Another Week in Gabs

Although I have been continuously posting I thought I would write one more so that I am completely up to date on the blog!  So that entails a quick wrap up of this week which should be pretty short since nothing that spectacular has happened.

Monday I originally thought I had my Setswana test but that got pushed back to next week and class ended up being cancelled because of some very sad news. Unfortunately my professor’s 12 year old niece was just killed in a car accident the night before in South Africa and my professor was in no shape to teach. So terrible.

Later that day I had my media class which entailed my professor showing up 20 minutes late then us reviewing a couple of freedom of press laws in Botswana and a discussion about whether or not there really is free press here. I found it really interesting nad actually love the kids in this class. They are all first year students so are pretty young but are all pretty “modern” meaning there is a lot of personality and styles in that class. The only thing is that the professor knows my name and asks me for my opinion a lot which is fine but it means that everyone in that class knows my name as well. That is fine too, but the problem is that I have no idea what their names are. I have great conversations with a lot of the other students but have no idea what to call them.

I had volleyball later that night but because championships are coming up practice is going later and later. Well, not so much practice, as the time spent reviewing and talking after. Just like in all other areas, time is more of a guideline so even though practice is supposed to end at 7, this past week we’ve been getting out at like 7:20 which means I don’t get home until 8:30! I wouldn’t mind staying if we were practicing or actually talking about important details but half of the time the coach talks in Setswana and when it is in English nothing is really being said. Something that a coach in the US would say in 5 minutes is said in 25 here. I thought my patience would grow being in this culture, but this past week, whew, my limits are being tested and frustration is growing!

Tuesday I went to Old Naledi but here my patience was once again tested as there was not much for me to do. For today we simply made pap and chicken which only took about 20 minutes to cook. Plus the school that Thlamelo Trust (the organization I work with) uses had a half day so all the students were out and about the schoolyard waiting for their parents. They are older and don’t really care about playing with me and the younger kids were jazzed to have so many older kids around that I really didn’t have much to do. So I left early and headed to UB but even there my patience was tested. I was on the internet for 2 hours and did not accomplish a single thing as the internet will crash every couple of minutes as there are too many people online. No wonder it takes so long to get things done in this country!

As the end of my time in Bots is soon approaching it is time to buckle down and do some great shopping. So Wednesday afternoon between classes, me, Kylee and Charlotte walked a couple of miles down the road from UB to this environmental watch society. It is basically a recycling center with an attached store where products made from recycled materials are produced. Really cool and I got some great little souvenirs!

Thursday?? Got up early to head to the gym to get a work out in since its been a couple of days. I then gave a presentation in my Psychological Challenges of HIV/Aids class which could have gone better. I don’t mind the presenting part but then we were supposed to run a discussion and my partner in the presentation was not very helpful in generating a discussion (neither was I). It was also difficult as no one on the class will really respond. There was this one kid though, who always makes the weirdest statements, who asked us if the reason there are more male beggars on the street is because, unlike women, they cannot prostitute themselves for money. Whoa. First off this had nothing to do with the presentation which was about the stigmatization faced by HIV positive adolescents and yet my professor looked at us for the answer. And secondly, I just thought this was the weirdest statement and what?? That is what discussions here have been like. Usually someone either says a statement that comes out of left field or they give a really personal  anecdote.

I thought the US was open and that African countries are usually reserved and more conservative but that does not appear to be true of Botswana from what I can see. In my HIV/Aids class, students are constantly talking about themselves and their partners or about the time they got tested, etc. There is really no sense of confidentiality. This is seen at the clinics as well. The public health students shadow doctors every week and from what I have heard the patients really get no say in whether or not the students are present and there is no sense of confidentiality.  The public health students did not even get a lecture on confidentiality as it is not something that is pressed on like it is in the states. A lot of kids are even really open about their sexual behavior giving us details about who and when they have slept with which is something that I feel is more taboo back home. There are also a lot of subjects that are taboo in the states that are open here. A lot of my friends have expressed how their homestay families keep telling them they are getting fat and will poke their stomachs and arms as proof. At volleyball practice I am told everything from you need to wash your hair to lotion your legs to learn how to pass. Things that in the US would be rude to say are okay to say here, at least with the youth. This is so different from what I had originally thought and heard when coming to Botswana. I thought that people were very proper and sexual behavior, money, etc was just not discussed but it has been the complete opposite!

Anyways, Thursday evening was fun because I got to hang out with friends in the afternoon then teach a fitness class. AND it RAINED!!!! Actually, it poured. It had rained and thundered Monday night but just for a short bit. It actually helped cool the country down too because it has been hot!!! Usually around 95. But today it was cooler and then even chilly when the storm clouds rolled in and the thunder started. Interestingly I had to stop by the pool to meet somewhere and even though it was lightening and thundering, the lifeguards allowed people to  keep swimming, huh??

I hung out with some people in the dorms and watched as Charlotte gave Richard a hair cut using regular old kitchen scissors, got to use what we had! Then went to teach. A couple of weeks ago the UB Aerobics club asked me if I could teach a fitness class once a week and as part of my fitness internship I agreed. It was still thundering as I headed over to the outdoor arena to teach and looked like it might lighten up but as soon as we put out the benches for step it started pouring. There was a little porch area that we moved to to set up but it was probably one of the hardest step classes I ever taught. There was no music because of the rain, it was so loud because the rain was splattering all over the tin roof, most of the students had never taken step and most of the students were Batswana and could not understand my accent. All this==hard to follow, hard to teach but still a lot of fun. It was one of those crazy, I’m teaching a step class in a lightening, thundering, crazy storm with bolts lighting up the sky all over the place in Botswana! Life is awesome. Even though there were so many problems it was great to finally teach again. I forgot how much I love step and teaching!!!

Tomorrow (Friday) we leave for the Kalahari desert to go camping for the weekend which should be a lot of fun. I am going with the Public Health students which allows me to visit a rural clinic on Saturday which I am stoked for. Anyways, besides problems with my internet, life is good and time is flying by! I only have a month of school left before finals start. There are two weeks of finals but I only have two so I am hoping to take them on the first day and then head to Mozabmbique and the beaches before heading up to the Okavanga Delta and then Cape Town. So basically I have one month of living in Gabs and going to UB, then travel, travel, travel!  Loving life and hoping that all is well with everyone reading my blog back home!!!