Men's Sector 2008. A Success!

After many false starts and projects that only got as far as hopes, wishes and dreams in my overactive little imagination, the unbelievable happened! A successful event in Seronga! Although there are plenty of times I have experienced small successes, and moments of hope and pride and small triumphs that bring me joy, this was unprecedented.

I came to be involved with Men’s Sector (which is supposed to be male leaders in the community coming together and creating forums from which to help men address their issues and concerns surrounding HIV/AIDS) at the training to form the committee. There had actually been a bit of talk that was very discouraging for a white, western, “liberated” woman to hear that was women's fault when they were raped as they shouldn't be enticing men with their short skirts, and the reaffirmation that women were the property of their husbands as the husbands bought and paid for them with Lebolla, I figured the only way to help change these charming little misinfo's was to join them. So here I am.



The planning sessions for this event to "introduce the men's sector to the community" were too many in number, too long, tedious, overly focused (in my humble opinion) on the food, and nearly always completely in Setswana (which I really must get around to learning better).

It was an interesting thing for me to try to balance participation in the discussion with letting the committee make decisions on their own. I quickly learned to keep my mouth shut after we were all told to think about a theme for the event to present at the next meeting and I was the only one who had anything, which was unanimously approved without any other options offered up. After this I tried (big challenge for me) to just observe the planning process for this event. I wanted to see how the committee would set things up, to see what the organization would be and how things would work without much outside influence.

I offered to partner with someone to head the publicity committee (for which she promptly avoided doing anything, I found some ladies at the "restaurant" to help me) and took charge of the health quiz, which is one thing that wouldn't have happened without my involvement as no one saw any point to it. I recruited community members and some of the teenagers from the junior secondary school to administer the quiz so that they could educate people when they got answers wrong (in Setswana). It ended up working out really well as I wasn't really involved with the actual administering of anything, but rather overseeing the activity. I've noticed that often everyone is expected to participate in everything, and then you've got the problem of who deals with any problems that arise. It was a little awkward to get up on stage and interrupt the police investigator who was the chair of the committee, but hey, he was in charge..

I learned a lesson in trust when at one of the last meetings before the event, everyone began getting up and climbing into the backs of cars heading towards the police station. When I asked someone what we were doing they informed me that we were going to the police station to view the supplies and groceries that had been purchased for the event. I asked why, as we had just seen the receipt during the meeting. This apparently wasn't enough. We had to go look at the food, to ensure that indeed it was all there. When I asked my favorite question (what I've come to think of as "the second why") again, I was just told it was part of the culture. "But he's a policeman, don't we trust him?" This one is still a bit of a mystery to me.

The health quiz was a concept that was kind of tough to describe to the committee, but they sort of let me run with the thing on my own, which was good for the first event so that I could figure out what I wanted to happen as well. Education at a community event was a new concept, and one that got a little dicey at the actual event. At one point during the event the Men's Sector chairman tried to shut down the booth with the health quiz because the rest of the committee was complaining as they thought there were too many people waiting to take the quiz to win airtime (only cash would have made them more mob like) than there were people watching the dancing and songs. It took some firm negotiating to convince the chairman not to shut us down, but eventually I prevailed. I found myself thanking my lucky stars I had spent so much time building a relationship with him!

The event surpassed my expectations, which is the greatest gift I could have ever asked for. The health quiz happened, the entertainment was great, the food was chaotic but people were happy for the most part. I left the day with tears of joy flowing down my face. It was a shining of example of what I came here to do. And it only took 7.5 months!!!!!

I thought back to every time I've ever experienced tangible success before, at graduations, track meets, dance recitals, choir concerts. I remember the look on my mom's face, and how my grandma was always crying, how tightly my track coaches would grab me after a good race and how the director would beam after a great performance. I never understood until now that sometimes we can derive more joy from the accomplishments of others than we ever could with our own, that celebrating another's success could ever come to mean more to us than our own. It's another beautiful lesson I'll leave this village having learned.

