A Look into Botswana Schools, Jwaneng Mine, my site placement ANNOUNCED and lots of food! =)

Happy June!!!!!! Already a new month! What an exciting last week of the month! Definitely worthy of an update.

So it looks like I haven’t talked about the school I’ve been visiting. The Life Skills PCTs tested out the field by being assigned to a school in Molepolole. My group (Me, Kate, and Andrea) were assigned to Tshegetsang Junior Secondary School. There are pictures up (Link to your right if you are interested. Some interesting facts:

1. Junior Secondary is an equivalent to Middle School or Junior High in the states.
2. Age does not really correlate to grade level and students start school later (around age 7) so Junior Secondary school encompasses students in the age range of 13-17
3. Although the school looks wonderful outside, the classroom walls are very bare. This is because posters and pins are stolen and so teachers have given up on putting up posters.
4. Teachers do not necessarily have a room. They do as much swapping of classrooms as the students.
5. Although the lay language is Setswana, schools are taught in English by what is a 4^th grade equivalent. Imagine learning Biology in another language!
6. Schools maintain Setswana by having it as a subject along with English, History, Geography, Math, and Agriculture. (There are also music and computer classes)
7. From my experience at Tshegetsang, when there is a shortage of books, up to 6 students crowd around one book. When there is a shortage of chairs, kids double up. When we came in to the classroom to watch, 3 students gave up their chairs for us (the teacher insisted) and doubled up.
8. Disciplinary action (involving a stick) can be taken upon the students but there are specific rules involving it.
   

That was a lot to take in. Moving on…

Friday we got to go to Jwaneng Mine. I think it’s the 2^nd or 3^rd biggest mine in the world but the highest valued (I guess the quality is super nice). The mine was huge and looked nothing like I expected it to look like. It was pretty much a big hole. I should have figured but I guess I haven’t really thought about it before. No I didn’t get to see any diamonds, but I did get to see lots of dirt and a HUGE truck. There were lots of strict rules. One was if you dropped something, you had to make sure a facilitator watches you as you pick it up. Oh and you are scanned as you leave the mine. Pretty fancy huh? Jwaneng (the city) is very distinctive because it actually has… road signs! You can tell this city has money. The supermarkets in Jwaneng also have better food so I got to satisfy my Guava cravings. =)

Saturday was a big day for the PCTs. It was site placement day. When everyone was in a seat, we were told to look under our seats for our number order. It was a cute ceremony where we went up one by one, picked up our name written on a ginger break cookie in the shape of a house, pulled out a number and matched it to the corresponding number on a map of Botswana. I was lucky enough to be #11 so my misery was ended relatively quickly but poor Andrea was #52, and by the time she went up, her number card (from under the seat) looked pretty beaten up.

The name of the village I will be staying in for the next 2 years is Lentsweletau (Lehn ts-way lay D/Tah oo) with a population of 4000 people, about 60 km from Gaborone and no market. I have to go to Gaborone or Molepolole for food (the time it takes to get out of the village to the main road + about a one hour bus ride). I don’t know much about it except supposedly *crosses fingers* I have electricity, cell phone coverage, public phone access, running water inside the house, toilet inside the house, access to public transportation and a post office. Let’s see how accurate it is.

Andrea however (who is living in Gakuto, about 30 min from me supposedly) has no electricity, spotty cell phone coverage, no running water inside the house, no toilet inside the outside (pit latrine/outhouse ready) and no post office. I think my poor girl is nervous (especially about the electricity and cell phone) and is frantically looking into solar energy. If you know lots about this, please email me and I’ll relay the information to her!

So as expected, some volunteers were thrilled, some were in tears, and some were angry. I’m wondering how Peace Corps went about the process of choosing who goes where.

Although I am not living somewhere awesome like in the Delta, please consider coming to visit me in Botswana! I’d love to house any of you =).

Sunday, the Life Skills group plus some honorary members pot lucked it out at Francine and Andy’s host’s place where they hosted (whew that was a mouthful). Oh my goodness… I can’t remember a happier day in my life within the last month. There were 4 different types of pizza, salads, lamb, fish, EVERYTHING! And the dessert… ACK just look at the pictures. I feel like I’ve eaten enough to be content for 3 days. Thanks Francine and Andy for hosting us!

Last thing is… people have been asking about the things I am lacking here. Here’s my list but please don’t feel obligated to send anything (except #1!!!), especially since I haven’t really gotten to look around for things yet:

1. A letter or postcard from all of you! I promise I’ll send one back! Please make sure to provide a return address. Add a recent photo of you in the letter too!
2. A good book (please don’t bother going out and buying this though, I’d prefer secondhands)
3. Cookbooks, or your favorite recipes
4. Waterless Hand Sanitizer
5. Lint Roller
6. Swiffer sheets (or anything that picks up dust)
7. Cheese (I don’t know how exactly this would work, but hey, Botswana is definitely cheeseless. (or at least good cheeseless)
8. Latest music, or tv shows (plenty of bootleg movies here) or a video of you. Take your pick.

I think that’s about it! I am going to see my site this coming Wednesday and I will update with pictures and information.

I miss you all and I hope you are all well. Thank you for your continuous support!

-Tshego-