It’s hard to believe it is only three weeks to Christmas. Since it’s been so hot here, it has been hard to get into the Christmas spirit. It may be also be due to the lack of thousands of Christmas lights on people’s houses and blow up santas on people’s lawn. For Christmas, we are expecting a few other Peace Corps volunteers to come celebrate with us in Gumare.

We spent the weekend before Thanksgiving in Maun at a Peace Corps regional meeting. We stayed at Audi Camp, a nice camp with permanent tents with attached bathrooms. We met with other PCV’s from the Okavango, Maun, and Ghanzi districts to share what has been going well and what has not been going well, as well as strategies. It was good to see the other PCV’s in the area and find out how they are doing and what they are working on. It was also good to eat real food- I must say I do miss restaurants at times. That Sunday, we found a cheap flight (resident rate) from Maun to Kasane. We flew on a very small plane (Cessna) that did not feel so sturdy, especially when it started to rain. I was gripping on for dear life, but we made it in one piece.

Once we got to Kasane, we had “language week.” We stayed with one of the volunteers in Kasane, who a very nice view of Chobe river from her front door, and had language lessons with a Peace Corps language instructor and 4 other volunteers (three from Kasane and one from Nata) from Monday to Friday. It was very helpful to have more Setswana lessons because I feel that as hard as I try, my Setswana is not improving as fast as I would like. On Friday, we had a half day of Setswana lessons so we were able to fit a game drive in very early in the morning and a boat cruise on the Chobe in the evening. We saw lots of creatures like elephants, a lion, African buffalo, a jackal, hippos, crocs, monitor lizards, meercats, big birds, etc. We took the bus back to Gumare on Saturday. Actually it took us three buses and 14 hours to get home, but it was worth the trip.

We had a very nice Thanksgiving in Kasane. There was no turkey, but we had chicken, mashed potatoes, stuffing, veggies, etc. It was nice to share the day with friends since we couldn’t be with our families. We all got to talk to our families that day though, which was nice.

Tomorrow, I am headed to GLOW (Girls Leading Our World) camp in Gaborone. I am going with a teacher and four junior secondary school girls for the week so the girls can learn how to be leaders and peer educators, with an emphasis on gender equality and HIV/AIDS. It was a bitter fight to the end (yesterday) wading through bureaucracy to get transportation to Gaborone, but we will be on our way tomorrow.

Pula!

Pula! Pula is the Setswana word for rain. Since rain is very important in such a dry, desert climate as Botswana, the word pula is often seen and used. For example, the word pula appears on the official Botswana seal. Also, at the end of speeches, people often yell “pula!” The rainy season has begun and it has cooled off slightly. We have been having occasional thunderstorms and downpours. By December, I’m told the rains will come almost daily. Millipedes have appeared everywhere- they are even more plentiful than earthworms after a rainstorm in the US.

I finally found a chameleon on Sunday. I have been looking everywhere for one since I was told they are plentiful in this area. However, many people in this region are afraid of chameleons and consider them evil. Many of the children will even try to kill them if they see them. After extensive searching, it turned out that one was in a tree right in my backyard. He was using his long tongue to capture millipedes and he was camouflaged beautifully with the tree’s leaves. He turned about 5 different shades and hissed when I tried to touch him. Richard recently had his second elephant pack sighting over a week ago. He saw them both times while he was in the car between our village and the next village to the south. The elephants come to this area in search of water.

Since the rains have started, we will be starting our vegetable garden soon. Yesterday, my counterpart’s 9 year old son helped us plant watermelon. We have also been collecting plant clippings so we can expand our plant/flower garden. Having a garden is especially exciting since I haven’t had my own yard in over ten years.

I spent last week in D’Kar, which is a San (sometimes known as Bushman) village in the Kalahari. Myself and 3 other PCVs were helping the PCV in D’Kar with data from a health seeking behaviour survey. It was interesting to the see the data (some of which was from villages in our district) and also spend time in another village. D’Kar is home to a large NGO called Kuru, which works with the San and other minority groups in Botswana. You can find some beautiful crafts in D’Kar such as paintings and ostrich eggshell jewellery.

While I was in D’Kar, Richard spent a couple of days in Shakawe at Drotsky’s cabins, helping prepare the annual District HIV/AIDS report and next year’s DMSAC activities budget proposal. We are hoping to get funding to do activities like an orphan needs assessment for the district, as well as life skills camps. On Saturday, we will be in Maun for a Peace Corps regional meeting, and then we will be in Kasane all next week for a language workshop.

Right now we are in the hottest time of the year, where it is over 100 degrees during the day and still in the 80’s at night. We did have a brief rain shower the weekend before last. It was the first rain I’ve seen since leaving the United States over 6 months ago. Recent creature sightings include a small scorpion in our bedroom last week, as well as a plethora of other bugs.

Richard’s office has been busy preparing for the next fiscal year. Richard was working on our district’s HIV/AIDS profile for the 2 day evidence based planning workshop we had two weeks ago. At the planning workshop, DMSAC (District Multi-Sectoral AIDS Committee) members got together and used statistics from the district HIV/AIDS profile to help identify the five most pressing issues to focus on in our district during the next fiscal year, as well as select objectives and activities that address these issues. The 5 chosen issues for our district include High Teenage Pregnancy, Low HIV testing rates, Low Participation of Men in HIV/AIDS, Myths and Misconceptions, and high rates of STI’s.

