We Gather Together...

WE GATHER TOGETHER…

            At last our children arrived for a visit on November 20th. It had been more than 14 months since we said our tearful goodbyes to them at Manchester Airport. Needless to say, we had been looking forward to this day every since then. Separation from family is one of the hardest parts of Peace Corps service. In the early months, we were able to keep in touch with email messages every so often. After we got a telephone line and DSL service in March, we could connect with them live via Apple’s Face Time. Sometimes we even send a text message. We do not bother to write letters home, because we can use these electronic options. Most volunteers in Botswana do not have the luxury of DSL, but still they are able to use email either through cellular data modems attached to their laptops or through a public computer at an internet café in larger villages.

            Of course, it was not always this way. When Stephanie served in the Peace Corps in Kenya in the 1970’s, her family contact consisted of an exchange of letters each week with her parents. She wrote on an aerogramme – a combination letter/envelope made from thin onionskin paper. During those two years, she called home only twice, and then only because of the death of her grandmother.

            In the 1970’s, most volunteers never returned to the United States on vacation. Air travel was not as pervasive then. Also, it was just too expensive. Today, perhaps half of our volunteers do make the arduous trip home at least once. We decided not to do that, both because the air travel is so time consuming and difficult and because we hear that the cultural readjustment after returning back to site can be problematic. So, we arranged for our children to visit us. Similarly, in 1974, Stephanie’s mother did come to visit her in Kenya. It was the only overseas trip her mother ever took.

            Back to 2013. We escorted (via combi, of course) Kate and Pat to our home in Goodhope to stay here with us for four days. They visited our schools and we introduced them to the students and teachers. At my school, I talked at morning assembly about our upcoming Thanksgiving holiday. I told the students how important it is for Americans – no matter their religious or ethnic tradition -- to join with family to give thanks and to eat turkey, following a tradition going back almost 400 years. My talk was an example of Peace Corps Goal 2: explaining American values and culture to folks in our host country.

 

Here I am with our kids at morning assembly talking about American Thanksgiving

            My students knew how excited I was to have our children visit. Several adult males in our village were also excited: they wanted to marry Kate (negotiations broke down because I drove too hard a bargain on the number of cows the winning suitor would have to pay for her hand in marriage). Pat also had his share of interested ladies. This overt “interest” in our adult children illustrates a deeper societal issue in Botswana that we are asked to address in the fight against HIV/AIDS. But that would get us off topic.

            Thanksgiving dinner in Goodhope was scheduled for the following Saturday. Stephanie had scouted out turkeys for months. A homeowner on the other side of our village raises turkeys. We enquired about the availability of one of her flock but none was ready for sale (apparently turkey farmers in Botswana are not attuned to the Thanksgiving rush). So that left us to choose among the frozen-in-brine turkeys at the Pick n Pay in Lobatse, our distant shopping village. The meat manager had earlier told Stephanie that turkeys don’t move well off the shelves of his market, so she was able to delay her purchase until the Tuesday beforehand. Getting the bird home to Goodhope in an insulated bag via an hour-long combi ride proved to be more of a challenge. I met her at the combi stop not too far from our house and hefted the bird home. Luckily, it was not too hot a day.

            On Thanksgiving Saturday, ten volunteers serving in somewhat nearby communities joined the four of us. We fourteen enjoyed Stephanie’s roast turkey, homemade stuffing, mashed potatoes, squash, pickles and homemade peach pies. Stephanie had left nothing to chance. Among the 80 pounds of luggage she packed for our 2012 trip to Botswana were both Bell’s Seasoning (the secret ingredient for a successful turkey stuffing) and a pop-up turkey thermometer (which in the end failed us). We ate our feast in the living room, with each of us in turn saying something that we were thankful for (mostly family and each other).

 

Fourteen of us at Thanksgiving in Goodhope, November 23, 2013, with the turkey front and center
and the cook front and right. The rest of the family is mixed in with the ten other volunteers in attendance.

            The meal was a big success. There was enough turkey meat and squash left over for Stephanie to make a turkey soup. As is our practice here with food waste, I then threw the carcass and other leftovers over our fence for the goats, chickens, dogs and other animals to enjoy.

            This Thanksgiving meal was not only memorable for us, it also recreated history. While in Kenya, Stephanie along with others attended a Thanksgiving dinner hosted by an older Peace Corps volunteer. The host decided to serve the meal outdoors to the large group. As the Americans were enjoying their al fresco feast, a vulture swooped down out of the sky, grabbed the turkey carcass in its talons and flew off. Unlike this year’s Thanksgiving, there were no second helpings in Kenya.

 

Outdoor Thanksgiving, Eldoret, Kenya, 1974. Stephanie is the vision in pink.
 

            

Vulture at Thanksgiving, Eldoret, Kenya, 1974

That night, eight of the volunteers stayed at our house and slept on our floor. Kate and Pat got to hear first hand some of the challenges these younger volunteers face, ranging from the pervasiveness of sexual harassment; to the lack of water, electricity or furniture; to the presence of creepy flying, crawling or biting creatures. Our children also got to hear how these younger volunteers have learned to create, plan and execute new projects for their villages; to teach students using a mixture of Setswana and English; to cook for themselves using few ingredients; and to wash and bathe in very little water. It was memorable for them, and it was also a display of Peace Corps Goal 3: volunteers should explain the life and culture of their host countries to Americans, in order to give Americans a better understanding of the rest of the world.

            But our holiday with the kids was not all a series of “teaching moments”. Part two of our vacation took us up north, on safari. The story of that will follow in my next post.

 

We usually take a Thanksgiving Day family photo on our front steps to use with our Christmas greetings.
Here we are in Goodhope, Botswana. Christmas, 2013.