Dumela!

Posted by Gayle on October 15th, 2009

Time has gone by quickly since my last report. I can’t believe that I have been here over a month. There are many times when I really miss home, especially Kenny, our kittens, family and friends. I also miss other things I took for granted like feeling safe to walk alone at night, eating a wider variety of fresh foods, reading New Yorkers and having a great cup of coffee! But I am very much enjoying my time. I am discovering and taking pleasure in many things. I’ve come to love the smell of jasmine trees, especially fragrant in the evenings, ladies sweeping their dirt yards clean, the lovely sound people make when they yes in Setswana to women (Ema!) and yes to men (Era!) with strong rolled Rs and the crazy variety of music combi (small 16 seater buses) drivers play, especially one morning when one of them blared Dolly Parton’s ‘Coat of Many Colours.’ I am also surviving well as a vegetarian in a place that loves its meat, since Botswana’s second biggest industry after diamonds is cattle. I’ve been eating spinach (grown in most people’s backyards), a variety of squashes and pumpkins, and pap (a traditional porridge made from a grain, usually ground maize; a staple food here). I have also been drinking lots and lots of Rooibos tea, the popular redbush tea in Southern Africa.

I have been keeping busy at the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Gender Unit and really enjoying working with Magdeline, Elizabeth and Patricia. I love being greeted by Magdeline each morning with, “How are you my sister?” and Elizabeth has kindly invited me a couple of times to her house for lunch to eat traditional Botswana meals (pap, cooked spinach and cabbage salad). Although the work is at a different pace and things are often delayed due to institutional processes that activities need to go through to reach approval, I have been keeping busy and learning more about the day to day operations of the Gender Unit and SADC as a whole. The activities I have been working on are finalizing the edits of the Gender Mainstreaming Resource Toolkit and the Gender Workplace Policy. These will go to print next week (hopefully!). As the three official languages of SADC are English, French and Portuguese, the Tool Kit will be translated and printed in these languages. In December we will launch the SADC Gender Mainstreaming Tool Kit as well as the SADC Workplace Gender Policy. The Gender Mainstreaming Resource Tool Kit will be an important document to train all of the staff at SADC on gender issues and particularly related to their units and how they will be able to implement gender equality into all aspects of their work. The SADC Workplace Gender Policy is another crucial document that will require SADC to have gender equality as part of its structure, including hiring practices, working conditions, sexual harassment and implementing gender equality into their planning, programming and resource allocations.

Last week the Gender Unit held a Quarterly Meeting of the Gender Committee. A representative from each unit called a Gender Focal Person, attends. They have been trained as gender experts, meet regularly and work closely with the Gender Unit to make sure gender is implemented in each of their units. As part of the process of implementing gender aspects into all of SADC’s programming, projects and policies, the Gender Unit is conducting workshops this fall for each unit. I am working to organize the training of SADC managers and staff on gender mainstreaming for these workshops.

I also have the responsibility and privilege to write and publish a bi-monthly newsletter. This newsletter will include recent events in the Gender Unit and gender equality information about various SADC countries. The newsletter is circulated throughout SADC in order to inform other units of the work the Gender Unit is conducting and to help sensitize them to gender issues and understand its importance.

Right now my main responsibility is helping to organize the SADC Secretariat Ministerial Meetings for Ministers Responsible for Gender and Women’s Affairs, including all 15 southern African Member State countries (Angola, Botswana, Congo, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe). The meetings will be held in Johannesburg from October 26-29. I will also be present at these meetings and I am really looking forward to meet delegates and hear them discuss strategies. Some of the issues on the agenda are working towards 50/50 men and women in political and decision-making positions, women’s economic empowerment, reducing gender-based violence and human trafficking. I will provide you details of the meeting in my next report!

Although work has been busy, my room mates, Eric and Julia, and I try to get out and explore as much as we can. A few weeks ago we went to visit two other volunteers (Kate and Katie) working at the Mokolodi Nature Reserve and attended a star gazing event. It was the first time I saw the night sky from the southern hemisphere. Even though it was weird not seeing the North Star and big dipper it was wonderful to learn about various constellations and see some of the zodiac signs. It was a clear warm evening and fun to have a Namibian beer and watch the night sky.

