DUMELANG!!!!! Hello, hello and greetings from Gaborone,
Botswana (pronounced Ha-Boron-ee and Boat-swana). Hope all is well. A precursor
that it is late, I am exhausted and have put as much information as I can
remember into this post. Therefore, it’s pretty long, read what you like,
comment what you like and enjoy. Pictures to follow soon!
Life has been pretty crazy, exciting, scary, awesome filled
with highs and lows from getting lost in the middle of my Block 9 neighborhood
to riding combis around town like a pro.
Traveling to Botswana was not that difficult and I even got
a stamp in my passport for South Africa. Since I did not book my flights with
travel agents and instead booked them separately directly with the airlines.
This meant that my bags went from Boston to London and then to Jo-burg, SA and
not directly through to Gaborone, Botswana. So in South Africa I had to go
through immigration and customs to get my bag then go upstairs just to check my
bag again. This whole process became such a huge trouble. Waiting in line for
immigration in Jo-burg took over an hour then by that time the bags from my
plane were off the carousel and after millions of people, two British Airways
desks and over 30 freaking out minutes found my bag. Only to take my bag
upstairs to Air Botswana where I was told both my checked and carry-on were too
heavy!!! After seeing how distressed I was,, the desk worker allowed me to
bypass the fee! Welcome to South Africa!!!! From there the flight to Botswana
was really short-only like 35/45 minutes on which I met a nice lawyer named
Larry who gave me his card and said I could email him with any questions I
might have. I was also fortunate to continue meeting up with other kids from my
program throughout my flights so by the time I got to Botswana I had met about
15 of them.
The first reaction I had about Botswana came as a result of
the huge differences between flying into Joburg and flying into Gaborone.
Joburg greatly resembles the US with a lot of urbanization—huge buildings, lots
of little suburbs and highways, etc. Flying into Gaborone you realize that you
are flying into the dessert for sure! There are for sure houses and roads but
nothing compared to that of the US or Joburg and in fact it looks quite barren
from the ground level as well.
For the first three days of my time here, CIEE took all of
us kids to a nicer hotel for orientation before settling into either the dorms
on campus or homestays depending on which ones we chose. During this time we
went to the University of Botswana (UB) campus everyday and had a variety of
lectures on the history of Botswana, UB, culture, education, etc. They also showed us around Gaborone
pointing out various monuments, hotels and places where not to go.
One thing that is so interesting is just the extent to which
the British have influenced Botswana. Botswana was a protectorate of Great
Britain until 1966. It was considered a protectorate rather than a colony
because in reality the British did not see that much value in the country and
therefore did not find it necessary to put in place a local British government.
Little did they know that in 1967/68 there would be the discovery of diamonds
which now accounts for the main part of Botswana’s economy even though I have
yet to see a diamond or met any Batswana who have seen them. Nonetheless the
British influence is greatly evident. For example we always stop for tea time
in the morning during our orientation lectures, they play a lot of cricket and
rugby and they drive on the
opposite side of the road which has been the hardest part to get used to—on
which side to enter the car and which side of the road the cars are coming from
(do you look left or right first to cross the street?).
Anyways, after living at the hotel for those first few days,
on Sunday we met our host families if we decided to stay with one or moved into
the dorms if that was our choice. My host family so far has been great and
really interesting. I live with my host mother, Keitumetsu Monaka aka Katie, my
younger 18-year old host sister, Tshego (Te-ho), an older 24 year old brother,
Elt (L-T) and my grandma who has been staying here while her husband is in the
hospital. It’s hard to determine who is actually related to who in Botswana as
everyone considers the country to be a big community and call each other sister
and brother even though they might not be related. Also, people are constantly
going and coming in Batswana houses. For example, tonight we have two other
people staying with us as they are passing through. Katie works as a
meterologist and therefore is not home all that often, while Tshego is in
school for a majority of the day and luckily for me, Elt works at UB so I get
to see him sometimes and take the combis with him. Combis??? Combis are basically
the main way of transportation for me which are around 3.30 pulas which is
about 50cents. They look like
those big white vans that church groups usually use. Basically each has a
route, you get on and yell “oeme ha stopong” when you need to get off and then
hand the driver your money. It has been kinda crazy using them because when
they show up at the stop you just run onto them and squish. I haven’t said oeme
ha stopong yet but know that it is coming soon. To get to school from my house I need to take two combis
which can take anywhere from ½ hour to an 1 ½ depending on traffic and when the
combis come. There are also busses
that are used for longer distances and cabs and taxis (not really the same thing).