Here's my "press release" that will hopefully go in the Okavango newsletter with photos and such- I've added some to picasa as well, hopefully they show up.

Seronga Men’s Sector Event:

“Men standing tall, walking proud and taking responsibility!”

On 22nd November, 2008, the village of Seronga hosted an event sponsored by the Seronga Men’s Sector with the theme “Men standing tall, walking proud, and taking responsibility.” Present at the event were the dikgosi of several neighboring villages, nursing representatives from the Seronga clinic, teachers from both the primary and junior secondary school in Seronga, members of the local and national police based in Seronga, as well as representatives from wildlife and BDF. Also present were the police chief from Gumare, the guest speaker Mma Knutson and nearly 400 villagers. The event began with a lively march in which the members of Men’s Sector Committee split into two groups and were led by the Scout Group down each road away from the Kgotla for a vigorous 3 kilometer round trip march. The weather was nice and not too hot, and although there were brief rain showers the Seronga Village Health Choir keep up the excitement by performing through the downpour! Throughout the day there were many songs, traditional dances, dramas, speeches, another performance by the Scouts and a tug of war to entertain the crowd.

In addition to the message being spread from the main stage, there were 2 side booths which continued to spread the message of Men’s Sector. Over 60 participants were awarded airtime, crisps, and oranges for their efforts in events in a challenging sexual health quiz. Villagers tested their knowledge of issues of HIV/AIDS health, prevention and transmission, PMTCT, IPT and reducing stigma. In addition over 30 people were voluntarily and confidentially tested by the by Gumare Counseling Center. All of the attendants enjoyed a lunch of meat, samp, rice, salads and cool drinks. It was a successful day for the Seronga Men's Sector!

Things in my life here that give me HOPE

Over the last 6 months in Seronga there have been many projects with potential, many that have fallen through, false starts, dead ends, and finally, a bit of success! There have been many instances of joy and many of.. well… something. I know I often use this blog as a forum from which to broadcast my frustrations and dissatisfaction with the state of things here in Seronga, but there are also lots of great things happening that remind me why I’m here, and bring a great deal of joy and happiness. Here’s a few.

Men’s Sector.
A few months back Dudu and the Gumare Counseling Center came to Seronga to present a workshop on Men’s Sector. It’s an organization that is comprised of the community “leaders”- high standing professional and tribal men in the community. The objective is to educate and empower these men, and for them to in turn encourage men in the community to be more involved with the PMTCT (preventing mother to child transmission) programs, as well as coming to get tested with their partners, taking more responsibility in their families and reducing violence against women. These last two messages often get lost in the shuffle, but hey, that’s what I’m here for, to provide gentle reminders/slash insistence that those issues be covered as well! The workshop was somewhat positive, with the Kgosi (chief) agreeing that when a wife is forced to have sex with her husband within the bond of marriage it is indeed rape, which was a high point, while the consensus that women and young girls should be forced to wear longer skirts as they were asking for some man to have sex with them when they wear short skirts was a definite low point. The frustrations of two liberal women were barely held at bay as Dudu and I bit our tongues, realizing that sometimes people have to come to conclusions through discussion with each other in order for them to take ownership of their conclusions. I made every attempt to listen more than I spoke and hoped for the best.

Most workshops in Botswana involve a great deal of talking about how things could/should be with very little action or follow up. Fortunately Seronga Men’s Sector doesn’t seem to be one of them. At the beginning of November I heard that they were planning an event for November 22 and immediately joined the committee (in what I will forever consider to be a position of nearly extremely forward thinking and progressive movement for a very rural African village, the Seronga Men’s Sector is comprised of not only men, but also several women. Whether this is because they want to have women around to work on the catering committee I will never know, but for my own peace of mind I choose to believe they are being progressive. Whatever helps me sleep at night, right!)

