Thursday 2/21
Today began at the moderately unfortunate hour of 4:30am , but being awake at this hour proved to be a fruitful enterprise. The reason for rising so early was that the last lunar eclipse until 2010 occurred at around 5am my time, and I decided that it was worth the loss of sleep in order to see a lunar eclipse in a Sub-Saharan African sky. The stars are very differently oriented here, and we were even able to see parts of the milky way when we traveled to the darkened national stadium for viewing. The eclipse itself was definitely cool to watch and the temperature was a balmy 70-ish degrees even in the darkness so I thoroughly enjoyed beginning my morning with one of nature's (and I use the term nature to encompass the solar system as well) great moments. By the time the eclipse was complete, the sun was beginning to rise, and we stayed to watch the outline of the moon disappear in the daylight. Afterwards, I went down to the track to do my morning workout, and successfully ran five miles! I was moving at a snail's pace, but I was triumphant in that today is the first time since I developed problems with my shins in soccer (roughly two years ago) that I have run more than three miles without having to ignore excruciating pain in my shins! Hooray! Stretching has been the key, as well as slowing my pace to match my muscular fitness level.
Classes today have been a little blurry due to my lack of sleep, but I am going to take tomorrow off from exercising in order to be able to sleep until 7am (which is sleeping in here - everything starts earlier because it gets so hot in the afternoon). My classmates and I are pulling our hair out in Setswana because our professor is consistently giving us contradictory information in class, and at the end of the lesson, we are never sure which version of the structure of a sentence she wants us to use. I am definitely of the opinion that teaching a foreign language to complete beginners should be done by someone who has had to learn the language in the same way because there is a severe communication barrier between us students, and our Botswana professor. Unfortunately for now we are stuck, and we will have to settle for a basic understanding of the language that can be clarified as issues come up in our attempts to use the language in "real life". It is a very interesting language, and I look forward to impressing my friends with my ability to speak a language that is completely foreign to us Westerners! ;)
The rest of the day holds little to entertain, just some reading for tomorrow, exercise and a little chicken stir fry for dinner!! Mmmm! TTFN!
Friday 2/22
Today began very strangely! Alyssa and I met up with another girl from our program, Whitney, as well as our director/professor, Dr. Lanegran, on our way to Globalization class. The four of us entered a classroom and sat down. No one else was present, and at around 8:05am, when there were still no other students in the classroom, Dr. Lanegran, irritated and a bit flustered, began to hold class with just us three students. We discussed the assigned reading from the night before on the feminization of the textile industry in Lesotho until around 8:30am when Dr. Lanegran answered her cell phone which had rang several times, to discover one of the other students on the line asking her why she had not shown up to class. In the end, we realized that Dr. Lanegran had walked into the wrong classroom, and because the rooms all look the same on the floor where the class is, we didn't realize it. So all 20 of the other students had been sitting in the right classroom next door wondering what was happening, and fearing the worst. We all got together after class in the courtyard of our dorms and had a good laugh about the whole situation. It's amazing what people will conclude when the unexpected happens. Alyssa, Whitney and I thought it was a joke; Dr. Lanegran thought people had overslept(?) or were just on a trip somewhere; and the other students figured that one of the three of us students was in the hospital or something since we all weren't there.
After class, I went over to the clinic which was eerily quiet when I walked in, and all the doctors expressed their surprise and delight at how little was going on that day since Fridays are normally slammed with patients. Instead I spent most of the morning talking with Dr. Tumbare about her children and other non-medicine subjects. There was one dramatic unfolding while I was there in that a woman who was very pregnant and very anemic was locked in her home refusing to go to the hospital for a much needed blood transfusion. The anti-retroviral drugs that are given during this study can cause low hemoglobin levels (the molecule that transports oxygen in the blood), and in severe cases can require a blood transfusion. The woman had spent February 2-18 in the hospital and received absolutely no medical care other than to be stuck in every possible vein in her body as they attempted to establish IV access. One of the clinic doctors who had seen her the day before said she looked like a pincushion. In response, the woman said that she would go to the hospital on Monday because she was too tired to go for the whole weekend. As frustrating and worrisome as her noncompliance was, one can hardly blame her for being wary of returning to the overcrowded wards where all she would do is lie around and sleep anyway. I participated with my limited knowledge of medical ethics vs. duty to act in the discussion on whether or not the clinic was legally obligated. The biggest question is obviously whether or not the mother is of sound mind to make rational decision. In the U.S. if a person is deemed mentally competent at the time of refusal, the healthcare provider has no right to force that person to receive medical attention. If, however, the person is determined not to be of sound mind, then a court order can be issued that gives the healthcare provider the authority to temporarily commit the patient to the hospital. In Botswana, these standards do not exist, so all the clinic can ethically do is hope that nothing happens over the weekend to the mother or the baby. Dr. Thumbare was fairly confident that barring any unusual circumstances, the mother should be fine to rest over the weekend and receive the transfusion on Monday. So if you're looking for someone to pray for, this woman and her baby could definitely use some prayers.
Saturday 2/23
Alyssa and I participated in the aerobics club "marathon" today which included four hours of aerobic dancing led by different instructors from around the Sub-Saharan Africa region! There is a special event going on this week called the Intervarsity Games, and basically there are students from universities in the region that have come here to compete/observe in the realm of athletics and other competitive arenas. Tonight there is an opening night bash that includes all kinds of musical performers starting at 6pm and going until 6am. After the four hours of dancing during aerobics, I don't know if I'll be up for that kind of party!
The aerobics instructors were all very different from each other, and each routine was a lot of fun. My favorite was a guy who clearly had martial arts training and was wearing a white sweat outfit with a blue tank-top underneath. He had us shadow-boxing and kickboxing, and doing a routine that was far more like Taebo than aerobics. As a Taebo buff, I was much more at home with this guy than the more dance-oriented routines, although I surprised myself with my ability to pick up the routines after several thousand mistakes! Reminded me of learning dance numbers during musical rehearsal in high school! Oh Stage Flight Theater!
After showering and enjoying a lunch of mango, chicken sandwich, and pickles, Alyssa and I walked over to Riverwalk where I purchased a mosquito net at the behest of concerned loved ones ;) and we sat and enjoyed a cool drink at Wimpy's, which is like a classy McDonalds. They still have take-out, but most people come in, sit down, and order their fried chicken patties and ice cream/shakes with fries from the waiters/waitresses. Tipping is an unclear thing here, as many places the servers are paid above the minimum wage and often don't even receive tips, and yet there are places like Spur, where I'm pretty sure tipping is customary. It's one of those things that you just have to use your best judgment and hope you don't make anyone too angry. There are stalls outside the restaurant sector on the weekends and Riverwalk that sell beautiful handcrafted earrings, necklaces, bracelets, bags, shirts, etc., and Alyssa and I have been contributing significantly to the income of these stall owners the last few weekends! The earrings are only about P10, which is under $2 USD, so it's not like we're getting ripped off, but it definitely adds up! Oh well, lots of lovely little African jewelry to give away!
