Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Handing Over a House

This past weekend I attended a very moving ceremony in a village about 45 km from mine. In this village called Maboane there was a Peace Corps Volunteer, Jeanne Davey, for 2 years - in fact, she ended service and left her village today. The ceremony taking place was a "Handing Over of a House" event -- and it was, quite literally, opening the doors and handing over a newly constructed house to a local family. The building of this home began with Jeanne. She wrote a grant to pull in funding from the US and from community members for construction, and from start to finish the project took about 1 year.

This whole event was extremely touching for all attending. Not only was this house created for a very impoverished family -- a blind grandmother, 3 daughters, and at least 15 grandchildren (some orphaned) that actually had no shelter and were sleeping and living outdoors -- it was pushed thru to completion by community members working together despite many difficult circumstances. And so, this was truly a wonderful story about a community here in Botswana.

Seeing this was also a big deal for me personally, from a Peace Corps Volunteer perspective. I'd met Jeanne only recently, and at that time she told me about trying to raise money to hopefully complete a house before leaving. The next time I saw her she informed me, still shocked herself, that the money was raised and the house was built (and the building only began in early April!). She invited me to the ceremony and I knew I couldn't miss it. To everyone this is a community success story, but to me, it is also a Peace Corps success story. It really is remarkable that Jeanne got this going after seeing the basic need of a local family (which by the way is still heartbreaking to think about), and more importantly, was able to come thru for them. I'm so happy to have met Jeanne, to have seen what she accomplished, and to have been able to celebrate in her community with her. It was one of those days where I felt pride being part of Peace Corps, because despite what I may be feeling about my own service and accomplishments, there are Volunteers around the globe struggling to get things done but still doing amazing things. These successes often feel like my own in some way, and so it is great to see and share those moments with other Volunteers.

Congrats again, Jeanne, if you're reading! And thanks for all the inspiration you've given me.

Here's some photos from the event!

Jeanne speaking at the ceremony, thanking all the contributing community partners.

Community members gathered around the house for the ribbon cutting part of the ceremony.

Tents set up on the compound next to the house, where everyone was seated for the speeches

One area where the family 19+ members used to sleep outside

Another structure used for shelter by the family

The family's new home!

Jeanne and one of the family members in front of the new house


Also, our Country Director sent us a link to the US Embassy in Botswana Facebook page (who knew they had a Facebook page??) highlighting Jeanne's project -- there are more photos there as well -- this is the webpage:  US Embassy, Gaborone

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