Common Ground: March 2015

Sunday, 29 March 2015

The past two months or so have been some of the busiest I’ve had thus far here in Botswana, so I apologize for the lack of updates! I was in Gaborone, the capital city, for two weeks of training, then I was in Senegal for two weeks of another training, followed by three days at home before traveling back to the capital for a week of another training. I then travelled to India for a week before FINALLY returning to Shakawe. Being away from my village was incredibly difficult, especially because I wanted to be home and starting to work on projects, but had to attend so many mandatory trainings. I was extremely worn out and over-saturated by the time I took my first vacation in about seven months. Below are some retrospective blog updates about these crazy few weeks away from site.

Malaria is a buzz kill! -- A visit to Senegal

Thies, Senegal

Following two weeks in Gaborone for our in-service training, I was lucky enough to be one of three Botswana volunteers to travel to Senegal for an in-depth training on malaria interventions. The training was a Peace Corps training, held at the PC Senegal training center. There were volunteers from all over Africa, including Cameroon, Benin, Ghana, Malawi, Uganda, Burkina Faso, The Gambia, as well as PC staff members from countries who currently don’t have volunteers for various reasons (Kenya, Liberia, Guinea).

It was really interesting to hear bits and pieces about other volunteers’ experiences. But at times it was definitely frustrating. More and more I am realizing there is a competitive culture among Peace Corps volunteers to make it known how difficult your own experience is. While we were in Senegal, I noticed this dynamic was extremely present…almost in a passive aggressive way. I witnessed some volunteers putting down the service of others in order to make their own seem more legitimate, maybe because they have to suffer more or handle more hardships on a daily basis. However I also realized early on how ridiculous this is…not having electricity or running water does not make an individual a better Peace Corps volunteer. In fact, I think a good argument could be made for the contrary. Hearing these undermining comments being tossed around while with these other volunteers also made me question individuals’ reasons and intentions as volunteers. Sure, I think it is safe to say we are all hoping to get some sort of personal growth out of our experiences, but it seemed to me that for some people, this was more of a priority than helping their community grow. Regardless, after two weeks of this dynamic and four weeks of being away from site, I was ready to return to Botswana.

But aside from this competitive spirit that was exhausting, the training was really fantastic. We were able to Skype with individuals from incredibly important offices in the global fight against malaria such as the CDC, PMI (President’s Malaria Initiative), Johns Hopkins, and more. As you can guess, I was public health geeking out pretty much for the entire two weeks. The training shed a lot of light for me on how PC trainings should and could be conducted, as well as highlighting the ways in which our training in Peace Corps Botswana could be improved (tips which we shared with our own training staff). We also learned a lot about technical tools like survey initiatives, doer/non-doer analysis and logical frameworks—all tools for behavior change that can be applied in so many ways to the work we do in our respective countries.

We also were able to spend a day at a beach while there, which was glorious. It was the Atlantic Ocean, and if I turned my back on the buildings along the beach and just looked out at the water, I swear it could have been Delaware. It brought me so much comfort, more than I was expecting and more than I thought I needed.

I only saw a very small part of Senegal, but I realized how much I love Botswana. It was incredibly frustrating not having any way to communicate with the people there. I don’t speak any French, and obviously know nothing of the local language, so I had to rely on others I was with who could communicate. I found it really debilitating not being able to communicate with people directly, especially when trying to haggle down a price. Senegal also has millions and millions more people living in it than Botswana, and it showed in a lot of ways that was at times overwhelming. Returning to Botswana was relieving. Being away had made me realize, without my knowing, that Botswana has become familiar and comfortable. It has become my home.

India--Sugar, Spice, and Everything Chai

Street food was the best (yep, that's a gigantic pat of butter in the middle)

We got used to getting around on "tuk-tuks," or glorified motorized tricycles

For the first week in March, I traveled to India with eight other Peace Corps volunteers. After not being allowed to travel for six months, a few volunteers were looking up plane tickets to different places to travel for cheap. They decided on Mumbai, and soon several others decided to go as well. India has long been a place I have wanted to travel to, but never got to until recently. And, let me tell you, I will be going back.

It was an intense week which I won’t give all of the details for here, but I’ll describe some of my favorite moments and parts of the trip:

Crawford Market: There was a huge market inside of an old warehouse building that sold everything from toilet paper to spices to puppies (see picture to the right). It was incredibly crowded, but it didn’t phase me. There was so much to take in at each stall that I could have spent the whole day there. One of my favorite moments was seeing a tour group of white people with headphones paused at one of the stalls as their tour guide led them in an audio tour.

Temples: During the course of the week, we went to a Hindu temple, a mosque, a Jain temple, and a Buddhist temple. They were each uniquely beautiful. At the Hindu temple, people brought strings of flower heads to the temple (see below), where they were rubbed against holy statues, thereby blessing them. I think people then took those blessed flowers home to their own shrines, but I’m not certain.

The mosque was located out in the water ad was only accessible via a long causeway. We went there just after the sun set, and the lighting was beautiful. For a while we just sat on the outer wall and watched the retreating tide. There were also men there playing some kind of devotional music as Muslin families sat around listening.

