10 Ways Peace Corps Botswana Prepared Us for the Zombie Apocalypse

Now that our service in Botswana has finished, and we utterly failed to keep this blog well updated, we are going to continue using this site to post articles regarding our re-integration into life in the United States and our reflections on our past service in Botswana with the United States Peace Corps.

1.    1)   Water hoarding and rationing is second nature

a.       Many villages are without running water and are fed only by boreholes. Even if you live in a village with a municipal water system, outages are common and can last for days, so you must store water inside your house and use it conservatively.

2.    2)   Bathing is optional

a.       We got very used to bathing occasionally, especially during water outages and in the cold of winter when freezing air in inescapable.

3.    3)   Scavenging and conservation of food

a.       Basic foods like starches and beans became a staple of our diet. When special care-packages of food arrived we got used to rationing the goods. Even living in a village with a small grocery store, fresh fruits and vegetables were expensive and hard to come by. Also, insects are now seen as a viable source of protein (in a pinch).

4.    4)   Hitch Hiking safely

a.       In Botswana, hitch hiking is a common and necessary activity. And when you are picked up you pay the driver what it would cost to take the bus that distance.

5.    5)   Sleeping in "the bush"

a.       Sleeping on the hard ground with a sleeping bag is standard fare in the Peace Corps. When visiting other volunteers or working at an overnight youth camp, this is usually your only option.

6.  6)     A roll of duct tape and a pocketknife is all you need for most survival projects

a.       Whether you are trying to make a clothesline to dry your hand-washed laundry or you have to tape survival items together to make a super weapon against the zombies, you find that a knife and some duct tape covers most tool and maintenance needs.

7.   7)    The immune system is kept on its toes from barrage of foreign pathogens

a.       While the Peace Corps has a medical office and staff in each country and does its best to provide care for volunteers, when you join Peace Corps you accept that you will be living in hardship and it turns out that unless you have a very serious medical issue you are usually on your own to work it out. We lived a seven hour bus ride from Peace Corps medical care so we tried to manage health issues on our own.

8.    8)   Travelling light – only the essentials

a.       In the apocalypse, speedy travel is a key to survival, and in the Peace Corps you become acclimated to living with only the bare essentials especially when you are on the move to other villages or Peace Corps trainings. To join the Peace Corps you pack your world of belongings into two suitcases and once at site you eventually get used to living with just the most important of those belongings out of a backpack.

9.    9)   You are ready for everything and nothing at any given moment

a.       You can work tirelessly on a project for weeks or months and see that it is going nowhere, and then in an instant everything happens at once. This mirrors existence in a zombie wasteland where the monotony of scavenging is mixed with intense episodes escaping from the clutches of zombie hordes.

1010).   Walking endurance and vigilance.

a.       A lot of walking is involved in Peace Corps service! And with the destruction of society as we know it, transportation by car becomes a fleeting luxury as finding fuel becomes more and more difficult and roadways become clogged with dead vehicles. Not to mention walking miles through the Kalahari desert each day requires vigilance to avoid bugs, snakes, scorpions, thorns, and crumbling stones that are out to trip your every step. And with this, we are ready for the long walks and constant vigilance that ensure survival in a zombie wasteland. 

Last $500 for fellow PCV's Latrine Project Have Been Collected

Hi All,

Our friend's latrine project that I posted donation information about
has been fully funded. He is grateful to everyone's support. So, no
further donations can be accepted. We will post a link to pictures
when he posts them!

- Michael

A final push for Peace Corps Project Donations

Hi everyone,

Only $500 to go!
https://donate.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=13-637-002

I am making this blog post to notify everyone that one of our best
friends and fellow Peace Corps Volunteer, Brandon Lawson, is $500 away
from fulfilling his project to provide 1000 latrines to an
under-served area of Botswana. From Hayley's and my perspective, this
project is one of the most important and immediately impacting
projects that a Peace Corps Volunteer has undertaken to improve the
public health of a community in Botswana.

A clean place to go to the bathroom is essential to protecting
people's health, and before the project started the area has only a
couple of latrines for the entire village of hundreds of people. Thus,
most people just resorted to using the bushes. And overtime, this has
become the cause of many health issues in the area.

Partnering with the local government, residents, and this Peace Corps
grant operation through which you can make a direct donation, Brandon
has implemented a system in which the families dig their own latrine
holes to specific dimensions, and then a team of people will work with
the family to construct the latrine building structure. And that's all
it takes to completely change the health outlook for this community!

If you can spare any amount to help Brandon complete his project, this
is a great way to make a donation and have it make an immediate and
direct impact on the lives of people here!

Please share this link with anyone else that you think might be interested.

Only $500 to go!
https://donate.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=13-637-002


Best Wishes,
- Michael

Packing List Ideas for Incoming Peace Corps Volunteers (BOTS14)

Below is a list of the most indispensable items Hayley and I could think of for the incoming Bots 14 group of volunteers that arrive in a few months! Also, any Bots 14 members arriving in September 2013 should check out the facebook group (Peace Corps Bots-14) if you haven't already.

• Marmot sleeping bag Marmot Sawtooth and Marmot Teton  (winter is so incredibly cold, you will be happy you have a good compactible sleeping bag!)
• Canvas tote bags (very nice when you don’t want the attention of an American backpack)
• Samsonite umbrella-compact (the one linked has lasted us 1.5yrs so far, but most any US umbrellas will be better than what you can find here. And because the sun is so intense during the summer months, my wife and I both think good umbrellas are a must!)
• Good sunglasses (UV protection and polarized) – this is a personal preference item. A couple cheaper pairs are great. Or maybe one nice pair and few cheap ones. Botswana is on the Tropic of Capricorn, so the sun is really really intense here, good sunglasses are a must!)
• Good walking shoes/sandals – we use merrel, keen, and chaco
• Computer – Botswana can be tough on laptops, regardless of the brand you like, the chances of it lasting rely completely on how you treat it. Some people with Mac’s didn’t last a full year, and some did. The same goes for PC laptops.  We use an Acer EeePC and a Toshiba Satellite
• Extra computer battery – it’s up to you, some volunteers don’t have electricity at their houses so an extra battery would be useful. We do have electricity at our house, and it is still useful when I go to the village library to work, where the public is not allowed to plug into power sources.
• External hard drive – we had a Toshiba brand external hard drive that didn’t last. Now we use Seagate brand and haven’t had any trouble!
• Camera and extra battery – we brought small cameras (Canon Elph and Sanyo Xacti) and they have been fine. But I wish we had invested in a nicer camera because the safaris and experiences we have had would have been ever better looking with a nice camera. So, this decision is up to your personal preference).
• Ipod – this one is a given. Some volunteers have brought iPhones which work well as iPods too, and a few have even been able to jailbreak and unlock their iPhones in order to use the local sim cards so their iPhones work as cell phones too. If you want to do this, contact your cell provider because many of them will unlock your phone remotely for free if you explain what you are up to.
• Kindle – another given. The sheer amount of ebooks available from other volunteers is staggering! You will never be out of things to read.
• One electrical adapter –The universal adapter linked to the left will cover you for two of the three common outlets in Botswana. In Botswana we call the most common adapter needed the “square adapter”. So, this is the one most important one. But there are two others that get used randomly (circle adapters and another smaller one I couldn’t find a link for, but the universal adapter works in it too).
• A Power converter/conditioner is NOT necessary unless you use high voltage appliances like air driers and electric razors. The adapters linked above are all 99% of volunteers ever need. Most electronics (like computers) come with their own built in power converters (it is the large black box-like thing that makes your power cord so heavy).
• Maps of Botswana, Africa, World, USA
• Pencils and Pens – are sold, but good to have some for initial training days
• Swiss Army Pocketknife – there are a million types of Swiss army knives, but the one linked to the left (Army Pocket Climber II) is the best for being small and versatile.
• Long Underwear (for the freezing cold winter)
• Winter coat
• Winter Hat
• Sun hat and/or baseball cap - whichever you prefer to wear
• Reusable water bottle (nalgene, sigg, etc)

That is everything that we could come up with at the moment, we will post other ideas in the facebook group for Bots14! Good luck with packing

Family Comes to Botswana

Click here to view a small album of select pictures from the trip!

A group of family members from the US came to visit us over the last
two weeks. The trip included some time in the Okavango Delta and its
surrounding pans (dried up lakes) as well as a few days in our home
village in the heart of the Kalahari Desert.

We started the trip with a day of rest and recuperation in Gaborone
where we stayed at the Metcourt Inn. It was a good transition stay for
our family to adjust to the time difference as well as the cultural
differences they were about to encounter. The Metcourt Inn provides a
very nice accommodation by Botswana standards, but that left something
to be desired when some showers didn't offer hot water and/or had
major leaking problems. But overall, the stay at the Metcourt Inn was
as good as it always is when we stay there and our family had a good
time too.

