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





Maybe they taste like chicken?

A few weeks back, as some of you may know, my classmates and I took part in a pre-departure cultural training that was put on by CIDA and the Centre for Intercultural Learning. This three day training was filled with role playing scenarios and lots of information that I felt would really help prepare us for working in another culture.

Sorghum Porridge

One of the things that we got from the training was a Country Booklet that had information about our individual placement countries. This book included a section on history, culture, politics and geography and then there was one section that had recipes. The first recipe was for a Sorghum porridge which is a staple food in Botswana and comparable to a porridge you may eat in Canada. It was not till I looked at the second recipe that I was a little taken aback. Here is what I saw.

Masonja

Ingredients:

2 kilograms dried phane (caterpillars)

1 teaspoon of salt
3 table spoons of cooking oil
1 onion
1 tomato peeled and diced
1 tablespoon of peri-peri sauce

Directions:

1.       Soak the dried phane in salt water until swollen. Drain. Boil the phane in fresh water and drain again.

2.       Heat oil, add phane, and fry. Add onion, tomato, and peri-peri sauce and simmer until tomoato is cooked.

Masonja

I am not a picky eater by any means although the idea of eating caterpillars freaks me out a little, I am open to trying everything at least once.   You know how the saying goes "when in Rome... " well I guess the same could be said " when in Botswana..." :-) 

Indigenous Rights in Botswana

In our geography class we had to make short presentations about an international development issues that we were interested in.  I decided to do my presentation on Botswana so that I could learn more about where I am going to be living for eight months.  One of the most pressing issues in Botswana's history has to do with the treatment of the San people in Botswana. The San people are indigenous to areas all across southern Africa, but the portion that I am going to focus on are those who called the Central Kalahari Game Reserve home.

The Central Kalahari Game Reserve has recently been discovered as one of the richest diamond areas in the world. That discovery had the Botswana Government very interested in this land. They wanted the land so they could capitalize on the wealth, but in order to do so they needed the San people off of that land.  Promises were made by the Government to the San people as incentives for them to leave their land but rarely were followed through on. The government continued to make life hard for the San people by impeding their day to day life. In 1997, the Government evicted the first round of people.  By 2002, the government had evicted more people and they were stopping rations and destroying the wells on the Reserve.  That year was the year that there was a court case launched against the Government on behalf of the San people.  The third round of evictions happened in 2005, when many were sent to resettlement camps. The camps were very negative places for the San people who were used to their traditional ways of life. Moving to these camps lead to an increase in depression, alcoholism and HIV/AIDS in the San communities. 

 In what termed out to be the longest and most expensive court case in the history of the country it was determined that what the Government did to the San people was unlawful and unconstitutional and that the San people had the right to live on the Reserve and hunt without permits. But for the San people that did return to the Reserve, it was decided by the judges that the Government did not have to provide services to them.  Many small organizations, like TOCaDI where I will be working come September, have stepped in to attempt to fill the gap that has been left by the government for the San people.

When I first read this I felt shocked about how a Government could do this to their own people. But then I got thinking about Aboriginal people in Canada and the similarities between the Aboriginal  and the San people and there were a lot. This just shows that whether in a 'developed' or 'developing country', violations against human rights are still happening till this day. Too often people in the ‘developed’ world get the ‘us and them’ framework for looking at things, but this example shows that in a way we are not a lot different than people half a world away.  I am interested to get to see first hand what the current situation between the Government and the San people is today.  I am also interested to learn about what it would have felt like to the San people to have their own Government turn their backs on them for material gain.

Well Thanks for Asking!

What is INDEVOURS? Well I am glad you asked! 

INDEVOURS is made up of myself and 31 of my wonderful colleagues in the International Development program at the University of Waterloo.  This group was created through a marketing and fundraising class that we took this year and last. We are using this as an opportunity to learn more about social media, advertising and what it takes to carry out successful fundraising initiatives. We are taking the skills and money that we raise and using it towards our overseas field placements in the fall.

Our class put this amazing video together to really show the world (and especially you, Ellen DeGeneres) who we are and what we are trying to do. We would love this video to go viral, so share it with all your friends and help us raise awareness. Thanks in advance.

We have raised money by running an Ultimate Frisbee tournament, which was a huge success. We also have raised money through selling calendars and bed sheets throughout the last few terms. 

We have a Global Gala in the works right now that has huge potential to help us meet our fundraising target. It is going to take place July 13^th at 5:30pm at the University Club on the University of Waterloo Campus. For more information about the Gala or to support us by buying a ticket, check out our webpage for more information http://indevours.wordpress.com/events/global-gala/

Through this we are learning a lot about what it takes to run higher profile events and the difficulties that come along with it; including getting people interested in coming and standing out from the pack when there is so much else going on. I know that some of my classmates, myself included, are a little nervous about this event but I know that if any one group of people can pull this off it is going to be INDEVOURS.

A ticket with MY name on it!

Flights have been booked!

When I woke up yesterday and checked my emails there was a very exciting (and kind of scary) surprise waiting for me.   

Getting the tickets made everything that much more real. I know I say that it gets more real every time something new happens regarding to my trip. When I found out my placement or started getting vaccination it was more real to me, but it doesn’t get much more real than having a plane ticket to Botswana with your name on it. 

The trip is not going to be a quick one but at least I will not have to do it alone. I will be going with Heather and Kyla who are also going to Botswana, so it will be nice to have some travel buddies.

Itinerary

 

We have 12 hours in London which will be nice because we will at least be able to get out of the airport and see a little bit on England. Maybe the excitement from the Olympics this summer will still be in the air? So from London to Johannesburg and then to Gaborone, which is the capital of Botswana where we will be spending the first week or so doing our in country orientation. 

Now don’t worry Mom, my return flights have been booked as well so you don’t have to worry about your little girl moving to Africa just quite yet…. : P  

 

 

For those visual people here’s little map for you.

 

 

Spring Term has Sprung

Hello again everyone!

I have not blogged in quite some time but a lot has happened, so I will fill you in.

The winter term wrapped up at the start of April and my exams went well and I passed all my classes so I guess I cannot complain.  I had about a week off before I started my spring term, which was a little weird because I have never had school in the summer but it was a smooth transition. Mostly just hung out with friends that week and then took a quick trip with my mom and my grandma to Sterling Heights, Michigan to do a little shopping. Target was good to me this trip.  I got a bunch of long skirts and some other warm weather clothes that will be good for this summer here in Canada and then the next eight months in Botswana.

If you have never been to Sterling Heights, you have never experienced the road system there. This might be an interest to all my Planning friends out there but the roads are pretty confusing. Essentially you cannot make any left turns on the main road, instead you have to pass the store you want to go to and then make this organized U-turn and then backtrack back to where you want to go. I have always been curious why they did it this way. Maybe it is better for the environment? I am not sure. If you know anything about this I would like for you to let me know.

A day or two after I got back from the States, it was back to school for me. This term all the people in my program (there are about 30 of us) are living in St. Paul’s, this is where I have lived for the last 8 months although I am no longer a don any more.  It was very nice to see all my friends again and I got to keep my own room which was nice.  When we came back the 4C International Development Students were back from their overseas placements, so they could share some of their knowledge with us. I learned lots of interesting facts from Sarah and Dana who spent the last eight months in Botswana. It made me very excited but also made me realize that there is still a lot I have to do before September.  

I had only a few nights back in Waterloo before I had to pack up my summer clothes because my family and I were going on a DISNEY CRUISE!!!  This was an amazing trip and I will tell you more about it and put some pictures up in the next few days.

Thanks for reading!