Pre-departure Mini Crisis

Last Friday I had a mini crisis. I came back from the Y Care walk, sent Amy off to the airport, was dying from a cold, sat down at my desk, and started feeling sorry for myself. I realized I had only one more week here in Botswana, and all of a sudden I couldn't help but felt I have done nothing, learned nothing, and did not utilize my summer here well enough. While I know that is not the case, I'm only human and I'm subject to the same fears that everyone else is. I am afraid of being useless, I'm afraid I didn't try my best, I'm afraid of not being good enough. I was panicking. I was confused. I was sad.

I decided to re-read the book Getting to Maybe, hoping it will remind me some of the important things I have forgotten during my time here. I'm glad I did.

I was reminded that social transformations are not about heroic actions by one person. Instead, it's a system intertwined with complex relationships. During my time here, I saw what needed to be done, and I did what I could do at the moment. I made the interactions I needed to make. The lessons learned, the friendship built, the understanding created...were all part of what I was meant to do here. Whether or not the system has shifted because of my actions, I don't think that can be easily measured by a simple formula. What matters was, I was part of that system.

"Prepared to learn means, to be disappointed, to be energized, to be up and down, and most of all, to allow for imperfections. The universe gives us extra chances. Every person, contributing what he can, can make a difference, but no one can claim resposibility." - Getting to Maybe

My summer has not been perfect, but it's the imperfections that make it raw, make it real.

Special thank you to:
*Renjie, for reminding me that at the end of the day, it's about them, not me.
*Maryam, for reminding me to not get caught up in the glamour of international development and social innovation.
*Kristina, for reminding me everyone has a different battlefield. focus on what's right in front of me.

I survived 110km

I can't describe the Makgadikgadi Pans in words. So I'm just going to post photos. The walk itself was tough. The original route was wet so the alternative route we took was only 110km. We couldn't imagine walking for 40 more km....
The money raised will go towards local NGOs and supporting the youth leadership programme.
Thank you to all Y Care supporters:Elyse Redden, Marc Nameri, Grace Boyle, Susan Pogorzelski, Renjie Butalid, Nathalie Meurens, Tong Ziming, Samantha Karol, Carlos Miceli, Ben Huang, Pingbu Loke, Gertrude Wong, Alfe Clemencio, Myroslaw Tataryn, Hsiao Tung Lin, Shuxian Lin, Andrew Sin, Patrick Cheung, Nick Petten, Ali Suleiman, Stephen Perelgut, Fion Ho, Charles Chan

Each of you made a difference.

Fundraising with ChipIn

The least I can do for ST

Before we all left for the summer, I made a video for the Beyond Borders group, just talking about our hopes and fears for the summer. I remember saying I was most afraid of “just started on projects, getting the hang of it, and then I would have to leave.” Well, that’s precisely what I’m feeling right now.

In the month of June, I managed to finish doing the survey study. I spent 2 Fridays just going up to people on the street with questionnaires, along with help from Emmanuel and Sharon. Surprisingly people were much more cooperative than I thought. I had a sample size of 40 – 20 working professionals, 20 university students with a 50/50 male female ratio. It’s not the most extensive survey, but it’s all I could manage in the amount of time I have here from designing questionnaire, to collecting the data, to putting the report and presentation together. The result from the survey study is what I have expected. Very few people know about ST and a lot of people don’t understand why they should recycle. I can’t emphasize enough how important I think it is for ST for reach out to the community, be more visible and do more education. I talked to them about starting a blog and have them write about programs/events that ST takes part in, or general news in the environmental field relating to this area. We also talked about inviting faculty members and senior students from University of Botswana to guest post. I hope to get that started before I leave. I was really hoping to help revamp the website and add a new resource section, but due to challenges relating to our web hosts, I was unable to do so. I’m confident the student coming next term will be able to follow up on this though.

The workshop and cleanup event I was working on together with Matt went really well as well. On Wednesday Emmanuel and I made our way to Stepping Stones, bringing along with us the recycling bins that ST is donating to them, labelled glass, plastics, tins and paper. This time we primarily talked about why they should recycle and what happens to things after they get recycled. We also talked briefly about the kind of jobs that are available in the environmental field. The kids seem interested and Stepping Stones wants ST to go back and do more presentations in the future. These kids already have to take care of an organic garden and make necklaces from paper beads to sell. Our visit and presentation only reinforces the idea and hopefully sparks their interest in considering a career working with the environment.

