And the Verdict is...

We got our site assignments today. We will be in Gumare in the Okavango delta, in the northwest of Botswana. We are very excited and happy. I will be working specifically with orphan care/home-based care and Richard will be with the DAC for the sub-district. We will be meeting our counterparts on Monday and checking out our site Tuesday- Friday. After that, we have a week and half of training before swearing in as official Peace Corps volunteers.


On Friday, we got to visit the Jwaneng diamond mine. It was a fun, interesting experience. Botswana produces 25 percent of the world's diamonds, in cooperation with DeBeers. Jwaneng produces most of the country's diamonds, especially gem quality diamonds. Interesting enough, the world's only green diamonds come from this site. It was important to see this mine because diamonds are one of the main reasons for the country's wealth and stability. Botswana has very good infrastructure. No person is more than 15 kilometers from a health post. When I first arrived in Botswana, it was amazing to see the differences, compared to other African countries I have visited. There are tarred roads around the country. There are supermarkets, instead of markets. There is even four malls in Gabs, as well as malls in the larger cites/towns.

Training continues...

Things are going well so far. We are in week 5 of training. Our Setswana is coming along slowly. It is one of the most difficult Bantu languages to learn. When we arrived at host family, we were each given Setswana names. Mine in Larato (Love) and Richard in Kagiso (Peace).
Family and community is very important in Botswana. For example, 4 generations live in our host family's house. Even if a Batswana moves to the city, they still consider their village their home and visit often.
Next Saturday, we should find our site locations. We are anxiously awaiting to know where we will be living and what we will be doing specifically for the next two years.
This week, we have been doing field work- Richard has been visiting a District AIDS Coordinator's office and I have been visiting a clinic. We have also been learning about Peace Corps's approach to development, which is based on a collaborative partnership with communities so our projects are substainable when we leave.
It is definitely starting to feel like winter here. Botswana is mostly desert so we are getting sunny, warm days with wind and cold nights. It is supposed to get even colder with June through August as the coldest months.

Shadowing another PCV

This was an interesting week for Richard and I. We got to shadow a current PCV (Peace Corps volunteer) in D'Kar, which is a San (also known as bushmen) community in the Kalahari desert. We left really, really early on Wednesday for the 8 hour bus ride to Ghanzi. From there, it was another 35 kms to our PCV Rachel's village. Rachel showed us around the community and introduced us to the NGO she works with, which is the Kuru. Kuru serves the San community, in terms of health, art, culture, youth development, and the presevation of the Naro language (which is a click language). It was interesting to learn about the San and the challenges they are facing. Rachel served us great food, which was a nice break from the staple food we have been eating. It was also good to see first-hand the work PCVs are doing in Botswana, as well as to have a short break from our regular training schedule. We also got to meet other PCVs in the area and hang out with them. On Sunday, we took the long bus ride back to our training village.

Week 3

We are now entering our 3rd week of training. Our Setswana language skills are slowly improving. We can now say more than greetings and intructions. I can now name all the farm animals we see here- cows, goats, chickens,etc. Things are going well with our host family, who are helping us learn the language and the culture.

We are very excited that we get to shadow a current Peace Corps volunteer this week. It will be nice to have a break from classes and to see another part of Botswana. We are going a site in the Kalahari Desert- the town of D'Kar. Many San live in the area so it should be interesting to see their culture.

So we have officially missed having a summer this year. It is now winter here and it is suprisingly cold. We sleep with two warm blankets at night.