Friday, August 27, 2010

Guidance and Counseling

When Peace Corps is assigning volunteers a site, they will also assign us a counterpart, that is, a local leader who will work as a partner for us at our organization (DAC office, NGO, school, or clinic). Counterparts can prove to be one of the most rewarding parts of service, or the hardest. And sometimes, they are transferred. Such was the case for Lucas’ counterpart Mma Ramakgati. Mma Rammoi was assigned as acting guidance counselor until Mma Ramakgati’s position could be filled. Unfortunately Mma Rammoi had scheduling conflicts with her current classes and the guidance classes. Lucas and I offered to teach her Form 3 classes.
We chose Form 3 hoping that they would know the most English (they are the oldest class at Lempu Jr Sec. School ~ 10th graders). I had been wanting to promote sexual health and education in the schools and was eager to take advantage of the opportunity. I’m glad that Lucas and I were both teaching. One, we could help to control the classroom. And two, we thought it would make both sexes more comfortable that there was a man and a woman to talk about sex. We planned to avoid lecture-based lessons (only a small percentage of students could keep up with our English) and do more activities in which students could participate. We had 6 40-minute classes, four days a week.
Together we wrote up lesson plans that covered gender identity, sexual biology, teen pregnancy, relationships, communication skills, before sex, and introduction to careers. We got creative with some of our activities, including; having a group of students describe a sexual body part or behavior written on the board to a student whose back was facing the board (without saying the word), having students put posters in order that describes how a woman falls pregnant, and teaching communication skills by pairing up students, having one describe a drawing on the board and the other student recreate the drawing without looking. We taught how to complete a formal letter of application (even if they had no previous work experience). I invited a member of the clinic staff to come and talk with students about what services the clinic offers as far as protection and what to do if you think you might be pregnant. We tried to create a comfortable environment where the students felt they could talk openly about sex and not be judged.
I was surprised how mature the students were talking about puberty and sexual behaviors. One activity we had the students determine what was considered abstaining from sex and what wasn’t, for example open mouth kissing, masturbating, fondling a partner’s sexual body parts, or having sex with a condom. Once they decided, they had to argue the other side why they considered the behavior abstinence or not. It forced the students to decide before hand what activities they were willing to partake in. A separate activity, the class wrote up two lists: reasons why to have sex, and reasons to wait. Our intentions are for the students to decide on their own to wait, not for us to decide for them.
Since we didn’t have exams to give them the last week of Term 2, we brought a game. I gave them a short survey to determine what, if anything, they learned during our class. I wrote the questions in English and Setswana so that everyone in the class could participate. Unfortunately, the students answered in Setswana as well so I’ll be busy translating those… The big surprise was BINGO. No English required, no skill required. It was perfect. The students loved it!

Thanks

Peterson Families

Thanks once again for the box of goodies. It’s so great to be caught up on how things are going state-side. The beef sticks were delicious. The fruit snacks didn’t last very long either! Lucas looks great in the t shirts. And they couldn’t be more appropriate =) Q-tips are addicting; I didn’t bring nearly enough to Botswana. You guys are so thoughtful. Thanks so much for thinking of us.

Cassada Family

Hey guys, long time…. It was such a treat to get your package in the mail. It took a second to figure out who it was from. The KY return address threw me off. Did you guys move? I was excited to find out all about it but couldn’t find a card. But man, the goodies were great. It’s hard to beat Beef jerky, ever. It came at a perfect time. We’re taking a trip where we’ll be on a bus for a long time. The trail mix, cliff bars, and magazines are perfect! Our hearts still race for UFC; great choice! That was very considerate of you. Hope we get to catch up soon. Love you guys.

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Random Pics

Here are some random Pictures I thought we could share!!


We went to the village of Thamaga to visit some friends. Huge boulders. Look at Katie jumping!!

A PC get together at one of the few lakes in Botswana. There I am holding a Barley Pop, a Roman Candle and a T-bone Steak...It was an eventful evening:-)
This is the daycare kids. This place just opened and we love to go there and play when ever we have free time. They are up to 32 kids and only 2 adults on staff.

This is the infamous PACT club (Peer Approach to Counseling Teens). I am in charge of the club. We do guidance and counseling talks, take leadership training trips, and lately we pulled of an Entertainment show fund raiser.

We were invited over to share a meal with an Indian family. They teach at a school in a near by village. Both Katie and I ate until we couldn't move...the food was so good.

One of my favorite pictures. A moth I found at a boxing training I attended. Katie thinks It's a great photo but all I did was point and shoot!!

