Working with the Red Cross

Peace Corps isn’t just about battling bugs and surviving difficult living conditions. The work I do on a day-to-day basis in Peace Corps is incredibly fulfilling, but also incredibly challenging. My primary assignment area, as an NGO volunteer, is the Red Cross. At the Red Cross, my duties mainly revolve around capacity building. To capacity build, I have given typing lessons to about half of the staff, and have taught basic lessons on different Microsoft programs like excel and PowerPoint. For example, when I first arrived at Red Cross, the monthly expenses tracking was done by hand. Therefore, I taught the Administration Officer how to use excel, and showed her some excel basics. Now the monthly expenses are tracked on the computer. In addition, I have also created some new contracts for the Red Cross. I created a contract between parents of children at the Centre and the Centre, outlining the duties and responsibilities of both parties. This was to clear up some challenges the Centre was having regarding the involvement of (or rather lack of) parents at the Centre. In addition, I am helping to apply for a grant for materials to start a garden at the Red Cross.

A large part of my service also consists of working closely with the Field Officer (FO), Karabo, and recruiting more Red Cross members, and raising awareness about the services the Red Cross offers. To accomplish these goals, a few months ago we spent several weeks going around to different institutions in Sefhare and presenting about the Red Cross, the services it offers, how to become a member, and its programs. Red Cross programs in Sefhare include Disaster Management (Sefhare is a disaster area for high winds and rains that destroy houses during the rainy season), HIV/AIDS, Community Based Rehabilitation (CBR), and Orphan and Vulnerable Children (OVC). My work mainly focuses around the HIV/AIDS, CBR and OVC programs.

For the HIV/AIDS program, the Field Officer and I are in charge of raising awareness about HIV.  In service of this, during April (the Month of Youth Against HIV/AIDS) we went around to the three different school in Sefhare and presented on topics of HIV/AIDS, peer pressure, multiple concurrent partnerships, stigma and discrimination. The presentations were gave were interactive, and usually included a game. For example, the game that we played at the Junior Secondary School was called HIV Limbo, and it was adapted from the Grassroots Soccer curriculum. During the activity, two students held a limbo pole, and the rest of the students were supposed to limbo under the pole without touching it. If a student touched the limbo pole, they were “infected” with HIV. During the first round of the limbo game, the limbo pole started out high, above the students’ heads. During this first round, students were pretending to abstain from having sex. Because the pole was so high, all students were able to make it under the pole, and they did not get “infected” with HIV. This represented how it was easy to avoid contracting HIV while a person is abstaining from having sex. During the second round, the pole was lowered to the students’ shoulders. During the second round, students were pretending to be engaged in a sexual relationship with a classmate their age. While all students were able to make it under the pole, it was harder to avoid “contracting” HIV. During the final round, the pole was at the student’s hips. During this round, students were pretending that they were engaged in a sexual relationship with a partner who was 10 years older than them. Nearly all of the students touched the limbo pole, and as a result were “infected” with HIV. This last round demonstrated the difficulty of avoiding catching HIV when engaging in an intergenerational relationship. Partners who are five, ten or fifteen years older than the students are more likely to have had more sexual partners, and therefore have more exposure to STDs and HIV. During each round of the game, there were follow-up questions for the students like, “What are the benefits of engaging in a relationship with a partner your age?” or “What is the balance of power like when you are dating someone who is much older than you?” The students loved this game, were engaged and asked a lot of great questions.

Another HIV/AIDS program that the Field Officer and I carried out was delivering presentations to teachers at the schools on topics such as HIV/AIDS prevention, epidemiology, stigma and discrimination. The purpose was to help inform educators about issues that school children are facing surrounding HIV and accepting their HIV positive status. 

Girls attending the Month of Youth Against HIV talk.

HIV Limbo.

Explaining about family planning options to the female students.

A male student demonstrating how to correctly put on a condom with the hospital nurse.

Students looking at pictures of STDs.

