Many people here in Mmopane know that I am trying my best to learn Setswana. There is one woman, Serwalo, who has been very helpful. So far she has given me:
- a kindergarten Social Studies book in Setswana
- an old language manual from the 1970s
- personal lessons on how to make my mouth and throat pronounce the throaty g's, hard r's, lengthened mm's and nn's, and aspirated tlh's
- and a book that lets me color pictures of goats and cows, asks me to draw lines from pictures to the matching Setswana word, and has me work on location words (in, on, around, beside,...) by drawing boxes next to mice.
Three or four weeks ago Serwalo suggested that a good place for me to practice my Setswana would be by working with Home Based Care (HBC) here in Mmopane. I wasn't really even sure what HBC did but I figured it was worth a try, so I agreed. We walked the 200 yards to the HBC offices which, for now, are situated under a tree in the yard of the village clinic. Walking through the gate at the clinic, I was amazed to see at least thirty women standing around with each accompanied by at least one child. There were people everywhere. Serwalo greeted everyone and I followed her around as she introduced me to the director of HBC, some of the HBC volunteers, and the nurse in charge of the clinic. The head nurse gave me a thorough tour of all three rooms in the clinic (each of the rooms about the size of my kitchen) and carefully explained, bottle by bottle, a good percentage of the medicines available from the dispensary. On several occasions during my tour she invited me to come back at any time - I'm not exactly sure what she had in mind for me to do as I have no medical training (hmmm, maybe I could follow in my dad's shoes and put on magic shows for all the women and children waiting in line). Anyway, after my tour with the nurse I was told that there was a meeting for Home Based Care the next day at noon and that, if I was interested, I should show up at 1pm. Feeling confused about the details I asked, "What time did you say the meeting starts?" "Well", the director explained, "the meeting starts at noon but if you come at noon no one will be here. Come at one so you won't have to wait." All right then.
The next day I walked through the gates of the clinic promptly at 12:57. Even though there were as many people milling around as the day before, I didn't recognize anyone so I sat down to wait. Most of the kids were very shy, hiding behind their mother's legs and peaking out to see if I was watching. The doors to the clinic were closed and it didn't seem like there was any staff around to inquire about the meeting. After waiting thirty minutes with no sign of any HBC people, all my smiling paid off and one of the little girls decided to be brave and not run away when I gestured toward her. I picked her up and played with her for a little while, waiting for someone to show up. Two o'clock arrived, with still no sign of anyone. By 2:15 I was starting to worry that maybe I had misunderstood the meeting place but there was still no one around to ask. Finally around 2:30 a volunteer that I recognized, Nneo, arrived. She sat down next to me and I tried to talk to her; but as Nneo didn't speak any English the conversation didn't last long - it was hard enough to think of things to say in English let alone figure out how to translate them into Setswana. Fifteen minutes later another volunteer arrived. Around 3:15 - after waiting over two hours - everyone was present and we began our 'noon' meeting.
In attendance at the meeting was the HBC director, seven HBC volunteers, and me. The director kicked the meeting off (in Setswana) and spoke animatedly for quite some time. After what seemed like 15 minutes of listening with only a few decipherable words, the only person there who spoke English translated, "He was welcoming us and asking if we have any business items that we would like to discuss". After this one of the volunteers spoke for about ten minutes and then everyone in the circle said five or six sentences. The translation for this fifteen minute encounter? "She was explaining how our fundraiser went and then we were all congratulating her on how true her words are." After an hour and a half of this pattern repeated over and over (them talking for a LONG time and a two sentence explanation for me), I waited until my translator spoke to me and then asked her to thank everyone for letting me come, to say that I felt excited to work with them all, and to ask when I could come back to go out with them. She conveyed my message to the group and told me to come the next day at 9:00am.
The final count for my afternoon at HBC:
- 2.25 hours of waiting
- 1.5 hours of listening to indecipherable Setswana
- 4 hours of my afternoon spent with nothing tangible gained
- opportunity to express my interest and be involved: priceless (at least I hope)
If patience and I weren't good friends before I arrived in Botswana, we are certainly becoming fast friends now!
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