June 15 - TeachAIDS Day

This past Friday was TeachAIDS Day in Botswana. TeachAIDS is an interactive flash animation that teaches kids about HIV/AIDS. It is a non-profit organization that produces HIV/AIDS related material that utilizes local norms and analogies. I especially enjoy knowing that this tool utilized local celebrity voices for the characters in the video. The tool also went as far as ensuring characters accurately reflected the Batswana (the people of Botswana) in terms of looks and mannerisms. On an overall, It is a great tool and I have been using it since we were presented the tool during our In-Service Training. 

On TeachAIDS Day we were all tasked with the goal of presenting TeachAIDS to the community. I collaborated with two volunteers to present TeachAIDS at a primary school, and to health workers in a nearby village. On an overall, the day went smoothly, we had all the necessary tools and resources (transportation, speakers, laptop, and projector) to present the tool in the community. Here are some photo's from that day:

Mia introducing the video and the PCV Volunteers who came to visit

The kids watching TeachAIDS in the school's cafeteria

Diana asking some discussion questions after the video

Learn more about TeachAIDS at: www.teachaids.org
Check out YouTube video clips of TeachAIDS at: www.youtube.com/user/TeachAIDS  

Botswana Homemade Bread - A Taste of Botswana Food

Here is a recipe that I use almost every week to make homemade bread. Try it at home, and take photo's, and lastly comment below and let me know how it went. Diphaphata (Dee-pa-pat-ta) is very popular in Botswana because it tastes great. Happy cooking :D

-Finda

Diphaphata - Botswana Homemade Bread   

Diphaphata is a great tasting bread that be eaten as hamburger bread to dinner roles. There are many creative ways to use this bread. Additionally, extra ingredients can be added to give Diphaphata a different taste, look, etc.

Ingredients:

4 cups of white or brown flour

10g or 1 pack of yeast

Salt

Sugar

1.5 cups of warm water

Directions:

1.       Add flour, yeast, salt and/or sugar in a mixing bowl.

a.       Note: Add enough salt and sugar to your personal preference

2.       Add warm water to your mixing bowl and mix ingredients into a dough

3.       Continue to add warm water until the dough is soft and without any bumps

4.       Let dough sit for 10 to 15 minutes in order to allow the yeast to raise the dough

5.       Separate dough into 8 to 12 round balls

6.       Pre-heat oven to 250 degrees

7.       Lightly grease your baking pan and place dough balls onto the pan

8.       Bake the dough for 10 to 15 minutes or until the dough is lightly golden brown

9.       Serve with butter, jelly, tea or by itself

Food...how many of us eat it?

Coming from an African Family, and being first generation African American the food from Botswana has not drifted too far from my diet back in the states. Check out some of the awesome local dishes some of us volunteers get to experience:

Phaletšhe is pictured on the left, chicken is pictured at the top right, and morogo is pictured on the bottom right

Morogo (mo-row-ho)

Morogo are leaves from beans that are cooked similar to spiniach. Tomatoes and onions are normally added to the dish to provide additional flavour.

Phaletšhe (pa-lay-she)

Phaletšhe is pictured on the left in the photo above. It is made out of corn and tastes similar to foo foo. Corn is the staple crop in Botswana, which is similar to the United States. Unlike the United States, sugar is still used in most products in Botswana

Motogo(mo-toe-ho) 

Motogo is porridge made out of sorghum. According to Wikipedia, sorgum is a genus of grass that is raised for grain. It can be found in countries with warm weather. Motogo reminds me of oatmeal, rice pap, or porridge made in the states.  

(en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sorghum)

Kabu is pictures on the left,
dithotse is pictured at the bottom right,
 manoko is pictured

Kabu (Ka-bu)

Kabu is dried corn. It is cooked than air dried in the sun.

Dithotse (dee-clo-say)

Dithotse are dried and salted watermelon seeds. They remind me of sunflower seeds.

