Volleyball Banquet!

 Me and Lorraine

 Me, Ngirl, Ashley and Bonolo

 Most of the girls team, Bomber and Anthony

Me and Rocas from the boys team

Hello once again. As I am nearing the end of my time here in Botswana, there is actually less to blog about. This week was really one of normalcy without anything that exciting happening.

Monday was my Setswana final which was basically an oral exam where I had to converse with my teacher, Nthati, for roughly 10 minutes in Setswana. I was so nervous for it but it ended up being a lot easier than I had anticipated and I was rated intermediate-high, a score I think too generous but I will take it. She asked me the basic questions that she taught us on the first day of class such as “O naa kae? Where do you stay,” “O tswa kae?-Where are you from” “O dira eng mo Botswana-what do you do in Botswana” “O tsile leng mo Botswana-When did you arrive in Botswana” just to name a few. As the conversation progressed we got to talking about my family both here in Botswana and back home. Unfortunately I forgot how to say younger sister so just said “Ke nale aubuti bidiwa Patrick-I have an older brother named Patrick” and pretended that I didn’t have a younger sister-Sorry Lainie. To celebrate being done with Setswana, after volleyball me and some friends went to Embassy which is this Indian restaurant that I think I have mentioned before-so good!

Unfortunately Monday night we learned that the grandpa of the family had passed away so the house was busy with people coming in and out to pay their respects and in preparation for the funeral.

Tuesday I was supposed to go to Old Naledi one last time but had so much homework that I needed to get done (and wanted to head to the gym to work off Embassy) so I decided to go this upcoming week and instead spend the day in the computer lab getting as much work done as possible. It was not as productive as I had expected but I did make progress on a lot of assignments.  When I got back home my host mom was having a prayer group for the grandfather so I was able to meet a few more cousins of the family and a lot of the ladies from my mom’s church.

Wednesday again was anything too exciting. I did however go to Main Mall in the afternoon to get passport pictures taken which were necessary for my visa to Mozambique. But even this was so different than in the US. For my picture I just walked up to this lady who has a little stand on the sidewalk, sat in front of white fabric and she took the pictures-no smiling and I had to have my shoulders covered. From there me and my companions traveled to the Mozambique embassy where we arrived right at one, primo lunch time. We were showing up just as the guy was leaving and he begrudgingly said he would stay to fill out our paperwork for our visas. Unfortunately we didn’t know that along  with the passport photos we needed an actual copy of our passport so Ashley and Anthony raced across the street to the Gaborone Sun hotel to do that for us while the rest of us stayed and filled out our paperwork and paid our 375 pula fee. Even though it was a pain to run around, we were all happy that we had accomplished that and it was one more thing off the list of things to do. Once getting back to campus we were also able to book all of our book tickets and hostel for Mozambique so we are ready to go! One week until I adventure off to the beaches of paradise and to snorkel with the nurse sharks and mantarays!

Thursday and Friday came and went without anything really exciting happening. Friday I had no classes so after going to the gym, Charlotte, Anthony and I headed to over to Broadhurst, a neighborhood in Gabs, to go to the Red Lantern, the only Chinese restaurant I have heard of in Gabs. It was, well, it was Chinese food in an African city. I got fried eggplant stuffed with pork which was basically just fried dough so it was good but for sure not nutritious. Afterwards we ventured over to the Craft Market and Botswana Craft where I had planned on buying lots of gifts for people but really only ended up with postcards. There is just not a tourism market in Gaborone and therefore there aren’t a lot of “touristy” stores to buy souvenirs.

After wearing ourselves out we headed back to campus and then I headed over to volleyball practice where it was casual Friday which basically meant the girls and guys mixed together and scrimmaged. We played king/queen of the court with four players and up to 3 points and I had a really funny team. It was me, Rocas and two of the tallest players on the boys team, Shakes and The Great. They are all really animated and really funny. For example I hit a ball into the net and they all gave me grief that I was being paid to sabotage the game  and they should call the authorities. Or whenever we got a great point Shakes would roll on the court pounding the floor in joy. I had a blast! I then headed home where it was just me, Tshego and Tshego’s friend for the night. Even though I got home pretty late I ended up making pancakes for all three of us as we sat and watched “Flava Dome” (a Botswana music show) and some old Chuck Norris western on the eBotswana channel.  

