So I have completed the final for one psychology class, and tomorrow I finish with my Setswana course. It's bittersweet, especially because we had a lot of fun in Setswana. Today we also visited the SOS Childrens Village for the last time to say goodbye to the kids there, we brought them a cake which was a big hit.
Other than that there isn't much to do now but study and wait as the last few days pass. Classes aren't meeting, so we have a lot of free time. There are a few things still going on around campus, like the campaigns, the actual vote will be next Friday, unfortunately the same day we leave! So we have to see if we will still be able to vote.
We have met so many amazing people here, it's such an experience just to talk to people and hear their stories, looking back on it it makes me glad I chose Botswana.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Two Weeks!
Crazy enough I only have two weeks left in Botswana!! It doesn't seem like it yet, but it's coming up fast. Jon and I have been conserving our money so that our last week here we can eat out and buy our last souveniers! Next week I will actually be finishing both psychology of work and labour relations, and my setswana class. The week after I will have my last three finals and fly home!
We will be leaving here on May 8th, and flying to Johannesburg to spend the night. This is because the airline in Bots that does take pets, only flies on weekdays. So we will spend the night in South Africa, which will be interesting because our visas for South Africa will have expired haha.. and then the next day we all take off for home!
We will be leaving here on May 8th, and flying to Johannesburg to spend the night. This is because the airline in Bots that does take pets, only flies on weekdays. So we will spend the night in South Africa, which will be interesting because our visas for South Africa will have expired haha.. and then the next day we all take off for home!
Little Things
The students here are currently campaigning for the student representative council for next year (the majority of this years SRC was expelled/suspended during the strike). It's cool here in that they run in legit political parties which coincide which the parties currently running for election. I will be voting for the Botswana Democratic Party and getting a sweet t-shirt with a fist on it. I'm super excited for my t-shirt! But also I like their politics and there are several people running for the BDP who I'm friends with. Unfortunately the politics are pretty dirty and the election has been postponed a few times, we're just hoping it actually happens, and happens before we leave!
On a totally different topic they have these red ants here, we have nothing like them at home. They are super fast and there are millions of them. The main issue being they sting and it hurts like hell. I'm mentioning this because I was just stung in the arch of my foot. They will keep stinging/biting whatever until you get them off, and walking around in flip-flops is bad news if you have to walk through them! I've been lucky and have only been attacked three times! Hopefully that it's for the semester!
Finally the dining halls/refectories. These are still awful, though occassionally things get better, but even if I can get chicken instead of goat liver, that is a smell that really does not help my appetite when I'm trying to choke down my 3249824234098234 meal of white rice.
On a totally different topic they have these red ants here, we have nothing like them at home. They are super fast and there are millions of them. The main issue being they sting and it hurts like hell. I'm mentioning this because I was just stung in the arch of my foot. They will keep stinging/biting whatever until you get them off, and walking around in flip-flops is bad news if you have to walk through them! I've been lucky and have only been attacked three times! Hopefully that it's for the semester!
Finally the dining halls/refectories. These are still awful, though occassionally things get better, but even if I can get chicken instead of goat liver, that is a smell that really does not help my appetite when I'm trying to choke down my 3249824234098234 meal of white rice.
Sexual Harrassment
I am currently taking a course here called the psychology of work and labour relations. Which is actually really interesting because it deals with issues every person will face in the work place etc.. etc.. (Just don't get me started on my lecturer for that class because she is entirely incompetent and wastes huge amounts of my life I will never get back!) ANYWAYS! during that course we were discussing sexual harrassment, and it seems like in Botswana the women actually enjoy the attention? There aren't really sexual harrassment rules, and a lawsuit over something like that is virtually unheard of. My lecturer was discussing how she has seen many women in high powered jobs just giggle and bat their eyelashes when harrassed. I think this may lead to how men treat the women here and why they are so generally suprised when us American girls don't leap into their arms.
The men here will whistle, or call out to us such things as "I need to marry a white girl.. c'mon honey!" "Hey baby!" "Whats up chick!?" etc. etc. or grab your butt or something and my response is generally something along the lines of "good luck with that" and/or straight up ignoring them, which is what most of the international girls do but the men genuinely get suprised. Some have even approached Jon to ask how to get a white girl. My advice starts with: Don't open with I need a white girl. Open with something like, hi! My name is Thembe... etc.
The men here will whistle, or call out to us such things as "I need to marry a white girl.. c'mon honey!" "Hey baby!" "Whats up chick!?" etc. etc. or grab your butt or something and my response is generally something along the lines of "good luck with that" and/or straight up ignoring them, which is what most of the international girls do but the men genuinely get suprised. Some have even approached Jon to ask how to get a white girl. My advice starts with: Don't open with I need a white girl. Open with something like, hi! My name is Thembe... etc.
Blood Drives & Homosexuality
Ok so the other day there was a blood drive here. Not something I'm overly fond of as I'm scared to death of needles, but I visited with Eilen from Sweden while she was donating. They gave her four huge bags to fill with blood, needles and all, to hold while she waited for her turn. That there was enough for me to run away! Donating blood is so important but if I was to donate blood here it would be a very very long time before I would be able to donate again in the states. As it is I will have to wait three YEARS before I am allowed to donate again, this is mainly because the risk of the disease malaria, and since I have technically 'lived' in a malarial region I can't donate for a while.
While discussing this subject we got onto the topic of how homosexual men aren't allowed to donate. It's a really awful situation here for anyone gay/lesbian/bisexual/transexual etc.. homosexuality is illegal in this country and the people are hugely intolerant of it. I was thinking that maybe the students at the university would have a more progessive view, but when talking with some they only discussed the huge hatred they have in their hearts for those type of people. When I told them at home gay marriage is becoming legal in more and more states they were truly shocked. I see the amazing support system Wheaton has among the gay/lesbian community and know that it is still really difficult for those people when attempting to figure things out for themselves and then come out in a mainly tolerant environment. I can only imagine how hard it must be for young people here to deal with those same issues when all around them the only message is hatred. It's pretty crazy.
While discussing this subject we got onto the topic of how homosexual men aren't allowed to donate. It's a really awful situation here for anyone gay/lesbian/bisexual/transexual etc.. homosexuality is illegal in this country and the people are hugely intolerant of it. I was thinking that maybe the students at the university would have a more progessive view, but when talking with some they only discussed the huge hatred they have in their hearts for those type of people. When I told them at home gay marriage is becoming legal in more and more states they were truly shocked. I see the amazing support system Wheaton has among the gay/lesbian community and know that it is still really difficult for those people when attempting to figure things out for themselves and then come out in a mainly tolerant environment. I can only imagine how hard it must be for young people here to deal with those same issues when all around them the only message is hatred. It's pretty crazy.
Electricity
Ok so over the weekend last week there was no electricity on campus. We are fairly used to the running water coming on and off, and there is generally no internet, but had yet to actually lose electricity for more than 3-4 hours at a time. This was a really crazy day because we woke up without anything, and because of the lack of electricity there was no food on campus so we had to go out. So we spent most of the day at a cafe/bar place with our laptops. I had a class scheduled for that Sunday at 3 pm (awful awful idea by my professor) and we STILL had class, sitting in the classroom after feeling our way up the pitch black stairwell and using the lights on our cell phones to read notes. It was a fabulous day, haha. BUT it was nice to have an excuse to eat out, and we're expecting reimbursements from the school because we are on the meal plan! See how that goes!
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Mob Justice
First off Zinzi is doing so well! He's getting big, and he's so playful. He's cutest when he is sleepy though, he lays down and purrs like crazy. He usually purrs when we get back to the room also. He's with Jon more than me though, and when we're in the room he follows Jon around all the time, and always sits on him.. it's super cute.
The other day we were taking Zinzi for some kitten shots at the vet (all his kitten shots and the vet visit cost us approximately 20 USD).. and we were walking through Main Mall an area with a lot of shops and all of a sudden a TON of people went running into a restaurant into the back. It seems that someone had done something, like not paid, and "mob justice" took over, so people chased him intending to beat him up. I think he got away though, because most people came back out shortly after.
The other day we were taking Zinzi for some kitten shots at the vet (all his kitten shots and the vet visit cost us approximately 20 USD).. and we were walking through Main Mall an area with a lot of shops and all of a sudden a TON of people went running into a restaurant into the back. It seems that someone had done something, like not paid, and "mob justice" took over, so people chased him intending to beat him up. I think he got away though, because most people came back out shortly after.
Easter
So Easter has come and gone in Bots, which for most here just meant a lot of church. The people here on the whole are very religious. A big church is the Zion Christian Church, and it is easy to spot members of that church because they wear silver pins on their shirts that have a star and a circle with some black and green fabric. We did not attend church on Easter, but the international students who weren't travelling cooked a feast in the graduate dorms. We made mashed potatoes, chicken, chocolate mousse, brownies, salad, and veggies! It was soo good!! The next morning most of us went to the Gab Sun hotel and had their big breakfast buffet. Also soo good! haha .. Any real food and all of us are automatically drooling. I'm a little worried about going home though, I'm not sure how my body will react going back to normal food and having all the preservatives and what not again.. but there's no question about it, I'm getting chinese food the day I get home!
The Wednesday night before Easter, a small group of students set-up a huge projection screen outside and played a video of a man preaching in a very energetic way... they joined in, and it was interesting to watch and listen... except they didn't start til after ten pm.. so by eleven I was trying to sleep and a little annoyed! I think it's a really cool idea, but I think they should do it earlier in the day!!
A good thing about night though is there is absolutely no light pollution here. When it's dark it's DARK! This, while somewhat terrifying while walking outside, allows us to see SO many stars! And since we're on the other side of the world they are the same ones we learned about a few months ago in astronomy.
The Wednesday night before Easter, a small group of students set-up a huge projection screen outside and played a video of a man preaching in a very energetic way... they joined in, and it was interesting to watch and listen... except they didn't start til after ten pm.. so by eleven I was trying to sleep and a little annoyed! I think it's a really cool idea, but I think they should do it earlier in the day!!
A good thing about night though is there is absolutely no light pollution here. When it's dark it's DARK! This, while somewhat terrifying while walking outside, allows us to see SO many stars! And since we're on the other side of the world they are the same ones we learned about a few months ago in astronomy.
Old Posts!
So nothing new has really happened recently. It’s been overcast and slightly rainy all week, which has been awesome! Haha it’s nice to have a few days off from the hot hot sun! We received back our first Setswana exams (94!).. the whole class did really well. I was proud of us.
