Greetings from Botswana, Africa!

Dumelang borra le bomma! Greetings!

For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Stephanie Pillion. I graduated from Smith College in 2012, with a B.A. in Government, and a concentration in International Relations. I spent the past year living in New York City, working at a law firm called Hughes Hubbard and Reed, LLP, as a Litigation Paralegal. I am passionate about the reading and writing fiction, learning about different cultures and languages, and traveling. Currently, I have been serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer for the past two weeks in Botswana, Africa.

My process to become a Peace Corps Volunteer began over a year ago. The Peace Corps is an organization founded in 1961, by President John F. Kennedy, with the mission to promote peace and friendship around the world through cross cultural exchange and service. The Peace Corps application process is an intensive one. After filling out the application in June of last year, I was contacted in August of 2012 for my first interview. I was interviewed by a former Peace Corps volunteer, and after the interview I was nominated for the Peace Corps as a Community Services: Health (HIV/AIDS Capacity Building) volunteer. The next step in the application process was medical and legal clearance. The lovely members of the Hollis Police Department helped take my fingerprints, and I sent them off to the Peace Corps around November. Around March, I was given another round of essay questions to answer. Questions ranged from expectations I had for my service to the top challenges I expected to face while in the Peace Corps. Finally, I was nominated in April of 2013, as an NGO/CBO Capacity Builder with the Botswana, Africa, HIV/AIDS Capacity Building Project.

And now, a little more than one year later, here I am in Serowe, Botswana! The first part of my journey to Botswana started in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where I met my fellow Peace Corps Volunteers (PCV) for the Staging process. Staging is a one-day orientation program that all volunteers go through before heading off for 27 months of service. Meeting my fellow volunteers was both overwhelming and exciting.

The next morning, at 2 AM, all 60 of us volunteers left for a bus to JFK. We then spent 15 uncomfortable hours on a plane to Johannesburg, South Africa. When we landed in Johannesburg we took a one-hour plane to Gabarone (pronounced “Hab-a-rone-ay”), Botswana. We spent a few days in Gabarone, going through more orientation sessions and medical interviews (I am on Malaria medication now). We then traveled north to a town called Serowe, where we met our host families.

I am living with a family called the Matlhodi’s. I live with my host Mother (whom I call Mma, for mother) and her grandson, Tsala (which means “friend” in Setswana). My house has power and electricity, both of which I am grateful for. I still have to heat up water on the stove for my bucket bath, but my living conditions could be worse.

Everyday I walk about 45 minutes with some fellow PCVs who live in my ward (a ward is like a neighborhood in the States) to school, the Teacher's College of Serowe. Class starts at 8AM, and ends around 5PM. We get a tea break around 10:30AM.

During class we have Setswana language lessons (the language they speak here), medical and safety training sessions, and discussions about the roles of a Peace Corps Volunteer in development (the Peace Corps development philosophy is based around capacity building within a community to ensure sustainability after a PCV leaves his/her post). 

So far, I have loved learning about Botswana culture, speaking Setswana, and and making new friends. So far, every volunteer I have met has said that we received the "Peace Corps Jackpot" when we were chosen for service in Botswana. So far, I have to agree with them. Still, there have been many challenges along the way, but I will delve into those in a later blog post.

I am going to try and update my blog as frequently as possible. I am going to make it a combination of videos, pictures and posts. Hopefully, you can all follow along with me in my journey for the next 27 months! 

Go siame! Goodbye!