The two weeks following the Johannesburg tour were quite uneventful, consisting mostly of me sitting in my room doing research, reading assigned texts for class, and writing papers. Easter weekend was quite a downer since it was my first away from family. I called and talked to all of those attending my grandmother's kidney stew dinner, and it was very bittersweet. I was so happy to hear everyone having a great time and it was very exciting that Michael was in attendance after a four or five year hiatus. I spent most of the weekend studying, reading, writing, slacking, walking to and from Riverwalk (a trend that has become more and more common in the past weeks) and other means of procrastinating from working on my essays and writing my outline for my research paper! Yikes!
On March 28th, however, experienced some excitement when we were invited to dinner at former President Masire's home in a very nice suburb of Gabs (Gaborone). President Ketumile Masire succeeded the first President of Botswana, Seretse Khama, in 1980 as the second President of the new nation. He was a very "cool" man and was very open about answering our sometimes provocative questions about the state of the economy and the success of a government-centered democracy in this country. We also met his main cabinet adviser and still close friend, Mr. Sentle who talked to us during a delicious buffet that consisted of a variety of different foods from fruit and finger sandwiches to Indian and Oriental dishes. We learned that former President Masire and his wife (and Mr. Sentle) are all very active in affairs around Africa and they work tirelessly to support and fight for democracy in the region. It was quite awe-inspiring to see this aging politician and his wife so vibrant and full of passion for something so time-consuming and at times disheartening. After dinner and a question and answer session, we took a group photo that took nearly thirty minutes and then we received complimentary copies of his latest book, Memoirs of an African Democrat before heading back to UB.
Somewhere in this time period I applied for an internship with the National Conference of State Legislatures in Denver where I would be doing research on health policy in order to create a resource for legislators to read up on different policy issues and make policy decisions. Although it's not quite my field, I am very interested to see what I can learn about being involved in the policy-making side of things, especially in the field of health policy! I guess I'll spoil the surprise at this point and admit that I received an email a couple of weeks ago saying that I got the internship! Exciting!
Also during those next few weeks, Alyssa was unfortunately robbed, but luckily her computer was locked to her bed and that prevented the thief from taking that in addition to her iPod and camera. It was a sobering experience, and reminded me that we cannot afford to let our guard down here. It's really not that people are bad or cruel, there is just a lot of wealth disparity here, and people tend to be opportunists. Needless to say, I have been taking extra precautions to keep my things safe.
On Wednesday, April 9, we boarded a cramped little bus for our last ACM-sponsored field trip to the Jwaneng Diamond Mines. The drive was short, maybe two hours and when we reached the mine, we had to confirm our reservations at the gate and walk to another bus that would take us inside the gates of the mine. While sitting outside the gates, a whole barrage of police vehicles screamed through the gates of the mine on a mission to do Lord knows what, but before we had even gained clearance they were racing back out, lights and sirens. Weird!
Once inside the grounds, we traveled to the "green zone" where the administrative offices were and our guide explained that our likelihood of finding diamonds in this area were slim to none. We were told to done protective boots (looked like hiking boots), hard hats and reflective construction vests. We were stylin' in other words! I will attach a picture of that because we looked pretty amazing!
After the green zone we entered the blue zone by walking through a very secure-looking turnstile that was lined with blue mesh to restrict our movement to the walkways. There were work-place safety signs everywhere that showed some pretty entertaining images of cartoon men getting their behinds caught in machines and things like that. We then boarded another bus and moved went into the actual mine. We were instructed not to bend over to tie our shoes or pick anything up, and if we were to drop anything, we must make sure that the security guard that was accompanying us was watching when we picked it up so he would know we weren't scooping up a diamond. The blue zone consisted of the actual pit mines where the unrefined diamonds were mined and taken to the red zone, which was a tall building in the distance where the extraction and polishing was done. Currently, diamond cutting is not something that is done in Botswana but construction is underway near the Gabs airport to build a diamond cutting and refining plant so that Botswana can market the finished products as well as the raw materials.
