Rain (Pula)

RAIN (PULA)

            As I write this, the sky outside is dark; there is thunder and some lightning.  Earlier today, we had another burst of rain and some hail.  Yesterday we had a brief afternoon shower, followed by a rainbow that displayed its full arc from one hillside of Kanye to the other.  We are in late October, and the rainy season is just beginning.  I use rainy season loosely, because most all of Botswana is arid.  There is virtually no rain between May and September, and then the other months collectively supply not that much more. 

            Because of the dry climate, the landscape of Botswana resembles Arizona somewhat, with large stretches of sand intermixed with seasonal grass, scrub brush and the occasional tree.  There is not enough rain to support extensive crop growing except where there are sources of irrigation.  Botswana does grow maize and sorghum but most fresh fruits and vegetables come from South Africa, which is more temperate.  The wide-open spaces do support grass fed cattle, however, and Botswana is a major supplier of beef for Europe.  In fact most families in Botswana (including our host family) live in larger villages or cities, but they own land out in the countryside that features a cattle post.  A family member or hired hand will tend the cattle out at the cattle post.  As a result of this large-scale cattle farming, menus in Botswana usually revolve around beef, and lots of it.  There is much more to be said about the role of cattle in the economy and culture of Botswana (for instance, Setswana has many words to describe the color and pattern of cow fur), but that will have to wait for another day.

            We know from the American West that the scarcity of water raises its importance in people’s minds.  So it is in Botswana.  I have never lived in a dry climate before, so I have much to learn.  What is amazing to me is the centrality of the need for water.  The motto of Botswana, emblazoned on its national seal, is “Pula”, the Setswana word for rain.  After a political speech or after the singing of the national anthem, people shout “Pula!” the way we might shout “hurray!”  But here is the kicker.  The unit of the national currency is known as the Pula.  It’s worth about 13 cents, a little more than the South African Rand.  The Pula is divided into smaller units, known as thebbe.  And what does thebbe stand for?  We were told, inaccurately, that it means drops (as in raindrops).

            I have stated before that Botswana over the past thirty years has piped clean fresh water to each house lot in most villages of any size around the country.  But providing the pipes does not guarantee the supply.  Last year there was a drought.  For instance there was no rain in October.  As a result, underground aquifers and man-made reservoirs did not get replenished.  Now, at the end of the dry season, there is little water left.  Here in Kanye, we have on occasion opened the tap to find that no water comes out.  It can be an inconvenience if you want to do laundry (which we do by hand) or if you want to bathe (which involves a bucket of heated water and a bathtub).  Our family has a large barrel of stored water in the kitchen.  Some families have very large plastic water tanks that collect rainwater off of the roof in the rainy months.  When I visited a Peace Corps volunteer in Rakops (a small village in the north of the country) two weeks ago, the outdoor tap at the edge of his property only worked about an hour or so per day.  On television this past week, the news reported the status of water supply around the country.  Reservoirs are depleted, and some dangerously so.  We are optimistic that with the rains that have started irregularly over the past few days that we will receive enough rain this coming season.

            We are told that water is an issue at the village where we have been placed, Goodhope.  The government built a new senior secondary school there for 2400 students (most of whom are boarders) in 2008.  The government supplied a new water line to the school that was intended to be adequate.  But other users have tapped into the line, and the drought has further diminished the supply.  We hope that if we live in the village (and not on the school compound), we will have more reliable water service.

More Setswana

MORE SETSWANA

            At the risk of boring readers, I need to speak again about Setswana.  I write this on a Saturday, after three and a half hours of Setswana class.  We have Setswana class most days as part of our training.  It is conducted in small groups with a Batswana teacher.  We have no real text book and much of the work is oral.

            We are tested in Setswana three times.  We must achieve a certain level of proficiency in order to be sworn in as volunteers.  We achieved that minimum level in our first exam a couple of weeks ago.  But we are expected to be able to converse in Setswana, and so we need to improve our skills.  We are now getting into the grammar. Setswana has multiple noun classes (don’t ask).  It also has many two or three letter helping words that perform different and seemingly redundant functions, depending upon the context.  Adjectives in Setswana sometimes change, depending upon the underlying noun.  And then there are the verbs, which thankfully have fewer tenses and moods than in English.

            Actually the grammar is not the hard part.  The hard part is remembering the vocabulary.  Experts are right: it is more difficult to learn a new language as we get older.  The short term memory is not so good, and it is hard to stuff so much data into our calcifying brains. 

This morning we practiced for our second exam, which comes up next Wednesday.  It, like the other exams, consists of a one on one interview with an instructor. We are either asked orally in Setswana to answer a series of questions (novice) or to explain something (intermediate) or to conduct a conversation on various topics (advanced).  The instructor then grades the interview.  There is nothing written.  The whole object is to gauge our oral facility with Setswana.

Because it is the only topic in our training that is formally graded, many of our fellow trainees get stressed about the class work and the exams.  Some come with an advantage: a semester of study in South Africa (where some of the languages are the same as, or similar to, Setswana); a bilingual speaker of another language plus English; or just plain young and smart recent college graduates.  In some homes, the families can speak to the trainee only in Setswana.  We have the “disadvantage” of being able to communicate with each other in English while at home, which creates less of a necessity to learn.  We try to make up for it by studying and memorizing.

The exam on Wednesday "counts".  We have another chance with our final Setswana exam which takes place on November 9^th.  Now back to studying…  “Le” can be “with” or “and” or an adjective marker in the sixth noun class.  “Kopa” can be “to request” or a “bucket”.  “Buka” means “book” (okay, that’s easy).  “Ga ke na matata” means “I have no problems” (Hakuna matata in Swahili for you “Lion King” fans). 

            UPDATE...  There has been a delay in my ability to upload this to the blog.  In the interim, we had our second exam last Wednesday.  Both of us passed at levels well higher than what is required for swearing in!  While a couple of the older folks in our group struggle to keep up with the young ones, we’re proving that we old folks can still learn a language.  Stephanie says that it is good for keeping the brain cells flexible as well: making all sorts of new neural connections.