My contribution will be different, more on the academic side with anecdotes here and there, because I was recruited from inside Africa rather than out of the continent. Arriving in Botswana, I had to go through Setswana language training course, including experiencing the live-ins in a little village of Swakopondi, en route to Molepolole. Learnt to live with the locals, ate their food and got used to late night laughs, singing and dancing, it was fun. When all was done, back to Gaborone, at least one can now, ‘Bua Setswana’.
I may not know some of you if you did not go through BOC (during my time) and experienced the ‘live-ins’ programs in various villages around Botswana. However, I am sure, we might have met at various meetings or gatherings, or at the market, or at our house on Podumo Road. Also, I made my entry from Zambia into the CUSO Botswana Group through love, marriage happened then and relocated with my two little ‘kids’ Joyce Chidima Nzakamulio and John James Nzakamulilo. Curios! This is my profound history, conversation at the reunion!!
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Don O’Neill, Teacher, Science and Development Studies, Molefi Secondary School, Mochudi, 1970–722/18/2019 Many of us, I expect, have been challenged to answer the often-asked question, "Why did you go?" My answer was often a vague combination of a recognition and appreciation of my life in the "North", a sense of responsibility to share my "wealth", and a recognition of belonging to a community much larger than the farm, town, or province(s) that I had experienced up to that time. Throughout my school years, I delved into various clubs with enthusiasm – the "altar boys" club, high school student council, Newman Club on campus, the University Credit Union board, etc. Perhaps that sense of involvement combined with a legacy of my grandfather’s and, in turn, my father's active participation in forming and sustaining prairie co-operatives, school boards, snow plow clubs, and other community organizations laid a foundation for "Why not CUSO?" and, yes, half-way around the globe.
Of course, the time of my service was very formative – the first time for many new things. Growth and new horizons galore! Little did I think or know that I would gain as much as I "spent" in the "sacrifice" of volunteering! Ken’s love affair with Africa began in 1975 when he visited Kenya and Ethiopia through Canadian Crossroads International.
Our family of six went to Botswana to learn and expand our vision of life and the world, to travel, and hopefully, to contribute a little to the people of Botswana. We received a gift: to view our western way of life from the outside. We can never say, “Let’s just look after our own marginalized people, and let the rest of the world take care of its own.” Local became global and global became local. Ken and Carol shared one Field Staff Officer position. While Ken was Regional Representative for ECSA (East Central and Southern Africa) and travelling extensively throughout the region, Carol stayed somewhat closer to Botswana. The places we’ve seen and the people we’ve met and worked with have enriched us beyond measure. Carol noticed that Ken didn’t stop smiling all the time we were in Botswana. We were deeply affected by the neighbouring Republic of South Africa, where the apartheid system was in full force. At the same time, liberation forces in the countries adjoining South Africa were gathering strength, and CUSO had its own Liberation Program in support. As we attended CUSO planning meetings in the ECSA Region, we were moved and inspired to meet leaders of the various liberation organizations working to achieve majority rule in the white-led countries of South Africa, Namibia, and Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia). If we’d stayed in Canada, our teenage children would have entered fully into a peer-centred life. Life in Botswana offered family-centred opportunities: lurching on the sand track in the Toyota Land Cruiser through the Kgalagadi—encountering Basarwa, giving desert folk lifts, dazzled by springbok, wildebeest, flamingoes, and zebras. And most important of all: visiting CUSOBOTs. Our teenagers transcended the inevitable discomfort, moving beyond it to profound experience. So began an experience that changed the direction of our years that followed. Son Dave’s master’s thesis on Energy Technology in Third World Villages says in part: “This dissertation is dedicated to my parents…Without their commitment to development which took the family to Africa for two years in the 70s, this whole thing would never have occurred to me.” It’s humbling to learn that comfort, education and relative wealth does not put us ahead of people of wisdom, resilience, poverty, and kindness. Who learned more from whom is the question. |
Add a ReflectionWhat was the lasting impact of the CUSO Botswana experience on the rest of your life? How did it change you? How did it affect your values, beliefs, actions? Your thoughts on the meaning of the experience are important to all of us and to Cuso International (200 words max). Email your reflection to: Archives
June 2019
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