T is for Terrible

Hello again from the land where sweating buckets and dirty feet are contrasted with the beauty of the Okavango river. We have almost completed our second week at work and we are excited for the long weekend ahead but I will get to that later.

As for work, this week we relocated to the craft shop and got straight down to work. Monday, I worked on their new price list. There has been some price changes since a similar project was ran a few years back. So I typed that out into excel and changed the prices. Tuesday I started working on a letter we are going to send out re-introducing our project. Yesterday Heather and I made a One-pager, new labels for the baskets and we are just putting the finishing touches on a mini brochure we are making. It is looking pretty good.

Heather and I learned to weave baskets this week, and let’s just say it is a very difficult task and the women who make them for our shop must have a lot of patience. Next week the lady who is teaching us said that we could start our very own baskets, so that is exciting, although I will probably have a very small messy basket by the end of 8 months but it is always fun to learn new things J

The grading system for the baskets based on the ’10 commandments of basket making’. In the Ten Commandments we look at things like symmetry, neatness, colour etc. The grading scale goes T, P, P+, IM and SP.

SP- super premium IM- intermediateP+ - premium plus P- premium T- Terrible – this is not a joke, but they are thinking about changing it to stand for Trying. As a basket weaver of this caliber I would appreciate the change.

This weekend is Independence Day in Botswana which is very exciting because it is a very big deal here. We get Monday and Tuesday off of work, which also is very exciting. Supposedly there is a talent show going on at the Junior Secondary School next to our house, dancing and traditional food at the kgotla (community meeting place) and I am sure there is a lot going on around Shakawe, a lot more than normal anyways.

I am about to melt so I have to stop typing now, I think it is sitting around 40C right now. One would think that it is just because we are coming from Canadian climate that we are not used to the heat and that is why we are feeling the heat this much, but unfortunately that is not the case. Even the people who live here, the Batswana, are all complaining about how hot it is as well, so that gives us no hope of getting acclimatized to the weather, guess we better just get used to be sweaty all the time.

Settling into Shakawe - Sept 18th

This was last week's blog, sorry for the delay. Another blog coming tomorrow!

September 18th

Since the last time I wrote, Heather and I have gotten somewhat settled into out houses where we will live for the next 7 and a half months. We actually have two little houses, mine has my bedroom which is spacious ( but I am still waiting on a shelf or something to put my clothes on). I also have a washroom, with a toilet and a shower, so no need to worry I am not using a hole in the ground. Then there is a room that is supposed to be a kitchen, but it just has a sink in it. Needless to say, we do all the cooking at Heathers. Heather's house is only a few steps away and is one round room with a bedroom kitchen combo and then an attached washroom. 

My co-ordinator told me to make sure I leave the outside light on at night when I am walking between my house and Heathers house. He then proceeded to tell me it was important ecause they have been known to get pythons there and you wouldn't want to walk into one of those...

Our houses are located on the same property and both of the cordinators for our two organizations. It is about a 40 minute walk to work, which wasnt too bad this morning because we left at 7 but I think the walk home will be toasty because it will be around 5 and by then it is hot!

The offices are located right on the banks of the Okavango River. There is a fence to keep the hippos and crocs and other wild animals out but when you walk towards the fence you can see local people fishing, collecting the reeds and many other activities. It is sign of how important the river and the Delta are to the people around here. 

As for my mandate (what I will be doing while I am here) we started to talk about that yesterday. I am helping to revive a local craft and basketry project that TOCaDI owns and operates. The craft shop buys baskets from women in rural surrounding communities and then sells them in the shop. They buy the baskets directly from the women and the aim is to help these women escape poverty and improve their livelihoods.

I will be helping to create a marketing plan to allow the craft shop to sell more baskets and then be able to support more women. The idea situation is that the craft shop can continue to buy baskets and supporting the local people while being financially stable and not reliant on outside funding and funding from TOCaDI.

I am excited to get into the shop next week, but until then I will be doing lots of research and reading about baskets and past projects. 

