Weekend Cultural Excursion

I woke up early Saturday morning not feeling very well (I'll explain this later) and boarded the bus with most of the other international students. We began our trip by going to a village where we learned about culture and customs from the Chief Representative, Pastor, and other important men in the tribe. They only spoke Setswana but there were people from the international office that came and acted as translators. After introductions they asked for five girls and five guys to volunteer, of course I stood right up! They took us away from the rest of the group and explained we would be doing a mock wedding. The Chief Representative looked at all of us for a minute and then chose me as the bride, and a guy who was one of the few international students who I had never met before to be the groom. Everyone else were given other titles like.. mother to the bride, uncles, etc. We then took part in the traditional wedding where my groom was asked many questions like “Where did you first meet her?” and “What were the first words you said to her?” (I believe his response to that one was.. you light up my life? Haha). I had more yes or no questions but when asked “What do you plan to do once you are married?” I said, “We are going to build a home and have many children”. :)

After that we went to see the village dam, then rock painting that were up to 2000 years old and the Livingstone tree. Before I got back on the bus at the rocks, I noticed two little girls behind a fence waiving. I went over waiving and saying “Dumela!” and showed them Sweetarts that I had brought with me. They did not speak English but I was trying to explain what they were and showing them that you eat them and they are sweet. They were very nervous eating them, but then smiled as I had to run back to the bus where everyone was waiting. More little girls were near the bus at the Livingstone tree as well. Many of us tried talking to them and then took pictures with them, and of course they got sweetarts too.

We went to have lunch at a cultural lodge or something. When you are on a cultural excursion in Botswana, going to eat a

traditional meal, you do not expect the first things you see and hear when you walk in is Snoop Dog playing on a flat screen TV. But anyways, the food was okay. Everyone else loved it but turns out.. I am the pickiest eater ever (Kasey, you would starve here). I usually like things that they serve for breakfast but I do not like too much of the day to day food here. Next, we made our way to the “village” that we would be spending the night at. I thought we were going to an actual village, but this was more of a tourist lodge that is a village-like experience. There were five or six older women and one old man that led the welcoming ceremony, danced, and told us about their cultures growing up. I believe it was all very culturally accurate and it was still so much fun even if it was not a real village. At dinner I tried a sip of their traditional beer and it was ten times worse than regular beer... yuck. At night there were two different fires going, and the one I was at we all played Mafia for a long time and then I headed off to bed in my mud hut (that had lights and an outlet?).

The next morning I woke up for the best meal that I have had here so far (not counting going out to an Italian restaurant). I had porridge with lots of sugar in it, eggs, and a fat cake. Fat cakes are very common here, it is a bread that has been fried...delicious but not nutritious! Then we left the village to go to the Mokolodi Game Reserve. We were welcomed with juice and champagne.. which ended up being mimosas! Then we began the game drive where I saw two beautiful zebras right away, ostriches, warthogs, and this deer like animal with big ears which I cannot remember the name. I thought that the best place to sit would be on the outside so I could get the best pictures, but it turned out to be the worst place to sit because I got hit with branches and thorns many times and I would have to duck every thirty seconds in defense of some tree. We then made it to where we would have lunch. Everyone loved it, and even I thought some things were pretty good but I had ate so much at breakfast because I was so excited that there were so many things I actually liked, that I was not very hungry at lunch. We then made our way back to campus late Sunday afternoon, where I just relaxed for the rest of the night.

So about why I was not feeling well... Saturday morning I woke up feeling so tired even though I had slept a good amount, and my eye lids were swollen. During the whole trip my body ached a little and my eyes were swollen some of the time, but it was not that bad. Now its Tuesday, and it has not gotten any better. I am so tired even though I have been sleeping a lot, my whole body aches, my eye lids are all swollen and my eyes hurt, I felt nauseous once but Pepto Bismol fixed that, I have had a few headaches (which I normally never get), and been a little dizzy. My self diagnosis is heat exhaustion from being out in the heat a lot and not drinking enough water, so ive been trying to take it easy and drink a lot of liquids. I may go to the health clinic tomorrow and I will keep everyone updated, but I think its nothing to worry about.

(So I wrote this all on Tuesday and am now posting it on Wednesday but update.. went to the clinic, still waiting for blood test results, they cant give me anything for my eyes, oh yeah and then I passed out.. One second I'm feeling dizzy so I sit down on a bench, next thing I know I wake up on the ground with people surrounding me... so then I went back to the health clinic again. I think I passed out from the horrible combination of heat, being sick, and having my blood taken.)

The People of Botswana: good and bad

THE GOOD

As I said in my last post, the people here are so friendly and welcoming! Everyone is always saying “Dumela” and more than happy to answer any questions. At meals sometimes I go sit with random locals instead of at an empty table or with just international students. The girls here love telling me about their culture, and about the villages which they come from (everyone says that no one is from Gaborone, everyone is from a village and they come to Gaborone for school or work). By the end of the meal we will be practicing saying each others names and exchanging phone numbers.

