what's the point of a title?

July 29th

Reporting

Here we go again, into the land of numbers and accuracy and endless repetition. I really do understand the importance of accurate reporting but man does it make you want to pull all your hair out and jump on your bed singing songs at the top of your lungs. We’re well on our way into planning our next workshop. This one will focus on training our community TB care promoters in the settlements, although recently we found out that additional CTBCs and health education assistants will be joining us. Botswana has rolled out a new National Treatment Guidelines for TB and HIV and CTBC Guidelines as well as begun a whole new focus which highlights the importance of acknowledging the relationship between HIV and TB.
Thus we need to bring all of the CTBCs up to speed. This will also be a chance to see if they really understand what they’re teaching community members and if they are creative in their explanations in case people don’t understand. Since we’ve also been having reporting issues with them we’ll also go through a refresher session to clarify what we want and go over any issues or confusion they may have on reporting. This is the session I am responsible for facilitating. Hopefully afterwards they don’t think I’m the most boring person in the world....
My PCV roomie got her furniture so she’s moving out tomorrow it looks like. She’s also headed to Gabarone for a few weeks so I will be in the office with Gae alone.. eek. Hopefully she doesn’t decide to eat me. No it shouldn’t be to bad as long as I don’t really say anything. I’m supposed to go to Gabs with Dinah to visit friends and watch Harry Potter but I can’t find anyone to watch the puppies that I trust so I may actually back out.
The good news is though that I just found out I have 20 leave days... though I don’t know if weekends count within that..... Since Christmas vacation at work is like two weeks, with my 20 days it looks like I’ll be able to come home early! Maybe even the last week of November... that is if I actually get any research done. I guess I would be okay at this point with dropping the whole research thing and just doing an independent project when I get back. Especially considering I’ll have an extra year basically before everyone else gets back from placement. I’m hoping that I can get credits for studying French in Alliance Francais and then I can go from January to May, come back in the summer and do some credits or just work on my thesis and then enroll in courses for Sept - Jan and then graduate! I could likely even just work while I write my thesis since I believe I only need 2 credits and could do those spread out over three semesters. Then I could maybe get rid of my debt before I even finish school. It all seems so close and yet so far away... needless to say I can’t wait.
What with everyone getting married and having babies I feel a little bit left behind in everything. It seems a little like I’m still in this ‘find myself’ stage, wandering the world aimlessly. Maybe my inner child really is a 6 year old girl...?Well God did say to have faith like a child... now that I definitely have to work on. I may be young at heart with and old soul .. but my faith is bitter and crusty I think. What’s with that?


July 30th

Today was a pretty great day. First it was Saturday.. which makes it awesome already. Then we had a huge breakfast, an American breakfast :) I even ate bacon. Yes the real stuff. From the pig! It was amazing, slightly burnt and perfectly crispy. We had eggs and pancakes with yogurt and cheese. We even had real coffee and orange juice. Delicious !~So I guess I’ve definitely gone to where no vegetarian should ever go... I think bacon was the last meat I gave up.. and now it’s the last one I’ve re-eaten for the first time.. I have officially tried every meat and can no longer call myself vegetarian. lol I guess that applied for a while anyways before this...
Second my dogs didn’t have any accidents today :) Yay! Don’t really need to expand on that.
Third, my muscles are sore !! No I’m not a masochist, I have just been sitting in an office day in and out and finally went for a run .. and it looks like it’s actually doing something! I also spent the day doing my washing, helping Dinah move her stuff, scrubbing pots and shopping.. so that added to the beautiful soreness.
So shopping... we went to visit the market again, saw Willemien and Morgan’s neighbours who have invited us to a few braai’s. They are so friendly and sweet... actually most people are. It seems like mostly all the expat couples are pictures of what I would imagine myself to be like if I married someone and moved to Botswana. They all seem to love organic products, have their own amazing earth friendly gardens and can make pretty much anything! I guess those are skills that are required for someone living in a developing country :)
I bought some of Marina’s Chunky Paw-paw and Raisin Compote in vanilla syrup.. it’s amazing! And a miracle happened. The other day I found pita’s at Choppies... honestly sometimes I wonder at the stuff I find there... but of course there’s no hummus and we had run into the fact that you can’t make it here before... there’s no tahini in this country. I was also pondering trying to make croissants ... a difficult feat apparently. So we get to the market .. and Marina says we have croissants! And as I sample some jam I see that she has also made hummus,.. organically grown and homemade. Seriously they are awesome!
So that made my day. Now I just have to figure out how to make falafel and I can make one :)
We headed back after some more shopping and I cleaned and helped Dinah move. It’s so empty here now without here. And quiet ! We had one last dinner together ( j/k we’ll likely still eat together often.. especially dinner ) ... and of course it was vegetable curry ... Guess who made it ? Me ! I know how :)
It’s incredible how many things I’ve learned to make here... .guacamole, curry, baguettes, cinnamon rolls, sorghum porridge, ugali/papa, steak!!, and ceviche (its all in the lemons).
Oh yea and when we went to Choppies there was vegetables! And gorgeous huge lemons .... and bananas. Seriously it’s pretty sad that I go to the grocery store or stare at a river for entertainment here. But then again I guess I would go to the grocery store for entertainment in Canada. It’s a great place to go. Peaceful and full of food... you can dream about ideas, what to cook and create. I guess I kind of see it as the same as walking into an art supply store.
Oh did I mention that my puppies killed a bat? At least I think they did.. either way they certainly chewed it and played with it once it was dead and had lost it’s head... lol. I guess I should say ew.
So Monday is the first day of our workshop to train the CTBCs, which will last three days. I hope it goes well. There are a lot of issues with reporting we’re dealing with that make it kind of pointless to record any data. Hopefully it will be fun and inspiring as well.. I think we’re going to get them to do some team building camp games which should be fun and amusing .. I’ll have to try and post some pics :)