Finding Love in Botswana

We closed the camp with an activity where I gave each of the four teams yarn the color of their team. Each person wrapped the yarn around their wrist a few times, said a goal they have for themselves out loud, and then passed the yarn to another person on their team. At the end, everyone was connected through a web. They cut the yarn and tied it around their wrist to serve as a reminder of camp and the goals they set for themselves. 

I have recently finished running a four-day camp for about 65 kids ranging from ages 12 to 20 living with HIV in my district. All of these children were infected with HIV by their mothers or in some rare instances, an HIV positive female who breastfed them. Botswana has come a long way in preventing mother to child transmission (PMTCT), and today the transmission rate is now around 2%. However, there was a long period of time where this wasn’t the case. Unfortunately, these 65 kids are really only a fraction of the kids living with HIV in my area, let alone in Botswana as a whole.

Camp was held at Tsodilo Hills, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

It was something of an emotional rollercoaster for those few days, as there were many, many challenges in working with the host country nationals. Everything from facilitators disappearing from sessions they were supposed to help lead, to the supplies officer ignoring the menu we provided and instead buying random quantities of other foods. But I won’t bore you with them here, I promise. Things were mildly chaotic and incredibly frustrating at times. But I would do it all over again in a heartbeat.

I realized during the camp that this was perhaps the first time that these children could be so completely open and free about their status. They didn’t have to harbor any fear of rejection or stigma, because they were among peers experiencing the same thing. In the morning and evening every half hour we would announce the time and shout, “If you take your pills at this time, go and take them!” They would run off together in groups and take their meds. No hiding, no self-conscious glances, just companionship. I think this was one of the best gifts they received during those few days.

This is Mphande, the Health Education Assistant at the clinic.

At the camp, we did lots of activities and had several sessions with the kids to cover topics such as HIV/AIDS basics, Adherence, Sex and Sexuality, Love and Relationships, Self-Esteem, and Leadership/Communication Building. The days were long and the weather was excessively hot, but it was productive nonetheless. Some of the sessions were difficult to engage the kids in, as students here are often discouraged from speaking out and sharing their own unique opinions. But those sessions were countered with awkward laughing and conversing when I instructed them in condom demonstrations on a very strange-looking hand-carved wooden penis model. One boy ran up to me holding two hard-boiled eggs and said, “Look, these can be the testes!” I was both thoroughly amused and impressed with his comprehension of the male anatomy.

Other sessions were more serious. One afternoon was filled with intimate discussions of healthy disclosure and stigma among the kids. There were some tears shed and some truths spoken. A few of the girls, for example, don’t think they will ever be able to get married or have children because of their status. Several others told stories of classmates who disclosed their status to the whole of their school, leaving them stigmatized and feeling incredibly vulnerable. This exchange of stories and realities was an invaluable part of the whole camp. It’s not something that can necessarily be evaluated on a pre- or post-test or reported on my quarterly Peace Corps report…it’s not something that can really be measured at all. But then again, the most important things rarely are.

Personally, one of my favorite parts of the camp was getting to form stronger relationships with the kids who come to my Shakawe Teen Club meetings. I have such a deep love for these teens…so much so that it sort of took me off guard. I’m really good at compartmentalizing some of the stronger emotional aspects of being here. The loneliness, the frustration. Because if I let myself feel these things too deeply, I probably won’t last here. Maybe I’ve developed a thick skin, or maybe it’s something else. But these kids have managed to burrow into the deep recesses of my emotional caves. The bonds I’m forming with them provide me with so much comfort, and I can’t exactly explain why. Maybe that’s just what love does. Maybe it’s just that I haven’t found that kind of love here until this past weekend. But to love in this way is the core of who I am. And somehow, through this thicket of constant cultural adjustment and personal vulnerability, I have found love in Botswana. 

Meditations on a halfway point.

So I have been here for over a year now, and I still have a year to go. It’s a strange place to be, halfway but not quite. Some days I feel like I’ve moved mountains, and on others I feel like I’m still running in place. And both of those kinds of days are the ones where I have to remind myself that I’m not here with unrealistic expectations. Or, if it was perfect world, any expectations.

I recently had a conversation with a PCV friend about trying to justify being here. Coming from a very western, achievement-driven world where for a lot of people beefing up your resume can justify a career choice, at what point is this experience “worth it.” At what point can you justify giving up your friends and family and having your entire support system at your fingertips? Is it after a workshop goes really well? Is it after you see visible behavior change in someone? Is it after you greet an old woman in passing who you’ve only seen once or twice before and she responds by greeting you by name?

Let me make this simple for you and me both: No, it’s none of those things. In discussing this, we both realized that this experience is not one with a “worth it” threshold. You can run yourself into the ground and won’t feel any better about your decision to come here, because it doesn’t work like that. A cousin of mine recently told me, “You’re in it,” which strangely enough, I think sums it up. I’m in. All in. With a full heart and my whole self. I’m coming for you, year 2.

The following few posts are intended to share with you some moments from the past few months. Some are m minor while others were monumental for me. I hope you enjoy and as always feel free to comment and share.

Mediations on a halfway point: A photographic update....Daily Life

Here are some images from my day to day life in Shakawe. The captions should shed some light on what is taking place in each one.

 

There are palm trees in my backyard with palm apples at the very very top. Kids come through my yard at all hours of the day throwing rocks to get them down. But then this boy started to climb...

This woman is selling "tswii," or roots of lilies in the river. They are yummy, especially when mixed with seswaa (slow cooked, pounded and salted meat)

An average household in Shakawe.

