Today I started working on other resources and projects. I felt as if the curriculum classroom presentations were going smoothly and there weren’t any major changes I wanted to make!
My first project was completing an extensive application to BONASO – the Botswana Network of AIDS Service Organizations. We were using our new Coaching for Conservation program as the model activity for our application to join this group. Our hope is that after establishing the program and developing bonds with the community for a few years we can start introducing more HIV and AIDS education explicitly into the program. Right now we are allowed and welcomed in all of the school because we are providing great free football programming (which is loved and respected here). What we want to really teach these kids gets controversial sometimes and puts people on the defensive – so we hold onto the football link and push the education as much we can.
The BONASO application was a little tedious but it was interesting to talk about our program and how it fits into their rubrics of an AIDS organization. More fascinating was talking about the future direction of the program. While I have only been with the program for about a week after talking with Lesley about it, the future direction and goals seem so logical and right. I am really proud of the program so far and looking forward to where it will go in a few years!
I also started developing packages for the coach’s and teachers. These packages basically consist of all of the logistical details for the week, but also to some degree a snapshot and précis of the curriculum. I have been really encouraged by the feedback and interest shown by the adults involved with the program. The teachers and coaches have all been really accommodating and have gone out of their way to try during the presentations to increase participation, help get the message across or redeliver the message in a more personal context to the kids. The schools visits have been getting better, which I know I have said before, but I am seriously impressed with how this is all going! Originally I thought the message and concepts would be too foreign and complicated for the kids to see the connection with their lives, but you can see that they are making the correlations – I am so satisfied :)
In the evening we got together with Jen from Go Global (the other Guelph student group that came to Botswana for a one-month service project in May) and all of us remaining from the field course. We had a nice dinner at the Buck & Hunter – with some Windhoek (a brew from Namibia, which only costs like $1.25) as well as some Savana Dry (a bizarre apple cider drink) – and we even managed leftovers! It was really my last dinner with a group this large of people form back home. People started flying out tomorrow and the goodbyes needed to start happening!
We took a taxi back to the house just to be safe and spent the rest of the evening just sitting around chatting and playing cards! It was really nice to see everyone again. I appreciated hearing about all of their adventures and experiences that they have had since we departed in Gabs only a week and a half ago! They have told me some really neat things about Dakar and Ghanzi, so I will probably take a weekend in the future to go and see those places! It is really comforting to have my friends from back home with me and crashing on my floor – it almost makes me feel more lonely though, knowing that they are only going to be here for another few days and then I will be truly left with me as the only person I know from North America! While saying goodbye to the rest of the field course class was hard enough, it was all going to have to start again tomorrow! We ended staying up pretty late, considering we had to get up for 6:30AM to get people off on their flights at the right time!
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