Instead of taking the 12+ hour bus ride to Maun from Gaborone, we flew
on Air Botswana. Hayley and I cannot even begin to express how nice it
was to take a 1 hour flight and avoid the horror of public
transportation in Botswana that we are usually subjected to!
After picking up some rental cars in Maun, we drove to Planet Baobab
which is located just outside the village of Gweta. Planet Baobab, as
the name suggests, is nestled in the midst of a small grove of Baobab
trees. If you have never seen a Baobab tree picture before, you should
Google a picture of one because they are a very unique and impressive
tree found in only a few places in the world. Our lodge reservation
was for two rondeval houses (large round huts with thatched roves).
The huts gave us plenty of space and ever provided each bed with a
mosquito net. A further bit of bonding came to our travelling group
when we found that within each hut was a toilet and shower area, but
that there areas were only contained by a ¾ wall meaning they were
open air. So, although the ¾ wall provided privacy, it was essentially
like using a bathroom/shower without a door for privacy  ! Aside from
the bathrooms, we all had a great time at Planet Baobab and enjoyed
the character of the place. Its bar and restaurant were good too!
Also, there were ENORMOUS golden orb weaver spiders all over the trees
and bushes of the lodge. They never caused any problem, but they did
make us nervous whenever anyone brushed up against a web!
We booked a 1 day safari through Planet Baobab and were taken out into
the Makgadikgadi and Nxai Pans to see the scenery and wildlife. The
drive provided more scenery than animals, but a watering hole in the
game reserve did have a fun variety of animals all together in the
same area. We saw a large bull elephant, zebras, springboks,
wildebeests, and ostriches with babies all hanging around. The
elephant would chase off any animals that go to close to his part of
the watering hole but other than that they all seemed to get along
fine. On the drive we also saw other types of antelope, giraffe, and a
secretary bird. At the end of the game drive we were taken to a famous
area called Baines' Baobabs which is a grove of 2000+ year old trees
in the middle of a huge dried up lake.

During our breakfast and lunch on the game drive our guide told us
about his life in Gweta, and after the drive we were taken into the
village where he showed us his house. He is very proud of his yard,
and for good reason! In Botswana it is typical for people to clear
their yard of every living thing so that it remains a dusty barren
plot of land surrounding their house (this is probably a practice used
in order to discourage snakes from getting too close to their houses
because snakes prefer to stay in the cover of bushes and trees). Our
guide's yard was quite the opposite. He had a beautifully manicured
yard that would rival any fancy yard in the US, and instead of hiring
gardeners and landscapers to do all the work, he did all of the work
himself during the weeks when we is not out guiding (he takes tourists
on game drives about 2 times a month).

Our stay in Gweta was short, and so we were on our way back to Maun
after a few days. The drives to between Maun and Gweta provided our
family with some experience driving stick-shift cars on the 'wrong'
side of the road. And to make it even more challenging, they had to be
on the constant lookout for livestock on the roads ever couple of
kilometers. As is the practice in all of Botswana, cows, goats, sheep,
and donkies are left to roam the country without fences and corrals to
keep them contained. Even after our 1.5yr stay in Botswana we cannot
figure out why people would allow their cattle to roam wild nor have
we found anyone that can clearly explain how in the world they ever
find their cattle when they need them since the cows and donkies never
seem to return to their homes (sheep and goats do return to their
corrals at night).

Back in Maun we stayed out our favorite camping hostel, The Old Bridge
Backpackers Lodge. Hayley and I and our friend Mollie slept in two
Tents with small foam mattress in them while the rest of our party was
split between two luxury tents with their own bathroom facilities
inside a private fence made of reeds. The luxury tents were big enough
to stand up in and contained a bedside table/lamp and beds lifted up
off the ground. These tents also had a great view of the waterway
because they were setup right on the bank of the Okavango! The
backpackers lodge also has a really excellent bar/restaurant area
nestled under a large Marula tree, and at night you can see the fruit
bats flying around in the tree which makes for a nice atmosphere. Not
to mention, the food there is some of the best that we have ever had
in Botswana (they make pizzas and burgers along with other things that
are always a nice break from the usual food selections in Botswana).

While staying at the Old Bridge Backpackers we went on a 2-day 1-night
camping safari in the Moremi game reserve which is part of the
Okavango Delta. The drive was booked through the Backpackers lodge. On
the drive we saw just about every iconic animal you can see in
Botswana except for leopards and cheetahs (FYI, rhinos are native to
Botswana but in the interest of protecting them from poaching the last
8-10 rhinos in the country have been rounded up and relocated to the
rhino sanctuary in Serowe, Botswana where each rhino is given 3-4
armed guards that stay with the animals at all times as they roam the
countryside of the preserve).

We observed huge herds of Cape Water Buffalo (the most danger land
animal in the world) and groups of hippos (the most dangerous water
animals in the world) along with zebras, giraffe, tons of various
antelope species, and elephants. The highlight of our two day drive,
however, was getting to sit in our truck no more than 10 feet away
from two young male lions. It is common lion practice for males to
group up and live together until they are old enough to challenge a
dominate male for the breeding rights to a pride of lionesses. These
two males were lying next to an acacia bush napping until the sun went
down and they could start their night of hunting. It should be noted
that we stopped to view these lions in a place only a few kilometers
from our camp site! Like most of the animals in the game reserves of
Botswana, they had grown up with the presence of trucks driving
through the reserve, so they are absolutely no interest in us or our
truck. Our guide explained that the animals here see the trucks as an
unthreatening creature and so they ignore it and because they see the
people inside the truck as part of the truck itself, there is no
danger to the tourists on game drives. However, the instant that you
step off of the truck onto the ground the animals see you as a human
being and their treatment of you changes accordingly. That means,
would most likely just run away but lions, elephants, buffalo, and
even zebras can be curious, aggressive, and/or territorial and they
can clearly see that you can a lot smaller than them and thus you are
in danger if you every try to get out of the truck near these animals!

The guiding company had our camp set up for us and cooked us dinner
when we finished our first day of the game drive. The tents were small
2-person tents, and our guests made it explicitly clear that the night
sleeping in tents in the Moremi game reserve was the farthest outside
of their comfort zone they could possibly have gone during their trip
to Botswana  ! But, after a night of listening to hippos passing by
the camp site as their started their nightly trek ~20km into the
forest to forage for other types of vegetation, we all woke up in time
to see the sunrise and have a quick breakfast before going out to see
more animals!
After the Moremi game drive, four of us went out on a 1-day mokoro
excursion. Mokoros are a tradition canoe used by the native people of
the Okavango Delta for thousands of years. A single mokoro is carved
the trunk of the marula tree. It takes a skilled carver about 5 weeks
to complete a mokoro while the job takes most experienced people about
2 months. The mokoros float very low in the water and are pushed along
by a guide that uses a long pole to navigate the waterways. We were
able to see a herd of elephants crossing the waterway about 100m ahead
of us, but other than that the trip offered a relaxing trip of pretty
scenery and peaceful water sounds.

After our adventures in Maun and Gweta were finished we flew back the
Gaborone and rented two more cars which we used to drive to our home
village in the Southern Kalahari region of Botswana. While at our
village our family had two days to see the school and hospital were we
work, and we spend the days after school had finished letting our
family interact with the students and play games with them. We also
took full advantage of the cars by going to the super market and
bulk-supply store in or village where we purchased enough canned goods
and toilet paper to last us the rest of our time at our site!
That concludes the highlights of our trip and if any of you reading
this know our family members that visited us you should check out
their facebook profiles to see pictures of our adventures! We will
post our own pictures as soon as we have an internet connection fast
enough to do so!

- Michael

Another Movie Post... Best Movies of 2012

My Apologies to friends and family that receive email updates from
this blog hoping to read about our experiences serving with the Peace
Corps in Botswana, and instead end of getting articles about movies!
This post is an article that a friend and fellow Peace Corps Volunteer
wrote together to document our choices for the best movies of 2012.

Actual posts about our experiences during our 2nd year in the Peace
Corps are in the works and we hope to share them soon. We recently
completed an enormous project putting together a Leadership Camp
called Girls Leading Our World (GLOW). It involved bring together 30
girls from different schools across the southern district of Botswana
in which we are stationed. The camp was a big success for the girls
but it involved an inordinate amount of challenges with regards to
transportation because the Botswana Government office charged with
handling transportation in or district is nothing short of broken.
But, with the hard work of our fellow volunteers and local
counterparts we were able to persevere and give the attending girls
some much needed caring attention and life skills education.

And so with that brief update (more to follow soon), here is my
co-written article about the best movies we saw from the year 2012.

- Michael



The Best Films of 2012
By Brandon Lawson and Michael Stolzle (Bots 11)

A Message from Brandon:
I have really experienced hardships putting this list together.
Watching 2 to 3 movies every night (instead of 1-2) is very taxing. I
am like Julie from "Julie and Julia" except I prefer Quentin Tarantino
over Julia Childs. 2012 has brought us amazing special effects films
like "Life of Pi" and "The Hobbit" but bare budget Indie films like
"This is not a film" and "Beasts of the Southern Wild" show you that
filmmakers can still find new and exciting ways to tell stories.

