HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO NICOLA AND TED!!!!!
March 7th, International Women's Day celebration at SADC. Fait accompli, merci.
I have never been so happy to see IWD come and go. The week started off well. All of us at the Gender Unit were so excited for Friday, but sure enough, detail by detail, things started to fall apart. When we thought that nothing else could possibly go wrong, fate threw us yet another obstacle! The banner-making machine breaks. The tent we ordered is too small. The donor decides to place more restrictions on their funds. All of the UN agencies in Botswana decide they want to attend. The Diplomatic Women's Association wants their speech written for them. The Executive Secretary cannot attend. The T-shirts are MIA. The entertainer cancels... In retrospect all of these details seem so superficial and irrelevant, but let me tell you, at the time it felt as though my life fully depended on 500 stupid t-shirts and diplomat-worthy raffle prizes. Because International Women's Day is all about t-shirts, raffle prizes and Indian food, right? Needless to say, by the end of the event I was entirely disillusioned. Thoughts that ran through my head included:
"why does everyone need to complain about their t-shirt? It's not as though they paid for it!"
"do diplomats even wear t-shirts?"
"why is a CIDA-funded Canadian NGO paying for a SADC event that is supposedly a regional priority?"
"if one more person asks me to explain the raffle to them... I may just shoot them."
"IWD is about WOMEN. NOT RAFFLE PRIZES. So everyone sit down, chill out and deal with the fact that you are not getting a gift certificate."
"Why are there more men than women at the head table?"
"Why are the Chinese embassy guests the only ones enjoying themselves? They didn't even get t-shirts and they have no idea what's going on. And no one likes their dumplings (except me... reminds me of home)!"
"Why did the Director of Ceremonies just tell a gender-ignorant joke? And why is everyone laughing?"
"Is running after Hotel and Airline managers Development work?"
"What if we gave the money budgeted for an open bar to a women's NGO? Or at least use it to buy some pens or a working mouse for the office?"
"I hate protocol. I hate diplomacy. I hate office politics."
“I can’t remember the last time I left the office or ate something other than instant coffee.”
..... Oh the muse of an intern!
But don't let me paint the wrong picture. IWD at SADC was an absolute SUCCESS and seems to have been received really well by the Secretariat’s staff!! We worked our butts off and things ran quite smoothly. And we had fun! We invited the media and they even showed up. And I think most people saw the bigger picture: Women, often triple-burdened, are the economic backbone of Southern Africa; Men and women must work together in the development process; International and national development mechanisms must invest in women and girls... funding is a gendered process; Let us celebrate the progress made so far while recognizing the fact that there is still a lot of work to be done.
After two months of planning the day played out something like this:
-speech, speech, speech, speech, speech, speech, poem, speech, speech, raffle prizes, prayer, food, drink, entertainment, drink, dance, dance, dance, dance...........
It’s funny because no matter how informal or formal a get-together here in Bots is, you know that at the very least there will always be four key ingredients involved:
1. prayer
2. LOTS of FOOD (very big deal here in Botswana. And by food I mean MEAT..... lots of MEAT)
3. Alcohol (actually a problem in Gabs. Alcoholism isn’t really recognized although extremely excessive drinking is very relevant and contributes to a lot of the social and economic difficulties.)
4. DANCING (the Batswana have got the moves, let me tell you)
And if you are responsible for the not providing all four ingredients you will hear about it.
Perhaps the highlight of IWD at SADC was the Attorney General’s speech. She’s the first female AG of Botswana and previously headed the Gender Unit at SADC. Her speech was genuine and refreshing, which is quite an accomplishment seen as how we wrote all of the statements for our VIPs. She was sincere and commanded the crowd, drawing applause and agreement from the locals, foreigners, men and women alike. In a culture that really values hierarchy, it’s quite obvious that her power and influence haven’t gone to her head!
It certainly feels quite odd crossing IWD off of my to-do list. It really reminds me of how quickly my time at SADC is going by. Just over one month left... and still so much work to do. My database, which was supposed to be my official task here at SADC has been pushed aside by IWD and other activities. Now I'm wondering whether it will even get finished by the time I leave....
Ellan was out of town this weekend as she travelled to a tournament with the high school rugby team she’s coaching. It was weird not having her around. Apart from out 7:30-4:30 jobs, we haven’t been apart since we met two months ago. This girl’s such a great rugby player though and wow, to take 30 teenage boys to a tournament, she must be crazy too!
