It doesn’t taste as good as
Triple Sec, but looks better than typing 666.
But anyway this post is all about 6.
Three of them to be exact. 6
lists. All of different top 6 things
about my Life in Peace Corps Botswana so far.
With the intention of celebrating the 6 month mark of my time here! Yeah, officially the 6 month mark is still
about 2 weeks off, but unless some technician actually came to fix the internet
since the November lightning strike I don’t anticipate having internet then, so
doing this now. You might have heard
some of these things, but assure you there is something new for everyone. So without further ado, let’s jump into the
lists!
The Top 6 Animals!
6. Goats.
Annoying, everywhere, and they hold up traffic. Because of all of this goats make the list
just because they have an impact on my daily life. And while donkeys and cows do the same things
goats do, the goats won the spot since they have learned how to break into my
yard and I have gotten good at herding them.
5. Walking sticks. These are technically bugs, but the look
cool, are huge, and generally just awesome.
My dog in Kanye fought with one once, and at this workshop I am at one
was just hanging out on my door to the lodge.
And the thing was bigger than my hand!
4. Monkeys/baboons. They look cool, will steal from you at hotels
in Gabs, walk around in the strangest places (I have only seem them in Jwaneng
at a diamond mine and in the capital), but they are aggressive little buggers
and a little scary for that. So monkeys,
the number 4 spot is an offering so you do not attack me. I recognize your ability to scratch my face
off, and say please don’t.
3. Ostriches.
You don’t impact me that often.
But you are the only animal that I have seen in broad daylight both
inside and outside the reserve (aka walking around my village limits). So for your sheer resourcefulness in getting
out of Khutse just to chill, and giving me something to look for from time to
time, you get the bronze for this category.
2. Dogs.
I love dogs. Bobi ran with me in
Kanye most mornings. They are generally
friendly (minus the pack of wild dogs killing cattle around the village that
have since been caught) and brighten my day.
But dogs, a message to you all.
The reason you don’t win first is because almost all of you look like
you belong in one of those adopt an animal commercials with sad music
playing. Your owners need to feed you
more or else I will be spending a ton of money I don’t have trying to get you
to the states.
1. And the winner is…..SNAKES! I mean how can it be anything else? You probably read about my black mamba
killing. Well in addition to that I also
got to ride in the cab of a truck where the back was a cage with a 15 foot
python that had swallowed a baby goat. They were taking it out to the Game Reserve to
release it. So snakes, you win since you
have the most impact on my life. I
refuse to go to my pit latrine across the yard at night for fear of you. And I would say that you make me piss myself,
but you really stop me from being able to get to my bathroom…damn you.
The Top 6 Foods!
6. Phaleche (papa). General starch fill in. Not overly impressive on its own, but nearly
any sauce can be added on top to make it much better. So way to be the base of a lot of my food
(well at workshops, I still don’t have the desire to make you at home over
pasta or rice).
5. Tomato Sauce.
Think ketchup. But then not
really. Has the same consistency and
purpose but tastes better in my opinion.
And when you are poor in the Peace Corps, there is nothing like tomato
sauce to add to your plain noodles in a pinch.
4. Samp.
Samp is another food base like papa, but just so much better. Papa has a firm, fairly dry texture, whereas
samp just has so much more in regards to texture. It also has much more going for it in terms
of taste, it doesn’t need nearly as much doctoring as papa, hence the number 4.
3. Veggie Curry Pies. Now if you ever come to my house, odds are
the food I will have the most of are cans of curried vegetables. These have to be my biggest staple food. Add in some garlic salt, paprika, thyme, and
cayenne pepper and we got a meal. But as
much as I love veggie curry cans, there is just something magical about getting
it in a pie. Whenever I am in Moleps
shopping I look for this since it is a great lunch on the go, really cheap,
delicious, and I don’t have to cook it.
The fact that I can’t get you outside of Moleps keeps you at three.