Yesterday I was sitting on a bench eating lunch from a street vender with a few other international students and could hear three or four girls sitting on a nearby bench listening to “How You Remind Me” by Nickleback. Of course I sang along for a little while and at one time made eye contact with one of the girls who were also signing along. After we had finished and were walking away the girl game running up behind us and said, “I like you”. We smiled and I started to say, “I like you too!” with a giggle. Then she continued, “What I mean is.. I want to be your friend.” She had such a sweet and innocent face, and it was such a happy moment that someone who did not know us had the courage to come up and talk to us and say she wanted to be friends. Later I thought about how I have never done that to international students at my school (although here it is a little easier to tell who the international students are). But what I mean is, I feel that only during freshman orientation is it normal for someone to walk up to someone that they do not know and start a conversation. Here, it happens all the time.

Last night another girl stopped me to talk as I was walking back to my dorm, we ended up exchanging phone numbers and she invited me to go to church with her because “international students come here knowing God and Jesus and then once they get here they go party and drink”. This girl said she made it a goal that this semester to invite an international student to church with her, so maybe that wont happen. I thought that was so fascinating, and I hope that I wont be a disappointment to her when she finds out that I do like to go out to clubs with all my friends.

During our orientation it was explained to us that the relationship between men and women here are different. Guys are really only interested in talking to girls for some type of relationship, dating or sexual.. not friendship. It is not common for girls and guys to be good friends here like it is in the States. But so far, my friends and I have found that not always true. There is a local who studied abroad in the states last semester who is so willing to help, talk to, and be friends with any international student. Also, we have been hanging out with a group of local guys who are friends with another international student from France who has been here all year. These guys are very protective of us and make sure that we are safe at night. They talk to us and we hangout just like I would with guy friends from home. One guy that goes to the clubs with us even acts as my “fake boyfriend” (thats what I call it). Whenever he sees a guy that we do not know talking to me for too long or trying to dance with me when I do not want to, he comes over, grabs my hand and pulls me away (basically is my new Jordan and the rest of my girlfriends at home that do that for me haha). But not once has one of these guys crossed the line with me, they are very kind and I am glad I have locals to help protect me and some of the other international students.

THE BAD

We have been told a million times about being extra cautious of danger during our time here. Botswana is considered the safest country in Africa, a lot safer than even South Africa. I have made sure to always lock my door, even when I just run to the bathroom really quickly. I always walk in large groups at night that have some guys in it, and if not, we take a cab. And I go nowhere at night by myself at all. But not every international student has been as cautious and even so, there is still danger.

This weekend many international student went to Lizard Lounge, a local club. The streets you have to walk to get there and back are not the safest, but I walked in a group of about fifteen people, including five or six locals, some of which are big black guys that I know can protect us. Even so, I was cautious walking down the streets, and did keep my pepper spray with me. Another group of international students were going to take a cab back to campus but the driver would not let all six of them squish so the two guys let the four girls go in the cab and they walked back. When they arrived at the campus gate, there were four men trying to open the gate, they said it was locked. One international student tried to open the gate right as one guy attacked him from behind. The student tried to fight back at first because he was not a small guy himself but they continued choking him until he blacked out for a short period. By that time, the other guy that was with him had already been taken down and the attacker had taken out a knife and cut his neck, right below his ear. They took money, cell phones, and a camera and then left. As I already knew.. muggings are common here, but violent muggings are not. These four men were violent towards the two international students before they had even asked for their valuables. The first student who had been choked was fine, maybe having a couple bruises. And although the cut on the other students neck was small, he was bleeding, and no one can know for sure if that knife had been used before on others that may have had HIV/AIDS. This guy was taken to the hospital and is continuing to take preventative HIV treatment. His tests for HIV has come back negative, but he continues to take medication for about a month.

This was a scary event which the university took seriously, having a meeting about it with us on monday. I hope that it scared others into being more cautious. Those guys NEVER should have walked back at that time of night by themselves, I only felt safe because of the number of people I was with and who they were.

I am not trying to scare everyone back home, I just thought it was an interesting story. Most people are kind, some are not.. which is just like in every country. But I do feel safe here. I am not going to live in fear all of the time because that will just hold me back, but I will always be cautious and think about my safety with all the choices that I make.

The First Week!

