What am I doing these days anway?

The days continue to drag but the months continue to fly!

Dumelang, my friends! Almost 8 months here in Botswana and 5 months here in my village of Moletemane. I will not lie, it is a little depressing to acknowledge the fact that I have been here that long and have yet to get projects started or really do anything for that matter other than read a lot of books and watch a lot of movies. Regardless, I stay patient and optimistic. I have been trying very hard the last couple of weeks to get things underway. Recently a lot of PCV’s in my group and I underwent a training on something called Grassroot Soccer which is a curriculum that basically teaches kids about HIV/AIDS and prevention through a lot of games and fun. I know what you are thinking… Vanessa is going to play soccer? Not a chance. It is actually a lot less soccer than one would think the name suggests. I am most optimistic about this curriculum because my counterpart (the person who is assigned to me to be my liaison to the community and to help me start projects) is actually really excited about doing this with me and I cannot be more grateful! One important idea in Peace Corps is that projects and such should be sustainable. For example if a village needs a school there is no point in building the school if the village does not have the resources to equip it with staff and teachers because then there would be no school, just an unused building and wasted resources. This kind of thing happens all the time in humanitarian work.

That is why it is so exciting to have a counterpart that is genuinely interested in starting and helping me with projects because when I leave this is something she can continue to either do by herself but also with the next volunteer if I get replaced which I am sure I will. I am the first volunteer at my site ever and apparently they have been asking for one for a long time. I need to make sure I don’t end up being a big disappointment by the end of my service.

Another reason it is exciting that my counterpart is motivated to work with me is that to be frank, many counterparts assigned to PCV’s in Bots often do not help their PCVs. Some PCVs don’t have relationships with their counterparts at all and some don’t even have a counterpart! Because of the transfers that happen all to often in Botswana there are many PCVs who are left without counterparts that are never replaced. It has also come to my attention that when my counterpart has helped me to get things done in the community, they seem to happen at a much quicker pace and my ideas are taken more seriously with the back of a community member. That is why when she went to the school to ask for the names of 15 students for the GRS curriculum they were given to us a couple days later. We hope to start on April 10th! I will keep you all posted!

Is that confidence I smell?
A week or so ago I arrived at the clinic to find 40-50 boys around the age of 8-10 roughly, waiting to be tested for HIV.  The boys were getting circumcised the following week and required an HIV test before they underwent the surgery. Botswana has started a major campaign nationwide to circumcise young boys because studies have showed that it reduces their chance of becoming infected with HIV by around 60% as compared to men who are not circumcised. There are very biological reasons for it that I am not going to get into at the moment but I encourage you to research it. Having just returned from the GRS training previously, and having nothing to do on a Monday morning at the clinic, I decided to do something to keep these boys busy while they waited. By chance I had brought my GRS handbook. I decided to play a couple simple games with them. Immediately I encountered a couple problems that will be easily fixed once I actually start the curriculum. The first was that there were just way to many kids. Probably around 40 of them had said they wanted to play. The real curriculum will only have 15 kids and two instructors so we will be able to keep them focused. The second problem was that many of them just didn’t understand my English. Even though at their age they should be taught in only English this is unfortunately not always the case and it is very unfair for the kids because as a consequence the kid’s English is not fluent and then they do very badly on their exams that are of course in English. For my actual sessions my counterpart will be there and as her Setswana is much better than her English she will be able to give more clear instructions than I in Setswana. The other major issue I already knew I would have is the kids actually speaking out. The children here are very shy because they fear being wrong so it was very hard to coax answers from them even though I insisted that it was okay to be wrong. I hope this kind of program will give the kids confidence and at least confidence to talk to my counterpart and I. Speaking of confidence, after I was done playing those couple games with those kids I realized that the entire time I never felt unsure of myself or scared or even intimidated. I can’t say I would have felt that way 8 months ago!