Botswana Safari
















We arrived in Maun a day early for the safari. So I signed me and Lucas up for a 3 hour basket weaving class. I was so happy! The instructor, Mma Kushonya, has won the national basket competition every year since 1996. Some of her baskets have been shown as far as England. She is an amazing woman who will teach local women (and men) to weave baskets and jewelry and even sell the items in her shop so that they may make some sort of a livelihood. During the session, we learned the names of several different weave patterns. I chose the ribs of the giraffe and Lucas did the shield. Good baskets take weeks to finish, so needless to say our baskets were small and sloppy. Because we stay in Botswana, Mma Kushonya gave us enough reeds so that we would be able to continue working on our baskets after we left.
That night, we met up with our tour guide Lucky and the rest of the group. Our group included three other Peace Corps volunteers, Ric, Pheobe, and Talya. Also included were two friends of another PCV, Tori, who were visiting from the US, Kris and Jessica. Tori’s family will be visiting in August to do a similar safari so she declined to join us. But we were happy to have Kris and Jess! Lucky checked us into the Island Safari Lodge, which is located right on the river. We sat down for an amazing dinner (complete with dinner wine) to discuss what our safari days would look like. He explained that he enjoys tenting safaris far more than lodging safaris because tourists are reluctant to rise early for the game drives; they want to lounge around, drink their tea and eat breakfast before going anywhere. By that time, all of the animals have retired until the evening. His plans had all our hearts racing with excitement. Little did we know that our itinerary would be changing quite a bit.
The next day, we got to sleep in a bit and headed into Moremi National Park. It was freezing in the back of our open safari vehicle. Thankfully Lucky offered blankets for us to wrap up in. Our first safari animal was a beautiful giraffe standing perfectly in the middle of the road. I’ve found that giraffes will walk away a little, turn, and pose for limitless amount of photos. We learned that male giraffes are the only ones with balls on top of their heads. Females just have caps. The darker the animal, the older it is. And a baby giraffe will fall 2 meters when being born; they are some very tall animals! A herd of elephants crossed the road behind us. The baby elephants are always in the middle of the herd so that they are always protected. We learned elephants flap their ears to stay cool; the veins in the ears are enormous. We caught site of several groups of impala known as McDonald’s antelope because the markings on their butts that make an M. There are always two groups in a herd. The first group is made up of all females and one mating male. He is the “winner” and will lose up to 30% his body weight mating with all the females (OMG!). The second group of impala is known as “the losers.” It is made up of all males, waiting for their chance to challenge the dominant male and claim the females (you will learn that, in nature, it is always about the females). We spotted several males with a missing antler from a previous attempt. But they will never give up.
After settling into camp, we returned to the vehicle for an evening game drive and caught sight of our first zebra herd. Jess calls them “disco donkeys,” which is a very accurate description. They are beautiful animals. We asked Lucky how a black and white stripped animal could possibly blend into the safari. He explained that they will run in a group which will make it difficult for a predator to focus on just one zebra.
We arrived back to camp to an amazing meal of fish, rice, and vegetables. Our cook, Amantle has an amazing talent for cooking in the bush. Our tents were about 2 meters high and included cots and mattresses so we didn’t have to sleep on the ground. We settled into bed and anticipated hearing lion roars all night.
Unfortunately, we didn’t hear any lions. But we had some hyena visitors during the night. The hyenas must have spooked the monkeys sitting in the trees in our camp. We woke up to monkey poop slung all over our camp! During our game drive, we spotted a hippopotamus in a water hole not quite deep enough for him. Hippos will be in the water most of the day to stay cool and only emerge at night. They don’t know how to swim so only stay in water where they can touch although they can stay underwater for up to 7 minutes. More elephants and giraffes. We ended the morning by taking a mokoro ride on the river (mokoros are traditional dugout canoes typically made from wood, but ours were made from fiberglass to last longer and are more environmentally friendly). From our view it was hard to see any wildlife. But we did see several species of bird (Lucas was happy). Much to my horror, there were several species of large spiders. Beautiful, but terrifying. I just about tipped our mokoro when our guide pushed the mokoro closer than I was comfortable. He made it up to me by making me a necklace from a water lily. Not exactly leave-no-trace policy. But it was beautiful nonetheless.
After lunch and a shower, Lucky informed us there were sightings of lions by Third Bridge. So we piled into the safari vehicle to try and catch site of them. Moremi is more likely to have lions and gets less frequent the farther north we go. We drove through a group of trees known as a nursery. Adult elephants will eat off the tops of trees so that they grow short and fat. This way the baby elephants are able to reach the leaves. We followed a black-backed jackal for a bit. No sightings of lions but we did spot a serval, a medium size, spotted cat with long legs and large ears. That night we had an amazing, traditional Setswana meal. We taught the guides how to roast marshmallows over the fire; they loved it!
We left camp early and headed to Kwaii Game Reserve. On the way we saw Kudu, hippos, and big birds. The Okavango Delta is currently flooded due to abundant rains in Angola. With several flooded roads, we had to take alternate paths. Once we got to camp, we helped set up tents and took some down time. The landscape was very different than our previous camp. Because of the abundant numbers of elephants escaping from Angola, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, the trees are being over-harvested. Elephants eat 300 kg of food a day. In fact, during the colder months, elephants sleep less than 4 hours a night because they have to eat constantly.