In the course of planning this event I have sat through countless meetings in the heat of the day and the haze of rain (our Kgotla, the traditional meeting place at which I am constantly reminded that I need to wear a skirt, is by tradition out in the open in the middle of the village) in nearly exclusive Setswana, learned the proper amount a cow and two goats should cost, listened to numerous discussions of what is generally deemed most important at an event like this – the planning for the food- begged for the inclusion of sexual health quizzes and games so that I can feasibly report this event for the ever present PEPFAR report that sometimes feels like the only tangible proof that we were here and served in the Peace Corps.

The event (which at several points I was certain was not actually going to happen, but that an unthemed feast of some sort likely would) is going to happen, and it might not even be all that terribly chaotic. I’ve spent my days and nights covered in colored marker and mumbling Setswana in creating posters to cover the village for my job on the “publicity” committee, and recruited and trained no less than ten people (of which I’m hoping at least three show up on the day) to facilitate the sexual health quiz. I may be eating my words (along with the remains of a cow and two goats purchased at the proper price) in a few days, but as the committee practiced the drama they wrote completely on their own about a man who died because he went to a traditional healer rather than the clinic, complete with funeral hymns and pretty convincing wailing, my heart swelled with pride. Even if we run out of food, by God, I think this event will be a success. The committee did it all nearly of their own volition, and the best part of the whole program for me is that they would have probably done the whole event (less the sexual health gameshow quiz) without me. It’s the greatest hope a Peace Corps can have for a place, as it is a really good sign that something you’ve done is sustainable and can and will continue on after you’ve left. Go Seronga!

Post script: the event was AMAZING. i'm writing all about it to be posted...soon.


Artsy Smartsy
I’ve partnered with a local art teacher and the HIV/ AIDS clubs at the school in the hopes of creating some art projects around the village to showcase the talents of the junior secondary age children in the area. I see it as a way of both fostering and encouraging interest in art (which is selfish enough of me, as it’s one of my own personal causes), and also of spreading the message in a more permanent way about HIV/AIDS. I’ve submitted proposals for funding to the DMSAC (district multisectoral AIDS committee, it’s important for me to show people within the village that funding for their projects can be available locally if they are organized about it, rather than coming in like the “white knight” tossing out funding from America) and “encouraged” the local teachers to do most of the work (which involves many, many reminders, lists, and the occasional threat –nobody said behavior change was easy… or pretty) in order to get the projects going. They’re on board but are sometimes hesitant and unsure about how to get things going effectively, much less efficiently. I’ve found that building confidence and empowering while sitting on my hands, as I’d rather be DOING are going to be the main element of any project I chose to undertake in this country. Which is what sustainability is supposed to be about, right?

The first project we’re working on is to create a HIV themed mosaic for the wall of the school made from the beer bottles that exist in abundance in the village (and currently serve mainly to lie broken and jagged in the road, just waiting to slice open the foot of a child running barefoot through the village- which has always pissed me off). I’m excited to incorporate the themes of recycling and using what you have in your area (as well as perhaps highlighting exactly how much drinking is going on in the village) into the somewhat monotonous theme of HIV/AIDS. Sometimes you gotta spice up a deadly disease to make people pay attention in a new way. Hopefully this is one way of doing it. I’ve been working with the HIV club to get proper funding for their World AIDS day celebration for this year as well as to plan in advance for next year when I’d like to have a proper unveiling ceremony. The other project would be similar, except the inspiration is not my own, but rather piggybacks off another hugely successful project in the Mahalapye district of creating murals with and HIV or PMTCT theme on the clinic walls. If both of these projects go well, and I have the time, I would also like to have an HIV themed sculpture using found materials in an open area to be determined. This one is still in the pipe dream phase of development.

I also want to work with the art club to learn to make papyrus paper (there is plenty of this around in the delta, and if accent Egyptians could do it, then I would imagine we can figure it out here!), do some collage projects (thank you to all of you who have been kind enough to send me magazines, and know that they are being recycled into something of good use! Keep them coming!) and I hope to help them enter an art exchange, to get an idea of how other cultures create art, and to share their pieces with the world. Prior to becoming involved with the children of Seronga in a deeper capacity than smiling and waving at them, teaching them that my name is Lorato, not Lekgowa, and discouraging them from begging from white people, I had forgotten how rewarding it is to work with kids, even if they’re naughty (shout out to the girls from WH) or whom you can’t really understand linguistically (hello ever present difficulty that is Setswana).

