Late October 1986: A Visit with Peace Corps Volunteers in Rural Botswana

Denver, Colorado March 27, 2023  

In addition to hanging out with my British drinking buddies, David and Gordon at the President Hotel on the mall in the center of Gaborone, I checked out other bars within easy walking or biking distance of the campus.  One place that I particularly liked was the Midnight Grill (later the Barracuda Restaurant) run by an ex=US Peace Corps volunteer who made very good pizzas.  It had a clean but casual atmosphere and attracted a diverse crowd of locals and ex-pats. 

The weekend following the fiasco with my car engine in South Africa, I found myself seated at the bar in the Midnight Grill next to a couple of engaging and animated, 20-something, female Peace Corps volunteers.  Gayle Erdheim was Jewish with a big smile and a ‘do of frizzy brown hair.  Bryce Isham, from Seattle, had her brown hair in a ponytail and wore wire-rim glasses giving her a scholarly air.  Both were quite cute.  They were teachers at a junior secondary school in Tonota, a village in northeastern part of Botswana.  The village was a couple miles from Shashe which I remembered passing through on my train trips to and from Zimbabwe a few months earlier.  They were in Gabs for a few days for medical appointments, Peace Corps trainings, and R&R in the “big” city.       

We hit it off immediately and had a great conversation.  Since I took an interest in their teaching experiences and village life, they invited me to come up for a weekend.  There were several other Peace Corps volunteers teaching there.  They had plenty of room for overnight visitors in their compound.  I didn’t need to think twice about accepting the invitation.  “Hey, thanks. I can do it on a long weekend.  Probably, soon.”  Gayle and Bryce decided that would work.  They liked having visitors as it broke the monotony of their daily village routine. 

Of course, I no longer had a car since the recent death of my VW.  The journey by car would have been less than five hours.  But now, it would be an overnight train trip.  The following week I sent them a letter suggesting a visit for the last weekend of October.  I received the following response from Gayle which said in part:

This weekend would be fine for a visit to Tonota.  Come anytime you want.  Saturday we’ve been invited to a wedding in the village.  I think it would be fine if you came along.  If you’re not comfortable with that, Sunday and Monday are also fine.  The social studies and math teachers and will be around. 

In fact, you’re welcome to stay all 3 days.  What the hell, you can just move in!

If you can, call or telegram to let me know when you’re coming so I can meet you at the train. 

See you soon,

Gayle

 

I immediately pedaled over to the Gaborone station and bought a round-trip, second-class ticket for the train to Shashe.  Then I sent a telegram to Gayle:  ARRIVE SATURDAY 25 OCTOBER 0630 TRAIN.  THANKS, WILL

On Friday night at 8:00, I was on the north-bound train which arrived on time early Saturday morning in Shashe.  I was very pleased to see Gayle waiting for me at the station, and we walked a couple miles south to their residential compound in Tonota.  There I met two Peace Corps couples in their 30s:  Verondi and Jeff Havens and Elizabeth Blake and David Cowney.  The group’s weekend project was painting the bottom and sides of an abandoned bible college swimming pool near where they lived.  They dubbed the place the “Tonota Swim and Racquet Club”.  After 36+ years, I don’t remember much of anything about the wedding, the home-cooked meals, the inevitable drinking, or the long conversations.  Fortunately, I took a few photos to help my memory.

With Gayle and Bryce at their school in Tonota.  Note their long skirts in accordance with the conservative decorum for women in rural Botswana.  Also note the big smile on my face indicating how enjoyable it was hanging out with these two!

On Monday morning, I went with Gayle and Bryce to their school and met their enthusiastic students.  That evening at 6:30, I was back on the train to Gaborone arriving about 12 hours later.  It had been a great weekend.  I meant to get back there but never did.  Teaching, writing, two more trips to South Africa, and social life in Gabs all got in the way. 

Gayle (far left) and Bryce (far right) with their junior secondary school students in Tonota.

 

I kept up with some of the people I met that long lost weekend ago.  After Peace Corps, Elizabeth and David stayed in Botswana and started their own consulting firm, SIAPAC-Africa (Social Impact Assessment and Policy Analysis Corporation).  Gayle went to graduate school and became a university administrator in the States.  

Then there was Bryce.  She soon tired of the Peace Corps and Botswana.  Bryce felt that Botswana had become too westernized.  By early 1987, she had quit Peace Corps and got a teaching job in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia which she found had a much more interesting African vibe.  A couple years later, Bryce wound up in Peshawar, Pakistan working for a women’s health organization that served Afghan refugees.  After grad school at Cornell, she was hired by the U.S. State Department as a Foreign Service Officer.  They eventually put her through intensive Arabic studies.  Since then she has served in Baghdad’s infamous Green Zone, right after the start of the 2003 U.S. occupation, and later in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.  I visited her in Peshawar in 1989 and Jeddah in 2016.  She is one of the most gutsy and amazing women that I have had the privilege of knowing.