Site Selection

Site Selection

            On Friday of last week, we learned the location of our site for the next two years.  It is Good Hope, a village near the south east corner of Botswana, close to the South Africa border.  We assume that the name is derived from the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa.  It is the regional center of an intensive farming area (grain and goats, we understand).  There may be Afrikaaner farmers in the vicinity.  The village has a large regional senior secondary school (2400 in grades 11 and 12) which houses a number of boarding students who live too far from home to commute.  We understand that there is at least one supermarket in town, and that there is a larger shopping village not too far away (and yet another one across the border in South Africa).

            The site announcement was greeted with much anticipation, since it seals our fate for our Peace Corps experience.  We knew that all of our group of 34 would be located in three southern districts of the country.  Most of them are in the relatively populous southeastern corner, with the rest in the Kalahari.  Those moving to the Kalahari will have to learn Sekgalagadi, the locally spoken language.  Luckily it is close to Setswana.  The schools teach only in Setswana (early grades) and English.

            To make the announcement festive, our staff decorated the room with balloons and supplied supersized cookies, lollipops and Coca-Cola ready for each of us.  There was a big map of Botswana at the front of the room, with pins for the location of the existing 100 or so volunteers currently serving.  When our names were called, we received a piece of paper with the location of our assignment, some of the issues associated with the location, and the reason we were selected for it.  Stephanie and I were called up together to receive our assignment.  We were each handed pins with our names on them, and we pinned the locations on the big map.

            The Peace Corps country director took us aside later to explain some of the challenges and opportunities that this selection offers us.  Since it is a regional center, there may be more options for us.  We think that we will be housed within the village itself.  The other option is the secondary school compound, which includes modern housing for the teachers.  Since it is on the edge of town, in a gated compound, we think it makes more sense for us to live in town. 

            On Monday and Tuesday of this week, all of us travel in vans to the capital, Gaborone, for a conference to meet with our counterpart and our supervisor in our host communities.  While we will have the opportunity to work with many people, our official contacts will be these two people.  We look forward to meeting with them, to finding out more about Good Hope and our role in it.  We will move there on November 16^th, the day after we are sworn in as volunteers.