Camp!

WOW this week.

Its Saturday and I am so tired in every way. This week was demanding! My life was literally work, eat, sleep, repeat. I had NO free time!

In a nutshell, this week was camp followed by Teen Club. Luckily I didn't end up sleeping at camp (because of sketchy accommodations, a sleeping bag mixup, a mattress shortage, a water shortage, and some questionable meal-making), but that meant that I had to commute to the camp each day. I got up at 5, was out the door by 6, at work at 7, and didn't get home til 7pm or later at night. SUCH long days. And this morning (Saturday) was Teen Club. I am sooooo wiped out.

Camp:

- The camp was in Artesia, a 40 minute drive from Mochudi. It really was in the middle of nowhere, but the compound itself was pretty decent and BIG! Its usually a boarding school but since its the winter break at the moment they use the space as a camp. There were dorms, a large hall, some classrooms, a kitchen, and even a little shop with some small things for sale. There were roughly 250 kids at this camp, all Mochudi youth. They weren't kids from Stepping Stones though. I only knew one girl there, the only Stepping Stones participants to go to Artesia. I appreciated the familiar face!

- I spent the first two days helping or facilitating art therapy sessions. This was actually a blast! Basically we got the kids to think of their own strengths and weaknesses, and then asked them to choose an animal that best represented their own qualities. So if they were a deer, their strengths would be that they are fast, alert, and friendly, but their weaknesses would be that they run from threats and follow others . We then gave them balls of clay, and they sculpted and painted their animals. They turned out super cute!! After the art was finished, everyone presented the animal that they made and how they were similar to it. It was super interesting because the smaller primary kids jumped right in and made their animals super quickly. But the older ones seemed to think so much more, and were really perfectionist with their artwork. The discussions were a lot deeper with the older kids as well. The smaller ones were like "I'm like a cow because a cow has legs and so do I" or "I'm a cat because cats drink water and so do I", but the older ones got a lot deeper with their explanations and did some serious reflecting. It was lots of fun. I made an elephant but squished it shortly after- there wasn't a lot of clay to go around.

- For the rest of my time there, I was support staff for some random sessions, although I was mostly useless because almost everything was in Setswana. Some of the sessions were about alcohol, leadership, empathy, abuse, how to deal with personal challenges, and personal branding.

- I don't think my whiteness has ever been more apparent than at camp. I spent the first couple days at camp without Kate, so I was literally the only "lekgoa" (white person) out of 250+ people. Someone actually commented that my last name, LeBlanc (literally the white in French), couldn't be more fitting. I thought that was pretty hilarious. One kid wanted to touch my hands. A few others wanted to touch my hair. Or they just stared at my fluorescent white skin. The kids here also LOVE my lip piercing, although by love I mean that it BIG TIME grosses them out. They are fascinated. At Stepping Stones last week one of the most adorable kids was like "Shila, if you don't take that out and move it to your nose, I won't be your friend anymore." Its okay though, she made Kate and I a card that melted our hearts this week. Anyway, camp was also pretty funny because some of the kids are from Mochudi, and even though I hadn't met any of them until this week, they were like " Nice to meet you. I saw you carrying your groceries outside of Choppies on Saturday" or "I remember you, I saw you walking down by Diabalola's the other day." In Canada that could potentially be creepy, but here I guess its kind of hard to forget our pasty white skin.

- There were some pretty entertaining/interesting aspects to camp. There wasn't any toilet paper, so the first day I was there I went to pee and realized I'd have to air dry. WAY out of my comfort zone! Kate says I'm on my way to being a tree planter. The camp also didn't have dishes, so on day one we all scrambled to find whatever we could for plates and cutlery (lids from containers, a large cooking pan, you name it). The camp was also MAAAAJORLY on Botswana time. Lunch was scheduled for 12. Lunch ACTUALLY happened at 3:30. Botswana time is SUCH a thing! And lunch was always a big mystery. One day was delicious. The other days… not so much. And the worst part was, everyone was like "Ohhhh this is _____, its traditional Botswana food! You haven't tried it yet?! Have some you'll love it!" and would then intently watch me eating. I always ate with a smile and a compliment, but man. Some of it, no way.

- Apparently electricity isn't the only thing on the lam here. Botswana is facing water shortages, so at camp we had an entire day without water. The government has scheduled water cuts over the winter season. No flushing, no taps, no water period. I didn't realize just how often I use water. Especially when working with clay! If I had any germophobe tendencies, they died weeks ago. I literally went from handling clay and playing in the sand to eating with my fingers. Who am I?! Interestingly, I haven't gotten sick yet. Immune system of steel? I just knocked on wood.

