Blogging from Botswana

One last hurrah!

2008-05-03T01:55:00.000-07:00

Wednesday April 30, 2008

The overnight bus to Kasane was definitely an experience! We boarded at 7:30pm, left at 9pm and arrived just outside Kasane at approximately 9am the next morning. The ride was cramped and a bit cold at times, but definitely bearable, and a lot cheaper than flying! Once we got to Kasane, we took a cab to the Chobe Safari Lodge where many of our friends were already staying in the campground. The lodge itself was beautiful, with an expansive restaurant and bar area/pool and lounge area that overlooked the mighty Chobe River. Some of the girls in our group were supposed to stay in pre-erected tents, but their reservations were accidentally given away so they were put in some of the rooms (with tv, beds, a bathroom, etc.) at no extra cost! The rest of us had a single campsite where we all pitched our tents. Walking to the campsite alone, we encountered a giant warthog just lying in the path, a swarm of mongoose (mongeese?) and several baboons and other monkeys! It was truly amazing and despite the fact that our three-person tent was accommodating four people and most of us had only our two sheets from school and a pillow, I was quite happy with the set-up. In the morning we went over to a safari company who was willing to arrange our transport to Zimbabwe to see Victoria Falls for a lot less than the Chobe Lodge. Then we all grabbed our books, journals, snacks, water (and in some cases alcohol) and headed to the lounge chairs overlooking the water. It was a truly relaxing experience, lying on a chair, watching the safari boats whiz by and sipping ice cold water in the sun.

At 3pm we loaded up with about fifty other people into one of the large safari boats to take a river cruise along the Chobe River. My trip to Maun in February was amazing, but we saw more animals on our three-hour boat cruise than we did during the entire week in Maun! I added crocodiles, water buffalo, many many birds, and the sable antelope to my list of animals seen while in Botswana! Plus, we saw at least fifty elephants total (including lots of babies) and they were completely un-fazed by our presence. At one point, we were literally less than 10 meters from them on this island where they were licking the mineral rich soil to supplement their diets/strengthen their bones/etc. Elephants are truly amazing and so intelligent! The finale of the cruise was the most amazing sunset I have seen in a long time! We sat and watched the horizon as the sky went from blue to fiery orange, red and yellow, to pink and purple, and finally to a deep dark blue as the sun at last sank below the horizon. B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L!!

After the river cruise, we went back to our tent, had our first of many tuna and crackers meals and went to bed. Sleeping was not really an option between the hard ground and cold night air, but who needs to sleep on vacation anyway? :)

Thursday May 1, 2008

First of all, let me say holy cow! It's already May! I can't believe how fast this trip went! I am definitely ready to come home, but wow!

We got up quite early this morning to catch a ride to the Botswana-Zimbabwe border where we went through immigration, received a one-day visa and then met up with our guide on the Zimbabwe side. The whole process was pretty long, but I was glad we got there when we did because a whole bus load of people showed up after us and the line was super long I'm sure.

Our guide was very nice and took us in a minivan to Victoria Falls park for the first part of the day. To save time, our guide collected our money and went off to arrange all of our activities for the day while we were in the park. So we paid our entrance fee and walked into the beautiful forested park. We first approached the Falls from the side, and walked up to see the Livingstone statue and the top of the Falls (aka the Zambezi river). It was absolutely beautiful, and I got some great pictures of the water and the rainbows from the top. Then we started on the "rain forest trail" that led us along the front of the Falls. The vegetation here was as close to rain forest as I have ever been in real life, although I'm sure that the plant life is slightly different than the actual rain forest vegetation because of the unique climate of the Falls. I cannot describe the beauty of the Falls with words, but when I get home, my pictures will certainly speak for themselves. My favorite part other than the view was the fact that despite the fact that the sky was clear and blue, we were constantly deluged with water and spray from the Falls! It was lovely! Our final stop on the rain forest trail was at the observation deck that looked out on the Victoria Falls bridge where people were bungee jumping, swinging and zip-lining off the bridge and over the Zambezi river gorge! It was amazing yet terrifying!

We trekked back along another trail that led us through a less wet part of the rain forest to the entrance of the park. We ate lunch in the van as our guide drove us to see the giant baobab tree (we didn't have the heart to tell him we'd seen way bigger ones in the Nxai Pans in Maun), and then we started our afternoon activities. The first stop was about a mile down the gorge from the bridge where a girl in our group, Allison did the flying fox, which was basically a huge zip line across the gorge on your stomach! She was harnessed in and literally had to run of the edge of the gorge with the water and rocks more than 200 meters below her! It was pretty amazing!

Then, we went back to the main bridge because five other people in our group were going to bungee jump off the bridge. This entailed a 200meter free fall documented on both camera and video with several rebounds which from above looked terrifying! We all went up to the registration area but had to wait until their lunch break was over. In the meantime, we watched videos of other people who had jumped that day that were playing on a large tv. My stomach flipped just watching them. Once registration was over, we all went back to the bridge to watch the jumps. Alyssa went first, and then all of a sudden, it was my turn! Yes, I bungee jumped off the bridge! Ahh! I had been freaking out all day long about the jump because free falling head first is one of my biggest fears, but I was surprisingly calm when I stepped out on the platform to get strapped in. Alyssa was funny, because all day she kept saying how she wasn't scared, but when it was her turn to jump, she started hyperventilating and freaking out! She still went through with it and loved every minute, but her terror was quite evident! Me on the other hand, I was very careful not to look down before I jumped, but instead stared fixedly at the horizon until suddenly they were doing the countdown and I half jumped, was half pushed off the platform into the free fall. It took me about half a second to realize that I should scream, but then I stopped as I started to fall because the feeling was absolutely amazing! I felt completely safe (although I had to still my heart in brief moments of panic that overcame me at times) and well, I can't really describe the feeling, but it makes me really wish that I could fly! The water below rushed up very quickly, but suddenly I was rotating away from it and towards the sky as I rebounded for the first time. Apparently, from above it looks like you are going to hit the bottom of the bridge as you come up, but I couldn't see any of that because of my position, so I was blissfully ignorant! The rebounds were a bit scarier because there was a good deal more twisting and flopping that occurred, but in all it was a truly amazing experience and one that I wholeheartedly recommend and would do again in a heartbeat!

After bungee jumping and purchasing the photo CD of the jump, our guide took us back across the Zimbabwean border (you technically leave Zim but don't enter Namibia so you're in no-man's land) and drove us back to the Zim-Botswana border where our ride was waiting to take us home. It was a truly incredible experience, and I can't wait to come back (in a few years) with more friends and family!

The rest of the night we hung out with the entire ACM group that was in Kasane swapping stories and reveling in the bungee jumping experience. We slept a bit better, perhaps because of the exhaustion from the day or because the weather was a bit warmer, and woke up bright and early (aka five in the morning) to catch the bus back to Gaborone.

Friday May 2, 2008
We ended up catching a bus to Francistown, which is a very modern-looking city four hours North of Gaborone, with the intent to catch a bus from there to Gabs. The trip was 7 and 1/2 hours and not too uncomfortable although there were a lot of people standing in the aisles. We ate at a little Indian restaurant in Francistown and boarded a bus to Gabs. The bus was obviously a retired luxury bus because it had huge, cushy red velvet seats with plenty of leg room (hooray!) and tvs, although they didn't put anything on. That trip was five and a half hours, and we were very glad to see the welcome to Gaborone sign!

I can't believe our last vacation is already over and we leave for the U.S. in two days! Wow time flies! I may or may not have time to report on my activities for these last two days, but basically we will be packing, exchanging pictures and going out to eat for Alyssa's 20th birthday! I hope everyone has had a lovely spring. I can't wait to see you all! Thanks so much for reading my blog!! Lots of love!!
Jessica

Catch-up time!

2008-04-29T03:54:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone! First of all, I sincerely apologize for not having written in so long! My absence was in part due to my being very busy with schoolwork, and in part to my laziness. Sorry! I will attempt to recap all that has happened since Johannesburg in a brief yet detailed post so you won't spend the next week at your computer reading it (not that you would but you get the idea!).

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!

Jo-burg!!!

2008-03-17T07:49:00.001-07:00

Friday 3/14/08
I took my exam today, and it didn't go too poorly (knock on wood!). There was a bit of a hectic scramble after that to get all packed up and respond to last-minute emails before we boarded our little twenty-two passenger bus (to accommodate exactly 22 passengers) and set off for the border! The trip would have been comfortable had we been 6-9 year-old schoolchildren, but as it was, many of us had neither the leg nor the hip room to sit comfortably. After three or four hours, though, you don't really notice it anymore, and it becomes an adventure!
We reached the border in less than an hour, and proceeded first through the Botswana immigration, where we had to fill out forms and got our passports stamped. Then, we drove to the South African immigration office where we again showed our passports and received a much larger and more official looking stamp. South Africa also required that we send our bags through an x-ray machine, although they never searched our vehicle so it would have been quite easy to smuggle any number of contraband items through (although I can't imagine what those might be other than fresh produce and meat?). We then had to walk across the border while the van drove through and met us on the other side, and it was at that point that we decided that we were in no-man's land because we had passed through a gate to "leave" Botswana, and were about to pass through another gate to "enter" South Africa. Crazy! Whitney and I even played "Patty-cake" on the "border" so that we could say that we played patty-cake in two African countries at the same time!
The drive into South Africa was very scenic, and I was surprised at how quickly the scenery changed. Initially, there is a game preserve to the West of the highway, so we searched hopefully for animals, and did have to slow down to prevent hitting a family of baboons that rambled across the road! Those things are so ugly and cute at the same time! We did see a lot of donkeys and cattle, though fewer actually tried to stand in our way as we passed. The first town we came to came as quite a shock. Whereas in Botswana, where every town other than Gaborone looks very quaint and rural, this town could have been somewhere in America (in a particularly run-down area) minus the presence of South African food chains like Wimpys, Pick n' Pay, and Woolworth's. It was not "Africa" as I have come to know it (though my experience is quite limited seeing as how I've only spent three months in one country!).
Whitney, Alyssa and I ate at a place called Steers, which as it's name might suggest specializes in beef burgers, although I ate a chicken burger instead. The one familiar thing that I did see was the unnecessarily large number of employees behind the counter doing very little (because there was very little to do). The funny thing is, many chains like this have the capital to hire many employees, and with a high demand for jobs, this is a necessary evil, yet it still takes twice as long for the food to be prepared and delivered to your table/packaged to go. It's a system that I have a hard time understanding based on the high productivity levels of fast-food employees at home, but I suppose it has a lot to do with the fact that too many cooks in the kitchen can be detrimental rather than beneficial to matters of efficiency.
As we were reconvening back at the van, the other two CC girls, JJ and Sarah came back with a flier promising a safe and affordable abortion at the number written below. Apparently after the legalization of abortion, the industry has taken off because I then noticed a surprising number of signs proclaiming to have the best and safest abortions in town. Yikes!
We drove on for a much longer period this time, stopping only once to pass through a toll booth (and pay 122 Rand which is close to $15!!), and I found myself loving the scenery. It was very hilly and there was a wide array of different greens in the vegetation, probably owing to the sustained dry periods interspersed with wet periods throughout the year. It actually reminded me of parts of Colorado and the Midwest (US) from far away, although there was something distinctly foreign when you looked closely at the landscape.
Our next stop was at around five pm (we left at 10:30am), at the Pick n' Pay (grocery store) in a town called Magaliesburg. The traffic was surprisingly heavy for what seemed like a small town, and the store itself was overwhelmingly colorful. It seemed to carry nothing but house cleaning supplies and a huge array of junk food. I'm talking six or seven entire rows dedicated to the sale of chips, candy, chocolate, you name it!
Back in the car, we stopped for the first of many times, at a gas station to ask for directions to the hostel we would be staying at. Again, I noticed the over-employment trend in that there were two or three attendants at every pump waiting to fill your tank, wash your windows, whatever you wanted done while you walk into the store to pay and do any shopping you so desire.
Leaving town, I noticed a shantytown that we later mused might be a semi-permanent migrant farm worker settlement, although I did see a rudimentary school with children playing in the yard. I couldn't believe that people can actually survive in those little tin, one-room shacks without water and electricity. It's not that I didn't think it existed or that I've never seen it before, but it still blows my mind nevertheless every time I see it/think about it.
Two and a half hours and three or four gas stations later, we finally reached our destination: the Gemini Backpackers hostel, where we would spend the next two nights. Coming into the city was a real trip because the highway we were driving on, with the huge commercial buildings on either side could have been in California or Florida (those specifically because of the palm trees and other vegetation). I almost thought for a moment that we were back in the states!
The hostel is very nice, and a good low-budget option for young travelers. We met quite a few such people who were backpacking through sub-Saharan Africa and using the very cool bus and hostel system that this hostel was a part of, that would allow them to go all the way up through Namibia. Definitely an option for later in life! My favorite part of the hostel, just because of the ridiculousness of it, was the pool table, which was at least twice as large as a normal pool table, despite the fact that the balls were significantly smaller than standard pool balls! I participated in a VERY abysmal game of pool after dinner that only ended when we abandoned the idea of finding a winner, and then about half the group settled on the couches in the lounge to watch one of my favorite movies, Good Morning Vietnam. The rest of the group took a taxi out into the city in search o a hookah (spelling?) bar and other clubs. For me, the movie was a far better use of my evening (and certainly more cost effective!). I retired along with the remaining movie-watchers at midnight to the girls dorm, and spent a fairly uncomfortable night in a bunk bed (although I wasn't unhappy about being unable to sleep for some reason). I was really excited about the fact that apparently they follow the no-top-sheet system here, like in Europe, because it reminded me of Germany!
Summary of the day: South Africa is a very different place from Botswana! TTFN!