A Message from Michael:
In a year that saw Spielberg directing Day-Lewis in a biopic about
Lincoln, not many films stood a chance in competing with a project
that is guaranteed at least half of the year's Oscar awards. Granted,
Lincoln is one of the best movies of the year there were many other
films that deserve to stand in the Lincoln crew's spotlight too. What
follows is a compilation of each of our top five movies of the year.
It's a broad selection of dramas and comedies that each have something
important to say and go about telling their stories in ways that
continue to push the boundaries of film forward.


OVERALL TOP 10 (in no particular order)

Lincoln
Brandon (Best Picture): A Peace Corps film. One person believing in
something is not enough. Only through strategy, collaboration, and
sheer force of will was Lincoln able to pass the 13th amendment. It
also does a wonderful job of humanizing a man that is more myth than
man; my favorite scene is Lincoln telling a group of staff members a
dirty joke about George Washington.

Michael (Obligatory Best Picture): A film helmed by Spielberg staring
a myriad of the best actors of our time who all seem to have a great
time relishing in their characters. It provides an intimate look into
the work of Lincoln during the final days of the Civil War and his
efforts to get the 13th Amendment passed before the war ended. It
provides a great history lesson while entertaining its audience with
amazing performances and a detailed depiction of life in the 1800's.
It's a great movie with an inspiring message.


Moonrise Kingdom
Brandon (Most fun movie of the year): I have already watched it three
times. Wes Anderson's point of view and storytelling makes him the
most consistently excellent director working today. Everyone I have
shared this movie with has loved it.

Michael (Best meaningful and fun film): Not my favorite Wes Anderson
film, but this one is his all-around best film yet. It tackles the
complexities of childhood relationships and parenting with the
intentional awkwardness of all Anderson's movies. But this one has a
cast of amazing and complex characters set in a picturesque world that
is held up by a great story with the perfect balance of depth and
kitsch.


Beasts of the Southern Wild
Brandon: I am usually not a fan of child actors but Quvenzhane Wallis
steals the show. I would place all my money on her in next year's
"Hunger Games." Director Behn Zetlin walks the line between fantasy
and reality

Michael: A lot of debate about this film has centered on its portrayal
of gender, racial, and social issues in a small isolated community off
the coast of New Orleans as it endures the flood waters of hurricane
Katrina. Ultimately, however, you will see what you want to see
because the film is very metaphorical and open to interpretation. For
me, it was a moving film with some drawbacks but its emotional
performances and realist-fantasy touches won me over.


Holy Motors
Brandon: Really weird and wonderful. My guess is that only a handful
of you will actually like this movie. But if you don't mind a little
avant-garde (or a lot) please give this film a shot. Little sneak
peak: 10 minute accordion jam, a troll that kidnaps super models, and
dragon motion capture sex scene…

Michael: Broken up into 11 segments in which the main character, an
actor playing an actor, rides in a limo from assignment to assignment.
The catch is that his assignments are to be different people in
various real world scenarios… Its commentaries range from social
issues to film theory. You just have to experience it.


Zero Dark Thirty
Brandon: My bet to win "Best Picture" for this year's Oscars.
Wonderfully directed and very exciting throughout. Reminds me of
Titanic, you know what is going to happen in the end but 99% of the
story is still untold. Note: Most people don't know that the rest of
the movie Titanic actually happened.

Michael (Best Picture of the Year): Zero Dark Thirty is my choice for
best picture, even in the face of Lincoln, because it sums up so much
of the zeitgeist that surrounded America's last ten years in The War
on Terror, and it does this through an amazing lead performance from
Jessica Chastain as the CIA operative, Maya, that works tirelessly on
the case. What's more, her character in allowed to be portrayed as
capable and intelligent without nodding toward psychiatric disorders
to explain how she could be such a dedicated and effective operative
(ahem… Homeland). She's awesome, and so is the whole film.


Django Unchained
Brandon: My favorite director. My favorite film genre. Not my favorite
movie. It was good. Not great. Tarantino can still create tension in a
scene longer than any director in film history. (See dinner scene in
Django to confirm).

Michael (Best Original Screenplay): As has already been said, this is
not director Quentin Tarantino's best film but it is still one of the
year's best movies. Masterful performances from its main actors,
coupled with Tarantino's unique writing style and encyclopedic
knowledge of film history allow him to pay tribute to his influences
while creating an inimitable and engaging movie. This is a great
unofficial sequel in his investigation into the acceptable limits of
revenge. In Inglorious Basterds (2009) he delved into vengeance
against the Nazi's during WWII, and in Django Unchained he explores a
similar theme during America's slave era. Both films, however, should
not be viewed as glorifying extreme acts of violent revenge and
instead the scenes of these movies should be seen as representations
of extremes that ask us: How far can we go in the name of vengeance
before we have gone too far? He isn't providing answers, he is asking
us questions.


Rust and Bone
Brandon: This is the age old tale of the orca-trainer getting both her
legs amputated and falling in love with an underground street fighter.
Classic. Seriously I loved it. If Marion Cotillard could be in every
film I would be okay with it.

Michael: This is a great movie that relies on an intimate story with
very real characters to tell its "age old tale" as it portrays the ups
and downs of the two main characters that are isolated in their own
ways.


ParaNorman
Brandon: Have not had a chance to see it yet.

Michael (Best Animated Film): The slightly morbid stop-motion
animation styling (in the same vein as Coraline and The Nightmare
Before Christmas) adds perfectly to this unique story. It's a film
about a boy who sees and can talk the dead. Given the risk of over
using the "I see dead people" bit from The Sixth Sense (1999), it
expertly walks a fine line between being both aware of its influences
(classic horror) and not being cliché.


The Sessions
Brandon: A true story of a 40 year old man who lives most of his life
from an iron lung after getting polio as a boy. The movie is about his
struggle to find physical and emotional love. It is good to see Helen
Hunt back on the screen and the cast features three actors from HBO's
Deadwood.

Michael: Regrettably, I have not been able to see this movie. But I
happily take Brandon's word regarding the movie's powerful story, and
I look forward to seeing it soon!


Flight
Brandon: Really great story. If it wasn't for Daniel Day-Lewis, Denzel
would be getting another "Best Actor" Oscar. Think "Boogie Nights" in
a 747.

Michael: Not much to say about this film, except WOW. It drags its
audience through every up and down of the main character's addiction.
It is a great film. A must see.


The Next Few:
Looper – a mind-bending movie that mixes and matches time travel and
mob hitmen into a story that isn't overly sci-fi or noir-ish. It has
the perfect balance for a fun stylistic action movie starring Joseph
Gordon-Levitt as a young Bruce Willis (the prosthetic nose is a little
much, but it's forgivable).

Oslo, August 31st – A story about the attempt to reintegrate into your
old world after being away for a long time. The story follows a drug
addict's return from rehabilitation, but its story transcends the
boundaries of the typical story of this sort and creates an emotional
experience.

Argo – A crowd pleasing true story. I would bet that you won't hate
it. And it gives us another reason to like Canadians! Thanks for being
so nice.

A Public Health Project in Botswana, Seeking Donations

After a long hiatus from updating our blog, we have returned from our December break and plan to write more about our adventures soon. In the meantime, this post is aimed at raising awareness of an awesome public health project one of our fellow volunteers and good friends in Peace Corps Botswana (he's a mid-westerner from MO) is working on. 

The project details can be found below and if you have any interest in donating to a Peace Corps project and helping to remedy this public health emergency, you can click here to visit the official website setup to collect donations. 

There is an outbreak of cholera and diarrhea related deaths in my village in Botswana. These avoidable deaths are almost exclusively isolated to one ward (neighborhood). A community health assesment found that 3,000 people are sharing two water sources and three pit latrines (outhouses). The team found that the ward deposits two tons of human excrement, uncontained in the community every week. 

The most common problem linked to this type of open defecation is diarrhea. Diarrhea is the biggest child killer in Africa; it kills more than HIV, Malaria, and Measles combined. 1.8 million children die annually from diarrhea that could have been prevented simply by having a clean place to go to the bathroom. 

Disposing of excreta safely, isolating excreta from flies and other insects, and preventing fecal contamination of water supplies, would greatly reduce the spread of communicable diseases for my whole village. A 2010 study completed in Puru found that once pit latrines were placed in family compounds, diarrhea rates and deaths were reduced by half. 

The District AIDS Office wants to build a pit latrine for every family in the ward. The families have signed a contract saying that they want the latrines and they will dig the pits themselves. Before the District AIDS Office can address the problems of HIV/AIDS, alcohol abuse, teenage pregnancy, and communicable diseases in the ward, we have to address the basic human needs in the community.

New Facebook Photo Album Links

Below are a few new facebook photo albums of our time here in Botswana.



form 3 grad party - The oldest class at our school is moving on to the Senior Secondary School (junior/senrior grade level) next year. These are pictures from their farewell party.


lesotho - we recently took a trip to Lesotho. In case you missed the pictures we shared from them, here they are again!


kgalagadi south EBP 2012 - Hayley recently went on a retreat with district coordinators for some evidence-based planning meetings.


health education outreach


women's empowerment group with US Ambassador - a few months ago the US ambassador to Botswana visited our village and asked us to coordinate some events for her to attend. Here are pictures from one of those events.