We’ve started counting the days a little bit more now that its getting closer to April. But really trying hard not to! This weekend we are distracting ourselves a little with an excursion to Victoria Falls. We’ll be leaving Thursday night on an overnight train to Francistown, and from there taking a bus to Kasane in the north of Botswana. Unfortunately backpackers lodges are not allowed in the country, because the government prefers low impact-high cost tourism.. good for the environment, bad for us. So we’ll be staying in a hotel in Kasane, and traveling to Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe for the day on Saturday with a guide. It’s important for us to have a guide, as Zimbabwe isn’t doing so fabulously right now, but we also don’t plan on traveling too much into the country. It’ll be interesting to drive through though. A good friend of ours recently went traveling through Zim and was saying how it looks really modern for the 1970’s or so, but since then has stagnated, and the shelves of the grocery store are bare. They don’t accept Zimbabwean currency anymore, so we have to trade our Pula in for U.S. dollars. It will be weird to use them again! Hopefully I won’t need to many, just for a visa, and possibly to bribe police haha. Unfortunately most of the money from the visa’s etc. goes directly into Robert Mugabe’s pocket. With the recent “accident” involving the prime minister and his wife, there is a lot of unrest there. If you use American Dollars to pay for something, you may get your change in Pula, Euros, anything. Fortunately though I won’t be spending much, as the markets in Zim welcome American clothing to barter for their goods, and I can very easily trade some of my t-shirts for a lot of souvenirs!
In other news getting Zinzi (who we now believe to be male…) home has been a huge hassle. The issue is that NO businesses answer their phones, and when I finally got through to a person, they had no idea what the airlines policy on animals was. Very frustrating to say the least, as I watched my cell phone minutes vanish quickly with all these calls. My sister, and Jon’s mom have been helping organize things on the United States side, which is proving to have much better telephone service. So hopefully things get sorted out quickly! The kitten has really come into his own and had such a personality now. After his eye drops we have discovered he has huge eyes, and is completely adorable. He spends most of his time playing with toys Jon and I have created for him, and as a African kitten he’s very resourceful. He uses a balled up receipt as a ball and toilet paper rolls keep him occupied. We have several cardboard boxes, one which he uses for scratching, and it has a small rug in it he also sharpens his claws on occasionally. Which is unnecessary cause his claws are very very sharp, and everyone that meets him has scratches to prove it. He’s still just getting used to himself though, so hopefully he realizes claws are unnecessary most of the time. I’ll put up new pictures soon!
Today.. it is April! The 5th to be exact. And we are now officially counting the days til we get home!! It’s been awesome here, but we’re ready for some real food (Chinese buffet!!!!!). And it’s going to be really nice to see my family again! This is the longest I have ever been away. It hasn’t been as hard because Jon is here with me, but its still too long to go without seeing your own family. Especially with all the health problems, accidents, and chaos ensuing at home.. its hard not to be there! So today, Jon awoke to no water in his dorm.. I checked mine, and also no water. None of the dormitories have had water all day. I never realized how dependent I was on running water.. it’s almost noon and I have yet to shower or brush my teeth!! I have been checking every half hour or so, but nothing yet. A bunch of us are going to the pool here in a few minutes to use their locker room. Hopefully there is water there! A large group of students here actually spent a week living in a village about 40 minutes away from campus. Most had no running water or electricity. If you want to do dishes you have to take water from outside and bring it inside to boil. I was wondering why most people here don’t shower but use the bathtub.. that’s why, t hey don’t have showers at home.
We’ve started counting the days a little bit more now that its getting closer to April. But really trying hard not to! This weekend we are distracting ourselves a little with an excursion to Victoria Falls. We’ll be leaving Thursday night on an overnight train to Francistown, and from there taking a bus to Kasane in the north of Botswana. Unfortunately backpackers lodges are not allowed in the country, because the government prefers low impact-high cost tourism.. good for the environment, bad for us. So we’ll be staying in a hotel in Kasane, and traveling to Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe for the day on Saturday with a guide. It’s important for us to have a guide, as Zimbabwe isn’t doing so fabulously right now, but we also don’t plan on traveling too much into the country. It’ll be interesting to drive through though. A good friend of ours recently went traveling through Zim and was saying how it looks really modern for the 1970’s or so, but since then has stagnated, and the shelves of the grocery store are bare. They don’t accept Zimbabwean currency anymore, so we have to trade our Pula in for U.S. dollars. It will be weird to use them again! Hopefully I won’t need to many, just for a visa, and possibly to bribe police haha. Unfortunately most of the money from the visa’s etc. goes directly into Robert Mugabe’s pocket. With the recent “accident” involving the prime minister and his wife, there is a lot of unrest there. If you use American Dollars to pay for something, you may get your change in Pula, Euros, anything. Fortunately though I won’t be spending much, as the markets in Zim welcome American clothing to barter for their goods, and I can very easily trade some of my t-shirts for a lot of souvenirs!
In other news getting Zinzi (who we now believe to be male…) home has been a huge hassle. The issue is that NO businesses answer their phones, and when I finally got through to a person, they had no idea what the airlines policy on animals was. Very frustrating to say the least, as I watched my cell phone minutes vanish quickly with all these calls. My sister, and Jon’s mom have been helping organize things on the United States side, which is proving to have much better telephone service. So hopefully things get sorted out quickly! The kitten has really come into his own and had such a personality now. After his eye drops we have discovered he has huge eyes, and is completely adorable. He spends most of his time playing with toys Jon and I have created for him, and as a African kitten he’s very resourceful. He uses a balled up receipt as a ball and toilet paper rolls keep him occupied. We have several cardboard boxes, one which he uses for scratching, and it has a small rug in it he also sharpens his claws on occasionally. Which is unnecessary cause his claws are very very sharp, and everyone that meets him has scratches to prove it. He’s still just getting used to himself though, so hopefully he realizes claws are unnecessary most of the time. I’ll put up new pictures soon!
Today.. it is April! The 5th to be exact. And we are now officially counting the days til we get home!! It’s been awesome here, but we’re ready for some real food (Chinese buffet!!!!!). And it’s going to be really nice to see my family again! This is the longest I have ever been away. It hasn’t been as hard because Jon is here with me, but its still too long to go without seeing your own family. Especially with all the health problems, accidents, and chaos ensuing at home.. its hard not to be there! So today, Jon awoke to no water in his dorm.. I checked mine, and also no water. None of the dormitories have had water all day. I never realized how dependent I was on running water.. it’s almost noon and I have yet to shower or brush my teeth!! I have been checking every half hour or so, but nothing yet. A bunch of us are going to the pool here in a few minutes to use their locker room. Hopefully there is water there! A large group of students here actually spent a week living in a village about 40 minutes away from campus. Most had no running water or electricity. If you want to do dishes you have to take water from outside and bring it inside to boil. I was wondering why most people here don’t shower but use the bathtub.. that’s why, t hey don’t have showers at home.
Boo
Ok so it's Sunday, and we woke up today to no electricity anywhere on campus.. so I'm currently at a cafe for lunch and using my computer. We're hoping it comes back today, or all our food will go bad! This happens fairly often, the water also comes and goes.. but c'est la vie.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
It's been a while!
Sorry I haven't posted in such a long time! I've actually been writing posts, but haven't had access to the internet to post them! So sometime this week I will be adding several new posts. Today Jon and I walked to the main mall area of Gabs and bought a crate for Zinzi to go home in. He seems to like his new house, and has been making himself comfortable!
Other than that things here have been going well!
FOUR WEEKS LEFT!!
I'm not excited to leave Africa, because I will definately miss it, but I am excited to get home and see my family, and have some real food!! I get home on Mothers Day, and my sister has taken the day after off from work so pedicures and hair cuts and all that good stuff! It'll be nice to feel clean again!
Recently I worked out my classes for the fall.. I'm taking my senior seminar in psychology with a really great professor who I haven't been able to take a course with yet. I also have another great professor, who I have had, for my social psychology lab. I am also taking a course on teaching reading and language arts, this is to prepare me for my final MTEL this fall. In addition to that I am taking a ballet class to fulfill my arts requirement.. which should be interesting, but as most of my good friends are amazing dancers I should have a lot of help! I will also being working on an independent study with one of my professors for issues in early care, so that should be plenty to keep me busy.
I'll be living in the same building as I have the past two years, but in a different room. It's exciting though because this year more of my friends have moved into the same area, so I'll have lots of company.
Right now I'm waiting on hearing about my precepting for next fall - I wasn't able to work as a preceptor last year at school, but I re-applied for this year, and hopefully that works out! I should know the 17th. I'm also waiting to hear from a summer job in Concord, it's been a little more difficult this year looking for summer jobs from Botswana, but cross your fingers this works out!
Other than that things here have been going well!
FOUR WEEKS LEFT!!
I'm not excited to leave Africa, because I will definately miss it, but I am excited to get home and see my family, and have some real food!! I get home on Mothers Day, and my sister has taken the day after off from work so pedicures and hair cuts and all that good stuff! It'll be nice to feel clean again!
Recently I worked out my classes for the fall.. I'm taking my senior seminar in psychology with a really great professor who I haven't been able to take a course with yet. I also have another great professor, who I have had, for my social psychology lab. I am also taking a course on teaching reading and language arts, this is to prepare me for my final MTEL this fall. In addition to that I am taking a ballet class to fulfill my arts requirement.. which should be interesting, but as most of my good friends are amazing dancers I should have a lot of help! I will also being working on an independent study with one of my professors for issues in early care, so that should be plenty to keep me busy.
I'll be living in the same building as I have the past two years, but in a different room. It's exciting though because this year more of my friends have moved into the same area, so I'll have lots of company.
Right now I'm waiting on hearing about my precepting for next fall - I wasn't able to work as a preceptor last year at school, but I re-applied for this year, and hopefully that works out! I should know the 17th. I'm also waiting to hear from a summer job in Concord, it's been a little more difficult this year looking for summer jobs from Botswana, but cross your fingers this works out!
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
This past weekend Jon and I went to Kasane for the weekend. We left Thursday night at 9 pm on the overnight train to Francistown and then took a kombi to Kasane (about 7 hours, yuck). We stayed at a really cute lodge called Water Lilly. Saturday a guide brought us into Zimbabwe to Victoria Falls, and Sunday we did a morning game drive in Chobe National Park, and then in the evening went up the Chobe river through the national park. The park itself is huge, about 11,000 square kilometers, and has about 60,000 wild elephants! I can't begin to explain so look at the pictures!
Victoria Falls:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2034202&id=15002854&l=5bc997bc79
Chobe National Park:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2034203&id=15002854&l=7f9d07f2ca
Last Week
So nothing new has really happened recently. It’s been overcast and slightly rainy all week, which has been awesome! Haha it’s nice to have a few days off from the hot hot sun! We received back our first Setswana exams (94!).. the whole class did really well. I was proud of us.