My work with the CBR program is mainly involved with helping the Rehabilitation Technician establish a Disability Support Group. The support group, which is for the Tswapong South area (the area Sefhare is in) is to advocate on behalf of those with disabilities, and establish a support network to those with disabilities and their families. I helped draft the constitution for the support group. In addition, I through Peace Corps networking, I received a grant of 20 wheelchairs for people in the CBR program and children at the Centre.

Lastly, I am involved in the OVC program. The OVC program mainly consists of helping out at Kids Club for orphaned and vulnerable children (OVCs) on the weekends. In addition, I have taught the pre-school teachers at the Centre fun games to play with the Stimulation Centre children.

However, the Red Cross recently retired the Stimulation Centre pre-school Principal and transferred the Field Officer. Seeing as most of my work was with the Field Officer, I am anxious about what this next phase of my service will look like. No matter what, though, I love working with the Red Cross. They are an incredibly important part of the community in Sefhare, and the work that they do benefits many people. In addition, they support me in every aspect of my service, which is one of the reasons my time in Sefhare has been so productive and successful.

To Hitch or Not To Hitch?

When I first arrived in country and heard about people “hitching,” I thought it was insane, crazy, and frankly, quite dangerous, and I therefore resolved never to do it. When I received my site announcement during PST, and after meeting my counterpart, I was relieved to know that my site, Sefhare, had transport to and from my shopping villages (Palapye and Mahalapye) daily. For about the first two months to my site, I learned the bus schedule and exclusively used buses to get to and from my shopping villages. However, after two months of taking the buses, I finally understood the appeal of hitching.

The bus system in my village is horrible. Buses often don’t come; they break down, are incredibly slow, and there is never sitting room.  My shopping village is 2 hours away. Standing for that long with 60 pounds of groceries on your back is difficult. In addition, waiting at the bus rink for hours with that much food (much of it perishable) increases the likelihood that food will spoil. It took a few months, but I eventually became comfortable with hitching, and even switched my main shopping village to Palapye because it is easier to hitch out from.

Hitching is relatively safe in Botswana, and, because of unreliable public transport, everyone does it. Botswana is a nation of hitchers. There are standard fares for car rides that are usually the same as bus fares. When hitching it is always important that you carry mixed bills with you so that you can pay the driver. When hitching, as with everything else, it is always good to be mindful. When hitching, I always seek out another person (usually a female) who is going the same place as I am. I always make sure that the driver is not drinking or rude.  

I have had some great hitches (new car, leather seats, AC), and some odd hitches. The oddest hitch occurred recently, only a few weeks back. It was a weekday, and another volunteer, Kate Slisz, and I had only thirty minutes to get our shopping done before the next bus left. We had a lot to do. First, we had to take a special cab to Builders World to get screws for a solar dehydrator project we were working on. Then, we had to go to SPAR to buy food for the next few days. Luck was with us, and we finished all of our shopping in time to make it to the bus stop and hitching post. While we were waiting for the bus to arrive, a black car pulled up to the hitching post. It stopped and waited for a few minutes, but people weren’t approaching it. Usually, this means that the car is not picking up passengers. Kate decided to check it out, and found out that the car was going straight to our village! As it turned out, the reason that people were not getting inside was because it was a funeral car. Kate and I, not being particularly picky and in a hurry, decided to take the hitch. Which is how, we ended up hitching in the back of a funeral car next to a white coffin that, while not currently holding a dead body, clearly had held dead people in it at some point (as evidenced by the coffin stains and rolling wheels).

Running Blog: Weeks 3-5

My body hurts. Everywhere. 

Running Blog: Week 2

My Dad, using satellite imaging of my village (who knew?), tracked out different distances in my village for me to run. Turns out, what I thought was 5k turns out was actually a 10k. I was running about five miles every morning, not 3. Hence why it took me about an hour.  I feel much better about my general level of fitness now.

It is getting easier to get up in the morning and run. However, because it is winter, it is also getting darker in the morning. The sun doesn’t come up until about 6:30!

