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.)