We’ve started counting the days a little bit more now that its getting closer to April. But really trying hard not to! This weekend we are distracting ourselves a little with an excursion to Victoria Falls. We’ll be leaving Thursday night on an overnight train to Francistown, and from there taking a bus to Kasane in the north of Botswana. Unfortunately backpackers lodges are not allowed in the country, because the government prefers low impact-high cost tourism.. good for the environment, bad for us. So we’ll be staying in a hotel in Kasane, and traveling to Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe for the day on Saturday with a guide. It’s important for us to have a guide, as Zimbabwe isn’t doing so fabulously right now, but we also don’t plan on traveling too much into the country. It’ll be interesting to drive through though. A good friend of ours recently went traveling through Zim and was saying how it looks really modern for the 1970’s or so, but since then has stagnated, and the shelves of the grocery store are bare. They don’t accept Zimbabwean currency anymore, so we have to trade our Pula in for U.S. dollars. It will be weird to use them again! Hopefully I won’t need to many, just for a visa, and possibly to bribe police haha. Unfortunately most of the money from the visa’s etc. goes directly into Robert Mugabe’s pocket. With the recent “accident” involving the prime minister and his wife, there is a lot of unrest there. If you use American Dollars to pay for something, you may get your change in Pula, Euros, anything. Fortunately though I won’t be spending much, as the markets in Zim welcome American clothing to barter for their goods, and I can very easily trade some of my t-shirts for a lot of souvenirs!
In other news getting Zinzi (who we now believe to be male…) home has been a huge hassle. The issue is that NO businesses answer their phones, and when I finally got through to a person, they had no idea what the airlines policy on animals was. Very frustrating to say the least, as I watched my cell phone minutes vanish quickly with all these calls. My sister, and Jon’s mom have been helping organize things on the United States side, which is proving to have much better telephone service. So hopefully things get sorted out quickly! The kitten has really come into his own and had such a personality now. After his eye drops we have discovered he has huge eyes, and is completely adorable. He spends most of his time playing with toys Jon and I have created for him, and as a African kitten he’s very resourceful. He uses a balled up receipt as a ball and toilet paper rolls keep him occupied. We have several cardboard boxes, one which he uses for scratching, and it has a small rug in it he also sharpens his claws on occasionally. Which is unnecessary cause his claws are very very sharp, and everyone that meets him has scratches to prove it. He’s still just getting used to himself though, so hopefully he realizes claws are unnecessary most of the time. I’ll put up new pictures soon!
We’ve started counting the days a little bit more now that its getting closer to April. But really trying hard not to! This weekend we are distracting ourselves a little with an excursion to Victoria Falls. We’ll be leaving Thursday night on an overnight train to Francistown, and from there taking a bus to Kasane in the north of Botswana. Unfortunately backpackers lodges are not allowed in the country, because the government prefers low impact-high cost tourism.. good for the environment, bad for us. So we’ll be staying in a hotel in Kasane, and traveling to Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe for the day on Saturday with a guide. It’s important for us to have a guide, as Zimbabwe isn’t doing so fabulously right now, but we also don’t plan on traveling too much into the country. It’ll be interesting to drive through though. A good friend of ours recently went traveling through Zim and was saying how it looks really modern for the 1970’s or so, but since then has stagnated, and the shelves of the grocery store are bare. They don’t accept Zimbabwean currency anymore, so we have to trade our Pula in for U.S. dollars. It will be weird to use them again! Hopefully I won’t need to many, just for a visa, and possibly to bribe police haha. Unfortunately most of the money from the visa’s etc. goes directly into Robert Mugabe’s pocket. With the recent “accident” involving the prime minister and his wife, there is a lot of unrest there. If you use American Dollars to pay for something, you may get your change in Pula, Euros, anything. Fortunately though I won’t be spending much, as the markets in Zim welcome American clothing to barter for their goods, and I can very easily trade some of my t-shirts for a lot of souvenirs!
In other news getting Zinzi (who we now believe to be male…) home has been a huge hassle. The issue is that NO businesses answer their phones, and when I finally got through to a person, they had no idea what the airlines policy on animals was. Very frustrating to say the least, as I watched my cell phone minutes vanish quickly with all these calls. My sister, and Jon’s mom have been helping organize things on the United States side, which is proving to have much better telephone service. So hopefully things get sorted out quickly! The kitten has really come into his own and had such a personality now. After his eye drops we have discovered he has huge eyes, and is completely adorable. He spends most of his time playing with toys Jon and I have created for him, and as a African kitten he’s very resourceful. He uses a balled up receipt as a ball and toilet paper rolls keep him occupied. We have several cardboard boxes, one which he uses for scratching, and it has a small rug in it he also sharpens his claws on occasionally. Which is unnecessary cause his claws are very very sharp, and everyone that meets him has scratches to prove it. He’s still just getting used to himself though, so hopefully he realizes claws are unnecessary most of the time. I’ll put up new pictures soon!
Monday, March 9, 2009
SOS Childrens Village
So a few days during the week I go with another internation student to tutor at the SOS Childrens Village just outside of Gabarone. This is an orphanage, or which there are 3 in Botswana. The children there range in age from babies to about 20, and after an effort is made to find family members the children remain at the orphanage for their entire childhood, the children aren't adopted.
The children in the kindegarten have a really nice facility on the compound where they attend school, but the other children all commute to local schools. The girls I tutor go to a local high school... so they have a lot of physics, chemistry, calculus.. but it helps me get ready for my GRE's. The girls are really funny, and it's nice to help out and talk with girls that are close to my age group, but from such different backgrounds. We walk through the playground to get to their housing and the little kids always run up yelling "teacher! teacher!".
What I've found interesting are the girls stories of school. In public schools in Botswana it is still customary to hit, pinch, and whip the children. It's awful and really traumatizes the kids. We've seen this at UB where almost no one will volunteer an answer in class because they have been trained for their entire academic lives that if they get it wrong, they will get beaten. It's a really different situation than anything I've encountered before.
The children in the kindegarten have a really nice facility on the compound where they attend school, but the other children all commute to local schools. The girls I tutor go to a local high school... so they have a lot of physics, chemistry, calculus.. but it helps me get ready for my GRE's. The girls are really funny, and it's nice to help out and talk with girls that are close to my age group, but from such different backgrounds. We walk through the playground to get to their housing and the little kids always run up yelling "teacher! teacher!".
What I've found interesting are the girls stories of school. In public schools in Botswana it is still customary to hit, pinch, and whip the children. It's awful and really traumatizes the kids. We've seen this at UB where almost no one will volunteer an answer in class because they have been trained for their entire academic lives that if they get it wrong, they will get beaten. It's a really different situation than anything I've encountered before.
Lobola
So here in Botswana there is still currently a lobola, or bride price to be paid whenever there is a marriage. In a lot of cultures the female has to pay the males family a dowry, but here its the grooms family that has to pay. The payment is almost always cattle, and it ranges from 6-12 cattle normally, always in twos. This custom is still very alive and well. My professor today told me that as a white American girl, I'd probably be worth about 16 cattle!
Don't tell my dad though, I bet he'd be all for that arrangement!
Don't tell my dad though, I bet he'd be all for that arrangement!
Saturday, March 7, 2009
So I just wanted to comment on a phenomenon here in Gabs. Students here have an incredibly huge tolerance for alcohol. Every weekend like the entire campus gets crazy drunk. They are super loud, and blast hip-hop, as well as smash their glass bottles everywhere when empty. This leads to minimal sleep on the weekends.
So last night night I went to bed around 2 am, and people were loud and drinking and whatever, but I can't usually stay awake past 2 am anyways, and later on people being loud outside and smashing bottle woke me up. Not unusual, except this time when I woke up it was light out and 7 am. I left my room a little before 10 am, and STILL people were out drinking from the night before. That's like 16 hours straight... I don't know how they do it and stay on their feet.
So last night night I went to bed around 2 am, and people were loud and drinking and whatever, but I can't usually stay awake past 2 am anyways, and later on people being loud outside and smashing bottle woke me up. Not unusual, except this time when I woke up it was light out and 7 am. I left my room a little before 10 am, and STILL people were out drinking from the night before. That's like 16 hours straight... I don't know how they do it and stay on their feet.
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Zinzi!
So Jon and I were walking outside of his dorm and we saw this teeny tiny kitten. We gave it a little water and were walking away, but I just couldn’t leave it, so I scooped her up and brought her to Jon’s room. Upstairs we inspected her, and she has a little bit of a goopy eye, and was absolutely covered in green paint. Other than that she seemed ok. She is tiny tiny and has nothing to her. If you rub your finger down her side you can feel every one of the tiny ribs. We have since decided to keep her and named her Zinzi! It’s the same name as Nelson Mandela’s daughter. Anyways Zinzi now has quite a comfortable home as Jon’s roommate went back home, so the whole half of the room is covered in pillows, blankets, and boxes for her to sleep in and play on. We were able to find cat food, and litter at the grocery store and she took to both really quickly.
We decided we want to take Zinzi home with us. It seems pretty easy (knock on wood) to do so. Since we decided that we just can’t give her up, today we took her to the local vet for a check-up and to get some medicine for her goopy eyes. She had two shots, which she did not like one bit, and we also got some eye drops, and some de-worming pills just in case she has kitten worms. Otherwise she’s perfect! She’s no more than three weeks old, and just about two pounds, little bundle of gray and green fur. We’re still working on getting the paint off, the vet said we may just have to wait for the fur to grow out and cut it off as best we can.. so I’ve slowly been working on removing it.
When we first found Zinzi she was really quiet and shy, and I think very hungry. Now that she’s been inside for a while she’s getting used to us and her domain. She’s become very playful, and likes to sleep with Jon, or pounce on you if you aren’t paying attention. Jon will put up pictures of her soon!
Nothing too much has happened recently! I don’t know if that’s a good or a bad thing? Next week I have tests in three classes, and a presentation and a paper due in another! It’s going to be a hectic week! Unfortunately I’m also involved in a very large group project that is taking up much more time than necessary. Oh well! Funny thing is my special education lecturer is going on maternity leave after next Monday. A substitute lecturer is scheduled to take over our class, in April. This leaves the majority of March without a lecturer for my class. It’ll be interesting how this plays out!
The other night the fire alarm went off in the middle of the night, and absolutely no one left their rooms or even peeked out to see what was going on. After about fifteen minutes a security officer with his hands in his pockets ambled over and turned it off. Well he actually struggled and turned it on and off a few times over the next fifteen minutes, but eventually managed to turn it off. This same thing happened in the business building last night, and no one got up to leave, one student went and shut the door to the room we were in to block out the noise.
Another student who also lives in Vegas who always hangs by the door to Jon’s dorm (I spend most of my free time in Jon’s room with Zinzi) was arrested very early the other morning for smoking pot. Most of the security out here is a hired company called Miami Security and they wear green uniforms. They are most likely to be found smoking pot also. Unfortunately somehow this guy got caught by the more official blue uniformed security and was carted away to jail at 6 am. He was in jail two days and when he came back we asked did you have to pay a fine? And he actually didn’t have to go to court, or pay a fine. What happened was he went to jail, and they whipped him, and let him go. They actually whipped him! It’s really crazy that that was his punishment, but interesting to know… do not smoke pot in Botswana.
