Only 3 Weeks of Placement Left! :(

Posted by Shawna on June 1st, 2008

The weather has been getting cooler, but we found a heater for the nights, so it’s been good. The days are nice and sunny, but the nights are very cold. People dress very warm here, and classy! We need to remember for the next group of Project Empathy members so they can bring some business casual clothes. Everyone dresses nicely, are clean shaven, wrinkleless, and always put together well!

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!

Posted in Botswana, Country, SWB