- The camp also had pretty unreal DJs playing in the morning and during meals and free time. Like, full on DJs. They were playing mostly African house, which I'm pretty sure is now one of my new favourites genres (along with Botswana gospel music). It was like Canadian remixes with this added layer of cool African beats! Plus, if there is one thing people rock at here, its dancing. I LOVE IT! Everyone dances. Like, you can be 5, you can be 60, as long as there is music, everyone grooves. Even if people are just standing and talking, they are still feeling the beat. Its the BEST! EVERYONE has rhythm. And their moves are just so GOOD! I feel like the worst dancer on the planet here.

- I had a HILARIOUS run in at the tiny shop. On my last day, the lunch left much to be desired, so I went to get a smokie/hot dog thingy. I walked in, asked for a hot dog, and the lady starting preparing it. Then, another staff who I'd had a previous run in with (when I was trying to get change for my 100 pula bill… another gongshow) walked in and realized I was taking the last normal size hot dog. The rest were all gigantic Russian hot dog things, 5 pula more expensive than hot dogs. He started asking the lady all of these questions. Finally, he turned to me, and was like "Look, did you book this hot dog?" Did I BOOK it?! You have to BOOK a hot dog? No, I didn't book it, I just walked in and ordered it!!! Apparently someone had "booked" it earlier, but hadn't paid. So the two of them stood there for ages discussing whether or not I had the rights to the hot dog. Eventually I just laughed and left. It was soooo funny! Can you imagine?! "Yes, I'd like to book a hot dog for tomorrow at 3pm please!" Kate and I laughed our heads off.

- Last night I couldn't sleep because the camp chants were soooo stuck in my head. I kept singing them (chanting them?) when I was making dinner and Kate was threatening to kill me

- Overall I enjoyed camp. I just feel really exhausted from the lack of sleep and super high energy levels. I also SERIOUSLY miss my SSI kids. The kids at camp were pretty cool, but by the third day I was like okay… I miss my pals. At one point these kids at camp were plugging their noses when they were talking to me, and everyone found it really hilarious. I eventually got them to spill what that was all about, and apparently thats what we sound like to them. Siiiiiiigh. The SSI kids have better manners.

- A major shootout goes to the staff at Stepping Stones!!! It was mostly our team facilitating the camp, and the SSI people are incredible at what they do! Their ability to get the attention of a gigantic mob of kids and KEEP it is nothing short of amazing. I'm so lucky to work with all of them! And a few of them even braved sleeping at camp, although one of them cracked and ended up getting someone to bring his tent. If a tent is better than the dorms, I sure am glad I didn't stay! But yes. Stepping Stones International has one hell of a team!

So. I finished camp last night (Friday), and had Teen Club at 8:30 this morning. I CANT EVEN WAIT TO SLEEP IN TOMORROW MORNING!!!!!

Ten minutes after I arrived at camp... a LITTLE daunting!

The one familiar face I knew!

I squished him shortly after- there wasnt a lot of clay to go around!

This beautiful overhead trellis thing they had

Making their fantastic power animals

Oh hey, you're precious (AND creative) !

Some of the finished animals!

Setting up chairs for a session

The leaders were PROS at getting the kids engaged

Follow the leada, leada, leada

Playing a mingle game

Well, thats one way to get a badminton birdie down

Painting!

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Teen Club:

Man. My most heavy experience to date, and I still feel raw from it. I will write about it, but its awful, so skip this if HIV/rape is a trigger for you.

Teen Club is this excellent program organized by Stepping Stones for HIV positive youths in Mochudi. Arounnd 40 youths came today. The purpose is for the kids to come together and discuss their lives and support one another. The group meets once a month, so I had been preparing myself for it since I got here. I knew it would be tough but I'm really interested in the HIV/AIDS epidemic and how it relates to education, so I was happy that I could be a part of it. But my godddddd. Its called Teen Club, so I was expecting teenagers. I was NOT expecting such tiny and young people to show up. Some of them as young as 11 years. And the absolute worst part: seeing a handful of my beloved kids from Stepping Stones, some of them my readers, walk through the door. I knew some of the SSI kids were HIV positive but I didn't know who, so it KILLED me to put faces to it. I was devastated. The session itself was actually very happy and fun, but I was two seconds away from a total meltdown the entire time. With each SSI kid that walked in, it was like god no, not them. Its so hard for my heart. So yeah. I don't know. Its just awful. These kids are amazing to keep on going. It certainly puts my own life in perspective. But there is nothing more unfair.

