This experience has been an incredible one. I feel as though we didn’t spend enough time in Botswana and wish we had just 2 weeks more (even though I know I would want the trip extended just two more weeks after those two weeks has finished). It was hard to say goodbye. We became attached on both sides, and we’ve become a part of each others’ lives. I have learned so much though, about the people in Botswana; the members of our organization who we traveled with, Rachael and Megan; and myself.
I could never say it enough; the people in Botswana are so amazing. We had so many great experiences with the most caring, generous, welcoming, friendly, and optimistic people. I mean, obviously we’re all human, and especially in Gabarone, we encountered a less-than-nice individual, but overall we had positive experiences with the majority of the people we met.
The two months flew by. I think this was in part, due to the fact that Megan, Rachael and I got along so well. Our ‘home-life’ wasn’t extensive because we were usually at our home only for a late dinner and bed; however, we really clicked and have such similar views and goals that living together was easy. It was great getting to know them on a more personal level. We will be working closely together in the future and understand each other better now. Traveling in a group was so beneficial to our experience and I really couldn’t imagine it any other way. We learned, cried and grew together over the past two months. If I could give any advice about traveling with others, it would be to give each other a chance – get to know one another. We told our ‘life stories’ throughout the trip (one night each with popcorn and a long summary of each others hardships and accomplishments that made us who we are today). Another thing that really helped us cope, was our ‘positives/negatives’. Each night we would explain our best and worst part of the day. This really allowed s a time to share how we were feeling and kept us on the same page.
As I said in my previous blogs, I believe I’ve grown as a person in many ways. I’ve really analyzed my life and have realized what’s really important in my life. My life isn’t just mine; it affects the closest people to me and could even affect someone I’ve never met. I’ve learned to be more open and understanding and to prioritize. My priority is the people in my life. Relationships are really what matters most in my life. I’ve also reassessed my faith. I have faith, in people, myself, my future and many other things. I do not have religious beliefs anymore. I won’t go into depth, but I’ll just say that I’ve realized I do not believe in one religion, or that on religion is ‘correct’. I believe we make our own choices, but that everything happens for a reason.

We accomplished so many things during this trip. The relationships we built are so important to me and these helped us accomplish all of our goals. We obtained so many resources from various organizations for our Educational Outreach Program, which will help us be as up-to-date and accurate as possible. We donated all of our ‘material donations’ that were brought form Canada to credible, trustworthy organizations and people. We donated funds to Melissa Godwaldt, an employee of the Ministry of Education in Gabarone. The funds will help with a garden program to help keep students healthy, which is a big concern for those who are HIV positive. The funds will help purchase tools and seeds for the program. We created a manual to help keep the educational outreach program sustainable at the centre we worked at. We also worked very hard over the two months in Botswana filming for our documentary. We filmed a lot and interviewed many people with great stories and opinions about the AIDS pandemic. We will be using the finished documentary for Project Empathy’s Educational Outreach Program and will be submitting it to the 2010 International AIDS Conference. We will use the stories and materials to educate high schools and universities in Southern Ontario. The last thing we did was helped create more contacts for a local high school’s pen pal program. This will assist in writing skills in Botswana, as well as Cambridge, Ontario students.

Summary:

1. Position/Placement:
The members of Project Empathy worked at Emmanuel Counseling Centre in Ramotswa, Botswana for 6 weeks in May and June 2008. We worked as Peer Educators, which was similar to the work we do in Canada with our organization. We traveled to Kagiso Senior Secondary School to teach Form 4s and 5s Monday to Friday from 8:30-13:00. We taught Baitlotli Junior Secondary School Form 1s on Tuesday afternoons. At both, we taught their guidance lessons, which included HIV/AIDS, ECC services, social relationships, career choices and life skills.

2. Contributions:
-Completed many guidance lessons with over 2000 students
-Created a manual for ECC’s education program
-Helped ECC run a car wash and beauty pageant
-Is editing footage to create a documentary

3. Future Plans:
-Finish documentary for education in Botswana and Canada
-Educate Canadian’s about HIV/AIDS, specifically in Botswana
-Continue to educate myself about HIV/AIDS and other world issues

4. Tips for Future Volunteers:
-Build relationships with everyone, wherever you are and spend time with them
-Fill your time with cultural activities (i.e. Mogwana dance group, Kagle Hill, etc.)
-Be open to new experiences
-Travel with local transit
-Get to know the people you travel with and talk about your issues together
-Journal and think about your experience while it’s happening
-Keep your relationships when you’re in Canada
-Go to Milky Lane at Game City (the ice cream is sooo good – triple mousse sundae!)
-Bring pins from your city (you can get them at your city hall/travel agency)
-Learn as much as you can about the culture before and while you are there
-Make something that the people will remember you by (Ex. Hemp bracelets)
-If you invite people out for dinner, expect to pay for anyone there
-Bring lots of sweaters and mittens, scarf and hat (it gets down to 3*C at night!)
-Don’t judge or have expectations
-Try a caterpillar (they have them at RiverWalk)
-Be yourself and have fun

