They call me Homo...

A month ago, I took a plane from LAX and left for Philly to join the Peace Corps. My group is huge; Bot 7 started as 60 people and we’re quite diverse if I do say so myself. The bulk of the trainees had careers, we have a couple retired people, and 3 married couples. From Philly we did a two day safety training and then headed off to JFK for our flight. After 17 hours, and swollen feet[1] we landed in Johannasberg, South Africa. Since JoBerg is one of the more dangerous cities in Southern Africa, we didn’t see much of South Africa. We went straight to a hotel and boarded a bus in the morning for Gabarone, Botswana. Gabarone is the capital of Botswana, and its not far from Johannasberg. From Gabarone, we did more training and began our Setswana lessons. Setswana, is the most predominant language spoken in Botswana. Just about everyone speaks English. It is the official government language, but Setswana is the most widely spoken language in Botswana and its got some fun words. For example, the village where I currently stay is called Molepolole which sounds similar to Rollie Pollie Ollie.
In Botswana I live with a host family and they have given me a Setswana name—Gomolemo. My host sister told me it means “we are happy to have you.” According to a volunteer who is fluent in Setswana it translates into “the balm/medicine.” According to my language teacher, it means “it’s okay.” When my host sister told me my Setswana name it sounded long and cumbersome—it’s pronounced “ho-mo-le-mo.” She said we could shorten it to Gomo (pronounced Homo); I just rolled with it so they call me Homo. My host sister went to college in Florida and is quite modern. She is a fashion designer specializing in curtains and bedspreads (which are pricy in Botswana). She made new curtains especially for my bedroom and my bedroom is huge. It’s the largest bedroom I’ve ever had, and the curtains are lovely. My host mother is a Councilor which is something like a local politician—not to brag, but uh, my host mom is kind of a big deal. We have electricity and running water. The hot water doesn’t work so I bathe in a bucket but aside from that, the standard of living is not at all what you think of when you think of “Africa.” I have a cell phone and watch more TV here than I ever did in the United States. Every night we watch a South African soap opera called Generations. It’s addictive and better than soaps in the States. Here soap operas are called Soapies and people take them seriously. When I told someone my name was Tatum, she mistakenly heard Taylor (because of my accent) and her face lit up.
“Like Days of Our Lives?” She asked.
I think she was a little disappointed about the name thing, but excited to meet a Peace Corps Volunteer nonetheless. The Peace Corps is well regarded in Botswana. Despite the high standard of living for most in Botswana, there is a lot of work to be done. HIV/AIDS is a huge problem and alcoholism comes in at second place. Next blog, I'll fill you all in on the alcohol abuse problems around here. My time on the Internet is limited and the keyboard at this cafe is terrible so I'm going to have to cut it short. I'll keep you all posted.


[1] Did you know that your feet swell when you’re on a long flight? It was amazing! I looked down and I had the feet of a pregnant woman—they were huge, like fat sausage feet. I at least went up another shoe size.