"The Village"

I have moved to the “village.”  Serowe is a village of about 70,000 (a town by most US standards, but here they call pretty much everything that is not one of the two cities a village).  As I mentioned previously, it was the home of the first ever president of Botswana and birthplace of the current president Ian Khama (the first president’s son).  As such, it is a village that is well looked after which is probably one of the reasons that the large “referral” hospital was built here.  You can see pictures and description of the hospital here.
I officially moved here last September 1st.  It has been an adjustment.  Gabarone is a large city with many restaurants, movie theaters, etc.  In Serowe there is not as much of a recreational life.  However, there are high quality supermarkets, plenty of furniture (I’m not sure who buys things there as furniture is pretty darn expensive) and clothing shops, gas stations, a few hotels with restaurants, and tons of bars.  However, the internet infrastructure is lagging behind, there are many more dirt roads, there are many fewer foreigners, many more bugs and other critters, and very few doctors.  I am trying to get internet set up in my house which has been a process.  Though I live right next to the post office which has internet, (they even have an internet cafe but it closes at 4 pm), the Botswana Telecommunications Company says that all the lines are full (whatever that means) so there is no room for me to have a landline or internet.  I am working on looking into cell phone based satellite internet options, but until then might be hard to get pictures on the blog (there are so many to upload but they will come with time ;)  Despite the frustrations it feels good to finally fully unpack and feel more settled. 
I am working at many different sites in the area.  The hospital which is very nice, was built a bit outside of the main village and in a country where most people do not have cars this presents a challenge for the patients.  Many of them are continuing to go to the smaller local health clinics for care as they are more convenient.  Up until now, our program has provided support for two days each month to the main hospital’s clinic but we have not been helping at the smaller local sites.  I will be trying to roll out the support.  However, this is a challenge as there are no maps, no street names, and the clinics operate on a skeleton crew (often there is only a doctor once a week).  With the help of some locals, I have located two of the clinics and though there was no doctor there when I found them last week; I now know which days doctors will be there.  In addition to Serowe, I will also be working in two surrounding villages (Palaype (about 30 min away) and Mahalapye(about 1.5 hr away).  Both of these villages have larger hospitals and surrounding clinics as well, so I will be trying to work out a schedule that can provide support to as many as possible. 

The good news is that without internet or much nightlife, I have had plenty of time to study for the Boards.  However, last Friday I did manage to meet up with Lincoln (a Peace Corps volunteer stationed in Serowe) and he gave me a great tour of the town and introduced me to the friends he has made in his year here.  Many of his friends are from Britain and South Africa, so I got the beginning lesson on how to watch cricket (which was playing on the TV at the hotel restaurant/bar where we hung out).  I’m afraid it will take many more lessons before I have any idea what is going on (as it is I was just starting to understand American football when I left the States).  I have also made friends with some of the Cuban doctors here so there is a possibility of Salsa lessons and improving my Spanish….

Last Saturday (after I studied in the morning), Julia and Raheel came up from Gabs and we went to the Khama Rhino Sanctuary (only about 30 min from my new house) for the afternoon.  It was incredible.  The Sanctuary was set up in 1989 after it was recognized that the Rhino population in Botswana was becoming extinct.  The first four rhinos arrived in 1993 and since then a few more have been relocated to the Sanctuary and many more have been born.  There are now 34 white rhinos and 3 black rhinos.  They roam in an area that is 4,300 hectares (10,625 acres) and some have been relocated to other national parks in Botswana as the land can only support about 40 or so.  It has been quite a successful project and the rhinos continue to reproduce.  At the Sanctuary one can drive around in his/her own car alone or with a guide or can go on a game drive.  We elected to get a guide but take our own car so we would be free to spend as much time as we desired.  Our guide “Mr. T.” was a wealth of knowledge and of course excellent at spotting the animals.  We saw 12 of the white rhinos including 2 babies, giraffes, a zebra, wildebeest, kudu, springboks, ostriches, warthogs, and many different species of birds.  The black rhinos did not feel like showing their faces but we got up close and personal with a few of the white rhinos.  It was a great day and I know I will be back to visit many times in the future!