The mosque at the end of a causeway

I think the Jain temple was my favorite. It took us a while to find the temple, and we almost gave up. When we arrived, there was a group of about 10 women sitting cross-legged in the middle of the temple singing, playing tambourines, and hitting sticks together. Three of us went in together and observed the goings-on from the outskirts of the adorned main room. We didn’t want to be in the way, but we also wanted to take it all in. After a few minutes, a couple of the women beckoned us over to sit with them. They trusted us with a couple of tambourines, and we did our best to keep the beat as they continued singing. After ten minutes or so, they were finished praying, and we stood up to leave. The woman I was sitting next to motioned for us to wait a moment, as she and another women were fumbling with some Rupees. We figured they were going to ask us for money we didn’t have to spend, so we thanked them and started to leave. One of the women came running down the steps of the temple to catch us, and gave us each a 50 Rupee note (about 1USD). She told us it was a sign of gratitude for coming for coming to visit their temple, and that it was something they do for everyone. It wasn’t meant to be materialistic, just a symbol of inner gratitude. After at first starting to refuse the money, we realized this was a non-negotiable donation which would have been rude to refuse outright or give back. So we took the money and instead decided to pay it forward somehow.

The Buddhist temple (above) was also incredible. It was built only within the last few years, but the enormous gold-domed structure was created entirely with interlocking stones and without any structural supports. It is the biggest of its kind. We were not allowed into the large structure because we have not completed the 10-day Dhama mediation course required to enter. So instead, we were allowed into a smaller adjacent temple where 20-minute long mediation sessions were led for visitors. But we ended up in there with about 100 school kids who were there on a field trip. It was hard to find the peace we were seeking, but was definitely still an experience.

We also visited an island off of the coast of Mumbai with what is known at the Elephanta Caves (see pictures on right)—Hindu caves carved out of the rock face with Hindu deities gracing the walls. In Mumbai there is also Asia’s largest laundromat, which we obviously had to take time to see. It was a pretty incredible operation! We also spent a day outside of Mumbai in a little town called Matheran that has been dubbed a UNESCO World Heritage Site. There are no cars or even bicycles allowed in the town, which is perched on top of the hillside. You can only access it on foot, by horse, or by train. There is a toy train which takes two hours to reach the town from a station on the outskirts of Mumbai. It snakes around the hills next to incredible drop offs that wouldn’t have bothered me if it weren’t for a sign in the train car that warned passengers not to crowd one side of the train because the weight imbalance was extremely dangerous. Even in the dry season when things weren’t green, the views were truly incredible.

Photos from the trip to Matheran:

I also was able to meet up with my friend Giovanna, who I worked with at Joseph’s House last year. I hadn’t seen her since last May, and spending even three days with her put me so much at ease. There has been a lot going on recently with some of the residents we worked with at the house, and being able to process all of that with her gave me so much peace. Somehow, the time I spent with her and hearing about her own adventures, helped recenter me with the work I am doing back in Botswana—she helped remind me why I decided to do Peace Corps. It’s so easy to get lost in yourself and your life and your loneliness here that it’s not hard to forget your purpose. She helped me to come back to Botswana with new focus, excitement, and meaning for life here. If that’s not a good friend, I don’t know what is. I’ve always said she’s my soul sister, and seeing her in India, of all places, was just what I needed.

And, of course, we were in India for the annual festival called “Holi.” It started the night before

with huge bonfires in the streets. People built pyres in the streets that were maybe eight or more feet tall out of wood and straw. The next day people throw colored powder at each other in a playful way. Random people would just come up to us with a handful of color and smear it over the side of your face with a resounding “Happy Holi!” There were a couple instances where people came from behind and cracked eggs over other people’s heads. I was lucky enough to avoid it, but about four others in the group I was in weren’t. And, of course, we were targets as a group of eleven white foreigners walking around Mumbai together. At one point, we were ushered into a Holi party at a secondary school where there was music and sprinklers dousing the crowd as well as a bubble machine. We were in there for about ten minutes while the “press” took lots of pictures and videos of the white people dancing around, but then they asked us to leave seeing as it was a members-only party. It was fun while it lasted though! By the end of the day, we were pretty disgusting and exhausted, but it was entirely worth it.

Somehow, we managed to survive a week in Mumbai with a group of about ten Americans with no robberies, assaults of any kind, theft, etc. It was a week I will never forget, and it ignited something major within me. I don’t know how to describe it other than an appetite. An appetite to see and experience as much as I can. Going to India was pretty impulsive, which is part of why I decided to go. And going there and following through made me realize that I can travel—I can go to all of those places I have seen on maps and on TV, at least in this time in my life. Travelling there was both invigorating and thrilling. Some people seek the adrenaline rush from rollercoasters and bungee jumping, but for me, I'm realizing that I seek out cultural experiences. I love to be pushed outside of my comfort zone. I love the feeling of observing a place for the first time, wide-eyed and soaking it all in. For me, there is really nothing quite like it.