Gardening and Marriage Proposals

Pre-Service training is draining! I feel like I’m back at CSUF taking classes and going home with assignments and reports to be completed. So when I looked at our schedule to see that there were upcoming gardening sessions and a cultural site visit planned for us, I was ecstatic! 

I’ve wanted, for a little while now, to have my own garden when if I ever got my own place. Well, in about a month I will have my own place! My first place actually! Even if I end up living in a big city when I get back to the states I would still like to have some type of urban garden or small patio garden at least. Last week I looked at our schedule for PST and saw Perma-gardening scheduled for a random Friday and I was really excited for it. We were taught how to dig the soil and make plots in the dry heat here. We used chicken fertilizer to help the plants grow and soiled the ground so that there was enough moisture for the health of the plant. Botswana is abundant with spinach and so we planted spinach and onions. I was really intrigued with their process of planting vegetables and I really think that I’d like to have my own garden when I get to my permanent site. I’m going to do it! I can’t wait for the next perma-gardening session! It was really fun especially because it was my first time really gardening and using shovels, pitchforks, and hoes. 

Spinach!

Our team with the best looking plot ;)

Last Saturday was the cultural site visit in the village of Mmankgodi and it was really fun (and really hot!). We arrived to Batswana dressed in traditional outfits and the sounds of song and drums. It was really cool. Batswana sing all the time, for fun and while working as a way to make the workload a lot bearable and quicker. They sang a song for us as we walked in and the only word I could make out was “America.” They seemed to be really happy and fun and so that just made us adopt the same mood. The really exciting thing they did for us was have different age groups come out and sing and dance for us. They also showed us the long process of a traditional marriage ceremony and that was…interesting! As they danced, a group of bare-chested men came into the kgotla we were sitting in and danced around us and chose their “wives.” I told you before that the attention Americans get is ridiculous. The men constantly ask me to marry them saying that I’m beautiful and that I should take them to America or be their wife. Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not boasting at all but rather still perplexed at how simple they think it is to marry me and still just as surprised every day, as the first day, when they come up to me and tell me I’m beautiful and that I should be theirs. I am beginning to think that they have never, in their lives, seen a dark Asian and they think this dark Asian must be rich. But who knows. So back to my story…I am now married. The End.

Just kidding! But really, I was chosen first by one of the guys and my job was to take his hand, follow him out of the kgotla, and dance with him. We were told that this was a way to show off their skills to the women they chose to marry. Needless to say, my dancing skills in no way matched his and I was embarrassing. Oh, I danced alright, but I probably would never have a real proposal after that scene. Haha We were then told that during the ceremony the women would grind sorghum, and so I was off to do my new duties! That was fun grinding it up with a rock while singing traditional songs that I faked and mouthed. I’m pretty impressive when it comes to lip singing and pretending I know the words. We had to choose someone who would be the model of a real bride as they went through the traditional ceremony and honeymoon processes. We all chose Katy, another trainee, because it was her birthday the next day. (Poor Katy, we’re not sorry! Haha) She was dressed in a traiditional wedding outfit and made to sit with her new “husband” that she just met. She was then forced to go into a hut and have “relations” with her new husband while the elder women of her family watched and peeked through the windows. Yup, you heard me right. The women watch through the windows. Just remember, this happened a loooong time ago and rarely happens today. When the couple was done a female family member, usually an aunt or grandma, would go in to check to see if there is blood on the sheets and if there was, they knew the young bride was a virgin. We were all shocked that this was how a couple would spend their honeymoon but remember, different culture and different times. The whole thing was actually really amazing to experience, even if Katy was terrified the whole time. (Don’t worry, she didn’t really do anything!) When that was over, a different guy made me go up and dance again and so this time I just went all in. I was mimicking his moves, or should I say trying to, and going crazy while spinning and dancing in circles. I had so much fun and I really learned the concept of carelessness and fun. Everything in life is just so much more fun when you don’t give a crap! Wise words to live by. You can go ahead and quote that.

I was chosen...

Grinding sorghum for the wedding

Not giving a crap!

Dancing away

My friend Luis fitting right in with the dancers

Get it mama!

Traditional dancers

 These next few pictures are totally random like I am and are just things that I took pictures of since my last post. I hope you enjoy them. 

***DISCLAIMER: The last few pictures are of gross, nasty creatures that some of you may not want to look at. Feel free to have someone scroll past them for you (This is mainly for you Tammy Tseng)***

Best Lay's I've tasted

Best card I've ever received (Thanks Josh!)