Saturday 3/15/08
Today was the main day of "touristy" adventures. We began with breakfast at eight am (but which wasn't actually served until 9:30am), and then departed in our van with our guide Eric, for the apartheid museum. It was raining and surprisingly cold, and our warmest clothes were not sufficient to keep out the chill, particularly since part of the apartheid exhibit is outside. Irregardless, the museum was really amazing. It was a ton of information, and I definitely felt a little word-weary when I left, but the integration of informational plaques with videos and pictures made it very comprehensive and powerful. I bought a few postcards spouting the wisdom of Nelson Mandela before we were ushered back into the bus to go to lunch at... you'll never guess... McDonalds! It was quite a strange event considering it has been several years since I've even stepped foot in a McDonalds. It was not particularly delicious, but was a bit of a nostalgic reminder of home and my childhood when chicken nuggets were a coveted treat.
After lunch we embarked on a tour of the Soweto township, a trip that probably dispelled the most significant misconception that I have had about Africa so far. Rather than the dilapidated, poverty-stricken collection of shacks that I expected to find, Soweto is as (or more) diverse socioeconomically as any large town in the U.S. There were mansions, rich suburbs, middle-class suburbs, and the government-sponsored hostels which serve as the low-cost and subsidized housing in the township. There was certainly a visible degree of poverty in the town, but in driving through some of the neighborhoods, I was transported out of the national geographic depiction of Africa, and I truly understood why South Africa is the "UK" of Africa (according to one of our recent globalization authors). We stopped in several locations, including Nelson Mandela's home-turned-museum where we saw many of his accolades including honorary doctorates from over 100 universities in the U.S. and other European countries! We also visited the Hector Peterson memorial museum that was a tribute to the students that perished in the Soweto uprising. It was a very sobering experience watching videos and hearing the stories of these students who are my age and younger, who stood up to authority, and were gunned down for it.
It was pouring again by the time we left the museum, and our last stop was rushed, but that didn't diminish the impact that it had on me. The place we went to was a shantytown called Elie Moltswedi, named after an important apartheid revolutionary, and it is home to over twenty thousand people, all living in one-room make-shift tin shacks. There are 120 (unreliable) water taps and no electricity for the entire community, and over 80% of the residents are unemployed. We met up with one resident who was to act as our guide, and he told us not to give money to anyone that asks because they had set up a system where the guides collect money from tourists and then use it to benefit the entire community. I see the logic in it, but it didn't make it any easier to tell the little children that followed us around the whole time that we couldn't give them money. The guide kept telling us to take our pictures and the last part of the tour included him ushering us into one of the houses where two young boys were attempting to do their homework. It wasn't clear whether or not we had permission to be there, and the whole thing felt very wrong. When they asked us for money, I felt like the worst person in the world not giving it to them. It was important for us to see the shanty-town to remind us that people are subjected to those conditions in our world, but I felt that going into their house was completely inappropriate and unforgivable. I still haven't really been able to forgive myself for what happened, but I suppose that it strengthens my resolve to orient my life so that I am doing everything I can to help people in those kinds of situations.
The rest of the evening was a bit somber for me, but many of the students decided to go out, I suppose to relieve some of the tension that had built up from our long day learning about oppression and poverty. Once again, I curled up on the couch with Alyssa and a few others to watch "Mean Girls" and part of "Good Morning Vietnam", and was able to relieve some of the day's tension before heading to bed.

Sunday 3/16/08
It rained all night on the wooden roof and it was a lovely sound. The next morning we went on a bus tour of Johannesburg, and it was too rainy to see much, but definitely gave me the impression that I was in a nondescript cosmopolitan city. I would like to come back and spend a little more time at certain attractions, like the apartheid museum, and I've heard the nightlife is very exciting if you know where to go. After the city tour, we ate lunch in Jo-burg and then headed home. The trip back was uneventful and we were home in less than six hours!
Happy nine month anniversary to Anthony and I! Yay!

Monday 3/17/08 - Thursday 3/20/08
Life was back to normal at UB. I'll be honest, I love Botswana and I'm happy to be here, but I am definitely getting a bit restless. We've seen most of the cool things we are going to see and now it's just crunch time for my independent research, finals and buying souvenirs. I did manage to get hold of a few key people in the Department of HIV Prevention and Care, the Ministry of Health, and BOTUSA (Botswana-US Center for Disease Control) to interview for my research. Our outlines are due in two weeks and our presentations in three!! Yikes!!

Friday 3/21/08
Today was the first day of Easter break (no class yay!), and we spent it in a very break-like fashion. This morning Alyssa and I got up to run, and since the track was closed (again), we went on the trail the runs alongside the Gaborone Game Reserve. It was a nice run, and on the way back we met some very curious creatures. As we were rounding a corner on the dirt road, two vagrant warthogs trotted into view, and Alyssa and I both stopped having heard stories of the "vicious" nature that warthogs are know to exhibit. It seems they had wandered outside the reserve grounds, and the only thing we could do was wait until they had moved across the road and into the bush a bit. We walked past to avoid startling them, and had a bit of a staring contest with one as it turned around to assess whether or not we were threats. Luckily we were allowed to pass and continue on with our run. Exciting!
After running, Alyssa, Whitney and I walked to Riverwalk where we planned to spend a majority of the day. Our first stop was PicknPay to do research for Globalization on the product sourcing of dairy products in the store. Not surprisingly, most of the dairy was imported, and most of it came from South Africa, or was routed through South Africa.
Most of the shops were closed because of the Good Friday holiday, so we went to find out whether or not the movie theater was open, and sadly it was not. This ruined our evening plans of dinner and a movie, but we decided to have a long lunch and do some shopping at the stands instead! After a nice soup and bagel lunch at the restaurant, Linga Langa, and spending WAY too much money on gifts for people, we headed back home where I spent a good hour laying out all the gifts out that I had bought, and figuring out who I had bought them for! I actually have quite a lot, contrary to my earlier belief, and I only have a few more select items to purchase.
This evening is going to be a chill one, as we decided to postpone dinner and a movie for tomorrow. TTFN!

I'm an artist.... who knew?

2008-03-12T12:24:00.000-07:00

Saturday 3/8/08
Today was very very very therapeutic, particularly after all that occurred yesterday with the sink blockage, residence permits, and people falling down drainage ditches. As a group of thirteen, I joined my fellow ACM friends in traveling to a very quaint rural town called Oodi, where there are two craft operations that are supported through microfinancing and allow the people that run them to buy the capital to run their businesses. The Oodi weavers are a group of local women who make and sell woven fabrics and tapestries as either a supplementary income, or in some cases the sole source of income for the entire family. We did not meet the Oodi weavers, however. Instead we met a young, white Zimbabwean woman named Sara, and her boyfriend/fiance/whatever, Kosi (pronounced Kozi), who make and sell batiques (died wall hangings with a wax finish to them). In addition, they host workshops where, for P100, people can come in and make their own batiques. As a self-proclaimed non-artist, I approached this prospect with more than a little trepidation, but soon found the process so absorbing and meditative, that I soon forgot my fears (although I couldn't master my inherent perfectionism, which caused me to spend almost two hours just penciling in the design that I wanted to batique). The process goes something like this:
- choose a design
- draw in pencil, the design on a piece of fabric of the desired size
- melt wax and cover the portions of the design that you want to be white with wax
- take the lightest color besides white in your design, and die this area first using the provided fabric dies
- cover this section in wax to prevent the other colors from bleeding into that area
- continue adding progressively stronger colors and covering the desired areas in wax, with black being the last color added
- cover the entire piece in wax, allow to cool, and then run most of the wax off into a bucket (which is then recycled as a future wax source)
- iron batique between two pieces of special wax paper and then newspaper to remove most of the remaining wax.
- the batique is finished and in my case came out surprisingly well!
There is a lot of room for improvisation in the process, including an option to crack the wax after it has hardened and paint into the cracks with a dark color to create a "cracked" effect. This is particularly powerful with landscape and rural depictions as it gives it a look of antiquity and originality. I will attempt to bring this tradition back to the states this summer, as it was time-consuming (we got there at 10:30am and finished at around 6pm), but highly therapeutic and produced a beautiful result.
The couple (Sara and Kosi) we very hospitable and helped us through the entire process. I am planning to return with Alyssa and Whitney over Easter break to make another batique, although I'm a bit nervous that my former artistry was a fluke and the next one will not turn out as well. We'll see! TTFN!

Sunday 3/9/08
Today was full of homework and updating my blog on the safari, so I didn't do much to entertain. Yep, there's really nothing exciting that I did today. Lol, TTFN!

Monday 3/10/08
It was business as usual again today, with class all day, studying for my globalization test on Friday, and taking my third of six anti-malarial pills. I must say that I will be glad to be done with those pills as sound sleep is difficult to come by in the face of my very vivid dreams. Oh well, it was worth the trip to the Deltas for sure, and I have herbal detox drops given to me by my herbalist mother that will hopefully eliminate any lasting effects of the drug. Once again, not much to get excited about, other than the fact that I learned from Vip's roommate that Vip is out of the hospital after his fall, and that despite a few cracked ribs and a minor laceration in his liver, he is up and about and will be just fine! Guess I got lucky!