2. Fatcakes.
Warm balls of fried dough. Sweet
but not too sweet. Filling, but you can
eat more than one. You will hate
yourself for it. But you will do it all
over again. The fatcake is just
amazing. And some are as cheap as 1
pula. For fried dough. There is no nutritional redemption to these
magical creations. And I don’t
care. I just love the warm sweet bread
balls as you eat them piece by piece.
And I really should have wrote this part AFTER dinner. But as much as I love Fatcakes, they cannot
even hold a candle to my number one (although a lot of people will disagree
with me).
1. And the winner is….Chips! Not like potato chips. I mean the English version of chips. Aka French Fries. But that doesn’t do them justice. When I think French Fries I think of those
pathetic little crispy McDonalds potato sticks.
No, these are a bit thicker, oily, warm, and best of all….mushy. Yes. I
like my chips mushy. You all can keep
your crispy little fries. I want chips
that still remember that they used to be a potato just smothered in tomato
sauce. And on that note, definitely
ordering those as part of my dinner. And
thankfully this list is done before I drool on my keyboard.
The Top 6 Words/Phrases!
These can be in English or
Setswana, but they are all phrases that I see used (and some I have started to
use) everyday.
6. Ke kopa 2 pula! (Give me two pula!) This can be said in either language and I
have heard it in both. I don’t like it. At all.
But it happens a lot. Well in the
larger villages. No one in Kaudwane has
ever asked me for money. But it is
usually kids in big villages (like Kanye).
But the thing that really gets me?
It is ALWAYS 2 pula. What can buy
for 2 pula that is worthwhile?
5. That side.
GAH! THAT IS NOT A WAY TO GIVE
DIRECTIONS! GIVE ME A BUILDING COLOR AT
LEAST! Ahem. Anyway, that side is the favored way of
describing where anything in Botswana is.
That side can be any distance between just a few minutes, or even across
the country. And it always has a little
hand wave that gives you absolutely no idea exactly where something is. So be prepared to hear that side a lot in one
trip when you stop every ten minutes to ask more directions until you realized
you passed what you were looking for 2km back because nothing is labeled.
4. What what.
I have used this one. It is the
Botswana version of etc. That is the
best way to describe it. You can use
what what for describing people, talking about steps to complete a form, and
what what. See what I did there?
3. Lekgoa.
I don’t hear this in Kaudwane (thankfully), but everywhere else I
do. Lekgoa is a white person. Literal translation is “one who is vomited by
the sea.” Yet it isn’t meant offensively
at all. Which seems strange. But this funny literal translation and the
usefulness of knowing the word is why it gets a nice spot at 3.
2. The tongue undulation. This isn’t a word or a phrase. But it is awesome so I made an exception, and
at number 2 no less! All of the women
here do this tongue thing instead of clapping.
The noise is loud, awesome, and you really need to hear it to believe
it. So for being way more awesome than
clapping you get the silver.
1. And the winner is…now now. This wins for being the most useful and least
useful phrase in my current vocabulary.
I use this one all the time. Now
now means now. Now just means sometime
(maybe soon if you are lucky) in Botswana.
If you want something to happen now, you have to say now now. Yet no matter what, it is never now now. NEVER!
The Top 6 Things I have done!
6. School Garden. As you can see on the youtube video it isn’t
done. But just starting the ball rolling
is an accomplishment so I am counting it.
5. PACT Club.
When I got to Kaudwane the PACT Club had fallen apart. So this year I am working on putting it back
together with Mr. Pule the teacher assistant.
And we actually have 13 students in it and started meeting. So far a successful revival!
4. Game drive on New Years. This one isn’t work related, but it was the
first time I got into the Khutse Game Reserve right next to my site. So that alone was cool, but got to see some
game I had not seen before too (no lions or leopards). All in all a very awesome way to ring in the
New Year.
