Extreme Makeover: Ramotswa

Top left: Becky and Bokang share the same barber, Top right : a mobile made from recycled cardboard and an unraveled orange bag, Bottom left: our Christmas tree with a stuffed ostrich, Bottom center: a sign made from salvaged baling ribbon, Bottom right: lifeline members at a benefit car wash for SESAD (sports and agricultural center for the disabled)

Extended Thanksgiving Weekend

"Papa Keno" our fledgling papaya tree. 

Cutting down our Christmas Tree.

Stuffed roasted chickens with pumpkin.

Americans gathered from far and wide for our traditional Thanksgiving dinner. (From left to right: Anis from Mochudi, Dawn from Moshaneng, Peggy from Ghanzi, and Mara, our friend in Ramotswa)

6:30am: the beginning of the World AIDS Day festivities.

Meeting His Excellency the President Sir Seretse Khama Ian Khama at the DHMT tent at World AIDS Day

Mma Lesego with us, sporting the scandalous t-shirts gifted to us by "the condom coordinator".

Eyes Wide Open

We are closing in on the half-way mark of our “community assessment period”, as the Peace Corps calls it. We’ve met with community stakeholders, been counseled by our Kgosi (chief) and her subordinates, received insight and advice from the District AIDS Coordinator, the police, local development organizations, the National AIDS Coordinating Agency, the Village Development Committees, local scholars of the Botswana- Harvard partnership, social workers and health practitioners…all to help us gain an overview of the needs and current practices in our new community- laying the groundwork for future projects.

The issues are complex- and they bring up a staggering plethora of pieces of advice from my past- from working in Old Naledi, to the halls of KU, and K-State, and the visiting scholars from the African Issues Symposium. What is one thing I have learned about development work so far? Development work, missions, relief work, service, social work, volunteerism, the non-profit sector, charity, philanthropy, however you want to frame it- it’s broken- “boggen”- as my nephew, would have described it. 

I think I’ve grown up with an image of reality that is pretty out of whack. Still, it was the image floating in my head, popping up in my stereotypes. My short lifetime of experience has only begun its journey of undoing.  

This is NOT reality: The world is a funny dichotomy. It is a market-driven place in which people go to school, work, get promoted, improve their standard of living, compete, succeed- all for the self. But, behold, there is a beautiful counter-segment of people doing self-less work. The missionaries, Mother Theresas, the Greg Mortensons, these types have rejected the system of achievement for the sake of the self and have chosen to embark on a life that is about others…and so much more fulfilling.

No, this is NOT reality. In truth, development is broken. We like projects that feel good. Everyone wants to build the water pump (Damberger, 2011), but nobody wants to do the maintenance, to invest the time, to learn what others have done, to avoid redundancy. It looks good to give something that nobody has; it also looks like privilege. We have something to give to you, poor souls. Look at our choices, our life, as an example- never mind that our wealth and your poverty might be two sides of the same coin. Am I benefiting from a system that exploits you? And then, am I stepping in, too late, to offer a hand that appears so benevolent. We have a system that perpetuates patterns of inequality. It is a system that makes assumptions about who is endowed with the rights to lead, to decide who benefits from foreign investment, etc. Living a selfless life IS fulfilling, it feels good, but it often benefits the self more than others, and the ramifications of that work can be far-reaching and dangerous.

It has been a short time, but a long journey from being a kid in Botswana, recognizing that most missionaries didn’t do what I thought they did. Then slowly realizing that I was usually in the dark with my local community, communication is rarely frank, so I often missed what was actually going on. It is hard for an outsider to say that something is having such and such an impact or not, or even to have a clue about what is happening and whether it is actually happening. Things were not what they seemed. Recipients say things that donors want to hear. We have been molded by a long system of learning to “market” development, of learning how to appeal to heartstrings, by a system of development that is self-perpetuating, that doesn’t work- that exploits inequalities and plunges them deeper. Good scholars, found much later in life, revealed a system embedded deeply in history that makes this brokenness difficult to escape. Is sustainability and development possible when it fits into, and sometimes reproduces, inequality? The funny thing is that this realization about development work is nothing new. I am no expert, but followers of Christ all know that the world is broken. That is why we need to be rescued. If the world is broken, why should it surprise me that development work is also broken?

My wise sister is an evaluator for this type of work, and she is inspirational to me because she looks deeper, she analyzes how best to serve others without damaging them in the process, how to admit when we are wrong and need to revise. She is a reminder that WE do not always know what is best, but that we can be responsible by engaging with others, by remaining dependent on others who serve and are being served, by communicating with experts, by taking their warnings seriously and by implementing their best strategies- by doing our research. Not too long ago, she and I were randomly chatting about Robert Lupton’s (2012) Hippocratic oath of sorts for development work; a call to engage in reciprocal, non-hierarchical work, where above all we “do no harm.” And I might add to that…work that builds the capacity of others, and is not dependent on us alone. YES! Please. Of course, this is what we want to do, but the scary thing is: how do we know how to do it, or how do we know when our work is causing unforeseen harm?

We are the most certain of our uncertainty. Fortunately for us, we live under a promise and a command: the promise of an omniscient Holy Spirit to guide our actions and to guide our inquisition as we learn about this work and take this life-long study to heart; and the command to love with the assurance that doing so “does no harm (Romans 13:10).”