Tuesday 3/11/08
I got to see Vip today, and he looked good... tired, but good. He said that his liver clotted on its own and the fractures, though painful are minor and will heal quickly. He was very gracious and expressed his gratitude to all of those who were involved in getting him out of the ditch and to the hospital. Yay for happy endings! My afternoon was quite involved, beginning with Setswana from 12-2pm, when the ACM bigwigs who are visiting for the next couple of days came in to observe the class that everyone has been up in arms about. The class was actually fairly well-structured for once, and we had to make sure that at the meeting after class the ACM people knew that they had not seen a fair representation of what our Setswana class has looked like for the last seven weeks. The meeting was an opportunity for us to sit down with the ACM people, including the program director for next year (whom I fear we've made very nervous with our many complaints), and give them feedback on what has and hasn't worked. Despite our expectations as to how the meeting would go, it was very well played by both sides. We were very open with our criticisms of things like the pre-departure orientation in Chicago and the content of the student handbook on Botswana, and equally, they were open and honest about their lack of experience in dealing with Botswana-specific issues. We are the guinea pigs of this program after all, and therefore the many bumps we encountered on the way are to be expected. Although there is little they can do to address the problems for us, I'm confident that they will take into careful consideration our feedback so that the next year's group will have a much simpler and more enjoyable time on campus. Not that I'm not enjoying myself, but there is a lot to frustrate one on campus.
I had to leave the meeting early to take Whitney over to the UB clinic because she was feeling flu-ish and was worried about malaria. The doctor at the clinic said it probably wasn't malaria, but advised her to see a doctor if she was still ill tomorrow. I then rushed over to Riverwalk to meet with Betsey Brada, the University of Chicago graduate student who helped me find my independent research topic, for coffee and a chat. We had a lovely time and discussed everything from the progress of my research to the problems with infrastructure in Botswana. By the time I returned home I had just enough time to finish answering some questions from my study guide, check email, talk to the boyfriend, and go to bed. TTFN!

Tuesday 3/11/08
Today, providence smiled upon me! I have been sweating the whole summer job thing for the last couple of weeks now because I could go back to waitressing, but my travels here have inspired me to want to do a TON of backpacking/camping/hiking, and most restaurant jobs require that you work most weekends. So... I did not want to return to that, plus it is the right time for me to ditch the low-pay, dead-end summer jobs and start getting jobs that will give me relevant experience in my field of interest. As luck would have it, I received an email today about a summer internship with the National Conference of State Legislatures in the public health policy sector that is 35 hours/week, $10/hr. and involves the intern directly in researching and publishing information on public health policies that can be used by legislators to make informed decisions about these policies based on media information, constituent preferences, and factual compilations. So basically, with international health and health policy
looming in my future, this is the perfect internship for me, and it pays well! I couldn't ask for more, and I am hard at work editing my resume and cover letter to maximize my chances of landing this internship. Hooray!

Wednesday 3/12/08
Today at the clinic was so much fun! One of the doctors was in need of practice in ultrasound imaging because when she was trained in India, the ultra sound machine had not yet arrived in her university. As she put it, "it was coming in as I was going out". One way in which they measure the growth of the baby, and through this extrapolate the approximate due date, is to measure the head circumference and femur length. I can see why this process takes a lot of practice, because although some things were easy to discern, like the ribs and the heart, the cranial fissure off of which the head circumference is measured, and the femur are very difficult to isolate on ultrasound imaging. I had a great time trying to pick out the different body parts though, and the doctor let me feel each mother's abdomen to distinguish the head, arms, legs, and even where the actual uterus ends just below the diaphragm. It was super fun, and super informative! Kind of makes me lean towards maternal health!
When I got back from the clinic I managed to squeeze in a little bit of studying along with writing my cover letter and taking a quick nap. Then at around 5:30, the group walked over to African Mall, which is the original Botswana mall (and one I have yet to visit) for dinner with the ACM people at an Indian restaurant called Ashoka. It was quite delicious, although I am far too full right now, and I am so glad we were able to walk back to work off some of the meal! I suppose I should try to get to bed now seeing as how I will be up at 5:40am as usual. It is getting harder to wake up as the sun is rising later and later each day (winter is coming rather than going here), and it won't be long before I'll have to find an alternative time to run. :( TTFN!

Blocked Sinks, Bureaucracy and Trips to the Hospital...

2008-03-07T13:43:00.000-08:00

Friday 2/7/08
So I apologize that I still have not posted the safari events. I promise I am working on that entry, but it will take a while, and the literature review for my paper has monopolized most of my free time the last few days.
Today was a very eventful day, with many varying and unrelated events. To begin the day, I woke up at 6am in order to continue reading through and taking notes on my research for my literature review. Briefly, the lit review is a summary of the existing body of literature on my research topic in a broad sense, ie. as it applies to everywhere but Botswana. The purpose is to highlight pertinent debates and topics within my field and shape the context into which my specific research will be placed. I was interrupted by Globalization class at 8am, and then a trip to the maintenance office located in some obscure corner of the campus where Alyssa and I submitted a maintenance request form to unblock the drains in both our kitchen sink and shower. Apparently there's been too much hair and food going down into the pipes and they got a bit backed up! The man who collected the form from us did not seem interested in responding to our needs urgently, and I did not allow myself to hope that the problem would be addressed before the weekend arrived.
Back in my room, I spent the entire rest of the morning and afternoon writing my paper, which turned out to be two pages over the limit (7 instead of 5). I'm hoping that is a good thing because it shows that there is a lot of material out there on my topic and I will therefore have a better time finding information to include in my paper. While I was working on the paper, the maintenance guys actually stopped by and were able to clear both pipes of debris, so we are blockage free! My roommates and I discussed buying some sort of Drain-o-like substance to pour into the drains every few weeks, and I think we will probably invest in that to avoid future blockages. It was a great bonding experience though!
After finishing my paper (and subsequently nearly forgetting to submit it), Alyssa and I walked over to another student's residence where we were having a meeting regarding the fact that our passports only give us 90 days in the country, which means that as of April 6th, we will be illegally in this country and may not be allowed to stay! According to Charity, in order to extend our days, we have to apply for temporary residence permits, which in the U.S. would be a hassle, and in Botswana is next to impossible! In addition, it requires that we pay a fee of P500 (almost $100 USD) as well as $90 USD for three notary stamps on a copy of a passport, a passport photo, and our application for the permit. Needless to say, everyone is in an uproar, and there is much trepidation as to what will really happen in this situation. We are further discouraged by the fact that one student who is here outside of any programs has been attempting to complete this process for several weeks now, and the only result was that they lost his application which led to him being in the country illegally and having to pay a P500 penalty, at which point they told him to start the process again. I will get into this more in a bit, but the bureaucracy of this country is unbelievable! Please don't fret yet, I have more to add about this situation....
Feeling a bit frazzled after a day of paper-writing and the news about immigration hassles, Whitney, Alyssa and I walked to Riverwalk for our weekly night out looking forward to a relaxing, enjoyable evening. We ate at Spur again, and I thoroughly enjoyed my quesadillas with guacamole! After dinner we walked over to Pick and Pay (grocery store) so Whitney could pick up some food for tomorrow, and we were in the checkout line when a girl from the ACM program called me and requested that I come over to the bank at Riverwalk to help out with an American who had fallen at hurt himself. I couldn't determine much from the phone call, but I could here the urgency in her voice, so I headed over hoping that my limited EMT skills would be sufficient to handle the situation. When I arrived, the guy, Vip was sitting on the curb looking in one piece, but not well. I asked people what had happened, and apparently, Vip had been walking along with the group when he took a misstep and fell into a narrow drainage ditch that is near a fence on the walk to Riverwalk (Alyssa and I often discuss how dangerous the ditch is, especially in the dark because it is only about a foot and half wide, but at least six feet deep and not lit up at night), catching most of his weight on his arms, but also slamming his front into the cement. His friends pulled him out immediately and he reportedly lost consciousness for about forty-five seconds. When I reached him, he was oriented to the date and location, and could answer my questions fairly coherently although he seemed a bit dazed. He was complaining of dizziness, nausea, abdominal pain, and tiredness, which made me automatically suspect a concussion although he and other bystanders continually asserted that he had not hit his head. I palpated (touched) his head and torso to check for tenderness or bruising, but the only source of pain was his stomach. He didn't seem to be in shock, but I still felt very strongly that he should go to the hospital, so we called a family member of his that lives in Botswana to come get him, and I ended up accompanying him to the hospital. After an examination, the doctor decided to admit him and submit him for tests to check for internal bleeding because they suspected that the majority of the impact had been on his abdomen when he fell. A friend of Vip's relative that was with us took me home when they took Vip for x-rays, and I am anxiously awaiting an update, but I'm fairly certain that he will be alright.
While we were waiting for the doctor to explain the situation, I had a lengthy and very enlightening discussion with the friend about Botswana's bureaucratic government systems. He basically said that the reason that anything to do with the government is so difficult to manage is because the systems in place have been in place since before the end of colonization! He said that is one of the major pitfalls of Botswana society and must be addressed in the near future if Botswana wants to continue to open its doors to the world market. Furthermore, he clarified the issue of passport extensions, saying that our best option rather than applying for residence permits, is to go directly to the immigration window with a letter from UB explaining our presence here in UB (and our need to be continually present beyond the allotted ninety days), a letter from ACM proving that we have the financial means to support ourselves, and a copy of our airline departure receipt to show that we are intending to leave the country. With these things, we can then explain the situation and request for an extension of the days on our passport to the departure date listed on the receipt for only P100. Hopefully we will be so lucky as to have that work (fingers crossed) because although ACM is prepared to pay the P500 administrative fee for our residence permits, the notary costs are on our own, and $90 USD is a lot to spend for three stamps! So anyway, good news in that department.
The remaining hours of the evening have been thus far uneventful, and I am looking forward to tomorrow because a group of ACM students are going to a craft center called Odie where we get to learn about and make batiques (spelling?) which are wax-coated wall hangings (made out of fabric) that we can keep for only P100! Should be a lot of fun! I will get to my blog someday! And homework for that matter... TTFN!