So a taxi has a predetermined route and runs like a smaller combi. However, if
you get on and say special they will take you door to door for a much larger fee (between 20-60 pula
which is about 3-9 bucks) or you can call a cab who will take you door to door.
I haven’t had a problem with the combis but did have a
problem walking home from the combi stop yesterday. I thought I knew my way but
apparently not. In order to get to my house from the stop you walk along a busy
road then make a left into the neighborhood but the left is basically a dirt
path between two houses—There are millions of dirt paths between houses. I had
no idea which one it was and ended up going way to far and by this time it was
getting dark. Luckily there was a small convenience store where the owner spoke
with Tshego on the phone who came and found me. That was pretty scary as all
they keep saying is do not walk alone at dark. Petty crime here is quite
frequent and therefore I always lock up my stuff in my room and do not carry
any valuables. However that being said, unlike the US, these criminals don’t
have guns and instead go for whatever is right in the open.
My house is pretty nice, somewhere around middle class I am
guessing. The family does own a cattle post which is a symbol of wealth. Many,
many people own cattle and the more cattle you have the more wealthy you are.
There are actually more cattle than people in Botswana (around 2 million people
in a place the size of Texas). The house is one level with four bedrooms and 3
bathrooms then a living area connected to a dining room/kitchen. I actually
helped make dinner tonight: pap which is maize that is cooked and becomes
really thick. It kind of tastes like really thick grits. Along with this we had
veggies and beef. I really haven’t had typically Batswana food yet because when
CIEE eats we go out which consists more of international food. Plus there are a
lot of chains like KFC which is everywhere and Nandos Peri Peris.
I have a cell phone and can text to the US for very cheap
but don’t know what it costs to text back and kind of have internet. My
homestay doesn’t have internet so to get it you buy a stick (basically a
flashcard) which has a SIM card built in. You take the sim card out of the
stick put it on your phone and purchase air time which you basically is a code
you buy then dial from a convenient store. Then, still using your phone, you
dial another number and use the air time as a purchasing agent to buy internet.
Once you do that you are done and can re-enter the SIM card and voila! Luckily
I had Elt who showed me the way, lol.
What else??? Trying to cover all my bases. Weather! It is
FREEZING!!! During the day it reaches a high of like 80 and that is in the
direct sunlight and only at like 2. Otherwise it gets pretty cold at night to
the point where you are freezing if you eat dinner outside and there aren’t any
heatlamps. However in a couple of weeks it is supposed to warm up and be hot
all the time, ick. This is going to make dressing kind of difficult. As of
right now everyone is dressed for winter: very proper, big coats, etc. I have
yet to seen a Batswana in shorts outside of the house. Apparently though it is
not typical for Batswana women to wear short bottoms but it is accepted for
white women since they understand that it part of culture. Surprisingly I
havent’ felt a strong presence of
Batswana culture. Since Gaborone is the capital city people come from all over
and when here it seems they tend to refrain from practicing their culture just
like in NYC or DC where it becomes more of a melting pot.
Finally I guess the last thing is in terms of classes at UB.
The answer, IDK!!! School starts tomorrow morning (Wed) and I have no class
schedule or ID. The plan is to go to the classes that look interesting meaning
I have class at 7am tomorrow!!!! It seems as if I will be taking Cricket,
Abnormal Psychology, Women’s Literature in Botswana, Media in Botswana,
Nutrition and Performance, Setswana Language and and maybe a Track and Field
Theory and an internship. Yet to hear anything about an internship but know I
will have one. Alrighty, I am exhausted and have gone on long enough. PLEASE
WRITE COMMENTS ASKING ME MORE QUESTIONS!! I would love to use this blog as a
diary so the more details I remember the better. Let me know your questions!!!
Good night!
