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.