Junior Secondary PACT Club - the PACT Club continues to be one of the things we are highly involved in during our time in Botswana. The goal of the club is to empower student members to be student leaders and peer counselors.

Put Down That Classic Novel, and Watch a Classic Movie!

To whom it may concern...

This blog post will not convey any of the details of our Peace Corps
service. It is a submission I recently made to the Peace Corps
Botswana newsletter in the hopes that i could share my passion for
movies with other volunteers.

During a week of shadowing back in October 2011, Hayley and I stayed
with a currently serving volunteer in order to learn more about the
life of a volunteer first hard. Our host was great, and one of the
most important things that i learned during the time was: be ready for
everything, and ready for nothing...

Our host gave us this piece of advice in order to help us understand
that at times Peace Corps service will be EXTREMELY hectic! And this
has come true on many occasions in which we spend a lot of time
pushing to get projects accomplished but keep running into local
resistance, but eventually things come around and then all the
projects you had been working on come to fruition all at the same
time! Again, "be ready for everything..."

But, you must also be ready for nothing meaning sometime you will have
ample time with which to entertain yourself and this can be a
challenge for volunteers from American in that we are from a
consumer-entertainment culture and many of the avenues for
entertainment are not available to us anymore.

So, with a focus on the challenge of entertaining yourself, I put
together a list of short movie reviews of classic movies in order to
give my fellow volunteers some recommendations of great movies they
should check out in between stints of reading classic books!

Here is my article:

Many volunteers take on the challenge of reading 100 books while in
the Peace Corps, or at least getting through all those long classics
they have been avoiding since high school. However, watching movies is
another great way to entertain yourself and experience the classics of
cinema during your service.

Below is a short list of a variety of films that are readily available
among the media collections of Peace Corps Botswana volunteers. At
times, selecting movies from another volunteer's collection can be
tricky but after looking through this list you might find a few films
you won't want to miss!


2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Science-Fiction
Three main story arcs make up this movie's narrative (primitive
humankind, modern humankind, and future humankind), but the primary,
character-driven story deals with a sentient computer system named
HAL. Even though the movie was made in the 60's, HAL continues to
serve as a poignant representation of the risks involved in handing
over our everyday responsibilities to technological innovations. This
film is famous for its mostly successful attempt to capture the broad
expanse of humankind's evolution from prehistoric days into the
distant future. The scope of this film is unchallenged by any other
film, and it is the director's intention that it should be viewed as
an audio/visual symphony rather than just a science-fiction film.


Rear Window (1954)
Mystery, Thriller
Hitchcock was a master of intrigue, mystery, suspense, and all other
nail-biting genres. This film is set within an apartment complex and
has a lot to say about voyeurism. In an attempt to ease his cabin
fever, a man stuck at home with a broken leg starts to observe the
goings-on of his apartment block. One day he thinks he witnesses a
murder, and from there the plot thickens! Very few modern films
involving stakeouts and voyeurism (e.g., The Burbs (1989) and
Disturbia (2007)) have failed to pay homage to Rear Window in one way
or another. Above all else, this film highlights the "life in a
fishbowl" that every volunteer can appreciate!

Amélie (2001)
Quirky Romance
This is a movie full of happiness! It tells the story of a young girl
who, deprived of love and affection from her father, has grown into a
woman that finds joy in anonymously bringing happiness to others in
need. The film tells its story in the fashion of a lighthearted
fantasy where we get to share in the main characters wonder at the
world around her. Along with the inimitable joy found within this
movie, its place among the classics of cinema is founded upon the
creative ways in which the director fuses the camerawork, color, and
sound into such creative presentations that viewers cannot but help to
feel some of the bliss and wonder contained within the film.


Before Sunrise (1995)
Romance, Travel
A young American man travelling abroad meets a French woman on a train
to Vienna. The two hit it off and have a single day to spend together.
They fill their time with intimate discussions about worldviews, love,
and existence as they explore the city. The discussions and
experiences that these characters have are so naturally written that
most everyone that watches the movie finds at least one sympathetic
connection with the film's two main characters. Unlike most films that
revel in the grandness of cinema, this film finds a magical and
engaging way to show two ordinary people, have ordinary conversations,
during an ordinary chance meeting.


Nosferatu (1922)
Silent, Horror, Romance
For many, the recent culmination of Stephanie Meyers's vampire
quadrilogy exhausted the vampire mythos and essentially was the final
nail in the vampire-genre's coffin… but give the genre one more chance
with the original vampire flick! The film is loosely based on Bram
Stoker's novel Dracula, it is the only silent film on this list. It is
a historically important film in that it was the first to shoot on
location and utilize a new camera filter technology to film scenes in
both day and night settings. Further, the silence of the characters
adds a brooding atmosphere to the viewing experience. Consider the way
in which the actors of the silent era practiced a craft wholly
different from the craft we see actors practicing today (i.e., tell a
story without the emotive power of their voices), yet its influence on
contemporary cinema is incalculable.


Singin' In the Rain (1952)
Musical, Comedy
This film is the perfect follow up to the silent film Nosferatu in
that Singin' in the Rain is the story of Hollywood's reluctant and
rocky transition from silent movies to 'talkies'. The film's fame is
founded upon its quick witted comedic dialog as well as its intricate
song and dance numbers. I cannot explain the greatness of this film
any more succinctly than one reviewer (Bryant Frazer,
filmfreakcentral.net) already has, "… Singin' in the Rain is a genuine
national treasure—a single text proving for posterity what a wondrous
thing the Hollywood studio system could be when it was firing on all
cylinders. It's the quintessential studio picture and smart as hell
about its own nature. Unpretentious and unabashedly entertaining, it's
a simultaneously self-reflexive product of the same filmmaking process
it simultaneously documents and lampoons."


Casablanca (1942)
Drama, Romance, War
Casablanca is the story of a cynical American expat., living in the
Moroccan city of Casablanca and operating a night club during the
early years of World War I. The plot focuses on the appearance of a
set of traveling-documents that will allow the possessor to freely
leave the city without being arrested by the city's German occupiers.
The main character must decide whether to help his former love and her
resistance leader husband leave the city or to attempt to continue
re-kindling his relationship with her. The fame of the movie comes
from its solid screenplay which establishes both characters we all can
empathize with, and a story deep with wartime romance, intrigue, and
suspense. It does all of this through the execution of some of the
most iconic scenes in movie history.


Say Anything (1989)
Comedy, Drama
Set firmly in the 80's, teen-centered films, this is a classic story
of a boy and girl from opposite sides of the track. The film is iconic
for a scene in which on of the main characters holds a boom-box over
his head, but the social commentaries are another timeless aspect of
this film. This is a film about teenage romance, and the challenges
that we all face in life after graduation (whether that be from high
school or college). One of the main characters famously states: "I
don't want to buy anything, sell anything, or process anything as a
career," this form of idealism perfectly captures anyone of a
generation that has already, or is coming into, a time in life when
the go-to question of "what's your major" transitions into "what do
you do". Say Anything has become a classic in virtue of its humanity
and honesty; where romantic comedies of the 80, 90's and 2000's
consistently tell the story of generalized archetypal characters
(i.e., the jock, the nerd, the pretty girl, etc), Say Anything tells a
story about two ordinary teens and their experiences in fostering a
relationship and trying to figure out whether or not their lives are
on the same path or not and, more importantly, if that question really
demands an answer where matters of the heart are concerned.


Dogville (2003)
Drama, Experimental
The gritty tale of an outsider exploring the social and moral
ecosystems of a small town. The movie was filmed entirely on an open
soundstage with only chalk outlines to designate the various locales
of the town (and even the town dog!). Through all of this, the actors
play their scenes as if they cannot see into the rooms and houses next
to them (yet another commentary on "living in a fishbowl"). This film
is contemporary, cinematic pop art in full form, and as the main
character is slowly subjected to the shadier aspects of the village
the film presents some challenging scenes. The film is morose, but
remains a classic due to its achievements in experimental cinema and
uncompromising investigation of the darker side of the human psyche.

The Lives of Others (2006)
Drama, Suspense
Set in the Orwellian world of Berlin in the 1980's, The Lives of
Others tells the story of a surveillance officer in East Berlin and
his work in monitoring the underground art scene. The film focuses on
the officer rather than the artists, and from this we watch as the
lives of those he is monitoring begin to influence him. Aside from the
unique storyline set in the world of a Berlin divided, the film's use
of color and set design create stark contrasts between the vibrant,
expressive lives of the artists and the grey, dull world of the
surveillance officer. The suspense is top notch, as an artist works to
export his literary work across the wall, and through all of this the
film fosters lingering connections between you the viewer and the
characters that you are observing on screen.