Saturday was the official International Women’s Day. So I headed out to Kanye, a beautiful hill-top village about 2 hours outside of Gabs for the Department of Women’s Affairs’ event. It was a quaint but very enthusiastic celebration. Only upon arriving did I realize that the whole event was in Setswana. I did a lot of smiling, nodding and clapping, catching a few words along the way.... “basadi!” (“women”). But it was still worth-while and involved a lot of dancing and drama, which was lots of fun!
Saturday afternoon I hung out with our usual friends. The rest of the weekend pretty much just involved cooking and braaing... surprise! I kept joking that I was spending too much time in the kitchen on International Women’s Day weekend. But the fact of the matter is that if I want to eat something other than beef or beans, I must cook it myself! And just cooking for one is non-existent in this country. If there are four people over when I start to prepare a meal, I cook for eight. There are always people coming and going. There’s no such thing as an invitation or a private home here in Bots. You come, I feed you. Period. This makes for good times and means that I’m meeting new people almost everyday!
We had a big dinner on Saturday night and then headed out to play some pool, then to the local police mess, the only place you can safely sit outside at night (I wanted to see the stars. They are so clear here). Then we ended up at Lizard Lounge for some dancing, an inevitable end to an evening in Gabs.
Sunday evening was our official goodbye to Sam, our housemate who is moving to Canada. What did we do? Yes, you’ve guessed it... we braaied! Surprise, surprise. It was a feast! We ate heart, steak, pancreas, tripe, sausage and small intestine! The pancreas tasted like the small intestine, which I’ve had a few times since my arrival. We started with the heart, which was braaied by itself first, a Zimbabwean farewell ceremony. So this weekend turned out to be a culinary experience for me! And I also ate sugar cane for the first time on Saturday... it’s hard work but delicious... and my teeth still hurt!
Tuesday we left for our Gender Unit retreat in Beerkestrol, just outside of Rustenburg, South Africa (in between Pretoria and Johannesburg). Our humble unit of 5, accompanied by the long-term Canadian Intern’s baby and our Programme Officer’s 10-year old daughter, stayed at Mziki Safari Lodge in the middle of nowhere. It was truly a bush lodge and I loved it. It was so quiet and peaceful and exotic birds and lots of wild life would just roam around the lodge’s property. It was in the middle of a very large nature reserve but unfortunately thunder and lightening kept us from exploring most of it.
I’ve been told that there’s no such thing as a journey in Southern Africa, only adventures. Now I can relate. After leaving three hours late (have you ever heard of Africa Time?.. how about Botswana Time?) we headed off in our hired combi. Crossing the border was relatively easy and quite exciting, to be completely honest. A few hours into our drive we realized that both our group and our hired driver forgot the map and directions back in Gabs. Ooops. I won’t go into detail, but the next seven hours were quite memorable, to say the least.
Lesson number one: While your Diplomatic Passport may make you feel special, it does not function as a flashlight, a map, pepper spray or a dictionary. Not as cool as you thought, hey?
We drove on long, unlit dirt roads in the middle of nowhere for what felt like an eternity. The only landmarks in sight were signs that read “high fatality zone,” “lock your doors,” and “stopping is dangerous.” I hate to generalize, but I’m told that this is typical South Africa. We had no idea where we were. It was quite the adventure.
But we finally arrived in one piece. The week involved a lot of “strategic planning,” as we called it, and team-building activities. I expected scavenger hunts and trivia games. But the team-building times were more like group counselling sessions. It was something else. It certainly would never fly in a Canadian governmental unit, but here in Southern Africa people are a lot more open to share their personal lives and always want to know about yours.
Although we were in meetings most of the time, it was so great to enjoy the peace and quiet of the reserve. But now it’s time to head back to the city. Real life awaits us... well, as real as it gets in Botswana. Some days it all feels like a dream.
Life in Botswana is going really well and I’m having a blast. I’m learning so much and am really looking forward to Easter break. We’re heading up to Kasane, Victoria Falls and Livingston with Ellan’s parent’s who are arriving in a few days. Can't wait!!!!!!
Added some new pictures to my photo album.
Missing you all,
Sarah