Kwaii is the only park that allows for night drives. So we piled into the safari vehicle once again (with cocktails) and headed out to hopefully see some lions (there were lion tracks in our camp). We saw elephants fighting in the water. They will attack with their tusks or swing their trunk to show dominance. You can identify the sex of elephants by the shape of their heads: females have a flat head while males have a more dome-shaped head. The only elephant in Botswana is the African elephant, which gets its name because its ears are shaped like the continent of Africa. At about 25 years old (onset of adolescence), male elephants will be kicked out of the herd. This will make for a very angry, sexually frustrated bull. You can tell an angry bull because of their foul smell. That smell is the semen being released, as Lucky says “like Victoria Falls.” But an angry bull is nothing compared to the more dangerous menstruating female. Apparently PMS runs among species.
Once the sun went down, we broke out the flood light. We spotted a hippo outside of the water with a baby. We must have overstayed our welcome; she instructed her baby to go back into the water and set about charging our vehicle. I wasn’t too concerned until Lucky started backing up the vehicle and instructed us to not scream. That night we had a starter of chicken livers and a delicious entrĂ©e of pork chops. My pork chop had the bullet still in it!
The next day we got up decently early and headed out for a morning game drive. We found some hippos playing the water. Lucky spotted lion tracks and we followed them all the way to a pride of lions!!! There were three lionesses and one dominant male. They seemed to be relaxing but every so often one would get up and move a little closer to a herd of water buffalo. The buffalo were huddled together in a large group; they will travel that way because the males are much faster and they don’t want to leave behind the females and babies when they are being stalked. Being in an open vehicle can be very intimidating when lions are maneuvering around you. We were very blessed to get both the view and the time. Unfortunately lions have more patience than us for the kill, and we left the pride to visit the wild dogs’ den. Lucky miss-judged the depth of a flooded road and pretty soon we were waist-deep in a flooded vehicle. Most of the important things were rescued from water. Lucky went to try and flag down a vehicle to help. I jumped in and started hauling items back to the beach (thankfully no hippos or crocs were around). Eventually everyone in the vehicle got down to their underwear (less me and Kris) and waded to the beach. At first it was quite an adventure, but four hours later, it was just annoying. We found out the vehicle was totaled and had our camp guides July and Amantle come and pick us up. We piled into the back of the truck, wet and sunburned, and bounced the 13 kilometers back to camp.
Poor Lucky drove all night to Maun to pick up another vehicle. We had to stay an extra night in Kwaii and wouldn’t be able to stay in Savuti. While Lucky was on his adventure, another safari company offered to take us on a game drive before they’re group arrived. Our guide Spokes was great. He picked us up early in the morning and took us to see the wild dogs, complete with a littler of pups. They act exactly like puppies; playing, biting, and barking. From there we headed to tea and stumbled onto a cheetah. It is rare to see a cheetah that late in the day. We were very lucky. Spokes made an announcement over the CB radio of where we spotted the cheetah. I think all the safari companies were on a wild goose chase looking for him. We may have been the only vehicle to see him.
After lunch and an afternoon nap, we headed back out for an evening/night drive. We saw a breathtaking sunset. We spooked a bull elephant that jumped in front of our vehicle and challenged us for a few minutes. Spokes was cool as a cucumber. Meanwhile a large number of us were sweating. Finally the elephant left. Spokes explained that in those situations, we just stand our ground. If we had backed up, it would have charged us. When the trunk gets pulled behind the front legs, then you know trouble is coming. Spokes said he once had an elephant lift his vehicle up and down with the tusks about three times. On our way back to camp, a leopard crossed in front of our vehicle. His belly was very full, he must have just eaten. Apparently the flooded vehicle was a blessing in disguise!
The next day was a long one. We left before the sun came up and had to drive two days worth through Savuti and into Chobe National Park. We scared a few elephants crossing the road and got trumpeted at. It’s an amazing sound; like a really loud car horn. Savuti has lots of sand and dead trees, again from the over-populated elephants. But there are quite a few more animals. We drove past the Savuti Channel which is running for the first time in 28 years! We got to camp just before sunset, our last night in the bush.
The next morning two of our group moved ahead of us to visit Victoria Falls which was not included in our Safari. The rest of us headed out for a morning game drive. We saw lots of herds moving from the river; elephant, water buffalo, and baboon. I got to take pictures of the Botswana national bird, the lilac-breasted roller. It’s called a roller because it will roll while flying. Gorgeous bird! After lunch we broke camp and headed to Kasane. On the way we got to watch the elephants playing in the mud. They fling mud on themselves to cool off. As I said, baby elephants are always in the middle of herds for protection. He got wailed with flying mud; it was hilarious. We saw more kudu, hippos, warthogs, and even another leopard. Leopards are extremely rare, we were very blessed. They are amazingly beautiful animals.
Once we got to Kasane, we checked into the Water Lily Lodge, showered, and headed back out for a sunset boat cruise. On the boat, the animals will let us get much closer than if we were in a vehicle. We got great shots of enormous crocodiles. The big mama was between 60 and 70 years old. The sunset was gorgeous, once again. That night we had dinner on the river and reflected on how AMAZING our trip was!