Today we were able to get fridges to help assuage the hunger that comes with eating white rice twice a day every day. It’s fabulous to be able to keep water and other things in the room! When we were asking for a taxi to take us back to UB, the taxi driver told me it would be 50 pula, which is ridiculous… waaayy too much. I proceeded to get into a fight with this cab driver who was extremely rude. He assumed cause I’m white I’d just pay, or that I wouldn’t know, and when you call them on charging too much (it’s a standard rate here) they get all huffy puffy. Later on in the day though Jon and I were walking back from Riverwalk and a gentleman riding in a taxi had the taxi pull over and pick us up and he paid for our ride to UB. He was really nice, and him and the taxi driver were hilarious together. So that made up for the earlier grumpy taxi-man.
I’m not sure if I’ve ever mentioned Riverwalk before, but here there are a few main commercial areas nearby. The two closest we can walk to, Riverwalk, and Main Mall. There is also African Mall near Main Mall, but we don’t go very often. Mainly we stick to Riverwalk, as it’s about 1..5 miles away, and has some shops, a bookstore, restaurants, and a movie theatre. This is the only real thing to do around here…. And everything there closes at 7 weekdays, or like 4:30 on the weekend. It’s a pain if you want to do something at night. Main Mall is mostly outdoors, and they have a lot of stalls selling things for both tourists and locals, so it’s cool to see. There is also Game City, which holds the other movie theatre, which switches movies back and forth with Riverwalk, and they have more stores. There are some restaurants as well, but I prefer the ones at Riverwalk. One perk of Game City is the store Game. It’s something like a Wal-Mart, it has everything and it’s not expensive. Unfortunately Game City is the only one we can’t walk to, but we still go every so often and check it out.
As I’m typing Zinzi is perched on my shoulder like a little parrot watching me type. Her eye drops have worked wonders and I got almost all of the paint off of her. The last few days she has really started showing some personality and become a real kitten… she’s VERY playful, and bats around the toys we’ve made her (they don’t really sell any animal toys here). The only drawback is she’ll pounce on you in the middle of the night, which can be a startling way to wake up.
P.S. .... it seems the most common question people ask when talking with me is "have you met many celebrities?" .... they always get disappointed when I tell them not too many celebrities hang out in New Hampshire.
So Jon and I were walking outside of his dorm and we saw this teeny tiny kitten. We gave it a little water and were walking away, but I just couldn’t leave it, so I scooped her up and brought her to Jon’s room. Upstairs we inspected her, and she has a little bit of a goopy eye, and was absolutely covered in green paint. Other than that she seemed ok. She is tiny tiny and has nothing to her. If you rub your finger down her side you can feel every one of the tiny ribs. We have since decided to keep her and named her Zinzi! It’s the same name as Nelson Mandela’s daughter. Anyways Zinzi now has quite a comfortable home as Jon’s roommate went back home, so the whole half of the room is covered in pillows, blankets, and boxes for her to sleep in and play on. We were able to find cat food, and litter at the grocery store and she took to both really quickly.
We decided we want to take Zinzi home with us. It seems pretty easy (knock on wood) to do so. Since we decided that we just can’t give her up, today we took her to the local vet for a check-up and to get some medicine for her goopy eyes. She had two shots, which she did not like one bit, and we also got some eye drops, and some de-worming pills just in case she has kitten worms. Otherwise she’s perfect! She’s no more than three weeks old, and just about two pounds, little bundle of gray and green fur. We’re still working on getting the paint off, the vet said we may just have to wait for the fur to grow out and cut it off as best we can.. so I’ve slowly been working on removing it.
When we first found Zinzi she was really quiet and shy, and I think very hungry. Now that she’s been inside for a while she’s getting used to us and her domain. She’s become very playful, and likes to sleep with Jon, or pounce on you if you aren’t paying attention. Jon will put up pictures of her soon!
Nothing too much has happened recently! I don’t know if that’s a good or a bad thing? Next week I have tests in three classes, and a presentation and a paper due in another! It’s going to be a hectic week! Unfortunately I’m also involved in a very large group project that is taking up much more time than necessary. Oh well! Funny thing is my special education lecturer is going on maternity leave after next Monday. A substitute lecturer is scheduled to take over our class, in April. This leaves the majority of March without a lecturer for my class. It’ll be interesting how this plays out!
The other night the fire alarm went off in the middle of the night, and absolutely no one left their rooms or even peeked out to see what was going on. After about fifteen minutes a security officer with his hands in his pockets ambled over and turned it off. Well he actually struggled and turned it on and off a few times over the next fifteen minutes, but eventually managed to turn it off. This same thing happened in the business building last night, and no one got up to leave, one student went and shut the door to the room we were in to block out the noise.
Another student who also lives in Vegas who always hangs by the door to Jon’s dorm (I spend most of my free time in Jon’s room with Zinzi) was arrested very early the other morning for smoking pot. Most of the security out here is a hired company called Miami Security and they wear green uniforms. They are most likely to be found smoking pot also. Unfortunately somehow this guy got caught by the more official blue uniformed security and was carted away to jail at 6 am. He was in jail two days and when he came back we asked did you have to pay a fine? And he actually didn’t have to go to court, or pay a fine. What happened was he went to jail, and they whipped him, and let him go. They actually whipped him! It’s really crazy that that was his punishment, but interesting to know… do not smoke pot in Botswana.
Today we were able to get fridges to help assuage the hunger that comes with eating white rice twice a day every day. It’s fabulous to be able to keep water and other things in the room! When we were asking for a taxi to take us back to UB, the taxi driver told me it would be 50 pula, which is ridiculous… waaayy too much. I proceeded to get into a fight with this cab driver who was extremely rude. He assumed cause I’m white I’d just pay, or that I wouldn’t know, and when you call them on charging too much (it’s a standard rate here) they get all huffy puffy. Later on in the day though Jon and I were walking back from Riverwalk and a gentleman riding in a taxi had the taxi pull over and pick us up and he paid for our ride to UB. He was really nice, and him and the taxi driver were hilarious together. So that made up for the earlier grumpy taxi-man.
I’m not sure if I’ve ever mentioned Riverwalk before, but here there are a few main commercial areas nearby. The two closest we can walk to, Riverwalk, and Main Mall. There is also African Mall near Main Mall, but we don’t go very often. Mainly we stick to Riverwalk, as it’s about 1..5 miles away, and has some shops, a bookstore, restaurants, and a movie theatre. This is the only real thing to do around here…. And everything there closes at 7 weekdays, or like 4:30 on the weekend. It’s a pain if you want to do something at night. Main Mall is mostly outdoors, and they have a lot of stalls selling things for both tourists and locals, so it’s cool to see. There is also Game City, which holds the other movie theatre, which switches movies back and forth with Riverwalk, and they have more stores. There are some restaurants as well, but I prefer the ones at Riverwalk. One perk of Game City is the store Game. It’s something like a Wal-Mart, it has everything and it’s not expensive. Unfortunately Game City is the only one we can’t walk to, but we still go every so often and check it out.
As I’m typing Zinzi is perched on my shoulder like a little parrot watching me type. Her eye drops have worked wonders and I got almost all of the paint off of her. The last few days she has really started showing some personality and become a real kitten… she’s VERY playful, and bats around the toys we’ve made her (they don’t really sell any animal toys here). The only drawback is she’ll pounce on you in the middle of the night, which can be a startling way to wake up.
P.S. .... it seems the most common question people ask when talking with me is "have you met many celebrities?" .... they always get disappointed when I tell them not too many celebrities hang out in New Hampshire.
Friday, February 20, 2009
A lot of Updates!
Ok so I know it has been a while since I updated. I’m going to try and give a brief overview of everything that has happened! As I wrote before in Johannesburg we went to the lion park and the apartheid museum. Lion Park was amazing, we saw a pride of white lions that were literally only a few feet from our car, and back at the entrance area we were allowed to pet some 2 month old cubs they have. Being so young doesn’t keep their paws from being bigger than my hands though! Luckily I have a crazy puppy at home and have been a little desensitized to being chomped on, but the lions seemed to be more interested in tearing up Jon’s sneakers.
The apartheid museum was really interesting. It’s set up much differently from museums I have been to, but it’s more of a museum about identity than anything else. When we got there we had to take cards that labeled us as either coloreds or whites, and the entrance was split so you had to follow the entrance for you. I was colored. Jon is currently reading Nelson Mandela’s biography which seems really amazing, I’m going to start it when he’s done. The ironic thing is that the museum is in a theme park. It’s an old gold mine turned into an amusement park called “Gold Reef City”, complete with hotel and casino. Things like this are really interesting because they bring up so many other things to think about. I spent several hours on the bus thinking about American identity compared to an African identity after visiting the museum. The villages brought up some good debates about whether or not modernity causes poverty. Now I know I can be argued into the ground on this one, but I really think that the people in the villages with absolutely nothing are much better off than the people living in the ghettos in Jo’burg.
The hostel we stayed at was really nice and felt like a home to us while we were there. The driver was a young guy who grew up in Jo’burg so he showed us around, and we went to dinner with the owners, and their friends and the pub their friends own called Die Kniepe, or the bar in german. I had AMAZING pork schnitzel. Haha
The next day we took a 6 am kombi (mini bus) to the border of Lesotho. When we walked across into the tiny kingdom of Lesotho we had absolutely no idea where we were going. (Throughout this trip Jon kept telling me how proud he was that I wasn’t having panic attacks at our lack of planning. Haha.. I was proud of myself too). Some really really kind people who had been on the kombi with us actually got us reservations and then accompanied us to our hostel. We stayed at a guest house which was absolutely beautiful in a village next to the town of Roma. The owners of this guest house owned pretty much everything in the village, most of Roma, and when asked simply called the village “our village”.. though I think it was called Manyonane. This tiny little village was so amazing, and our first night there we went for a walk through it. In about 2 minutes we had a posse of kids who walked with us for about an hour. They were so adorable and funny it was great to have them with us. The older ones spoke English and were able to translate for us, they found it extremely important that I learn how to say “cow poop”. Just in case. We saw those kids each day, and before we left they even told Allie that they loved her “like a chicken in the oven”.
Our full day in Lesotho we went on a four hour pony ride through the neighboring villages and countryside. I can’t even begin to describe the scenery. At the end we saw dinosaur footprints left in the rock. People from all over were stopping and talking with us, and our guide picked us some peaches. My horse of course got into a fight with other horses every time I got off it, and refused to walk more than five steps without munching some greenery. The name for my horse sounded something similar to piggy, so I just called it Pig for the day. They were really well behaved, and much much bigger than I was expecting! At the end of the ride though we were all very sore and very sunburned.