 

 

 

 

 

Headed North

Me of my first (but definitely not my last) Safari

No Grand Bend sunset, but it will have to do :)

September 14th

Hello again :)

We just finished our orientation yesterday and we had a very busy week but we learned a lot of important information that will come in handy over the next 8 months and probably long after that. We learned how to take the combis( which are mini buses that are used to get around Botswana), we learned a little Setswana, we learned more about the situation in the country surrounding HIV/AIDS and many more interesting topics.



One of the 5 giraffes we saw

 

On Thursday we went to Mokolodi Game Reserve, it is only a short distance from Gaberone and it was a nice break from the hustle and bustle of orientation. We saw many different animals including giraffes, warthogs, kudu, hippos and many more. It was neat and it made me even more excited to check out Chobe and other national parks and game reserves throughout the country.



Can be dangerous?

 

 

This morning we left Gaborone at 6am Botswana time ( midnight at home) and we started the drive to Ghanzi, where Kyla will be doing her placement. It was about a 6 hour drive and we saw a lot of desert with small vegetation and a lot of wildlife. Mostly we saw cattle and donkeys grazing at the side of the road but we also saw a lot of ostriches which was pretty neat. Drivers have to be extra careful when driving on roads like these because the animals are often on the roads.

After we made it to Ghanzi, Heather and I and our country coordinator Chillie checked into the hotel in Ghanzi for the night. There is a shower with hot running water so that was a treat.

The Hotel we stayed at in Ghanzi - very nice pool but very cold!

Tomorrow morning we get to sleep-in till 830 which we are so excited for and around 10am we will be leaving for Shakawe, where Heather and I will be staying. We are both very excited to finally get to Shakawe but I am also very nervous as well but I am sure that will go away once we figure out where we will be living and meet our co-workers.

That is all for not but I am going to make the most of my sleep in an go to bed at a more reasonable hour.

Cheers,
-K

The Big Day!

September 13th

Hello to Everyone from Botswana for the first time.

I have now been in Bots for 3 full days and what a three days it has been. The flight was an adventure in itself. We left Toronto at 7pm on Saturday and then got to London at 7am in the morning GMT.

We checked our carry on luggage in a locker service and went to explore London a little bit. We rode the London Eye, we walked around the gardens and the halls of Westminster Abbey and in front of Buckingham palace.

It was pretty busy because it was the last day of the Paralympics. We got to see some of the marathon runners for the Paralympics, the wheelchair one and one or two others and a number of athletes from each. This was probably my favourite part of my time in London. Just to see every one's excitement was awesome. We then finihsed off our day with Fish and Chips in a little pub, so cliche but so good!

Part of the Marathon 

Fish and Chips!

 

Then we left London for the 10 hour flight down to Jo'burg. We has more time to wait in the airport but we got to meet up with the girls from Malawi so that was nice to see them. Then we left for the short 40 minute flight to Gaborone and luckily we made it with all our baggage and everything.



We spent 48 hours travelling from the time we left Toronto to the time that we arrived in Gaborone ( which i found out is actually pronounced hab-a ron-e(with an accent). So that was exhausting but we tried to beat the jet lag and it worked pretty well.

Botswana has been very good and interesting since we arrived. We are staying with a family while we are in Gaborone, the mom is a Canadian who used to volunteer here and now works and married a man from down here and has the two cutest kids ever. She actually works at the WUSC office and is helping to ease the transition.

Anyways I will update more on day to life so, I just thought I would give people the low-down on my time so far. We have one more full day of Orientation and then on Friday we start our journey up to Shakawe, which should be an adventure in itself.

When ever we mention where we are going to be staying, people are always like, "way out there?!?!?" " why would you go so far away? Good luck" or they just laugh, so that encouraging :P . I can only predict what the future holds, so I will for sure keep everyone posted.



Thanks for reading :)

- Kelsey

My wonderful friends who came to say bye at the ariport :) <3