May 16, 2011
Haha. so today was an interesting day. Just another day in the life of a peace corps. This is an organization clearly run by a government. Haha. so I’m moving to bobonong. I am going to visit on Wednesday. I have no idea how I’m going to get there. Where I am supposed to be sleeping on Wednesday night. I can’t find my counterpart. And there is no housing available yet. Apparently, they were a last minute set up for a volunteer. So quick that they didn’t have time to even send a counterpart down for the workshop. I also find out it was a last minute placement because 2 other placements fell through. SWEET. They sound ready for me. Lol. so of course, I get no help from the PC staff…or people that I will be working with because of the strike cuz no one has any idea about what is going on. So time to take matters into my own hands. I call a few volunteers that are in bobonong already. It’s not like it’s their job to figure out all this for me…but strangely they are the only ones that have nearly any idea about what is going on. And this is what we have figured out ON OUR OWN:
1) I will be taking a bus from kanye to gabs to catch a bus to selibe phikwe. The earliest bus from kanye to gabs is at 6 AM. Next step…how to get to the kanye bus stop at 6 AM? No idea…hopefully my host dad can drive me..
2) I will stay with a few volunteers on Wednesday night in selibe phikwe. Then Thurs head out to Bobonong.
3) My counterpart’s name is Ma….lol. we have no idea. I guess we’ll just have to hunt for her when I get there…
4) One of the volunteers is helping with the looking for housing. She is going to take a look at a few this week…so I guess that I means I might be going house hunting. Sweet. I might be able to CHOOSE my house.
BAH…thanks, PC for all the help! Ugh. Lol. Oh well. At the end of the day…it will be done. Lol. I no longer take time to worry about things working out anymore. Things are the way they are, no use in fighting. And no use in getting riled up about something I have no control over. Just a bit annoyed and maybe slightly delirious from the large amount of boredom I have been attempting to withstand for the past few weeks. (hm…I wonder if I’m going to get in trouble with PC about writing this….lol…oh well. I’ll just wait for them to tell me to take it down if they don’t like it…)
ANYWAYS…big news within the country…
ALL SCHOOLS THROUGHOUT BOTSWANA HAVE BEEN CANCELLED INDEFINITELY. Yes…they have cut off school here in Botswana. There is a strike happening with all the civil servants. They are asking for a 16% raise due to inflation, where the government is only offering a 5% raise. No side is budging. It’s been happening for the past month. At first, it seemed more of just taking some time off. But now it’s really starting to get heated. When I was talking about the kids being incredibly civil, I still think they have done an amazing job, being that they JUST broke today and JUST started destroying/ransacking schools…A MONTH LATER. In America, that would have happened on the 3rd day if not the 1st day. But instead of educating these kids who clearly want to learn since they have been patiently been sitting in classrooms without teachers for the past month, they close all the schools indefinitely and tear gas the rowdy children. My sister has no idea when she’s going back to school. She might not go back to school until January. SERIOUSLY…JANUARY?! You just cancel school until JANUARY?! Dude…it’s fricking MAY…no school til JANUARY?! Wow. I had never even fathomed such a thing ever happening. Eh…but I guess that’s just how this country works? I honestly have no idea if this is a shock to people are not. People are just shrugging and sighing, but not really making a big fuss about it…accepting the fact of the matter. I’m not sure if they are resolved about the situation or if I am just misunderstanding their level of emotions…maybe they just think school will be reinstated sooner than people are saying. I have no idea. I’m not sure anyone really has any idea. But anyways, I’m glad that this country is a peaceful country. Their strikes are definitely not violent by any means. And unsupervised kids are unsupervised kids anywhere. You can’t expect kids to behave any differently anywhere else.
We will see how this strike will affect everything that is happening in this country. Right now, PC volunteers that are working is schools…well, we have no idea what is going to happen to them. Are they going to stay? Are they going to wait it out? Are they going to be moved? We have NO IDEA. Now with us…working in clinics…if the nurses and the people who run the clinic are on strike, will we have work to do at the clinic? I mean…apparently we do a lot of work at the schools too…so no clinics or schools? Now what? Am I supposed to hang out at the church? With NGOs? Dude, I have no idea. Haha. phrase of the week. I HAVE NO IDEA. Lol. let’s just twiddle our thumbs for a bit and see….AWESOME. (shoot…am I too political here? Am I taking a side? Cuz I’m not allowed to…if I am…I may get in trouble for this part too…lol)
May 17, 2011
Nevermind. they found my counterpart. or at least 1 of them (apparently I have 3). they have set up a lodge for me to stay in for wednesday night.so looks like i'll be going into bobonong on wednesday. staying at a lodge. then meeting people on thursday. sigh...see how fast things change?! bahumbug. it's tiring trying to keep track of everything. wish me luck!
Good luck in Bobonong (how do you pronounce that?)! I hope it will be to your liking.
ReplyDeleteAlso, you are awesome for doing this. You are a trooper :).
I used a pit toilet once and it was yucky (while camping), but that's probably because us Americans do not keep those clean because we always assume someone else will.