September 20th, 2015

The first day at my new school was brilliant. I met my office, was introduced to all of the Heads of Department, and sat through a few of the classes. Each time I went into a class during the week I introduced myself in Setswana, much to the shock and amusement of the students (and teachers!). Even though my Setswana knowledge is very basic, I always try to start my conversations in Setswana to show respect to the culture and to try to build trust with the community. Most people in my village know English fairly well, but it is still always best to speak Setswana as much as I can. During my two week site visit I have a booklet of things to do and information to collect in order to help with my community integration. Since I stayed 4 nights at the other volunteers house, I was a bit behind in my work, but thankfully I had a couple of people from the school as well as couple people from the village to help introduce me to the community. I went early on in the week to the Kgotla. This is the center of the community. It’s where the community meetings take place, including the trials over disputes and the festivals. The Kgosi, or the Chief of the village works out of the Kgotla. In my village it’s connected with the police station, so I was able to meet with the police and the Kgosi’s right hand man at the same time. It was crucial for this to be my first introduction as the Kgosi should always know what’s happening in the community and the police should be aware in order to look out for my safety. In a society that is fairly hierarchical and respectful of elders, the more people in power in the community that know about me the better. On Thursday there was a cultural festival in a neighboring village. Since it’s very close to Botswana’s Independence Day, there are many festivals happening all over the country to celebrate the culture of the people. I was taken to the festival by a well respected village elder, and so I was treated as a VIP for the program. Events such as this including several hours of sitting while VIP’s are brought in and introduced, poets recite, dancers and singers perform, and many speeches are made. Unfortunately, it’s all in Setswana. They were extremely kind to translate my welcome into English, which I very much appreciated. Although it was in Setswana, I was able to learn a lot by piecing together what I did know, and observing the event. At one point we all walked around to admire the cultural objects that were present, such as the traditional plow, traditional kika and mothse (the instruments used to pound sourgum or maize meal), and traditional bowls. It was wonderful to see all of the objects in one place and in use. I was able to gain a rich understanding from the showcase. We ended the day with a traditional meal, which was wonderful, as always. Friday I was back at school for another long day: the Prize Giving ceremony. This is an all school ceremony that celebrates the achievements of the school for the year. There were once again performances, including singing by the school choir which was ranked first in the nation this year. They are amazing. When I got to the school in the morning, students were DJing and everyone was scattered preparing. I was walking around taking it all in feeling energized by the students enthusiasm. I helped prepare the food for the guests before attending the event, which was four hours of entertainment and awards. I loved seeing everyone having a great time out of classes celebrating. Saturday was yet another celebration! We had our own cultural festival in our village, and this time I helped to usher. This is a very important role in events here, and it involves treating the VIP’s well, ushering people to seats, and serving all of the food. Being an usher is hard work. Thankfully since I still don’t really know what I’m doing, I got to take breaks from time to time and enjoy the entertainment, which included traditional dance and the school choir. The students started getting to know me at the event. A few sat next to me and asked me many questions about America and my life in Botswana. It’s always fun to interact with them because they are so full of wonder and ideas. Sunday I attended a Lutheran service with my host family. There was a lot of singing, and I realized that I pick up a lot of Setswana when I sing it. I’m going to have a few of the most common songs written down and translated for me so I can learn them. Here, everyone knows so many songs and hymns that you only need one person to lead the call and response for everyone in the room to join in 4 part harmony. It’s only my years of choir and sight reading, and my choice of sticking to the melody, that keep me singing when I have no clue what the words are. Not that I do much better when the song is in English!