Pictures

This is the little girl who 'high fived' us every day on our way to training. She was the sweetest little thing.

We are at out host family eating maze (it is a lot like field corn).

This was the home of our host family, they had a big yard with no grass and a very clean house. They were always sweeping

Home sweet home Salajwe

This is where we live now! Small quaint, about 1000 people and two boarding schools with about 1000 more kids at them both. 60k on dirt roads from the closest town. 120k from the closeses actual grocery store. We buy in bulk. Katie is in the clinic and I will split time between the schools. This entry is to see if pictures will actualy post. Cross your fingers.

Virtual House Warming Party

We moved in Friday and we're throwing ourselves a house warming party. Many people have asked if they could send us stuff so we put a list together now that we know where we'll be and what we need. Some are needs, some are wants and some will just be nice to have to remind us of the States.
A few suggestions when shipping: The USPS has 2 flat rate boxes and envelopes. You can stuff as much as possible into the boxes of envelope for the same price, hence flat rate. Shipping isn’t cheap so maybe a few people can go in together of have a car wash fund raiser. :) They take a few weeks to get here 4 weeks tops. The mail service in Botswana is one of the best in Africa, however, be smart when shipping.

On the customs form LIE. Don’t write what’s really in there, it becomes less of a temptation to sticky fingers. And some things I have to pay taxes on too. Just write ‘educational materials’ or ‘documents’ and there won’t be any problems.

Include a list of the contents so we can make sure everything made over the pond ok. Take our all the packaging to create more space and to give us less trash. Tape any liquids shut too. Another thing, it will help if you send stuff in zip-lock bags (impossible to get here) and if you feel like going the extra mile, Katie requests the empty spaces to be stuffed with cardboard applicator regular tampons….I think I said that right. Here are our addresses:

Lempu Junior Secondary School
Attn: Lucas 'Kabo' Scharmer PCV
Private Bag 008
Letlhakeng Botswana

Salajwe Clinic
Attn: Katie 'Lesedi' Scharmer PCV
Private Bag 003
Letlhakeng Botswana

Our mail is for our work and either address will work. The mail goes to Letlhakeng and is then picked up twice a week by the ambulance or the school head because there is no post office in Salajwe…it’s that small.
If you want, you can coment on what you send so we don’t end up with 4 can openers or you can talk amongst your selves. Anything we get will receive a letter from us. Thanks for all your support.
-Calling card info: I was told about 3utelecom.com <.02/min. The reference code for Peace Corps is 360-945-1384 (don’t know what that means but there it is.)
Some things are random… but we are in Botswana!
· Knife set (in St. Cloud storage closet)
· Candles-bug repellant
· Football regular or Nurff (have pump)
· Pull & Peal Licorice
· Reusable zip ties
· Drink mixes-crystal light
· Fruit snacks/fruit roll-ups
· 1lb Candy bars…yum
· JB Weld
· A Shirts medium
· Passport drive 300+GB
· 45 spf sunscreen
· 3M hooks
· Leather gardening gloves*
· Epson (from Greensboro storage)
· Jump rope
· Resistance bands (GB storage)
· UFC dvds or magazines
· Old spice Red Zone Deoterant
· Opti Free contact solution
· Converter 110-240
· Cheep Frisbee

Holy Ghost House International Ministries

So we had planned on going to church with our host sister Doreen one Sunday. The night before, she convinced us to go to church with our friend Erica. Erica was going to visit her host mother’s church for the first time as well. Her mother stayed up all night cooking for the birthday party they were throwing for the pastor. So we figure we can get some cultural experience and maybe get fed afterwards. Sounds good. Plus our host mother Ellen attended the church as well.
We arrived late to the Holy Ghost House International Ministries and it was already pretty intense. I think we saw 2 pastors preach during the service and that did not include the birthday pastor. There was always an interpreter but it was still hard to keep up sometimes. Sometimes we had to stand up, then hold up our hands, then turn around and kneel on our chairs. Sometimes we would have to pray but everyone prayed out loud. So it sounded almost like chanting; everyone was praying for different things. At one point the pastor asked anyone new to the congregation to stand up. Thankfully it was more than just the three white folks. After we were introduced, everyone in the congregation gave us a hug which felt pretty good.
After some sermons on fear and savior, we held hands with our neighbor and prayed for them. As were standing, women of the church would go around and take our chairs away and put them up against the wall…Then the doors were closed…Then it got a little crazy….
The pastors began placing their hands on people and the people would collapse. Only they didn’t just collapse, they were convulsing. Women were jerking back and forth. I saw one old woman laying face down on the cement crying and drooling. This didn’t happen to just a few folks. It was happening to EVERYONE. I saw a teenage girl rolling around on the ground and biting the pastor’s ankles. I saw another girl running with her eyes closed away from a pastor. Then she started throwing punches. These people would roll around for 5 minutes, their eyes rolling in the back of their head, rolling over people’s feet. Then they would get back up and start signing like nothing happened.
At one point a pastor grabbed Lucas and I and started praying for us. Then he pushed on me and told me to lean back. Maybe he was trying to release the demons or something. When I wouldn’t fall he started spitting on me until I sat down to make it stop.
After about an hour, it was over. And people were holding up offering and it was time to go…

