Village Life

Village Life, Dec 29th
Many of the Peace Corps volunteers live in government housing compounds built for those working in schools and government institutions. However, several of us live in houses within the villages. My village is called Molepolole, which has over 50,000 people. It is one of the oldest. Its first chief came up to Botswana because of the tribal wars in South Africa. He also asked for protection from the British against the Boers. Actually David Livingstone lived here for a while with his family and was friends with the chief. My school is named after one of the chiefs and his son is now the third one to rule in the family.
My ward is Goo Ntlo Edibe, which means house of the sin. (Not sure how it got that name.) The father of my original host family is the kgosi or chief for the ward. He is paid by the government and is in charge of the kgotla, or meeting house. There are village committees for health, development, education and other things. Trucks drive through the ward usually in the morning or evening announcing meetings and important messages with a loud speaker. One cannot under estimate the importance of protocol here and going through the proper channels.
The ward is maybe 10 or more square blocks of winding dirt paths and roads and hundreds of people. Each family compound is about the same size, about a quarter of an acre. Because the Land Board hands out the land, the compounds are all about the same size. My compound has a main house, two small ones and a traditional round hut with a thatched roof. I live in one of the small houses, the daughter and her daughters in the other, her mother and father in the main house, and son in the traditional hut. So there are three generations on this compound which is not that uncommon since many people have children without having husbands. Economic times are hard in most cases, so living together makes sense. The grandmother in my compound is a retired primary school teacher with a pension and lands a few hours away where she raises some crops and a few cows and goats.
Although compounds are the same size, they are not all equal. The number and types of houses may vary in number and in quality of construction. However, most are constructed with cement blocks that they usually make themselves using a mold. The roofs are tin or thatched. The neighbors may or may not have electricity or water. Some have a stand pipe outside for water and others have water in the house. In my case I have both water and electricity inside. My electricity comes from via a cord in the main house. My electricity often goes out since the family forgets to pay for electricity. Sometimes the whole village is without electricity or water for short or long periods of time. The water in my case is in the bathroom which serves as my kitchen sink. I have a gas stove attached to a huge gas cylinder. My fridge is electric and plugs into the wall. My house has no ceilings other than a hot tin roof which resonates with noise when it rains. The ceilings have a web of white plastic tubing that contains electrical wires, I suspect. The floor is smooth, grey cement.
Despite unequal accommodations and access to utilities, the social life is on-going with people dropping in to chat beginning at 5:30am until dusk. To begin with many people are related to each other. For example, this past week elderly relatives died in different compounds. So there are uncles, cousins, “sisters” and “brothers” all over the place. When there is a funeral, all relatives from near and far come as well as neighbors. The same goes for weddings. In both cases you do not have to be invited. You can always drop in for free food. This is important since the majority is unemployed. Whether drunk or sober, young or old, disabled or healthy, everyone seems to be treated with respect in terms of the formal language. (Note I cannot understand what they are saying most of the time beyond the formal greeting.) A book entitled, Juggling Truths, by Unity Dow, a former high court justice and wife of a former Peace Corps volunteer, is about life of young children growing up in the village. It sounds amazingly realistic.
In terms of religion, there are many formal and inform Christian churches in the ward. There is also a small Mosque nearby that many South Asian business owners attend. We do have some well off Indians living in the ward. The majority of people attend a form a Christian evangelical church. They usually wear what looks like a Salvation Army or scouting uniform to church. Women might wear blue or green skirts with white shirts and a matching scarf. I have been hesitant to attend because the services last several hours. The music is generally very lively. As a matter of fact, people spontaneously sing at most events. It is really great to hear.
Most compounds have sandy yards with a few trees for shade. Goats, donkeys, chickens, dogs and cats tend to run free throughout the ward. I think most go home to eat at night, but who knows. Children also wander around. There is not a problem of getting lost and most times there are people at home in most of the houses.
So this is long way of saying, I feel fortunate to live in a family compound in the village as opposed to a government compound. Life is happening all around me. I only understand a small amount of what goes on around me and this keeps me guessing. Most of the beliefs and practices I will never know since I am an outside. But I fill in the blanks with my own filtered truths, as may be the case.
On finishing this piece, I stepped outside my door to see a beautiful double rainbow in the aftermath of a light rain. This comes after a day full of beautiful cumulus clouds before a sunset of a red and orange sky against the backdrop of low thorn trees and bushes on the distant hills. All this makes a scenic setting for relatively quiet village life. So that is how it looks today. I realize this is a rather lengthy description. Hope it is clear. Let me know if there are other topics you would like address. I also apologize if I have been repetitive in my accounts. I do hope to post photos at some point when I get a little help from my friends.