The next day we set off again to Swaziland. Though everyone thought we were crazy we were determined to get there via public transportation (white people don’t usually use the public transportation system). We made it, but it took us two days 7 kombis, and one taxi. Haha it was worth it though, we got to see a lot of the country side and drove through all of Kwa Zulu-Natal, which is a really beautiful green and hilly area of South Africa. Swaziland was equally amazing. We arrived there just in time to go on the hostels Swaziland Highlights tour led by the owner of the hostel. We went to a huge marketplace that happens every Thursday and had many people from both Swaziland and Mozambique selling things, a lot of which are sold to tourists in curio shops, but this is where the owners of the curio shops buy it, and they were so inexpensive I actually gave an older woman more than she was asking for a thatched water pitcher. I also got a rug/mat made out of chip bags. Its about 2.5x6 feet and its bright pink. It’s actually really cool, I’ll try and load a picture of it.
Most of the goods there were made out of a type of grass that is used to make EVERYTHING there. In the U.S. we see some place mats made that way, but here it’s a livelihood for so many people, mainly women. We later visited a company called “Gone Rural” and it’s something I recommend to everyone at home. They have a website as well, google gone rural Swaziland. This company was formed to help give woman in Swaziland a trade to empower them. They cut and collect as much of these grasses as they want/can, and bring it to this company where they are paid for it. They can either take the money and leave, or they can dye the grasses and make things out of it, for which they are also paid. These women make some amazing things out of the grasses, and they are sold in a shop there and all over the world. This company also works with many other companies which empower women and help them go to school, or put their children through school. I didn’t purchase any grasswear, but I did get a purse which I am in love with.
The end of the week came far too quickly and we were back at good ol’ UB. Classes began, and things have settled down into a pattern again. We’ve actually started getting real work, and it’s nice to have a routine.. though the food on campus is still awful.
Update on the Strike: Unfortunately though the strike may start up again.. the students are rallying Friday at 9 am to discuss their options. I am able to keep up with what’s going on due to my saintly roommate Phemelo, she’s a senior here and pretty involved on campus so she keeps me up to date on what’s going on, and what’s said in Setswana (I still can only request food, and tell people what I’m wearing). The Vice Chancellor addressed them today, and basically totally shot down all of their ideas, and when they school was closed nothing was resolved. The student government members are still suspended and awaiting a trial. We’ll cross our fingers things go smoothly. I can actually see the point more from the governments side though. Depswana (sp?) is the largest private employer in the country, and they sell diamonds. Apparently they haven’t sold a unit of diamonds since November, and have told a huge number of their employees that they will be taking a 50% pay cut or they will be fired. This is going on all over the country, and since the country cannot make any money, people are being laid off, people are defaulting on loans and mortgages, and more important things than the students allowances need to be dealt with. Unfortunately though this is not how the students here see it. They feel entitled to the allowances they have become used to and apparently feel they should not be required to attend classes without their allowances (the inconvenient part is they think no one else should attend either.).
Despite the fact that it is the rainy season it has been ungodly sunny much more than it has been rainy. The rain brings the added benefit of weather under ninety degrees, which is why I love it so much. The thing is though when it rains here, IT RAINS. You can see storm clouds coming miles away because it’s so flat, and as they gather you can see all the international students get a little nervous because it looks remarkably like what I’d picture the apocalypse to look like… and then the rain. In the space of thirty seconds it is pouring so hard you can’t see more than five feet in front of you. Now this can continue ten minutes, or an hour, or on one occasion almost an entire day. It’s pretty crazy, most of the campus floods, but as long as you have some good plastic flip-flops and don’t mind getting a little wet it can be a lot of fun.
I’m going to try really hard and update more often, but if you want more details or pictures make sure to check out Jon’s blog also. He’s a lot better at keeping updated and has a much different perspective than I do! It’s www.aajd.blogspot.com
The apartheid museum was really interesting. It’s set up much differently from museums I have been to, but it’s more of a museum about identity than anything else. When we got there we had to take cards that labeled us as either coloreds or whites, and the entrance was split so you had to follow the entrance for you. I was colored. Jon is currently reading Nelson Mandela’s biography which seems really amazing, I’m going to start it when he’s done. The ironic thing is that the museum is in a theme park. It’s an old gold mine turned into an amusement park called “Gold Reef City”, complete with hotel and casino. Things like this are really interesting because they bring up so many other things to think about. I spent several hours on the bus thinking about American identity compared to an African identity after visiting the museum. The villages brought up some good debates about whether or not modernity causes poverty. Now I know I can be argued into the ground on this one, but I really think that the people in the villages with absolutely nothing are much better off than the people living in the ghettos in Jo’burg.
The hostel we stayed at was really nice and felt like a home to us while we were there. The driver was a young guy who grew up in Jo’burg so he showed us around, and we went to dinner with the owners, and their friends and the pub their friends own called Die Kniepe, or the bar in german. I had AMAZING pork schnitzel. Haha
The next day we took a 6 am kombi (mini bus) to the border of Lesotho. When we walked across into the tiny kingdom of Lesotho we had absolutely no idea where we were going. (Throughout this trip Jon kept telling me how proud he was that I wasn’t having panic attacks at our lack of planning. Haha.. I was proud of myself too). Some really really kind people who had been on the kombi with us actually got us reservations and then accompanied us to our hostel. We stayed at a guest house which was absolutely beautiful in a village next to the town of Roma. The owners of this guest house owned pretty much everything in the village, most of Roma, and when asked simply called the village “our village”.. though I think it was called Manyonane. This tiny little village was so amazing, and our first night there we went for a walk through it. In about 2 minutes we had a posse of kids who walked with us for about an hour. They were so adorable and funny it was great to have them with us. The older ones spoke English and were able to translate for us, they found it extremely important that I learn how to say “cow poop”. Just in case. We saw those kids each day, and before we left they even told Allie that they loved her “like a chicken in the oven”.
Our full day in Lesotho we went on a four hour pony ride through the neighboring villages and countryside. I can’t even begin to describe the scenery. At the end we saw dinosaur footprints left in the rock. People from all over were stopping and talking with us, and our guide picked us some peaches. My horse of course got into a fight with other horses every time I got off it, and refused to walk more than five steps without munching some greenery. The name for my horse sounded something similar to piggy, so I just called it Pig for the day. They were really well behaved, and much much bigger than I was expecting! At the end of the ride though we were all very sore and very sunburned.
The next day we set off again to Swaziland. Though everyone thought we were crazy we were determined to get there via public transportation (white people don’t usually use the public transportation system). We made it, but it took us two days 7 kombis, and one taxi. Haha it was worth it though, we got to see a lot of the country side and drove through all of Kwa Zulu-Natal, which is a really beautiful green and hilly area of South Africa. Swaziland was equally amazing. We arrived there just in time to go on the hostels Swaziland Highlights tour led by the owner of the hostel. We went to a huge marketplace that happens every Thursday and had many people from both Swaziland and Mozambique selling things, a lot of which are sold to tourists in curio shops, but this is where the owners of the curio shops buy it, and they were so inexpensive I actually gave an older woman more than she was asking for a thatched water pitcher. I also got a rug/mat made out of chip bags. Its about 2.5x6 feet and its bright pink. It’s actually really cool, I’ll try and load a picture of it.
Most of the goods there were made out of a type of grass that is used to make EVERYTHING there. In the U.S. we see some place mats made that way, but here it’s a livelihood for so many people, mainly women. We later visited a company called “Gone Rural” and it’s something I recommend to everyone at home. They have a website as well, google gone rural Swaziland. This company was formed to help give woman in Swaziland a trade to empower them. They cut and collect as much of these grasses as they want/can, and bring it to this company where they are paid for it. They can either take the money and leave, or they can dye the grasses and make things out of it, for which they are also paid. These women make some amazing things out of the grasses, and they are sold in a shop there and all over the world. This company also works with many other companies which empower women and help them go to school, or put their children through school. I didn’t purchase any grasswear, but I did get a purse which I am in love with.
The end of the week came far too quickly and we were back at good ol’ UB. Classes began, and things have settled down into a pattern again. We’ve actually started getting real work, and it’s nice to have a routine.. though the food on campus is still awful.
Update on the Strike: Unfortunately though the strike may start up again.. the students are rallying Friday at 9 am to discuss their options. I am able to keep up with what’s going on due to my saintly roommate Phemelo, she’s a senior here and pretty involved on campus so she keeps me up to date on what’s going on, and what’s said in Setswana (I still can only request food, and tell people what I’m wearing). The Vice Chancellor addressed them today, and basically totally shot down all of their ideas, and when they school was closed nothing was resolved. The student government members are still suspended and awaiting a trial. We’ll cross our fingers things go smoothly. I can actually see the point more from the governments side though. Depswana (sp?) is the largest private employer in the country, and they sell diamonds. Apparently they haven’t sold a unit of diamonds since November, and have told a huge number of their employees that they will be taking a 50% pay cut or they will be fired. This is going on all over the country, and since the country cannot make any money, people are being laid off, people are defaulting on loans and mortgages, and more important things than the students allowances need to be dealt with. Unfortunately though this is not how the students here see it. They feel entitled to the allowances they have become used to and apparently feel they should not be required to attend classes without their allowances (the inconvenient part is they think no one else should attend either.).
Despite the fact that it is the rainy season it has been ungodly sunny much more than it has been rainy. The rain brings the added benefit of weather under ninety degrees, which is why I love it so much. The thing is though when it rains here, IT RAINS. You can see storm clouds coming miles away because it’s so flat, and as they gather you can see all the international students get a little nervous because it looks remarkably like what I’d picture the apocalypse to look like… and then the rain. In the space of thirty seconds it is pouring so hard you can’t see more than five feet in front of you. Now this can continue ten minutes, or an hour, or on one occasion almost an entire day. It’s pretty crazy, most of the campus floods, but as long as you have some good plastic flip-flops and don’t mind getting a little wet it can be a lot of fun.
I’m going to try really hard and update more often, but if you want more details or pictures make sure to check out Jon’s blog also. He’s a lot better at keeping updated and has a much different perspective than I do! It’s www.aajd.blogspot.com
Friday, February 6, 2009
South Africa
Hey, so I left off with the strike, and the school is now closed until February 16th. Since our spring break has been cancelled we are using this time as our February spring break! .. Currently Jon and I, as well as four other students from UB are at a hostel called Diamond Diggers in Johannesburg, South Africa. It's really nice, we only arrived this afternoon so we've been relaxing and went out to dinner with the owners to a german pub where we sat with the owners of the pub! it was really good traditional german food ( i had schnitzel and rorke?)..
We are going to bed early tonight since we were up to catch a combi to the bus station at 520 this morning. The bus was about 6 hours and included a stop at the border of botswana and south africa where we checked out of botswana, walked into south africa, and checked in there. haha it was an interesting and not so efficient process. but here we are!
tomorrow we will be touring the lion park, a game reserve with the big 5 (rhino, elephant, hippo, lion, buffalo, etc..) and we get to pet the lion cubs! after that we're going to the apartheid museum and then back here to the hostel for dinner and to relax. hopefully sunday we will be moving on to Lesotho, an enclave country in south africa, i'll write more about that once we get there.
have a good weekend!