The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985)
Comedy, Romance
Woody Allen, the film's director, subscribes to the professional
self-declared policy of quantity over quality. That is, he prefers to
remain a prolific moviemaker in the hopes that at least some of his
works will strike a chord with audiences. And, lucky for us, his
methods have produced a lot of quality films (which made it a
challenge to choose just one…). The Purple Rose of Cairo is a film
about a woman stuck in a bad marriage who finds an escape in going to
the movies. After attending countless showing of a film called The
Purple Rose of Cairo, she notices that the characters on the screen
begin to address her and then the star of the film actually steps off
the screen and into the real world and doesn't want to go back! As
with most of Allen's features, its place among the classics is
established by his unique humor and ability to integrate his
characteristic witty commentary into a heartfelt, real-world romance.

Night of the Living Dead (1968)
Horror
While Night of the Living Dead is not the first movie of the zombie
genre, it is the movie credited with the genre's long standing
popularity. Night of the Living Dead tells the story of a small group
of survivors that hole up in an abandoned farm house in the first days
of a zombie apocalypse. The majority of the film takes place in the
house and, like all good zombie flicks, has little to do with the
zombies and more to do with the band of survivors trying to understand
each other and establish a plan for survival. This film's importance
in movie history lies in its use of the zombie apocalypse as a
metaphor for longstanding social issues such as the civil rights and
distrust of the government. What's more, the movie stands as an
archetype on which countless contemporary social issues can be
superimposed.

The Seven Samurai (1954)
Epic, Adventure, Drama
The Seven Samurai created its own genre and defines the word epic. Set
in Japan, 1587, the film depicts a rag-tag band of wandering samurai
that come together to defend a small village from raiders. In a now
common trope recently made in vogue by films such as Ocean's Trilogy
(2001-2007) and Inglorious Basterds (2009), you get to know each
member of the group of samurai as they are recruited for their unique
skill sets. The structure of the film finds time to both allow the
viewer to come to care about the future of the villagers and to
appreciate the samurais' own personal issues (they live as social
pariahs in a world that no longer seems to require their services)
while also depicting scenes of supremely choreographed battles.

Return from Lesotho

October 10, 2012

We have just returned from an amazing, yet very short trip to Lesotho. Lesotho is an enclave (a country within the borders of another country) that is located in the eastern region of South Africa and is governed by a monarchy. The country is located in a mountainous region and offers some amazing hiking opportunities. Just as our trip to the Okavango delta reminded us how refreshing it can be to exist in the presence of water, it was a relaxing experience to be in the presence of mountains and trees again too! The region of the Kalahari Desert that we live in has its own forms of beauty to offer, but it has been nice to take breaks from it and experience the lush flood plains and mountains of the surrounding regions of Sub-Saharan Africa.

We traveled to Lesotho with seven other volunteers in a private combi (minivan/bus). It had been assumed that the drivers would be a little more aware of the route we needed to take to get to our destination, so when our group only brought vague directions and no detailed road maps we set ourselves up for plenty of scenic detours! Although the detours could be frustrating at times, they still offered us more time to hang out with our traveling group. Like any road trip, the time in a cramped car eventually gets to you but the destination was definitely worth the trip! We spent two days in Lesotho staying at Malealea Lodge and going on two hiking excursions led by guides. The first hike was 6 hours and took through a gorge to see a waterfall and then led us into the mountains to see some ancient rock paintings! The second excusion took us into another gorge to swim in some rock pools and then took us up the side of small mountain. We were exhausted during from all of the hiking (especially because our desert home does not offer much in the way of high elevation hiking..) but we all had a great time and hope to go back again someday. Pictures will soon be posted on facebook.

Now that we are back in Botswana, we are hosting a Peace Corps  shadowee. After one month in Peace Corps Botswana, trainees are sent out to spend a week living with a current volunteer in order to get a break from training sessions and also to learn firsthand was volunteer life and work is actually like. It is always a fun time, getting to hang out with a new volunteer and introduce them to the aspects of your village life! We spent our first night making pizza and getting to know each other more, and with the remainder of our time we will try to cook more unique meals and give the shadowee plenty of time at the school in order for them to have a better idea of what school work is like because this most recent group of volunteers is comprised of school volunteers. Along with getting experience at the school, we plan to meet up with other volunteers and shadowees in the area for a joint trip to the local Camel Park which is one of the tourism based operations currently available in our region (the Trans-Kalahari Frontier park is nearby, however it is inaccessible without a good 4x4 vehicle).

Again, be on the lookout for pictures from our recent adventures in Sub-Saharan Africa!

Best,

-          Michael

Don’t Go Outside!

Don't Go Outside!
The Spring season is in full swing in Botswana. The season is
characterized by dramatic temperature changes and windy weather (with
a about 2 very short rain showers thrown in as well). The gusty winds
kick-up the sand into big clouds that make walking into and out of the
village pretty miserable because you get covered in a layer of dust
and sand for the rest of the day.
Aside from the weather, Hayley and I have been busy with projects and
planning a trip for ourselves and my sister and her husband when they
come to visit Southern Africa during their honeymoon! We have plans to
see Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe, experience an over night camping
safari in Chobe National Park, and also to spend some time in South
Africa swimming with Great White Sharks, exploring Table Mountain, and
enjoying some relaxing beach time! After a little over 1-yr in
Botswana, we have not really taken much time to travel because: 1) we
have been saving our money for epic trips like the one described
above, and 2) travel in Botswana without a private vehicle is pretty
painful given the effort it takes to travel out of our area of
Botswana via public transportation (the buses are very good at
sticking to their schedule and charging American's the standard rates,
but the long distances that have to be traveled in packed buses and
mini-vans is rough, to say the least!).
These next few months mark the end of the school year, and that means
the students at my school have been gearing up for final exams since
the beginning of the semester. A group of college-aged volunteers
(Eduvolunteers is the name of their group), that is funded by the
Botswana Ministry of Education, has visited my school on multiple
occasions because after their first visit they discovered that many
students are over one full year behind in their course work. So the
volunteers are back for a thirst visit to continue offering their
tutoring services for a few days.
As has been stated in the past, the reason for the students being so
far behind in their course work is the teachers' Industrial Action"
that ended just before Hayley and I arrived in Botswana in September
2012. The Industrial Action is a polite term for the teachers' strike
that left the students without teachers for much of the last half of
the school year. And even once the strike ended, it has been a slow
process of getting teachers back into the habit of teaching their
classes and offering the students feedback on their work in a timely
manner.
Even amongst these hardships, we have still met many inspirational and
hardworking individual professionals and students in Botswana that are
also aware of these shortcomings and are working tirelessly to mend
them! It is because of these friends and colleagues that we continue
to find the support and energy to keep up with our lives as Peace
Corps Volunteers!
Lastly, my Birthday came and went earlier this month and, along with
the many packages we received (Tami & Mitch, Gma/Gpa Holthus, Gma/Gpa
Johnson, Dad Stolzle, Gma and Mom Knopick, Sister and
Bro-in-Law-To-Be) Hayley and I celebrated together in our village with
the exploration of a part of the village we had not yet seen. We also
made cake and other special foods from the packages we received, and
watched lots and lots of movies and TV shows! It was a fun and
relaxing day to see a little more of our home village and also enjoy
the tastes and entrainments of our home culture in the US. Thank to
everyone that send their love through packages, cards, and facebook!

In an attempt to keep these blog updates shorter and more readable, I
will stop here. But expect more updates soon!

- Michael

4 Botswana Cultural Practices I Admire and Embrace

1.) Greet people ALWAYS- Greetings are huge in Botswana. They mean the world to people and are a significant part of any relationship. I also like how it is expected to greet people before you ask for help or ask them to do something for you. This does not always happen but it is considered impolite to not first recognize the individual as a person (and not a means to an end). On days when I am not super busy at work, I love to go and “check” all my coworkers and friends in the community just to let them know I care about them and recognize their importance in my life. Every time I travel to the capitol city where such extended greetings are not common, I always experience a bit of culture shock.

2.) Sing or dance whenever you want and wherever you want- Tswana culture is full of the celebration of life with its continual expression and rhythm. People are not afraid to randomly break into song or dance and love it when you do, too! Songs are used to open school assemblies, work meetings, casual community meetings and about everything else in between. And when you ask people what they enjoy doing they will often say dancing and singing. They will then proceed to break into song and dance for you.

3.)  Share your food- Food is also a huge part of building relationships with people. At first I found it difficult to openly share my food especially with the limited volunteer allowance we are given and the expense of food in our village of Tsabong where a bag of apples costs 29 pula and only costs 9 pula in villages closer to the capitol. However, once you see how it brings people together your heart is opened and it is a nice experience. There are times where you are offered food you don’t really want like gemsbok liver or cow intestine and there are times where it’s a delightful experience like honey sucked straight out of a freshly gathered honey comb. Recently on the bus home from the capitol, I witnessed my seatmate (a 25 year old woman) share her bag of chips with a snotty-nosed little girl standing next to us in the aisle. The girl was obviously starving and very sick with some sort of bad chest cold. The little girl couldn’t have been more than 4 and was traveling with her mother and two younger siblings. I can’t imagine trying to take three small children on a crowded 7 hour bus ride but the mother was helped by the women around her who took turns holding them.

