IFYE Program Newsletter

I am well more than halfway through my time here and have almost completed the time with my eighth family. The village of Kalakamati was a lot of fun. It was my seventh family, and my host mother was a primary school teacher. She had her own home in that village, so I didn't stay in the usual teacher housing. There were five other kids also living in the house although only one of them was hers. The role of the extended family in Botswana is very important.

We celebrated Independence Day in Kalakamati on September 30. Botswana is 33 years old. Every village is given money from the government, according to population, to spend on the celebration. Most villages buy food, and that is what Kalakamati did. Everyone met in the morning at the kgotla. A kgotla is the village meeting place. The kgosi, or chief, of the village spoke along with a few other men.

Then some of the school groups performed. There was singing, dancing in various forms, and drama. Then everyone went to the school and ate lunch. Even though the day was unseasonably chilly, the Independence Day celebrations were fun and I was glad to be able to take part in them. The one thing that really surprised me was that I didn't see even one Botswana flag being waved. That may have been just in my village, though.

Independence Day was the day after I arrived in Kalakamati. The public holiday actually lasted for two days. I spent many of the rest of my days in Kalakamati walking in the riverbed or looking at the rock paintings. It hasn't rained in Botswana since March, so most of the rivers are completely dry. The riverbed was a nice place to walk and look for washing stones.

The rock paintings in the village were done by the bushmen when they inhabited that area around 800-1300 A.D. Most of the rock paintings I saw were of animals.

After Kalakamati, I came to the village of Themashanga. My house has no running water, but they use solar panels to provide electricity at night. They also use a generator to get enough electricity to run the TV almost every evening. On a couple of evenings, there have been more than 30 people crowded into our sitting room to watch it.

On October 16, Botswana had its national elections. Botswana has an executive president as head of state and a government. It is one of the few African countries with a multi-party democracy. The President is elected for a five-year term by the National Assembly, after which he appoints his cabinet members. The House of Chiefs, which is represented mainly by tribal chiefs, advises the National Assembly on matters concerning the tribes. The government here is stable and the constitution has remained almost 100% intact since it was written in 1966. The ruling party easily won this year's elections so President Festus Mogae will stay in office. He is Botswana's third president.

Botswana is also a stable country when it comes to economics. At independence, Botswana was considered one of the poorest 20 countries in the world. Now, mainly because of diamonds, Botswana has been able to accumulate huge foreign exchange reserves which, in per capita terms, is one of the highest in the world. Botswana is one of the wealthiest non-oil producing countries on the African continent. Diamonds, the beef industry and tourism are the top three revenue-earners for the country. The cattle population is about double the human population and most of the meat exports go the European community.

Roughly the size of Texas, Botswana has a population of about 1.5 million. It has one of the lowest population densities in Africa, but the figure is misleading because 80% of the population lives in the eastern third of the country. The northern two-thirds of the country lie above the Tropic of Capricorn.

The vegetation here is mainly tree, shrub, or grass savanna. About 80% of Botswana consists of sands from the Kalahari Desert.

The Kalahari is the largest continuous stretch of sands in the world. Seventeen percent of Botswana's total surface area has been set aside for ame reserves and national parks. An additional 22% is reserved for wildlife management areas. That means that 39% of the total land area is used for conservation-related practices. The wildlife is of the very best in Africa.

Botswana has two seasons--a rainy season, which is summer, and a dry season, which is winter. The rainy season lasts between September and April, but mostly it starts raining in late December and stops toward the end of February. The average annual rainfall is 19 inches, varying from 10 inches to 26 inches in different parts of the country. The reason for the low rainfall is that the moist air from the coast cannot penetrate the high atmospheric pressure that builds up over the country.

In October through March, the temperatures can soar to more than 110°F. The average is between 95°F and 105°F during mid-day. The night temperatures are usually around 75°F. Even during the winter, the daytime temperatures usually reach 80°F, lowering to between 40°F and 25°F at night. Only occasionally does the temperature drop below freezing. It has felt like summer to me ever since I came here, but to the Botswana, it gets very cold in winter. If the temperature falls much below 80°F, they all put on winter coats.

This family, the Kuli family, threw a going-away party for me. They bought a goat to be killed and everything. We cooked all morning making different types of bread, millet meal, sorghum and vegetables. The party started in the afternoon and lasted well into the evening. The chief and the headman of Themashanga came along with about 100-150 other people. It was funny because the party was for me but I was the one who knew the fewest people there. It was very nice for them to throw a party for me.

Now I am getting ready to go to my ninth village. Only four more to go. Hope everything in West Virginia is going well and that you enjoyed a beautiful fall. I am wearing shorts and tank tops almost every day and am enjoying the weather.

Beth Kleckner