The rest of the afternoon was spent packing for the safari. Did I mention how excited I am?!! I will definitely have to find a way to post some pics after that because I expect there to be some really cool ones! Obviously, I won't be writing in my blog until probably Sunday or Monday of next week, so don't be worried I haven't posted. Also be prepared for a very long entry when I get back though! I plan to keep careful record in my journal of all the things we do so that I can report the details back to you! Thanks again for reading! It's really fun to be able to share my experiences with the people I love! Have a wonderful, safe week! TTFN!
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Monday, February 18, 2008
Studying for Setswana
Monday 2/18
Today was busy, as Mondays usually are, though it actually seemed a bit slow in comparison with the eventful weekend I had! In our independent study meeting we discussed the upcoming trip to the Okavango Deltas, and I must say that I am really really really looking forward to the opportunity to get off campus and have some real quality time with nature. We will be staying in tents the entire week and going on canoe trips, hikes, etc. Should be a really fantastic photo opportunity! I'm still working on the Snapfish photo thing, but I promise I will get at least a few pictures uploaded after the Deltas. I have my first Setswana test tomorrow, and I, along with most of my classmates, have no idea what to study because our professor is terribly inept at teaching. The challenge I think is that there has never been a class at UB that was geared towards teaching Setswana to complete beginners. As in most other aspects of this program, we are the guinea pigs, and everything is a bit of an experiment. Unfortunately, academically, this is an experiment that factors into my GPA, and I have struggled back and forth with the knowledge that medical school doesn't care where bad grades came from, and the fact that I don't want my study abroad experience to be dominated by academic study. I can learn about African Traditional Religions, Globalization, and even Setswana anywhere (hypothetically), but I can't learn how the combie system works or what a mopanee worm tastes like anywhere but here. So the dilemma persists, but I suppose for now I am managing to balance work and play, and I only hope that my grades don't suffer too terribly as a result!
Tuesday 2/19
I spent this morning studying for the Setswana test, which went fairly poorly as our professor asked us to directly translate vocabulary words we had never seen (although if asked she would insist that we had talked about it yesterday), but at this point, there is nothing more I can do about the test, so it's time to move on and do better next time! I really didn't do much today other than study (so much for balancing work and play) because I had to read a lengthy article about the feminization of the textile industry in Lesotho (country embedded in South Africa), but I did manage to exercise twice (once in the morning and once at around 5) and have a lovely dinner of veggie burgers and mixed veggies. Tomorrow will be a bit more exciting because I will be working at the clinic in the morning, followed by a quest to track down primary literature on my research topic at the Harvard Research Institute at Princess Marina Hospital (adjacent to the clinic where I work). I'm told that the hospital has a very well-stocked library, so I'm hoping to find good sources for my research! Only five more days until we head to the deltas!!! I promise to report something a bit more entertaining tomorrow, it's been a boring couple of days. TTFN!
Wednesday 2/20
My time at the clinic today was actually fairly eventful and the time passed far more quickly than I had previously experienced. In sitting in on consultations, I am able to observe and learn about different childhood ailments and conditions that these doctors look for as part of their routine check-up. Today we had a baby come in who had a very audible heart murmur that was not previously recorded, and it caused quite a stir with the clinic doctors. I was able to listen to the murmur through a baby stethoscope and it was surprising how loud and distinct it was. The understanding I was able to glean from the discussion around me was that a murmur is a backwards flow of blood from one ventricle to the other during the contraction of the heart because the one-way valve that normally prevents the back-flow is incomplete or otherwise disrupted. This is actually a fairly common birth defect that usually resolves itself within a few months of birth, and is otherwise correctable by surgery. The smaller the defect is, the louder and more detectable the murmur is, so the fact that we could hear the murmur so well in this baby is a sign that it may be getting smaller and therefore healing on its own. The doctors were not terribly worried because the baby was gaining weight regularly and didn't seem to have any trouble breathing while at rest, but they wanted to set up imaging tests (called a cardiac echo) anyway to make sure there wasn't a bigger underlying problem. The clinic doesn't actually have that capability, so this child's condition provided the opportunity for the clinic to establish a new connection with an imaging center on the hospital grounds, something that has very exciting future prospects in providing more comprehensive care for these patients. I am really enjoying being around the doctors and nurses all the time because many of them will stop and explain things to me so that I understand what they are doing, and why they are doing it. Definitely good experience for my future!
I spent much of my afternoon conducting literature searches for my research because we have a literature review due the Friday after I return from the Deltas. A literature review basically summarizes all the current research on the topic at hand and highlights significant questions and debates in the field. It should ultimately lead into, and justify the importance of the specific focus of what I am studying within the larger context of the topic (breastfeeding vs. formula feeding).
Whitney came over for dinner, and we enjoyed a Hawaiian pizza and entertaining animal photos from a very strange website called "icanhascheezburger.com" or something. Bed early tonight because we're getting up early for the lunar eclipse (more about that tomorrow)! TTFN!
Today was busy, as Mondays usually are, though it actually seemed a bit slow in comparison with the eventful weekend I had! In our independent study meeting we discussed the upcoming trip to the Okavango Deltas, and I must say that I am really really really looking forward to the opportunity to get off campus and have some real quality time with nature. We will be staying in tents the entire week and going on canoe trips, hikes, etc. Should be a really fantastic photo opportunity! I'm still working on the Snapfish photo thing, but I promise I will get at least a few pictures uploaded after the Deltas. I have my first Setswana test tomorrow, and I, along with most of my classmates, have no idea what to study because our professor is terribly inept at teaching. The challenge I think is that there has never been a class at UB that was geared towards teaching Setswana to complete beginners. As in most other aspects of this program, we are the guinea pigs, and everything is a bit of an experiment. Unfortunately, academically, this is an experiment that factors into my GPA, and I have struggled back and forth with the knowledge that medical school doesn't care where bad grades came from, and the fact that I don't want my study abroad experience to be dominated by academic study. I can learn about African Traditional Religions, Globalization, and even Setswana anywhere (hypothetically), but I can't learn how the combie system works or what a mopanee worm tastes like anywhere but here. So the dilemma persists, but I suppose for now I am managing to balance work and play, and I only hope that my grades don't suffer too terribly as a result!
Tuesday 2/19
I spent this morning studying for the Setswana test, which went fairly poorly as our professor asked us to directly translate vocabulary words we had never seen (although if asked she would insist that we had talked about it yesterday), but at this point, there is nothing more I can do about the test, so it's time to move on and do better next time! I really didn't do much today other than study (so much for balancing work and play) because I had to read a lengthy article about the feminization of the textile industry in Lesotho (country embedded in South Africa), but I did manage to exercise twice (once in the morning and once at around 5) and have a lovely dinner of veggie burgers and mixed veggies. Tomorrow will be a bit more exciting because I will be working at the clinic in the morning, followed by a quest to track down primary literature on my research topic at the Harvard Research Institute at Princess Marina Hospital (adjacent to the clinic where I work). I'm told that the hospital has a very well-stocked library, so I'm hoping to find good sources for my research! Only five more days until we head to the deltas!!! I promise to report something a bit more entertaining tomorrow, it's been a boring couple of days. TTFN!
