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!
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
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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