The Importance of Doing Laundry

2008-03-06T00:22:00.001-08:00

Thursday 2/6/08
Hi everyone! I apologize for the long delay in updating you on my activities here. I'm sure you are all anxiously awaiting the details from my safari, and I will tell you that I had an amazing time and have much to say on the subject. I am working on transcribing each day's activities from my journal, but it will likely take me another day or two. As of right now, I should be writing my 5-page literature review for my research paper, but I encountered a turning point today that I feel compelled to write about while it is still fresh in my mind.
I will begin by telling you a story. For the last two days, a mysterious young girl (roughly twelve years old) has been living in Leish's room (same roommate who temporarily housed her two sons a few weeks ago after their father died). She did not speak to us, nor we (Alyssa and I) to her so we mused that it must be another one of Leish's children staying with her for some unknown reason. Things have been particularly strained between Leish and Alyssa and I for the past four days for reasons that are now too trivial to discuss, so it wasn't until this morning when Leish apologized to me (she woke me up last night blowing up an air mattress outside my door for the little girl) that I found out the real story. Apparently, this thirteen-year-old girl is Leish's niece, and was kicked out of her home by her mother because the mother got married and decided she no longer wanted the child. Furthermore, the mother was extremely abusive towards the girl even going so far as to beat her with a pot that was hot off the stove. The girl's grandmother is on her way today to bring the girl to live with her, but Leish is worried because the girl's mother is now expressing an interest in getting her back. As the legal guardian, there is nothing Leish or the grandmother can do to stop the mother from taking the girl back, and Leish has no idea what kind of child protection services are available to forcibly remove the child from the situation. She asked me whether or not that kind of thing happens in the U.S. and I gave her the example of some people I met who had been kicked out onto the streets for telling their parents that they were homosexual. I did say, however, that there were definitely systems in place to keep the mother from being able to reclaim the little girl given probable cause of abuse.
I was very affected by this story, and as I went up to do my laundry in the bathtub, I began to realize something that is not new to me conceptually, but when seen in reality is very very different. Growing up, we as Americans are taught that we are privileged and that most people in the rest of the world have nothing compared to us, and I would have considered myself to be very conscious of this fact prior to coming to Botswana. I even anticipated the fact that seeing this concept in person would be especially shocking.
What I realized today was that for the last two months, I have not allowed myself to see this age-old concept in real life. Instead I have been wrapped up in the fact that I am a victim of the third world. I've seen the injustices that people here deal with every day, but I have seen it in the context of my own well-being when in reality, my presence here is fleeting and I will soon return to my comfortable lifestyle with all the resources and support I need to realize my dreams.
What I have refused to let myself see is this reality in the context of the faces I encounter every day. Leish is a perfect example. Her way of dealing with conflict in the apartment has resulted in a lot of tension between her and Alyssa specifically, but I too have been extremely frustrated at times with the way in which she has handled these issues. What I never stopped to think about was the reason behind her actions. My father attempted to illuminate this in an email yesterday, but I was unwilling to listen through my frustration. In listening to her talk about this poor little abused girl, however, I suddenly was able to acknowledge the hardship Leish must be going through to finish her graduate studies on top of working three jobs and being intimately involved in the problems of her family because she knows that the only way to find a better life for herself and her family (maybe) is by getting as educated as she can. Even then, there are only so many jobs and so many opportunities for advancement. It's like one of the doctors from the clinic was saying yesterday. She and her husband are here from India, and her husband doesn't want to go back to India, because here he doesn't have to worry about working hard to get a promotion because there are none.
The reality is this: where I grew up, life was fair and I was rarely met with a situation that stood in the way of my future that I couldn't work through. Life was not full of little injustices that couldn't be rectified. Obviously this isn't something that applies to all of America, but it certainly applies to many of the people reading this blog. What I am seeing in a way that learning about it can never illustrate, is that all the struggles that I have encountered and complained about here at UB are everywhere in life in Botswana, and instead of four months of being "inconvenienced" by them, people here have to deal with them and overcome them in order to survive. Life isn't fair, and as cliche as that sounds, I don't know how many people can really grasp at the fact that life really is not fair. I certainly didn't until I was here.
What I am left with as of now are a few things:
- guilt at how self-pitying I have been
- guilt at how I have come to treat men in order to "fend" them off
- guilt at how I have failed to understand the meaning of, "you guys are lucky to live in the
U.S."
- uncertainty as to how to proceed from here
- fear that reverse culture shock is going to be very difficult for me to deal with
What I can conclude from all these musings is that there's a lot to be said for the fact that people can deal with all that they must in life and still have the courage to put a smile on their face. That's the biggest lesson I can learn from this, and something I hope to apply to life here in Botswana as well as at home. My response to all the attention my skin color attracts has been to shut down almost completely and isolate myself from the people on the street or walking around campus. I realize now, that's been a major source of stress for me because that's not who I am. I should be rejoicing in the fact that I can say hi to everyone I see without getting weird looks like I would in the U.S. Instead I have become reserved and even bitter towards people who stare at me constantly (or men who want to stop and talk to me). I have allowed myself to get caught up in seeing the negative side of things and that's going to stop right now. If it means that I am inviting more attention than I want because I'm being myself, then I will learn to deal with that in the context of who I am. It's also an important lesson in love and compassion for all people. When I get home, I will be thrown back into a very different lifestyle with very different problems, and there are two ways I can respond. I can be righteous and put people down for being trivial, or I can acknowledge that in that person's reality, that issue is significant and I can serve them best by empathizing with them while still keeping in mind that for every problem, there is another problem that is graver, or more trivial than it and you can drive yourself crazy by letting every problem be earth-shattering, or you can take them in stride.
This was a pretty heavy entry, and I apologize for that, but it is something that I feel is very significant to my experiences and if I don't share it, I am withholding things that will have a marked impact on who I am and become in the future. Thanks for reading. I will send out a much more exciting and happy blog tomorrow. TTFN!

Living the Dream!

2008-03-05T07:14:00.000-08:00

I will warn you that this entry is going to be quite long. I sincerely apologize, and I completely understand if you don't read all of it (or any of it), but if you have the stamina, I think you might enjoy my account of trekking through the Okavango Deltas and Nxai Pan National Park! All of the entries below are copied out of my journal with which I kept extensive record of the days' events. By the way, I have been uploading pictures to an album on Facebook. This link will allow you to view what I've posted so far... enjoy!!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2020941&l=6acb7&id=30001818

Sunday 2/24/08
This is the life! Cool breeze, full belly, the great outdoors and people taking care of our every need! Ok, so the last part is a bit over the top, but it's nice to be catered to once in a while. This morning, we drove to the Gaberone airport in a red combi playing Alicia Keys and other wonderfully overplayed R&B artists. I began the first "Number One Ladies Detective Agency" book (again) at the airport and nearly finished it by the time the plane landed in Maun. For those of you who have not heard about this book, it details the exploits of Botswana's first and only female private detective (fictionally speaking), and it a true delight to read, plus it gives you a wonderful look at Botswana culture. Interestingly enough, despite it's reputation for poor customer service, we were given a drink and a packet of peanuts during the short plane ride to Maun. That's better than many American airlines can boast!
The airport in Maun to my surprise was quite a bit nicer than Gaberone's airport, which speaks wonders to the impact of the tourist industry here, which is quite developed when compared to Gaberone. Indeed, the town of Maun, as we drove through it in a less exciting white combi, was largely made up of tourist shops boasting to have the finest handmade pottery, woven baskets, fabrics, etc. in all of Botswana.
Our base camp, called Audi Camp was our destination for the night, as our official safari trek would not begin until the next morning. The camp itself epitomizes "African tourism". The bar/restaurant/lounge area equipped with a pool and extensive sitting areas is all beautifully decorated in a traditional, rustic yet expensive style. The floors are made of multi-colored flagstone, and the lounge overlooking the pool is abundantly furnished with sturdy wooden couches padded by large, very comfortable orange cushions. After settling into our tents, which are large and furnished with a nighstand and two cots, we ventured over to the lounge to relax for a few hours before dinner. A large portion of the group jumped in the pool to splash around, but I was perfectly content to sit on the veranda chatting with the other non-swimmers.
Dinner was a delightful reminder of home with spaghetti, salad and rolls, with ice cream and chocolate sauce for dessert! After dinner, we sat at the dining table playing Hearts and sipping ice water before retiring to our spacious, yet stuffy tents for the night. Before bed, my tentmates, Alyssa and Whitney and I ventured into the beautiful bathrooms to brush our teeth and I myst say that I have never seen so many bugs (and even a frog) in one toilet stall in my life! Note to self: do not use the restrooms at night whenever possible!

Monday 2/25/08
Morning came as a welcome reprieve rom the hot, sweaty night and I thoroughly enjoyed the hot water and spaciousness of the roofless showers. Words cannot describe the incredible architecture that adorns the Audi Camp bathrooms! The continental breakfast too surpassed all my expectations, offering toast, pancakes, scones, muffins, granola and yogurt, corn flakes, fruit salad, cheese, ham, a variety of juices and lots of tea and coffee. Breakfast alone made the trip completely worth it!
Following breakfast we prepared our overnight packs for the mokoro trip on the Okavango River, and then we all met in the reception area at 8am for departure from Audi Camp. The sight which greeted us in the dirt parking lot was unbelievably cool! The safari jeep that was to take all twenty of us to the deltas was HUGE! It was the monster truck version of a safari jeep (which is no compact car itself). We loaded up our packs and off we went, living up the tourist image, waving to people as we thundered down the road and snapping thousands of pictures of absolutely everything! There were cattle, goats and donkeys everywhere on the roadsides, and on quite a few occasions we were forced to come to a near stop to wait for a stubborn animal to move out of the center of the road. After a while, we left pavement behind and turned onto the sandy side roads that would lead us into the heart of the Okavango wilderness. At one point, we passed through a small village along one of the many veterinary fences that partitions Botswana into wildlife areas and domestic, cattle-grazing areas, and it was here that several of our guides who live in the area jumped on board. We then passed through the quarantine fence and set off into the wildlife zone. Almost immediately we saw giraffe, ostrich, zebras, and even a glimpse of an elephant as it disappeared into the fringes of the trees. This was undoubtedly my favorite part of the ride as we did a significant amount of off-roading/sliding around in the sand while thorn trees thrashed at our arms and faces. It was amazing! Finally, we came upon the edge of the Okavango River where the rest of our guides waited to pole us through the deltas! We were two to a canoe (called a mokoro) with one poler per mokoro. At first we were certain that we would tip over the side of the mokoro, but it was like riding a bike in that once you find your balance it feels like you've spent your whole life on the water! We were set up in a comfortable reclining position with cushions behind us, and despite the leakage of water into the boat that soaked my pants about twenty minutes into the ride, I felt like I was lying on a beach chair floating on the river! We saw no wildlife, but the vegetation was very nice and we came in very close proximity to a hippo as evidenced by the grunting and splashing sounds that seemed to be just beyond the wall of reeds. We finally landed at some obscure destination which I am convinced I could never find again, and after erecting our tents we had lunch which was a mix of traditional and Western foods with potato salad, carrotslaw, coleslaw, chicken and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. There were also tea, coffee and biscuits for after lunch during the siesta, which I discovered to be a delightful tradition despite the fact that I was drinking a hot beverage in the middle of the African summer! We also discovered the largest spider I've seen yet in a tree above our campsite! Although we couldn't get close enough to touch it, I would say it's at least as big as my hand, legs and all!! TTFN!