Wednesday 2/20
My time at the clinic today was actually fairly eventful and the time passed far more quickly than I had previously experienced. In sitting in on consultations, I am able to observe and learn about different childhood ailments and conditions that these doctors look for as part of their routine check-up. Today we had a baby come in who had a very audible heart murmur that was not previously recorded, and it caused quite a stir with the clinic doctors. I was able to listen to the murmur through a baby stethoscope and it was surprising how loud and distinct it was. The understanding I was able to glean from the discussion around me was that a murmur is a backwards flow of blood from one ventricle to the other during the contraction of the heart because the one-way valve that normally prevents the back-flow is incomplete or otherwise disrupted. This is actually a fairly common birth defect that usually resolves itself within a few months of birth, and is otherwise correctable by surgery. The smaller the defect is, the louder and more detectable the murmur is, so the fact that we could hear the murmur so well in this baby is a sign that it may be getting smaller and therefore healing on its own. The doctors were not terribly worried because the baby was gaining weight regularly and didn't seem to have any trouble breathing while at rest, but they wanted to set up imaging tests (called a cardiac echo) anyway to make sure there wasn't a bigger underlying problem. The clinic doesn't actually have that capability, so this child's condition provided the opportunity for the clinic to establish a new connection with an imaging center on the hospital grounds, something that has very exciting future prospects in providing more comprehensive care for these patients. I am really enjoying being around the doctors and nurses all the time because many of them will stop and explain things to me so that I understand what they are doing, and why they are doing it. Definitely good experience for my future!
I spent much of my afternoon conducting literature searches for my research because we have a literature review due the Friday after I return from the Deltas. A literature review basically summarizes all the current research on the topic at hand and highlights significant questions and debates in the field. It should ultimately lead into, and justify the importance of the specific focus of what I am studying within the larger context of the topic (breastfeeding vs. formula feeding).
Whitney came over for dinner, and we enjoyed a Hawaiian pizza and entertaining animal photos from a very strange website called "icanhascheezburger.com" or something. Bed early tonight because we're getting up early for the lunar eclipse (more about that tomorrow)! TTFN!
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Roaches Be Gone!
Thursday 2/14 (cont.)
This day will be brief, just reporting on the documentary I watched on Rosa Parks. When Alyssa and I arrived at the auditorium (which I must observe was WAY nicer than any lecture hall at CC), a man who purportedly grew up during the civil rights movement was speaking about why this mattered so much to him, and it was cool to hear someone from the U.S. speaking, but his points were a little unfocused and not very convincing. Who knows, maybe we came in too late to understand his conclusion in the context of the rest of his speech. Anyway, the movie ended up being more about the emergence of Martin Luther King Jr. as the leader of the civil rights movement, ending with the successful reversal of segregation laws in Alabama following the Montgomery Bus Boycott. What I found interesting was that the students that were there (many of whom were required to be there for their class) laughed at some things that I knew weren't supposed to be funny. For example, after his church was burned to the ground, a preacher remarked that he knew that Martin was a leader, he just wasn't sure where Martin was leading them, and the whole auditorium burst into laughter. I suppose that kind of ironic sarcasm doesn't translate well to nonnative speakers. It also struck me that many of the students didn't seem to really care about what was happening, but then I realized that this isn't their history, and although they can identify with the idea of their ancestors being connected by the slave trade, the idea of racism in this context is pretty foreign to most of these students. I was definitely left with a lot more than civil rights to think about after the movie.
Friday 2/15
Today was busy busy! Running, class, clinic, frantically packing, and then out to dinner for our weekly night out! Alyssa, Whitney and I went back to Spur because we had enjoyed the service and the food so much and were pleased to have a similarly pleasant experience this time around. I found myself very irritated by an Afrikan (white) woman sitting at a table near ours who was openly disdainful and rude to the waitress to the point of rolling her eyes and making what looked like disrespectful comments. I wondered at that point what Batswana see and expect when they see me. Do they expect this kind of haughty elitist attitude, or is that kind of thing fairly uncommon. From my experience, I've met a lot of nice white people, but I have heard mention of an elitist mentality that many of the white ex-pats have adopted. Actually, earlier in the day, we had a meeting with guys from the U.S. embassy about what they do, concerns we should be aware of, etc., and we all got the feeling that these men and their families spent much of their time in the company of other white embassy workers and very little time mixing with the local Batswana.
Saturday 2/16
Well, today is a special day for (although some of you may not really care!) because it marks 8 months with my boyfriend, Anthony, who has been so wonderfully patient and supportive of me spending four of what will be ten months of our relationship halfway across the world. Not that I don't appreciate you all for your support and love during this time, but I just want to say a special thank you to him on this special day! I love you sweetie!
Well the operation move out for a day was successful. It only took three trips to transfer all of my belongings from the graduate hostels to an undergraduate double approximately five minutes' walk away. After settling in a bit, Alyssa, Whitney and I walked to Riverwalk to catch a cab to one of the only indoor malls in Botswana, Game City. It took us quite a while to find a cab driver who would take us to Game for only P20 because supposedly it was P30 even though we've been strictly told never to pay more than P20 for a cab ride within city limits. What I've discovered is that rule applies for the employed cab drivers who are probably paid by the hour and not on commission. They are also probably not responsible for the cost of gas. The majority of cab drivers that are readily available, however, are private contractors who have to earn their money, so I guess unless we are taking a cab home from Riverwalk at night, we shouldn't use the private contractors because they will charge a higher price. Once we finally arrived at Game City, we wondered around looking at all the posh, over-priced stores and remarking on the cute clothes and strange contents of a little gift shop that even had an graduation photo montage (K-12) which is odd to find here since the education system is not set up K-12!
We sat down after almost two hours of window shopping at a very nice cafe that was serving mostly white British/Afrikans and had a cool drink (bottomless lemonade with extra sugar), and then a little bit later ate sandwiches at a very fancy looking deli where by some stroke of luck we saw the woman from Spur. Best of all, she was equally rude and disdainful to this waiter, but when we saw her wandering around the mall a bit later, she was talking animatedly with her daughter. Oh well, I guess that's what people get for being in the service industry.
After wasting some more time window shopping, the three of us argued with private cab owners to take us back to Riverwalk for P20, and then a driver with a cab company logo pulled up and offered to take us for P20. This is the point at which I realized the above revelation about private vs. company drivers. Back at Riverwalk, I saw my first cinema film (and first movie) since leaving the States: The Bucket List, with Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman. It was delightful, poignant, and cute. Definitely not an Emmy nominee, but a very entertaining flick with some truly legendary actors. I think the best part of all, however, was that after the movie, I needed to use the restroom as happens often after a long movie, and I did not expect the movie theater to have a bathroom. Lo and behold, it did, but that's not the best part. The best part is that it had toilet paper in the stalls, soap, and working hand dryers!! These amenities are not common in most public bathrooms, so it was a delightful surprise, and I happily took advantage of it!
Upon leaving the theater, we passed by the movie store which sells mostly Bollywood movies, and I wrestled with the thought of buying one of my favorites, Rang de Basanti, for P90 (I have yet to find the film at all in the U.S.), but held off for now because I want to find a way to confirm that it will work in my computer's DVD player and on players at home.
