IFYE Program Newsletter

Dumela from Botswana! Dumela means greetings, good morning, good afternoon, hello, etc. I have found it to be the most useful word in Setswana that I know. That might have a lot to do with the fact that it is the only word in Setswana I know! I am learning more every day, however.

So far, language has not been much of a problem at all. Most people that I've had contact with speak English. The reason for this is that English is actually the official language of Botswana, and the language used in school. Botswana is a former British protectorate, which kept it from becoming part of South Africa.

I left the IFYE orientation in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday, June 22, and arrived in Gaborone, the capitol of Botswana on Thursday, June 24. It was a long two and a half days of traveling! I had a couple of days of orientation in Gaborone before leaving for my first host family on Monday, June 28. I was briefed in the 4-B program (another newsletter topic), and the expectations, details and so forth of the exchange.

Now I am in my first village, Hebron, with my first host family. Mr. and Mrs. Phetlhu are an older couple aged 82 and 75 respectively. Mr. Phetlhu is the tribal chief for this village, and Mrs. Pletlhu runs the only village store and their farm. Their house is by far the biggest and nicest in the village.

There is one payphone, the only telephone in the village, and it just came in three weeks ago, after ten years of asking. Mail only goes out from this village once or twice a week. No one in the village has electricity, so that means the only hot water comes from heating a pot on a gas burner. We eat our dinner by candlelight and kerosene lamps. Mr. and Mrs. Phetlhu are very nice and welcoming. They have eight children, who all have children. You never know when someone (or who!) is going to stop by next. Three of the grandsons took me out to play agare, similar to pool, one evening.

So far, living with the Phetlhu's has been good. They seem to enjoy having another grandchild around. Mrs. Phetlhu calls me "Baby." I have tried to help out these first few days by pruning peach trees, cutting the corn field by hand, and trimming the onions. Working like this makes it fairly easy to go to bed at 10:00 p.m.

I will be staying with twelve different host families in Botswana, two weeks with each family. Most IFYEs only have around six host families. With all of those different families, I will have quite a variety of experiences.

I'd like to give you some background information to help you understand some of those experiences. What is now Botswana was originally settled by the San people (commonly known as Bushmen) as early as the 4th century AD. The Bushmen still inhabit some of Botswana's remote areas. The British protectorate, known as Bechuanaland, became the independent state of Botswana on September 30, 1966. Shortly after gaining its independence, Botswana discovered that it had diamond mines. Now, it is the world's third largest producer of diamonds (haven't seen one yet).

Botswana has maintained an impressively stable economy for this region of Africa. It is also considered a very peaceful nation. There has never been a war in Botswana, and their flag waves in testimony to this. The blue symbolizes the rain and water that are such precious commodities in this naturally arid climate. The black and white symbolize the nation's peoples. There is seemingly no racial tension in Botswana.

That's all for now.

Beth