It’s not all Magwinyas and Simba chips

Living in a large village, it’s easy to access a variety of almost any food. Which makes it even more important to pay attention to nutrition after a long day of PST when an 8 pula (~$0.80) large bag of chips is calling your name.

Thankfully, the variety of fruits and vegetables is impressive – grapes, peaches, oranges, bananas, apples, carrots, avocados, tomatoes, beets, bell peppers, butternut squash… the list goes on and on.

Our host mother always uses a significant portion of our food voucher on healthy foods, which I couldn’t be more grateful for. She doesn’t eat red meat and makes sure we have plenty of juice boxes for our lunch.

We’ve also learned to cook some traditional Botswana meals, such as pap, morogo, magwinya, Seswaa, stew, and porridge. Every meal that we cook with our mother is usually centered around the traditional foods, but we’ve also taught her how to make french toast, a Chinese noodle dish, and guacamole! The guac was all of our favorites out of the dishes we shared.

A typical day’s menu:

• Breakfast – an apple, banana, and maybe cornflakes, scrambled eggs (or sneak in a magwinya)
• Tea time – Rooibos tea or coffee
• Lunch – an apple, orange, peanuts, juice box, a PBJ, some veggies
• Snack – grapes or peaches, dark chocolate
• Dinner – (rice, pap, or noodles), vegetables (usually carrots, potatoes, green pepper, onion, and spinach), chicken, and hot sauce on everything
• ~96oz of water (with all of the coffee, sweating from workouts, and hot Botswana sun)

Sometimes the portion sizes can be quite large in Botswana, and I’ll have to turn down food. The people here are so loving and kind, most want to make sure we’re not getting skinny! Also, some volunteers have to communicate with their host families to request more fruits and vegetables in their diet. But it varies completely from family to family, just like in the US.

And of course it’s nice to treat yourself sometimes! So yes I’ll also have a beer or red wine with friends, my favorite Simba salt & vinegar chips, or some sour gummy worms. Everything is a balance, and I’m still finding mine. But overall, I love the food here in Botswana and feel like I’m able to stick to a healthy diet when I have the discipline to!

Tsamaya sentle,

Lorato

So where am I actually living for 2 years?

This past Monday morning felt like an incredibly anxious Christmas morning. After all of our time waiting to come to Botswana, and then waiting some more to find out where we would actually live for 2 years in the incredibly diverse country, the day finally arrived!

Anything was still possible. The excitement and nervousness quickly heightened when our LCFs put blindfolds on us and slowly started taking people away. Our group was the last to be escorted to the reveal room, and anticipation turned to dancing and selfies and jumping up and down during our wait. Finally our LCF led us to the room and told us “Remember that I love you all!” before opening the door.

The room outlined a map of Botswana on the floor. Instructors situated us onto a piece of paper with the name of our village in the geographic region of the giant map. There was a drum roll as they told us to take off our blindfold and look at our home for the next two years.

Nick and I looked down and found out we are placed in the Southern district of Botswana! We were surrounding by many of our fellow volunteers and friends, meaning a lot of people are placed around us which was something I really wanted. We won’t share our exact location for safety reasons, but we’re not far from the capital and will live in a large village with plenty of grocery stores and malls. We’re very happy with our site placement and can’t wait to see what the next two years brings us 💛

Tsamaya sentle,

Lorato

What my Sunday looks like as I’m settling into Botswana life ☀️

After a busy and beautiful week of PST (pre-service training) with classes from Monday to Saturday on language, culture, and thriving as a Peace Corps volunteer, I’m enjoying my free day!

I’m currently laying on my cozy bed reading GOT under my mosquito net in Nick and I’s sun-soaked room at our homestay. We spent the morning eating scrambled eggs and drinking coffee with our host mom as she laughed about how much hot sauce I was eating. She then helped me make dough to cook magwinya (fat cakes) later, which are dangerously easy to make and devour! She also taught us some Setswana this morning as we were chatting, always referring to us by the Setswana names she gave us. Nicholas is Kitso, meaning knowledge, and I am Lorato, meaning charity or love. To say she had welcomed us into her family would be an understatement.

Later this morning we will be hand washing our laundry, which I have incredible respect for now! But in this moment I’m making sure to make time for myself, which is an important coping mechanism for how much change we are going through. Even just taking 10 minutes to do some yoga, read a chapter of a book, journal, nap, or take a deep breath is refreshing and helps us to decompress. It will continue to build in importance as we face challenges and adapt to create more resilience, so forming healthy habits now makes me feel optimistic for how we will continue to grow in Botswana.

Our Peace Corps staff has expressed how we need to find this “me time” to succeed and explained to our homestay why this is common for Americans compared to the heavily family oriented Batswana culture. Things that may not have bothered us much in the US may hit a little harder while trying to integrate in an unfamiliar country without our usual family and friends. But even coming home drained after a long day of training and then jumping into cooking dinner and washing dishes, I feel refreshed spending time laughing with Kitso, talking to our nkgonne (older brother), and watching animal documentaries or MTV with our mom!

So while I appreciate some “me time” just as I did in the states, it makes life much more beautiful being surrounded by such lovely and friendly people! And it also helps having such a solid support system at home I can share my adventures with. 😊

Tsamaya sentle,

Lorato

Any photos and views on this blog are of my own, and not those of the Peace Corps or the United States government

I’m excited to share my story with you and show the beautiful Botswana that has welcomed us so warmly this past week!

I can’t believe it’s been a week already since I dragged my bags out of my bedroom in Indiana at 3am and got on a plane with my stomach in a knot. It feels like so long ago with all that we’ve done this far, and any anxiety I felt was left on the plane. We were immediately greeted with open arms and open hearts after a long, long (18 hour plane rides + several hour long layovers) long travel.

I’m currently relaxing at Nick and I’s homestay that we’ll be at together for the next 10 weeks, which is incredibly nice, safe, and has WiFi that allows me to write this post! We had been in the capital Gaborone (Gabs) for the past few days to get acclimated to the time difference and have a quick orientation before our matching ceremony with our host families today.

In Gabs, I tried goat and ox tail for the first time, both of which were delicious, and learned how to take a bucket bath as well as kill my first Botswana spider! Our Language and Cultural Facilitators (LCFs) taught us songs to begin our Setswana lessons while we also received introductory training on medical, media, safety, culture, history, diversity, assignment areas, and life as a Peace Corps trainee in general.

I’ll write blog posts as I can while prioritizing balancing the responsibilities and adventures of this job, and am excited to show a glimpse of my experience in Botswana! 🇧🇼

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton