As I was walking around, a woman came up to me, said 'Dumela' to me, and we became very good friends. It was as if we had known each other for years," 84-year old Jim Gronseth, born in the American Midwest, says. This incident, to him, illustrates perfectly the friendliness and kindness showered upon him by Batswana in the two weeks he has been staying in Kanye. Gronseth is one of the 38 Americans who have given up their jobs and lives to spend up to two years as Peace Corps volunteers in Botswana. Currently, they are in Kanye for a two-month training course before they are dispersed to various stations as volunteers.
Jim Gronseth is part of a new Peace Corps group in Botswana that is still trying to find their feet in a country and village very different from where they come from. But what makes anybody pack up and leave their families, friends and everything they know? The answers range from the altruistic and idealistic to the practical and adventurous. Blake Ruble, 22-year-old university graduate from South Carolina, said he joined the Peace Corps to get a chance to help fight the HIV/ AIDS pandemic.