Mompati's Birthday

So our host brother (actually I think he’s our nephew since his mother is our sister but whatever…) turned 20 on May 29. Mompati is a really hard worker and really fun to be around. Since we were being exposed to all this Setswana culture and dance, we thought we would share some American culture and dance. So Lucas and I danced for our host family for Mompati’s birthday! We found a song with a 6-count and did a little swing dance in the front yard. It was a big hit. Our fellow Peace Corps trainee and neighbor Erica (from New Jersey) came to watch too. We invited her to stay for dinner which was quite a treat. The family cooked amazing dinner. Probably the best we’ve had since we moved in. I know you may not recognize the food but we had chakalaka, potato salad, lettuce salad, worse, phaleche, and beef. We made a warm milk cake for birthday cake ( a receipt Lucas’ mother gave us). It was AMAZING. Kinda like yellow cake but richer and moist. For gifts, Lucas and I gave his a deck of cards and some candy. His mother gave him some dress shirts for school. We ended the day with a little Go Fish. It was a great day.

Rock Paintings and Dances

Part of a fun thing Peace Corps did for us one Saturday was take the trainees to the Manyana Rock Paintings and Bahurutse Cultural Lodge. Looking at the pictures, you should be able to recognize some giraffes, and a kudu. Kudu looks kinda like a deer with long horns. He’s next to the picture of me. Not far from Molepolole, the Manyana Rock Paintings were a site of one of the battles of the Bour Wars. Bours came up from South Africa and basically bullied their way into Botswana tribes in the mid 19th century. You can see how steep the rocks are. The Manyana tribe hid on top of the rocks and crushed the Bours by pushing boulders on top of them. The guide showed us a cave called Manyana-Bahurthe. Bahurthe was the wife of the kgosi (or chief). At the time of the battle, she was hidden in the cave because she was pregnant. We asked if we could go inside the cave and the guide said no. There were rock-rabbit droppings at the mouth of the cave. Traditionally, rock-rabbits were a sign that a large snake lived in the cave.
Then we were taken to Bahurutse Cultural Lodge. The Bahurutse are part of the Baboon Totem. There was a group of traditional dancers that taught us about their culture and traditions. A female member of our group was included in the presentation to act as a bride to a Mostwana man. The Bahurutse showed us how a newly wed couple would spend their honeymoon. A medicine man would be brought in to bless the marriage. He would do this by throwing some bones and ensuring that they all fell as God had intended. If the groom was not traditional enough, possibly he could be struck by a snake or lightning. Jealous women would try and break up the marriage by stealing the bride’s footprint. The bones would protect her. If the bones fell as planned, they were officially wed. The couple would be taken to the traditional honeymoon hut. The “grannies” of the village would hide outside of the hut and spy on the couple to ensure that the bride was a virgin.
Afterwards we were shown how to make traditional home brew or beer using sorgum. The grain was stomped in a huge mortar with a pestle. Then it was ground very fine with a rock. We were invited to taste the home brew. Kabo has already sampled the brew or Chake-Chake in Maitengwe on his shadowing visit. It was my first try, It defiantly has that sour sorgum taste (with kind of a stomach bile after taste). It’s white and chunky and I agree kinda looks like vomit. It sounds worse than it is but I don’t imagine I’ll be throwing any back while I’m here. They told us a few medical treatments. While a community member is sick, he or she will be confined in the home (to protect the rest of the village). But there is a saying Get up to watch the sun rise otherwise it will set on you. Basically they encouraged the sick not to lie in bed all day but to get up and keep moving. Apparently stepping in cow dung was good for the circulation. Probably because they would not let the person wash off the dung until they were well again.
They showed us a few dances. The tribe really stresses dancing while growing up so that the people have it in their hearts. The children were the best to watch; they were so good. We saw a Wife’s Dance in which the women would show their husbands “I need to have my back stretched out.” We saw a Granny Dance in which the grannies would show the village “it all comes from us.” And we saw a Meal Dance that we got to take part in. Basically a march to wash hands and be fed. They would wear these cocoons around their wrists and ankles that were stuffed with dried bugs to make a kind of rattling noise. It was so cool. I really want some…

P.S. Sorry, I thought we had posted this a while back...