For dinner, Alyssa and I bought a loaf of French bread and Camembert cheese and we enjoyed a picnic with Whitney on the floor of our temporary residence that included the cheese and bread, as well as a couple of pears and a little chocolate for dessert. In general, it was not a healthy meal, but mmmm it was delectable! After dinner we trekked back over to our old rooms to survey the damage, and the three of us tackled each of our rooms with sponges and multi-purpose cleaner to remove the chemicals. There were definitely still many live bugs around, and the fumes were rapidly dissipating, so I wonder at the effectiveness of the fumigation. Oh well, it gave me a chance to reorganize my things and clean all off my living surfaces which were disgustingly covered in cockroach residue.
Off to the shower back at the temp residence where there was no door or curtain which made for a very invigorating experience, and then we crawled into bed at around 11 feeling fairly exhausted but content with the day's events.
Sunday 2/17
Today started with an early morning run that turned into a mid-morning run because we woke up around 7:30 and didn't start running until 8:30 at which point it was quite hot, and then we moved our first load of things back to the apartment where we wolfed down some yogurt and granola before taking the two trips back to get the rest of our things. By noon, we had finished moving back in and reorganizing, and then it was on to laundry. I had an absurd amount of laundry this time around, and it was quite the task to scrub and rinse all of my clothes. That done, we ate lunch, I began to catch up in my blog/journal/etc. and then we walked over to Dr. Lanegran's house (program director and professor for Glob/Independent Study) for pizza, veggies, and banana bread. The banana bread was probably my favorite part because it reminded me of home, something that I'm finding I miss a lot these days despite my preoccupation with life here. Tonight I suppose I'll have to start studying for my first Setswana test on Tuesday because I have no idea what we are going to need to know for it. Have a lovely Sunday everyone! Go siame (go well)! TTFN!
This day will be brief, just reporting on the documentary I watched on Rosa Parks. When Alyssa and I arrived at the auditorium (which I must observe was WAY nicer than any lecture hall at CC), a man who purportedly grew up during the civil rights movement was speaking about why this mattered so much to him, and it was cool to hear someone from the U.S. speaking, but his points were a little unfocused and not very convincing. Who knows, maybe we came in too late to understand his conclusion in the context of the rest of his speech. Anyway, the movie ended up being more about the emergence of Martin Luther King Jr. as the leader of the civil rights movement, ending with the successful reversal of segregation laws in Alabama following the Montgomery Bus Boycott. What I found interesting was that the students that were there (many of whom were required to be there for their class) laughed at some things that I knew weren't supposed to be funny. For example, after his church was burned to the ground, a preacher remarked that he knew that Martin was a leader, he just wasn't sure where Martin was leading them, and the whole auditorium burst into laughter. I suppose that kind of ironic sarcasm doesn't translate well to nonnative speakers. It also struck me that many of the students didn't seem to really care about what was happening, but then I realized that this isn't their history, and although they can identify with the idea of their ancestors being connected by the slave trade, the idea of racism in this context is pretty foreign to most of these students. I was definitely left with a lot more than civil rights to think about after the movie.
Friday 2/15
Today was busy busy! Running, class, clinic, frantically packing, and then out to dinner for our weekly night out! Alyssa, Whitney and I went back to Spur because we had enjoyed the service and the food so much and were pleased to have a similarly pleasant experience this time around. I found myself very irritated by an Afrikan (white) woman sitting at a table near ours who was openly disdainful and rude to the waitress to the point of rolling her eyes and making what looked like disrespectful comments. I wondered at that point what Batswana see and expect when they see me. Do they expect this kind of haughty elitist attitude, or is that kind of thing fairly uncommon. From my experience, I've met a lot of nice white people, but I have heard mention of an elitist mentality that many of the white ex-pats have adopted. Actually, earlier in the day, we had a meeting with guys from the U.S. embassy about what they do, concerns we should be aware of, etc., and we all got the feeling that these men and their families spent much of their time in the company of other white embassy workers and very little time mixing with the local Batswana.
Saturday 2/16
Well, today is a special day for (although some of you may not really care!) because it marks 8 months with my boyfriend, Anthony, who has been so wonderfully patient and supportive of me spending four of what will be ten months of our relationship halfway across the world. Not that I don't appreciate you all for your support and love during this time, but I just want to say a special thank you to him on this special day! I love you sweetie!
Well the operation move out for a day was successful. It only took three trips to transfer all of my belongings from the graduate hostels to an undergraduate double approximately five minutes' walk away. After settling in a bit, Alyssa, Whitney and I walked to Riverwalk to catch a cab to one of the only indoor malls in Botswana, Game City. It took us quite a while to find a cab driver who would take us to Game for only P20 because supposedly it was P30 even though we've been strictly told never to pay more than P20 for a cab ride within city limits. What I've discovered is that rule applies for the employed cab drivers who are probably paid by the hour and not on commission. They are also probably not responsible for the cost of gas. The majority of cab drivers that are readily available, however, are private contractors who have to earn their money, so I guess unless we are taking a cab home from Riverwalk at night, we shouldn't use the private contractors because they will charge a higher price. Once we finally arrived at Game City, we wondered around looking at all the posh, over-priced stores and remarking on the cute clothes and strange contents of a little gift shop that even had an graduation photo montage (K-12) which is odd to find here since the education system is not set up K-12!
We sat down after almost two hours of window shopping at a very nice cafe that was serving mostly white British/Afrikans and had a cool drink (bottomless lemonade with extra sugar), and then a little bit later ate sandwiches at a very fancy looking deli where by some stroke of luck we saw the woman from Spur. Best of all, she was equally rude and disdainful to this waiter, but when we saw her wandering around the mall a bit later, she was talking animatedly with her daughter. Oh well, I guess that's what people get for being in the service industry.
After wasting some more time window shopping, the three of us argued with private cab owners to take us back to Riverwalk for P20, and then a driver with a cab company logo pulled up and offered to take us for P20. This is the point at which I realized the above revelation about private vs. company drivers. Back at Riverwalk, I saw my first cinema film (and first movie) since leaving the States: The Bucket List, with Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman. It was delightful, poignant, and cute. Definitely not an Emmy nominee, but a very entertaining flick with some truly legendary actors. I think the best part of all, however, was that after the movie, I needed to use the restroom as happens often after a long movie, and I did not expect the movie theater to have a bathroom. Lo and behold, it did, but that's not the best part. The best part is that it had toilet paper in the stalls, soap, and working hand dryers!! These amenities are not common in most public bathrooms, so it was a delightful surprise, and I happily took advantage of it!
Upon leaving the theater, we passed by the movie store which sells mostly Bollywood movies, and I wrestled with the thought of buying one of my favorites, Rang de Basanti, for P90 (I have yet to find the film at all in the U.S.), but held off for now because I want to find a way to confirm that it will work in my computer's DVD player and on players at home.