I’ve been sitting here for a while thinking about what to write. I don’t know where to start because so much has happened. Our last day of placement was on Friday. It was one of the hardest days of my life. It didn’t hit me until mid-afternoon, when I realized I may never see some of these people again. I didn’t get to say goodbye to a few people, but we are hopefully going to Ramotswa to surprise everyone this Tuesday.
The hardest goodbye – Thapelo. Although we only spent a short time together, we’ve become such good friends. Our last day was one to remember. They surprised us with about 50 youth and staff and we had a nice celebration. I obviously couldn’t hold in my emotions and cried a bit (almost the whole time haha). The things they said to us were amazing. Thapelo spoke to us and it was so hard to handle. He explained that I’m like a sister to him and he doesn’t know how he’ll cope with losing me. Up until now I didn’t realize the impact we’ve made on these individuals, but I do now. We have learned so much from each other and it’s going to be so hard for both sides to part. I’m hopefully going to see Thapelo one last time before I go to make sure he’ll be ok and that we can sustain our friendship.
The trip is almost over, I can’t believe it. 1week from today and we leave – Eish!! We have really accomplished a lot. We developed a manual for Emmanuel Counselling Centre, Kagiso, WUSC and Project Empathy that explains ECC and the Educational Outreach we did in Ramotswa. We’ve been working hard on our documentary and have a lot of interviews planned for this week. We’re also going into two high schools in Gabarone, where we will show the manual we developed and will speak to classes about HIV and AIDS.
“This is Africa” – is what one of my coworkers said, and I’m realizing now that the experience is almost over.
I’m going to leave it at that for now because I’ll be writing a large summary of the entire trip in a week or so!

We have 3 weeks left at ECC, but only 2 weeks left teaching at the high schools. The classes at Kagiso have been so amazing. It’s going to be sad leaving and heard coming back to teach in such a different environment. The students here are SO respectful and thoughtful. They wipe off the chalkboard, offer you their chair and really just make us feel comfortable and respected. We have been teaching every day at the school and are currently teaching about social relationships. The students are so inspiring and encouraging. One of the students stuck his head out of the window while I was passing to tell me the lesson was “awesome”! (first time I’ve heard that word used here! Lol). The students are so cute and very intrigued by us I think. We have been explaining what it means to be in a ‘good’ relationship (with peers, boy/girlfriends, parents, etc.) and I have been explaining my relationship with Liam. It’s so amazing being able to talk about the awesome relationship I have with Liam and it’s so cute how the students react. In total we’ve taught almost 2000 students between the secondary schools, but see the 1700 students at Kagiso the most. We’ve built relationships with some of the students already and so many Kagiso students came to the beauty pageant on Saturday. So many of the students stick out in my mind, but I’ve been touched by a couple in particular. Liz, the captain of the school’s handball team, came all the way to the ECC just to say hi to me and then went home. I was so amazed when I found this out and thought about our society and the way we live. I mean, some people would so something like this, but not a lot of people. To take the time out of your day to walk 20 minutes or so each way, just to say “hi”, “I care” – it’s really inspiring.

A few of the students have come to us with issues in their relationships. We talk about being faithful and trusting in your relationships if you want them to remain “good” and a few students have come to me asking what they should do about their personal situations. It seems that a lot of the youth think cheating is ‘normal’ and one of the students/class agreed together that you are born in a ‘cheating’ mind frame or that everyone cheats. It’s so hard to change this attitude, but we’ve been trying. I’ve realized over the past month that the only way Botswana is going to rid HIV and AIDS is to change their attitude. People need to realize that cheating isn’t normal and that wearing a condom is. The education is definitely here and the government has supported the nation in so many ways, but it’s up to the people to change their way of thinking and living to stop the pandemic… and I’m still trying to think of ideas of how this can happen.

The beauty pageant and car wash went so well on Saturday! Over 250 people came to the pageant and it was put together so well. The car wash was also a lot of fun and we must have washed over 40 cars! I think a lot of people became more aware of Pledge 25. Pledge 25 is a program for youth that promotes the donation of blood, which in turn promotes living healthy and staying negative.

We’re still staying at Skillshare and traveling back and forth to Ramotswa, but it’s nice. We’ve gotten comfortable with our surroundings and like meeting new people (Skillshare is a guesthouse/hostel and we’ve met amazing people from Kenya who we’re still in contact with). One of the bad parts about commuting is the car accidents. There are so many. People don’t wear their seatbelts if they are in the back seat (you don’t have to by law and most vehicles don’t even have them) and many people only put on their seatbelt in the front seat if they see a cop. So, I’ve seen some pretty horrible car accidents; they don’t ‘hide’ it here either. There’s so ‘cleanup’ because of sensitivity. Yesterday, on the front page of the newspaper there was a photo of a car accident and a dead person under a sheet (you could only see their legs). Anyway, being at Skillshare is mostly positive. We’ve met a lady named, Wairimu, who lives in Kaun. She is very inspirational and is trying to start a sports and recreation centre for the youth. She explained that there is nothing to do in the village for the youth, so to fill their time they’re having casual sex and contracting HIV. We’re hoping to go up to the village to see what it is like because we’ve been in such an industrialized area, it’s so different. Away from the city, the people are marginalized and are most affected by HIV and AIDS. We’ve been working on our documentary, but are finding it hard to find time because we’ve made so many great relationships here!

I’m not sure what else to write. It’s so hard because so many things have happened! I’ll just leave it for now, but email me if you have any questions!

Happy birthday this month to Denise, Matt, Bryan, Shelby, Dad, and Mom! And Happy Father’s Day to all the dad’s on the 15th!

*Follow Your Dreams. You Never Know Where They Might Take You.*

“Love the people who treat you right, forget about the people who don’t, and believe that everything happens for a reason. If you get a chance, take it. If it changes your life, let it. Nobody said that it would be easy, they just promised it would be worth it”