in the yard and he seemed fine with that. I plan on growing a lot of spinach, lettuce, and the like because these things aren’t readily available in the grocery store. Ohhhh yeah, the grocery store (singular) services the 18,000 people in the village and is about the size of a gas station convenient store in the states (maybe sliiiightly larger). Products and variety are limited but at least I can get cucumbers and cheese and coffee!

My first visit to the grocery store was an interesting one in that I had the opportunity to meet my landlord. Until now, he had been out of town on business. This particular afternoon I was shopping for my dinner and a man approached me to ask if I was the new Peace Corps volunteer in Moshupa. I was a bit alarmed at the question and then realized that I’m one of about 5 white people in my village and my presence is quickly noted. (I mean no implication on race, just merely acknowledging my skin color as a distinctive identifying feature about me here). When I confirm his question he says, “I think you are living in my house.” What a strange way to be introduced! He said that his name is France…only he pronounced it with a British English/African accent like “Fraaaaahnnce.” I repeated “Fraaaahnce” as though I was trying to figure out if this was a recognizable name or even something I was capable of pronouncing. He says, “yes, like the country” with a kind of matter-of-fact tone. Anyway, I laughed in his leaving but we arranged to meet the next day at the house. He showed me his home on the compound and was quick to elaborate on his farmland and his many houses about the country, explaining his reasoning for leaving town quite often. Having land and cattle here is still a sign of wealth. In addition, I saw him each day for the next 4 days and he was never in the same car. France is not like typical Batswana in this regard. It’s rare for an entire family of 10-15 people to even own one car, so you can imagine…

My first evening in my house the electricity was out. It was supposed to be out only until 2 pm that day for repairs, but as the sun went down I realized that electricity was not in the works for me. So after deciding on cereal for dinner, I moved to the living room to eat by candlelight. Sounds dreamy, right? Well let me elaborate on the ambience. The candle is supported by a beer bottle and I’m sitting on a filthy couch in the sitting room…It’s my first evening alone in about 2 months and I’m freezing cold in a new house without anything more than a candlestick. I had plenty of motivational conversations with myself saying that such conditions really weren’t so terrible and plenty of people live with less than this every single day. It really was a nice perspective if nothing else…I just wasn’t prepared for it on my first day in a new place. Thankfully, the electricity came on just after seven o’clock and I was reassured and comfortable enough to settle in for the evening.

Well, my house is quite nice, but it is 5 kilometers (3.1 miles) from my primary place of work. That’s a 6-mile walking commute each day. I will be purchasing a bike here in a few months. That will take approximately an hour on foot and I really don’t think I’ll mind it once I’m accustomed to the commitment of a minimum hour transit. My only fear is when winter is over and summer is here. Thankfully, most roads here are paved and there are taxis if I decide to use them. My only issue is that taxis can get expensive and a volunteer’s living allowance isn’t lavish, so I will have to budget for this and figure out how to accommodate for travel on days when I’m feeling under the weather. Otherwise, I can burn off some of the rice and pasta and peanut butter I’ve been sustaining myself on in the past two months.

Other small discoveries about Moshupa:
I went with my counterpart (mentor) and another co-worker to visit the Moshupa Boys Prison. I was slightly unnerved at the thought and then realized I was in good company and conditions were such it really wasn’t a big deal. This facility is home (I doubt “home” is the most applicable word in this case, but you get the idea) to 200 boys ages 16-22. There crimes include any and all and my mention of the maximum-security prisons in the States to differentiate the severity of the crimes just made my colleagues laugh. They get some of the “reality” tv series from the US on prisons and I found this is their only exposure and understanding of our prison system.

It was lunchtime when we arrived and after passing through two large guarded gates, we were taken to the cafeteria/eating room. The prisoners were serving the food themselves and portions were monitored by a few supervising guards. The warden who was ushering us about the prison was eager to acknowledge that the prisoners eat the same foods as we do “on the outside.” He then asked if we would like to taste the food. Seeing as though I’m MAXED out on Setswana food with my host family, I was less than eager to taste it by the mere thought. Thanks though. The mutual observing dynamic here was a bit humorous just because I was this little while girl again sticking out like a sore thumb and the scene put a delay on the serving process as the prisoners stared at us in clear curiosity. I too, in return, was staring at the quantity of boys in this small area wondering each of their offenses. Apparently, my office does occasional work with the boys here for various events like AIDS day or large community workshops. My counterpart was even familiar with a couple of them for their participation in past events.

Anyyywayyyy, after leaving the cafeteria we went outside the gates to the office area and I just stared in amazement at the awesome terrain here while they spoke around me in Setswana. Someone has compared Southern Botswana to Arizona and New Mexico and I know nothing about that so it’s all new to me. What I really wanted to include was that these boys have the best view of Moshupa. Generally speaking there is a large area of rocks relatively centralized in the village. These are my directional livelihood because I can typically orient myself in the direction I need to be going by aligning myself in relation to the rocks. Besides these rocks there are a few hills places in Moshupa and being that the prison is on the outskirts of the village, they have a great panoramic view of the hills and landscape from a distance. It’s beautiful…well if you block out the barbed wire and the cyclone fence.

I don’t want to make you nervous by ending my entry on a prison story, so I’ll tell you that I also spent my time here by visiting every school in the area (about 7, I think) and going to the post office, police station, and clinics to introduce myself and get acquainted with a few people and services here. I also met the deputy chief (kgosi) at the kgotla (functions like a town hall). I also saw him again at a small shop in the village having lunch the next day…and then again driving along the road on my way home. Both times he made a point to say hello and use my Setswana name, Peo. I was flattered and the feeling of familiarity is warming (and his authority in the village is comforting). In addition, I got my application for a library card! This is something I’m most excited about. The library is about the size of uhhh another gas station convenient store (size and structures of facilities here are more of a template/multipurpose design if you catch my drift), but I’m hoping to spend some time volunteering here and developing their resources and place in the community. The library is such a versatile facility and I have such warm regard for libraries in my experiences that I want to somehow share that and promote the potential of their library with them (maybe even expand it to the size of an America grocery store, haha).

Well, the strike is still on going and there is a particular soccer field near one of the clinics where people peacefully congregate and “strike,” sitting in lawn chairs and truck beds. I wonder how much longer this will go on, but its progress and productivity are both seemingly stagnant.

one more colorful umbrella on a sunny day after training.

For now, I’m back in Kanye for my last week and I’m trying to prepare myself for the big move that feels like an incredible feat. The sense of permanency in this move is exciting because this is where the actual 24 months of service begins. I’ll be in Moshupa, in that house for two years. The most recent big commitment I’ve made before this was moving to Memphis, Tennessee for college. Well this time, I’m settling into Africa.