Tuesday 2/26/08
There is nothing more liberating and yet so luxurious about showering under an open sky with a cool breeze filtering through the gentle stream of warm water raining down from the faucet above! But I'm getting ahead of myself...
Our hippo companion remained with us on the river for the entire afternoon yesterday, and was still wallowing seemingly right next to us as we poled our way back down the river this morning. After yesterday's siesta in the afternoon, several of us went back out onto the water where our guides taught us how to mokoro in an area where the current wasn't as strong. Despite a few harrowing moments involving Alyssa and I attempting to slide past each other when we were switching places and nearly tipping the boat, it was really fun and I think I actually got the hang of it!
A cup of tea and about thirty minutes later we all headed out for our evening game walk. The walk itself was quite arduous as we were following hippo trails through brambles and tall grasses, but the sights were well worth the hour-long trek. On the way to the hippo pool which was our intended destination, we saw lots of different types of birds and our guides pointed out a tree that had huge seed pods that looked like sausages. The tree was fittingly dubbed a sausage tree, and a preferred option when making the mokoro. I learned later that the mokoro industry is threatened as of late because the sausage trees which produce the best quality boats require twenty to forty years to reach maturity, but the mokoro only last five years.
When we arrived at the hippo pool, there was a family of hippos resting just below the surface of the water at a distance of about 100 yards from us. We could just see the tops of their heads, and at times the baby hippo's head would emerge from the water as his mother, on top of whom he was riding, would come up for air. It was really cute to see the set of little ears emerge followed by his little head, and then an identical but much larger set up ears and the top of the mother's head would appear shortly thereafter. My pictures do not do the sight justice, but it was incredibly exhilarating to be in the presence of these seemingly docile creatures in their natural habitat.
On the way back to camp, we spotted monkeys frolicking in the trees, and crossed paths with a young puff adder (a fairly deadly snake that in the adult stage is not something I ever hope to encounter!). Dinner was a bit more traditional, with rice, salad, spicy beef stir-fry and peaches-and-cream for dessert! Like I mentioned before, this was five-star camping for sure! After dinner our guides and cooks entertained us with traditional song and dance, at which point we attempted to reciprocate the gesture by singing "traditional" American pop tunes. They enjoyed the hokey pokey, chicken dance, and the macarena, but we struggled through off-key renditions of Proud Mary, the Fresh Prince of Belaire, Lean on Me, I Want it That Way (Backstreet Boys I believe), and a smattering of rap/hip-hop songs that thoroughly entertained us but were less than pleasing to the ears of our guides!
We sat around the fire for several more hours talking and sipping tea before retiring to our tents for the night. We couldn't retire without going one last time to the toilet however! Allow me to attempt to convey to you the awesomeness (poor grammar I know!) that was our toilet! As you set off down the path, you grab the toilet paper and small shovel. Twenty yards further on, you come to a deep rectangular hole freshly dug by our guides that morning with a fold-able chair over the top of the hole. The unique feature of this chair is the seat which is actually a plastic toilet seat. So out here, on a random island in the Okavango deltas, not only do we have gourmet meals, we have our own private outhouse with a view! It feels quite strange to pee on a toilet seat in the middle of the forest, but when in Rome....!!
I spent a hot and short but restful night in a tent with Alyssa, and we rose at dawn for a delicious continental breakfast (including yogurt and granola!), and then we packed up our campsite for the trip back out. The trip back down the river was brief but relaxing, and our safari truck was waiting for us in the same spot to whisk us out of the bush. We saw a good deal more wildlife on our way out including zebras, giraffes, eagles, storks and a black cobra that entertained the idea of attacking our tires for a second before realizing that the truck was significantly larger and more dangerous than it's own venomous fangs.
Our next stop was a small village of Bayei tribesmen who welcomed us into their homes and demonstrated various aspects of rural life including cooking, music, the bedroom, and various traditional medicines used in treating minor ailments. A young woman who spoke English very well was our guide and she allowed us to taste the various berries and grains that they eat, and several of us participated in crushing sorghum seeds (a grain that makes porridge, a staple food for rural Batswana) and attempting to balance a clay pot meant to carry water on our heads. That was really difficult, and those pots have to weigh at least ten pounds without any water in them! I really enjoyed the bit on traditional medicine. It is so amazing what people have discovered in this world for curing anything from a headache to colic in a young child! I am a bit disappointed that I wasn't introduced to this earlier because my original research intention was to examine the prevalence of traditional medicine in the midst of Western influences on "proper" medical practices. Our final stop in the tour was a make-shift gift shop where the wares of the craftsmen and women were sold for very reasonable prices, and I had no qualms about spending my money to support these people in their way of life. They even tracked who had made each specific item so that person would receive the money directly!
We then returned to Audi Camp for the evening, ate salad with cold meats and cheeses, and then sat around talking and relaxing long into the evening. The night was uneventful aside from frequent and numerous animal noises, and the roosters started crowing long before the sun decided to creep into view. TTFN!

Wednesday 2/27/08
I'm sitting in a portable chair, legs crossed, a light breeze blowing my hair around my face, and watching the most breathtaking sunset I have ever seen in my entire life. I will attempt to describe the scene before me, but I don't even think my pictures will do the sight justice. The clouds are flung artistically across the sky, reflecting the glowing ember that is the setting sun on the horizon of the trees. The sky is alight with a rainbow of pinks, yellows, blues, grays and oranges. On every horizon are the undulating beaches of the Nxai Pans, each decorated with a thick layer of small green trees and the occasional lone Baobab tree, towering over the landscape. Down teh beach and into the pans the remnants of summer rains reflect the light of the sunset and the green of the surrounding vegetation. It is breathtaking and utterly indescribable. If I have to pick one event in my entire Botswana experience that has made the entire trip completely worth it, it would be this moment.
I will digress from my reverie to recap the events of the day, as I have exhausted my limited vocabulary's capacity to capture my surroundings...
This morning brought another delicious meal at 7am followed by frantic packing for our three-day trip to the Nxai Pan and Makgadikgadi National Parks. Once our guides had finished wiring the trailers equipped with all of our camping supplies to the safari trucks (we were to take two this time), we piled in and set off down the road, wind blowing, dust flying and our spirits soaring (cue cheesy inspirational music!). Three hours later, windblown and gritty, we turned off the paved highway and onto the sandy trail of the Nxai Pan National Park. We saw two elephants and a springbok (small deer-like creature that is really cute!) on the main road, and then turned off onto a smaller trail deep into the bush. Thirty minutes in we stopped at a dried up watering hole next to the road to investigate what looked like thousands of tiny, moving clots of dirt! In fact, they were frogs! Some as small as my thumbnail with bits of tail left from their tadpole days, and others as large as my fist that were busy burrowing into the moist ground. There were literally thousands clambering over the top of each other in a frenzy to go nowhere, and our guide told us that during the rainy season, the frogs reproduce in mass in these watering holes, and as they dry up, the frog spawn mature and disappear into the mud to hibernate until the next rainy season! Brilliant! We stopped a few more times after that to look at more elephants and gemsbok (larger antelope-like creatures with a big stripe down their front and long spiraled horns), and we were about to reach our lunch destination when a girl on my truck spotted a small speck moving towards us in the distance...
I will take a moment to explain what the Pans are. They are dried up saltwater lakes (or one really really big one depending on how you look at it) that run for miles in every direction. During the rainy season especially, they will become muddy, and begin to fill in places, and this can make for some very precarious driving, even in the boat-sized trucks we were riding in.
The speck we saw turned out to be a very tired and thirsty Canadian man named Glenn who was visiting Botswana/South Africa/Namibia with his girlfriend Alina, and their Afrikaner guide Pierre. They had been on their way north to Victoria Falls, and decided to stop briefly in the Pans to check them out. Unfortunately, their lack of planning and a bit of misguided bravery from their guide had landed them entrenched in the mud in one of the pans. They had been stuck for two hours with no food or water and no idea if they would even see another person that day. So Glenn and Alina hopped onto our truck and we drove over to the area of the Pans where Pierre was knee-deep in mud trying to dig them out. We were only able to reach him after driving for several minutes around the edge of the Pans until we found a spot that was dried up enough to prevent our vehicle from getting stuck. I applaud our guides for knowing exactly which areas were not safe to forge through, and we were never even remotely close to getting stuck in the Pans. That aside, we finally reached the four-wheeler, attached its bumper to ours, and pulled it out in a matter of minutes. We then invited them for lunch so that they would not have to drive for another three hours before getting anything else to eat or drink.
Lunch was served amidst a large cluster of Bains Baobab trees, and I will say again, I have never seen anything like them in my life! They are broader than any redwood tree I have ever seen, and the bark looks like something out o a fairy tale. It was absolutely surreal.
After lunch, we said goodbye to our Canadian friends and completed the final leg of the six hour trip driving along the edge of the Pans to our campsite. The site was just off the Pans in a clearing that featured a lone Baobab tree. We arranged our tents in a tight circle around it and for bathrooms, our guides erected two square tents with no roof that each sported a portable toilet seat, toilet paper, and a shovel (and a hole of course). To add to our luxurious accommodations, we had dinner at a table with a tablecloth and lanterns to light our meal! Short of having running water and electricity, I'm as comfortable here as I am at UB! I've now come back to the moment when we went down to the Pans and watched the sunset over the next horizon of trees. Once the sun had set and we had eaten our meal, we walked back out onto the beach to see the most amazing starlit night I've ever seen. Even the milky way was clearly visible. We laid there attempting to point out constellations and shooting stars, and listening with tremulous excitement to the lions roaring in the distance (our guides said they were less then 2km away!). The evening was cool, quiet and pure heaven. I was disappointed that I had left my mosquito net at Audi camp because I briefly entertained the idea of setting up a makeshift transparent tent right there on the Pans so I could watch the stars all night! TTFN!

Thursday 2/28/08
Happy Birthday Alex Trow!!!!!!!!!!
This morning we departed early to go into another section of the park that reminded me of nature films about Africa, with watering holes and wild plains stretching out for miles. We saw many animals during the course of the day, including way too many species of birds to recall, zebras, jackals, elephants (who were quite shy), giraffes, eagles, a leopard tortoise, two male lions (less than fifty feet from us!), a cheetah, and a black mamba (poisonous snake) that thought it could take on our jeep, but quickly admitted defeat and scurried into the tall grass. We drove back to the pans as the sun was beginning to dip towards the horizon and enjoyed another gorgeous sunset on the beach. That night we were unable to see the stars because of a rainstorm, but the sound of the rain on our tents was quite soothing. TTFN!

Friday 2/29/08
Happy Leap Year's Day!
I failed to sleep well in the stifling tents, but I'm getting accustomed to the sleep deprivation and it fails to dampen my spirits with everything that we are experiencing this week! Today we packed up camp and headed to Makgadikgadi National Park which is much more of a wilderness area and contains quite different vegetation from the Pans. The drive to our campsite was a bit wearying seeing as how we had spent the last two days sitting in the trucks for six hours plus at a time, but we did get to pass through another cattle fence and into a rural village that was straight out of a national geographic with mix of thatch huts and colorful clay houses. We drove for another thirty minutes before crossing the cattle fence again (going back into the wilderness area) where our campsite, Menoakwena camp was situated. Menoakwena means tooth of the crocodile, and the man that runs it, a native Kenyan (white man), is a very cool, very conservation-oriented guy named David. This is the website describing the camp: http://www.kalaharikavango.com/. They are basically a permanent portable camp from which people can take safaris to see game, or they can just stay in the camp and watch animals come to the watering holes sitauted about fifty feet below the camp. If you are ever interested in going on a safari, or just learning about the sustainability plan that David has enacted in order to preserve the watering hole for the wildlife and employ as many local Batswana as possible, you should check out the website! Very cool, and some great pics as well!
The lodge itself is luxury camping with high-quality tents, flush toilets and bucket showers (supplied by several water towers situated in the camp), a bar, a pool that circulates through the watering hole and is purified as it comes back into the camp, and ample space for cooking and watching the animals come to drink. The entire camp is set on a ridge overlooking the park and watering holes, and it was so wonderfully peaceful just to sit there as lightning storms flashed in all directions around us, and a few small animals played near the water. If I'm ever rich and have free time, I will definitely be back here! TTFN!

Saturday 3/1/08
March already! It rained all night last night, and aside from a leaky spot in the roof that dripped on me all night, it was a lovely night! I did have to get up to pee far too often, but the sound of the rain pelting on the tent always lulled me right back to sleep. The morning game drive was quite fruitless, although we got to see hippos from very close up, an experience that was as invigorating as it was terrifying, and we were all glad to return to camp for a brief lunch before heading back to Audi camp. The ride back was riotously fun with lots of off-key singing and very creative song rewrites. The only interruption was going back through the "security checkpoint" where they searched our bags and scrutinized our passports, but did not check the voluminous cargo space of our safari trucks. What they were searching for, I have no idea, although there was speculation that they were looking for illegal immigrants.... in our backpacks....
We finally arrived back at Audi camp at 4:45, glad to be able to shower and relax after an exhausting five days in the sun. One of the girls, Lindsay, was going to be celebrating her 21st birthday on Sunday, so there was much drinking and general merriment that went on until midnight when we all sang her happy birthday and immediately proceeded to fall into bed, exhausted. I am very sad that this vacation has to come to an end because I am anticipating all of the things that need to be done when I get back and this is soooo much better! TTFN!

3/2/08
At last! I finally slept all the way through the night!! I'm still sleep deprived, but I feel significantly more rested than I have been all week! Today is our final day of vacation, and it ends at one pm when we depart for the Maun airport. Thus far today, I have contented myself with sleeping in until 7:20am, eating a delicious breakfast, and lying on the couch catching up in my journal. Next, I will go back and pack, write postcards, read if there's time (I'm on my way through the Number One Ladies' Detective Agency for the second time), and eat lunch! Lovely! TTFN!

