Getting to know the real Botswana

These photos are of kids who were my neighbors for a short while. They are very curious kids and always running around the yard having fun. Fidelis, in the white jacket, builds toys from scrap metal. The girl in the pink shirt, Pauline, is an industrious little 3 year old, who brings over a broom every time she comes to visit (maybe she was trying to tell me something...). The other two boys are brothers and really good dancers. They are happy kids and curious about America and everything I kept in my house. As Alex, 9 years old, told me one day,"I feel like I haven't seen a lot so I want to learn everything as quickly as possible!"

BAPL on Baylor's Website

Our organization is listed as a partner. Check out http://botswanateenclub.wordpress.com/about/ for more info

Bots Project Newsletter & Resource Links

This is an excellent website with information about HIV and AIDS worldwide:
http://www.avert.org/aidsbotswana.htm

Link to Baylor College of Medicine's Center in Botswana:
http://bayloraids.org/africa/

ACHAP's page about AIDS in Botswana:
http://www.achap.org/aids.html

If you'd like to receive our newsletter with updates about The Bots Project send an email to prentiss@thebotswanaproject.com.

Baylor's Pediatric AIDS Center in Gaborone

Our project team attends Teen Club every last Saturday of the month as volunteers to facilitate with activities for the 100+ 13-18 year old kids there who are also patients at Baylor. Teen Club is a place where they can receive psycho-social support. Many of them consider it a "home away from home" where they can be free to talk about what it is like living with HIV/AIDS.

This month's theme was Friendship and Peer Pressure. The adult volunteers and teens split into groups, had discussions about friendship and what one values in a friend, and then came up with skits to act out peer pressure situations. Each group acted out a skit. The kids were hilarious. One group pretended to be in the club, dancing and drinking, getting all crazy, and pressuring everyone to drink. Another skit involved a woman with HIV declining the pressure of her boyfriend to have intercourse. He didn't think people would see them as adults if they didn't have a child, but she didn't want to pass on HIV to her baby. The skits were well fit for situations these kids actually encounter here in Botswana, they did a great job.

Dr Paul has been working at Baylor's Pediatric AIDS Center in Gaborone for years now and said his goodbyes to the kids at Teen Club this past Saturday. He said a few words about how much he has seen Teen Club grow over the years, and that it is the teens' involvement and commitment that really makes it run. He got a little choked up, understandably. Stux, a 15 year old who is one of the Teen Leaders addressed Dr Paul, giving him thanks for his support. Stux said when he was a little boy Dr Paul would always make him take his medicine. Oftentimes he didn't want to and he'd get upset, but Dr Paul would always make him take it. He told him, "I'm a big boy now because of you. I've grown strong and big because of you." It was a heart warming to see a young man thanking the doctor who helped him take his ARVs to be where he is now. It was a touching moment.

Our Zimbabwean Neighbor

I recently read a book by journalist Heidi Holland, Dinner with Mugabe. Holland presents an intelligent, in-depth look at Mugabe through interviews with people he was in close contact. What happened to this man, everyone is wondering. He started off as a hero, fighting the colonial government that ruled what was then Rhodesia. He instilled programs that supported health and education. Today the country has fallen to pieces under his watch. Basically, Holland sees Mugabe as an emotionally detached man who never wanted to go into politics in the first place. She suggests he was looked up to as a leader and put in place because of his achievement of earning seven university degrees after being born into poverty. Interviews with people who knew him earlier in his life show that he was a shy loner as a child who grew into a warm and courteous adult. Mugabe is an intelligent man, Holland explains, yet his negligence in properly dealing with the painful experiences of not having a present father, the death of his brother when he was younger, being imprisoned for 11 years and not being allowed to attend the funeral of his only son, caused him to disconnect himself emotionally. This internal separation led to several characteristics in him such as being intolerable of others' opinions, which is evident in his actions today when people are killed if they disagree with him. In this book, Holland presents an abundant amount of information about southern African politics as well as psychological insight into human nature.

Being that Zimbabwe is a neighbor of Botswana, there are people who come here to escape the current conditions. It's bad over there. I'm sure you've seen it in the news. Some people have papers and come legally to Botswana, looking for work. They also go to South Africa, where more job opportunities exist, "but they end up selling tomatoes on the side of the road," a taxi driver told me in Johannesburg. In Cape Town, I met a young woman about my age who worked at the internet cafe and had recently come from Zimbabwe. In my mind I thought how Cape Town has everything- the ocean, mountains, and an arts & culture vibe. As we were chatting I asked her how she liked Cape Town. She said she loved it, "it has everything- food, water, electricity." That gave me goosebumps and put my perspective in check. It is really unfortunate and horrific what has happened in Zimbabwe. It's a delicate situation and Holland's book gives insight into what might "have happened" to Mugabe over the years.

image courtesy of: http//etchasketchist.blogspot.com

Great Expectations

It has now been close to almost two months. I must say that i was very skeptical initially. We were all fresh people straight out of college eager and keen to take over the world. Some of us had just been working for a couple of months.

