First Weekend in Gaborone!

 Elt and I hanging out at the basketball courts at the UB campus

 View from the top of the Masa (mornings) hotel...Gabs is definitely a developing city

 Me with Richard, Chelsea and Anthony and the Coca Cola Cup

 Chain cowboys that run around Gaborone

The main street that parallels by house--cows (and goats) basically just chill on the side of the road

 

Well I’ve survived a week at my homestay and continue to experience a rollercoaster of emotions and highs and lows as my time continues.

I had two classes on Thursday: Women’s Literature in Botswana and Media in Botswana. But I’m not sure you can call them classes if only three people showed up and no professors??? No mathata (no worries).  The missing professor allowed me to come home early where I found my host sister asleep on the couch. I joined her napping on and off throughout the evening and watching some of Desperate Housewives that Tshego has on DVD. A new addition to the household, Ontathile, a cousin who is staying here for a month made dinner which was great. It was the first time I had game meat which is basically any animal that is killed at the cattle post that they serve up.  They take the meat and basically turn it into jerkey to be stored. When it’s time to eat they usually heat it up and serve it with rice and vegetables. Now I know Americans are overweight and experiencing a range of health problems but I am shocked that not more Batswana are as well. The amount of salt they put on everything is ridiculous; mounds and mounds of salt is pored on everything from vegetables to rice to eggs.

I didn’t have class on Friday so spent the morning finishing unpacking, taking a nice warm shower and making breakfast in a nice, big empty house. However, I soon got bored so headed over to UB (University of Botswana) to meet up with some friends. To get to UB I usually take to combis (pronounced like hair-comb with ee at the end); number 7 to get to the bus station then number 4 to get to UB. But, all the 7s were full so thought I would try a 4. The whole time I was on the combi I was nervous and sweating as I had no real idea where it was taking me except that I would end up at the station eventually and I did. But this is no bus station like the US. The station or bus rail is at RailPark Mall and there are about 6-8 different loading and unloading docks spaced throughout all entrances and areas of the mall. So this combi dropped me off at a place I had never even seen. Luckily I asked this nice woman who then asked two teenagers to show me to the other side of the mall where I could catch the Tlokweng 4 which would take me to UB.

Once at UB I met up with some friends and we walked down to Main Mall but not before of course getting lost and heading in the completely opposite direction. Main Mall is along the lines of an outdoor market where different vendors line up and sell overpriced, knock-off souvenirs==fun to walk around. We were starving so decided to eat at Chicken Licken which I had seen advertised on TV. Although the chicken really wasn’t that bad, it was expensive for not a lot of food. My friends and I then headed over to the National Museum but as soon as we got there a huge school group was entering so we decided to sit and wait outside. That wait ended up being about 2-3 hours as we just enjoyed sitting and chatting so much that we never felt the need to go inside. Once it got dark, my friends headed home while I walked back to UB where I was going to meet up with Elt to watch his basketball game.

It was a really cool experience to go to the basketball game as it was not something that  was sponsored by some organization for my entertainment but was just a local league which locals coming to watch meaning I was the only white person, kinda sticking out but hey, the whole point of coming to Botswana was to get out of my comfort zone. After some time, some of my American friends came and all four of us watched the basketball games . Unfortunately, Elt didn’t have his uniform so he was unable to play but it was still a lot of fun. AND I took a cab home for the first time. It’s a little bit shady how it works: you call a guy who comes in his car to pick you up and drop you off with a fee ranging from 20 to 50 pula (mine of course is 50).  This brings up the hardest part about being in Botswana: how to know when you are being taken advantage of. Many cab drivers and vendors realize that I don’t know much about pricing and therefore capitalize on my naivety. However, this guy I met named Shatiso said that cabs should never cost over 50 pula so that’s a start!

I really had no idea what I was going to do Saturday but ended up having a really awesome day. I hung out in the morning then around 11, Elt and I left to run around town. He thought his basketball game was at noon but it turned out not to be until 12 so since we had time to kill we ran errands and ran around g-city. I was able to meet a couple of his family members as we had to drop off and pick up stuff in Block 6, phase 2 and Mogoditshane which turned out to be really fun. Elt was my personal tour guide pointing out different places and meeting his cousins and brothers allowed me to see how other Batswana live. There was this new hotel that was just built so Elt and I decided to explore which was a lot of fun. Our philosophy was if the door was open we were allowed to go through it. This led us onto the roofs of two buildings, multiple hotel room floors, restaurants and shops. After the hotel we went over to Square Mart which is a large shopping area and African Mall. It was great to see some places that are not as popular or well-known. We then picked up my friend Anthony from UB (not after arguing about directions once on campus and betting dinner at Nandos) and headed to Gaborone Sun, a nicer hotel, to see if we could explore this one as well. We weren’t able to find the roof but we did see a lot of rooms and the pond and pool. After this wonderful “tour” Elt dropped Anthony and I off back at campus so we could meet up with some friends to walk over to RiverWalk mall to see Dark Knight finally.

At RiverWalk I was able to buy Batswana cheetos which are  called Knick Knacks and made from Maize, a really popular product here. Dark Knight worked this time except for a couple of sound glitches here and there. After the movie we headed out to Primi, an Italian restaurant. Eating out here is similar to the US except when it comes to tip. No one I have talked to has given me the same answer, some have said 1 pula, others said 5%, who knows!!!!!

Sunday was another eventful day. In the morning I lounged around and walked with Tshego to Bonanza which is basically a convenience store to buy some bread. Then I just hung out with Tshego as she made lunch for her grandmother. Around 12:30 I headed over to UB to watch the finals of the Coca-Cola Cup Champsionship between the Gaborone United and some black and white team. This was so much fun. The soccer is no where near the level back in the states, especially UMD, GO TERPS!!! I’ve never seen a slower moving soccer game. I mean they started late, of course, it’s Africa, and the players were speedy but there were so many fouls and injuries and injuries took forever to clear the field. Plus the medic bag was just a small cooler=crazy. But the atmosphere was great. People were decked out dressed as who knows what. Then there was entertainment in the beginning with young boys dancing and moving their bodies in ways I didn’t know was possible (check out the video if it loads). There were vu-vu-zelas and more Coke logos than I have ever seen before. At one point a group of chain-banging cowboys walked through. Apparently the cowboys are all over Gabs and an attraction I actually read about in my guidebook. If that wasn’t weird enough, I had to leave early in order to get back to my homestay before it got too dark and could not leave. They literally locked all the gates and told us we had to wait until the game was over. It took over 10 minutes for a security guard to find the key to let us out!!!

However, I’m glad it took this .long because it allowed me to get on a combi and sit next to the cutest little baby, probably around 6 months old. She became enthralled by me probably because I was the only white person she had ever seen. She held onto my finger the entire ride and kept trying to touch my face and put her hands in my mouth. It was the cutest thing and added to my great afternoon.

Once home I had dinner with Tshego and Ontathile, then drove with Elt to get some gas in the car and drove to my host mom’s office as she needed to get her passport that she left there because she is going to Zimbabwe this week for work. We then all watched the Botswana runner take 4^th place in the 400meter Olympic race which is unfortunate as Botswana has never won a medal. This probably explains why the Olympics aren’t that big of a deal here. A lot of people are watching them on Botswana TV but the only sports they show are track and athletics/field, swimming and boxing, weight lifting if you are lucky!

Anyways, I’ve rambled on enough for this post. But I survived my first weekend and hopefully will have professors show up this week. Wish me luck and hope all is well at home!!!