Sooooooooo

I ate a lot of chocolate today and Kate and I had a much-needed life chat (thanks again Kate), and I'm sure I'll feel better in the morning.

But yeah. Brutal times.

Siiiiiiiiiiiiigh.

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Moving on from depressing things, and because I dont want to end on such a sad note, here are some other things I've noticed:

- I can't even believe I didn't write about this before, but OMG! Bras!!! Bras the are key to life here. And not for support reasons, although thats a great thing too. Bras here are the MOST WONDERFUL purse you will ever need. I brought a purse and haven't even used it once because of the risk of theft. Every single day, my money and I.D.s are kept on one side, and on the other side I often have a phone or a camera. Its the beeeest, especially with cold weather since the layers mean no one even notices my lopsided boobs. Even with a t shirt I can successfully hide my money and cards no problem. Sometimes even my cell. So yes. An entire paragraph is devoted to the amazing wonder of bras as purses. Actually, now that we're talking about bras, Under Armour sports bras deserve all the trophies on the planet. Just an FYI if you're on the hunt for a magical sports bra made by the bra gods in heaven above.

- Keys are really cool here. They're really old looking.

- Hygiene. So as you have heard, I am deeply missing showers, and initially I was like !!!!!! I AM SO FILTHY! Well, I have settled into my greasy life better than ever these days, and LITERALLY don't bathe for five whole days. FIVE DAYS people! The latest hygiene trend? Baby wipe showers. Yes. It's exactly what it sounds like. It's so funny too, because if there was ever a time where I NEEDED to bathe, it would be here. At camp, for example, I was soaking in sunscreen all week and it was a sandstorm almost everyday. Sticky skin + sand? I am griiiiiimy! I wore the same outfit the entire week. Aaaaand I don't even care anymore. YOLO! Africa livin!

- We are settling into the new place, and although there have been a few challenges to the new set up, it has been decent! AT LAST I have an outlet in my room, so my quality of life has improved dramatically!!! I can actually lay in bed and watch things and charge things to my hearts content (as long as we have power)! Hoorayyy! Its the small things in life. Like electricity!

So thats all for now. Oooh and exciting news: Kate and I will be traveling next weekend, so you probably won't hear from me for a little while. We'll be away from the 12th-16th. The 15th and 16th are public holidays. We'll be heading out to see some ANIMALS! Woooooo!!!! Details when I return :)

Peace and love!!!

An example of the crazy converting we do to use our stuff. This is in Kate's room. Botswana has THREE different kinds of plugs! Aaaaand none of them work for us.

Cows often travel RIGHT in front of our house! This was on the walk back from work

Cool keys!

Holy Toledo! One whole MONTH!

(Sooooo I just posted this and realized its a novel... My apologies!) 

Hey friends!

Guess what? I've lived in Africa for a whole month!!! Sometimes I'm like, wait what?! I'm in Africa?!?! But mostly I think my head has processed this information. Mostly. 

Botswanaaaaaa you sure are crazy sometimes!

SO.

Week four was pretty solid all around! Here are some things that happened. 

- First of all, Art for AIDS came and did a session, and oh my GOD it was great! It was so, so, so great. Go to their website (www.artforaidsinternational.org) to check them out, its a Canadian-based organization, and the guy who runs it (Hendrikus Bervoets) is phenomenal. The session was held with the older youth at Stepping Stones. He started out by introducing himself, and shared some pretty personal details of his initial struggle as a young adult and his bleak future being a father of two before turning 24. He continued to tell us about how he found his passion for art, and did a complete 180 in his life. He then talked about HIV and AIDS in Botswana. Botswana has the second highest prevalence of HIV in the world (first being Swaziland, third being South Africa) so its obviously a REALLY big issue here. He got everyone to reflect on the impact of 1 in 4 people being HIV positive, and stressed the importance of getting tested. He spoke about the essentiality of being secure in ourselves so we can make good choices, and about the meaning we can get in life when we focus our energy on something we are passionate about. He was basically full of wisdom and everyone was really captivated. THEN, he taught us all how to make collages. I feel like generally speaking, I'm not a big fan of collages. But these were NOT your average-Joe collages. THESE were crème de la crème, beautiful, artistic collages. He taught us a whole bunch of techniques to make each collage look unique and expressive and the pictures he supplied were basically National Geographic-style images. The students were SO engaged in this process, I've never seen them so focused. Art is a bit of a luxury here so it was excellent that everyone had a chance to produce something beautiful. Their creative juices were flowing and they were rocking it! And here's the cool part. After participants in Art for AIDS complete their collages, he takes them all, and selects certain ones to be shown at exhibitions all around the world. The chosen prints are sold at the shows and online (hint hint- check them out) and all the funds go to supporting AIDS education programs and running their workshops. This basically gives any child the potential opportunity to gain international recognition as an artist! And as if THAT isn't cool enough, after the collages are taken and the prints are made, they are sent back to where they came from so every student gets a beautiful print of their collage to take home with them. AMAZING! I'm so grateful that I had such good timing. Taking part in that session was so educational and FUN! And the program itself is really quite something.