I built a tire swing in my yard for the kids to play on

Probably giving some kind of science lesson :)

The dogs that follow me herding goats on my way to the clinic....this happens several times a week. People think they are mine. It's embarrassing.

Learning how to skin s goat with another PCV.

Petrol in my village goes out for days. This is one of the instances where it came back. Word travels fast, and soon there was a long line.

My neighbor dressing up in her mom's shoes

Playing with a kite with my neighbor on a breezy Sunday

One of my counterparts, Mphande, pictured in the middle. These are mothers and caregivers of children under 5 who come once a month to have their child weighed to check for malnutrition and growth failure. They also receive ration from the government once a month. We are often out of stock, but this is one of the days where we had lots of food to distribute! Caregivers came from far reaches of the village to get their share.

My cat, Tsala, of course.

A cow chewed holes in my clothes that were drying on the line.



A friend of mine and her twins. She was one of the first people I met in Shakawe. I love this portrait for her.

Kids drew a map of Shakawe with chalk on my doorstep

Young school kids using chalk as "make-up." I told them they were all beautiful.

Applying their make-up, boys and girls.

Someone's ride parked outside the clinic.

So my house sometimes turns into a movie theater.
Also a soccer field. Also an art gallery.

A photo walking through Shakawe

Meditations on a halfway point: A photographic update...Workshops, etc.

 

Workshops, etc.

 

MALARIA

This week another volunteer and I got the opportunity to attend the national malaria conference along with a PC staff member. The three of us presented on the efforts of PCVs in Botswana to contribute to the elimination of malaria. Botswana is one of 8 countries in southern Africa working to eliminate the disease. One of the tools widely used is indoor residual spraying (IRS), where teams spray the interior walls of homes with insecticide to reduce the mosquito population and interrupt the malaria transmission cycle. Tiphaine (the other volunteer pictured) and myself are working to use GPS units to mark which houses are sprayed and not sprayed in our villages. You can then look at the spatial distribution of these points and use that data to do targeted follow up in certain parts of the village that have low coverage. We also want to GPS the locations of malaria cases in our communities to compare the hot spots with the IRS coverage to see if there is a correlation. Exciting stuff!

 

 

Explaining the mapping program, OpenStreetMap, which we are using for these mapping initiatives.

 

 

GENDER

I hosted a gender-based violence workshop using a tool called "In Her Shoes" for about 30 police officers in my village. After rescheduling twice and two local counterparts bailing on me, I decided to do the workshop by myself. I would have preferred to co-facilitate with a counterpart, but with the way things went I was alone. I was very nervous, but quickly found my stride and facilitated some good conversations following the activity.

 

(MORE) MALARIA 

I also helped train the malaria community mobilizers for my village and the handful of villages in our catchment area. Leading up to that, I developed the training curriculum for the district health team staff who trained the mobilizers in the rest of the district where I couldn't attend the training sessions. It felt like a good way to help capacity build and contribute my own knowledge to the training program while still allowing the district staff to take the lead, as it should be. 

 



The first day of training was with community leaders, meaning the chiefs of the local villages. I was surprised at their lack of knowledge coming into the training.

One of the staff members from the district health office training the chiefs.

Community Health Educators demonstrating to the Community Mobilizers how to hang a bed net.



I developed this simple training tool to help test the volunteers' knowledge about how to assess a compound while using the field reporting tools they will be employing on a daily basis.

  



 WORLD BREASTFEEDING WEEK

 

This was something I didn't personally help plan, but I participated in the event at my clinic. Mothers were trained on correct hygiene practices as well proper positioning and attachment of infants. We even gave out prizes for those who were doing it best.

 

Two of my counterparts, both health educators, teaching the mothers together. There were even a few fathers present!

And because pregnant mothers are at a heightened risk for malaria, we also did a bed net demonstration.

Meditations on a halfway point: A photographic update...Youth Projects

Youth Projects...

 

A fellow volunteer and myself have taken two groups of students on two school trips, one to the nearby World Heritage Site "Tsodilo Hills," and the other across the river to Sekondomboro for a camping trip. 



The kids at Tsodilo Hills.

 



Transport in the back of a flatbed truck, how else?

 

From the camping trip:

They were able to ride in traditional dug-out canoes, known as "mokoros"

 

 

 

 

 

The other PCV was teaching how to skip rocks while waiting for the ferry to go home.

I also teach an art class with Standard 1 (first grade) students once a week. Here are some photos from when we made paper hats and did potato printing.

 

 

I meet with the Environmental and Health Education Club at the primary school once a week as well. We do different activities to teach about the environment, which is especially important for these students living on the banks of the Okavango River.

 



The club (yep, that's a Chinese student who also lives in the village. A lot of small shops in this country and others surrounding it are actually owned by Chinese families.)

Playing a game like "Marco Polo" where the blindfolded child yells "bat" and the others run around the circle yelling "moth" in response. The game teaches the kids about bats and how they use echolocation to find food. They had a blast!

 

We used a program called Grass Roots Soccer to teach kids about HIV/AIDS and also malaria. In this game, the blanket represents the bed net, while the ball is the mosquito. The kids had to fit under the "net" and avoid the mosquito. If they were "bitten," they had to go and high five the designated doctor at the local clinic to get treated.

I have been working to start Youth Friendly Services at my clinic to provide psychosocial, sexual and reproductive, and general health care specialized for children and teens. It's a project in progress, but we are working hard.