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Wire Car


I had seen kids playing with very detailed and well constructed toys made from wire all around my village and Sub Sahara Africa for that matter. What these genius kids do if they don’t purchase the wire is to cut or bend it until it breaks from some ones fence. My host familie’s fence was missing many parts that were taken by kids to make toys or wire cars. Once they have the wire, they cut then bend it into a part like a bumper or head light for instance. Then they fit the parts together like a puzzle and attach each part by thin copper electrical wire that is wrapped around and around each joint. The wheels are everything from soda can bottoms cut and fitted together, to shoe polish tins, to jelly jar lids. I have seen all models and makes of these wire vehicles. I saw a tractor, a semi with a trailer, cars, monster trucks, but the most extensive was a bus complete with seats and people in them.
I took a liking to the craftsmanship of these cars and mentioned my fascination to Katie one day. She, the lovely wife that she is, found me a kid, Edward, who was a son to one of the ambulances drivers at the Clinic. This kid was a master of making wire cars. I stopped by one day and I asked him if she could teach me how to make wire cars. I provided most of the materials, he provided the craftsmanship. He would bend each piece and I would attach it to the whole with the copper wire. We were a great tag team and I was absolutely happy making this thing and learning the skills it takes.

We worked 2 days before we could call it complete. When it was finished I gave him some candy wrapped with a P10 bill for his hard work. You should have seen his smile. He recently asked me if he could make me a semi with a trailer. I wish I could take one home.
When it was all said and done I had a Toyota Land Cruzer pick-up truck. It was an actual model complete with opening doors with handles and hood, a bed, a box, antenna, complete interior with seats, dash board and a Toyota emblem for the grill in front. Proof of its originality is the steering wheel on the left with a blinker switch on the column and all. The truck can be steered through a simple yet clever steering system. A thick wire bent into the shape of a steering wheel with a long stem reaching into the top of the truck, attaches to the front axle, and allows the kids to walk behind the truck and steer it as they push it along.
Check it out. I love how these kids work with what they have and use what they know to keep themselves busy. Most toys in my village are empty bottles, cans, bags, caps, lids,boxes, rocks, sticks...etc. They get as much joy playing with my set of matchbox cars and their imagination as American kids get when playing the Wii. By the way, thanks Miranda for the matchbox cars. They are slowly finding their way into the mechanics shop or junk yard but the kids still love them even without wheels, lol. If all you know is simplicity, having more just makes you want even more next time.

Saturday, August 14, 2010

STEPS Screenings

Another project that I am involved with is something called STEPS. This organization developed over 50 movies both short and long coving topics all relating to HIV/AIDS. We use these videos as conversation starters and to approach sensitive topics. To give you an idea of a video, one is called ‘The Moment’. In this 8 min long short film they interview 20 or so individuals on the different stages of a sexual relationship. So it starts with meeting then the kiss, arousal, then undressing and penetration etc and I’ve skipped a few. Between each stage the individuals make comments about feelings, emotions, actions or their own perceptions. The last words that flash on the screen say, ‘In what do you decide to use a condom?’ This move is flashy, raw and in several languages covering all demographics. It is a great conversation starter. We then facilitate a discussion when the audience dose most of the talking. This specific film is saved for an older crowd like teachers or out of school youth. We use films on losing a parent, orphan hood or finding out you have HIV for the younger kids.