I’ve been working with the teachers who run the HIV and AIDS club at the school to focus on making their activities more interactive and comprehensively educational. I’ve given them a booklet of reproductive health games (thanks Kate and Leah for the health games and quizzes) that they were really excited about and offered up my assistance in forming a more comprehensive curriculum and plan for their meetings. I also requested the GLOW curriculum from WAR (Women Against Rape) on gender based violence in the hopes of using it with HIV club and perhaps forming a few GLOW clubs at the school. The HIV club needs help. At this point the one meeting I’ve attended involved a few songs, a few prayers, a testimonial or two and adjournment. They are basically regurgitating the national stance and catch phrases of Abstinence, Be faithful and Condomize. There is generally little reliable behavior change in regurgitation and thus I hope to be able to incorporate some sessions on sexual negotiation and healthy decision making. The facilitators really liked the idea of incorporating a more holistic approach to sexual and reproductive health (thank you OWL training), and I am very lucky for this, as it would undoubtedly be a lot more difficult to not only have to formulate the curriculum but also to convince them of it’s merits. They have been very open and on board from the start, which I am incredibly grateful for.

Softball!!!!
My computer lab buddy Eman had mentioned that he was coaching some kids on a softball team, and my having been out of American and surprised by differences in Africa enough made me immediately assume softball meant something else here. Expecting some form of modified basketball, I promised to check it out. I have never been more thrilled to be wrong. A decent sized group of boys and girls threw balls back and forth and swung bats at decent pitches. I was, as Simon would say, chuffed. The girls wore mostly skirts, as was I on that first day and not one of them had proper shoes (how they ran along the ground littered with those spiked thorns that ravage my tender pedicured feet I’ll never know). The girls are just at that awkward just about to get their first period phase (or in the case of a few girls who look to be in their first trimester, or appear to have left a baby home with their mothers, already have) and the boys are cocky and obnoxious (as per usual for me nothing gives me more pleasure than when I can occasionally beat these little boys at what they consider to be their own game, or at least teach them a thing or two.)

The dynamic of trying to coach both boys and girls is a bit of a nightmare that the two male coaches don’t even seem to notice, which is why I’m glad to be there to advocate for the girls. Some of the boys are kind to the girls and are genuinely trying to teach them and help them, as at this age the males have the size, speed and skill advantage. Most of them, however, are constantly being very rough and faux intimidating, a tendency that quickly becomes real in the realm of the Seronga dating pool, where if a man can grab a woman hard enough by the arm and hold her there, this is considered consent for sex. Although most of them are bigger than me, they seem very surprised when I step up to them, step between them and whomever they are badgering, and give them my death glare and thirty second lesson on chivalry. Whether this is the right thing to do or not I’ll never know, but I consider it part of my job to at least show these girls that they have options when it comes to guys, and that they can demand to be treated differently.

Book Club
Another stolen idea. Thank you Joe in Shaks, and Johnny and Johnny’s mom for making this one possible. Over what was undoubtedly initially a drunken discussion in Shakawe, Joe mentioned he was thinking of reading the Diary of Anne Frank with his GLOW (Girls/Guys Leading Our World) club. I loved the idea and immediately decided that I wanted to have a book club as well. At a stop over in Lethlakane I noticed that Johnny had on his bookshelves several copies of a few books. He mentioned his mother was a teacher and was often able to get many copies of common school books. I connected what I remembered from Joe and the book club idea, and he said it could probably work. I forgot about the idea until I met the softball girls and realized how completely fun it would be. Two text messages later the plan is in motion, complete with a plan for having a pen pal type situation with some girls in the states Johnny’s mom knows. I think I’ll start really getting the girls together when the school year resumes in January. I can’t wait!