I made it to Botswana! After thinking I was going to miss my first flight from Boston to JFK, the rest of the trip was pretty easy and not too stressful. I sat in the airport in NY waiting to board the plane to Johannesburg, South Africa and noticed how many kids were going to be on this 15 hour flight, including babies. As much as I love children, the last thing I wanted was to be stuck next to a handful of screaming children while I tried to sleep. And if you havnt already guessed where I was going with this... I ended up next to two families with three children each. Surprisingly they were very well behaved and it wasn't a problem at all! I sat next to a kind middle aged women who was doing mission work in Zimbabwe with her church who gave me a spongebob square pants celebratory thing that you blow into and it unrolls (do those have names?) to celebrate the new year, then I went back to sleep.

In Joburg I met up with NJ, my interstudy orientation guy (interstudy is the program I am studying abroad through). We took a short flight to Gaborone, Botswana: my home for the next 4 and a half months. We checked into our lodge/hotel place where we stayed for three nights until I was able to move into the University of Botswana. I loved my stay there.. air conditioning, wireless internet, a big bed, my own bathroom, and someone who came in and cleaned and organized all my stuff.. what else could I ask for?! During those three days I was with NJ and my interstudy mentor, Boitumelo (or B2) going over information and eating at different places like Nando's, a fast food chicken place known for spicy chicken, and News Cafe which was right across the street from my hotel.

After getting settled in NJ and I went on an excursion based off

the Number 1 Ladies Detective Agency books, which is based in Gabs and was written by a guy from Zimbabwe who started up the law school at University of Botswana. The excursion was good considering the fact that I only read the first 100 pages of the first book in the series and I forgot to watch the movie. First we were driven in a big jeep up to Mochudi, a village north of Gabs. I learned some history of the city and about their culture from our guide. We walked up a hill to the Mochudi National School which has now been made into a museum. Atop the hill we stood on boulders that overlooked the village. I could see big hills off in the distance that were really close but were actually in South Africa (I think Gabs is only about 10 miles away from S.A.?). We walked around the village a little bit, where I no doubt stood out as the white American. My skin color is one thing, but everyone here in general can tell I'm American from the way I dress. No one but foreigners wear shorts, everyone wears pants even when its 95 degrees out.

Next we went to the set of the movie (or I think it may have been a T.V. series) which was starting to fall apart, and did not have too much meaning to me, so the most interesting part was the nests made by the birds! Then we went into the city, saw some memorials and statues, and walked through the Main Mall. It was an educational trip that I enjoyed, but I hated how much the tour guide would quiz me on book knowledge and Botswana knowledge... I know some things, but that's why I came here... to learn!

Now it is Thursday and I have moved into my room at UB. I live on the 4^th floor with my roommate Jen, from Washington, who I get along very well with. We both don't have meal plans, and we both want to travel a lot, and volunteer as much as possible. There are 88 international students total this semester, which is by far the largest number they have ever had. Way more people from the States than I thought there would be... I'd say about 65 of that 88 are from the U.S. and the rest being from Canada, Mexico, Finland, Germany, and maybe a couple other places outside of Africa.

We are yet to register for classes, which was supposed to happen on Wednesday because “the system is down”. We received a time schedule of the classes, and of course many of my pre-approved classes that took forever to get signatures on at Hartford are all at the same time so I had to find new classes. I am hoping I can get them approved through email and everything works out, but we'll see. So my days have consisted of eating not so great meals at the dinging hall, walking to the Riverwalk Mall, and meeting new people. The food I've been eating has mostly been breads, chicken, pasta, papa (a thick grits like food made from corn) and soup like stuff. It has not been very good, but everywhere I have eaten out has been delicious! I do not have a meal plan so I plan to eat street food and buy food that doesnt need cooked and keep it in my room. I have already begun to live a more active lifestyle here. I have walked to the mall three or four times to get things I needed for my room, which is about a 20 minute walk each way from my dorm. Carrying everything I bought back turns into a real workout. I just always feel like I am walking everywhere, which I love!

Today at the international student orientation we went over all the basics and boring stuff including how to get a waiver to stay here (kind of like needing a student Visa). The lasy had us open up our passports and explained that it should say we have 30-90 days until we need to get our waiver, and if you do not do so before the days are up, then you are illegal. As we all opened up our passports, others saying 30 or 60 or 90 days.. mine said 10 days. The lady was making sure everyone had at least 30 days, and when I raised my hand and said I only had 10 days, she was very surprized and said I needed to talk to her right away. Since I have been here already for 6 days, that means I have 4 days to get the paper work done, and get my waiver from Botswana or I am illegal. She told me to meet her on Monday morning, which is the last day I have, and they will help me to get my waiver. Classes are supposed to start on Monday but when I brought that up, people at the international office said that classes probably will get pushed back to Tuesday or Wednesday because of the system being down. I'll keep everyone updated, but if you see me back in Massachusetts in a couple days.. I did not get my waiver (haha, just kidding! That wont happen).

The people are so nice here, always saying “Dumela!” and giving a smile. Many locals are helping us out and all the other international students are so kind. The combination of the people and the sunshine makes me so happy to be here!