Botswana is often considered a success story in Africa, with a functioning democracy and an infrastructure capable of caring for the 1.7 million people that live in this vast country. Despite HIV/AIDS sweeping through and threatening to destroy the entire country, Botswana has remained peaceful in its’ 43 years of independence. With the proximity to South Africa and its’ rich mineral and diamond deposits, the country has grown from a developing country to middle income in a relative short amount of time. Has this hurt or helped the country? I still cant get my head around it as the disparity between rich and poor is tremendous, or should I just say money or NO money in this case.
A few days ago I went to one of the five hardware stores in our village to buy some chicken mesh to protect my garden from the hens and roosters on our compound. I wish I had my camera because as I walked up there was a donkey cart with four donkeys parked next to a Mercedes Benz, a 500 series at that. It is a striking contrast and one seen quite often unless you live in a very rural village.
There are loads of donkey carts all over Botswana. They are used mainly for collecting water and firewood, the two most important items for much of the population. Hence, there is generally no power or water on many compounds either because it is too expensive or simply no means. We have both, and hot water as well, but many neighbors and surrounding places survive with the bare minimum, a single hut with a clothesline in some cases. Working to live is a common practice for much of the Batswana.
While some work to live, and work extremely hard, others hardly work or have cushy government office jobs and have the fancy accessories in life- a nice car, nice clothes, and they get to send their kids to fancy private schools.
If you have a ‘real’ job in Botswana, most likely you are working for the government in one fashion or another. At my workplace, the District Health Team, the Ministry of Local Government employs everyone, while teachers are with the Ministry of Education and so on. There are Ministries for every sector. Don’t ask me why the health team is not under the Ministry of Health instead associated with Local Government, I may never know that answer, but in any case, you work for the government. In most cases, they even supply your house, different colors depending on which sector you work for. At my office, even toilet paper is passed around once or twice a month for people to take home.
Let me touch on the workplace just a little. First, I don’t want it sound like NO ONE is working. In fact, my counterpart and countless others produce monthly reports and maintain a busy district office. There are people, both up top and on the ground doing great things, or else the country would crash, but a many of the working peeps simply don’t produce work.
I have witnessed people leave meetings regularly if they show, say they did things when they actually haven’t, and falsified data simply because a report was due. I don’t know if the latter is a common practice but once was enough for me. Moreover, there is no accountability for doing these things. The culture isn’t one to reprimand and demand things, therefore; it is easy to be unmotivated and laissez-faire. We literally find ourselves staring and uncomfortable when we see someone raise their voice. Quite a change from loud, vocal NYC. If you accomplish one thing per week and are around the workplace from 7:30 – 4:30 all is well.
Coming from a country, in which I would argue we work too much, it is still very difficult getting used to this work environment. It is important as a foreigner to understand that things will take longer regardless of the situation. On top of an already relaxed work environment, you’re bound to come up against obstacles that are out of your control. There may be no transport one day, computers are down (if you have them at all), or crash from the viruses inundated on every computer, or another meeting or workshop is taking place at last minute. Weeks are filled with workshop after workshops and you never really know if they are useful because people don’t necessarily report about them.
Anyways, these are a few complexities that all volunteers must deal with and hopefully figure out a way to motivate themselves and the ones that need it, regardless of the obstacles.
A workshop on organization skills and/or team building is necessary and needed, even if they have previously tried. A refresher of sorts because it doesn’t matter if you are working with HIVAIDS, TB, and environmental health; as health inspectors, nurses, doctors, health educators, administrators, typists, cleaners and drivers, noticeable change starts from within.
The learning curve for me personally and of the country as a whole has been slow but very good considering the age of this nation. My co-workers have been nothing but welcoming and great. I am learning a lot just being there and finding my place from within. I constantly think of new things that could be done and how to accomplish them and the list is quite long. Over time, I am sure it will narrow down and I will be able to focus on several particular issues.
The above was written some time ago (over a month) but never posted and as the list is ever growing, both Laura and I have started to focus on some key issues both at the clinics and in the schools. Also, we are working on some things to start in our ward with out- of- school youths, as there are way too many children not in school for one reason or another. I will elaborate more on this as things develop as I am sure some of you would like to know specifics as to what we are doing but for now, I need to get to work. My ride is here, I think I will take the donkey cart!
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