Things are still going well as we continue the community integration process and get a better sense of the work we will be doing for the next two years. We finally had the opportunity to go around to the schools and be introduced. There are three primary schools and one secondary school in Gumare. Since there are only a few secondary schools in the district, the secondary school in Gumare also serves the surrounding villages and has a hostel to board students from the more outlying areas. It seems there is some good work to be done with the schools so we will be meeting one on one with the guidance counselors in the next few weeks. We were also introduced at the primary hospital, which is the only hospital in the district. Currently, the primary hospital in Gumare and a clinic in Shakawe distribute ARVs for the district and blood for CD4/viral load counts are sent to the lab at the Gumare primary hospital.

My birthday was very nice- I appreciated all the Happy Birthday messages I received. Since there was a DMSAC (District Multi-sectoral AIDS Committee, which meets quarterly) meeting that day, I got to see a few of the other Peace Corps volunteers in the area. One of the volunteers Joe even baked me a chocolate birthday cake. Since there are only a handful of volunteers, besides Richard and myself, in the Okavango Delta region, we call ourselves the “Delta Force.”

The end of last week kicked off the start of the Men’s Sector in Gumare. There was a “beauty contest” for men, as well as football (soccer) tournaments, horse racing, and a party. There was a formal kick-off for the Men Sector at the kgotla early Saturday morning, which we attended. A lot of important members of the community turned out to show their support, which is very positive.

We made our first day trip into Maun to buy our “specialty” groceries. Maun has 5 different supermarkets to choose from and their goods give us much happiness. We made sure to stock up on cheese because we have been making our own pizza. Luckily, there are two take-away places in Gumare so we do get to “eat out” every once in awhile. The one take-away we like serves fish (fresh since we are near the only “body” of water in Botswana), as well as the staples, such as chicken, beans, rice, madombe (boiled bread), papa (maize meal), and chips (french fries). While in Maun, we had also a chance to meet up with the Peace Corps volunteers who live there.

We finally named our new puppy. We call her Peba, which means rat in Setswana. We call her this because her tail looks very rat like. We have also officially taken in two other dogs, a male named Buster and a female named Lady so we already have three dogs within the first month of site. We have also been promised a kitten from a volunteer in Maun who has a pregnant cat.

Saturday-Tuesday was a four day weekend for us. Presidents Day was on Monday, followed by another extra day off (public holiday) on Tuesday. It gave us a chance to relax and thoroughly clean. Since everything is dirt/sand, it is a constant struggle to keep oneself, as well as one’s clothes and house clean. Everything is always covered in a layer of dirt/sand. When we wash our clothes (by hand), the water in our wash basin always turns brown. We have to sweep our house almost everyday because sand is always getting dragged in. There is only one paved street in Gumare, so we walk mainly on sandy paths where the sand can get quite hard to walk in because it is deep in some places. The sand in Gumare actually reminds me of the sand at the Jersey shore because it is the same color and consistency.