Saturday morning was the first morning in a long tiem that I got to spend at home just relaxing. Woke up late, finished an episode of Desperate Housewives I had strated the night before, had a breakfast of bogobe (porridge) with Tsehgo and her friend, worked on some homework, relaxed! By the afternoon the house was starting to really warm-up and I was getting really hot as there is no air con (as they call it) in my house and the temperatures have been between 95 and 100 the past week. So to get out for a bit I went with Anthony and Charlotte to Airport Junction, this newly opened mall by the airport in Gaborone. There wasn’t too much to do in the mall but I was able to buy some ridiculously expensive deodorant from Clicks (aka CVS), try on some clothes at Mr. Price (their version of Forever 21) and buy some wonderful Cadberry TopDeck chocolate from Spar (Giant). We were spent after a couple of hours and went to Nandos to just relax before heading to campus.

Once on campus there was a volleyball going away, end of the semester celebration so Ashley, Anthony and I ventured over to the dining hall, Curry Pot to celebrate. It was really nice of the team as they had bought pizza, soda and chips to eat and even made short speeches about having us on the team this semester. We did a range of things from playing volleyball with a balloon inside one of the dorms to playing old school truth or dare spin the bottle to going to the volleyball courts and playing real volleyball at 11:30 at night. Overall it was really a great way to say good bye to really the only Batswana friends that I have made during my time here.

By the time the party was winding down it was pretty late so I stayed on campus with Ashley and ended up watching some of New Moon before completely passing out. Got up bright and early and was able to use Ashley’s computer and the internet to finally watch a video from my wonderful siblings. One of the best surprises was seeing both Patrick and Lainie on this video postcard as it is usually just Lainie! Loved it—Thanks guys!!!!

Once Ash was up and we had both eaten a Phaphata with egg from Foodlovers on campus we combi’d over to Rail Park to meet up with Charlotte and Kylee to walk to Malopo Crossing which is another small mall that was supposed to have great fabric stores. A lot of the stores ended up being closed but Charlotte was able to buy a traditional skirt from one of the open stands. We were really hot, shocker, so went into this bar around 11am for some tap water and fries. However after getting our tap water the waitress never came back and none of us were that hungry so we just left. Not sure what the protocol is on that one!

We ventured over to Charlotte’s house to work on a research project about nutrition for CIEE. However her mom wanted us to work outside which was fine because there was a shaded patio but by 2 the shade did nothing and we were sweating like crazy so decided to finish up quickly and head back to Rail Park for some wonderful Milky Lane nice creams (aka a 75 cent ice cream cone or 1.50 with sprinkles).  It was so refreshing and we got to see our favorite worker, Alice!

Since I had been gone from home for so long I got back to the house by around 3 where I spent the afternoon making pumpkin bread (thanks mom!) and watching friends as Tshego and I did our homework. After giving up on homework, I played cards with Elt where I taught him both trashcan and Egyptian Rat Screw while Elt’s brother, Aaron (who was in for the funeral) made dinner. Overall it was a really fun night and it was great to hang out with Elt and Tshego since my days left in Botswana are numbered!

I’m in this weird state now where I am nearing ready to come home. I miss my family, my house, my friends, my pets. I miss being completely comfortable and feeling like I fit in because even though I have been here for over 4 months I still feel like an outsider. I still don’t know the language enough to converse with people on the combi, I still get talked to and harassed (that might be too strong of a word) when walking through the station and I still feel like I am treated like an idiot a lot of the time. All of this makes me want to go home to a place that I completely understand and have missed terribly. Now at the same time there are so many things I am going to miss. The lizards that run around the trees and are the Botswana version of squirrels or the goats and chickens that pop up all over the place. I’m going to miss the crazy friends that I have made here and their fun personalities. I’m going to miss the English language here and the way in which text messages are written in short hand. For example everyone always uses “Hwzit”when texting the phrase “How’s it?” which is their way of saying how are you. Or when someone says “gud 9t” for good night. The way people say “serious” when in the states we would say “seriously?” and they say “it was very nice” for anything they like whether it be food, a dress, a person, etc. I have grown accustomed to so many little things here like driving on the other side of the road, calculating costs in pula, paying for everything in cash, etc. So even though I am desperately missing the states I am going through withdrawal and am going to desperately miss Botswana and all my friends when I go back to the states. What an adventure!!!