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