4.) Hold or Clap someone’s hand when you talk-  Even grown men will be seen walking down the road holding hands and chatting it up. When I first arrived here, I found it awkward and weird but now I even do it to others and find it to be quite pleasant. When you are really excited to see people, you usually give them a hug and then hold their hand for a few seconds while you chat. It’s also very common for people to do what I would equate to a fist bump in the states during the middle of a conversation. You do it after you or they say something funny or after something you agree on. The hand slap is just a clap of the hands with a little thumb touch at the end. It’s hard to put into words but it’s like doing a secret handshake with your best friend growing up except you regularly do it in mid-conversation with everyone from your closest friends to complete strangers.

Marital Rape Still Legal in Botswana

One of the hardest things for me to face as a woman working on gender issues here in Botswana is the issue of marital rape. It is technically still legal for men to rape their spouses. Thanks to the Domestic Violence Act of 2008, women can now prosecute the husband’s rape as a civil lawsuit. However, the rape cannot be tried as a criminal lawsuit and is not recognized as a criminal offense.

Recently, I gave a sexual abuse training to doctors, nurses and administration at the primary hospital where I work. Afterwards, one of the doctors asked how one of his patients who is married and a mother of four with her husband can claim to have been “raped” by him. The doctor was dead serious when he asked, too. As politely as I could…I explained that women can be raped no matter what their relationship status and that it’s not his job to decide whether she was raped or not. I told him that based on my presentation, he now knows what he should do in this case which would be to examine the woman for signs of rape, do a rape kit, treat her, note her chart and then take her to social work for counseling. I further explained that it’s up to him to take those first steps and then it’s out of his hands. It is not his place to decide whether she was actually raped or not. That is for the social workers and police to decide after extensive counseling and investigation.  His response was simply shaking his head as if doing what he is required by law to do is too burdensome in this case. The Chief Medical Officer did have my back, though, and encouraged the other doctors to always follow through with a rape case even if it’s a married woman reporting rape.

I am not sure what else to say except that I hope this demonstrates what we are up against here with challenging such viewpoints on women’s rights when even doctors do not acknowledge or take the time to report cases of rape for married women. I hope to write another blog soon addressing marriage dynamics and why women are likely to experience marital rape.

Photo Gallery Update

We have been posting pictures of our time here in Botswana on our Facebook pages.

In case you have missed the new photos that we have posted, or are interested in checking out the older ones, we have posted links to all of our Facebook photo galleries in the sidebar on the right side of the screen our blog (michaelandhayley.blogspot.com). You are not required to have a Facebook account in order to view them, they are open to anyone to view.

August 2012 Update!

Here is a much delayed update!
The one-year mark of our service is coming up. There is a trend among
Peace Corps volunteers where around the one-year mark, your service
work really starts to pick up speed. This trend has proven to be true
with us as well. It really has taken about a year to integrate
ourselves into Botswana's culture and systems of business. Over the
last year our service has been comprised mostly of building
relationships and learning the do's and don't's of life here. But now
that we have reached this point, a lot of our initiatives and projects
are coming to fruition much quicker than we anticipated. This is
probably because the people that we work with have gotten to know us
to a degree that they are more comfortable trying new projects with us
and allow us to support them in leading their our projects as well.
When I first arrived at the school, most teachers were not quite sure
what I was there to do. When I sat in on classes to observe the
standard approach to teaching most teachers were initially defensive
because they assumed I was there to audit them and file reports about
their weaknesses to the Ministry of Education. But After building
deeper relationships with my fellow teachers, they started to see that
my primary focus was on setting up programs and initiatives for the
students' benefit. And after a year of small projects, teachers are
now starting to buy into my work here and show an interest in
bettering the school themselves. This is a really important step
because my school has a very very poor pass-rate (meaning barely 50%
of the students received passing grades at the end of the school last
Novemebr). The Ministry of Education has been putting a lot of
pressure on the schools of Botswana that had such low pass-rates, and
have especially been placing a lot of blame on the teachers for doing
a poor job of engaging their students. The teachers subsequently focus
the blame on the students who "don't want to learn". It is a difficult
issues to overcome, but I do believe the handful of teachers at my
school that are showing a real interest in helping the students
perform better will pave the way to higher scores this November
(although, change happens slowly and I don't expect a large
improvement this time around..maybe next year!).
Aside from work in our villages, Hayley and I have been traveling
between our home village and Gaborone (the Botswana capitol) to work
on various projects and committees. Hayley is part of a very active
Gender Committee for the Peace Corps which works on researching gender
issues in Botswana and providing information and training to Peace
Corps Volunteers in the hope that we will all be more educated and
qualified in ways to help address the gender issues here. Some of our
older volunteers liken Botswana current social structure to the US
life and culture of the 60's. Women's rights were still (and still
are) needing improvement, and the society was patriarchal in that most
positions of power were filled by men and minority opinions lacked
strong representation.
Hayley will also be traveling to Gaborone in order to help lead some
sessions at the Bots12 In-Service Training which is a training given
to recently arrived volunteers after they have spent 2-months at their
sites. And, the newest batch of volunteers (Bots13) will be arriving
next month so she and the rest of the gender committee will likely be
preparing some sessions for their arrival training as well.
As for me, my latest project outside of the village has been helping
to create a set of introductory Setswana language training videos. Two
other volunteers and I collaborated with the Peace Corps Botswana
administration to put together a series of language videos that could
better prepare incoming volunteers for learning the Setswana language.
Because Setswana is a Bantu language it is complete foreign to more
English speakers due to the fact that we come from a heritage of
Romantic languages that are derived from their Latin/Roman language
heritage. Along with the challenge of learning a Bantu based language
like Setswana, the English language is widely spoken in Botswana which
makes learning Setswana even harder because you are never forced to
learn it. It is very easy to speak English with people at school,
work, and even the grocery store. So, many volunteers, such as myself,
don't progress very far beyond basic sentences and greetings. These
reasons help to explain why Peace Corps Botswana has such low scores
when it comes to language uptake by its volunteers. Our language
trainings pale in comparison to the language trainings of other
countries in which learning the local language is ESSENTIAL for
survival and success. But, it is the hope of the Peace Corps Botswana
administration that these language videos will give incoming
volunteers a leg up on Setswana before moving here so that further
language learning will be much easier for them in the future! You can
check out our finished product at this address:
www.learningsetswana.wordpress.com
I am currently working with a group of dedicated students on a
twice-daily study group. We meet every morning before school and every
afternoon after school in order to study various subjects in
preparation for their exit exams this November. Students graduate from
Junior Secondary Schools like mine, and move on to Senior Secondary
Schools before going on to college. Basically, my school is the
equivalent of 8th-10th grade and in order to go on to 11th and 12th
grade students must receive a passing grade when all of their final
exam scores have been averaged together. Keep in mind that the
Botswana grade scale is shifted about 10 points down from the standard
scale used in American schools. So, 80-100 is an A. 70-80 is a B. etc.
Unfortunately, for students in the Kgalgadi region of Botswana there
is only one Senior Secondary School in the region for them to go to
and this school is usually described as more of a refugee camp than an
actual school! The living and learning conditions at the school are
very poor and the Peace Corps Volunteers that work at the school and
in its surrounding village are planning some monumental camps and
projects that just might be able to help students and teachers at the
school improve things a little bit. Most of the volunteers in our
region are planning to go to the school early next year for a GLOW
camp (Girls Leading Our World) in which we will provide a number of
girls with further education about their rights, health, and education
in the hope that they will acquire the tools and confidence necessary
to help Botswana move towards a less patriarchal society and into a
more egalitarian one.
I am also working on starting a school newsletter. My hope is to have
the letter at least be a monthly production at the school written and
edited by teachers and students. It will mostly likely only be a one
page, two-sided publication but I think that it will be a great way to
increase people's awareness of the goings-on at the school. Currently,
I hope to have each newsletter include: A message from the School
Head, an article by a student, an article by a teacher or other
professional, and also some bits of life skills/health tips, and
lastly a section that promotes any events at the school or community
that would have a positive influence on the students and teachers at
the school. This project is currently in the 'buy-in' phrase in which
I am working with the head of the school's language department to get
one English teacher interested in the project so that I can work with
her/him to put together a team of students to create the newsletter.
Over all, we are loving our experience here in Botswana. The
relationships that we are building with co-workers, community members,
and students make it very easy to move through frustrating
circumstances and remain inspired to help our new friends. Even with
frustrating systems of protocol that impede our efforts to change
things, we are able to see that we are having a positive influence on
the lives of the people we befriend and work with here in Botswana.
But more importantly, we are seeing myriad ways in which the people we
befriend and work with have a positive influence on us as well.

Long Awaited Videos

Hi All,

There has not been much to report on about our lives in Botswana
lately, so I am posting a link to another volunteers blog post which
contains a few videos from our Pre-Service Training (PST).
These videos were made to catalog out training experience, so they
date back to September - November 2011.

http://iambeckyroar.weebly.com/1/post/2012/07/pst-video.html


- Michael

it's time for Botswana updates!