For the September 30th independence day, we wanted to take advantage of the time we got off work since it was a two day holiday and we were able to take Friday off too. So we headed up to Kasane, a twelve hour bus ride from Gaborone. Kasane is in the northern part of Botswana and is close to the Chobe Natural Reserve, Victoria Falls and where four counties meet; Namibia, Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Our adventure began as soon as we got to the bus terminal. Although we were told to just show up to get a seat – even reassured that a second bus would leave if the first was full, this was not the case. The bus was fully booked and there was no second bus. The women behind the desk in a tiny little room of the bus company told us that if we wanted to catch the bus to Kazangula (close to Kasane) we would have to sit in the aisle on stools. Not wanting to miss our opportunity to travel we said yes. When we got on, the bus was already jammed packed. Each row sat five across in very narrow seats with an even narrower aisle. We had to squeeze the stools in between the seats to fit. We were also joined by about five other people that had to sit in the aisle. This made it impossible to move anywhere – even if there was a bathroom on the bus no one could have reached it. Luckily, there were four seats booked from Francistown to Kazangula so we were able to sit in these seats until we reached Francistown, about five hours away (the second largest city in Botswana). Before we pulled out of the bus terminal a passenger gave a prayer for a safe journey. I was glad for it. We were stuffed in like sardines, the bus driver blared music the whole twelve hours, it was stuffy and the gentleman who sat beside us had some body odour issues. Twice the bus erupted into arguments and the driver had to pull over. People were angry that the bus was overbooked and were unhappy with the poor service. The person collecting money on the bus had to try to calm everyone down. At Francistown another argument broke out because a seat was sold twice. The tiny bits of sleep I did get were interrupted by the bus swerving to avoid potholes or elephants crossing the road. From Francistown to Kasane I was hunched over with my head against the back of a seat beside me. A mother and her baby sat in front of me. Amazingly, the baby slept through the whole thing and didn’t make one peep! It was the craziest bus ride I’ve ever been on. When we got to the Lodge we were warned that the water was not safe to drink so we had to boil it or buy bottled water. We also knew we were in the Malaria zone so we had to be careful of mosquitoes. But I was so thankful to have a shower and sleep in a bed.

The next morning we woke up at 5am to go on a game drive in Chobe National Park.
I was informed that this is Botswana’s first national park, has one of the largest game concentrations on the African continent and is the most diverse. We saw large herds of animals, many grazing for their breakfast. Some of the animals we saw were zebras, water buffalos and impalas. We also got a rare treat and saw a leopard napping in a tree with an impala dangling from an opposite branch for his lunch later on.
The Chobe National Park is best known for its enormous elephant population; about 50,000, the highest concentration in Africa and the largest continuous surviving elephant population on earth. We saw, very close-up, groups of elephants including babies, saunter slowly by. They are such amazing beings. I have fallen in love with them! There are so many fascinating things about them. They use their trunk as a hand to pick up food – they also use it as a nose, extra foot, signalling device and for sipping water and digging. Elephants can be right or left-tusked, using their preferred tusk more often, which gets shortened from constant wear. They are governed by a matriarchy, with the top female herder as the leader. The group usually consists of about three older females and their offspring, with the mother training and protecting its young. Males usually travel solo and only join the group to mate (gestation period is 22 months!). The group even stays together when they are with large migratory herds. Within family groups the leaders are usually sisters and maintain their relationships for life, which is highly unusual for mammals. They can live up to 70 years. Also, elephants have no enemies except humans. If a human harms an elephant and then comes back two years later, the elephant will remember and charge that person, so it is true that elephants never forget!
Later in the afternoon we went on a boat cruise along the Namibia border. It is currently dry season so we were hoping to see lots of animals along the shore getting a drink of water. We saw crocodiles, an enormous herd of water buffalos and another old boys club of water buffalos that naturally split off from the rest of the group so they can travel at their own slower pace. We saw more elephants, this time crossing the river and also to cool themselves down. A school of hippos were hanging out in the water and we just saw their heads popping up. They keep close to the shore in shallow parts of the water as they are not strong swimmers and stay immersed in the water during the day in order to stay cool. Only when the sunsets and before it rises do they come out. We witnessed this when we saw a hippo the previous evening at sunset come up onto the lawn in front of the Lodge. It was only a few feet away from us. The ‘Beware of Hippo’ sign by the Lodge was no joke!

The next day we arranged a drive to Victoria Falls on the Zimbabwe side. The line to cross the border was excruciatingly slow in the hot sun. Once we got to the desk we were surprised to discover that people from Canada and India have to pay the highest fee to get into the country, $100 US. Interestingly, most of the money used in Zimbabwe is American because the Zimbabwe currency is so inflated and unusable; someone described it as monopoly money. When we were by the falls, hawkers were aggressively selling crafts as well as Zimbabwe dollars bills as souvenirs; some notes were as high as 100 trillion dollars.

When we arrived, we walked across a bridge, built in 1905, to the Zambia side to get a peek of the falls. Since it was dry season there wasn’t much water in that area but if we visited during the wet season we would have been soaked. Eric decided to go bungee jumping off the bridge so we watched him plunge down into the falls. We then returned to the Zimbabwe side and went into the Victoria Falls Park. I’ve discovered that my love for elephants is equally matched by my dislike of baboons. We headed to the washrooms and were greeted by more than a dozen baboons hanging around the building. They ignored us going in but when we were leaving a bunch of baby baboons joined the group and a mother baboon didn’t like that we were so close to her babies. She started shrieking and ran towards us. I was so startled I dropped my camera and ran back into the bathroom with Eric and Julia close at my heels. The mamma baboon actually took a swipe at Julia and left a big red welt on her leg! Julia was brave enough to run outside and grab my camera before the baboons stole it; I’ve heard stories of monkeys stealing cameras before. Fortunately the baboons eventually lost interest in us and left. Unfortunately, my camera is broken, which greatly upsets me because it is the camera that Kenny gave me as an engagement present. However, I’m sure when I get back to Canada I can get it fixed and Eric and Julia promised to take lots of pictures to share with me.