And so it is, that our eyes are wide open as we jump into this new part of life. We attempt to take this next step in humility with every effort to learn from those around us and be led by God, and not our own wisdom.

So, if you made it to the end of this long and tiresome post, please pray for God’s niche, that we will fit in with projects that are not about us, and that bring Him glory. 

People Post

A man standing proudly next to the home-brewed bujalwa.

We call this the updated, Botswana version of the couple on the prairie.

This is the only chore he ever did, but this is the traditional broom sweeping the dirt in the yard.

Sean

Cooking for the Independence Celebration.

She cracks me up.

A singing group for the celebration.

Mr. What?

Our district hosted a health fair as a precursor to World AIDS Day, which will occur December 2nd. This guy was our favorite attendee, "Mr. SMC" (Safe Male Circumcision). Way to go, sir. Wear your banner proudly.

The BDF (Botswana Defense Force) tent at the Ramotswa health fair.

The appearance of the sun last Wednesday. Some call it a sundog, some say the ancestors are angry. Others say that ice crystals are illuminated to appear like a ring around the sun before heavy rains. We experienced 3.5 raindrops that afternoon...

More Mops and Stuff

Owen building a bike with his bare hands. 

Rare clouds.

The front porch.

On a walk in the lands. Look familiar?

Mops and Stuff

Nothing says "We're home!" like buying a mop. Our closest shops are a couple of hardware and general stores lining a dusty road. We call it the "Wild West". This was one of our first trips there- enjoying a cool drink on the long walk home.

In the couple of days before Heidi's arrival with pots and pans, we experimented with hard boiling eggs in an old coffee tin.

Fresh baked bread on the first day of our own kitchen.

Relaxing.

A Place to Call Home

Owen's (Kabelo's) beard- the subject of great controversy in Ramotswa. Let your voice be heard in the comments. Every vote counts!

We have a home! It is a small (though larger than the Little House on the Pierrie) house, nestled in the northeast corner of the beautiful, hilly town of Ramotswa, a stone’s throw from South Africa. The people here are so closely knit with their kinsman across the border, that they have been known to jump the fence on occasion to drink bojalwa (traditional beer) with their brothers of identical ethnicity and contrasting nationality.

A couple of smart and inquisitive boys (Nick and Tate) have asked some thoughtful questions about our new home. The answers are posted below.

1. Are there soccer, basketball, or tennis leagues there?

Totally! Soccer is the favorite sport of Botswana, home of the national soccer team called the Zebras. There is a youth group in town that plays soccer and teaches about good health practices at each of the schools. The DHMT (Becky’s work) also sponsors an organization for the disabled that has its own basketball team. Owen is excited about that!

2. Have you seen any giraffes or elephants?

Not yet. Ramotswa is mostly full of goats, chickens, cows, warthogs, and occasionally baboons. We keep the doors and windows open in our house to let in the breeze during the coolest part of the morning. This morning, a rooster wandered into our kitchen by mistake!

3. Did you get to keep some diamonds?

Sadly no. We feel like the diamonds are serving a good purpose though because they help to pay for health care in this country, which is working hard to prevent and treat HIV/AIDS and other devastating diseases.

4. Do you have skateboards and bicycles to play with?

We do not have any skateboards because our road is very bumpy and far from the tarred road (asphalt or cement). We DO have bicycles! Mountain bikes were an early Christmas gift and will help us get to work faster and carry all of our gear and groceries.

5. Do you like climbing trees in Africa?

We do love to climb trees! Most of our trees are acacia trees, a special, drought-resistant tree that is covered in thorns. We don’t climb those, but Owen plans to collect the branches for a fire pit, so that we can cook dinner under the stars. Instead, we like to climb the rocks and hills around Ramotswa. We live close to the cattle pastures (called cattle posts and lands “masemu” here in Botswana), so we like to go for walks out there in the evenings. There is always a beautiful sunset. More pictures to come shortly...

Freshly baked tortillas- We're home.

The Small Things

Reflecting on the last two months of training, and anxiously preparing my speech for our official swearing in ceremony on Tuesday, a few things occurred to me. The first, is that this has been one of the most trying seasons of my life, and the second is that a few small things make a huge difference…

 

1. Orange bags. 5kg of oranges come packaged in mesh bags that make perfect loofas- something that my desert-abused feet desperately need in order to avoid turning into rhino elbows.

 2. Candlelit baths. I sit cross-legged in a bowl and splash water up the front of me to bathe. As a result, my back got cleaned only once last month. The upside: everything seems cleaner by candlelight.

3. Loincloths and polo shirts. Yes. I have seen this style combination. It trumps Katie and Melissa’s puff painted sweat suits any day, and reminds us to laugh.

4. The rock plate. Botswana is a master destroyer of shoes, so my feet get a second mention on this list. When Manhattan Running Company asked me on what type of terrain I would run, I answered “broken beer bottles, rocks, old rebar, and man-eating thorns.” After two months of sunrise running to beat the heat- I still have great shoes and even greater running buddies. Thanks Jojo, Erika, and Dawn.

5. Papaya lunch. The ultimate food of convenience- all you need is a spoon.

 6. The sunsets. No matter how frustrating, hot, or miserable the day feels, spectacular sunsets are pretty much a guarantee at the end of the day.