Following my break in Cape Town, I knew that I was going to have to come back to Botswana and assumed I would be swamped with work but I found a couple of things that caught me off guard. This post is going to be more of an overview for the second half of the semester and talk about some issues I have been realizing.
Initially, upon returning home (yes this has now become home), I had forgotten that I left a flat with no hot water. You would think that during the week we were gone, someone would have made progress with this issue. No. We still, almost a month after losing hot water in our building, have yet to get it back. This makes showering a daunting task as I find myself sending 5 or more minutes motivating myself to run under the freezing water before running back out and soaping up only to repeat the process for rinsing and washing my hair. This has motivated me, however, to run more as I realized a cold shower isn’t exactly bad when you are burning up from working out. If this were the only problem, I think I could live with it but the most recent development has been water cut from the kitchen.
This poses a much bigger issue as we can no longer properly wash our dishes, clean our foods, or wash our hands. Being a public health major, I have spent the semester studying the ways in which diseases are spread and basically, that’s it. I have been taking my dishes to other people’s rooms in order to clean them but obviously it is extremely inconvenient. I never realized the important of kitchen water in food but it is slowly becoming more and more or a hassle to cook anything. My biggest fear is that they will cut off our water to the building completely and at the rate they are addressing this issue, it would never be resolved. Also, we are having a building meeting tonight to address this issue as apparently some others are concerned about the spread of cholera and other waterborne diseases. For those of you unsure, there are three types of waterborne disease, one of those being due to a lack of adequate water. Overall, this has just reminded me again that as developed as Gaborone may be, I am still in Africa and need to take precautions.
Moving on from the water, I have been doing some life searching and planning which has resulted in some big things. First of all, I have decided that I need to go right into Graduate School after finishing at Nova otherwise, my major will not be specific enough in order to get positions I would like to get. After deciding that, I have narrowed a list of schools down and it looks like I will either be in Boston or Washington D.C., mainly because I need to be near NGO headquarters. As of right now, my top choice would be Boston University and its program for International Health but who knows, that is almost a year down the line. Anyway, more immediate, I have realized that the project I am working on here in Bots is going to be the key to everything I want to do in public health.
Recently, with the help of my clinical professors, my program director, and a CIEE regional director, I had decided it is time to take what I have learned from my clinical experience and do something productive. Therefore, I have come up with the idea of developing a bi-weekly or monthly health promotion pamphlet to be distributed in clinics and other helpful venues throughout Botswana. While the packet itself is not too terribly difficult as I just need to write helpful tips on how to live healthy lifestyles, the logistics behind getting it approved, printed, and distributed will be taking up the majority of my time this semester. It looks like I will need to talk with the Ministry of Health which is basically our FDA at home and a few other HUGE organizations. I am a bit nervous because I have never started a program before nor have I ever had to deal with behind-the-scenes details before but if I can get this off the ground, I will be one of the happiest people in Africa. Not only will I be able to use this program as a basis for any public health internship, school, or job but more importantly, I can give back to the community that has so graciously hosted me. With this, it is also possible for people to come and continue my work and eventually expand it into possibly a health promotion program to be presented in schools and workplaces.
Obviously, I am extremely excited but in the mean time, I also have a ton of other work I need to focus on. The one other project I have taken responsibility for is being a student representative at the University of Botswana for a new NGO to be created by my professor. With this, I will be helping to organize their first activity which will be a “marathon” to raise awareness on anti-smoking. That is quite as involved as my pamphlet but still excited.
Anyway, I have had a lot of time to think about my time in Botswana and the time I have left. When I initially started thinking, I couldn’t believe I still had to be here another 65 days or something like that but now I have shifted to not believing I ONLY have 65 days left. We have started talking about our final trip in May and all of my classes are done in about a month. It is amazing how fast time has actually gone. I will not lie, I have definitely had some hard times, especially in the past few weeks with being homesick but being here has been an awesome experience. It has been nothing that I expected it’d be but has taught me so much about myself. Being the only white person within miles at times has made me a more confident person as people stare and ask questions while I have also learned from the communities things I never thought I’d discover here in Africa such as WHY I have the motivations I do. I guess I was going through the rollercoaster of emotions that everyone talks about when you go abroad and I am now on my second high. Mid-semester and I have realized that I love the people in my program and can’t imagine not seeing them when we go home. Even more than that, I love my family beyond belief and value their thoughts, opinions, and support more than anything. I appreciate all that Botswana attempts to offer but understand where it fails to pull-through. Despite the uncomfortable moments with people begging and men proposing, I thoroughly enjoy walking in the city and experiencing the differences in cultures. Sitting on a combi yesterday, I came to the realization after talking with my friend Gerrica that being here IS what I needed. While I am very excited to travel other places and work with different cultures, the people, government, and culture in Botswana has truly been an experience I would not trade for any other.
I realize that the attitude I have right now is a completely 180 from the attitude I had the few weeks leading up to Spring Break but I hope that I keep this outlook and continue to learn and grow in my remaining weeks here. We have a trip coming up to a diamond mine which will be interesting considering that is the basis of all of Botswana’s economy and I believe I will visit my host family in Mochudi again soon. While I would like to take a hot shower again, I am going to make a promise to myself that I will do everything in my power to appreciate and learn from everything that happens in the next few weeks. That’s not to say I still don’t miss home though!!
P.S. My next big trip I am planning is to Mozambique for Easter break but hopefully I can figure out a weekend trip before then!
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