The first game we played was called “Find the Ball” which involved them guessing who had the ball (in our case the rock) on the other team. This game is supposed to teach kids that one can cannot tell by looking at a person if they have HIV or AIDS, only by an HIV test can they know for sure. The second was “HIV Limbo” which was your basically limbo but the bar was lowered every time a risk was added that would make them more vulnerable to HIV infection. I’ll be honest. I know many of the kids did not get the messages I was trying to get across to them but I know at least a couple of them did and that makes me feel a little better especially since they were my trial run group as a facilitator! Also as a consequence, three times now a child has shouted at me “Find the Ball” from afar. At least they remembered that much. Lol Some parents later came up to me and were asking about it, seeming genuinely interested. Maybe they’ll sign up their kids for Grassroot Soccer! ; )

In the works!
Other projects that I am trying to get into the works… I have requested the head teacher to pick 15 girls that she thinks are most vulnerable to becoming HIV infected (which in my opinion are all of them) and to becoming pregnant while in school (teenage pregnancy is a very serious problem in my village). With these girls I will be doing a 15 session curriculum that is used to hopefully empower girls and teach them how to protect them from above mentioned as well as teaching the importance of staying in school. I hope to maybe incorporate music into this somehow since the youth in my village have expressed that they want to do extracurricular activities involving music.  I also want to start showing educational films we have been taught to facilitate with a discussion after the film, in particular at the poultry farm next door to Moletemane since most of our work force works there. If I can get my hands on a projector this will make it much easier and I can use that projector to show regular movies that people could come see for a small fee and have the clinic or school use that money as a source of fundraising. Lastly, I am waiting for the school to finish fixing the ceiling in a classroom they are turning into a library so I can move the few books they have from the storage room to the new library. I have seen these so called books they have and I’ll be honest, they are crap. I’ll be making a call out for kids used books in the future so I hope you call can help me out! : ) After the library is done I hope to start a reading program in the school to encourage kids to read to help improve their English.

When all else fails, take a vacation…
It seems a little absurd that even though I have not started any real projects I am already going on vacation but hey when someone gives me a 4 day weekend what else can I do but run off and camp amongst elephants!? Over Easter weekend 9 other PCVs and I will be taking a trip north to a place called Elephant Sands near Nata, Botswana. Google it! They have a website! For now go siame, my friends!

En Español

Los días siguen eternos pero los meses siguen volando...
Dumelang amigos! Casi 8 meses aquí en Botswana y casi 5 meses aquí en mi pueblo de Moletemane. La verdad me deprime un poco decir que todavía no a empezado ningún proyecto en estos meses que as estada aquí. Lo único que a hecho la verdad es leer libros y ver películas. Pero ya a llegado el momento para empezar proyectos por fin! Por eso sigo tratando de ser paciente y optimistica. Recientemente a intentado mucho empezar proyectos nuevos pero la verdad no es fácil! Ase poco yo y otros voluntarios fuimos a uno entrenamiento llamado Grassroot Soccer. Básicamente son lecciones para ensenar la materia de Sida y como prevenir Sida para niños con juegos que lo ase divertido. Ya se lo que están pensando… Vanessa va a jugar futbol??? Claro que no! Jiji es menos futbol de lo que piensan aunque el nombre tenga ‘soccer.’ Estoy super emocionada para dar estas clases porque la persona que es me compañera en la clínica también fue a el entrenamiento y realmente esta emocionada también para dar las clases conmigo. Cada voluntario tiene un compañero o compañero que su clínica, escuela or organización les da para que les ayude con proyectos. Este compañero es muy necesario por muchas razones. Una de ellas es para que pueda ayudar a navegar como funcionan las cosas en el pueblo donde estamos. Lo bueno de la compañera mía es que realmente me a apoyado y ayudado. Ay muchos voluntarios que tienen compañeros que ni los pelan y no les dan nada de ayuda con timas ayudar les a empezar proyectos. En Peace Corps es muy importante tener alguien en la comunidad para que nos apoyan porque si empezamos algo necesita ver alquien en la comunidad que pueda seguir el proyecto cuando nos regresemos para los estados unidos. Si no todo el trabajo es por nada. Por ejemplo construyendo una escuela en un lugar donde no van a poder poner maestras y maestros no va a servir. Solo van a gastar dinero  y tiempo. Tiene que ver alguien que siga los proyectos después que la persona que los empezó ya no este.