For dinner, Alyssa and I bought a loaf of French bread and Camembert cheese and we enjoyed a picnic with Whitney on the floor of our temporary residence that included the cheese and bread, as well as a couple of pears and a little chocolate for dessert. In general, it was not a healthy meal, but mmmm it was delectable! After dinner we trekked back over to our old rooms to survey the damage, and the three of us tackled each of our rooms with sponges and multi-purpose cleaner to remove the chemicals. There were definitely still many live bugs around, and the fumes were rapidly dissipating, so I wonder at the effectiveness of the fumigation. Oh well, it gave me a chance to reorganize my things and clean all off my living surfaces which were disgustingly covered in cockroach residue.
Off to the shower back at the temp residence where there was no door or curtain which made for a very invigorating experience, and then we crawled into bed at around 11 feeling fairly exhausted but content with the day's events.
Sunday 2/17
Today started with an early morning run that turned into a mid-morning run because we woke up around 7:30 and didn't start running until 8:30 at which point it was quite hot, and then we moved our first load of things back to the apartment where we wolfed down some yogurt and granola before taking the two trips back to get the rest of our things. By noon, we had finished moving back in and reorganizing, and then it was on to laundry. I had an absurd amount of laundry this time around, and it was quite the task to scrub and rinse all of my clothes. That done, we ate lunch, I began to catch up in my blog/journal/etc. and then we walked over to Dr. Lanegran's house (program director and professor for Glob/Independent Study) for pizza, veggies, and banana bread. The banana bread was probably my favorite part because it reminded me of home, something that I'm finding I miss a lot these days despite my preoccupation with life here. Tonight I suppose I'll have to start studying for my first Setswana test on Tuesday because I have no idea what we are going to need to know for it. Have a lovely Sunday everyone! Go siame (go well)! TTFN!
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
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!
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!
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Aloe and Sunscreen
Sunday, 2/10
I woke up tentatively today, in the hopes that my illness had past, and indeed I am feeling worlds better, and have been able to eat two small meals so far. Most of the day has been spent in my room writing my paper for Globalization that is a critical analysis of the UN organization UNAIDS. It is basically an umbrella organization for the comprehensive UN and national response to the HIV/AIDS crisis. I also have a fantastic sunburn as souvenir from yesterday, which I am hoping will soon turn into a nice tan!
So good news on the picture front! One of the girls in our group has created a joint account for us on Snapfish.com where we can upload albums of our pictures, so not only will I be able to share with you the pictures from my camera, I can give you access to their pictures as well! Hooray! I will add more details as they become available.
I went to the UB stadium to watch the girls' varsity soccer team play a game (the one I've been practicing with but due to transcontinental registration issues am unable to play in games with), and unfortunately they lost 8-2. The lack of commitment is very evident in their play, in that the biggest issues I saw with the team were lack of fitness, and an inability to play with each other. There are very talented individual players, but no real playmakers who can visualize the field and string a few passes together. The fitness element was very obvious on defense when time after time the other team would literally get behind the entire defense on the dribble! As a defender, I think this was the most painful aspect of the game! I suppose as a practice player there's not much influence that I can have, but I will tell anyone on the team who asks what I think is missing. Maybe there will be a positive change, who knows?!
Monday 2/11
I turned in my paper today, and then the first round of class presentations started (Globalization class). The people that presented today did a different project in which they interviewed UB students about globalization and what in their opinion, it was doing for/to the people of Botswana. There were some very interesting responses in that among the people that had a firm grasp of the concept, there was a lot of concern for the cultural and environmental impact that globalization was having on Botswana. Culturally, many students felt that globalization was causing "Americanization" of society, and people were losing sight of Lebotu (sp?) which is a Tswana word for pride, honor, moral values, respect - all the things that Botswana traditional culture defines as acceptable and expected. For example, respect for women is ingrained in Botswana culture, but American music videos and television have "inspired" many Botswana men to start using derogatory terms towards women. It makes me wonder if the way in which some men treat American women here is connected with that erosion of culture. Perhaps historically, men would not have been so bold as to express their undying love for us upon first meeting. In fact, in my limited experience in more rural areas, we experienced a great deal more respect from men and women alike than in the city of Gaberone.
The rest of the day was uneventful, although Alyssa and I snuck out under the cover of darkness to chop a leaf off of one of the many aloe trees on campus in order to treat her poor blistering sunburns on her chest. I definitely have a pretty good sunburn going, but hers is ten times worse in perspective. If anyone remembers the blisters on my mom's foot after the Bahamas, think that all over her chest! I don't think it was exactly illegal to cut off the branches because we were actually encouraged to do so by the international students' advisor, Charity, but Alyssa and I still felt delinquent in our activities and it made for a laugh as we stole back across campus trying to hide the big spiky leaf in our hands and the oozing pocketknife we used to sever the limb with! I really hope it brings her some relief because at this point she can't even wear a shirt over the burns, and therefore has to go around in shirts that are in the same shape as the burn, leaving it completely exposed. At least we both will learn to be more vigilant about reapplying our sunscreen in the future!
Tuesday 2/12
Today was a pretty busy day, although I don't feel like a really accomplished much! After class in the morning, I went with a few others from my group to find out about getting anti-malarial pills for our trip to the Okavango Deltas in a week and half! The deltas are supposedly chock full of wild-ranging animals (lions, giraffes, hippos, crocodiles, monkeys!) so I'm pretty excited about that, but obviously mosquitoes and malaria are a concern. We were told before we came to Botswana that the UB clinic would provide us with free meds, but unfortunately, that's not the case, and after a lot of walking around and debating with a pharmacist we concluded that there would be no free access and that we would have to fork out the $150 USD to pay for Malerone which is a highly recommended drug for its lack of side-effects and reliability. I could go for a much cheaper antibiotic drug called dioxacyclin, but you have to be on it for a month after returning and I don't really want to deal with side effects of that for so long.
After two hours of Setswana, I returned to my apartment to find that the water had gone out again, and I left for soccer practice chagrined at the fact that I would not be able to shower later. Alas, the water was back when I returned so I can take a shower! Hooray! TTFN!!
I woke up tentatively today, in the hopes that my illness had past, and indeed I am feeling worlds better, and have been able to eat two small meals so far. Most of the day has been spent in my room writing my paper for Globalization that is a critical analysis of the UN organization UNAIDS. It is basically an umbrella organization for the comprehensive UN and national response to the HIV/AIDS crisis. I also have a fantastic sunburn as souvenir from yesterday, which I am hoping will soon turn into a nice tan!
So good news on the picture front! One of the girls in our group has created a joint account for us on Snapfish.com where we can upload albums of our pictures, so not only will I be able to share with you the pictures from my camera, I can give you access to their pictures as well! Hooray! I will add more details as they become available.
I went to the UB stadium to watch the girls' varsity soccer team play a game (the one I've been practicing with but due to transcontinental registration issues am unable to play in games with), and unfortunately they lost 8-2. The lack of commitment is very evident in their play, in that the biggest issues I saw with the team were lack of fitness, and an inability to play with each other. There are very talented individual players, but no real playmakers who can visualize the field and string a few passes together. The fitness element was very obvious on defense when time after time the other team would literally get behind the entire defense on the dribble! As a defender, I think this was the most painful aspect of the game! I suppose as a practice player there's not much influence that I can have, but I will tell anyone on the team who asks what I think is missing. Maybe there will be a positive change, who knows?!