Then Saturday was the cleanup day, which was also a big success. We met at Stepping Stones, and more than 70 kids showed up that morning. We were split into 4 teams, each responsible for one area to clean. The kids were super diligent in picking the litter and were separating the recyclables into different garbage bags. We met back at Stepping Stones at 11am where the kids were served lunch. WUSC was kind enough to support us by giving us funds to buy food for this event so we decided to have a braai (aka BBQ)! I heard everyone had a good time eating and playing soccer. Unfortunately I couldn’t be there for the lunch because one of the kids in my group got a really deep cut by broken glass so we had to take him to the clinic for stitches. Poor kid, no tears, not a single word. I liked him a lot too... when he was shown affection, he would have this shy smile on his face. I was sad that I didn’t get a chance to say goodbye to him. But all in all, I’m very proud of the workshop and cleanup event we put together. We have received nothing but positive feedback from people about the collaboration between ST and Stepping Stones. Hopefully this will continue and they will be able to do even more in the future!

I’ve only written about work twice on this blog but it’s already time for me to start writing handover notes and end of term report. The Y Care walk is coming up this weekend and I have less than 2 weeks left at work and in Botswana. It’s so easy to start doubting I’ve not done enough and did not utilize my time here well enough. But maybe that’s okay too. I came expecting to learn more than to contribute. I reminded myself this summer was not going to about me and what I have accomplished. Rather, I came to be humbled and to experience first hand the frustrations. I did what I could. Was there room for improvement and things I wish I did? Of course - and that will be for next time, hopefully. I miss home lots and cannot wait to be back in the comfort zone with family and friends again....

workshop at Stepping Stones

cleaning up the community

very proud of the event

Botswana Beauty

We finally got to see some Botswana beauty last week. Cathy, the regional director of WUSC, was nice enough to take all of us up to Maun and Shakawe for an “educational trip”.

I got to see Jason and Sabrina again, the 2 volunteers that I met at the beginning of the trip. They went up to Shakawe to work with TOCaDI after first week of orientation and it was really nice to see them again. I also met a new girl, Giulia. She is from Sicily, studies in the UK, and currently working on her master thesis trying to find out whether developing tourism will have any impact on the San communities.

The whole week has been so eventful. We visited a San community and bought jewellery made by them; we climbed the Tsodilo Hill, a World Heritage Site full of rock paintings drawn by the San people thousands of years ago; we visited Shakawe, the northest part of Botswana bordering with Namibia, we hiked on a trail that TOCaDI is working on, rode on a donkey-cart from one village to another, watched villagers perform traditional dances, slept in tents right by the Okavango Delta with the sounds of hippo, woke up the next morning and depart on a Mokoro boat right by where we slept, and ended the trip with a game drive in the Moremi safari.

The purpose of this trip was for us to experience Botswana culture that we wouldn’t be able to see otherwise in the capital city. At the same time, it was also for Sabrina and Jason to get feedback on how the whole trip itinerary would be like. ToCadi is an NGO developed to help with community-based tourism in the delta to ensure people in the villages know their rights as well as using their resources appropriately. What we did last week, would be what the tour operator would bring tourists through in the future.

It is so interesting to be able to see the beginning of all of this. I remember one of the guys saying to the villagers, “This is what tourism means. People come visit our village and we show them our culture.” There are awkward moments when both sides didn’t really know what to do or what to say. But that’s okay, we are all learning. The community we visited felt as though they weren’t as prepared as they could to show us all their culture. We were also worried whether we were acting appropriately and wanted to make sure we weren’t intrusive in the way we entered the community. Everything on this trip was so real and raw. No other tourists, no tourist traps, no people getting drunk. Being in the middle of villages and the wild just felt so surreal at times. In a way, it’s sad to know that this place might not feel the same anymore after tourists start visiting from all parts of the world.

As a country that has depended its last 40 years of development on its mines, the government of Botswana has come to realize the importance to diversity its economy. Expanding its tourism industry is one of the biggest areas that they are focusing on right now. Some guys from the Department of Tourism were on the trip with us. It was very interesting to hear them talk about the need to have Maun accept international flights, to have BTC to be able to route international collect calls, to ensure communities are protected and not exploited by tour operators, yet not too controlling such that they give enough room and freedom for the private sector to thrive as well.

All in all, it was such a good experience and we all had so much fun on the trip. We owe it big time to WUSC and Cathy for giving us this opportunity to see parts of the country that even the locals have not had a chance to.