We made reservations at a place called Maun Backpackers. It's a well known, small, budget outfit along the river. We got a very reasonably priced "tent" right on the water. It was beautiful! I use the word tent but it's more like a canvas room, complete with a full mattress and a bed stand. The camp just recently emerged from the flooding and you could see on the way in that many of the roads and bridges had to be remade. I wanted to go to the small game sanctuary but it was still underwater.

The first night in Maun we spent our evening around the bar at the camp chatting and making friends with some local safari guides. We decided to book a Mokoro day trip for the next day to see if we could go see some dipologolo (animals - my new favorite Setswana word, because its fun to say)

We left the camp just after 8am to get to our motorboat at Maun River Lodge. The motorboat took us up to a small village where some mokoro polers live. We were paired with a Canadian couple who were living in Gaborone while on sabbatical at the University of Botswana. We then set off in two small wooden dugout canoes. Ok, that's a lie, they were made of fiberglass. As disappointed as we were that we were not getting the authentic mokoro experience we were happy knowing it was all for the sake of saving old growth trees that are usually used for making the traditional mokoros. We glided along through the reeds of the delta in our gondola style transportation for a few hours. It was a wonderfully refreshing experience to be on the water after so long. A couple of hours into the trip an elephant was spotted. The rather unfortunate thing about being in a canoe in tall reeds is that you have to stand up to see past the reeds and we all know that standing up in a canoe can be a tricky feat. The elephant was on an island hidden behind some bushes relaxing in the shade of a tree. We really could only see his back. We moved on and slid our canoe onto the shore of the island. Our poler took the 4 of us on a walk-a-boute (Canadian funny, haha) around the island to see what animals we could see. Nothing. We saw the same elephant from a different angel but he was still hidden in the bush. The guide pointed out a lot of "shits" to us but, once again, the middle of the day is a horrible time to see animals. We did get to see a big baobab. When we got back to our boats we were excited to have some lunch and rest in the shade before our trip back. Unfortunately, our lunches were forgotten back at the camp. The trip back to the village was equally as tranquil as the trip in.

On Saturday we were able to have our most stress free shopping experience in Maun since we had a guaranteed ride home with our friend from Gumare. On the ride home I saw an elephant on the side of the road eating from a tree but Amanda wants me to forget about this and refuses to admit that it happened because she was sleeping.

We have decided that we wanted to have people see what our village really looks like. This is a tricky feat because just walking around taking photos of things draws a little too much attention, as if simply being white wasn't enough of a distraction. We have decided to create a virtual tour of our village by mapping our covert snaps onto Google maps using panoramia. Check it out. Check back because we plan to continue to add to this over time.

After the first two weeks of Peace Corps training some of the volunteers stayed (or came back) for STEPS training. STEPS is a South African based video collection that teaches about many social issues around HIV. The video collection consists of about 40 videos that were filmed all over southern Africa. They range from documentary style films to scripted dramas. The training helped us to gain the skills they deem necessary to facilitate a conversation that will hopefully invoke thoughtful conversation and eventually some type of behavior change. I really enjoyed the STEPS training and I'm excited to do screenings in our village/district.

Unfortunately my birthday was during IST which meant that Amanda and I were apart. But It was nice to spend it with my other volunteer friends. I was sick for a few days on either side of my birthday so it was rather uneventful (and strangely Amanda was also sick for 10 days of her IST as well). The following Sunday however a group of volunteers decided to go to a game reserve just outside of town. Botswana has an abundance of both private and public game reserves. However, what makes this specific one unique is that they not only offer the typical game drive but also have two tamed cheetahs! The cheetahs were saved as kittens after they were abandoned near the village of Ghanzi. The two brothers have lived at the reserve for the last 14 years. Some of our group decided to go on a game drive and pet the cheetahs and the rest of the group decided to forgo the game drive and just pet the cats. I went for the full package as a birthday present to myself. The game drive was a fun experience but somewhat unsuccessful because it was close to midday. We saw lots of impala, some kudu, ostrich, baboons, warthogs and hippos. Absolutely the highlight of my trip to the park was getting to pet the cheetahs. They live in a relatively large enclosure within the main reserve. Entering the enclosure through the double gates felt a bit like Jurassic Park even though I knew that inside was not a dangerous dinosaur but an oversized house cat. As we made a tight turn on the narrow dirt road, a friendly feline was laying right in front of us sleeping in the shade of an acacia. We all hopped out of the Land Cruiser and followed the guide over to the cat. He bent down to rub the cat's head and you could instantly hear it purr. Each of us took turns petting him. We then walked down the road to where his brother was sleeping. His brother, Duma, is darker and a little bigger. As we were petting Duma the other cheetah must have got jealous at that point because he got up from his resting shade and came to join us with Duma. It was an amazing experience to be so close to a big wild cat. I will post videos soon.

When I joined Peace Corps I imagined many ways that volunteers would travel through their country of service: bus, train, car, horse, donkey cart. I never imagined that as a Peace Corps volunteer I would be traveling by airplane. When we travel for official reasons the Peace Corps office will reimburse us for the travel. This usually comes in the form of reimbursement for bus fare or even an overnight in a hotel for the volunteers who cannot make it from the event to their site in one day. For Botswana, this is all of the volunteers in the Okavango Delta panhandle. The Peace Corps will now reimbursed us for flying because the cost of flying and getting to site in the same day is cheaper than taking the bus and having to stay overnight. Amanda and I both took flights from Gaborone to Maun to allow us to get home in one day. It was a wonderfully comfortable, one-and-a-half hour flight that included a delicious breakfast! We are both VERY excited that we will never have to make the 2 days bus trip down to Gabs again!