He's a comedian

Even with a luggage limit I still manage to bring my these. Forget high end, brand name handbags and clothing, I am definitely a no name, comfortable shoe girl. 

happy

My unwanted 4 a.m. alarm clocks

What the heck?!

I thought it was funny that I beat this cockroach to death and only its antennae were sticking out from under the sand. I know, I have issues.

Add caption

Can someone please explain to me what this is?

Scorpion king IN MY ROOM.

Hairy with thorns on its legs! WTF?!

 I just want to let everyone know that these ugly creatures are now dead because that's what happens when they come into my room: I show them who's boss! And by that I mean I freak out, I sit in the middle of my bed with a can of bug spray, I pray that they don't jump on me, and then I get over it and beat them to death. True story.

Now for a happy picture...

Two good friends I've made so far :) Sarah and Luis

As you can see I am having a great time. Yes, there are days that are long and tedious ( Screw you PST!) and bugs/creepy crawlers I have never seen in my life and make me piss my pants, but when you take those things out and fully immerse yourself into a new and unknown culture it is a really beautiful thing to experience. No matter where we go and who we meet we all have more similarities than we do differences. We're all human and we're all connected in some way. I really believe that. I know that leaving my home for two years to live in a strange and new environment is scary and frightening and I know many people have no desire to do it. But I also know that my goal is to see the world, to see it and experience it completely, and I am well on my way in reaching that goal. And I love it. 

Kanye, Botswana Part 2

I’m back at an internet café and how good it feels to be able to check my bank accounts and take care of things back home! The last time I was rushed so hopefully I can get more things done and update everyone on how I am doing and what I missed the last time. 

I recently found out that my host mother’s son, my brother, is studying engineering in Thailand. What a coincidence! He is studying at a University my dad took me to the last time I was in Thailand. It’s really cute because my sister, Dondo, keeps saying we are meant to be together. First, at the Host Family Matching Ceremony, my sister was wearing a top that is EXACTLY like one I have from H&M. And I am easily amused so you could only imagine I was excited to tell her I have a top just like hers. And now my mother tells me her 22 year old son is in Thailand while her host daughter is Thai and she can’t believe it. If this is not a coincidence then I don’t know what is. I had a late night talk with my mom the other night and I asked her what made her want to host. She told me that the Thai government has blessed her son by giving him a full scholarship to study in Thailand and that she wanted to pay back the government in some way. She told me how grateful she was and that she wanted to take care of someone just like the people in Thailand are taking care of her son. She also went on to tell me that when life gives you blessings, you bless others with the same. Our conversation left me with feelings of hope and happiness. I kept thinking that what my mother had told me was one of the most genuine and human things a person can do and it makes me have so much more respect for her. It also makes me feel that there is still some hope in the world and that my career path that I’ve chosen is right for me. It was a nice night. Also, that same day I experienced the first day of rainfall since I’ve been in the country. It was really exciting. Summer is coming and it’s the time when Botswana has major droughts so it’s always nice when Batswana see rain. It was raining so hard – thunder and lightning status- and it was weird because it wasn’t something I expected. The power went out and I lost mobile service so that was also kind of scary. We made dinner using my nifty headlight Trenton gave me before I left (Thanks Bub!) and I wrote a letter in almost complete darkness, for the exception of a single candlelight. And when I went outside to use the pit latrine (google it), I was scared for my life. Just imagine going outside to complete darkness, in Africa, and having to use the restroom with no light, whatsoever. Never again. I’m holding it next time. Here are just more pictures of the fam that I didn’t get to upload last time. 

Fashionable sis. We have matching tops!

Thati is such a little diva, I swear.

Aww. sisters.

The Boss!

We tried to get a silly shot and we failed. We tried once more…FAIL again.

Over it.

Angry face.

Silly Fefe being really creepy. haha

Baby Junior! I call him my little chubby cheeks.

Power outage in the whole village means we play with light. She's so beautiful.

I forgot that a lot of my friends and my family asked me to post pictures of the house and my room and I didn’t get a chance to last time. It’s nothing fancy but it’s enough. I live the most simplistic life I have ever lived and it feels pretty good being disconnected for most of the week. It’ll be a big change but they are just minor adjustments. I’ll have to get a front view of the house next time.

My lovely bed.

Peace Corps issued phone, Pre-Service Training Materials for the first 10 weeks, mosquito net, and a very comprehensive medical kit. That kit has everything you need!