I felt pretty uncomfortable around the pit mines because they are so destructive to the environment, and it all seemed so wasteful. I was awed at the efficiency and organization, however. Apparently, they keep the mine running day and night with four shifts that each work an eight-hour shift with one shift off for two days a week. The mine is literally a big pit made by blasting that is then dug out by huge (and I mean huge!) trucks that remove both waste rock and material containing the diamonds. We were taken on board on of the trucks and it was mind-bogglingly huge! I'll attach a picture of me standing next to the tire to show you just how big it is!
We were not allowed to enter the red zone because of the extreme likelihood that we would find a diamond. Apparently the procedure for all employees is a strip search upon entry and exit. I'll pass! Instead we were shown a very outdated exhibit that gave a brief history of the mining process in Botswana and showed different levels of refinement in the diamonds that were found in the mine. Apparently Jwaneng mine is the only one in the world that boasts green diamonds, so if you ever encounter a green diamond, then it is from Jwaneng!
At the end of our tour, we were sent through a door into a hallway where a computer randomly unlocked one of two doors. One led directly to the loading zone where our bus would take us out of the blue zone, and the other opened into a small room with an x-ray machine and a security guard with frisky hands (it was a woman for females don't worry!). As you may have guessed, I picked door number two which sent me through the pat-down search. It wasn't bad and I was informed that I was allowed to pass through.
Leaving the mine was nearly as time-consuming as entering it, but it was definitely a cool experience, and our traditional lunch in Kanye (no not Kanye West) was quite delicious.
The following Wednesday truly began my countdown to D-day, aka turn in my research paper day, because I had to give my presentation on my research process and findings. It turned out fine and I found it helpful when I started writing my paper. It was at this point that things started to really speed up because that Friday was my Globalization final and marked the end of classes at UB. I spent Saturday, Sunday, about one hour on Monday, and all of Tuesday afternoon/evening writing my paper and at 3am, with some trepidation, I hit send! It was thirty-six pages in all, and not mind-blowing in content, but feels like quite an accomplishment as well as a great learning experience!
Last week was all about realizing that I was leaving in two weeks and trying to figure out what souvenirs I still needed. As predicted, it was my most expensive week but also my most productive in that I was able to finish buying the souvenirs that I wanted to, and anything else is extraneous! I did have my Setswana finals (written and oral) on Monday and Tuesday, and while the written went reasonably well, the oral was a disaster. The professors basically sat there and said talk for five minutes. Oh well, as long as I get above a fifty percent (which is a C here) I still pass the class and it's not factored into my GPA. Don't get me wrong, I'm not settling for C's now, but after all that we've been through with this class, I'm just happy it's over. I am very disappointed, however that I'm not fluent at all in Setswana. Too bad.
Wednesday and Friday were about shopping and spending my last two days at the clinic (tear), but Thursday was an entire adventure in and of itself! One of the girls (from CC) who is here with me, Sarah, did her research on women's grassroots initiatives in Botswana with a focus on a political group called Emang Basadi which focuses it's efforts on fighting for a woman's voice in politics. Based on her research and Alyssa's research on gender dynamics in the household, Botswana has a long way to go towards women's rights. In fact, while their overall crime rate is amazingly low, the number of passion killings per year (ie. love lost, affairs) is one of the highest in the world. Anyway, through Sarah's research she became acquainted with Emang Basadi's founder and current High Court Justice, Unity Dow. Unity Dow (who is a world famous and apparently very cool woman) invited Sarah up to her home(s) for the weekend where they sipped cocktails, visited the cattle posts and hung out by the pool. After that weekend, Unity handed Sarah the keys to her cabin/chalet/vacation home in a little village called Oodie just outside of Gabs and said you and your friends are welcome to use this for whatever purpose you choose. Crazy huh?!! So Sarah and a few other girls went up there early in the week to write their papers, and Alyssa and I decided to go up and visit on Thursday. We caught the combie going up to Oodie, and missed the stop thus requiring us to walk several miles back to the correct turn-off. On our way, we met up with