Monday 2/11
I turned in my paper today, and then the first round of class presentations started (Globalization class). The people that presented today did a different project in which they interviewed UB students about globalization and what in their opinion, it was doing for/to the people of Botswana. There were some very interesting responses in that among the people that had a firm grasp of the concept, there was a lot of concern for the cultural and environmental impact that globalization was having on Botswana. Culturally, many students felt that globalization was causing "Americanization" of society, and people were losing sight of Lebotu (sp?) which is a Tswana word for pride, honor, moral values, respect - all the things that Botswana traditional culture defines as acceptable and expected. For example, respect for women is ingrained in Botswana culture, but American music videos and television have "inspired" many Botswana men to start using derogatory terms towards women. It makes me wonder if the way in which some men treat American women here is connected with that erosion of culture. Perhaps historically, men would not have been so bold as to express their undying love for us upon first meeting. In fact, in my limited experience in more rural areas, we experienced a great deal more respect from men and women alike than in the city of Gaberone.
The rest of the day was uneventful, although Alyssa and I snuck out under the cover of darkness to chop a leaf off of one of the many aloe trees on campus in order to treat her poor blistering sunburns on her chest. I definitely have a pretty good sunburn going, but hers is ten times worse in perspective. If anyone remembers the blisters on my mom's foot after the Bahamas, think that all over her chest! I don't think it was exactly illegal to cut off the branches because we were actually encouraged to do so by the international students' advisor, Charity, but Alyssa and I still felt delinquent in our activities and it made for a laugh as we stole back across campus trying to hide the big spiky leaf in our hands and the oozing pocketknife we used to sever the limb with! I really hope it brings her some relief because at this point she can't even wear a shirt over the burns, and therefore has to go around in shirts that are in the same shape as the burn, leaving it completely exposed. At least we both will learn to be more vigilant about reapplying our sunscreen in the future!
Tuesday 2/12
Today was a pretty busy day, although I don't feel like a really accomplished much! After class in the morning, I went with a few others from my group to find out about getting anti-malarial pills for our trip to the Okavango Deltas in a week and half! The deltas are supposedly chock full of wild-ranging animals (lions, giraffes, hippos, crocodiles, monkeys!) so I'm pretty excited about that, but obviously mosquitoes and malaria are a concern. We were told before we came to Botswana that the UB clinic would provide us with free meds, but unfortunately, that's not the case, and after a lot of walking around and debating with a pharmacist we concluded that there would be no free access and that we would have to fork out the $150 USD to pay for Malerone which is a highly recommended drug for its lack of side-effects and reliability. I could go for a much cheaper antibiotic drug called dioxacyclin, but you have to be on it for a month after returning and I don't really want to deal with side effects of that for so long.
After two hours of Setswana, I returned to my apartment to find that the water had gone out again, and I left for soccer practice chagrined at the fact that I would not be able to shower later. Alas, the water was back when I returned so I can take a shower! Hooray! TTFN!!
Sunday, February 3, 2008
All Hail the Dragonslayer!!
Sunday (Feb 3)
Today was long and boring! I woke up at 5:45am to go running with my roommate Alyssa, which was surprisingly nice because the temperature was very cool, and the sun wasn't burning down on us! I am starting to feel like a runner again, and that is very exciting! Progress is slow, but I think if I keep it up, I will come home in better shape than I've been in a few years! Other than that, most of my day has been consumed with studying for the first test in Globalization in Southern Africa. The study guide is pretty extensive, and I'm not too confident with the material, so fingers crossed! I am heading to bed really early tonight in the hopes that I will be able to rouse myself at 5:45 again tomorrow morning for another workout session! Hope everyone has a lovely Sunday!
Monday - Today was the big test, and although I still felt like I was not fully prepared, there were no surprises, which I suppose is a good thing! After the test, Alyssa and I sped-walked to Riverwalk to go shopping for groceries, and just made it back in time to grab a quick snack before our independent study class at 11. Nothing in particular happened other than the fact that we found out that we will be going to tour the diamond mines some time in late March/early April. We are also going to Johannesburg for sure which will be great, and of course the Okavango Deltas for a whole week! So although my pictures at this point are few and far between, there will be plenty from those trips to show for my time here! Setswana, a quick nap, and aerobics consumed the rest of my day, and for dinner Alyssa and I cooked up a veggie burger and went to my room to have a little picnic with a blanket on the floor because our roommates had friends over and they were occupying the kitchen table.
Unfortunately, we are finding that there are a lot of clashes in living styles between the Botswana girls and Alyssa and I, and it's leading to a lot of undue tension. For example, they requested that Alyssa and I go out and spend P70 (around $14) each to buy cleaning supplies and air fresheners for the bathroom, which we were supposed to use after each use of the bathroom and shower in order to keep the bugs at bay. We agreed to this, but found it hard to believe that cleaning the bathroom and shower (which get cleaned by the maids every weekday) every time we use it will keep away bugs when the kitchen stove is constantly overflowing with pots full of food. Our roommates cook a lot, and even though it smells wonderful, it is quite frustrating for us when they insist that we keep other areas spotless while they will leave food lying around on the stove for up to twelve hours at a time. I'm glad we found a pot this weekend so that we don't have to rely on scrounging up a clean one to cook with every day. A lot of the issues I think arise out of the age differences since they are all close to their thirties and therefore have a different sense of household than we do, particularly since we view this place as just another college dorm that we will vacate in three months.
Tuesday 2/5
We had Setswana for two hours today, and although most of the people in my class have a sincere desire to learn the language, our professor is not providing for the kind of environment in which learning is promoted. I suspect that learning Setswana from a non-native speaker would be much easier than from a native speaker, because there are so many rules and inconsistencies that are not being communicated effectively, and it's leading to a lot of frustration within the class.
Wednesday 2/6
The days are definitely starting to move a lot faster lately. I can't believe Valentine's Day is only a week away! Globalization this morning, then no class the rest of the day! Alyssa and I ran at 6 again, so our workout was done (except for aerobics at 5!), so I sat down and hammered out my African Traditional Religions paper and caught up on the reading for Globs. After aerobics, Alyssa and I cooked up burgers with pickles and cheese, and for our side, we made our own cucumber salad. For those of you that know my dad's cucumber salad, it was not like that, but it was still pretty tasty! We defrosted a frozen medley of corn, peas, beans, and carrots and added slices of cucumber and juice from our pickle jar as well as some herbs and garlic salt. The result was actually quite satisfying and I think we will do it again soon!