Lunar Eclipse and Countdown to Deltas!!!

2008-02-21T05:20:00.000-08:00

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!

Studying for Setswana

2008-02-18T05:08:00.000-08:00

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!

Roaches Be Gone!

2008-02-17T06:08:00.000-08:00

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!

Saying Goodbye to President Mogae... and Roaches

2008-02-13T08:41:00.000-08:00

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!

Aloe and Sunscreen

2008-02-10T05:04:00.001-08:00

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!!

All Hail the Dragonslayer!!

2008-02-03T11:10:00.001-08:00

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!

It's Raining Men!

2008-01-27T21:42:00.001-08:00

Last weekend was a very slow one because most of the students from my group went to visit a Rhino reserve for the weekend but I elected to stay behind in the hopes that I would have the promised soccer games. Unfortunately, I haven't actually talked to the coach or any but two of the players since last Saturday's game (over a week ago), and I wasn't too surprised when no one showed up at the time or place I had been told the game would be yesterday. As I've said before, there is very little infrastructure or administrative support for this girl's team, and it shows in the lack of commitment and consistency of its membership. The nice thing about staying was that I was able to do my laundry (hooray!!) which meant a couple of hours kneeling on the floor scrubbing clothes. The water I used was actually scalding hot because we were in the process of losing our water on campus completely, and the first thing to go, strangely enough, is the cold water. So that was an adventure, but at least my clothes are clean and the sun was out long enough for them to dry in the sun!!
The water and electricity problems this week are apparently a direct result of the power shedding techniques being employed by the city officials in response to power shortages both here, and with the main supplier, South Africa. I read a newspaper article that was short of many hard facts, but basically indicated that these problems though being addressed were going to be fairly long-term, and the cause was the excessive power requirements that the building of the stadium in South Africa is requiring in preparation for the 2010 World Cup! I may have to come back for that!
Sorry I haven't updated this week, I need to get into the habit of chronicling the days events every night so that I don't get behind! The thing about life here, is that it has settled fairly well into a routine, and although I am still learning a lot every day, the events are not very exciting to report. The biggest thing I have faced this week (along with all the women in my program) is the realization that men here are extremely forward and persistent, and very good at being charming and making you feel obligated to "acquiesce to their requests" (Pirates of the Carribbean reference!). On a daily basis, every single American woman is approached by men both on campus and off that praise her beauty and even go so far as to propose on the spot. As Americans with little experience in this area, many of the girls, including myself have been struggling with how to express to these men that we are not interested even remotely! I have come to the conclusion through the course of this week, however, that it is a game for these men, and I have absolutely no obligation to them, nor will I have any lasting impact on their poor hearts, and therefore, I have to be out of character for me, and either proceed to ignore them, or flat out deny any interest in giving them my phone number or going for drinks. I have made a ton of progress in that area, and besides a little guilt for the "cold, heartless jerk" routine, I am feeling more and more confident with my ability to turn down these propositions and it has been a huge turning point for me and many of the girls this week. I definitely feel a sense of empowerment building as I become more comfortable asserting my rights and powers as a woman.
So I have finally landed on a research topic!! I met a graduate student this week from Arizona named Betsey, and besides being an awesome woman, she talked to me about a huge issue that women deal with on a very real level here in that women in most African societies draw there status from their ability to reproduce, and therefore there is a HUGE emphasis placed on reproduction. For women who are HIV-positive, this presents a complex dilemma. In mothering children, a woman risks transmitting the virus to them and/or orphaning them at a young age. For those women who do choose to become pregnant (or are unaware of their status at the time of conception) there is a program in Botswana called the Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT) program sponsored by the Botswana-Harvard AIDS Partnership Initiative that provides free ARV drugs and conducts studies to determine the best regimen to prevent pre-natal and post-natal transmission. I will be looking at a later step in the process, which is the decision of whether to breastfeed or use replacement formula. As of now, the World Health Organization (WHO - ahh! I'm getting acronym crazy!) recommends that HIV-positive women formula feed exclusively if the process is sustainable, affordable, and safe. Unfortunately, people in limited resource environments, which are the ones most affected by the epidemic, do not have the requisite resources in place to formula feed safely and exclusively. Therefore, I will be volunteering in a PMTCT clinic this semester, and hopefully will be interviewing women at the clinic about their choice to breastfeed or formula feed. If any of you are interested in hearing more about the dilemma as I have already gone on in length about it, let me know and I will send you updates individually about what I am learning. Otherwise, I will try to keep future posts about my research a bit more brief!
Other than research and learning how to effectively repel men, the ACM group went to a restaurant on Monday to celebrate a 21st birthday!! The restaurant was called the Bull and Bush, and was largely full of ex-pats (ex-patriots or white people), but was very reasonably priced and delicious! It was rib night, so i decided to share a rack with a friend, and they were quite delicious! I did order a drink (the drinking age is 18 here), and for those of you that are condemning me right now, I'm sorry!, but it was quite refreshing after my earlier workout. Exercise is actually another thing that has been occupying a lot of my time. Unfortunately, problems arose when trying to prove that I wasn't registered with any teams in the U.S., so I was unable to officially join the women's team here. I will still go to two practices a week just for fun (the girls are really cool), but in addition, I will be joining the aerobics club and training on my own for a 10K run followed by a half-marathon training program this summer! It feels so good to be able to devote an hour or two a day to exercise, and I am excited about the progress I can make since I have the time to work out extensively every day!
The big event of this weekend has been writing our research proposals for the independent research, and studying for my first exam in Globalization in Southern Africa on Monday. So pretty mellow weekend, although Alyssa (my roommate) and our friend Whitney and I went to a Chinese place last night at the mall, Riverwalk, where we encountered a very cute, but very very large Chinese baby! I will try to attach a picture, although I have been very unsuccessful with my attempts to add pictures.
Anyway, I will try to post more often! Thanks for reading! TTFN!

In the Public Eye

2008-01-25T04:44:00.000-08:00

Sorry it's been a while since my last post. Life has not been terribly varied, though I have found that I somehow manage to keep myself fairly busy every day.
There is one major adjustment I am in the process of making, along with my fellow American students. As white Americans who don' t speak the language, we are very noticeable, particularly in times of confusion and uncertainty, such as today when my friend Lindsay and I went to the mall and were not sure where to go to find a particular store. We are often targeted by people with a variety of motivations, and it is often disconcerting. To my dismay, I find myself adopting a defensive stance that immediately assumes that the person wants something from me. In life I've heard, this is a good philosophy to follow because it will protect you from being taken advantage of, but it makes me sad to lose that instant re pore with people that assumes they are decent, trustworthy human beings. I suppose there's a middle ground I must reach between detached suspicion and wide-eyed curiosity, and I'll find it soon enough, but I find my own reactions to be disconcerting.
I am still struggling to hone in on a topic for my independent research project, as I am sorting through a myriad of intensely fascinating subjects. For example, the HIV/AIDS assistance program in which Merck Pharaceuticals is donating free antiretroviral (ARV) drugs in conjunction with a larger U.S. based effort to fund HIV/AIDS prevention, awareness, research and care comes to an end of it's six year plan in 2009. I am curious to know what the government is planning and whether or not they will continue to receive the drugs free.
While thumbing through the massive amounts of literature about the AIDS crisis worldwide in the library, I found an extensive degree on the impact of HIV/AIDS on women in African societies where so much emphasis is placed on women being the caretakers, and often breadwinners when faced with the absence/death of her husband, particularly in cultures where the men migrate for up to years at a time to find work. In fact, in the literature I've looked through, a woman's identity is based on her ability to provide for a household and her reproductive success, which in times of desperation may drive a woman to sleep with other men in order to ensure that she bears a socially acceptable number of children. Obviously, this adds to the danger of a woman contracting HIV/AIDS. In light of this, I thought it might be interesting to study the impact of the AIDS epidemic on women both in Gaberone, and in more rural areas to see whether changing social structures and the movement of women into the workforce has increased or decreased her burden in the home.
I also found out today about a graduate student who has been living in Gaberone for quite some time who has been doing research on how ARV drugs are entering the country and also what economic planning initiatives are in place to continue the presence of free drugs in the country. Apparently, she is very well connected with all of the HIV/AIDS organizations in Gaberone, and I think she is my best bet for finding a topic as well as the sources I need to study that topic.
Hopefully by next week, I will be working in a clinic doing mostly clinical observation (which provides yet another venue for research, yikes!), but possibly assisting in taking vitals and other non-invasive (aka no needles) evaluation and care. The clinics are run by the Harvard-National AIDS coordinating agency, and they have other students from both Harvard and Princeton medical schools working in all of their clinics, so I am very confident that they have the structural set-up in place to protect us volunteers from disease, as well as protecting the patients from us. I promise to be very careful and discontinue my work if I feel that my safety is being compromised!
On a happier note, I am finding life to be falling into place for me, and I am able to exercise on a daily basis, and am eating well. Alyssa, my apartment mate and I have been doing all of our shopping and cooking together, and we are both committed to living a healthy lifestyle while we are here, so I have a lot of support in that regard. Last night I downloaded a training program for a 10K race (about 6.5 miles), which will give me direction and goals for the next two months, after which I plan to start a training program for a half-marathon! After quitting soccer, I have really struggled to create and maintain an exercise plan for myself, and part of my intention in coming here was to establish a fitness routine that I could continue when I returned to the states.
As many of you may know, the currency difference is about 5.1 Pula to one U.S. dollar, and I am very excited at the thought of buying many gifts that I will be able to use for birthdays and Christmas both this year, and hopefully for years to come. It is very exciting when you find clothing on sale for P20 or $4, and beautiful, handcrafted fabrics for less than $2 a meter! I had a dress tailor-made for me out of this beautiful blue fabric for about $40. I am actually really excited by the fact that Lindsay has experience in altering clothes, and I may look into buying fabrics and the numerous "tent" dresses that are common here, and sewing my own clothes for gifts! It will be hard with the limited sewing materials I have, but perhaps it will give me a summer hobby and an opportunity to learn from some of the sewing greats in my life! ;)
The weather has been very tolerable with clouds most of the day and rain off and on for the last two weeks or so, and very few really hot days. Unfortunately, with laundry needing sunlight to dry, I am cursing each day that passes as the mound of clothes builds higher and higher! It is supposed to be nicer this weekend, and despite the heat, I am sincerely hoping for sunshine so that I can clean my clothes!
Well, that's all I can say for now! Hope everyone has a fabulous weekend! TTFN!