Hendrikus Bervoets doing an Art for AIDS International workshop. AMAZING!

Working on their masterpieces

So much creativity!

The final products- SO NEAT!

Such great pieces

- I co-facilitated another session this week with the leadership youths (the older ones), and I am beginning to understand the IMMENSE challenge of facilitating in comparison to teaching or participating. As a teacher, you have most of the authority and you kind of spew your knowledge at someone. As a participant, you can voice your perspective and position yourself for or against whatever you want. A facilitator, however, guides a discussion and let participants use their own knowledge to come to a conclusion. Tricky tricky tricky business. The session was called "Leader for a Day" and students were asked what they would do, and how, if they were elected as the president of Botswana right that very moment. Most of the things the students were focusing on were excellent ideas. But then, we started talking about the death penalty, and I'd say over 80% of these kids were ADAMANTLY for re-instating it. I am very much against it. But of course, as a facilitator, I needed to stay relatively neutral. The kids voted, and almost everyone agreed that if you kill someone, you should be killed. I had to respect their democracy, but it was HARRRRD! I was challenging them a bit (what about prison reform? what about the perpetuation of violence? what type of culture does this create? is it just a bandaid for a broader problem? etc etc) but they were having none of it. So… much to my dismay, it was the third most important priority for these hypothetical presidents. It was a challenge for me. And I should also add that moderating a debate on hot topics like abortion was EXHASTING! Basically everyone yelled over everyone and I spent most of my time trying to get some kind of order to the debate. Phewwwww!

- Special education reading is the most phenomenal way I could ever spend my time. Every single time I meet with these kids, I get a little better at customizing our sessions, and the progress the kids make is 100% the best thing on the planet! I'm seriously head over heels for these kids. I love love love them!

- We also randomly had a trio come from the US to run a session on country music. If you didn't know, country music is my kryptonite, but I was pleasantly surprised by it all. It was actually pretty fun and with minimal twang. They were a talented family for sure, and the kids were SO entertained by the concept of "Yeeeehawwww!" Plus, they played "Wagon Wheel". I never in a million years thought I'd hear that godforsaken song all the way in AFRICA!

Country music. In Africa.

The kids were VERY entertained by the sounds of the banjo

- I can buy vegetable curry in a can, and it tastes good! This is really exciting!

- Its really funny how things shift. Now, its things like having full screen brightness on my laptop that are real treats

- I had a super interesting conversation with a co-worker about the challenges successful women face in Botswana. There is this thing here called "pull her down" syndrome that people refer to here, and I guess men have a particularly hard time with women who are independent and educated. I think this majorly stems from notions that masculinity/manhood means being a provider. This definitely speaks to how complex gender oppression can be. Some women may be groundbreakers with their success, but they are still have an entire society that is resisting their empowerment. I could write a lot a lot about this, but for now I'll leave it at this.

- On a completely different note about manhood, I'm learning more about Men Care. You HAVE to watch the videos on www.men-care.org. I watched them and was literally in tears of happiness to see the beauty of fathers becoming involved and loving parents to their children. Yes, I am a total sap. But it was SUCH a great thing to watch!

- Power outages power outages power outages power outages! ALL THE TIME power outages! On Friday the power was out from 11am to 930pm, and it threw a major wrench in my plans that day. When it went out we were like siiiiiigh, another outage. It usually doesn't last long in the day. But this went on for AGES! We ended up just playing with the kids for hours since there was nothing else to do. The kids are now on winter holidays for a month and they're out of school until August 6th. Its kind of neat to see them in normal street clothes. This means they will be at the centre a lot longer during the day. I'm totally up for it. The more time I spend with the kids, the happier I am.

- I miss the internet. I miss it for obvious reasons (like duhhhhh, life is incomplete without videos of dogs on surfboards) but I mostly miss having constant/easy access to information. I'm always like "Ahhh I gotta remember to Google that next time I'm online." And the other day I wrote my uncle an email in French and it was like … no translating websites?! Vocabulary challenges over here!

