ONE MONTH!!!

 Me and Onthatile making cookies

 Kya and Chelsea baking/cooking away in my homestay kitchen!

 Finally a picture of Tshego and I!!!

 Sign from the National Museum in Gaborone..couldn't resist

 Me with Baby Tyler Duma Turk

 Afri-can music festival

Sclub7, the 7 buddies, best heptagon!! Great group at the music festival

 

Another week, another weekend and another blog post. Life is for sure settling in and the days are really flying by. Yet at the same time I feel like I’ve been here for ever and when I think back to all that I’ve done I understand why—I’ve been busy!!

This past week Tuesday I started my internship working with Thlamelo Trust in Old Naledi. It was basically just a day to learn how to get there, help in any way they need and observe. Although it was a rough start to the day (leaving two hours after planned) I was able to navigate my way to Old Naledi and got there in time to help make lunch for the kids. Thlamelo Trust in a non-profit that provides meals and a a place to stay for at risk youth in Old Naledi. Women from the community volunteer everyday to go to the school where the kids hang around and cook lunch. When I got there the ladies were in the middle of making dumplings for the kids so I hopped right into it. They had already prepared the dough and shaped them into half a softball size balls. All I really had to do was throw the dough balls into about an inch of water, cover the pan and wait for them to cook. Once they finished cooking, I used a fork to loosen them up from the pan and pulled them out. They were huge—I would say a Chicago size softball dumpling!!! Since the chicken and other meats needed time to cook still I went outside to play with all the kids that had gathered. Before I even sat down I had one girl come over and basically claim me by sitting on my lap and not letting go of my arms. Whenever someone came over to play with me she would push them away. Then a whole bunch of kids found my hair and pretty much played salon for the next hour. At one point I had five kids pulling on different sections of my hair. I ended up finding a stick in my hair the next day and a massive knot a day later. Once all the kids had finished eating and the dishes cleaned, I headed back to UB for volleyball practice. At this point I am going to go back next week to observe again and then brainstorm areas where I can actually make a difference and have an impact on the kids.

Wednesday was pretty ordinary except that after volleyball a lot of the international students headed out to George’s Pub and Grill for karaoke night. It was pretty fun as it was a little bar off the beaten path (and I mean really off the beaten path as there was nothing but a dirt road to get to it). It was cool to hang out at a local bar instead of one of the more well-known ex-pat ones. Not to mention the videos that played alongside the words on the TV screens were some of the funniest videos I’d ever seen. They were basically all from the 90s where scrunchies and baggy clothes were in and they ranged from a couple getting close with each other to some bear in the wilderness wandering over for food to shots of famous landmarks in Europe. Never did the video match up with the subject of the song but it did provide us with great laughs.

Thursday was the day I had been waiting for as after my classes, I skipped volleyball and two of my friends from CIEE , Kya and Chelsea, who live on campus came over to my homestay to cook dinner for my family. We had decided on BBQ chicken, vegetables and rice for dinner and oatmeal cookies for dessert. The whole process of bringing the girls home from UB to  buying groceries to cooking was great. My cousin Onthatile helped me make the oatmeal cookies (she mainly compiled the ingredients while I ate the dough) while Kya and Chelsea worked on the dinner portion. We had a great time chatting and cooking and an even better time eating. The whole family was there for dinner and everyone had a good time ragging on me about not cooking to sharing stories from home and from Batswana culture. My family really enjoyed the cookies and I can’t wait to make them again. My grandma even spoke to me in English tonight for the first time..”Julie…I want tea” which was my cue to get up and make her a cup of tea which scared me to pieces. I don’t even drink tea for myself and had no idea how she liked hers. Luckily Tshego was there to help me. Elt drove Kya and Chelsea back to UB and on the way shows up various malls and buildings around Gaborone. I love my personal tours around the city.

Friday was a big day for me as it was one of the first times I traveled by myself to new locations by the combi. In the morning I headed back to the Grand Palm which was the hotel we stayed in the first couple of days. I realized shortly after moving into my homestay that my TEVA flip flops were missing and began to call the Grand Palm with no success. Since it is heating up I realized just how much I miss my flip flops and decided just to head to the Grand Palm myself. Getting there was a lot easier than I thought and once there after waiting for some time, got my shoes! I think they were still under the bed in the room!!! This put me in a great mood. Got put in an even better mood when the combi I was taking from the hotel to Game City mall came within 15 minutes. Elt warned me that it could take up to an hour for that combi to come!!! SCORE!!! Then the mall was great. It was pretty empty since it was so early in the morning and I was able to leisurely wander throughout stores buying some toiletries and a birthday gift for Elt. Once my shopping extravaganza finished I headed over to UB to go the gym and spend some time in the library catching up on my emails and starting my application for the Peace Corps.