Thursday 2/7
Another hectic day spent exercising, sitting through class and reading the article about the globalization of Botswana's livestock industry (cattle mostly) for tomorrow's lecture. African Traditional Religions is actually turning out to be very interesting, and despite his way too numerous sexual references and crude jokes, the professor is really challenging the class to think about religion from a scholarly perspective, and to see African Traditional Religions not as primitive superstition, but as legitimate and valid as any other institutionalized religion. In fact, the professor (Dr. Leslie Nthoi) is a devout Christian, so many of his comparative examples incorporate Christian stories and principles, and I am finding that if I didn't have as much of an open mind about my faith as I do, I would be quite offended at some of the things he says. For example, today he was lecturing about the use of "myths" in portraying religious ideas about the world, but he spoke of myths not in terms of "wrong assumptions and false truths" about reality, but in terms of a different kind of knowledge that is true in some contexts and not in others. In other words, there is a construction of reality that pits knowledge against knowledge(specifically, scientific knowledge vs. religious knowledge), in which each is equally valid within its own context. Therefore, it can be equally true that God created the world in seven days, in a religious context while the idea of evolution and whatever spontaneous creation process you identify with can also be true within the context of science. He then went on to talk about the "truths" found in the Bible vs. the "truths" found in science, and asserted that history itself is based on knowledge as can be obtained scientifically, whereas the Bible is based on faith, which is something that cannot be empirically determined. In this way, it suddenly becomes possible for science and religion to exist together, in their own planes of truth, an idea I have long toyed with, and really like as a way of defining my world. It is interesting watching the reactions of the "strong Christians" in the class because they react very strongly when Dr. Nthoi makes these bold statements, but by the end of his explanation, they are nodding in agreement.
Friday 2/8
I accomplished very little today, other than eating a lot of food and starting my paper for Globalization. Alyssa and I decided to eat traditional food from the stands just outside campus, since we hadn't had that food in a while, and our meal consisted of dumplings, rice, a special sauce they call "soup", pumpkin, shredded beets, and fried chicken. I spent the afternoon writing my paper and doing Taebo, before Alyssa, Whitney and I went off to Riverwalk for our weekly ladies night out. We ate at a place called Spur, and gorged ourselves on hamburgers, fries, and cheesecake! Oh it was delicious, but oh did I pay for it later! Dinner was raucously fun due to the lovely company and great atmosphere at the restaurant. Apparently, birthdays are a big deal at Spur, and although we couldn't really understand the words, their birthday song sounded really awesome! Afterwards, we hobbled back through the mall casually window shopping, and then stopped at a stand at one end of the mall where a Kenyan was selling his Pan-African wares. We met this guy the previous Friday in the same spot, and he is a very interesting person in that he will not (at least with us) go into price negotiations until he has told us the history and origin of the item we are interested in. Most of the things are outrageously priced, but he swears by their authenticity, and he certainly gives you an education to go with the gift! I was able to bargain with him to buy a very cool tapestry for P80, which was significantly reduced from the original price (P250). In exchange, I gave him one of my email addresses so he could send me the full story of the boy featured on the tapestry.
Saturday 2/9
Today was a mixture of fun experiences, and horrible illness. I seem to have developed an acute sensitivity to the food in the stands and/or the combination of that with a large greasy meal later that day. Whatever it was, I was very sick all day, and it definitely diminished my ability to enjoy the day trip we took to the city of Molepolole which is located about 30 (?) km outside of Gaberone. The city itself is very African, in that much of what you might expect to find is here such as old, decaying buildings, tons of street vendors, colorful rooftops, mud houses, people, and dirt. Our first activity upon disembarking the bus from Gabs was to rent out a combie to take the nine of us (8 American ACM students and a University of Indiana student here doing research for her masters in Public Health) to the "haunted caves of Molepolole. This combie was completely different from any other that we had ridden in, in that it was decked out with twin movie screens showing music videos by Celine Dion and Shania Twain! So each time we road in the combie, we were treated to cherished relics like "I Feel Like a Woman" and "My Heart Will Go On". At the site of the cave we literally had to hike up the side of the hill through all kinds of brush in order to reach the cave near the top, but it was definitely worth it. Supposedly, David Livingstone spent a night in this cave in order to prove to locals that it was not haunted (and as one of my friends sarcastically stated, destroyed thousands of years of tradition in the process!!). There was a middle-aged man there who followed us up to the top who was smoking weed through a P20 bill and quoting scripture to us. After taking some pictures, my friends and I were preparing to leave the cave and the man reappeared after having disappeared for several minutes announcing that he was a dragon-slayer and must therefore go on alone into the cave to fight the dragons. In all, it was a very funny encounter, and when we walked past the hill/mountain where the cave was some twenty minutes later, we could still hear him chanting away up in the cave!
After that encounter, we wondered up and down the roads for a couple of hours trying to find the famed "Aloe Forest" which turned out to be a large grove of huge Aloe trees that simply replaced the desert scrub in that area. It was very interesting to see how big the trees could get, as many were well over our heads, and I was wishing I had brought a knife to cut a branch off for use on our sunburns!
The trip back to Gabs was rather uneventful save for my extreme discomfort which had intensified enough that it was painful even to speak, and I spent the rest of the night recovering and trying to rehydrate myself.
*I don't know if you guys like this format better or not than the other format. I normally intend to post twice a week so there are so many days to cover, but my schedule made that difficult this week. I will try doing the daily reporting for a while, and see if it just becomes too mundane at which point I will revert to reporting only on the interesting events that occur over the course of several days. Thanks for reading! TTFN!
Today was long and boring! I woke up at 5:45am to go running with my roommate Alyssa, which was surprisingly nice because the temperature was very cool, and the sun wasn't burning down on us! I am starting to feel like a runner again, and that is very exciting! Progress is slow, but I think if I keep it up, I will come home in better shape than I've been in a few years! Other than that, most of my day has been consumed with studying for the first test in Globalization in Southern Africa. The study guide is pretty extensive, and I'm not too confident with the material, so fingers crossed! I am heading to bed really early tonight in the hopes that I will be able to rouse myself at 5:45 again tomorrow morning for another workout session! Hope everyone has a lovely Sunday!
Monday - Today was the big test, and although I still felt like I was not fully prepared, there were no surprises, which I suppose is a good thing! After the test, Alyssa and I sped-walked to Riverwalk to go shopping for groceries, and just made it back in time to grab a quick snack before our independent study class at 11. Nothing in particular happened other than the fact that we found out that we will be going to tour the diamond mines some time in late March/early April. We are also going to Johannesburg for sure which will be great, and of course the Okavango Deltas for a whole week! So although my pictures at this point are few and far between, there will be plenty from those trips to show for my time here! Setswana, a quick nap, and aerobics consumed the rest of my day, and for dinner Alyssa and I cooked up a veggie burger and went to my room to have a little picnic with a blanket on the floor because our roommates had friends over and they were occupying the kitchen table.
Unfortunately, we are finding that there are a lot of clashes in living styles between the Botswana girls and Alyssa and I, and it's leading to a lot of undue tension. For example, they requested that Alyssa and I go out and spend P70 (around $14) each to buy cleaning supplies and air fresheners for the bathroom, which we were supposed to use after each use of the bathroom and shower in order to keep the bugs at bay. We agreed to this, but found it hard to believe that cleaning the bathroom and shower (which get cleaned by the maids every weekday) every time we use it will keep away bugs when the kitchen stove is constantly overflowing with pots full of food. Our roommates cook a lot, and even though it smells wonderful, it is quite frustrating for us when they insist that we keep other areas spotless while they will leave food lying around on the stove for up to twelve hours at a time. I'm glad we found a pot this weekend so that we don't have to rely on scrounging up a clean one to cook with every day. A lot of the issues I think arise out of the age differences since they are all close to their thirties and therefore have a different sense of household than we do, particularly since we view this place as just another college dorm that we will vacate in three months.
