Spring Break in Africa!

I have not blogged in so long! So much has happened in that time. We are now in the middle of the semester. Our one week spring break ended last Sunday. School is back in session as of Monday and we are all busier than ever. My local friends keep telling me that you get busier until the end of the semester.
Spring break was a blast!

We flew to Maun on Saturday and were camping in the wilderness for 7 days straight.

We had a base camp in Maun and then we would go on trips to camp in other places. The first trip was the mokoro (boat) trip and it was only 2 days. It was a nice introduction to camping for people like me who had never camped before.

We drove to the Okavango Delta and camped on this island with elephants, giraffes, ostriches, zebras, etc. We were polled across the hippo infested delta in mokoros in twos.

The boats were small and really close to the water. I was SO SCARED looking at the size of the boat and the depth of the water! Once you get moving, the nerves calm down a bit. While on the island, we took an evening and early morning walk looking for game. We went in groups of 5 and the guides were really knowledgeable about the fauna and flora of the island.
Then we went on a 4 day trip to the central Kalahari game reserve. This was a very intrilling trip for so many reasons.

We camped in the middle of a game reserve infested with human predators like lions! It was a lot of fun though because we would go on a morning and a late afternoon drive around the dessert. Each time we went out we saw tons of animals in big herds. The most prevalent were wildebeest, springboks, ostriches, gemsboks, suricats and a lot of bird species.

On the last day, we saw 8 lions during our late afternoon/ early evening drive. During the evening, it turns out that the lions followed us back to our tents. So when we woke up the following day, we woke up to our safari camp guides driving the lions away. They moved and set camp 100m from our camp. Later that morning, lion foot prints were found all around our tents. That night, around 8 pm, they started roaring loudly and we could tell they were moving closer to our tents. Everybody had to get away from the fire, rush to their tent and zip all the window and door flaps up.

Even though I enjoyed seeing all these animals, my favorites were suricats. These animals are hilarious!

When we drove by, they would freeze as if they were playing dead. They remained in that position for more than minutes!

Yesterday was International Women's Day! The school celebrated it with traditional dances and speeches.

They spoke passionately about the fact that Batswana women have equal opportunities as men only on paper. They empasised the fact that in reality, women are still lagging behind in development. One professor said that is evident because men can easily leave home and go study abroad while a women has to think about her children before she can decide to go further her education abroad. I thought this was a good point because it really is true. Later when I pondered more about this issue, I figured that there is no way around it because women will always be the ones that raise the children.

Till another time.

Love from Botswana!

Chiefs, Villages, Parties.

I have now spent three weeks in Botswana. I have loved it! There has been ‘funny’ stories and occurrences here and there but I have loved most things about being here. The weekend before last weekend was amazing! We left campus on Saturday morning for a cultural excursion around Botswana. We first went to a cultural village where we met with the chief at the village meeting place, an open place with chairs and a thatched roof. The chief of the village gave us a warm welcome and after we all introduced ourselves, the games began! You always think people in such positions of power would be serious and not play, well, not this man. He used volunteers from our group to do a mock wedding, court marital case and a theft case. We were in stitches of laughter during the whole edifying process, especially during the marital issue. The case was that the lady had been beaten up by her husband for refusing him conjugal rights. The lady had to explain to the court and the chief why she was withholding sex from her husband and the man had to explain why he had beaten her. The verdict was that the man was to receive 3 strokes at the back and the lady left with a warning; that they paid lobola (bride-price) for her so she cannot just decide to not sleep with her husband.

We slept at a cultural village later that day, after going to see Khoisan rock painting. They were magnificent and I marveled at the detail this pictures had.

The tour guard told us that in each clan there was a leader and this was the person who did the painting on the rocks. He said that before going out to hunt, the clan would gather and pray for a good hunting experience. The leader would go into a trance and fore-see the animals they would hunt that day. These would be the animals he would paint on the rocks. It was all fascinating!

The experience at the cultural village was my favorite! We were met by women who were ululating and they danced to welcome us. The bus dropped us about 7 minutes from the houses so we had to walk behind them, clapping our hands while they sang. We were separated according to gender, we went to freshen-up and then we came back to meet the chief, his sister and his wives. They were all dressed in traditional regalia.

We all sat around a fire, the chief began to dance with his sister and then there were stories. There were stories of how life used to be like when they were growing up; they told us it was unheard of back-then to date, how they are shocked at the young generation that has children outside wedlock, how they used to think HIV/AIDS was a result of a neighbor bewitching someone’s children out of jealousy at their prosperity, and they told us that culture was more sacred back then and would have prevented most problems young people have today.

We slept in tents- it was my first time sleeping in a tent- and we had showers outside in the open. It was quite an experience. We also had cultural food and it was AMAZING! It was by far the tastiest food I had had since I got to Botswana!
The following day we went on a Safari before driving back to school.

We were welcomed with champagne (you could also have juice if you wanted to), we drove around the game reserve and saw a number of animals including: tigers, ostriches, impalas, warthogs, springboks, zebras and a troop of monkeys.