Now to this weekend and what a weekend it was!! It started early Saturday morning when CIEE sponsored a cultural excursion to the National Museum at Main Mall. The museum was, hm??, well semi interesting but not something that stands out as a must-see in Gaborone. There were some exhibits of the wildlife of the country as well as skulls and stones. After the museum we headed over to the Botswana Craft Exhibit to shop and eat lunch. Lunch was great and a pretty traditional Batswana meal. I had pap which is formed maize meal with morogo (wild Spinach in a peanuty sauce) and Seswaa which is shredded/pounded meat. 

After a thoroughly filling meal, we all headed over to Tlokweng (a surrounding neighborhood of Gabs) for a baby shower for Sharon, Kyle’s wife (Kyle being the director of CIEE). However, the baby was born very premature and therefore the shower was taking place after little Tyler was already born. This was great because it meant that we got to see and hold little Tyler. He was knocked out the whole time and cooperated as we all passed him around. Along with the girls from CIEE a lot of Sharon’s family members and friends were there allowing us to talk with Batswana women about mothering ideologies in Bots. For example during the gift opening it was weird to me that Sharon sat while her cousins open the gifts and show her what people brought. The kids from CIEE pulled our money and bought them a baby tub, baby books, diapers and a whole array of goodies. We got them a small medical kit that included not only a baby thermometer but one of those bulbs used to clean the baby’s nose. The women had no idea what that was used for and said they do it the “African way” aka they use their mouths to suck the mucus from the baby’s nose and mouth. It grossed me out but to each his own!! Along with opening the gifts we played a bunch of games including musical chairs, blindly draw baby Tyler and a more vulgar one where you have to walk with a potato between your legs then drop it in a cup on the ground symbolizing the birth of the baby-bit too much for me. Overall the baby shower was a lot of fun and we had a great afternoon.

BUT the day wasn’t over yet. After returning to UB from the shower, CIEE provided transportation to an afri-can international musical festival. We were at first nervous to go because as we were headed towards the bus some international students we knew were returning from the festival because it was “so lame with no people-DO NOT GO.” But most of us had already paid for our tickets so took the plunge. They at first seemed right for as soon as we entered the bus we saw that on the drop down TV was a Celine Dion concert. Know I love Celine but she wasn’t really putting me in the mood for an upbeat, fun night. So I asked the driver if there was anything else and they instead put on African music videos. Some of the weirdest videos I’ve ever seen but the music was fun and upbeat. After driving for about 45 minutes we reached this “musical festival” which turned out to basically be a stage in the middle of a huge field with about 30 people making up the crowd. Yet this didn’t stop my great group of 7 from having the most amazing night. It was a great group of 7 and we all got along really well and danced the night away to some of the most upbeat and fun African music I’ve heard thus far. We danced with the locals under the stars to live music for hours! It was one of those moments where you go, “Yeah. I’m in a field, dancing with a bunch of Batswana under the most brilliant stars and moon in Africa-this is my life.” The only down side to the whole night was that on my way to the toilet (as they say here because no one knows what “bathroom” means) I stepped on the bush from hell. As I’m living in a desert environment,  many of the plants here are cacti or at least have basic characteristics of cacti including this one menacing tree/bush whose thorn type appendages literally look like toothpicks. Well I stepped on this bush and as I retracted my leg, these toothpicks dragged against my leg, ripping my skin as it went. Ouch! The only other downer of the night was getting home when my family was asleep and accidentally setting off the house alarm waking everyone up. Oh well, if this was the worst thing that happened then my life is pretty great right now!

Sunday was another great day as I had my first volleyball tournament. The bus carrying the girls was supposed to leave at 8  from campus but since I don’t live on campus I thought I would meet the girls at the venue around 8:30. Elt said he knew where we were playing and would take me and we would probably leave around 7:30. Well 7:30 rolls around and after finding Elt learned he needed to wash the car before he could come with me (washing cars is a huge thing that everyone does on the weekends because of the intense dust). At first I was freaking out but soon learned that the volleyball team hadn’t left campus and almost none of the girls had actually showed up yet. Well I got to the courts by 9:45, the team got there by 10:15 and the game didn’t start until 11. Africa time baby, Africa time. Although I started, I played terribly and became so overwhelmed; we were playing outside so had the sun to contend with, there were people all around yelling in another language and I was so aware that people were watching which usually doesn’t bother me but today really affected my play. Unfortunately since I played so poorly I was benched and had to watch the rest from the sidelines. I guess this just means I have to kick butt in practice to earn back my starting position! CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!!!

Once my game had finished, I watched the boys team play while Elt played basketball on a neighboring court. We then walked home and spent the rest of the afternoon chilling, doing some hw, taking short walks to Bonanza (local convenience store), etc. Not to mention watching a PSA by the oh so wonderful Batswana police on BTV. Every week or so the police put together a show with skits about how thieves try to con people in Botswana. It sounds like a good idea but it is some of the worst movie making I have ever seen and had to excuse myself to write this blog. This massive blog, I know!! However, lucky for you I know have nothing left to say and can barely keep my eyes open so I would like to say Go siame and good night!!!!