Richard is now busy helping organize a health fair in Qangwa, which is a small village near the Namibian border. The health fair is this weekend so we will be camping out on Friday night so we can help run interactive HIV/AIDS educational games with the other Peace Corps volunteers from our area on Saturday.

Last weekend, I attended a two day workshop in Maun. A local junior secondary teacher and I applied to bring 4 girls to a GLOW camp in December so the workshop was to teach the two of us and other selected Peace Corps volunteers and local leaders how to facilitate educational sessions at the camp. GLOW stand for Girls Leading Our World (though there is also a Guys Leading Our World) and is an initiative to create adolescent leaders who can teach peers about HIV/AIDS and gender-based violence. I really excited that our 4 girls were chosen since it such a great opportunity for them.

We finally got our new kitten who Richard named Oscar. It is 2.5 months old and very cute (although our dogs seem to want to kill it). Cats are not popular pets in Botswana because some people associate them with bad luck. Richard is hoping the cat becomes good at killing snakes and bugs.

Being in the Peace Corps has given me the chance to catch up on reading. I am finally reading all the books I wanted to read before I came to Botswana, but did not have the time for. I’ve read over 30 books so far and Richard has also read quite a few. Both Richard and I are working our way through the Harry Potter books right now. I’ve also read through the Number 1 Ladies’ Detective Club series, which takes place in Botswana, in addition to a variety of other books. We share books with other Peace Corps volunteers, especially those close to us in the Delta, so we have a pretty good book exchange going on here in Botswana.

Since we live in a government neighborhood, most of our neighbors have satellite television so when kids come to our house, they are fascinated by the fact that we don’t have TV or video games systems (which they think all Americans have). There are even more amazed when they discover that we like to read for fun.

We’ve actually been busy on the weekends since a lot of events are scheduled on weekends. Last Saturday, Richard and I went to a PACT club (which focuses on HIV/AIDS) workshop at the secondary school. I actually had to give a talk on decision- making skills, which I had little time to prepare since I just found out about it that day. On Sunday, we borrowed a braai (barbeque) stand and grilled some chicken and meat with friends.

Now that it has gotten very hot, we have been seeing a lot more critters. There are definitely a lot more insects, including the baby wall spiders which seemed to have hatched in our house. Luckily the wall spiders are harmless, don’t use webs, and chase smaller bugs to eat. Everyone except us seems to now have big huge geckos in their houses- of course we are one of the few that actually want them in our place since I have a love of lizards.

Richard and I actually heard the sad new that Bacchus, who was our pet iguana of almost 5 years, passed away in New York this week (he was being cared for by a foster family while we are gone). Also, we are down to two dogs now. Our 6 month old puppy Peba went to go live at a co-worker’s cattle post because she was getting into too much trouble in town. She was chasing goats and donkeys, barking at everyone on our street, and was following us to work and going into offices to bark at our co-workers. I am told she is doing well, is well-fed, and is a perfect fit for the cattle post.

We are now dealing with almost daily water outages, especially during the weekends. We’ve learned to get up early to do our wash on Sundays before the water goes out later in the morning. We also keep bottles of water filled, as well as pots for cooking and the tea kettle. Since we are usually sweaty and dirty at the end of the day, we just bucket bathe when the water goes out in the evening. We have a big water tank called a Jo-Jo that is hooked to our gutter to collect rainwater during the rainy season so we have back-up during the dry season. However, the water is not drinkable and used only for bathing, washing, and cooking.

It has gotten very hot as we roll into summer. When it first started getting warmer, the nights remained cool. Not anymore- it is already in the mid to high 70’s as we walk to work at 7AM and it is still in the mid to high 80’s when we get home around 5PM. At night, we have to lay on top of the covers with the fan on us. I am told that when the rains arrive around December, it will cool down a bit.

Tuesday was Botswana Independence Day so there was no work. Richard and I went to Etsha 6 to help with a 4km marathon for Men’s Sector. Afterwards, Richard and I hung at with a couple of the PCV’s who were also helping with the event. In many of the smaller villages, everyone meets at the kgotla in the morning on Independence Day for speeches, traditional dancing, and food. Later in the day, everyone parties and there are small bonfires. I am told that in the larger cities, there are bigger festivities, as well as fireworks. The day after Independence Day was also a public holiday so there was no work that day either.

There have been wildfires burning in our area. You can see the giant clouds of smoke from our village. There are no organized fire departments/volunteers here so when there are fires, all able bodied citizens (men and women) are expected to help fight the flames. On Monday, there were very few people at work since it was the day before a two day holiday, but the ones who were there were called away to help fight the fire.

On Saturday, Richard and I went with another DMSAC member to Qangwa and Xai-Xai in the western part of our district, near the Namibian border, to meet with the Village Development Committees and the VMSACs about setting about a Health/AIDS fair on November 1. The only way to get out there is by a 120 km gravel road. Both villages are mostly composed of San and Herero peoples and there is no cell phone reception or electricity. We did get to see the Aha Hills which are beautiful rolling hills in the middle of the flatness of the desert. There are supposed to be some impressive caves in the area, which we hopefully get to see in the future.