John and I lead the facilitation with Katie there as our HIV/AIDS expert. We start with explaining what STEPS is and how it is a conversation starter and not instructions. Then we show a film, ask about general feeling or focus of the film then go deeper into their values and cultural norms. It can get very exciting when debates and passionate monologs come into play. Before we start another film we give out little slips of paper to all in attendance and they write any anonymous question relating to HIV/AIDS on it. Katie goes through them, removes repeats and combines similar questions then she answers them one by one. Many questions are surprisingly simple but the level of understanding of the virus is still new to the general public here. A lot of good is done through Katie’s professional understanding of the topic. She took a course while still in the states on it too. So questions are answered, discussions are initiated and by the end there is a better understanding of this pandemic that holds Botswana as the second most infected country in the world closely behind Swaziland.

STEPS videos have been a great way to talk about sensitive issues. We have used them on students, teachers and out of school youth. John is currently training to become a trainer of trainers.

Life Skills Workshop Facilitators


As far as my title goes as a Life Skills Volunteer, I have finely found a project when I feel I am actually fulfilling the objective set forth by the Peace Corps for me. John Rusiecki and I were asked to tour our district and find out how well the other school were implementing this Life Skills curriculum that we were so attached to. What we found was that, like our own school s, no one was doing much at all with the Life Skills books or teaching any of the lessons. So, as we meet with school head after school head we offered our expertise to come back to their school and facilitate a workshop for their staff on what the Life Skills curriculum is and how to use the books that were sitting unused in their store rooms. By the way, both of us are a little silly with each other but very professional in meetings but we couldn’t resist making inside jokes and poking fun at each other in front of those we met with. There were a few times I almost laughed out loud or had to turn away. Lol.

Anyway, through our self promotion we established a net work of schools that look to us as the staff developers when it comes to Life Skills based operations. We facilitated or fist work shop at John’s school which I can tell you went as well as trying to feed a lion vegetables pie. We work shopped an area school next that seemed to go better but it’s hard to know if the information seed grew any after we left that village. We took a little adventure on this overnight trip and decided to climb a cell phone tower which was awesome but also scary. Once was enough for that little stunt. Our next workshop was my school, by now we thought we had some solid chemistry in our presentation and we got 3 days instead of 2 like usual so the last day we reviewed and also covered Test Taking Skills and Strategies as well as Classroom Management Skills. We’re not sure what sunk in but I’m doing a follow up on the progress starting next term so we’ll see what worked and what still needs to be nurtured.

My favourite workshop we did so far had to have been the one in Middle Pits, 800K south of Salajwe, well outside of our district. Another volunteer Mary Goldamer lives there and invited us to do a Life Skills Staff development workshop for her school staff of 45. We again got three days but this time we put most of our focus on infusion. Infusion is taking a life skill, such as decision making and infusing it into a subject, such as math. So that might be a lesson where you are teaching budgeting and what to buy and what not to buy on your budget to save and to buy needs not wants. This can be done with Risk Reduction and Science or Social Responsibility and Cultural studies. As we had done in other workshops we had the teachers make mock lesson plans and present them. Everything went wonderful but the best part was that I was getting a sense that the teachers were realizing how important Life Skills are and were starting to buy into it and persuade their colleagues how valuable these skills are. At this point John and I were working together like a well oiled machine and we ran the room like it was a class of kids. The loved us and offered to take up a donation for us because we travelled on our own dime but we refused. Then they wanted to get money from the Ministry of Education for us so we applied and are still waiting for that but we didn’t expect any type of reimbursement.
These workshops can be very frustrating when you see the apathy or unwillingness to do even the smallest amount of extra work but it’s those few teachers that grasp is that makes it all worthwhile. It’s when we finish the last day that I feel the best. We know we told them straight. “It is a little more work, not all of you will use the books, but the ‘Life Skills’ are what matters, include them in you classes, it will make better students and better citizens of Botswana in the end.” When I’m in front of teachers talking about what I’m passionate about and flowing and doing what the Peace Corps has asked me here to do I just get a great feeling of purpose and like I’m making a difference.