Through my parents practice i would hear dreary stories of working with the government, and governmental organizations! How they take soooooooooo ever so long to do the simplest of things.

Man was i WRONG!!

I had never anticipated in my stereotypical view of governmental work; that our two leaders Katy, and Lesedi would be so determined to get this thing off the floor. Within the first month we had made our presence aware. The first presentation that i went to with the team at USAID blew everybody outta the water. Between, " Great Idea," "I am happy to see such determined young people,""you look great!" we heard no other remarks.

It has now been close to two months and we are known by the Ministry of Health, BAPL, Baler Clinic, Mascom and VARIOUS other huge organizations. The software is already up and running. Pilot test was executed and successful. I dont mean to toot our own horn, but we got our shit together.

I guess thats the difference in just working, and working for something you believe in passionately. I would like to thank the whole team for giving me this Golden opportunity to help in changing the lives of some of the people in Botswana, and to tell you all how AMAZING it is working with you.

Southern Summer Sunset

Western Cape, South Africa January 3rd-ish

Views of Gaborone

Barney stands next to a statue of Seretse Khama, Botswana's first president after Independence from Britain. Botswana is set apart from other African countries because of its stability and peaceful transition to independence from colonial powers. Botswana gained its independence in 1969 and has had a stable democracy ever since. Mogae was the 2nd president and was recently awarded a prize for good governance. BBC has an article about it: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7679391.stm. Ian Khama, Seretse's son, is the current president. Although Botswana is starting to feel the effects of the global recession as the demand for diamonds declines, the new president was given funds for his projects which include increasing funding for youth sports and music.



Sunset at the Gaborone Dam. The Notwane River flows through Gaborone and the city gets its water supply from the reservoir created by the dam. Botswana is landlocked, bordered by Namibia, South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Zambia. Overall, Botswana is a dry country, home to the Khalahari desert, with the exception of the northern area. Up north is the Okavango Delta, the largest inland delta in the world. Years ago, the Okavango flowed to the sea, and now it stops in northern Bots. We'll definitely plan a trip up there when possible. The Okavango River, as well as the Cunene and the Zambezi all flow from Angola, to the northwest of Botswana. The Cunene and Zambezi create the northern boundary of southern Africa. Once again, when time and money permit, plans are in line for a hair raising trip to Vic Falls and the Zambezi. We're told it's possible to body board down the Zambezi, which is chock full of whitewater. That oughta settle the itch to get out of town.

Generating Logo Ideas

As we are developing our ideas and plans for our presence here in Botswana, Yasemin has been putting her artistic skills into play designing a logo for BAPL. Here is the preliminary image she drew, which we took to JJ, a graphic designer here in Gabs, to digitize. It's a baobab tree which is symbolic of longevity and found mostly in northern Botswana. I've seen pictures of these for years. They are quite cool as the branches look like the root system turned skyward and they have fat trunks that store lots of water. People chew stems of it during a certain time of the year and it gives a little buzz, maybe similar to sassafrass?
With BAPL, we intend to focus on technological solutions to distinguish our activities from those of other youth-focused organizations in Botswana. Yas is cookin up some more techy logos to get this point across.

24!!!!!

Just had my BDAYYY!!! This is the first time I've celebrated it outside of California since my one-year-old birthday in England. Who knew I'd be celebrating it in Gaborone, Botswana 23 years later. We all went to dinner at Ashoka, this awesome Indian restaurant and I had my favorite yummilicious dish, the mutton sagwala! We saved the rest of the celebration for the weekend:) I have to say, being away on my bday made me think of the fam and friends back home more than ever...Gosh do I love and miss you guys!

So I can't believe I'm 24, one year closer to menopause and saggy boobs..should I really be celebrating? JK of course...I'd still say I'm young and plus, every age has its beauty. 

It's funny, when I was in high school kids in college seemed so grown up to me and now that I've graduated I feel like I'm supposed to be some mature young woman and know all the answers. But really, I just know how to act mature at the right moments and pretend I know the answers when I'm actually just guessing them. I think we're all just kids with bigger toys and nicer wardrobes except we now have bills to pay...YUCK. Hey Mr.Gates, can you just adopt me? Money money money, sounds so funny, in a rich mans world~says ABBA... The thing is, I don't want to base my decisions in life on money and being able to pay the bills. Sure that's obviously important, but first and foremost you should be doing something that makes you happy, something that gives you a natural inner drive. Isn't life too short to be living as a lemming? That doesn't mean you can't be smart with your money and become wealthy. I'm just saying you should be able to do both and it's not worth it to forsake your happiness for a mountain of gold. The most successful people in life are the ones who do things they love. It seems like the hard part is finding out what that is. And how do we want to make that part of our path in life? So yeah..thats where I'm at right now. Like I said, I don't know the answers...just guessing...and I'm guessing there's probably more than one answer as well. 