Sarah who had met a man that wanted to show us the "Orange Groves". Assuming he meant actual orange groves, we met back up with him and followed him to the groves. It turned out to be a bar where they served us (nonalcoholic) ginger juice that was better than most juices I've tasted in the states! The man, Dodo and his brother, Mula invited us back later for a braai (barbecue). Apparently they owned the bar and a good deal of land around it that they planned to turn into a gated community for the emerging working middle class in Gabs. So the three of us went to Unity's house, which was absolutely beautiful! Everything was made of wood and very clean and modern looking. Alyssa and I were planning to just relax and chill, so while the three other girls worked on their papers, we watched a movie on apartheid and Oprah on the tv set and napped frequently throughout. It was quite enjoyable, and when it came time for the braai, we all ventured back to see what these guys had in store for us. The night was a riot, with many uncomfortable and many hilarious moments. The highlight, however was a Belgian man named Frank who is apparently a regular at the bar despite living over ten kilometers away. He was this big, loud and very opinionated man who dominated the conversation, but was so ridiculous that he was hilarious! After two or three hours of sipping juice we finally went out of the dark bar and sat around a little portable grill where they braai'ed a long link of some type of sausage. It was actually quite good and I believe it may have been bratwurst. Alyssa and I had to get back to Gabs after dinner, and since it was dark already, Frank was enlisted to take us home. Despite being less than 20km from Gabs, it took us over an hour and a half to get home because Frank insisted upon showing us his large and impressive home and grandchildren. So we met his wife, five or six grandchildren and saw his beautiful home, gardens and the former President Mogae's enormous mansion across the golf course! I mean this thing would be a huge mansion in the States! We finally reached UB and literally lay on Alyssa's bed laughing and trying to comprehend who this person was that we had just spent five hours of our lives with! He was not dangerous at all, just so ridiculous and funny that we couldn't believe it! Good memories though!
We spent the weekend recuperating from the week (because it was soooo exhausting! ;)), and I managed to study a small amount for my African Traditional Religions final on Monday. I can't believe I'm done now! I'm a senior in college! Holy crap!
Monday was also Whitney's last night in Botswana because she elected to go home early for personal reasons, so we went out to dinner and attempted to give her a proper send-off. It was a nice way to end the day after all the stress that had built up. The internet was down for all of Sunday and a good portion of Monday, which meant several things including the fact that people who had yet to email their papers to Dr. Lanegran could not email them (they were due at 4pm on Monday). Luckily that was not a problem for me, however we were all required to get five signatures on a checkout form that confirmed that we did not own any fines to the campus. So this was at times easy, and at times a wild goose chase (as is predictable when dealing with the bureaucracy of this country). With the internet down, the library couldn't check our records for fines, check books in or do anything else so people will overdue books had to pay extra fines for the days when the library was out of commission. Plus, for people like Whitney who had to get their forms signed that day were in trouble because the library would sign the forms without checking for fines first. It all worked out in the end, but there was a great deal of tension and frustration amongst the group. Luckily we have a vacation to look forward to and relax our nerves!
Today, Tuesday, Alyssa and I ventured out to the station at 7am to get in line to buy our bus tickets for the overnight bus to Zambia. We aren't going all the way to Zambia, but it's one of the cheapest and easiest ways to get to the tourist village of Kasane in Northern Botswana where we will be vacationing for the next three days! We will be staying in Chobe safari lodge at the very edge of the Chobe river and going on a river safari where at this time of year we are almost guaranteed to see crocodile, elephants, water buffalo and maybe even a lion kill! I can't wait! Other than that, we will likely spend a good deal of time lying near the pool working on our tans and relaxing. When we get back on Saturday we will be frantically packing and getting to ready to leave on Monday! I can't believe how fast this semester went! I'm definitely excited to come home, but I definitely made a lot of memories out here in Botswana! I promise to blog again on Saturday to report on my trip to Kasane! Love to all! See you in a week!
