Happy New Year!!! New Year’s Day in Botswana is a big holiday. It is a time to get together with your family, braii (barbeque- since it is summer here and not cold and snowy), eat, and celebrate. New Year’s Eve was actually very uneventful since most of the celebrating is done here on New Year’s Day.
Since it was a 4 day weekend because of the New Year’s holiday, we decided to go on a mokoro (dug-out canoe) trip through Back to the Bridge Backpackers in Maun. It was a lot of fun, as we got to camp overnight on an island in the Okavango Delta and do bush-walks. We were able to see giraffe, elephant, zebra, wildebeest, waterbuck, hippos, all kinds of great birds, etc. Plus, I’ve always wanted to try riding in a mokoro, which is made from a large tree and is a traditional form of transport in the delta’s waterways.
Our Christmas was also very nice- quiet and relaxing. We had a PCV friend come visit us. We took a couple day trips around the area, including a boat ride in Shakawe, where saw lots of hippos, crocs, and birds, a visit to a crocodile farm, and a boat ride in Sepopa. There was a huge storm on Christmas Eve so we didn’t have power that night. We also lost power for most of Boxing Day and the day after. Our neighborhood was quite empty Christmas weekend through New Year’s weekend because everyone went home to their home villages to visit family.
The last two weeks of December were very quiet in the office since many of our co-workers took their annual leave and the schools were out for the month. Now that it is a New Year, we have started planning for the months to come. We are going to try to do a health fair in Gudigwa (a remote village on the other side of the delta from us), another Sexual Health celebration in either Gumare or Seronga, a regional GLOW camp, a fish-a-thon for PLWHAs (people living with HIV/AIDS), and an orphan stakeholders workshop. We will also be taking a week vacation at the end of January for a little R&R and diving in the Red Sea. When we get back from vacation, Richard is going to Lesotho for a sub-regional Peace Corps meeting on how to use informational and technology to address HIV/AIDs.
An account of our time in the Peace Corps in Botswana
About Us
- Richard and Stacy
- New York, NY
- Richard and Stacy have been married since June 2003. They will be serving in the Peace Corps in Botswana from June 2008-June 2010 (with in country training from April - June 2008). Richard's assignment is working with a District AIDS Coordinator and Stacy's assignment is Community Capacity Building for HIV/AIDS Project in Home-based Care and Orphan Care/Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission.
LINKS OF INTEREST
About Botswana and the Peace Corps
According to the BBC's country profile, "Botswana, one of Africa's most stable countries, is the continent's longest continuous multi-party democracy. It is relatively free of corruption and has a good human rights record. It is also the world's larger producer of diamonds and the trade has transformed it into a middle-income nation. Botswana is trying to reduce its economic dependence on diamonds. Safari-based tourism- tightly-controlled and often upmarket- is an important source of income."
Independence: 1966 (there has been four decades of
uninterrupted civilian rule since)
Capital: Gabarone
President: Khama
Population: 1.9 million (UN, 2007)
Area: 224,607 sq. miles (slightly smaller than Texas)
Major languages: English (official), Setswana
Life expectancy: 40 years (UNAIDS, 2007)
Literacy Rate: 81 percent (CIA Factbook)
According to the CIA Factbook, "Botswana has maintained one of the world's highest economic growth rates since independence in 1966, though growth slowed to 4.7% in 2006-2007. On the downside, the government must deal with high rates of unemployment and poverty. HIV/AIDS infections are the second highest in the world and threaten Botswana's impressive economic gains."
According to PEPFAR, which Includes Botswana as one of its 15 focus countries, "At the household level, families face increasing health expenditures to meet the needs of family members with HIV/AIDS. At the same time, they are experiencing loss of income as productive family members become sick and die. Botswana's workforce is being depleted as many productive adults develop AIDS and are no longer able to work. Between 1999 and 2005, Botswana lost approximately 17 percent of its health care workforce due to AIDS and by 2020 the loss in agricultural labor force could be more than 20 percent. High levels of HIV/AIDS among teachers reduces both the quality of education and the number of hours taught. School enrollment is expected to fall as children drop out of school to care for sick family members, to contribute to household income, or become too sick to attend school. Finally, stigma continues to be an issue that needs to be addressed."
National HIV prevalence rate among adults (15 - 49): 24.1%
Adults and children (0 - 49) living with HIV in 2005: 270,000
AIDS deaths in 2005: 18,000
AIDS orphans at the end of 2005: 120,000
According to the Peace Corps website, Peace Corps started working in Botswana in 1966, but closed the program in 1997 due to the country's economic success. "However, in 1998, the government declared HIV/AIDS a national crisis, and President Mogae dedicated his first five years in office to fighting HIV/AIDS, poverty, and unemployment. The government of Botswana has enlisted the aid of civil society, international agencies, governments, and volunteer organizations to help the Botswana people address the HIV/AIDS pandemic. In 2003, Peace Corps returned to Botswana. Currently volunteers are:
-Helping build capacity at the district and village levels in HIV/AIDS service organizations
-Assisting in mainstreaming HIV/AIDS prevention activities into development projects
-Providing technical assistance to the government's home-based and orphan care programs
-Helping to promote the prevention of mother-to-child transmission in four selected districts
Disclaimer:
The views/contents included on this website are solely that of Richard Rain and Stacy Wallick. It does not reflect the position or views of the U.S. government, the Peace Corps, or any other persons and organizations.