Anyhow, I'm quite exhausted after this birthday weekend.

Tootles for now

Yas

ageism/i do not welcome swearing on this blog but...WW i

We are looking for a home. The project team house currently is quite small and there isnt much personal space, not to mention it is quite expensive. We thought that we had found the house of our dreams. 4 spacious bedrooms, a pool, enough room in the garden for a basketball court and a volley court and a tennis court, big kitchen, large living and sitting rooms, simultaneously open yet private, close to our Project Team office and CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP... everything was perfect, everything. 

So we did what people do when theyve found the perfect house: confirm with the real estate agent immediately and set up a time to meet the landlord later that evening. We were happy. The real estate agent was happy. The landlord sounded happy over the phone. Happy happy happy.

 About an hour prior to our meeting we get a call from our real estate agent who apologetically states that "the landlord has decided not to meet with you". I immediately hit her with questions such as: Did another person place a claim on the house first? Did someone else offer a higher price for the house? Does she not like Americans? Did she decide to sell instead of rent her home? ... After I pestered her for several minutes to divulge more information into why the landlord had such a sudden change of heart she finally admitted that "the landlord was uncomfortable with our ages and preferred to rent to a family". Ok i said, maybe understandable if the landlord had met us face to face and we seemed irresponsible but she was refusing to meet in the first place??!!? This was strange. I told our real estate agent ok, hung up the phone and defeatedly repeated the news to my comrades.

 Almost immediately Prentiss sprang into action. She called both our real estate agent and the elusive landlord and explained that "we are very responsible, we may be young but we have the money to pay for the place (and we can show bank statements to prove it) and we are here doing this volunteer project with the government (which we can also prove) so we are clearly people who are, for lack of a better phrase, on top of our shit(Prentiss didnt actually say "on top of our shit" those are my words)". Then, although the landlord was extremely dismissive over the phone, we got a call later that day from our real estate agent saying that the landlord (whoops i guess technically she is a land lady) had consented to meet with us on saturday. After some celebratory yips and dances we went about our business. 

Sat morning. 6 AM (i kid you not), I get a call from the real estate agent saying that the land lady's lawyers had just called her and said that the lady did not want to meet with us under any circumstances and that none of us should ever contact her again or there would be legal action taken.... WHHHHATT? 

even though it was 6 am I took several moments to wonder what the world was coming to before i went back to sleep. As I slept I had fantasy dreams about taking the crazy woman and her clearly overly zealous lawyers to court for ageist discrimination and winning lots of money. I also dreamt that no one decided to rent the woman's house and that she came back to us begging for mercy because she was in desperate need of the money. 

When i woke up reality hit in 3 forms. The first being that with that great of a deal the house would probably go to someone later that day, the second was that im way to busy and too broke to take a crazy person to court and the third is that (although i do not condone swearing on this blog) no one wants a bitch for a landlady anyway. 

Heads up blog posts will become more frequent. As in almost everyday.

The Botswana Project Team

Link to article on www.janera.com

I wrote an article for an online magazine about the process of creating our NGO: 

http://www.janera.com/janera_blog.php?id=98 

enjoy!

The Botswana Association for Positive Living ~ BAPL

We have officially become an NGO through the Register of Societies here in Gaborone!  After hearing it would take ages because of the slowness of the government, I was fired up to make it happen quicker.  It should have taken a minimum of 14 business days from January 15th, but a little persistence worked in our favor and the process was done in 7 days.  We are in the flow of things, gaining momentum to begin the pilot in a couple of weeks.  The establishment of a local NGO is key for the public-private partnership we are cultivating.  BAPL is the body through which we can link with civil society and become a part of a larger network of efforts to curb the spread of HIV/AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa.     

As an organization, we are focusing on youth, seeking to empower them through mentorship. Our project team is young itself, all of us between the ages of 22-27.  We are youth, working with youth, with the vision of collaborating to cultivate a positive lifestyle that encourages people to connect with each other and to live healthy, vibrant, and fun lives.  As human beings, we are connected with others around us and it is by reaching out and connecting that we create synergistic forces that can make great feats possible.  Synergy is a force that is greater than the sum of its parts.  As we seek to have a significant impact on the HIV/AIDS epidemic, this project will need the force of synergy to fly and spread to the many communities that make up Botswana.      