Greetings All!

It's been a long while since our last blog update, and in the absence
most of our adventures have been pretty standard for our life here. We
under went about a week without running water which we made it through
by using the slew of 2-liter bottles that we had filled with spare
water. And, to make it less intense there were a few nights when the
water would come on as a trickle sometimes in the middle of the night
so we were able to replenish our bottles.

Hayley has been doing some travel back and forth between our home
village and the capitol for various committees that she is serving on.
She will also be traveling to a "language week " event in the near
future. A "language week" is an event in which a volunteer invites
five other volunteers over to their home for a week. Once the five
volunteers all confirm their plans to attend, the Peace Corps arranges
to have a language teacher sent over to their house for the week where
the teacher will give lessons for a few hours each day and then they
are all able to hang out and have fun in the afternoons and evenings.
So, its five days of practicing the language with an experienced
teacher and hanging out with some of your fellow volunteer friends. It
will also be another bit of proof that Hayley is both more capable and
also dedicated to learning the Setswana language than I am. Life in
Botswana does require some use of Setswana, but fluency is very very
hard to come by because the Peace Corps lack of focus on teaching it
to volunteers during training. The Wide use of English in Botswana
also makes it very easy to carry on life in a safe and effective way
without much knowledge of Setswana.

Another upcoming event that we are working on is an event hosting the
US Ambassador to Botswana, Michelle Gavin. The Ambassador is coming to
our village next month in order to meet us and see our region of the
country. She is interested in learning more about the needs of youth
in the Kgalagadi district (the Kgalagadi is known as the Kalahari in
US-English). During her visit, she has asked the volunteers from
around our district to host an event with the youth of the Kgalagadi
in order to have some fun with them teaching them about HIV&AIDS and
also learning more about their needs so that the US is better able to
do what it can to help.

I have become good friends with the IT guy at the school I am assigned
to, and we have plans to install a long-range wireless router in the
coming weeks. This router will help to allow computers in the
buildings and offices that are on the far edges of the school grounds.
Most of the computers are consolidated to the administration building
and computer lab, but a few other departments could be improved by
giving them network access as well because it would make it easier for
teachers to have more open access to the internet which might go on to
improve their work as teachers through the integration of wireless
internet access.

An interesting phenomenon regarding the internet in Africa is that
regular access to the internet has only become a more common part of
life for most African countries in the last decade. And, this means
that most African countries have made the jump from highly limited
internet exposure to wireless/cellular internet access. Many countries
have skipped the time consuming and expensive process of setting up
wired cable connections across their countries (Botswana is included
in this), and instead most citizens of African countries either access
the internet through their cell phones or through computers that have
some sort of satellite based connection. The increased use of cellular
based internet has led to a boom in mobile apps and internet browsing.
There is a lot of speculation about what this means for the Internet
in Africa in general, but overall there is an expectation that many
people in countries like Botswana will do most of their internet using
through cell phone apps and will never be forced to learn the ins and
outs of computers and typing. What's most exciting about all of this
is that the potential for connecting the developing countries of
Africa to the global internet-based exchange of information is already
becoming a reality with relatively little extra effort on the part of
big telecommunication companies.

If it sounds weird to think that many people in Botswana will never
have to work with computers to use the internet, just look at the
common practices of today's teenagers in the US. Many have grown up in
a world of iPhone apps and Android phones that are just as powerful as
the standard home computer and they are allowed a much more private
and personalized experience of the internet and its riches. I am
excited to see what new developments will have come around in the US
after we complete our Peace Corps service and return home. The
potential for new technologies that might further help the world
provide aid the developing countries is great, and I can't wait to see
what's next!

All of these thoughts are based off of a blog article titled: How
Africa is embracing "the cloud" on its own terms

That's enough technology ranting for now. Our cat Nola is keeping up a
regular schedule of napping most of the day and having freak out
sessions in the evenings. She has some trouble getting much traction
on the linoleum tiles of our house but she is very skilled at showing
off her parkour skills by running around our living room area without
touching the ground in her own version of the beloved childhood game
"The Floor is Lava"!

The schools are on a tri-mester system which means they have three
terms a year with varied amount of break time in between. Term two
ends at the end of this week and the schools will be closed down for a
little more than a month. I plan to spend a good bit of that time
trying to keep in contact with responsible local students that will be
in the area and can help me make sure we have some students that
remember to come to the Ambassador event we are putting on next month.
I will also do what I can to continue helping a local organization
called the Center for Excellence whose local leader needs help
learning about how to use a computer. The Center for Excellence is an
organization that offers support to people both infected and/or
influenced by HIV. They work to provide chickens and other goods to
people that come to them for help.
That's it for now. We hope to share more in the near future!

- Michael

Overview of our Experiences Thus Far

I was recently asked by a friend to write a little about our work
here, so I thought I would share the short overview of our work and
experience with the Peace Corps in Botswana.

In Botswana, everything that the Peace Corps is involved in is
centered around addressing the HIV epidemic that has hit the country
so hard.

(there are many theories about why the southern africa has been the
worst hit by far, and currently the best explanation centers around
the cultural practice of having multiple concurrent sexual partners.
HIV is most communicable during the first few months of infection. In
Botswana and other regions of Southern Africa it is a common practice
for people to have multiple sexual partners at the same time and
because this means the disease has a "super-highway" for transmission
because as soon as someone is infected they unknowingly pass the
infection on to all of their other partners. To make matters worse,
the disease is often not detectable during the first few months of
infection. Thus, during its most communicable time period the disease
is also difficult to test for and with people sleeping with multiple
partners it has spread fast, or so the theory goes).

Even though the prevalence of HIV is extremely high in the country, it
is still a very taboo subject and although students have rote
memorization of all of the basic information regarding the disease,
people are still reluctant to ever acknowledge actual infections and
deaths that are related to HIV. Botswana has the 2nd highest
prevalence of HIV infection in the world. There are three categories
of volunteers: NGO, Health, and Education. I fall under the education
category and have been assigned to work at Tsabong Junior Secondary
School (students are the equivalent of 7th-9th grade aged) where my
primary assignment is to work with the guidance and counseling staff
to improve the students education in life skills which covers just
about everything that falls under "good to know in order to live a
happier healthier life". I teach a few classes each week with
different classes of students where I try to incorporate games and
activities while teaching them about nutrition, relationships,
contraceptives, personal finance, etc.

The country is on its way to falling under the "first-world"
classification and so people here have access to running water, paved
roads in most towns, satellite television, and internet which has
helped them begin to connect with the global community more and more.
The students are all very interested in American media (movies, TV,
music) and we have had a lot of fun talking about things from back
home. A secondary project that I am doing at the school is to improve
the students' computer awareness. The school I am at is lucky enough
to have a sort-of-up-to-date computer lab with limited access to the
internet. So the computers work well for teaching computer basics but
are not very functional when it comes to teaching the students to do
more than send emails and setup facebook pages (which most already
have figured out anyways). I focus on teaching typing skills and using
the Microsoft office programs.

Those are some basics regarding my work here. Hayley's job is involved
in using her Masters of Public Health degree experience to work with
the district health management team to plan and coordinate initiatives
and events. She is currently attempting to compose a questionnaire
that will yield statistically valid data for further analysis and
planning with regards to community health needs.

Our daily life consists of walking to most places that we need to go
around our village which is home to 7000 residents and is about 5
square miles in size. Most volunteers live in villages that do not
have grocery stores so they take weekly or bi-weekly trips to the
nearest large village to do their shopping. Our village, however, does
have its own store and we walk about 30min to get there and then 30min
back with our groceries. It has been an adjustment to be car-less but
we have found that life in Lawrence, KS had helped prepare us for some
of the walking because we used to walk to campus and Mass St a lot. We
had considered getting bikes, but have scrapped the idea for now
because there is no law enforcement of the speed limits on the roads
here and the legal blood alcohol level for driving is 3x that of the
US standard and it is common for drivers to be drinking and or clearly
drunk while operating their vehicle, especially during the after work
hours and at night. But Botswana has a basic public transportation
system that is well regulated and allows us to travel around the
country when we need to.

Our free time is mostly spent relaxing at home, especially in the
summers when it is around 90 degrees both day and night and we just
want to stay out of the sun. But now that winter is starting it is in
the 40's and 50's in the mornings and at nights while the days are
usually in the 70's. We hear that it will eventually be 40 degrees all
the time, and without any airconditioning/heating in the houses here
we are prepared to spend most of our time in a sub-zero rated Marmot
sleeping bags!

We watch a lot of movies and TV's shows on our computer and also read
books on our Kindles. While we have only made it through 6 or so books
each, we can proudly claim to have watched over 100 movies and every
more TV show episodes! I think that clearly indicates where our
priorities lie... :)

I hope that this information has helped to answer a few of your
curiosities about our lives and work here. I am happy to answer other
questions anytime!