Manoko (ma-no-ko)

Manoko are peanuts...enough said :D

 Dikogbe (di-kho-bey)

Dikogobe is a dish made from beans and sometimes kabu. The dish reminds me of cooked black eyed peas. In fact, sometimes black eyed peas are used to make this dish.

Magwinya (Ma-gween-ya) aka Fat Cakes

Fat cakes are like donuts. They are made out of dough, sugar, and yeast. They are an awesome dessert and taste great with soup.

The Donkey Files

Speaking of animals you have to chase out your yard, I would like to introduce exhibit A, the donkeys.


Unlike Eeyore on Winnie the Pooh, these donkey's (in simple terms) just don't care. Donkey pregnancy is rampant, and people rarely use their donkeys. With this in mind, they are free to roam wherever and whenever they want. Additionally, donkey meat is the lowest quality type of meat you could eat. So on my side of town they run things, and they know it.


Example 1: 
Unlike other animals, donkey's have somehow found out it is a fine or even jail time to kill another persons animal. They have decided with their new found knowledge to stand in the middle of the street, or to start crossing nonchalantly across the road. Yes sir, these donkey's are smart, and they look at us as if we are stupid.


Example 2:
 Why might you ask why I would need to chase donkey's out my yard. Well it's for two things. The first reason is that they like to eat grass and other shrubbery. While this is fine, donkey's also have no problem pooping where they eat. This is my first issue with having donkey's eat the grass in my yard. The second less obvious reason is that they will turn on your tap outside, crowd around the tap, and have a small party all night long. Once again they are aware they are doing wrong. How do I know? Well because when you wake up in the morning and see the remnants of the donkey party which include water running all night and tired donkeys they will quickly run outside the gate. Even though most donkeys will run, they are some donkey's (in simple terms) that just don't care, and will only leave your yard after chasing them out your yard. Outside your gate, these donkeys tend to look  at you as if you did something wrong.




Oh Donkeys :/


-Finda

Who has baboon's hanging in her yard...this girl

So I didn't really believe it when I first heard it, but seeing baboon's in my yard the other day was unbelievable. I woke up early, expecting to have a regular Monday morning when I decided to looked outside the window. They were running as a pack, and I nearly panicked. "Oh my gosh" I said to myself and ran for my camera. I started to take pics from the safe distance  of in my house. I then decided I wanted to see this with my own eyes. So I searched for my glasses, but first I wanted to tell someone. So I searched for my phone. In between searching for my phone and glasses, I asked myself, "Why am I not just experiencing this?" Who knows when I will see them again. They looked so cute, until they started jumping fences. Then I realized I had another animal who is a pest in my yard. As cute as baboons look far away, there is something scary about them when they are in your yard.


- Finda

IST - Overview

I have been in the country for officially 7 months (Victory Leap :D). In late January, my fellow volunteers and I attended our In-Service Training. Prior to these two weeks most of us were in our communities learning as much as possible in order to understand the issues and opportunities our communities currently face. Our training was held at a hotel, and I must admit hotel amenities were a wonderful get away experience for all of us.

Workshops were held each day to provide an opportunity for us to learn about each other’s site, collaborate, learn about current services offered in Botswana, and learn new skills (Strategic Planning and Project Management and Design).

Leaving IST has made me excited and a bit fearful of what lies ahead. Surprisingly, I remember having this same feeling when I graduated high school. There are many choices/opportunities that I have today and for my remainder of my time here. For example, I have the choice to be my best, or the choice to be lazy; the choice to live out of my new comforts or the choice to grow as a person. One thing is for sure, I like my choices :D

-Finda

Things I fail to admit that I like to do since I arrived here in Botswana

I have gained some new and restarted some old hobbies since I have been in Botswana. I thought I share with you some of those hobbies.

Making Preparations for Having a Chicken - For some odd reason I feel I will not get as attached to a chicken as I would a dog or cat. Yet, I have made a bed for my chicken. Thought of names for the girl and guy, and even talked about getting one with close friends.

