Love & Light,
TMV
A Glimpse
into Tate’s World - A Mom’s Perspective
Introduction
Every day we spent with Tate in Botswana was a
treasure. I now have a better
connection and better insight into her current life. My phone calls with Tate in the future will be
more meaningful. I’ll know who and what
she’ll be talking about. I’ll be able to
relate better. That alone is a huge gift
and worth all of the effort it took in getting to her world.
Let me address the issue of safety for those of you who love
Tate. A mother’s first concern for her
babies…safety. I believe she is in a
physically safe place. Violence, guns,
crime… all are very low occurrences in Botswana. Her concrete block house is secure and would
be difficult for someone to break into. She uses good judgment and caution and
doesn’t go out at night. She has good
instincts.
Kang- Land of the Desert
My overall impression of life in Kang, Botswana? It’s just plain difficult. It’s a long
journey to get there and when you finally do get there, it’s not
comfortable. By comparison to Tate’s
upbringing and life in the U.S.…her current life is just hard. The physical environment is tough. The heat is oppressive and there is no
escaping it. It’s not like you can head
to the swim club, or crash on a couch in an air conditioned house. It’s miserably hot…pretty much all the time. It’s a desert- it’s sandy, barren, thorny,
buggy, itchy, windy, hot…did I mention that?
I routinely fantasized about a clear pool with concrete stepping stones,
a green lawn, palm trees, icy drinks with little umbrellas, and thick plush
pool towels.
There’s very little of anything that’s “soft” or
comforting. It’s difficult to sleep in
the heat. The government issued foam pad
of a bed is not really meant for old cranky backs. We bought a few more pillows, a blanket and a
patio chair for Tate, hoping to make her world a bit softer.
Home is Where Tate’s Heart is!
Now I will say that she does have the good fortune of living
in one of the nicest houses in the town.
It’s about 800 square feet, and quite adequate with tile floors, two
bedrooms, bathrooms and a kitchen. She has running water, most of the time, and
has gotten good at taking a shower with about 12 drips of cold water. Although she does not have working
electricity in the house, she now has an extension cord running into her house,
which powers a small refrigerator, a fan and her computer. Not that the electricity works all the time…
rolling blackouts are common. We
hopefully improved her life with the addition of some kerosene lamps so she has
light in the evening. Bummer that the
roof leaks (pours buckets) into the house when it rains.
She has adapted. She
is so resourceful. Somehow she lives on
about $200/month (go ahead and try doing that!)
She washes and reuses plastic bags, uses aluminum coke cans for drinking
glasses, and saves every letter and
envelope she has received from family and friends to decorate the walls of her
house. She stores water in containers for the days when there won’t be
any. She can cook dinner by the light
from a candle. She makes awesome meals
out of very little. She is tough.
Daily Work
Tate’s work life seems difficult to me. The work ethic and cultural differences
between the U.S. and Botswana are significant.
In most U.S. work and business situations we value meeting deadlines,
achieving goals, following through, getting the job done, completing a
project. Those not with the same mind
set generally end up unemployed. Let me just say it’s not the same in Botswana
and I’m not sure I had enough time to understand what I was seeing and to
understand the cultural issues. I just
know that Tate deals with it every day.
When she’s frustrated, she has a great coping mechanism. She allows herself 5 minutes to cry or
grieve, or curse, or fume. Then she lets
it go and moves on without discussing it further. I need to adopt that technique for myself.
And then there’s the Peace Corps initiative… have they given
these volunteers enough clear and specific guidance on working to prevent
HIV/AIDS and how to conduct community capacity building? I wasn’t so sure about
that, particularly after listening to several of the other Peace Corps
volunteers we met along the way. It
seems that Tate has moved forward with her own good ideas- she focuses a lot of
her time helping the children, which I completely agree with and support. Talking with Jr. High and High School
students about sex certainly seems to be a prudent plan of attack. Helping kids feel good about their lives,
their opportunities, their education… it’s the right thing to do.
The Bright Spots- So Many!
The light and bright spots?
The reason I suspect Tate has stuck it out this far? It’s definitely the
children. They are so bright, eager,
adorable, happy, well mannered, and beautiful.
They are full of life. I met
Tate’s kids ( the 6 or 8 that live in or near her family compound and spend as
much time as they can with Tate in her house), an elementary class of kids
where Tate was doing a health assessment, a junior high group where Tate works
on peer counseling, and a high school class where Tate teaches biology. The
children are generally healthy and in good physical condition. They have so
much potential.
One of the little girls in Tate’s world simply loves to
follow her around the house and mimic what Tate does. She straightens things up, writes when Tate
is writing, helps with whatever task is needed.
We started a patio project around Tate’s front door (so you can step
outside without a dozen thorns piercing your feet) and this little girl just
wouldn’t stop. She wanted to build it
bigger and carried far more bricks at one time than her little body should have
been able to carry. She became an
engineer and figured out an excavation plan for the bricks under the gate so
that the gate would still open and close smoothly.
These kids are smart.
They speak, read and write in two or more languages. I was really impressed. It sounds cliché, but
the children are the future. They deserve every leg up and opportunity they can
get. Tate has reached the hearts of many
of these kids. Is there a way to measure
how many she has inspired, how many love her, how many might not contract HIV
because of her encouragement? No, but I
know it’s a number far greater than one.
By the time she’s done, it may well be in the hundreds.
Lasting Impressions
If Tate ended her service tomorrow, I’d be proud of her
every accomplishment and I’d be oh so happy to have her home. If she makes it to her end date, I’ll be
equally proud of her. I know that she
always does her best. I want her to
remember that her best is good enough and she’s already done Kang, Botswana an
amazing world of good. Tate is the
strongest woman I have ever met. I am in
awe.
Tomorrow she’ll put on a skirt, pull her hair back in a pony
tail, tuck a frozen water bottle in her bag, lock her doors, take a step off of
her new patio, stop to pick the thorns out of her feet, put a smile on her
face, greet the old woman lying under the tree with a “Dumela Mma”, give baby
Romeo a kiss goodbye, and march forward through the sand to the medical clinic. That’s my girl. J
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