We are going to bed early tonight since we were up to catch a combi to the bus station at 520 this morning. The bus was about 6 hours and included a stop at the border of botswana and south africa where we checked out of botswana, walked into south africa, and checked in there. haha it was an interesting and not so efficient process. but here we are!
tomorrow we will be touring the lion park, a game reserve with the big 5 (rhino, elephant, hippo, lion, buffalo, etc..) and we get to pet the lion cubs! after that we're going to the apartheid museum and then back here to the hostel for dinner and to relax. hopefully sunday we will be moving on to Lesotho, an enclave country in south africa, i'll write more about that once we get there.
have a good weekend!
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Back on Campus!
So today we have heard that campus is officially closed until the 16th of February. Hopefully. The student protest leaders were quoted in the newspaper as saying that as soon as school re-opens they will start again, but they will be working on a peaceable outcome all week.
Because of UB being closed our spring break is cancelled and they have extended the semester by one week. So we need to all have our spring breaks next week.
Jon, myself, and three other students are going to be leaving on a 630 am bus to Johannesburg. We will stay there for 1-2 days and tour Soweto and the Apartheid Museum. After that we are going to Lesotho, a tiny little country in the middle of South Africa, that is at a crazy high elevation and is very very traditional. Hopefully we'll get to ride ponies through the village and see some witch doctors and schools. The lodge we will be staying at is also next to the highest waterfall in Africa, and you can rapel down it. Though I doubt we will be brave enough to do so. After that we may visit Swaziland, or Mozambique, and then we will return to campus the weekend before classes start. I have a ton of laundry to do!
I hope everything is going well at home, and definately also check out Jons blog (www.aajd.blogspot.com) and we'll have a whole bunch of new pictures next week!
Because of UB being closed our spring break is cancelled and they have extended the semester by one week. So we need to all have our spring breaks next week.
Jon, myself, and three other students are going to be leaving on a 630 am bus to Johannesburg. We will stay there for 1-2 days and tour Soweto and the Apartheid Museum. After that we are going to Lesotho, a tiny little country in the middle of South Africa, that is at a crazy high elevation and is very very traditional. Hopefully we'll get to ride ponies through the village and see some witch doctors and schools. The lodge we will be staying at is also next to the highest waterfall in Africa, and you can rapel down it. Though I doubt we will be brave enough to do so. After that we may visit Swaziland, or Mozambique, and then we will return to campus the weekend before classes start. I have a ton of laundry to do!
I hope everything is going well at home, and definately also check out Jons blog (www.aajd.blogspot.com) and we'll have a whole bunch of new pictures next week!
Soooo
Ok so it's been a really long time since my last post, and I had planned on updating about the weather and all that kind of thing, but since the strike happened its the biggest news.
Whats happening is that the students here all get allowances from the government while they are in the university. unfortunately though due to the economy the government doesn't have enough money to pay the students who are re-taking classes and are in their 5th or 6th year of university. So those students didn't get any allowances, nor did students with ID numbers before the year 2004. Then students who moved on campus, or off for this semester, didn't get any adjustment in the amount of money they were making. So the students had been having meetings and peacefully striking for a little while, then it all died down. We thought it was all down with.
Last week on Thursday, the 29th of January? .. the students (who were now joined by the engineering students from a different campus) marched around campus at midnight rallying students to begin the strike anew on friday. this happened and the students didn't go to class. we didn't go jus tbecause we didnt want to make any waves or cause any issues. jon and i were in the library and had to be evacuated because the mob was rioting outside the doors of the library, and two students from UNCG we trapped in the dining hall as the mob rushed in and flipped the tables and threw all the food on the floor. They had a pretty scary experience, and since then all four UNCG students have returned home.
That night Jon and I went to a hotel not far from campus, it was really nice and we stayed there until monday. Nothing much happened over the weekend, as the students wont waste their free time. Monday we moved into a conference center with the rest of the international students and have been there ever since. The students tried a few times to march to the ministry of education which resulted in skirmishes with the police, and about 60 students had to be hospitalized. as the police dont usually come to campus, when they do they mean business.
We hadn't gone back to campus until Wednesday morning, when a UB bus brought us all back to get clean clothes. We didn't know that it was at this point that the strike was culminating. The SRC, student government, leaders were all suspended from school, and were given an hour to vacate campus, jon and i happened to run into the mob protesting as the president lef this dorm.. the mob got realllly angry and began throwing rocks at everyone and everything that was not part of it. Jon and I got pelted pretty good, but aside from a few bruises ended up much better than the car we stood next to, which now has no windows.
The school then told everyone they had two hours to leave and school is now shut down. we will hear more today.. and my internet has one minute left so i will update again soon!
Whats happening is that the students here all get allowances from the government while they are in the university. unfortunately though due to the economy the government doesn't have enough money to pay the students who are re-taking classes and are in their 5th or 6th year of university. So those students didn't get any allowances, nor did students with ID numbers before the year 2004. Then students who moved on campus, or off for this semester, didn't get any adjustment in the amount of money they were making. So the students had been having meetings and peacefully striking for a little while, then it all died down. We thought it was all down with.
Last week on Thursday, the 29th of January? .. the students (who were now joined by the engineering students from a different campus) marched around campus at midnight rallying students to begin the strike anew on friday. this happened and the students didn't go to class. we didn't go jus tbecause we didnt want to make any waves or cause any issues. jon and i were in the library and had to be evacuated because the mob was rioting outside the doors of the library, and two students from UNCG we trapped in the dining hall as the mob rushed in and flipped the tables and threw all the food on the floor. They had a pretty scary experience, and since then all four UNCG students have returned home.
That night Jon and I went to a hotel not far from campus, it was really nice and we stayed there until monday. Nothing much happened over the weekend, as the students wont waste their free time. Monday we moved into a conference center with the rest of the international students and have been there ever since. The students tried a few times to march to the ministry of education which resulted in skirmishes with the police, and about 60 students had to be hospitalized. as the police dont usually come to campus, when they do they mean business.
We hadn't gone back to campus until Wednesday morning, when a UB bus brought us all back to get clean clothes. We didn't know that it was at this point that the strike was culminating. The SRC, student government, leaders were all suspended from school, and were given an hour to vacate campus, jon and i happened to run into the mob protesting as the president lef this dorm.. the mob got realllly angry and began throwing rocks at everyone and everything that was not part of it. Jon and I got pelted pretty good, but aside from a few bruises ended up much better than the car we stood next to, which now has no windows.
The school then told everyone they had two hours to leave and school is now shut down. we will hear more today.. and my internet has one minute left so i will update again soon!
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
And so it goes..
Week three of classes is here.. I survived my 7 am class today.. barely..
Jon and I have been looking into what to do for our spring and Easter breaks, and we're starting to make some headway on a trip to the Okavango delta to see some lions and canoe through crocodile infested waters.. haha
To get to classes we walk along a road with a lot of construction.. I've noticed that when I walk without Jon in the mornings I get at least a couple wedding proposals. Today a construction worker was telling me how he needs to marry "a white chick". . I laughed and told him good luck. It's kind of funny, but sometimes being the center of attention is uncomfortable, especially since the only reason is because you are white. Going out alone at night is totally not an option, the boys here don't seem to be shy one bit.. and it can get a bit dicey so I make sure I have Jon with me if we go anywhere at night. Mostly though everyone is really nice and welcoming.
This Thursday afternoon the student body is meeting to determine whether or not there will be a strike. This started a few weeks ago with protests and boycotting classes (some international students actually had rocks thrown at them for going to class). The meeting this Thursday will determine whether a full scale strike will happen, and if so, it will begin Friday at 10 am and effectively close the school for 1-2 weeks. This has happened a few times in the past, but the students are a little more wary about it this time because the new president is so strict. If it does happen though usually the school will send out a notice telling the students to vacate the hostels and the school grounds by the afternoon... in which case it's hotel for us! haha so we'll have to see how this plays out.. it's been interesting because I can't imagine anything like this ever happening in the States.
Annnnd Jon added two pictures (of me.. as per request of my family) so that everyone would know I'm ok!
Jon and I have been looking into what to do for our spring and Easter breaks, and we're starting to make some headway on a trip to the Okavango delta to see some lions and canoe through crocodile infested waters.. haha
To get to classes we walk along a road with a lot of construction.. I've noticed that when I walk without Jon in the mornings I get at least a couple wedding proposals. Today a construction worker was telling me how he needs to marry "a white chick". . I laughed and told him good luck. It's kind of funny, but sometimes being the center of attention is uncomfortable, especially since the only reason is because you are white. Going out alone at night is totally not an option, the boys here don't seem to be shy one bit.. and it can get a bit dicey so I make sure I have Jon with me if we go anywhere at night. Mostly though everyone is really nice and welcoming.
This Thursday afternoon the student body is meeting to determine whether or not there will be a strike. This started a few weeks ago with protests and boycotting classes (some international students actually had rocks thrown at them for going to class). The meeting this Thursday will determine whether a full scale strike will happen, and if so, it will begin Friday at 10 am and effectively close the school for 1-2 weeks. This has happened a few times in the past, but the students are a little more wary about it this time because the new president is so strict. If it does happen though usually the school will send out a notice telling the students to vacate the hostels and the school grounds by the afternoon... in which case it's hotel for us! haha so we'll have to see how this plays out.. it's been interesting because I can't imagine anything like this ever happening in the States.
Annnnd Jon added two pictures (of me.. as per request of my family) so that everyone would know I'm ok!
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Week Two!
So we've just finished week two of classes.. which for many of my classes was the first week. It took some time but I think everything is pretty much settled. I attempted to attend a psychology class here (Abnormal Psychology) this week, only to find out that the head of the department found my utterly unqualified for pretty much all of the psychology classes here! Apparently, even though I only have two courses left to complete my psychology major at Wheaton, all of my courses only amount to three credits here, placing my firmly in the first year first semester category of students. haha so I'm taking a lower level psychology course.... but suspiciously enough finding it almost entirely a review.....
Other than that though my courses are going well. I'm taking:
Setswana - which is loosely organized chaos, attempting to teach us the local language and some cultural points here. My roommate has been helping me out with this one.
History of 20th Century Europe - I needed a history, and wasn't able to fit anything related to Africa into my schedule, so I'm taking a European history which is turning out to be really interesting. It deals mainly with the 1st and 2nd world wars.
Societal Views of Mental Retardation - They have a huge number of education courses here, and though I again ran into the problem of scheduling conflicts, I actually am enjoying this course which has sort of a sociology aspect to it. We are discussing how people view the mentally challenged and how that has changed over the years and why.