Update: I was able to successfully buy a chicken last week (March 16, 2012). Her name was Chicken Patty. Unfortunately, I am unable to find her :(





Making Yogurt - Yeah I said it! Somehow I am infatuated with trying to make yogurt with the right consistency as the ones we buy in the store. I love that I am getting closer 

Cooking - I once again do not have a microwave, but this time I am in a country where its a norm. I find myself cooking a lot. I miss fast food, but when I start craving hamburgers, french fries, or pizza, I just make them.




Working Out - Ok, maybe just dancing around my house in cute clothes is what I consider working out. I enjoy watching Zumba on my laptop, and I have even mastered jumping rope in my living room. 


Drawing - I always hated coloring, but luckily I have a sweet neighbor who color's all the pictures I draw. So I enjoy drawing for her. Sometimes I even allow her and her friends to provide me with requests. 








All and all, I have no issue living by myself. My biggest fear here is actually meeting people since I have to force myself to use Setswana. Luckily, I am an outdoor person, so it is a matter of just pushing myself to do it.

Beauty Pageants

So I have attended three beauty pageants and have been a judge for one, so I thought I would make a blog entry on this topic.  I am sure many of you have seen Beauty Pageants on TV. In my village, Beauty Pageants are a wonderful past time shared by the community. There are individual competitions and partner competitions. In both cases, participants showcase their best walk, knowledge, and sometimes even talents to the judges and community members. Kids even imitate beauty competitions by merely walking around like a model. I find this amusing and even sometimes participate in these games.

 There is a lot of excitement that goes on around beauty pageants as a DJ is invited and community members are excited about who they want to win. At the beginning of the event there is an initial walk around the stage by all the contestants. Normally they wear the same colors or the same article of clothing. Participants must try extra hard to stand out from the crowd, whether its by their walk, smile, or slight pose. 

The next round is normally the formal wear. Each contestant gets a turn on the stage to show off their outfit and model off their features.  Once this round is over, it is usually followed by a traditional attire competition. Afterwords, the judges combine their scores and determine the top five contestants.

 The top five contestants are asked questions by the judging panel to see the contestant’s knowledge on a particular topic. Once the top five contestants have answered their questions the judges deliberate and the winner is announce.

Unlike in the United States, I have yet to see a swimsuit competition, and the talent portion is not an often occurrence. Similar to United States, participants bring out their best to showcase themselves (clothes, make-up, etc.). It’s a good time, and provides the community a great time to be together.

P.S: Photo’s Featured Here are from our Cross Dress Beauty Pageant Fundraiser. Funds made for this pageant were used to build a home for a destitute person in the community. AND YES IT WAS HILARIOUS: D

My Ex- Roommate

His name was Jack. He was illegally living with me for two weeks. I had no idea he was living here until I decided to clean one weekend.

We met each other screaming and running from each other. Him running because he got spotted and me running because I spotted a lizard.

There is a lizard in this picture can you find him?

After calling friends and calming myself down.  I realized his stay wasn’t so bad. He could eat all the bugs, but he wasn’t. He was a lazy lizard. I am not sure what he was eating or maybe I was too fast in cleaning the bugs. 

But all I know is one Saturday morning I had the door open and he walked out. He looked back at me and I looked at him, no longer being afraid of his presence, and he walked away.

Dear Ex-Roommate,

  If you should one day read this, I just wanted to say I hope you didn’t leave any lizard poop anywhere because I am never going near the box I found you in again.

-Finda

The Internet

Happy New Year Everyone, I thought I start the New Year with a tech related post.

-Finda

I was always taught to be mindful and remember people who have slow internet connections, but it seems that mentality has gone our the door for many companies.

It is sad, but it provides many opportunities to those who are mindful of their users. Facebook is a great example of providing the same internet experience anywhere you go. While I may struggle to access my email, Facebook is probably the most accessible site since I have been here.

While I may encounter some soft errors, the overall functionality is still there. The interface is still the same and I am able to upload photo’s faster then I can on my blog.