The view from my reading spot.

View of the room from my doorway.

Settling in.

If most of you recall from my last post you remember that I told you that Batswana LOVE their weddings. By the end of this weekend I would have already gone to four, including a baby shower. And apparently anyone can go to the baby shower too. Well the first wedding I went to was really fun. I was pulled in by some mosadi moholo , old lady (not a negative connotation in Botswana), and I was forced to dance with the wedding party with all eyes on me. You can only imagine how many eyes were on me. I was embarrassed but realized it’s all fun and nobody cares if you don’t know how to dance to the music, as long as you’re having fun. My mom also made me give some type of offering for the new bride and groom and that entailed carrying a bottle of soda on my head, while dancing in a line with others. That was…interesting but also fun. I was very surprised at how much Western influence Botswana weddings have. The outfits are not always traditional and that goes for the music as well. It is all very beautiful to see, nonetheless.

Bride and groom.

This wedding party knew how to get down.

Mignon learning how to dance from an older Motswana.

Wedding food. (This is for you, Vandana!) Yum!

Offering the couple drinks.

Making a fool of myself and loving it.

Dancing in a line to bring the drinks to the couple.

Brides village. (1^st day is celebrated in the bride’s village, second day is celebrated in the groom’s village, 3^rd day the bride goes to stay with her new mother-in-law, and the 4^th day the couple starts their first day of married life in their new home together. I wasn’t playing when I said weddings are long and expensive!

Traditional Housing

The first of many “I want to take a picture with the mekgoas” pictures. She then persisted to tell everyone we were her friends. Haha

 As far as new updates I haven’t really got much to say. Six days a week we are at the Kanye Education Center for our extremely long sessions. We start around 8:30 and end at 5:00. A normal day consists of about four sessions covering anything from Permagardening to HIV/AIDS epidemiology, and EVERYTHING in between. I literally feel like I’m in college again with all the group activities and homework assignments. But I know one thing, I will be an expert on HIV/AIDS by the end of Pre-Service Training (PST) and I will know how to survive on bucket baths, cooking beef, water preparation, and capacity building. Those are just very few of the things that PST covers.

The most exciting things that happened this week was the rainfall, going to Gabarone, getting to use the internet, and stuffing ourselves with junk food from Botswana. A day before we got all the rain, lightning, and thunder, we went to the capital city of Gabarone to set up bank accounts, do our program interviews, and have time to shop at Game City. Let me also add that I successfully did my laundry and am continually amazed at how fast my clothes dry. I love the smell and sight of fresh linen on the clothesline. It makes me feel accomplished. Haha (Washing clothes by hand is no joke!) Anyway, back to what I was saying…Since everything is in Gabarone all of us were excited to get to spend the day there. But that was short lived. The people here run on Botswana time meaning nothing is ever started on time, respectfully. We are told this yet volunteers continue to get impatient. We are advised to always have reading material and food with us just in case we are ever held up anywhere, which is very often. After setting up accounts and having my interview, I had NO time to do anything at Game City. Game is like a big Wal-Mart (Wal-Mart owns it) and has everything you could imagine for decent prices. We all go crazy when we get to go there because most of us re-acquaint ourselves with clothing stores, junk food, and a population that is more diverse and English-speaking. To most of us it is the closest feeling of home that we get so it means a lot to us. Although I didn’t get to do much shopping around I was happy that I was able to buy a fudge bar for 50 cents and a pack of envelopes, for sending my letters (Your letters are coming, Trenton!), for a dollar. The little things will start to mean the world to me for the next two years. But it’s okay. I like it here and I can’t wait for all the great experiences I will have and all that I have to learn about myself. I can’t wait to start teaching and co-facilitating. The thing I’m scared of most is integrating into my community when I go to my permanent site and building trust and rapport with my neighborhood. I really hope that they like me and that I am able to assess the needs of the people and build on that. I strongly believe that this will definitely be “the hardest job [I’ll] ever love.”

Our first birthday of the group, in Kanye! Happy Birthday Liz!

A photo from my niece's perspective.

Peace Corps office in the capital city of Gabarone.

Success with hand washing!

This is how happy we look when we find an internet cafe!

An ambulance that immediately reminded me of Trenton. (I miss you!) 

Enjoying our cheddar and onion Simba chips from the tuck shop!! (A tuck shop is a like a tiny convenience store that is found all over Botswana, in different villages. They are usually family-owned businesses and have the essentials you might need for home within walking distance.)