Biological Basis of Human Behavior - This is a psychology course which looks into the brain-body relationship and how the physical body effects the personality etc. It's pretty interesting, but thus far a lot of review.
Psychology of Work & Labor Relations - This course appears like its going to have a lot of hours of work put into it, but I'm hoping it will be good. It's a psychology that isn't offered at Wheaton, dealing with the workplace and how that can affect a person mentally. It also deals a lot with ethics and how that plays into it. We discussed last class how the pace of work in Botswana is very slow, and why that is. This course also makes fun of the USA a lot, so at times I find myself having to defend us a little, but apparently the entire class finds me hilariously entertaining even though I'm attempting to be serious.
Outside of our Setswana class there are tons of lime trees, and during our break we pick limes. Some people eat them, mostly we just play with them, they smell really good. During the day I've been avoiding eating at the cafeteria as much as possible (rice and chicken gets old pretty quickly) and there is a kiosk that sells something like hot pockets, but they are big and flakey like croissants. I get the chicken and its just like a chicken pot pie cooked in a croissant. They're really good and only 6 pula, less than a dollar at home.
One thing I also was having a lot of awkward encounters with was walking on the left side. On the stairs or the sidewalk here since they drive on the left, people walk on the left. Which has taken me forever to get used to and caused for a lot of walking into people and awkward moments.
The lack of toilet paper has actually been even harder to remember. No where on campus do the bathrooms have either toilet paper or soap. I purchased both for my room and bring them to the bathroom, but it's something that you don't really think of when leaving for class in the morning... did I bring my toilet paper and soap? haha so thats been interesting. The school does give each person four rolls of tp per month, at the beginning of the month you come back to your room one evening and voila! toilet paper on your desk.
The cleaning ladies here also clean your floors twice a month, this is wasn't aware of until I woke up at 8 am one morning to find a woman in my room. She and I go way back though as I've been locked out of my room twice after a shower and needed her to let me in.. The cleaning ladies are really nice! haha
Everything here happens so early! Most people wake up between 6 and 7, and when I sleep til 8 my roommate is utterly impressed/offended. I think its because theres so little to do at night people go to bed around 9. Except for Thursday-Sunday. Last night was Friday and they have a "hip-hop club" at the dining hall, with music, and pretty much just the entire campus gets ragingly drunk, and when we walk by at 8 am the next morning, people are STILL out there drinking and dancing amongst the ankle deep carnage from the night before. It's pretty impressive, and I completely believe this could not happen anywhere else, at least at Wheaton we'd recycle our bottles!! haha here most bottles wind up smashed on the ground.
Today I'm planning on going by the pool and relaxing a little, maybe later going to a soccer game, the profession league is only about 3 USD's to attend. So really cheap. Other than that just a regular day!
Other than that though my courses are going well. I'm taking:
Setswana - which is loosely organized chaos, attempting to teach us the local language and some cultural points here. My roommate has been helping me out with this one.
History of 20th Century Europe - I needed a history, and wasn't able to fit anything related to Africa into my schedule, so I'm taking a European history which is turning out to be really interesting. It deals mainly with the 1st and 2nd world wars.
Societal Views of Mental Retardation - They have a huge number of education courses here, and though I again ran into the problem of scheduling conflicts, I actually am enjoying this course which has sort of a sociology aspect to it. We are discussing how people view the mentally challenged and how that has changed over the years and why.
Biological Basis of Human Behavior - This is a psychology course which looks into the brain-body relationship and how the physical body effects the personality etc. It's pretty interesting, but thus far a lot of review.
Psychology of Work & Labor Relations - This course appears like its going to have a lot of hours of work put into it, but I'm hoping it will be good. It's a psychology that isn't offered at Wheaton, dealing with the workplace and how that can affect a person mentally. It also deals a lot with ethics and how that plays into it. We discussed last class how the pace of work in Botswana is very slow, and why that is. This course also makes fun of the USA a lot, so at times I find myself having to defend us a little, but apparently the entire class finds me hilariously entertaining even though I'm attempting to be serious.
Outside of our Setswana class there are tons of lime trees, and during our break we pick limes. Some people eat them, mostly we just play with them, they smell really good. During the day I've been avoiding eating at the cafeteria as much as possible (rice and chicken gets old pretty quickly) and there is a kiosk that sells something like hot pockets, but they are big and flakey like croissants. I get the chicken and its just like a chicken pot pie cooked in a croissant. They're really good and only 6 pula, less than a dollar at home.
One thing I also was having a lot of awkward encounters with was walking on the left side. On the stairs or the sidewalk here since they drive on the left, people walk on the left. Which has taken me forever to get used to and caused for a lot of walking into people and awkward moments.
The lack of toilet paper has actually been even harder to remember. No where on campus do the bathrooms have either toilet paper or soap. I purchased both for my room and bring them to the bathroom, but it's something that you don't really think of when leaving for class in the morning... did I bring my toilet paper and soap? haha so thats been interesting. The school does give each person four rolls of tp per month, at the beginning of the month you come back to your room one evening and voila! toilet paper on your desk.
The cleaning ladies here also clean your floors twice a month, this is wasn't aware of until I woke up at 8 am one morning to find a woman in my room. She and I go way back though as I've been locked out of my room twice after a shower and needed her to let me in.. The cleaning ladies are really nice! haha
Everything here happens so early! Most people wake up between 6 and 7, and when I sleep til 8 my roommate is utterly impressed/offended. I think its because theres so little to do at night people go to bed around 9. Except for Thursday-Sunday. Last night was Friday and they have a "hip-hop club" at the dining hall, with music, and pretty much just the entire campus gets ragingly drunk, and when we walk by at 8 am the next morning, people are STILL out there drinking and dancing amongst the ankle deep carnage from the night before. It's pretty impressive, and I completely believe this could not happen anywhere else, at least at Wheaton we'd recycle our bottles!! haha here most bottles wind up smashed on the ground.
Today I'm planning on going by the pool and relaxing a little, maybe later going to a soccer game, the profession league is only about 3 USD's to attend. So really cheap. Other than that just a regular day!
Monday, January 19, 2009
Cultural Excursion
Sooo... this past weekend we went on our first 'cultural' excursion, to see some of Botswanas history. We left Saturday morning at around 8 am, and went to the village of Mochudi. This village is very old, and has been able to hang on to a lot of its traditional culture. Here we went to a museum of the history of Mochudi from which we had amazing views of the village itself. We went into the center of the village to get a quick lunch from one of the supermarkets (there wasn't a lot else in the village), and got back onto our bus. We attracted a lot of attention walking around this village though, people were honking and waving.. though I'm not sure everyone was so psyched to have 35 students wandering around.
After Mochudi we went to Matsieng. At this site there is a small pool set into rocks on the ground. At one point the pool is almost nine feet deep. Surrounding the rock are large and small foot prints, wider and more massive than the average footprint. This is where Setswana legend says Matsieng the original human/giant came out of the earth when the rocks were still soft and led the humans and animals with him. He has left footprints at a few other spots in Botswana as well.
After looking at the footprints we continued on to Manyana. At this village we were able to look at rock paintings created over 2000 years ago. My favorite were yellow giraffes that fit in with the color of the rock so beautifully. These were said to have been created when that spot was used for religious rituals. While we were there a 2-year old boy came marching up to our group and continued to follow us for the rest of our time there. He didn't speak english yet, but with our combined efforts we were able to get his name and his age. A short ride down the road we also visited the Livingstone tree. This is where David Livingstone briefly lived, and later ran his medical practice from while he was a missionary in Botswana. The tree is a huge fig tree and its branches completely shelter the space near the trunk from the outside. Perfect shady area in the heat.
For the night we stayed in a cultural village. We were greeted by 4 older women in traditional dress singing, clapping and dancing for us. They were really funny and we had a great time with them. I slept in a hut with 7 other girls on mats, but we did have pillows! The "grandmothers" showed us some more traditional dances and we learned how to do other traditional chores such as grinding maize into flour etc... The dinner was really good, as was our breakfast the next morning. Hopefully (if the internet cooperates) I'll have photos up soon.
The next morning we left early to head to Mokolodi game reserve where we went on our first game drive. It was a great experience, before the drive we all had some champagne (to make us brave enough to go out into the bush) and then we loaded onto the trucks. I snagged a seat in the front row so I could see out as well as in front of the truck and enjoyed the breeze. We were able to see a few of the big five, giraffe, elephant.. and we saw khudos (like deer) and impala, we also saw warthogs, ostrich, countless birds, cheetahs and zebra. We drove for about two hours, and then stopped next to a lake for a catered lunch and some drinks. We walked down to the water in hopes of seeing some hippos or crocodiles but we could only hear the hippos in the distance.. and thankfully no crocodiles turned up.
After spending the day in the sun we finished our weekend at the Lion Park Resort, which is a tiny water/adventure park. It was amazing though after being so hot all the time! We spent almost the entire time in the wave pool, only leaving to use the water slide. We then went back to campus and took a taxe to my new favorite restaurant (Primi) for some amazing spaghetti bolognaise.
All in all I'd say it was a very good weekend... annnd now we're back to classes
After Mochudi we went to Matsieng. At this site there is a small pool set into rocks on the ground. At one point the pool is almost nine feet deep. Surrounding the rock are large and small foot prints, wider and more massive than the average footprint. This is where Setswana legend says Matsieng the original human/giant came out of the earth when the rocks were still soft and led the humans and animals with him. He has left footprints at a few other spots in Botswana as well.
After looking at the footprints we continued on to Manyana. At this village we were able to look at rock paintings created over 2000 years ago. My favorite were yellow giraffes that fit in with the color of the rock so beautifully. These were said to have been created when that spot was used for religious rituals. While we were there a 2-year old boy came marching up to our group and continued to follow us for the rest of our time there. He didn't speak english yet, but with our combined efforts we were able to get his name and his age. A short ride down the road we also visited the Livingstone tree. This is where David Livingstone briefly lived, and later ran his medical practice from while he was a missionary in Botswana. The tree is a huge fig tree and its branches completely shelter the space near the trunk from the outside. Perfect shady area in the heat.
For the night we stayed in a cultural village. We were greeted by 4 older women in traditional dress singing, clapping and dancing for us. They were really funny and we had a great time with them. I slept in a hut with 7 other girls on mats, but we did have pillows! The "grandmothers" showed us some more traditional dances and we learned how to do other traditional chores such as grinding maize into flour etc... The dinner was really good, as was our breakfast the next morning. Hopefully (if the internet cooperates) I'll have photos up soon.
