Saying Goodbye to President Mogae... and Roaches

Wednesday 2/13
I had my first official day at the Mma Bana clinic today, and although I am restricted to pure observation, I am getting to see how the drug treatment program works and the doctors and nurses are really good about telling me what they are doing and spelling out the basics of the study when time permits. The doctor I was shadowing saw four patients in the three hours I was there: three women with beautiful, healthy babies, and one woman who was just in the interview stages and was only 22 weeks or so along in her pregnancy. It was definitely hard to realize that these cheerful, vibrant women were all afflicted with a deadly disease, but their attitude, and the love they showed their babies made me poignantly happy. Better still, none of the babies were showing any signs of infection despite being breastfed by their mothers (which is a very positive sign!). I discovered that the purpose of the Mma Bana study is to determine which of a set of drugs was most effective at reducing transmission. Currently, the World Health Organization and the government of Botswana more specifically recommend exclusive formula feeding whenever feasible, but what the Mma Bana study hopes to accomplish is ultimately creating a situation in which breastfeeding poses no risk of transmission to the baby; a prospect which bodes well both for the health of the baby, and the peace of mind for the mother.
The rest of the day I have accomplished very little other than cleaning my room, exercising, and preparing for my presentation Friday. Tomorrow, my Globalization class is going to a kgotla meeting in Tlhokweng to hear the president's farewell speech to that particular settlement. If you'll remember back to my earliest blogs, the kgotla is kind of the centerpiece for a traditional village where all matters of law, education, health, and community meetings occurs. The President, Festus G. Mogae, is stepping down this year to be succeeded by his vice president, the ex-military commander and son of Botswana's famed first president, Seretse Khama. Something that is very interesting about this tradition of stepping down, is that Botswana is actually one of the few countries in Africa where there is a presidential tradition of stepping down from office before they were required to do so. In fact, Mogae announced very early on in his candidacy that he would step down in 2008, and now that the time has come, he is holding to that statement. In a continent plagued by corruption and dictatorial rule, this sort of action bodes well for the future of democracy (or some form of it) in Africa - although some might argue that democracy though effective in the global economic scene, directly conflicts with the traditional kgotla way of life in which consensus and the power of the chief govern the way people live.
Hopefully I'll have more interesting facts to report after the kgotla meeting tomorrow. Happy almost Valentine's Day! TTFN!

Thursday 2/14
Happy Valentine's Day! I hope that love finds its way to all of you today (although you won't see this post until tomorrow!)!! Today has been an eventful one, both good and bad. This morning after our daily run, Alyssa and I had to scurry to ready ourselves for a trip with the group to the Tlhokweng kgotla to hear President Mogae speak! Women are required to wear long skirts or dresses with both knees and shoulders covered and a scarf over their hair in the kgotla, so I donned my Tanzania fabric skirt, a white fitted t-shirt, and a blue bandanna. As we were walking to the combie stop to go to the kgotla, a woman on the UB faculty stopped us and told us we looked like traditional Batswana women. Regardless of whether or not it was true, it was reassuring to hear that we looked like we were dressed for the occasion, and indeed aside from a slight difference in skin tone, we looked very much like the other women at the kgotla!
The ceremonies began at around 9 (we arrived at 8 or so) with a very interesting musical ensemble of older men carrying reed-like instruments that when blown into in a special way emitted a series of pitches and tones based on the length/diameter of the reed. They also danced around in a circle and I found myself in awe, as always, with the ability of the African people to sustain multiple, complicated rhythms in which the musical rhythm is completely different than the rhythm to which they are moving their feet.
Following that were some announcements (unfortunately, almost all of the meeting was conducted in Setswana so we had no idea what was being said), then a choir led us in the Botswana national anthem. More important people came up to speak, more choirs... The highlight of the day for me was the "New Age Daycare Center" who performed two welcoming dances for the President. The performers were around 3-4 years old, and were absolutely adorable and charming. I think that the President could not have received a better welcome!
The President was an endearing man, and purportedly made several entertaining remarks as there was frequent laughter from the crowd, but what struck me most about his time on stage was the way in which he carried himself. He was not a particularly charismatic or engaging speaker, but was instead very stoic and had a very wizened look in his eyes. I don't know much about him other than the general, "all hail his excellency"-type comments, but I rather liked him in that moment.
The trip back was uneventful aside from a white woman who stopped us in the grocery store (we stopped by to pick up a few lunch items) because she was concerned about Alyssa's sunburn (which is peeling and looks pretty bad right now), and we were told to put baking soda on it and that it would "tingle a bit" but help with the healing. We laughed about the use of the word "tingle", since baking soda on raw skin would do much more than tingle! I think we'll stick to the Aloe remedy that seems to be working well.
Upon returning home, we were met with an unpleasant shock in the form of a notice posted on our door. Apparently, someone has done enough complaining about the roaches in the graduate hostels (which I feel are perfectly tolerable) that they decided to force all of us to move completely out of our apartment for the weekend while they fumigate. Why this issue needs to be dealt with in the middle of a semester is beyond me, but Alyssa and I immediately sought out the "authorities" to see what could be done. We even went so far as to decide that we would not be vacating our rooms, and we would literally barricade our door against the fumigators. Our apartment-mate, Victoria was all for it because she would have to move a desktop computer, TV, and all her other personal items (which are far more numerous than mine). In the end, they reposted the notice saying that the time of evacuation would be limited to 9am-1pm on Saturday and that we could move back in Saturday evening. We will have accommodations in another building for our things, and for spending the night if we choose to do so, and we have decided to acquiesce despite the fact that we literally have 24 hours to pack up all of our stuff and move out. I don't know what Victoria will do, and another roommate, Leish, isn't even in town, and there's no way we are going to go into her room to move her things. Plus, we've been informed that if we don't move everything, there will likely be things missing because the fumigators are opportunistic thieves. So we are crossing our fingers that the time-frame given will be adhered to, and we will be able to be back in our rooms by dinner on Saturday. It gives us a great excuse to go shopping all day Saturday though, since we won't be able to be around here!
Tonight I'm going to see a documentary/film on Rosa Parks that is being screened as part of Black History month (sponsored by the U.S. embassy) which should be fairly stimulating. I will include the results of that in my next post as this one is already quite lengthy. Hope all is well at home! TTFN!