First Week in G-City

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!