Running Blog: Week 1

For those of you who don’t know, I am training for the Victoria Falls Half-Marathon. About half of the Bots ‘14 group (my intake group) is going, and it is going to be ridiculously fun. The run in on the Zimbabwe side of the falls, and the race route follows the edge of the falls. Therefore, I am not really sure how much running I will be doing, as I anticipate I will be taking photos every few feet. It might hinder my race time.

Training in my village presents two main problems. First, the sand. There is one paved road in my village. It runs from one side to the other, and splits Sefhare down the middle. To get to the main road takes about 10 minutes of running in sand. Running in sand is difficult, and you have to train carefully to be able to run in sand well. Therefore, I make sure that I really stretch my ankles before running, as I don’t want to twist an ankle while running in the sand.

The second problem about running in my village is the distance. I don’t have a clear measurement of how far I am running. According to the combi driver at the Red Cross, from the Hospital to the Immigration Office in my town (from one side to the other, following the paved road), it is about 2.5k. Which means, there isn’t really anywhere to run except from one side of my village to the other. It is very boring.

Today I did my first 5k training run. It took me 1 hour, based on what I was told on distances. I usually can do a 5k in about 30 minutes, and even if I was walking, I don’t think it would take me that long. And I am not that out of shape. I swear.

Therefore, problem number two: I don’t know how far these distances are! The race is at the end of June, so I have a lot of time to train. So, fingers crossed it goes well! 

Creepy Crawly Things: Part 2

Cockroaches are now falling from my ceiling now. I kid you not. I wake up to them lying on their backs because they have fallen and cannot turn over. It would be hilarious, if it was not so terrifying at the same time. But I am getting used to it. I've gotten used to most of the bugs by now, but there are still some creepy crawlies that manage to surprise me. Please see below, for what I am referring to:

Beetles: These beetles are scary. While they don't actually do anything, I have woken up several times during the night because they have been trying to scratch their way under my door. They sounds like mice. There are also flying versions of these that crash against my windows at night.

Tarantula: This one was in my sitting room. It is all mangled because I killed it by stomping on it a few times. I have no regrets.

 Centipedes: This one is as long as my foot!

Sotojane: These creepy crawlies look like blue lobsters. In English, they are called "Corn Crickets." They are, in fact, pests that eat sorghum, maize and almost anything else at the fields. I took a picture of this one on my house.

Camel Spider: These are fast, and very juicy when you kill them. So oftentimes, they are as gross alive as they are dead.

Water Is Life

Water is life. A coworker said that to me recently. And I never really understood it until recently. As a PCV, we often ask ourselves the question, “what would we rather have: electricity or water?” Until recently, I would have said electricity. Now, my answer would be water. 

A neighbor came to our compound to fill up water at my landlady's jojo.

 It has been 8 weeks since I have had running water. At first, it was difficult because the large jojo that my landlady has that stores water was empty. Thankfully, the Red Cross was wonderful and helped me fill up buckets with water and drive them to my house when I need it. 

The jojo that my landlady uses to fill up with water.

After my landlady was able to fill up her jojo, it was a lot better, and I could access water in my front yard. However, the jojo water is not drinkable. There are far too many worms and other bacteria in there for me to drink it safely without boiling it. It is OK to bathe in and flush my toilette. To drink, I either have to boil the water and then filter it (which takes a long time), or I go to the Red Cross with water bottles and carry the water back to my house. I opt for the second choice, as it is much more convenient. Unfortunately, Red Cross sometimes runs out of water too. 

The containers that I store water in.

I have become very good at conserving water. I can now bathe with half a bucket of water. Three weeks ago, the water came on for a few days, and when I was bathing, I had about half a bucket of water left each time after my bath that I didn’t know what to do with. 

 Thankfully, my water situation isn't as bad as it could be. Having access to water in my front yard is wonderful, and I don't mind carrying water to and from work to drink. There are a lot of PVCs who have worse water situations that me. 

And, when all else fails, I do this: 

Trying to collect enough water to bathe in.

Thankfully, it's the rainy season.