Victoria Falls was absolutely stunning! There are a whole series of falls that are really breathtaking. The falls are referred to as ‘the Smoke that Thunders’ because of the mist and roar that comes from the falls. Close to the falls it felt like a tropical rainforest and we got pretty wet from the spray, then only a few feet away it was dry savannah and we quickly dried off. It is nothing similar to the Niagara Falls, which is the only thing I could compare it to. It has been left largely in its natural setting, with little development (no casinos or light shows!), only paths and fences, yet even the fences were unobtrusive, being low and made of branches. It was worth the trip to see.

For lunch, our driver, Stan, took us to Victoria Falls Hotel. It was built the same time as the bridge connecting to Zambia and could be seen at a distance from the hotel’s veranda. The hotel is quite extraordinary but I felt as if I had gone back in time during the British Colonization in the early 1900’s. High tea was being served, a pianist was playing old American jazz standards and the waiters were wearing tuxedos. It felt a little bizarre to eat there. On our drive back we were treated to more elephants eating beside the road and crossing right in front of the car.

The next day we headed back to Gaborone. We caught a 6am bus and luckily we got seats the whole way! We transferred buses in Francistown and were surrounded by hawkers selling candy, drinks, fruit, chicken and airtime (minutes for your cellphone). They even got on the bus and went up and down the aisles trying to sell things before we drove off. It was a very long bus ride back. I felt hot, stuffy and uncomfortable, made worse because there had been no running water at the Lodge the night before or in the morning. But during the bus ride I saw a large community by the side of the road living in tent-like structures with grain bushels as fences. I really didn’t have anything to complain about because I would be going back to a house with hot running water and electricity.

I am finding having a second spring and summer strange but wonderful. Many trees are starting to bloom and there are bougainvilleas climbing up fences all along the streets and bursting with such bright beautiful purples, pinks and reds. Birds are busy making nests, people are working on their yards and summer events and festivals are being advertised in the newspapers. This week the temperature went up to 39 degrees! I just know I will find it a shock coming from this heat to a freezing Canadian winter!

I continue to have adventures on the streets and in the combis. I’ve had to learn very quickly that vehicles always, ALWAYS, have the right of way and never stop for pedestrians. I’ve had a few close calls! This is in addition to the driving being on the opposite side of the road and traffic being quite chaotic at times, like when cars drive up on the sidewalk to pass another car. Also confusing is that the Batswana refer to traffic lights as ‘robots.’

One recent Friday after work I decided to take a different combi home to change my routine up a bit. However, I quickly discovered that the route I thought I should be on was actually a completely different one and I was soon in the slum area of Gaborone. None of the roads were paved and the combi had to drive extremely slowly over the incredibly bumpy, neglected dirt roads. Moving slowly through the area gave me the opportunity to fully absorb what I was seeing and I was experiencing two different but equally powerful emotions. Sadness at the absolute poverty surrounding me, which was only amplified by the haunting boy’s choir music the combi driver was blaring, and anxiety for being in a place I didn’t feel safe or know how to get out of. I have never seen such poverty and it was such a stark contrast to the city I had been exposed to up till then. The houses were very small, no bigger than a room, built with concrete blocks, laundry was hanging to dry, fire pits were burning and dogs and chickens wandered onto the roads. Children were everywhere, some were playing soccer and I saw others playing with sticks, empty boxes and filling buckets at the communal water pumps, many of them without shoes. We drove through a dirt field and I saw a rickety playground with a broken slide on its side. There were also groups of men gathered together around fires drinking and women working in their yards and sitting by their front door watching their kids. We drove around the area for a little over thirty minutes with passengers getting in and out. Eventually the combi made its way back to the bus terminal and I ended up taking the combi I usually take to get back home. Although it was difficult to see, it is an experience I will never forget.

Thank you so much for all of the emails you’ve been sending. I love hearing from all of you. I’ll send another update soon.

Lots and lots of Love,
Gayle (or my given Setswana name, Mpho (pronounced Mmpoh) meaning ‘a gift’)

P.S. Although I haven’t been getting my New Yorker fix, I have been reading a lot of great books about Africa. One I am reading now and highly recommend is 28 by Stephanie Nolan. It is 28 stories, one for each of the million people living with HIV-AIDS in Africa. It is very engaging and powerful.

Posted in Botswana, In-Country