Last week was the second week of school but I still did not know what was going on with some of my classes. For instance, the professor that was to teach my virology class was double-booked; she was registered to teach virology and immunology on Tuesdays at 8 am. I never understood how this clash escaped being noticed and the professor had to change my class to a different time. The new class slot worked for me but I cannot say the same for some friends who had to de-register because of clashes with other important things. The class issue has now been resolved and classes are now in session. I am taking four classes: virology (my elective for my biology major), the biology of public health, Setswana and an independent study project with my program advisor. The virology class has 50 people and that is twice the size of my Colorado College lab classes and I would be lying if I said it is not overwhelming to have so many people in a lab. I like the Setswana class.

Last weekend was so much fun! We were celebrating two birthdays; one on Friday and the other on Saturday. On Friday we celebrated a friend we have made here in Botswana, a Motswana that was turning 23 but looked 16! We (University of Botswana (UB) students that were celebrating the friend) went to Lizard Lounge, a club that is within walking distance from our campus. They played lots of house music and the locals were showing off magnificently shocking dance moves! These people danced for the whole time that we were there and they showed no sign of getting tired. They were not just a marvel to watch, they were also great partners to dance with. We would form a circle and someone would get into the center of the circle, do a dance move and beckon for someone else to come in. I was literally laughing the whole time, both from shock at the creativity portrayed by the local Batswana and the magnificence of the general camaraderie.

On Saturday it was the birthday of a friend on my program. We organized a surprise birthday party for her. We had a surprise dinner at the Embassy Indian restaurant and then headed to one of Botswana’s posh clubs, Fashion Lounge. It was so much better than Lizard Lounge and it was absolutely beautiful. It was safe and there were no dodgy people lingering around and trying to dance with us so I liked it more because we didn’t have to think about safety. I had a great time; the music was great, it was clean and the dancing was also clean. I spent most of the time chatting with a UB Swazi friend I met last week. It was nice talking to her and finding out what her Botswana experience has been like so far.

On Sunday I went to church. I liked it but I think I will go to this other church and see how it is. The church I went to sang Tswana songs but I knew none, and the service was in Setswana and there was an interpreter. Right now I am hoping to find a church that has a service in English so that I do not have to deal with the interpretation because that can be a bit confusing.

Wow! This is really long. I wanted to post videos of the dances but I could not figure out how. Until next time….Go siame!! (bye in Setswana!)

Botswana in pictures

Orientation and the day 15 of us filled an 18 seater kombie to go to the airport to identify our luggage..

The university provides bedding to students and we had to que for a long time for the bedding, under the scorching sun. We got to meet some locals.

This is where most of the girls live. The building is called 'Las Vegas' because it is the biggest residence on campus. This is also the only residence with wireless internet. Yesterday we met a girl that said we were very lucky to live in Las Vegas and that if it went according to her, she would have us live in the other dorms so that we face he hardships of not having hot water sometimes and not having internet. I am grateful we live in Las Vegas.

I will post the pictures of the nature reserve and the tour around Gaborone soon.

Dumelang! (hello! in Setswana)

School started on Monday. Some professors are showing up to class, some are not. Nonetheless, we have been going to classes hoping professors will show up. My Setswana teacher showed up to class and was shocked at the number of students. Apparently, there can only be two 15 student classes and we were over 30 in total. She is going to divide us into two groups. Today I have class at 6:00 pm; we are having our first program (ACM) meeting. We will also be discussing our independent studies. We are going to use a book called "28 Stories of AIDS in Africa" by Stephanie Nolen. I like this book not only because it devastates me and motivates me to do something about the HIV pandemic but because the author picked 28 HIV stories across Africa and had the owner of the stories tell them themselves. It speaks more to your heart and you actually hear them (stories) better when they are told by the people affected.

On another note, life has been good in Botswana. The heat is not subsidizing and we just have to deal with it. The food in the two cafeterias is good but it is the same thing over and over again and a lot of us are trying t o organize (to rent- really) a fridge so that we can have fruits and vegetables because Batswana believe in meat, meat and meat; we rarely have a vegetable served with our meal. Another thing we have to accept will not change.
We have started playing pick-up soccer at 8:00 pm every night. The locals join us to kick the ball under African stars; it’s been something we enjoy a lot.

HONEY MOON IN BOTSWANA..