When I returned to Gumare I was happy to find that many of the trees in town were in bloom. The acacia have thousands of small round yellow balls. Another tree in bloom seems to be a full size tree version of a lilac; it really reminds us of home. I was also excited to see that I had some birthday cards that sing to me! Thanks family, grandma and the Williamsons!

As I write this blog there is a looming strike for government employees. This includes all health workers, teachers, public service workers and administrators (basically, everyone). I sat through a meeting Friday morning with the District Health Team, of which half of the meeting was dedicated to deciding just how public health facilities go on strike. We will keep updating on how the strike goes. As far as I know, it is a strike over salaries and has happened before, peacefully.

This week I read the BAIS III. The Botswana AIDS Impact Survey III is a comprehensive analysis of the HIV/AIDS situation of the country. I have skimmed the 350+ page document before but this time I actually set down to read it. If you are at all interested in HIV, public health, or statistics the BAIS is an amazing study. It uses blood sampling and questionnaires in a census type analysis. I will do a whole blog post with statistics for the country and our district/village at another time.

(Amanda: ) Yesterday we were invited to our first party in Gumare! It was an anniversary dinner party for Mandate and his wife OB. Mandate is the only other white person in Gumare (Dutch) and has been married to a very kind Motswana woman for 7 years now. Entering their plot (a family compound) was like stepping into a magazine story about how to throw the perfect outdoor African dinner party. Having the 'western' influence in their home meant that their place was build for beauty and comfort, not just utility like other plots in our village. The entire place was clean and beautiful. They had a traditional rondaval, a small modern cinderblock house and a new, large modern house. OB has lived on this plot for a very long time so it was interesting to see how she has been able to graduate herself from the most meager of homes to a modern house, including electricity and satellite tv. Their yard was groomed and included a beautiful variety of trees, vines, green plants and flowers. Beautiful brightly colored prints of fabric from around Africa floated in the breeze from the porch rafter. In the center of the yard stood a gazebo-style open rondeval, wired for music and lights, decorated with flowers, plants and a table set for 10. We were greeted by OB, whom we actually had not met before. She was probably the most kind, warm and inviting woman we have met so far! We spent the night in the cool breeze, drinking wine, eating great food (and it was even Setswana food!), laughing with new friends and dancing. Some of the best fun of the night involved the 11 neighborhood kids who came over to blow up balloons and dance for us right when the first notes of music started. This party came at the most opportune time for us and served as a much-needed break from the hot, mundane activities of keeping our house in order! Overall, we both agree it was the most fun we have had since living here. And we are happy to now be friends with the Butcher, the Baker and the chicken farm chicken seller!

That quote in the title is an old Botswana saying. I think it is fitting to our cross-cultural goals here as Peace Corps volunteers.

I am leaving tomorrow morning for training in the capital, Gaborone. This training is going to consist of a lot of similar material that we covered at pre-service training (PST) however now that we have all been at our sites for a few months we are able to now take a lot of the skills that we have learned and apply them to real life situations. All of the volunteers in our group (Bots9) have one of four job descriptions: Life Skills (mostly in-school teaching and development), NGO (work with a specific non-governmental organization), DAC/DCL (District Aids Coordinator/District Community Liaison work in the district office coordinating HIV/AIDS focused activities) and CCB (community capacity builders work with clinics or social work offices to help build sustainable programs). The IST (in-service training) combines two groups at a time NGO-Life Skills and CCB-DAC and has them train at different times. Amanda left a few weeks ago. We overlap for a few days then she will return here to Gumare and I will stay and continue my training. This is a bummer because over a month time we will only see each other for a few days. She will even miss my birthday! Over the past few months we have been working on a large report for Peace Corps called the Community Analysis. This report is supposed to detail all the elements of the community and surrounding area that are relevant to our positions here. If you want to know more about the area we live in you should take a look at this report because it profiles the community on both a social and institutional level.

Link to Community Analysis - Gumare

I also wanted to post an update on the work I have been doing on the garden fence. I tried hard to complete this fence before I left so that, as a surprise, it would be complete by the time Amanda came home. Alas, I should have worn gloves because I got quite a few blisters and cuts on my hands and was forced into early retirement.

Here is a photo of Lady and Buster in their dog nest simply because they make me happy.

On Thursday I attended a youth forum where local children from schools all over the district came to learn communication skills and life skills (a common term here for coming of age skills focused around relationships and sex education). I helped Ngwao Boswa setup their baskets to show and demonstrate basket weaving for the children. Another volunteer, Mary Hill, was attending and presenting at the forum. Mary is from the Bots8 group, which is a year ahead of our group. It was great to see another volunteer. Mary even brought me groceries and dog food! Which were very much appreciated because it is quite a journey for us to grocery shop.

Also, on Sunday I was able to meet up with Angel and take some photos of her giving some supplies to some local orphans. In the photos you can see Xwii/XiXae, the young boy I talked about in the last post (I apparently spelled his name wrong before, but that is expected because his language is not even a written language). He is the one wearing red. We found out that his blindness was caused by a surgery when he was younger. The other children are from Tubu, a small village just east of Gumare.

Lastly, here is a photo of our house again. I know I have already posted photos of the outside of the house but I was talking to someone from back home the other day and I was trying to explain how different my house is from my neighbors. This photo somewhat shows that across the street all the people live in much more traditional houses. These rondavels are traditionally made of mud, dung or thatched walls with a thatched roof of reeds collected from the delta. More modern renditions of these rondavels are made of cinderblocks or even have a core made of soda cans that get exposed as the mud wears off.