As developing countries become more connected via internet, companies need to be mindful of internet speeds. Success comes when you can accommodate a variety of audiences.

American Food?????

Today I cooked for my host family. I am sure my close family and friends are gasping right now. I am also shocked myself. When I met my host sister she raved about how she liked to cook and how she knows Americans are great cooks. I then informed her that I could not cook.

Still the idea of cooking continued and my host mother requested that I make an American dish. An American dish? Most of my day was spent thinking about what is considered an American dish, and what can I cook using the ingredients that I have. I originally wanted to make honey mustard chicken, but to my dismay I could not find honey or honey mustard. So after reviewing the ingredients that were available, I settled on making deviled eggs, apple and homemade caramel. My host sister assisted me as I prepared the dish. She added bread and salad to the dish to make it more fulfilling. I served my host mom first, and then everyone else. I waited and finally asked what did you think. My host mom responded, “I am satisfied, I am happy to have my first American meal.” Deep down I smiled and responded, “ke a leboga” (thank you).

Home sweet Botswana - 9/17

While English is spoken in Botswana, Botswana does have differences from America. Botswana is mainly a desert. Animals (chickens, goats, cows, donkeys) have free reign. Normally in the early mornings you will see them returning to their homes for food and late at night they are partying like its 1995 (or at least it sounds like it).

At the house I am staying at we use pit latrines and must fetch water outside for showers, washing dishes, and to get regular drinking water. Our water comes from a faucet in our backyard. These facets are similar to the ones that are used to water your grass or wash your car in the states. I must admit certain things like pit latrines, bucket baths, and washing our clothes by hand sound adventurous and exciting to me. So when I encountered these tasks, I happily obliged.

My room is like a regular bedroom in the United States. One thing unique about my village is that families live in a compound. A compound usually consists of a main house that has a kitchen, sometimes a bathroom, and a couple of bedrooms. In addition to the main house, there are smaller houses that contain only a bedroom and sometimes a place to shower. For example, my host mother and I stay in the main house, and my host brother and sister’s bedrooms are the smaller houses on our compound. We eat and hang out in the main house, but at night we go to our separate spaces.

While only being at my homestay for about a day, I feel like I am integrated into my family. My host mother has already given me a new name, Mpho, meaning gift.

Meet your new family - 9/16

Today, we did our homestay (host family) ceremony. Peace Corps Homestay Matching Ceremony is a ceremony where trainees meet their homestay or host family for the first time. The ceremony is filled with wonderful speeches, food, and prayer. Distinguished guests within the Botswana government are invited and as a trainee we are provided the opportunity to sit and mingle with our new host family as well as meet host families. The day prior to ceremony we are given the names of the head of the household and are told to practice their name. During the ceremony, trainees and host family state each other’s names to the public as a way of introducing each other.

This all happened after being in the country for two days. Having practiced little to no Setswana, I was slightly panicked. The thought of spending a 3 days with a family and only knowing Dumela (Hello) made me quite nervous.

To my pleasant surprise my host sister knew English and was very comfortable with foreigners. She is very friendly and has only made great strides to assist me with getting familiar with Botswana. On my first day at my new home, my host sister and I walked around our village and I met several of her friends. I greeted them all with the only word I knew in Setswana (the most common language of the Batswana people), Duemla. Fortunately, most of them also spoke English.

#1 Item to Bring to Botswana…Me, Myself, and I

Joining the Peace Corps is a dream come true, so it is very important that I bring along me, myself, and I. Adapting to a new culture and learning a new language will be tough, but by bringing my genuine personality I am removing the difficulty of being someone that I am not. My expectation is to be no one, but myself (under the context of the culture). I understand that I am coming to a new culture, and I will need to observe, adapt, and learn. This experience will provide me the opportunity to grow as a person, and to push myself. It will question many parts of my personality, identity, and values, but I know this will make me a stronger and better person.

I am ready.

Update 09.15.2011: After a 16 hour plan ride, I am happy to say I have arrived safely in Botswana with my fellow trainees.