The rain is pouring outside! Yesterday it was hot and the same can be said of the other 2 days that we have spent here. Botswana has been so much more developed than I had expected, with the university having world class facilities. We got here on Wednesday, the 5th, in the afternoon. I was grateful we got here safe but it was not a smooth journey because almost all of us missed our connecting flight in Johannesburg; our flight from London arrived about an hour and a half late! Two of us- including me- had to buy new ticket to Gaborone and the others, about 14 students, were rebooked by the airline. Unfortunately, communication between the airlines was not that good because they had to talk to about 4 people before they could be given boarding passes. So, it was no surprise that about 70% of us got to the University of Botswana without any checked in luggage. Fortunately, it arrived the following afternoon. That was a relief because a number of people were running out of clothing. Apparently, it is normal for students to loose luggage on this trip and that even though it might take a week; you get your luggage at the end.
On Thursday and Friday we had orientation in the brand new Students Center! The orientation was good and we met a number of people who are in charge of international students. There was an emphasis on meeting locals in order to be invited to things like weddings and funerals in people’s villages. There was also an emphasis on absolutely no unprotected sex, which makes sense because even though HIV/AIDS infection in Botswana is decreasing, there is still a high percentage of infected people. They take HIV/AIDS very serious here. There university has numerous posters on sexual responsibility on almost every corner.
We have already met a number of locals. We have a girl (Cha) and a guy (David) who are undergraduate students that have volunteered to take care of us in the first two weeks of our stay here. They have done a great job in organizing things for us and helping us make runs to the mall to get fans, irons, adapters, converters, etc. As part of orientation, on Friday we were taken on a tour of Gaborone. It was fantastic and we saw many prominent buildings like the UN and SADC buildings. We also went to see the statues of the three Batswana men who went to England to ask to be a British Protectorate. We were to have a traditional dinner after that in the village but it started raining so the dinner was cancelled.
Yesterday, Saturday, we went on an exclusively ACM (the program I am on) tour of Gaborone. We started off at the National museum where we learnt a lot about the culture of Botswana and the way of living. Then we went to a shopping outlet because some people still needed to buy adapters. We then went to the bus rank to see how to take a bus and we had a traditional lunch here. Then we went to the Gaborone Game Reserve. I LOVED BEING THERE!! It was a drive through game reserve and we saw ostriches, lots of impalas, lots of zebras, springboks, warthogs, monkeys, buckboks, etc.
Today we are to have a braai (a big BBQ). I am excited about it but I think the rain might rob us of that opportunity.
Until next time..
p.s. Pictures will be up soon.

THE DAY IS FINALLY HERE---OFF TO BOTSWANA!!

I had two months to plan for this day, this moment. Everything in the last month, from packing my room, trips to the registrar, trips to financial aid, trips to the stores, packing my room to a number of boxes, making a folder for the Botswana documents, printing the documents- everything was leading to THIS moment. Except it is not as glamorous as I thought it would be; nothing prepares you for the emotions- nothing makes saying bye to your loved ones, knowing you won’t see them for almost half a year, easy AND I am stuck in Dallas, Texas for the next 6 hours! I am grateful for internet because there would be nothing to do because I do not feel like reading. My next flight, my flight to London, leaves at 4:50 pm. In London, if I am fortunate enough, I should be able to meet a couple of the other students on the program. I have already made friends with a girl from Ghana. Her name is Phyllis and she goes to Grinnell. I am excited to meet her in person. My flight was smooth but I regretted checking in two bags because I had to pay $50 for the second one. I usually fly Delta and I have memorized their luggage requirements so I just assumed American Airlines also has the same requirements for their international flights- a terrible blunder.

I was talking with friends over my 10-day Christmas break and I was talking about how I anticipate things to be like in Botswana. After the conversation, one thing was clear; I will be forced to appreciate how (relatively) easy it is to live here. For instance, doing laundry in a bowl (or sink- which would make it so much better) will be a challenge at first because I suppose it will take forever for me to wash a load of clothes. The other thing I am hoping goes well is safety. I realize that we can’t take a map of the world and point to a place that is safe but at the same time, after leaving in the relatively safe Singapore and living in Colorado, I am a bit worried about being careless and trusting too much. I used to be good at taking care of myself and my things when I lived in Swaziland but having lived abroad for 5 years, I am a little shaky in that department. I am bring a lock with me for my closet over in Botswana so that should help, right?

Next time I post something, I will be reporting from Botswana. Yay!

Time is now of the essence!

I leave for Botswana in about 3.5 weeks. It just hit me and it is finally sinking in that next semester I will not be here. There are so many things going on in my campus right now and I am trying to attend as many events as possible just to get a sense of my school I can hold on to when I leave.  Even though I am starting to be more excited, I have moments when I realize that I am leaving all my friends behind. I think the saddest are the friends who are seniors that I will neither see graduate nor lay my eyes on them ever again. Obviously there are people I might see again-which would be nice- but I do not think I will see the majority.

It is hard to discuss meeting and pickup places when I get to Botswana without snapping out of denial. My school closes on 22 December. Since the program starts so early- 5 January- I will not have much of a holiday but I am grateful for the 10 days I will get- it could be worse. I am not flying all the way to Botswana; I plan to fly to Johannesburg (South Africa) and then take a kombi (a mini bus) to Botswana. Then I will have to navigate my own way to the university because pickups are arranged for only those who are flying into Botswana.  Finding my way should not be a big deal –actually, I think it will be fun because I will get to interact with the Tswana people!