Dear family & friends,
End of June, 2003

It’s been a busy learning curve and hard to know what to write as it feels as if there’s material for several theses. I’ll start with a little talk about the photos in this installment. The family members I live with are Maggie 74, Ishmael, Mothusi, Bonolo, Desiree, Oratile, Khumo, Snoopy & Lesadi (family helper). Two high school girls often come for weekends/holidays. Most of the time Ishmael prefers to stay somewhere where they have a few cattle. They refer to this place as "the mountains" but it doesn’t take more than an hour to get there and it’s pretty flat around here. Someday they will take me… My parents had 13 children and all these in the house are either their grand or great grandchildren. It almost seems more common for grandmothers to raise the children than mothers, and fathers often seem to have a very peripheral role.

Wendy's parents — Maggie and Ishmael  "name here is Kagiso (ka hee sho) which means Peace"

NAMES
Many here have both Setswana and English names. I am told this comes sometimes from the Christian missionaries and sometimes from the Afrikaans employers who wanted “easier” names to work with, and then it became customary. Also, the Setswana names usually are given for their meaning — sometimes related to something going on at the birth and sometimes a hope that the child will grow to take on those characteristics. A few examples with English interpretation: Mothusi – helper, Ntsako – happiness, Moabi – last born, Osego – lucky, Lesatsi – sunshine, Neo – gift. I was given the name Kagiso – peace. I arrived at this home on the day the US declared war on Iraq… not sure if that’s why but I do like the name and folks here are delighted when I introduce myself as Kagiso Montwedi. Names are not as gender defining as most of ours — any of the above names might belong to a boy or a girl. Since apartheid ended in ’91 and the new democratic constitution was formulated by the government elected in ‘94, there is an effort by some encouraging blacks to drop the English name appointment. Many of the children I know under 10 have only a Setswana name (& maybe a nickname like “Snoopy”). People can tell you in a flash the year any family member was born, but often don’t know their age without doing the math — opposite of our general practice.

COOKING
The photo of the women cooking shows the type of pot used by most rural families — over a wood fire. Notice how bleak the surroundings are — I wonder how long the environment can support this practice. The stick structure in back of the women is a kraal — shelter in which the daily meals are prepared. This photo was taken on the day of a special event at which an animal was slaughtered so the cooking area extended to outside the kraal and relatives came to take part in the process. These cooking kraals are rebuilt with fresh sticks every winter – photos show my mother (AMAZING what she does at 74!) beginning the process here now. The old sticks will be used as firewood. Kraals are also built to contain animals and as a special place for men to congregate during special occasions.

SPECIAL OCCASION
The special occasion when I took some of these photos was a “returning of the clothes.” When a man dies, his clothes are washed and put aside until the following winter. They are then delivered to an uncle (broad interpretation here — cousins are considered brothers — very difficult to figure family trees the way we define relationships) in the village of the mother of the deceased. Family of the deceased arranges for a goat or cow or sheep to be sent to the receiving family for slaughter the day before (usually Friday) the delivery. So the family (widely extended family coming from all corners) slaughters, butchers, cooks, eats that day… clothes are delivered in the dark of the night so fire has to be kept going for hospitality (strictest custom has clothes displayed on the branches of the men’s kraal and deliverers departing before sun-up). Then receiving family obtains and slaughters another animal that day (usually Saturday). Repeat of prep process and at some point “the uncle” calls all the family men together and gives away each article of clothing. My family has had 3 deliveries since I came — one this weekend from the tribal chief who died in December. Great amount of work and expense. When a woman dies, her clothes are washed and delivered right away to family members. No hoopala. Another time I’ll tell you more about funeral related customs.

FOOD
I am very fortunate in my family and housing. Most volunteers here have electricity but from what I hear, few have as nice a house as mine with easy transport to groceries etc. and many have just a room in the family house. Though mom and a couple of kids come here to sleep, I have it to myself the rest of the time. I have my own kitchen with stove and fridge so can easily buy/store/cook what I want without too much guilt that my family in the house next door usually has “pap” (maize porridge) for every meal. I can’t whine about food as I can find most of what I want, so I’ll just tell you the things I don’t find: tortillas (but I’ve learned to make them & they’re not bad!), cake mixes (but I have a recipe or 3 and have been successful in that too), cheese (but I can get it in bigger towns about an hour away so can “stock up” and it keeps), bread choices, crackers/chips (some cheetos type things come in minibags but no potato chips, soda crackers, wheat thins, trisket types), brown sugar (here its granulated and doesn’t act the same), peanut M&M’s, good licorice, jelly beans and Balance Bars! I know there are other things but nothing drastic. I get decent veggies, chicken, fish (frozen), there is beef and other red meat but I haven’t gotten any. The variety of brands and choices is very limited but that makes shopping much easier and the real cooks complain about lack of spices. The corn meal is different — ground finer and not as flavorful as ours. Cabbage has to suffice for lettuce needs. Good bananas, apples, oranges, tangerines. Peaches will be here in December so will see what else is good then. Had great mangos in our training village.

SCHOOL
The photos are all from Lekwene Primary which is doing a lot of positive things. The “learners” (official designation) line up by class groups every morning for about 10 minutes of assembly. They do some singing, an educator leads a prayer, they hear any announcements and mail is distributed to families who use the school PO box because they can’t afford their own. Some are barefoot even at this time which is winter, some wear only sox, many shoes don’t fit so heels are stepped down on or they may be swimming in them. Shirt collars, hems, cuffs totally frayed. One wants to help but where to start and where would the end be? Had a very nice HIV/Aids Awareness assembly put on in large part by nurses from the clinic down the road. Each child got a candle to light. Had to stand in assembly order for one hour. Can you imagine US kids doing that? Hmm....

The principal has wanted to have a newsletter so was happy when I offered to help with it. He and other educators wrote articles (in Setswana) and I plugged in photos and formatted it on my computer. Turned out to be 8 pages and all are very proud of it. This school bought a Minolta laser printer on a deal in which they got a copy machine free with purchase…but have no computer. They have been told by Dept of Ed they will be getting one soon but are so accustomed to failed promises that they aren’t counting on that and are saving money to purchase one. Priorities are very difficult as they have so few resources and there are good arguments for moving many things to the top of the list. There is no clerical staff and I see a computer as a great tool to shortcut a lot of copying, form making, and record keeping the educators spend time on now. They have one of the old crank mimeograph machines they run tests off with — quality is very poor partly because typewriter is poor. Hope to help them move into computer age. I’ve started working with some 6th graders on English. Kids here are fluent in 3 languages by the time they finish HS — Setswana, Afrikaans and English. Makes it easy for me to communicate on a basic level with most folks 6th grade and beyond! Yes I’m working on the Setswana but sure feel slow!

Well I could go on and on but must get on with life here so will stop.

Re email — there is one computer in Taung (at least that’s all the volunteers who have been in the vicinity 2 years have been able to find), and the charge is by the minute. Doesn’t take long to rack up a big bill… and Peace Corps doesn’t pay in big bills, so I only check in once a week. I do enjoy hearing what’s going on in the homeland but appreciate the short version and can’t promise much of a reply. These letters my sister is posting will mainly have to suffice for news from me. An interesting difference in services is that one has to pay ahead of time for phone and electricity — like putting gas in your car, so sometimes the Inet connection goes dead in the middle of my session and the shopkeeper has to go a few blocks away to buy more air time! So if you’re thinking of writing, snail mail seems to work and Lynn or Elsie or my sister can give you my e-mail address but I prefer it not to be published to the world.

Thanks for tuning in … until next time, go siame (ho see ah mee) “go well” – Wendy