Botswana Top 5 Items to Pack #2

Strength & Perverseness

 As a future volunteer you are constantly reminded that your work may go unnoticed or the fruits of your labor may not always be seen during your tenure. This is understandable, think about the Women's Rights Movement or the Civil Rights Movement. The ability to change or positively impact a group of people doesn't happen over night. And once you have a majority of the people on your side, there will still be some hills to climb. For example, women are still not always being paid equal to their male counterparts, and racial profiling and police brutality is still alive and well. With this knowledge, I have decided to pack a lot of strength and perseverance. I am a highly motivated individual, but I know there will be days where I will not want to get out of bed. While I pray this is few and far between, I am aware it will happen. That's when I will open up a can of strength and perseverance.

  Whatever it may come from, where ever it may come from, it will be that reality check that makes me aware that all I can be is my best, this has been my dream since I was young, and that sometimes its helping one person that can mean so much more.

Why I Joined the Peace Corps

Telling other people that I have joined the Peace Corps have caused many reactions. Some that I have not anticipated, and others that have been really receptive. I have a wonderful career as a Software Engineer, and I can understand why to some this change can be surprising so I thought I write this post.

Botswana Top 5 Items to Pack #3

Item #3: Humor(Laughter and Jokes)


   I am aware that by accepting my invitation to Botswana I will have the opportunity to learn a new culture, language, tradition, history, and experience AWESOME Adventures. While I will make sure to be open minded and not to bring any assumptions (Item #5), I will be bringing my sense of humor and sometimes lame jokes. As ridiculous as things may seem in my eyes, I will learn to laugh and be in the moment. The Peace Corps is a wonderful opportunity, and I personally think humor will be key for me to assist in helping me with stressful situations. Smiling, laughter, and jokes is a great way to connect with people. Whether its sharing past memories that make a person laugh, to moments I may find myself, humor will definitely be key.


-Finda
ictpc.blogspot.com

Botswana Top 5 Items to Pack #4

Item #4: A reminder to focus on the people

This idea/item was instilled upon my heart by my friend's father. While there may be many things going on concerning the politics of a country, it is important that I remain steadfast and focus on the people. I joined the Peace Corps because I am a humanitarian and I enjoy helping other people. This can be easily forgotten while I am away as it is a known fact that volunteering for 2 years will be an interesting challenge. No wonder a tagline you often hear associated with Peace Corps is "The Hardest Job You'll Ever Love."  It is important to have a base or idea that I can look to in order to be reminded of why I originally joined the Peace Corps. This will be helpful when I need motivation or courage to overcome a challenge. That reminder will be that very advice I was given, which is to focus on the people.

-Finda

Botswana Top 5 Items to Pack #5

As I prepare for my journey to Botswana, I have discovered five important items that will be necessary for me to pack. Each of these items will come in handy when working with other people, but most importantly, these items will be a consistent reminder of why I have always wanted to do Peace Corps.

Item #5: No Assumptions

When I think of my time in Botswana, my mind draws a blank. After being differed from the Peace Corps, my dream of serving was slowly dwindling. However, due to my strong resilience I finished out my deferral and reactivated my application. Being selected for Botswana has been a blessing, and as I research about the culture and learn about the language, I have promised myself to not bring any assumptions. That means no assumptions of the people, my project, or anything of that nature. These next two years will be an adventure for me, and as I live each moment the blank I currently have in my mind will be filled with sweet memories.

tlhôla sentle

-Finda

Botswana 2011 Facebook Group.

Hey Soon to Be and Currently Serving 2011 Botswana Peace Corps Volunteers,

So I noticed there wasn't a Peace Corps 2011 Group on Facebook. Shocked at this amazement, I took the liberty of creating one so we could all connect.

Join me as we share our experiences, stories, advice, and tips, on the Peace Corps Botswana 2011 Group

Site Address: http://www.facebook.com/#!/home.php?sk=group_167075986682983

Cheers,

Finda