Thank you Kyle & Justin

So sometimes i totally lose my mind. Thank you Kyle and Justin for pointing out my error. It's the Broncos. I don't know why i typed Bruins. I guess i was not paying any attention.

I love you guys. I'll talk to you soon.

Pictures

Here are a couple pics. The computer is slow, so it's only two



This is my puppy, Jerome Bettis!!! See I am not starving him to death.



This one is a picture of Sega and I doing prep work for the Independence Day celebration at the Kgotla. Don't you just love my apron?

Time for an update

I have a feeling that most of you have been wondering what exactly I have been doing lately and I humbly apologize for my lack of blog-ing lately but things have been busy.

Okay so to catch you up on the ever-changing life of Kara “Refilwe” Tokar. I am in the middle of planning a football (soccer for all you Americans) tournament that my village is hosting next month. It has been semi-stressful because right now I am the only one in my village really working on the preparations. However, it is certainly coming along and I promise to post pictures of the event after it happens. In addition, I will have better pictures than the ones from the Choir competition because I will certainly not be playing in any of the games during the tournament. Lol.

This month has also been a serious month of planning in my district of Botswana. The District AIDS Coordinators office has been planning all of next years events and I have been working with them to plan the events in my village as well. Not only that, but Bots National Tree Planting Day is coming up next month (the weekend after my football tournament) and I am on one of the committees planning that event. That means I am going to meetings at least 3 times a week now and at least one of them is in Kasane. I am also planning my youth activities for next year as well. Therefore, I have been semi busy lately.

Good news from the youth end of things… I had my first meeting with the Primary school girls for a club I am starting in my village called GLOW (Girls Leading Our World). It was an impromptu meeting because I wasn’t planning on them the day it happened, but I was thrilled at how well everything went. I explained what GLOW was to the girls and then asked what kinds of things they would want to talk about at our meetings. They had so many ideas; I couldn’t help but get extremely excited. It looks like I will be teaching everything from Sex Ed to the perils of having a boyfriend. I am definitely not an expert on Sexual Education, so I am calling in another PCV who knows WAY MORE than I do about both the male and female reproductive systems. But I think I have plenty enough experience to field the perils of having a boyfriend questions and discussions. Lol. Honestly some of their questions they put in the question box (made to encourage asking the most difficult questions to ask) floored me. For instance, “Why does a girl have to have a boyfriend?” “Why is a boyfriend important in our lives?” “HIV can be transmitted to a person when they do what?” “If you don’t have a boyfriend, what is the point of your life?” “What is menstruation?” “Why do boys want sex so much when they see a naked girl?” and my favorite … “ What is patriotism?” (the oddball question). Some of these are just impossible to answer in this culture. From everything I have seen I am not quite sure its possible to get through high school without having multiple serious boyfriends. So I have some culture/soul searching to do in order to come up with some good answers that will spark discussion among the girls.

I am also starting a GLOW club at the Junior Secondary School in my village. I am completely stoked about it too. I can do so much more with the older girls because most of them are going through all of the relationship problems right now. So I know I will be able to make a difference with them. They also have a lot more English under their belts so the language barrier is not a concern. I am applying to take 3 of the JCSS girls with me to a GLOW camp in December. I really hope we get to go because it could have an amazing effect on the girls in my village. The GLOW camp is a 10 day camp for girls from around the country. It is put together by a couple of PCV’s and each GLOW group is brought in by a PCV and a community member. So I will be able to share ideas and get the best practices from other PCV’s who have been doing GLOW longer than I have.

Very exciting news for those of you out there who were worried I would be terribly lonely out here all by myself. I got the most adorable puppy this past week. I of course named him after my favorite (ex) Steelers player Jerome Bettis. I had been talking with Kali about names and she suggested historical names. Then I was going to go with an Author, but it hit me the night I brought him home. His mother is a golden yellow and his father is jet black. Hello – Steelers colors! Since I can’t be there in front of the TV to cheer for my team the next couple seasons, I have a little Steeler living with me now. I must tell you that he has caused some controversy within my community. One, I am still deciding if he is going to be an inside dog or not, so I am house training him. The moment anyone hears that he sleeps indoors they freak out on me. I have had amazing luck so far because Jerome has only peed on my cement floors a couple of times, nothing else. But everyone in my village believes Jerome is going to turn my whole house into his personal toilet and poop everywhere. I understand that this culture does not raise inside dogs, so no one has the experience to house train one. But Jerome is actually extremely smart and prefers to go outside. Two, everyone is on my back about what I am feeding Jerome. I bought puppy dog food and he seems to be happy with that. Plus he gets rice and meat every once in a while. I am certainly not starving my dog by any stretch of the imagination but that’s what you would think if you heard my clinic staff. I get accosted by them each morning about what Jerome is eating and if I am feeding him enough meat. I told them he eats dog food and I thought they were going to take him from me because apparently dog food is not good enough or healthy enough for an African dog. I am baffled by this because half the dogs in my village are always searching for food because no one feeds them, yet I feed my dog a couple of times a day and I’m starving him to death. You can see for yourself he is by no means going hungry!

Moving on… computer classes are at the moment on hold in my village. The youth center where the computers are located is under permanent staffing issues. The girl who is supposed to be here now working is never in my village and neither are the keys to the building. I am working on getting a set for myself but that takes time and mostly never ending patience. (Speaking of that… whoever has been praying for patience for me, knock it off, I have plenty!) I am also waiting for typing programs so I can work with the teachers at both the primary and secondary schools. Most of the teachers know how to work at computer, they just can’t type. So that’s the scoop on that.

Quick comment going back to the Steelers and my lack of game watching ability. I am extremely jealous because my PCV neighbor in Kasane has been getting the Broncos games on DVD. I don’t care to watch the Broncos play unless they are up against the Steelers. So if it is at all possible for someone to tape the games, burn them on a DVD for me, and send me them to watch on a regular basis, I would be the happiest girl in the world! (You won’t have to send the Oct. game against the Bruins because my PCV neighbor will have that one).

This blog has become way longer than I had expected, so I am going to go now. I will try to update more often. I’ll keep you posted! I love and miss you all.


PS. Happy 50th Birthday Dad. I know it is late but I hope you had a blast jumping out of the plane and at the party. I love you

I don't have time to post the pics today, but i will post them tomorrow.