3. Teaching Life Skills lessons. This is my biggest work success so far. We finally started teaching the Life Skills
curriculum in every Standard. Major
improvement over not using the materials at all. Next step is getting the teachers to do more
of the teaching and me more of the support role (right now that is reversed for
this lift off phase).
2. Playing soccer with kids. This is the most personal success so
far. I mean, I don’t even speak the same
language as these kids yet everyday (that I am in Kaudwane at least) I play
soccer with them for about an hour outside my house and we have a great
time. Yeah I am super tired afterwards,
but always really happy.
1. And the winner is…surviving! Hey, that alone is pretty damn impressive.
The Top 6 Things I Want to do!
6. Learn the name of everyone in my
village. I want to do it. But we all know how bad I can be with names. That is why this is number 6, very
unrealistic. But something to shoot for.
5. Be fluent in Setswana, Sekgalagadi, or
Sasarwa. All three are spoken in my
village, so I don’t care which one. But
they are all hard languages so this will be another pipe dream. But not as hard as the name one, hence why it
ranks higher.
4. See the Big 5. The Big 5 are the main 5 animals that you
want to see in Botswana. Wildebeast,
Elephant, Lion, Leopard, and Rhino.
Right now I have 1 out of 5. Only
4 to go!
3. Garden.
Yup, this makes this list too.
While the ball is rolling on the garden I want to make sure it can work
each year. So garden gets on this one
too.
2. PACT Club.
Another carry over. As I said in
the other list, the PACT Club had been stagnant before I came. I don’t want it to fall back to that when I
leave. So that is another of my big
goals.
1. And the winner is…organizing soccer
tournaments! The kids love to play. The parents love to play. The school wants more parental
involvement. And the school has a soccer
pitch. It doesn’t take a rocket
scientist to see that there are possibilities there. I am hoping to start on this as soon as this
workshop ends this week.
The Top 6 Stories!
My final top 6. In these stories I have labeled 2 as learning
moments, 2 as uncomfortable, and 2 as just plain embarrassing.
6. Learning moment. Hitching.
In the US I would have been terrified to do this. Here it is not an issue. In fact I have to do it. I have learned really fast how to just
blindly trust drivers. But it is what
you need to do to get around, and it affects my life so often that it had to
make the list.
5. Learning moment. Teaching Standard 5. I have a hard time calling this a learning
moment. That week felt like a
lifetime. While it was uncomfortable, I
did learn a heck of a lot. Mostly classroom
management techniques. The fact that I
am still alive after teaching kids with that colossal language barrier I view
as a huge success.
4. Uncomfortable Moment. Seswa.
Ugh. I already wrote about this
one, but it still comes in at 4. The first
week in the country more or less and I have to serve meat to 50 men then at
least try a taste myself since the chief is telling me to. And I use the word meat very, very, very
loosely. Ugh. Never again.
3. Uncomfortable Moment. Oops, I forgot your name. Man if this doesn’t happen way too much to
me. The most embarrassing was the first
couple days at school when a couple of the teachers’ names just wouldn’t stick. Names are very important here, so not being
able to remember is very uncomfortable, hence thing I want to do number 6.
2. Embarrassing story. Falling in Kanye. Most of you know about my running issue in
Kanye. You know, the day I trip, gashed
open my hand, and to top it all off lost my house keys? Yeah, that day sucked. Hard.
But I am almost positive I covered it elsewhere so that is enough of
reliving that.
1. And the winner is…another embarrassing
story! Yeah, these things happen too
often. Falling that is. Yeah, another I fell story. Although this one was in front of about 20
people. And out of a truck. It is so embarrassing to fall out of a
truck. Luckily it was stopped. I was hitching to Letlhakeng and when the
truck stopped I was getting out when I got bumped and fell out the side. Not as bad a wound as the time in Kanye, but
definitely harder on my pride.
And there you have it! 6 lists of top 6 things for 6 months in Botswana. Been a great half year so far and I hope it just keeps getting better, despite all the challenges (damn falling).
