Peaceful Pathway☮

I am so sorry, dear reading base, that it has been so long since I last updated.  My computer screen was cracked and I therefore had no access to any internet in months.  On the up side, my screen has been fixed and I promise to write a new blog entry soon!  For now, let me entertain you with a little diddy I found online....;) 12 reasons to date a Peace Corps Volunteer: We can woo you in multiple languages. Who else is going to whisper sweet nothings to you in everything from Albanian to Hausa to Quechua to Xhosa? That’s right. Only a Peace Corps Volunteer. We’re pretty good dancers. Yeah, we don’t like to brag, but after 27 months in Latin America or Africa we know how to move it. We’ll eat anything. Seriously. No matter how bad your cooking, Peace Corps Volunteers have had worse and will eat it with nary a blink. Sheep’s eyeball? Water buffalo gall bladder? Grasshoppers? Bush rat? Bring it. We know all about safe sex, thanks to our very thorough Peace Corps health training.

So I've realized that even after 17 months of living in this splendorous country, many people back home are unable to wrap their minds around where it is that I'm living or even what my village looks like. I understand, as the majority of the pictures I take are when I'm on vacation or doing a project outside of my village...so for this, friends, I apologize! I have had numerous requests to post more pictures of my village from many close friends so now that I have fast internet, I will now take this opportunity to rectify the wrongs and show you, with in-depth pictures, what Gobojango looks like and the walk I take every morning to the clinic. Please bear with me (and for those of you who are not familiar with the tv show "Cribs" feel free to click here for more information). Hello and welcome to Kitso's rendition of Cribs! On this episode I'll take you through the crispy, dry wonderland that is known as Gobojango, Botswana! Life in Gobojango is

We all need to be aware of our personal calling. What is a personal calling? It is God’s blessing, it is the path that God chose for you here on Earth. Whenever we do something that fills us with enthusiasm, we are following our legend. However, we don’t all have the courage to confront our own dream. Why? There are four obstacles. First: we are told from childhood onward that everything we want to do is impossible. We grow up with this idea, and as the years accumulate, so too do the layers of prejudice, fear, and guilt. There comes a time when our personal calling is so deeply buried in our soul as to be invisible. But it’s still there.                 If we have the courage to disinter dream, we are then faced by the second obstacle: love. We know what we want to do, but are afraid of hurting those around us by abandoning everything in order to pursue our dream. We do not realize that love is just a further impetus, not something that will prevent us going forward.

So, the majority of Batswana understand and can speak English very well.   I have to say that this has contributed to my overall success within the country because even though I am learning the local language (Setswana), it’s assuring to be able to express myself in my native tongue when Setswana just isn’t working for me that day. Teaching sexual reproductive health to a group of junior secondary students That being said, the English that is spoken here is very much a conglomeration from around the world: from England to South Africa.   Many of the “isms” are infinitely disparate from the English I am familiar with and on days where I feel that I need to make my speech ingenuous, I am taken back when a youth in my PACT club utilizes a word like, “ameliorate” or “discordant”.   Often it seems that the smallest words are the ones that cause the most confusion; such as “bathroom” literally means the room in which you bathe, and not where the toilet is located. Livingstone, Zamb

The other day, as I raked my large yard of dirt, a woman walking by paused, shifted her weight to one hip, and smiled from ear to ear.   I felt her presence on the other side of the gate, wiped the sweat from my brow, and looked up with a friendly greeting “Dumela Mma!” (At this point, I’m used to being a splendorous attraction). She shook her head and smiled even bigger.   “Kitso!” She exclaimed, her voice gaining an octave with each word, “You are working like a Motswana!”   I couldn’t help but chuckle and nod it off.   I affirmed her statement by saying, “Eeh Mma!” She continued on her journey, her face still creased into a smile.   Watering the garden (that has since died due to no water in the village) A couple days later, as I rode my newly-bought bicycle to the junior secondary school, children ran alongside me screaming with excitement.   Talk began circulating around the village that I knew how to ride a bicycle and people came to my house simply to ask me to rid

Ode to my Best Friend. Never in my life have I had a friend like you You’re always there for me when I’m feeling blue. On those days where the dust accumulates and I feel dirty You clean my feet and I watch the water turn murky. When the sweat pours off of my worried forehead And I feel like the heat is going to make me dead I know at the end of the day, you’ll be there Waiting for me to cool off, without a care. During the cold winter mornings when I can’t get out of bed You’re there to offer a warm place to rest my head. When Cleo (my dog) is covered in pap 1 You let me wash her, and never make me stop. When my clothes have been soiled and piling for days You help me to wash them and snap me out of my daze. If my sink is clogged, I know where to turn I wash in your mouth, while both of us learn. Oh, never in my life have I had a friend so true This ode is for you, my bath tub, how I love yo

These past few weeks have been overwhelmingly busy! Currently, one of the primary school teachers has lent me his laptop.   So I sit, pensive, and write about the going-ons in my life over the past couple months. I realize it has been a while, so please bear with me and the extremely loooong post that is about to ensue… The last time I was able to post, I briefly mentioned my birthday and the wonderful surprise that the Junior Secondary Students prepared for me. What I didn’t tell you was the birthday presents I received from my magnificent family through the post and my birthday trip to the Okavango Delta. One day, as the sun splayed its viciously hot face in the sky, I sat and grumbled at the daily frustrations I face at the clinic.   The organizational system I set up for the patient files was out of order…again…patients persisted in asking that I take their vital signs or prescribe them medicine (thought they know I don’t have the authority to do so), and the head nurse was pr