After 24 hours of travel (16.5 hours via plane and 8 hours waiting in airports), I have arrived in Botswana! My Peace Corps group otherwise known as Bots 11 (signifying us as the 11th group of volunteers to enter the country since returning in 2003) is a very diverse group with a total of 35 volunteers. We are all Peace Corps trainees for the next two months, after which we are sworn in as official Peace Corps volunteers and will move to our permanent sites in the country.
Our stay in Botswana started in Gaborone, the capital city, at a very nice lodge where we spent our first night. The following day we took a bus to the city of Kanye which will be our home for the next 2 months. I have been told that Kanye has apopulation of about 8,000 people and I am excited to start exploring the city and meeting the community members.
On Thursday, we had a matching ceremony in which we met our host families for the next two months. It is kind of a big deal and was wonderful to see how excited Batswana families were to welcome us into their homes. I will be living with just my host mother. She has 3 children but they all currently live out of the home either working or studying in other cities around Botswana. It is clear however that living near family is very important as within the first few hours of meeting my host mom, I also met her sister, siter-in-law, two cousins, and daughter. On a different note, my host mother keeps chickens/roosters in the backyard right by my room, so I expect that my travel alarm clock will be unecessary most days.
I have been here for less than 24 hours and have already had many fantastic experiences. About an hour after I arrived to my new home in Kanye, my host mother and I attended a funeral procession for her pastor who recently passed away. Following this, we attended a memorial service in his honor at the church. It was so great to jump right into the culture and my anthropology background has already begun to surface as I sat at the church searching for cultural cues and practices. On a more awkward note, my host mother had us sit on the pulpit behind where the reverands speak, so I had an entire congregation facing me the entire service. What a way to introduce me to the community!
To end this entry, here is a brief list of things I have learned so far:
1. - There is ALOT of red dirt here, and thus everything I own will be very dirty soon.
2. - Here they drive on the other side of the road. I knew this yet was super thrown when I got into my host mother’s car and the steering wheel was on the right side! Clearly I have never been to Europe.
3. - Donkeys (“tonki” in setswana and my word of the day!), cows, and chickens roam freely around town and like to just hang out in the road.
