Pictures from site annoncement!

Anxiously waiting

Reading my proverb and site!

Pointing to my new home

A Botswana Wedding (or two...)

 

 



It has become apparent pretty quickly that we have entered wedding season here in Botswana. And they do things a little differently than in the States. First of all, there are two weddings for each couple—one in the kgotla (ward) from which the groom is from, and a whole nother ceremony in the kgotla where the bride is from. Sometimes the bride and groom are from entirely different parts of the country, so they will have two ceremonies on two different weekends in different villages. Secondly, anyone can come to a wedding, no invitation necessary. Maybe the bride is a relative of yours. Maybe you hear about it from a friend of a friend. Maybe you just live in the area, hear music playing and want to grab some free food. Apparently everyone is invited. The immediate family sits under a big tent, while everyone else sits around the yard wherever to eat. It’s very much organized chaos.

I’ve been to two weddings now, and at each one the menu seems to be pretty standard. All of the food is cooked in huge cast iron pots over open fires. There are usually lots of women relatives who are behind the scenes mixing huge buckets of food. Even with so many guests, there always manage to be leftovers! Here’s what’s generally served:

-          bogobe jwa legapu (sorghum porridge made with sour milk and with melon added into it)

-          rice (different varieties)

-          Samp (made from kernels of corn that have had the outer shell removed…this is one of my favorite things to eat here)

-          Seswa (basically pulverized meat from all parts of the animal that are combined)

-          Legata (a mixture of beans, samp, and, if you’re lucky, some peanuts thrown in)

-          beet root (seems to be sort of pickled a lot of the time)

-          Setswana-style coleslaw (Batswana love cabbage and what they call “tangy mayonnaise”)

-          Lephutshe (butternut squash cooked and mashed)

-          potato salad (more tangy mayonnaise…and peas too?)

-          Chicken

-          and a couple other variations of meat

 

I learned that at the last wedding I went to, there were five cows that had been slaughtered for the event. So you can imagine that having enough food to feed the entire village is a ton of food. Interestingly, some portions of the cow go to certain family members. For example, the bride’s uncle (called the “malome”—the mother’s brother) negotiates a lot of things for the wedding, and he gets a whole shoulder/leg I believe. One aspect of the whole marriage he arranges is the lebola, or essentially the dowry. The higher status the bride has, the more cows the groom’s family must pay for him to marry her. Even with more modern families in Botswana, this is still something that seems to be widely practiced. In Setswana, it is very apparent how important family is just based on the huge variety of words used to describe family members, other than malome, there are specific words for older siblings, younger siblings, siblings of the opposite sex, cousins, and on and on. (there also a million words for the color brown, while the colors blue and green are called the same thing….can you tell it’s a drought-ridden country?

The entertainment is great, too. There are always a group of traditional dancers that are brought in to entertain the guests. They wear animal skins and have some sort of seeds tied around their ankles that rattle and make noise when they step. It’s really fun to watch—definitely one of my favorite parts. The bridal party also does a choreographed dance before the food is served. Apparently it’s a big deal, as the bridal party meets every weekend for months leading up to the event to practice for a few hours. It’s definitely impressive!

 

After the entertainment and everyone has eaten, all of the married women sit with the bride, while all of the married men sit with the groom. I don’t know what exactly is said in the groom’s circle, but I was able to watch the bride’s. A friend and I were sitting outside of the circle, and a few basadi bogolo (old women) motioned for us to come and sit inside it with them. As you can see below, all of the women had their head and shoulders covered, which we did not. A woman ran over making a high pitched shrill noise and put shawls around both of us. Our heads were still uncovered, but that seemed to be okay. The photographer, a friend of the bride’s, wasn’t even allowed in because she was wearing pants…apparently a big no-no. One at a time, different women got up and stood in front of the bride—there was singing, shouting, kneeling, dancing, all sorts of weird things going on. We learned later that they were giving her advice on how to stay grounded and not try to change her husband, etc. Basically advice to her on marriage. They also gave her a shawl and a head scarf to tie around her head, thus signifying that she is now a married woman. There were some very old women there who could hardly stand up, and they were getting down on their knees to offer her advice. It was really neat to witness and I’m so thankful that they let us sit with them and be included. The women then are all served a jello/custard dessert (wedding cake doesn’t seem to be a thing here), while the men get to feast on what is considered the best part of the cow—the back and the stomach. Only men are allowed to eat this meat. I also learned that it is supposed to signify the joining of two families coming from different places (back/stomach) but combining to make something special (yummy?).

The basadi bogolo giving advice to the bride.

 

Chickens, chickens, chickens

 

As many of you know already, I love chickens. I hatched some this past summer and would probably have tried to keep them if I wasn't coming over here! There are a ridiculous number of chickens here.... especially roosters. I have to wear ear plugs at night because the roosters call back and forth to each other all night long. Anyone who has called me here I'm sure has had the pleasure of hearing them in the background of the call. This morning I woke up around 5:30 and there was a chorus of them that sounded like they were coming from all corners of Serowe. It was kind of melodic in a weird way. It's also funny here because they like to sleep in trees.... not joking.

 

They sort of let them wander all over the neighborhood, but they come back at night for food. They give them corn kernels which we spent an afternoon literally knocking off of corn cobs with a heavy wooden stick. They pile the cobs up in a corner of the yard and then whack them over and over again, sweeping up the loose kernels that they knocked off as they go. It was exhausting. I kept thinking that there had to be a better way to do it but I really think that there wasn't... they pretty much have it down to a science.

 

 

Some of the neighborhood kids hanging out

 

 

My family also recently purchased 50 day-old chicks. When I came home from school that first day and looked in the chicken coop, I just about died of happiness. Just imagine that many tiny fluffy yellow chickies running around. I took lots of pictures and stood watching them for a ridiculously long time. It is pretty impressive to see the heating system they have (pictured below). Basically they take a metal pail and put hot coals in it, and then they elevate it a couple of inches off the ground by hanging it from the ceiling of the coop to create the equivalent of a heat lamp for them. Every night they fill it with hot coals before bed and the chicks huddle under and around the suspended bucket. Interestingly, learning these types of heating and incubation techniques is built into their junior secondary school curriculum (the equivalent of middle school in the States).

 

The next morning after we got the chicks, my family informed me that I was going to cry in 6 weeks when they are going to slaughter all of them and sell the meat for profit. Such is Africa...

 

babies sleeping  

 

I have tons more chicken stories, but seeing as how I am probably the most obsessed with chickens out of anyone reading this blog, I'll save them for another time ;)

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.