Tengo suerte en que no no mas tengo una compañera pero esta dedicada a ayudarme. Ay muchos voluntarios que ni tienen compañero o compañera o tienen pero no los ayudan. En Botswana el gobierno transfere la gente mucho y a veces cuando pasa eso no les consiguen un compañero nuevo al voluntario. Eso hace el trabajo mas difícil para el voluntario en su comunidad. Cuando uno tiene alguien en la comunidad que los apoye las cosas vienen mas rápido. Por ejemplo cuando fuimos con mi compañera a la escuela a conseguir una lista de los niños a los dos días ya no tenían los niños escogidos. Esperemos empezar el 10 de abril. Ay les aviso como nos va!

Que vergüenza ni que nada!
Ase una semana llege a clínica y encontré 40 a 50 niños de edades 8-10 esperando para que les hicieran la prueba de Sida. Estos niños después en una semana les iban hacer las circumsion que no les hacen a las niños aquí cuando nacen como en otros países. Es una campaña que están haciendo aquí en Botswana porque an hechos estudios que hombres que están circumsados tienen 60% menos probabilidades de contragiré la sida por razones de biología. Como acaba de ver regresada del entrenamiento de Grassroot Soocer decide jugar unos juegos con estos niños mientras esperaban. Inmediatamente encontré unos problemas que espero resolver para cuando de verdad empiece las clases. En primer lugar tenía demasiado niños.  Cuando de verdad tenga las clases solo van hacer 15 niños a la vez. Con 15 niños y 2 instructoras vamos a poder tener los niños y niñas mas enfocados en las lecciones. También el ingles era un problema. Los niños tienen sus clases en Setswana hasta el segundo grado per se supone que después de  eso les empiecen a dar lecturas en ingles pero muchas veces eso no es el caso. Les siguen dando lecturas en Setswana y los exámenes son en ingles. Los niños sufren mucho por esto en la escuela. Pero teniendo mi compañera allí va ser mejor porque lo que no entiendan en ingles ella les puede decir en Setswana. Otro problema es que los niños tienen miedo de hablar en frente de adultos. Espero que nuestro grupo empecé a tener nos confianza para que hablan mas. Lo que me di cuenta cuando estaba jugando con ellos es que a ningún momento tuve miedo o vergüenza en frente de ellos. Me sentí segura y con confianza. Hace 8 meses no creo que ayga sido el caso!

Otros Proyectos en Proceso…
Ay varios proyectos que tengo en planes pero no a empezado. Por ejemplo le a pedido una lista a la principal de la escuela de muchachas en la primaria que ella piensa que están mas a riesgo de ser infectadas con sida o salir embarazadas.  A estas muchachas tendría unas clases de cómo prevenir estas cosas y apoyar las de siguir en la escuela. Las clases también les enseñan como planear para el futuro y diferente aspectos de la enfermedad de Sida. Tal vez ágamos algo con música como los estudiantes vean dicho que querían hacer algo con música. También tengo muchas películas de educación que quiere empezar a ensenar, especialmente en la granja de pollos que tenemos aquí a lado del pueblo. Trabajan allí mas de 300 personas y casi todos viven aquí en Moletemane. Por lo menos la mita tienen Sida. Por eso es muy importante la educación. También estoy esperando que acaben de arreglar el techo de lo que va ser la biblioteca de la escuela primaria. Cuando acaben voy a mover los pocos libros que tienen a ese cuarto y tratar de conseguir les mas libros a los niños. Despues de eso quiero espesar un programa de leer para que los niños lean mas y mejoren su ingles!

Por lo menos ay que irnos de vacaciones!
Dirán vacaciones de que si no has hecho nada! Jaja pues cuando nos dan 4 días seguidos de descanso pues que mas voy a ser!? Me voy a campar con los elefantes! En un lugar llamada Elephant Sands in Nata norte de aquí vamos a campar en un lugar donde los elefantes viven este fin de semana. Espero que no nos pise ningún! Pero que historia para contar si pasa! Jaja por ahora como dicen en Botswana go siame amigos!