Church and Soccer

2008-01-19T23:28:00.000-08:00

Well, I am officially on the women's varsity soccer team, although before I can play in games they have to confirm that I'm not already registered in the U.S. The coach is hopeful that I'll be able to play next weekend! The girls on the team are very nice, and one girl in particular, Rita, seems like a really cool person and a potential friend! I am finding myself becoming very frustrated with the lack of organization and efficiency that I've experienced in many facets of life here, but as many have reminded me, it takes more than two weeks to understand why a culture works in the way that it does.
I was able to get in touch with the AIDS research doctor, Dr. Bill Wester, whom I met at the tennis courts the other day, and he is going to get me set up to work in an AIDS research clinic! It will only be for about six hours a week, but should be very rewarding and hopefully will add greatly to my independent research project. I am still not completely settled around my project, though I need to figure it out soon as our initial proposal and annotated bibliographies are due on Monday the fourth (at the same time as our first Globalization exam and a paper for African Traditional Religions). This semester plan is very strange after three years of the block system! It makes me want to get all the papers done for one class so that I won't have to worry about it again, but unfortunately, much of the needed material is in lecture form, so I will just have to wait and budget my time accordingly!
Yesterday (Saturday) was a very long but interesting day! My housemate Alyssa and I decided to accompany our 7th-day Adventist housemates Leish and Victoria to their Sabbath day church service. Turns out, this was not just any Sabbath service; it was actually the kick-off to their "Lift up Christ, tell Gaberone" campaign in which the leaders challenged all the parishoners to "save" three people by bringing them into the church, thereby spreading evangelism. As a result, every Adventist church in the city, and even a group from South Africa attended this particular service. It was estimated that over five thousand people attended and the service went on for five hours straight!! I did enjoy listening to the sermons, and the music was awesome, but five hours was a very long time to sit, and by the end, even Leish told me that she was saying "Amen!" at the end of the sermons and prayers because they were over! The music was definitely the coolest part, and it was kind of nice to hear and sing praises without the use of an organ!
After Church, we all went back to our apartment and Leish and Victoria had prepared a delicious Sabbath meal which they invited us to share with them. I had to eat quickly and run over to my first soccer game, which because of field shortages was to be played on a dirt field outside the national stadium. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how you look at it), the other team didn't show up so the game was forfeited to us. Again, I found myself getting frustrated with the lack of infrastructure, but that's in part because as a soccer player I have definitely been spoiled with high quality equipment, well-maintained fields, and very strict management.
Today is a day of research, and I'm hoping to hone in on a single topic that I really find interesting. Other than that, our director, Dr. Lanegran has invited us to her new flat for a housewarming party. Until now, she and her family have been living out of suitcases in an apartment! Yikes! I am struggling enough adjusting my own lifestyle here, I can't imagine doing that with an entire family!
Hope all is well at home! TTFN!

Getting Into the Routine

2008-01-16T02:02:00.000-08:00

Dumelang! Le tsogile jang? (Hello! How are you (all)?)

So life has begun here at UB! I had my first full day of classes on Monday: Globalization, Independent Study Class Discussion, and Setswana. The classes are interesting, and I was able to really start thinking about what I want to do for my independent study. In walking around I have noticed how there are signs of an AIDS prevention program everywhere, but very little upkeep. The free condom boxes, for example, are everywhere but I have yet to see one with a single condom in it! Also, there are many signs that are torn or faded, or otherwise illegible, and it makes me wonder how much good the AIDS awareness and prevention program is doing. That is one topic of study I'm considering, because perhaps it could lead to me helping to revamp or supplement the current program based on my findings! I am also wanting to become involved in the clinical side of treating/detecting AIDS and I am going to look into taking volunteer shifts at the AIDS clinics and hospitals in Gaberone.
I am learning how to maneuver the "combies" (spelling), which are the Botswana version of our RTD system, except that there are no big buses that run specific routes at specific times. Instead, most combies contain a driver and a "recruiter" who walks around combie stops and recruits people to the 12-15 passenger vans (a term which I use liberally to describe the minivan size cars they use!) that compete with each other for customers. The louder and more persistent the recruiter is, the more money they will make so there are often loud arguments going on between drivers/recruiters of competing combies for passengers. The fair is P2.50 (pula) which is about $0.50 in US dollars and the combies follow routes to common destinations. My American apartment-mate Alyssa and I went shopping yesterday and became horribly lost on the combies, but eventually made it home and much wiser about which routes to take.
Another first for me yesterday was washing by hand all of my laundry and drying it on lines outside! Alyssa and I used a big bathtub on the second floor of our block to wash, scrub, and rinse our clothes (one dark load and one white load), and then we trekked out into the yard to hang them on the lines. It was a lot of work and my wrists are really sore from wringing and scrubbing so many clothes! I will say that I have infinitely more respect for people who was an entire family's worth of clothes in one sitting, and I will think twice about dropping something in the dirty clothes hamper from now on!
Buying food and cooking it in our apartment yesterday was a great relief! I was able to make a chicken stir fry with rice (this was my first time attempting rice) and enjoyed the small reminder of home! I will be operating with a fairly limited menu, but I am able to find foods that are familiar and therefore a comfort. All of my other meals here have consisted of the traditional rice, chicken, pumpkin, and coleslaw or some variation of that staple, and although I enjoy this meal, eating it two times a day for four months is not something I am willing to do!
I have been approached several times in the last few days by men who want to know where I live and what my cell number is, and I am actually in the process of learning how to be polite but firm with them. Again, I know that there is no reason to get upset about these things as it is largely a part of the culture, and my efforts would be better used in learning how to play the game. I still haven't worked out how to politely refuse, particularly when people ask me for a hug or, as in the case of the pro soccer game, grab my arm and say come over here, but I am learning (and quickly), that I have to be firm in order to protect myself: a good life lesson too!!
I am definitely still feeling homesick for modern comforts and specific people, but I believe I am adapting, and learning how to fit into this society!
Tsamaya sentle!! (Go well!) TTFN!

Cultural Weekend!

2008-01-15T21:39:00.000-08:00

The past weekend was our first overnight expedition off-campus! We traveled by UB (University of Botswana) bus along with the American students from the other study abroad program here at UB. Our first stop was the village of Mochudi where we drove up and down a "mountain" of dirt road and rocks in a HUGE 70-passenger (or so) size bus!! I attempted to capture pictures of the epic descent at a fourty-five degree angle (not really but it seemed like it!), with trees and brush lashing at both sides of the vehicle. We would come to
depend heavily on the bus driver to maneuver us out of tight spaces, and every time he delivered! The museum we arrived at was unfortunately closed, and the woman who was supposed to be our guide was out of town. This sort of thing is not uncommon in Botswana. People are very relaxed about time and organization, and it has been trying at times to my own compulsively organized mind. However, I think it is a good lesson in learning to let life come at its own pace, and sometimes even just stop and smell the roses!
So instead of a museum tour, we just walked around the hillside taking pictures, and we even ventured down into the town where little kids and adults alike cheerily greeted us and allowed us to take pictures with them.
Then it was back down the mountain and into the commerce section of town where we drove a small restaurant out of house and home with our large group! I found myself feeling very surprised that this modern/Western-looking restaurant would actually run out of chicken and have no way to give us change, but in hindsight, I understand that they don't have the financial means here to have a lot of surplus food at the end of the day (especially in more rural areas), and big groups like ours don't come into town very often. I suppose it might be similar in a small town in the U.S.
As we were leaving the city, someone pointed out the hospital that served the town and that area, and I had a thought of possibly arranging a trip back to Mochudi to spend some time at the hospital for my independent study project/volunteer desires!
The next place we visited was a site of ancient cave paintings made by the bushmen several hundred years ago. The paintings were drawn onto rock cliffs by medicine men of the different tribes while in trance for the purpose of giving thanks, praying for water, seeking divine guidance, and various requests related to the health of the tribe and its people. In addition to the paintings, there was a cave in the rock that is estimated to stretch anywhere between 20 and 40 kilometers! Apparently during a great tribal war, the wife of a chief who was with child hid in the cave for the duration of the war and thus survived to give birth after the fighting had stopped.
I did really enjoy looking at the paintings and hearing stories of the past, but I think what most delighted me was watching the children of the town around us play all over the trees, rocks, and vines where the paintings were. How incredible it would have been to have that picturesque area as my stomping grounds as a child! Not saying I was deprived by any means, but this place was beautiful! That is one of the biggest surprises I have encountered here in Botswana. I pictured a big desert, and instead find lush fields and green everywhere!
Our final resting place for the night, a sort of traditional resort (I have forgotten what it was called), was a bit of a tourist trap, but was still a lot of fun! We were greeted at the road of the resort by the wives of the chief (he has 16!!) who greeted us warmly and ushered us upwards into the heart of the "village". There were tents sent up for accommodations as well as two traditional mud huts and some more modernized houses with electricity and running water. The women and children sang and danced for us, "showcasing their culture" for us. I appreciated the pride these people had in their culture, but I couldn't help but feel that I was cheapening it by my mere presence. I asked several people about it, and some felt similarly, some felt that nothing was wrong. I guess I've just always taken issue with doing the "tourist thing" and I feel that I am somehow hurting the authenticity of the culture by paying my $2 to watch them perform a "wedding ceremony". What do other people think? Am I being overly sensitive?
The festivities were a lot of fun though, and we had a great time afterward roasting corn and drinking traditional beer before heading to bed.
The next day we went to the Mokolodi game preserve and I saw elephants and giraffes!! There were impalas and wildebeests as well, but nothing can compare to the breathtaking sight of the beautiful spotted coat and long neck of a giraffe. Plus, the elephants are partially tame, and were so close to the jeeps I could almost touch them! Yes, I have been to a zoo, but there is something so powerful about seeing animals in the wild, and at least in part in their natural habitat. Again, I felt the pangs of a bad conscience in doing the tourist routine again, but I consoled myself by considering that these reserves wouldn't be here without the financial support that tourists provide.
After the game run, our long weekend of fun was over, and we drove back to campus to tackle the reading that we were supposed to have done for the next day's class on globalization in Southern Africa. TTFN!

Sports and Entertainment!!

2008-01-11T05:36:00.000-08:00

Friday marked my first official day of class with the American professor who is with us on our trip (teaching Globalization in Southern Africa). It's going to be very strange to be on a semester schedule, and since we are only taking three classes and an independent study, I have a feeling I will be able to really get involved in the campus and community!
A few of my friends and I went exploring after 8am class to find out about the different clubs and sports that were available on campus. I am thinking about joining the "Volunteers Club", though there are some other clubs that I'm considering as well. We found the campus stadium, which has a very nice track field around the soccer pitch and large concrete stands. I the sports and activities director was not in, but we discovered where we can rent equipment for almost any sport under the sun (except baseball), and I will go back there later to inquire about club/"varsity" soccer and maybe boxing or karate! And I thought my soccer career was over! Actually though, I don't think I can join the "varsity" team because I was told that they travel out of the country which as ACM students we are forbidden to do, but the club team travels all around the country which could be a great way to see places I wouldn't have otherwise seen!
We also explored the national soccer stadium where there is a gym, squash club, and tennis club available to us for the cost of a membership fee (about $20 a month). It seemed almost providence at the tennis courts when we met a man from Minnesota who had been in Botswana for 7 years doing AIDS research with his wife and three kids! He has student volunteers that do clinical research surveys and such, and he gave us his number in case we wanted to become involved! So I have a perfect in! Hopefully I can coordinate volunteering there with the research I need to do for my 30-40 page independent study paper, and it will give me something to do between my 8am classes and 5pm classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays!
On Friday night, my friends and I ordered a pizza (they are very good, but a little different here), and then made our way to the UB stadium where two local pro soccer teams were playing!! That was a ton of fun!! People were very friendly, and many drunk, but they were not disrespectful or threatening at all. Just a greeting, a handshake and move on! I am learning along with the other girls to politely ignore the teasing, catcalls, etc. because it is just part of the culture and as long as we don't encourage them, the men are very harmless. Of course I will still not walk alone most places as added safety but for those of you that are worried, I can assure you that I feel very safe. The game was very fast-paced and fun to watch! Both teams were skilled and fast though very little scoring took place. I met a woman who is starting a women's soccer team that will compete in a league around the country, and gave her my number in case I want to play! I plan to investigate the University teams first, but it's an opportunity to play!! There are times like last night when you can smell the fresh-cut grass and feel the electricity in the air as though the stadium lights are making the air hum with excitement, and it was all I could do to stop myself just running onto the pitch. I think of all the things I miss about soccer, running onto the field at the start of a night game with the spectators cheering is the thing I miss most!
After the game, I returned to my room to find that the entire graduate students complex was completely out of water! So I retired without a shower in the hopes that it would be back on this morning. Alas, there is still no water, so I must wait until Sunday night to shower since we are going on a "tourist trip" today to a historical park where we will stay in mud huts tonight. Tomorrow we will be taking a drive through a game preserve where I will get to see my first elephants and giraffes!! I will take pictures I promise!! I hope all of you are well! TTFN!!