- I called my 93 year old grandmother, and she NEVER in a million years expected to hear from me, so it was a really great conversation. She could barely believe I was actually in Africa. Mom has been reading my blog to her, so she was like "ohhh my dear, it is SO nice to hear about that BORG of yours!" Hahahaha my grandmother is the best human!

- Botswana has Skittles. Its a miracle. I brought one pack of Skittles and I was saving them for a dire, dire time, but I'm in luck!

- I don't know what is happening, but I am BIG TIME FAILING at hand shakes. So sometimes you shake someones hand. Sometimes, you fist bump. Sometimes, you shake, lock thumbs, and shake again (for an added level of "hey, we're friends"). Sometimes, when your name is Shila, you shake someones fist, or miss the thumb lock thing and awkwardly let go, or fist bump someones handshake. I can't even believe how often I screw it up. Kate gets it right every single time, and I am the BIGGEST awkward turtle with introductions. I am determined to get my act together. Yiiiiiiiikes!

- Friday night we finally went to a bar. It was… interesting. We attract a lot of attention since we're by default the only white people virtually anywhere, so when we entered this very rural bar we were a bit of a scene. The main demographic was middle-aged men, so it was a little intimidating. Luckily we had our neighbour Kemelo with us as a guide and translator. I ended up with a cooler instead of a cider because of a language disconnect, and Kate successfully ordered a beer. It was interesting because the DJ was UNREAL, it would have been epic to dance to the beats, but there wasn't much of a dance floor going on. Also, it was so strange, Botswana is really into braai. Braai is basically a BYOM party (bring your own meat, obviously), so you show up to the bar with your own meat, and everyone cooks it on a big fire. Random or what! Lots of families have braai, which makes sense because its like a barbecue, but the whole cooking meat at a bar is so strange.

- We went to the capital on Saturday and we had kind of reached our threshold of attention from strangers. Gabarone was even more nutty than usual since it was the end of the month AND a long holiday. Batswana only get paid once a month, so at months end people FLOCK to shopping centers/restaurants to spend their newfound dollaazzzzz. It was too much though. Public transit is a little intense sometimes. There is zero concept of personal space and sometimes the buses are so full that we have to cram into the aisles and stand for the ride. We came home straight home after getting our bedding. A night at the bar followed by a CRAZY busy day in Gabs was a little too much.

- Sunday was MOVE DAY!!! We are now settling in to a house where we each our own bedroom, and it seems like a decent set up so far. We are living with a 19 year old student and he has been really accommodating, and for the first time since getting here I'm fully unpacked, have space for my things, and don't sleep a meter away from Kate. We both deserve BFF medals for getting along so well for an entire month cramped in a room together. The new space is a breath of fresh air, although I’m losing Kate’s good influence of going to bed early and my night owl ways are already creeping back in. I hung up my pictures, set up my reminders from home, and I'm getting used to the new space. My room doesn't have an electrical outlet at the moment so we're going to have to work on that. It would seem that I'm not destined to have charged electronics these days. We will miss our host family and seeing Kemelo everyday after work, but we'll be visiting them for sure.

- Today (Monday) is a public holiday, President's Day, so we had the day to ourselves! Happy Canada Day! It was nice to sleep in my new bed, and it was THE MOST WONDERFUL to have an actual pillow that isn't as flat as a pancake. What a treat! Kate and I went back to the capital today and we got a few more things for the new place. Hitchhiking is proving to be a muuuuuch easier/less crazy method of transportation- and I promise its safe and super common to do. We also went to see Monsters University, that animated kids movie, and it was LOVELY!!! It was really enjoyable to shut my head off and the movie itself was great. We followed that with a nice meal and some ice cream. We had a little trouble finding our house in the pitch black after the bus dropped us off, so that was a little stressful, but we're back home, my belly is full, and all is well for me in Botswana!

- This week I'll be heading to the bush for a camp being held for youths from Mochudi, so if you try and get in touch with me I'll be off the grid until next week. There will be 250 ish kids there (sadly not my beloved SSI wonders) and I'll be sleeping in dorms with them in the middle of nowhere. I think it will either be fun or a gongshow- only time will tell! I'll be doing another sex ed session there and helping facilitate everything. Wish me luck!

Thats all for now. Thank you so much to everyone who has written, it is the BEST!

shilaleblanc@gmail.com

www.steppingstonesintl.org 

A badass cactus

One half of my window sill with my good luck charms from Canada <3

My new roooooom!

Our sign language teacher.

A vanilla latte! I just died and went to heaven!!!

Happy Canada Day!!!

The kids just hang off of us and its pretty great

The beeeeautiful sunset on our walk home!

Our little cutie, so knowledgeable about current affairs!

This is our neighbor Kemelo!