There is a beautiful concept here in southern Africa, that comes from Zulu, known as ubuntu.  Ubuntu is the philosophy that as humans, we are made up of the people with whom we interact; we are not solitary individuals acting in a vacuum.  In Zulu, it means, "a person is a person through other persons."  If we support each other and teach each other, then we are strengthening the whole.  If we choose to act selfishly, then the whole is undermined.   

Within BAPL, we will be mentoring youth in areas of IT, public relations, NGO and business operations, and patient relations.  We hope to eventually employ a few of them to run the NGO and mentor the next wave of youth.  In the future we want to mentor youth to be peer to peer educators who will be involved in educating  each other about HIV/AIDS, spreading knowledge about how the virus works, how antiretrovirals (ARVs) work, and how to get social and emotional support.  Our first activity is to host a soccer/football tourney in Gaborone to raise awareness and funds for our organization and of course, to have FUN while doing so.  We'll keep you posted.  

 

lagoon and avocado

All work and no play makes Katy a dull girl.

Obama!

All of us are pumped about Obama's innauguration into the White House, which George Clinton of Parliament/ Funkadelic aptly predicted, "we may call it the white house, but that's a temporary situation." I was sad that Odetta did not live long enough to perform at the innauguration as was scheduled, but Aretha "the Queen of Soul" Franklin filled in beautifully with style and grace. People in Bots are pumped about Obama, too. This morning I saw a guy wearing a tshirt with "Obama is my homeboy" across the front.

It was quite powerful to see Obama stand next to Bush on the steps of the White House. The juxtaposition of the two is striking. I see Bush as a tired, ragged man who couldn't wait to step out of office, having held on for as long as he did with a clenched jaw and stressed face. Although it takes some work to be president, I feel as if Bush fell into place as a former president's son, taking a position almost handed to him. At nearly the polar opposite, Obama is a natural leader with profound intellect, charisma, fresh energy, and (damn, Obama!) a six-pack. It is clear that Obama wants to be in his own position and is eager to make changes. Thank you, people, for voting Obama into office.

Although former president Bush will go down in history as the worst president in the history of the United States (I'm being real), he did make a gigantic contribution to the struggle against HIV/AIDS. In 2003, Bush made the "largest commitment by any nation to combat a single disease in history" (http://www.pepfar.gov/about/index.htm) through the President's Emergency Plan of AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). PEPFAR focuses on countries most severely affected by the epidemic, notably Sub-Saharan Africa. The budget for 2008 was 3 billion USD. Initially a 5 year plan, the US Government has extended PEPFAR through 2013. Thank you, Bush, and don't let the door hit you on the way out.

It's a new era. The demand for innovative solutions to the world's problems is building as are responses and the necessary political will and financial mechanisms to make multiple great ideas- silver buck shot- into realities. Here in Gaborone, we are working on one. If all goes well, replication is the next step. In the states, Obama and his supporters are working to make things happen between grassroots and changing skies. Yes, we can.

To wrap things up, Claibourne, I was happy to see that you have finally come around when you noted on facebook that you "found change in the washer and wanted to thank Obama."

eish, my head is spinning

So we are back in Gaborone after an amazing trip to Capetown and there are so many exciting things going on with the project that i dont even know how to keep track of them. The project team is  really great and we are adding a few new members not to mention we are trying to see if we can find some money to pay people for all of their hard work, yup i mean salaries. sounds too good to be true? it may be. but if all goes to plan than people wont have to hustle 24-7 to try and save money or keep hitting up their parents to help cover their day to day expenses. 

we have also decided to start both an NGO and a company that owns the rights to the software. we are hoping to make the company something truly unique and more general than just SMS. in fact we want to start a company that utilizes technology that already exists in a creative way or makes slight modifications to current technology in order to, in Prentiss's words "improve human security". We want to work on different diseases, on water sanitation and other issues that impact humanity all over the world. sounds a bit lofty doesnt it? well i guess we will take it one day at a time. first things first... for the NGO and for the company, we need names....

New Years, Sunshine and Merry Brazilians

Most of the team decided to head down to Cape Town to join in on the New Years festivities. After much worrying and speculation we were able to contact and meet up with one of our newer team members Prentiss. After a long flight she was still rearing to tear it up with the rest of us. To start off the games we were treated to an extravagaza of cinnamon and fire blazing atop our shots of tequila. Unfortunately I was the last to place my shot glass on the tray so i downed the remaining tequila on the plate which did burn my throat quite a bit. Yasemin ran into some merry Brazilians who were quite amorous but in a comical way. We can't fault Katy for trying to show us that she feels very strongly about the new years holiday. After alot of sun and relaxtion without any pestering insects we reluctantly left the sandy beach, glistening water and headed back to hot and humid Gaborone. I must admit i feel extremely rejuvinated and ready to hit the ground running with our project.