The Easter Holiday

Trip to Maun
Recently, we travelled to Maun over the Easter Holiday. Maun is a
large tourism-centered village in northern Botswana. It is the seat to
most of the country's Okavango eco-tourism, and while we were there we
made sure to get in some excursions to see the wildlife of Botswana.
We stayed at The Old Bridge Backpackers lodged and paid a small fee to
setup a tent and camp there. The lodge offered bathroom and bathing
facilities so we weren't roughing it too much. There was also a bar
and a restaurant that allowed us to enjoy burgers, wraps, and pizza
most all of the day!
A batch of our fellow Bots11 volunteers joined us at the lodge and it
was fun to see our friends and go on excursions with them. Also,
during our time at the lodge our group became friends with some other
backpackers that were travelling through the area. Cameron and Jake
were a couple of Australian guys that had be travelling through
Namibia, S. Africa, and Botswana on a holiday. We all got along great
and their research of the areas offerings allowed us to do some things
we might not otherwise have known we could do. Firstly, we went with
them on a plane ride over the Okavango where we were able to take in
the vastness of the region and also see some animals (hippos, crocs,
elephants, zebras, impalas, giraffe). The one hour plane flight cost
~P500, which is a little expensive in terms of our meager Peace Corps
allowance, but it was worth it! Later that day we also took a relaxing
boat ride through some of the Okavango tributaries that were near our
lodge which was located on the bank of one of the rivers.
After a day of rest, we embarked on a full day 4x4 trek through the
Moremi game reserve. The Moremi reserve is one of the three major
reserves of Botswana's Okavango region. The drive started at 6am, the
open air truck we were sitting in with 6 other volunteers was pretty
chilly as we drove the hour or so to the reserve. Once we arrived at
the reserve our tour guides setup a cereal and coffee breakfast for us
and after eating we got started with the game drive.
During the drive through the Moremi reserve we first saw a small herd
of zebra and impala grazing only ~10m from the side of the trail! And
then up ahead we were able to spot our first giraffe and elephants.
The animals were generally uninterested in us but would occasionally
watch us closely for a few minutes and then would walk off into the
brush. The impala, giraffe, and zebra were plentiful for most of the
drive, and on the way back through the game reserve at the end of the
day we encountered a lot more elephants that were making their way
from the shade of the trees out into the open areas were they could
get more water and food.
Lunch was setup at the turning-back-point of the game drive in a large
open field. In the distance a large herd of elephants enjoyed their
time at a watering hole and it was the most memorable lunch we have
had in our time here thus far!
After lunch we loaded up in the trucks and made out way back through
the game reserve hoping that some large cats would be out as the day
was beginning to cool down. However, no cats were spotted that day but
the other truck took an alternate route home and happened across a
wildcat which is a species of cat that looks strikingly like a house
cat but is actually 100% pure wild animal (it is not to be confused
with feral cats, which are domesticated varieties that have adapted to
life in the wild). We were told that the wildcat was about twice the
size of a standard house cat and was napping under a bush near the
trail.
Instead of seeing a wildcat on our truck's drive back through the
reserve we were treated to an up-close hippo sighting. The hippo was
grazing a little ways away from its waterhole, and as we sat and
watched it grazing it began to make its way back to the water. The
hippo was accompanied by oxpecker birds, or something like them, that
hopped around on its body eating debris and bugs and also picking at a
pretty large gash on the hippos side. The guide said that lone
elephants and hippos are usually male because unless they are breeding
they tend to live solitary lives in their own separate territories.
The hippo was surprisingly graceful in its walk and stopped to stare
us down after sliding back into the water. As many of you might
already know, the hippo is Africa's most dangerous animal in terms of
actual attacks and deaths each year. They are notoriously territorial
and highly aggressive and kill more people than any other large
animals here. But the hippo we saw wasn't too interested in us and
allowed us to go on our way without any fuss.
After the hippo sighting we game across another large herd of impala
and learned that most heard as populated by many females and a single
dominant male. The male is interchangeable and often challenged by
other lone males that are looking for a harem of females to travel
with.
The last major sighting of the trip was a large herd of 20+ elephants
that were making their way across the trail. They were led by the
dominant female elephant and a small calf. And as the female came to
the road about 10m in front of our truck she turned and balked at us
by stomping her foot, flaring her ears, and snorting. After their
gesture the rest of the herd stopped coming our way and turned around
and quickly retreated back into the trees. The instance was very
intimidating, given that the female was about twice the size of our
truck. But, as the guide explained, she was just unsure about what we
were up to and so decided to gesture towards us to make sure we
weren't planning on doing anything threatening to her and her herd.
After checking us out from a distance she and the calf retreated into
the trees again too.
That is all of the stories we have regarding our animal adventures.
The rest of the weekend we were able to relax and enjoy life near the
water. It was shocking how much relief we were able to enjoy was being
near a large body of water. The sounds of the water and its wildlife
along with all of the green vegetation and trees were therapeutic for
us and all of the other volunteers from our group that are stationed
in the desert regions of the country! At out site we rarely see water
outside of our sinks as it only rains about one time a month and
usually for only a short amount of time.
The trip from our village to Maun took us an entire day, and required
us to hitchhike for about half of the journey. But, as we have
mentioned before hitching is an expected part of travel in the remote
regions of the country because the national bus system's coverage is
sparse on the western side of the country. If you live on the Eastern
side, near the larger villages you are able to find taxis, buses, and
combi's (mini-buses and vans) that run regular routes all over the
place). But, when hitching you are usually able to negotiate with the
driver so that you only have to pay the price of the bus fare for your
distance of travel. Although there are some fancier cars in this
country most people either drive beatup Japanese trucks or corollas.
After spending most of my driving life in my own Toyota Corolla, it
was been a strange experience to see so many around and to be riding
around in cars just like the one I used to drive back in the US.
All in all, while travel in Botswana is usually an exhausting day-long
event, the time we had in Maun with the wildlife and our good friends
we well worth the effort! And we are looking forward to seeing more of
the country soon. But for now, school is starting up again and we are
both back at work. However, the maintenance people that have been
slowly working through each of the teachers' houses have finally made
it to our home. They are painting the interiors and also replacing the
kitchen counters and cabinets. To insure the safety and respect of our
property I have stayed home and worked on the computer while the men
went about their business updating our home.
Each day during this maintenance process goes as follows: 8am, the
painter shows up and starts mixing his paint bucket and then
disappears for an hour or two. During his absence the counter and
cabinet replacers may or may not show up. But eventually they will
make an appearance before leaving for 10:30 tea break. Everyone
returns for a flurry of work around 11am and then leaves again for
lunch around 12:30pm. By this time about 1 full hour of work has been
done on any one job. After lunch, the painter really gets going and
usually finishes up a room (our home has a living room, bathroom,
kitchen, bedroom, and short hallway). Needless to say, I will never
ever ever take American work ethic for granted when it comes to
contracting laborers for maintenance jobs. Even if there might be call
for complaint if workers leave a mess or are a little slow in the US,
it is a night and day difference when compared with the efficiency and
thoroughness of work in the US. I am sure this blanket statement
doesn't go for all of the maintenance workers of Botswana, but the
ones that have been contracted at our school leave a lot to be
desired. But, with that complaining aside, we are about a half a week
away from having our place to ourselves again were we will be able to
enjoy a nice fixed-up home.
And to top it off, we have a kitten to share our home with now too! Of
the three kittens we attempted to rescue and hand raise from the time
they were about 3 days old, only one of the kittens has survived. The
first kitten only made it a day or two and passed away. But the second
kitten was the one we had hoped to keep while giving the third to
another volunteer. However, after returning from Maun we collected our
two kittens from the volunteer we had left them with and brought them
home. The one we were going to keep (named Gizmo, after we noted the
similarity in the noises he made with the noises made by the cute
mogwai in the movie Gremlins) was not gaining weight and growing like
the other kitten was. And seemed to be developing some respiratory
issues. We consulted online/email vets and did as much research as we
could online but were never able to find a way that we could do much
to help our kitten get better without veterinary assistance. There are
vets located in Botswana, but they are in the larger villages that are
a days travel from our site. And after a night of labored breathing,
Gizmo died. It was a traumatic experience and after all of the work
and love that we have put into raising these kittens we are pretty
sure that we will never attempt hand-raising orphaned kittens again.
But the experience has been interesting and it has given us a new
distraction from the stresses of service.
The remaining kitten is doing very well and has transitioned into the
learning-to-pounce-and-stalk phase, so we have had a lot of fun
playing with her and trying to not let her get too used to playing
with our hands (as we have heard that too much hand-play can create a
cat that loves to bite and play with hands when they get older). We
are still working on picking out the perfect name for our kitten, but
here are a few of the names we are trying out: beardy, grey beard,
motsomi (hunter in setswana), girlfriend, one tusk, and fang. The list
goes on, but we will eventually settle on whatever seems to fit her
best. But for now, she will just be the kitten with a thousand names.
I will let my rambling account of the past few weeks experiences end
here. We are always available to talk by phone or email so if you have
any other questions or just want to say he, let us know!

- Michael