The next morning we left early to head to Mokolodi game reserve where we went on our first game drive. It was a great experience, before the drive we all had some champagne (to make us brave enough to go out into the bush) and then we loaded onto the trucks. I snagged a seat in the front row so I could see out as well as in front of the truck and enjoyed the breeze. We were able to see a few of the big five, giraffe, elephant.. and we saw khudos (like deer) and impala, we also saw warthogs, ostrich, countless birds, cheetahs and zebra. We drove for about two hours, and then stopped next to a lake for a catered lunch and some drinks. We walked down to the water in hopes of seeing some hippos or crocodiles but we could only hear the hippos in the distance.. and thankfully no crocodiles turned up.
After spending the day in the sun we finished our weekend at the Lion Park Resort, which is a tiny water/adventure park. It was amazing though after being so hot all the time! We spent almost the entire time in the wave pool, only leaving to use the water slide. We then went back to campus and took a taxe to my new favorite restaurant (Primi) for some amazing spaghetti bolognaise.
All in all I'd say it was a very good weekend... annnd now we're back to classes
Wheatons Visit
Wheaton does a faculty led January trip to South Africa and Botswana every year. They arrived in Gabarone during our second week here and we were able to meet them twice. Thursday night we met up for some dinner, and Friday we were able to accompany them to Professor Thabo Fako's house for dinner and a tour of his village Mopani. Professor Fako is one of only four full professors here at UB and he is also the director of the Center for Continuing Education. He is really nice, and has spent two semesters teaching on Fulbright at Wheaton, so he knows about both. I think he will be a great resource for us, he requested us to think of him as an uncle while here. Hopefully we'll get to meet up with him again this week.
Nnyaya ga ke itse Setswana
So we started classes last monday, and all in all they've gone pretty well. It was very hectic getting the registration done, and we didn't end up getting our course lists until monday afternoon, but we did get them! The first week of courses here many people choose not to go, even the lecturers don't show up to many. The registration process is so long and complicated that it takes forever and people just don't bother coming to classes until at least the second week. For us though we were choosing courses from many different areas, so the times were clashing a lot, whereas regular full-time students here would be taking courses in one discipline so the times and days would work out. Classes are also not set in stone, they change times, venues, and even (as Jon found out today) are cancelled completely for the semester. So with one of my courses I'm still attempting to track it down, but the rest have gone well. I am currently taking the biological basis of human behavior, abnormal psychology, setswana, a history, and a class dealing with societal views of those with mental retardation. Its going to be a somewhat harder semester for me here though because most of the classes are taught mainly through lecturing and taking notes. Theres not a lot of interaction or discussion, nor are there any assignments other than one or two exams... very different from what I am used to. My biopsych class holds about 80 students, and despite all the seats, there are still people standing along the walls, in the hallway, and sitting on the floor for the class.. something that has been a huge adjustment for me because it's very very chaotic. I was almost trampled getting in there today, so I'm coming up with new plans of attack for getting a seat next class. Setswana has been interesting.. most people here very easily switch between Setswana and English (especially professors while giving lectures!!) but it's going to be nice to be able to communicate more clearly, as well as learn more about the culture through the Setswana.
So for now in class this is what I have: Nnyaya ga ke itse Setswana. No I don't know Setswana.
So for now in class this is what I have: Nnyaya ga ke itse Setswana. No I don't know Setswana.
Sunday, January 11, 2009
P.S.
P.S. Jon's blog is much more organized and informative than mine! So if you want to check it out it's www.aajd.blogspot.com!
Botswana
So we made it! After about 18 hours of travel we landed in Gabarone.. ( they pronounce is hab-a-roni .. like pepperoni).. The flight wasn't too bad.. I got up and walked around a lot, and watched a few movies.. all our flights gave us a lot of food, even the under an hour flight from Johannesburg to Gabarone. That flight was delayed because of a crazy storm that blew in, we could see it coming in the distance because its so flat. There was a ton of lightening and all of a sudden just downpour.
It's currently Sunday, about noon here.. we can't yet access the internet on campus because we aren't technically registered yet. The internation office here isn't the fastest moving organization... as a result we get our class schedules tomorrow afternoon, after classes have begun. So to use the internet we've been walking a little over a mile to an internet cafe where the internet is actually pretty fast. There are malls here, they are fairly small but we've been coming here to eat, and pick up a few items for our rooms (such as fans!!) and yesterday Jon and I saw a movie. It was so nice to be in air conditioning!!!
When we arrived the luggage of almost everyone on our flight was missing.. apparently it hadn't fit on the plane so they just left it behind haha.. so the first 2 days we were all hot and stinky without our stuff.. but luckily it came intact a few days later. Our rooms are in undergraduate dorms called "Las Vegas" by the students because they are so nice. And while they definately aren't Wheaton, I'm getting used to it. We are issued sheets and blankets and a pillow (i bought a new pillow yesterday), but since its in the high 90's at all times, I layered the blankets under my sheet to make the bed a little more comfortable. The rooms are pretty nice, they are doubles, but there is a wall partition in the middle so they are somewhat seperated. The only drawback is that we have to lock our rooms and our closets with padlocks, so everytime you leave the room you have to padlock everything. It's because of the high level of theft, especially of laptops and cameras. The campus is open and a lot of people will target the international students, assuming we have a lot of nice things to steal, so we have to be extra careful. They even warned us against people attempting to befriend us simply to get into our rooms and see where we keep our stuff. They really stressed the caution and safety, but it's better to be over safe than have your stuff stolen.
This campus is pretty huge, especially compared to tiny Wheaton. Our dorms are on the far end as well so its about a 15-20 minute walk to the other side.. it doesn't seem like much but you can drink all your water walking across campus when its 100 degrees! It's crazy cause everyone here wears pants and I've seen people wearing sweaters, and I asked one of the students if he was hot, and he was like ... no. haha Theres an olympic sized outdoor pool which once I'm registered and have an Id I will be spending a lot of time in on the weekends.
Our orientation was very brief, but included a bus tour of the city, so we got to see some of the less affluent areas and learn some more history of the city. Some of the Batswana were so suprised to hear that America had once been a British colony, they couldn't believe it. So we have that in common, even if Botswana was technically a protectorate. We also went to a local womans house, which was built in the style of a traditional hut, but was updated a lot, and so beautiful. We spent the night around a fire in her courtyard which was also beautiful, and it was night so the weather was a little cooler. The dishes were traditional, including goat, goat intestines, and worms. The worms are short and fat, and are apparently just like salty chips.. I took their word for it. I also skipped over the intestine but I did try everything else. We ended the night with traditional singing, dancing, and games. It was really interesting to see some of that and we had a lot of fun. The people here are so friendly and laid-back, they are always laughing. Mostly they speak Tswana, everything written here is in English, and they all speak it, but Tswana is more natural to them, so we have been trying hard to learn some words. Monday I start a Tswana course thats 5 hours a week.. so hopefully I'll do ok.
My roommate is from a village about two hours from Gabarone.. she seems very nice, but very quiet. I had the opportunity to meet her parents who were excited about her having an international roommate. People here seem to like having us around and are generally very enthusiastic to help us, but it is weird being one of 30 white people in a school of 16,000.. It's very different being the minority for a change. One of our Batswana friends before we got our cell phones was like "oh don't worry, you won't be hard to spot" which is very true haha. I have a cell phone here which works from the U.S. with an international calling card, its 011-267-71781310. It's super easy to do phones here.
I hope everything is going well back home, and people are enjoying the cold and the snow... you never think you'd miss it until it's 100 degrees!
It's currently Sunday, about noon here.. we can't yet access the internet on campus because we aren't technically registered yet. The internation office here isn't the fastest moving organization... as a result we get our class schedules tomorrow afternoon, after classes have begun. So to use the internet we've been walking a little over a mile to an internet cafe where the internet is actually pretty fast. There are malls here, they are fairly small but we've been coming here to eat, and pick up a few items for our rooms (such as fans!!) and yesterday Jon and I saw a movie. It was so nice to be in air conditioning!!!
When we arrived the luggage of almost everyone on our flight was missing.. apparently it hadn't fit on the plane so they just left it behind haha.. so the first 2 days we were all hot and stinky without our stuff.. but luckily it came intact a few days later. Our rooms are in undergraduate dorms called "Las Vegas" by the students because they are so nice. And while they definately aren't Wheaton, I'm getting used to it. We are issued sheets and blankets and a pillow (i bought a new pillow yesterday), but since its in the high 90's at all times, I layered the blankets under my sheet to make the bed a little more comfortable. The rooms are pretty nice, they are doubles, but there is a wall partition in the middle so they are somewhat seperated. The only drawback is that we have to lock our rooms and our closets with padlocks, so everytime you leave the room you have to padlock everything. It's because of the high level of theft, especially of laptops and cameras. The campus is open and a lot of people will target the international students, assuming we have a lot of nice things to steal, so we have to be extra careful. They even warned us against people attempting to befriend us simply to get into our rooms and see where we keep our stuff. They really stressed the caution and safety, but it's better to be over safe than have your stuff stolen.
This campus is pretty huge, especially compared to tiny Wheaton. Our dorms are on the far end as well so its about a 15-20 minute walk to the other side.. it doesn't seem like much but you can drink all your water walking across campus when its 100 degrees! It's crazy cause everyone here wears pants and I've seen people wearing sweaters, and I asked one of the students if he was hot, and he was like ... no. haha Theres an olympic sized outdoor pool which once I'm registered and have an Id I will be spending a lot of time in on the weekends.
Our orientation was very brief, but included a bus tour of the city, so we got to see some of the less affluent areas and learn some more history of the city. Some of the Batswana were so suprised to hear that America had once been a British colony, they couldn't believe it. So we have that in common, even if Botswana was technically a protectorate. We also went to a local womans house, which was built in the style of a traditional hut, but was updated a lot, and so beautiful. We spent the night around a fire in her courtyard which was also beautiful, and it was night so the weather was a little cooler. The dishes were traditional, including goat, goat intestines, and worms. The worms are short and fat, and are apparently just like salty chips.. I took their word for it. I also skipped over the intestine but I did try everything else. We ended the night with traditional singing, dancing, and games. It was really interesting to see some of that and we had a lot of fun. The people here are so friendly and laid-back, they are always laughing. Mostly they speak Tswana, everything written here is in English, and they all speak it, but Tswana is more natural to them, so we have been trying hard to learn some words. Monday I start a Tswana course thats 5 hours a week.. so hopefully I'll do ok.
My roommate is from a village about two hours from Gabarone.. she seems very nice, but very quiet. I had the opportunity to meet her parents who were excited about her having an international roommate. People here seem to like having us around and are generally very enthusiastic to help us, but it is weird being one of 30 white people in a school of 16,000.. It's very different being the minority for a change. One of our Batswana friends before we got our cell phones was like "oh don't worry, you won't be hard to spot" which is very true haha. I have a cell phone here which works from the U.S. with an international calling card, its 011-267-71781310. It's super easy to do phones here.
I hope everything is going well back home, and people are enjoying the cold and the snow... you never think you'd miss it until it's 100 degrees!
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