Tuesday 2/5
We had Setswana for two hours today, and although most of the people in my class have a sincere desire to learn the language, our professor is not providing for the kind of environment in which learning is promoted. I suspect that learning Setswana from a non-native speaker would be much easier than from a native speaker, because there are so many rules and inconsistencies that are not being communicated effectively, and it's leading to a lot of frustration within the class.
Wednesday 2/6
The days are definitely starting to move a lot faster lately. I can't believe Valentine's Day is only a week away! Globalization this morning, then no class the rest of the day! Alyssa and I ran at 6 again, so our workout was done (except for aerobics at 5!), so I sat down and hammered out my African Traditional Religions paper and caught up on the reading for Globs. After aerobics, Alyssa and I cooked up burgers with pickles and cheese, and for our side, we made our own cucumber salad. For those of you that know my dad's cucumber salad, it was not like that, but it was still pretty tasty! We defrosted a frozen medley of corn, peas, beans, and carrots and added slices of cucumber and juice from our pickle jar as well as some herbs and garlic salt. The result was actually quite satisfying and I think we will do it again soon!
Thursday 2/7
Another hectic day spent exercising, sitting through class and reading the article about the globalization of Botswana's livestock industry (cattle mostly) for tomorrow's lecture. African Traditional Religions is actually turning out to be very interesting, and despite his way too numerous sexual references and crude jokes, the professor is really challenging the class to think about religion from a scholarly perspective, and to see African Traditional Religions not as primitive superstition, but as legitimate and valid as any other institutionalized religion. In fact, the professor (Dr. Leslie Nthoi) is a devout Christian, so many of his comparative examples incorporate Christian stories and principles, and I am finding that if I didn't have as much of an open mind about my faith as I do, I would be quite offended at some of the things he says. For example, today he was lecturing about the use of "myths" in portraying religious ideas about the world, but he spoke of myths not in terms of "wrong assumptions and false truths" about reality, but in terms of a different kind of knowledge that is true in some contexts and not in others. In other words, there is a construction of reality that pits knowledge against knowledge(specifically, scientific knowledge vs. religious knowledge), in which each is equally valid within its own context. Therefore, it can be equally true that God created the world in seven days, in a religious context while the idea of evolution and whatever spontaneous creation process you identify with can also be true within the context of science. He then went on to talk about the "truths" found in the Bible vs. the "truths" found in science, and asserted that history itself is based on knowledge as can be obtained scientifically, whereas the Bible is based on faith, which is something that cannot be empirically determined. In this way, it suddenly becomes possible for science and religion to exist together, in their own planes of truth, an idea I have long toyed with, and really like as a way of defining my world. It is interesting watching the reactions of the "strong Christians" in the class because they react very strongly when Dr. Nthoi makes these bold statements, but by the end of his explanation, they are nodding in agreement.
Friday 2/8
I accomplished very little today, other than eating a lot of food and starting my paper for Globalization. Alyssa and I decided to eat traditional food from the stands just outside campus, since we hadn't had that food in a while, and our meal consisted of dumplings, rice, a special sauce they call "soup", pumpkin, shredded beets, and fried chicken. I spent the afternoon writing my paper and doing Taebo, before Alyssa, Whitney and I went off to Riverwalk for our weekly ladies night out. We ate at a place called Spur, and gorged ourselves on hamburgers, fries, and cheesecake! Oh it was delicious, but oh did I pay for it later! Dinner was raucously fun due to the lovely company and great atmosphere at the restaurant. Apparently, birthdays are a big deal at Spur, and although we couldn't really understand the words, their birthday song sounded really awesome! Afterwards, we hobbled back through the mall casually window shopping, and then stopped at a stand at one end of the mall where a Kenyan was selling his Pan-African wares. We met this guy the previous Friday in the same spot, and he is a very interesting person in that he will not (at least with us) go into price negotiations until he has told us the history and origin of the item we are interested in. Most of the things are outrageously priced, but he swears by their authenticity, and he certainly gives you an education to go with the gift! I was able to bargain with him to buy a very cool tapestry for P80, which was significantly reduced from the original price (P250). In exchange, I gave him one of my email addresses so he could send me the full story of the boy featured on the tapestry.
Saturday 2/9
Today was a mixture of fun experiences, and horrible illness. I seem to have developed an acute sensitivity to the food in the stands and/or the combination of that with a large greasy meal later that day. Whatever it was, I was very sick all day, and it definitely diminished my ability to enjoy the day trip we took to the city of Molepolole which is located about 30 (?) km outside of Gaberone. The city itself is very African, in that much of what you might expect to find is here such as old, decaying buildings, tons of street vendors, colorful rooftops, mud houses, people, and dirt. Our first activity upon disembarking the bus from Gabs was to rent out a combie to take the nine of us (8 American ACM students and a University of Indiana student here doing research for her masters in Public Health) to the "haunted caves of Molepolole. This combie was completely different from any other that we had ridden in, in that it was decked out with twin movie screens showing music videos by Celine Dion and Shania Twain! So each time we road in the combie, we were treated to cherished relics like "I Feel Like a Woman" and "My Heart Will Go On". At the site of the cave we literally had to hike up the side of the hill through all kinds of brush in order to reach the cave near the top, but it was definitely worth it. Supposedly, David Livingstone spent a night in this cave in order to prove to locals that it was not haunted (and as one of my friends sarcastically stated, destroyed thousands of years of tradition in the process!!). There was a middle-aged man there who followed us up to the top who was smoking weed through a P20 bill and quoting scripture to us. After taking some pictures, my friends and I were preparing to leave the cave and the man reappeared after having disappeared for several minutes announcing that he was a dragon-slayer and must therefore go on alone into the cave to fight the dragons. In all, it was a very funny encounter, and when we walked past the hill/mountain where the cave was some twenty minutes later, we could still hear him chanting away up in the cave!
After that encounter, we wondered up and down the roads for a couple of hours trying to find the famed "Aloe Forest" which turned out to be a large grove of huge Aloe trees that simply replaced the desert scrub in that area. It was very interesting to see how big the trees could get, as many were well over our heads, and I was wishing I had brought a knife to cut a branch off for use on our sunburns!
The trip back to Gabs was rather uneventful save for my extreme discomfort which had intensified enough that it was painful even to speak, and I spent the rest of the night recovering and trying to rehydrate myself.
*I don't know if you guys like this format better or not than the other format. I normally intend to post twice a week so there are so many days to cover, but my schedule made that difficult this week. I will try doing the daily reporting for a while, and see if it just becomes too mundane at which point I will revert to reporting only on the interesting events that occur over the course of several days. Thanks for reading! TTFN!
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