How to take a bucket bath.

How to take a bucket bath:

1.       Heat up water in a cast iron cauldron on the fire and bring it to a boil (note: this may take a very long time and you are advised to go do something else and come back and check an hour or so after lighting the fire)

2.       Scoop out maybe a liter or two of hot water into the industrial sized plastic bucket provided for you, and transport it into the bathroom. Be sure to refill the cauldron on the fire and stoke the fire to make sure a good flame is going for the next person’s bath water.

3.       Pour the hot water into a smaller bucket and add room temperature water until filled.

4.       While on your hands and knees, dip your entire head into the bucket. This may require a bit of maneuvering in order to fully submerge all of your hair. It should feel like you are half way to a handstand with your head, neck, and shoulders perpendicular to the ground as best you can manage.

5.       Remove your head and add shampoo and conditioner (it is best to add both at the same time so as to only require one further head dunk.

6.       Resubmerge your head into the bucket and swish your hair around a little bit to get the soap out.

7.       Use a wash cloth to wet the rest of your body before sudsing up with a bar of soap. Then rinse off the soap with the wash cloth. (note: some peace corps volunteers have found that the use of a cup is also good for rising).

8.       Dump the warm bath water over your body when you are finished. Close your eyes and pretend it is a shower. Because it is the closest thing you are going to get. Be careful to leave a few inches of water at the bottom to pour directly into the tub, as there are usually increased levels of sediment settled there that one should not pour on oneself.

9.       Repeat twice a day, as directed by your insistent host mother. (Note: it is easier to pretend to bath twice a day rather than try to explain American bathing habits. Just splash around a little bit and change your clothes and that seems to satisfy the quota).

 

Homestay Update 1: Settling in

(This blog post was written on August 21)

 

A picture from my neighborhood. I am staying just up that hill.

 

I have been in my homestay for about two weeks now, and every day brings both new surprises and an increased sense of comfort (usually). The food is getting more familiar, and actually is not as scary as I anticipated. I’m trying to give up my vegetarianism while in homestay in order to experience the culinary culture, and I have definitely jumped in the deep end a little. We have goat most nights for dinner, and there is an entire goat head sitting in our freezer….not sure what it is waiting there for…. This culture also places a LOT of value on the starches. I’ve been eating lots of phaletshe (an almost grits-like corn-based food) and sorghum (a dish called “mabele,” which apparently also means breasts if you say it with the wrong intonation….so watch out). While hearing my name dropped in the middle of a mile-a-minute Setswana conversation (often followed by laughter) is still disheartening, establishing my routine is making things a bit easier.

 

A typical day right now looks something like this:

6:30—wake up, breakfast, pack lunch, get ready for school
7:30-9:30—Setswana lesson
9:30-5:00—School (we have lots of different sessions on health, safety, culture, international development, public health, etc)
5:00-8:30—time spent with host family (includes dinner, then we usually watch TV and they talk a lot…while I try to maybe catch a few words of what they are saying…)
8:30-9:00—me time (study Setswana, do homework for school, blog writing, read, etc)
9:00—if I’m still awake, it is absolutely time for bed.
 

I seem to be picking up Setswana fairly easily, which has been a relief for me. It is nothing like English or Spanish (no shock there), and direct translations are sometimes hard. There are about a million tiny words (“ke” “ka” “ko” “kwa” “mo” “ba” “le” “la” “me” “fa” and on and on and on) that mean different things in different contexts and depending on the way you say them. Setswana is a tonal language, which makes it beautifully melodic but also complicated. For example, the letter “o” by itself could mean “you” or “him/her/it” depending on the intonation with which it is said. So that’s really not confusing at all. And on top of that there are 18 different ways to make words plural, depending on seemingly arbitrary grammatical groupings of nouns. But, that aside, I am starting to be able to pick out words and sometimes small phrases from my host family’s conversations. And when I lose confidence in myself and am frustrated by my lack of understanding, I usually just play with one of my one year-old twin siblings, which requires no Setswana and only funny faces. Here’s a small sample of some of my basic Setswana for those of you who are interested:

Dumela! Leina le me ke Maureen. Ke nna mo Serowe kwa go Merapelo. Ke tswa ko America mo Washington, DC. Ke moithaopi wa Peace Corps le ke ithuta Setswana le ngwao. Ke tla go bona kgantele!

 

Translation: Hello! My name is Maureen. I am staying in Serowe with Merapelo. I am from America in Washington, DC. I am a Peace Corps Volunteer and I am studying Setswana and culture. See you later!

It’s pretty cool to think that all of that would have been gibberish to me a little over a week ago!

 

Until next time...

 

 

-M

An Intention.

Ever since I applied to the Peace Corps, and more recently since I accepted the invitation to Botswana, I have been thinking a lot about my intention for my time here. Why do I want to spend over two years of my life in another country and immersed in an unfamiliar culture, far removed from my comfort zone and my support system? To some people that might sound completely absurd and undesirable. But for those who know me, it is a perfect fit. It’s not often that I feel called to do something. I felt it when I first heard about Joseph’s House, where I spent my last year serving through Americorps. And I felt it when I made the commitment to the Peace Corps. It was a terrifying decision, one that I grappled a great deal with, but I believe that it will prove to be the right one.

                I realized over the past year how much value I place in service work. It has been a distinct and defining part of my life for as long as I can remember, but I don’t think I truly recognized its importance in my values and priorities until the past year. For me, service work is so much more than just “doing good” and feeling good about yourself as a result of it. Because that, in itself, seems selfish to me. Service work is less about me, the server, and more about the population and individuals being served. It is about accompaniment, and that is what I am striving for.

                I have been really pleased so far with how much the Peace Corps’ approach to development work lines up with my own views. As a Peace Corps volunteer, my approach to development is first and foremost person-to-person centered. By nature, it is a bottom-up strategy that focuses on capacity building as defined by the community, not my own agenda. Even if I think I have identified a need in the community, without local buy-in it is already a failed idea. The PC approach promotes sustainable projects and initiatives that involve community stakeholders as trainers, mentors, co-facilitators, etc. It's an approach that I really believe is not accomplishable unless you totally immerse yourself into the village and culture you are in... something I don't think I could do working with pretty much any other development agency.

                Over the course of the next 2+ years, I don’t want to just initiate projects, train community members, and spread health education messages. Rather, I want to foster relationships. Accompaniment through this type of work is about mutual growth and development. It is not about an agenda or a work plan. It is not about making as big an impact as I can in two short years. It is not about adding accomplishments to a resume. Service through accompaniment is about walking alongside and matching your stride with the people you are serving. It is about following their bumpy, dirt path, even though your paved and unpitted one may have branched off a while back. I’m not sure what my Peace Corps service has in store for me, but I do know how I want to approach this experience.

To accept everything and push away nothing.

To serve with an open heart.