My Counterpart

I’d like to say that I disappear into the gray mornings at 7:30 on my way to the little concrete office behind my house but I don’t. I don’t materialize until 8:30 or so, 9 maybe. Our office has no electricity nor does it have any particular rhyme or reason to its setup and architecture. The previous social worker insisted on a flushing toilet outside the office right behind his government house, and a tall fence with wire on top. These things took precedence over electricity it seems, and so the council obliged. The toilets outside no longer work and all is well because the keys are lost. My counterpart is still relatively new. Keitumetsi (my Counterpart) has only been in Pitsane for 7 months and it seems that I know more about the village than she does. I’m nosey, and not bogged down by the office she inherited so I wander around and ask questions that only a foreigner with Peace Corps PACA tools could conjure up, like “Could you draw me a map?”. The office covers Pitsane, as well as four other villages. Transport is an issue and it’s a two wo/man job so another Social Worker was transferred to lighten the load. When Mokwaledi, the new Social Worker, came he brought furniture to make the office more inviting. The yard is overgrown and littered with trash. Mokwaledi and I cleaned, (yes--even in Botswana), we drafted letters petitioning the council for a piece worker to sweep the yard, we dusted. He’s an assertive one. Slightly overbearing but kind; and enthusiastic about his job in a profession that burns people out much like Social Work in America. The office has been neglected by the previous Social Worker, by the council, by the last PCV who assumed the job of Rraboipelego and ran the S&CD office by himself and out of his house. The office is not, however, neglected by needy villagers. My Counterpart, like so many other Social Workers in Botswana is overworked but unlike several she still walks through the gray mornings to the office outside our kitchen windows, and smiles a reticent mona lisa smile.