Here at last!!

2008-01-10T04:22:00.000-08:00

Dumela everybody!! So I know my last post makes it sound like I'm still in the airport in South Africa, but thankfully that is not the case! Thanks to the amazing work of the International Studies Chair at the University of Botswana (Charity), I was able to obtain a new one-year passport from the U.S. embassy on Monday morning, and at 5pm that evening I was on my way to Botswana! The first night was fairly rough, as I was still not sleeping due to jet-lag, but I was able to hang out with the other kids from the States and feel part of the group again! This will be a long post just to warn you because I have so much to say about the last three days!
We are all living in apartments in the graduate blocks (buildings are called blocks, just as fries are called crisps!) and have our own rooms. We share a bathroom, shower, and kitchen with six others. My apartment also houses, Alyssa who is on the trip with me, and two Botswana graduate students, Victoria and Leish. They are both very nice and sing a lot! They are going to help us learn to cook some traditional meals so that we don't have to eat in the refectories (cafeterias) all the time. We also have maids that come in every day to clean our main common areas including the bathrooms and every two days they come into our rooms to sweep them. They also launder our sheets every two weeks and supply us with fresh toilet paper once a month! So we are pretty taken care of here! The government actually pays for all the on-campus services and the tuition for all students to go here. They receive a small stipend monthly for food and necessities, but from what Victoria says, it's not a lot and life is very expensive for UB students.
There have been many adjustments I've had to make regarding life here. For example, opportunistic theft is very common, and it is strongly recommended that windows and doors be kept locked at all times (unless you are in the room), and all valuables kept locked up or at least away from open windows. For example, the desks are right by the windows, and if you leave your window open with your laptop sitting there, it will likely be gone within a matter of hours! Despite the prevalence of theft however, there is very little preemptive burglary, and most arises out of a person seeing an opportunity to get something they want for free and taking advantage of it.
The campus is very modern and has a pretty good internet connection, electricity, hot water, most things you'd find on a U.S. campus. Power outages are relatively common (we've had two in our apartment), but usually they don't last too long. The bugs are everywhere here, and I've had to adopt a reluctant indifference to them lest they drive me crazy! Luckily, I have had few if any bugs on my bed, but they are all over the floor at night, and very common in the bathrooms.
On Tuesday, after successfully sleeping a total of about three hours in the sweltering heat, I met with the rest of the group to go to orientation where we sat for four hours listening to students, faculty and other administrators talk about life at UB. The take-home messages were mostly to keep your possession safeguarded, walk in groups whenever possible, and never walk alone at night. One student, Molwane, nicknamed Mols told us which clubs, bars, and restaurants were good to go to and which ones were not safe. We also met Pretty and Kopano, two female students who talked about various aspects of student life at UB. They were all very nice and spoke English very well. In fact, although Setswana is the predominant language heard around the city, almost every person that I've met can switch into English readily and speak very clearly. Oh to be bilingual!
After orientation, we went on a bus tour around the city. Our first stop was at a Kgotla (pronounced Hotla with a glottal H) which is a customary court of traditional Botswana villages. The chief, spoke to us about the Kgotla and despite our inappropriate dress (many of the girls were wearing pants which is not allowed in the Kgotla), he invited us all to come back on February 14th when the president of Botswana will be visiting and giving a speech!! The name of the village is Gaberone, after the Chief's surname (last name), and it is this family after which the capitol city of Gaberone is named. This is because the Chief of the village of Gaberone supplied the land to build the city! The function of the Kgotla was historically to provide administrative, legal, cultural, educational, and community support and authority. Today it still manages schools, health, agriculture, cultural ceremonies, public gatherings, and minor infractions of the law. The most fascinating thing I found about the Kgotla was that it is based on the belief in respect of all people and the freedom of expression. When decisions are to be made, the Kgotla will host a public meeting in which any person who wishes to can contribute his/her opinions and views and the chief takes all comments into careful consideration when he makes a decision. This ancient democracy was in place long before the British threatened to colonize Botswana, and shows that Americans weren't the only ones to come up with a system based on the right of all citizens to govern themselves! The rest of the tour showed us ministry buildings for everything under the sun, the prisons, the hospitals and the AIDS testing, research, and awareness facilities. Bill Gates, Harvard, and the U.S. government are responsible for most of the AIDS work done in Botswana. Our tour ended at a national monument celebrating the three "kings" that saved the Tswana lands from British settlement in 1895, by visiting London and holding public meetings decrying the British occupation and colonization of Botswana. These men are also pictured on the 100 Pula bill (Pula are the equivalent of dollars in the US).
After the tour, we were driven to the house of one of Charity's friends and given a traditional meal consisting of samp (similar to hominy) with garbanzo beans in it, porridge, goat meat, spinach, and best of all, mopanie or shrimp of the trees, but most commonly known as caterpillar!! Ok so I only tried one and it didn't taste terrible, but I couldn't get over the fact that I was actually eating a whole caterpillar, limbs, head and all! We also tried their form of ginger ale, which actually tastes like ginger, and is very common at weddings. After eating, the women who had cooked for us sang traditional Botswana songs and showed us dances. Much of what they do is stand in a circle singing, and people go into the center and "freestyle" although some songs have very specific dances. The dancing was a lot of fun and everyone got really into it! Afterwards, we all went home and I tried yet again to fall asleep to no avail! I never understood the true meaning of jet-lag until I got here!
Three hours of sleep later, I joined up with some kids from my group and we all walked to one of the city malls, called the Riverwalk for some essentials. The stores are much like what we have here, but you have to check bags in at the door and pick them up on your way out to prevent theft I presume. I finally got a fan in the hopes that sleep would come with the cool air! For dinner I ate in the refectory for the first time and found it to perfectly edible. The meals are tending to be very similar, consisting of a rice dish, meat (chicken, beef, goat), and different vegetable dishes such as coleslaw, "carrotslaw", pumpkin, green acorn squash, string beets, and other things like that. A lot of what I eat I have no idea what is in it, but mostly it's edible!
In combination with a sleeping pill supplied by a friend, the fan allowed me to get nine hours of almost uninterrupted sleep! I was very grateful for that seeing as how it was the first time in over a week that I had slept more than three hours! That and being homesick have been the most difficult thing so far I think. But I am adjusting slowly, and I think I will have a very memorable experience.
Today was pretty low-key. We had to meet with Charity to get our schedules because we are finally registered for classes! They technically started on Monday, but apparently no one really goes to class for the first two weeks or so. Most professors are still on holiday! I am taking a Setswana language class, Globalization in Southern Africa taught by a professor from the U.S., African Traditional Religions, and an Independent Study which I hope will involve volunteer work in hospitals and clinics in the area. I am also thinking about joining the club soccer team and maybe tennis as well! Life is certainly not dull here, although it is conducted at a much slower pace and as much as I love being occupied by activities and homework every second of every day, I am enjoying the change of pace. Perhaps I will bring some of that relaxed lifestyle back with me to CC... probably not, but it would be nice!
Anyway, for those of you that read this, good job! You should reward yourself for your hard work! I promise to keep the blogs much shorter than this in the future!

TTFN!

Yes I'm Alive!

2008-01-06T07:57:00.000-08:00

So, Day Two, Three and Four!! Well, the adventure has truly begun! I am not quite to Botswana yet, although I did get a breath of fresh Botswana air before they threw me back on a plane to Johannesburg, South Africa for the silly reason that I had lost my passport! So apparently, somewhere after I boarded the flight from Washington Dowles airport and before I disembarked the plane in Johannesburg, South Africa, I lost my passport and did not realize it until it was too late to get back on and search the plane. Unsure of what to do, I jumped on the connecting flight to Gaberone, Botswana thinking that at least I would be able to talk to the woman in charge of the program who was waiting for our group in Botswana. Well, unfortunately, I was not even given the chance to speak to her before I was ordered back on the next flight. After many tearful hours and phone calls, I was able to book a very expensive flight for Tuesday morning and at around two in the morning I finally got into the transit hotel in the Johannesburg airport for my first real good night's sleep since Thursday! Of course, without my passport I'm not allowed to leave the airport, and I am reminded ironically of the movie The Terminal in which Tom Hanks is an immigrant to the U.S. and has no passport or return passage, and must stay in the airport terminal until he can get either. I am a bit more lucky than Tom in that I will get a new passport issued by the U.S. Consulate tomorrow and be able to fly out on Tuesday. Thus, the situation has begun to work itself out and I am even able to laugh at myself a bit for getting into this position in the first place!!
Anyway, there's not much to tell other than that. From what I can tell, Johannesburg is a very interesting place, and I should love to come back and visit another time with passport in tow, and maybe a few friends and family to make sure that I'm not left stranded alone again! ;) The people are very friendly and have been trying very hard to make my stay more comfortable, and although the hotel is not quite the Brown Palace (Denver reference), it is suitable for the time being. I did meet a very nice couple who are also stuck here due to Visa issues, and they were the first (and only) non-staffers to reach out to me last night when I was sobbing on the phone and they offered to let me come sleep by them in the airport if I wasn't able to get a room. I saw them again today, and apparently they are stuck until tomorrow, so I think I might engage in conversation with them a little later.
I'll probably not write again until I'm in Botswana, but for those that might be worried, I am safe and will be taken care of until I reach Botswana. I hate to admit it, but with money anything really is possible out here! TTFN!

Hostel International (Chicago)

2008-01-03T17:45:00.000-08:00

Day One... Today began at the unfortunate hour of 5 this morning, and has definitely been a long one! I arrived at the airport and by chance (and a little Dad intuition) checked into the right airline for my 8am flight to Chicago. As my plane took off I felt a rush of sadness, regret, and trepidation that mingled with exhaustion and I had such crazy thoughts as trying to gain access to my return ticket and come directly back to Denver. Yet I reminded myself that I am not allowed to cop out because I'm the one that intentionally put myself in this position! So I pressed onward, and found my way from the airport to the Hostel International Chicago via the "Airport Express", which afforded me a grand tour of a large part of downtown Chicago from the perspective of a terrified passenger clinging to the seat as the driver navigated the afternoon traffic. I had the impression that this driver knew exactly what he was doing, and it was as though he understood something about the rhythm of Chicago's traffic that was as foreign to me as the national language of Botswana.
From the hostel we walked to the office where the study abroad organization was headquartered for our pre-departure orientation. The walk itself was epic, as we were limited to the few pieces of warm clothes we had room to bring, and the office was twenty-five minutes away! The orientation was both reassuring and disturbing as it added to my limited knowledge of what this experience was going to be like in both positive and negative ways. I can look forward to a campus with many of the comforts and amenities that I have at my home campus, but there are many things that will be very different as well. For example, my neurotic attention to schedules and planning will be of little use in Botswana where life moves at a turtle's pace in comparison with our fast-paced American lifestyle. Should be a lovely change and a very important learning experience for me!
After orientation, we all walked to a Thai-Pan-Asian-Whatever-You-Feel-Like restaurant where I enjoyed my last "American" meal before heading out. Tomorrow we board a plan bound for Washington-Dowles at 11am, followed by a four hour layover, a fifteen hour flight to Johannesburg, South Africa, and then a short plane ride to Gaberone (pronounced Gab-er-ony). All told, we will arrive on Saturday at 6:20pm Botswana time (9:20am Colorado time), racking up almost 24 hours of travel time! I am excited and uncertain and afraid and joyous, and experiencing a thousand emotions at once. All I know is that this is going to be an adventure of a lifetime! TTFN!!