Gaborone

After leaving Mochudi, we spent two weeks in Gaborone, the capital of Botswana. I moved in with my favorite family yet. My mom’s name is Tiny and she gave us a lecture on Youth Culture in Botswana a few weeks ago. She used to work for the Botswana Youth Council and now works for the military as a librarian. She’s also six months pregnant. The baby’s supposed to be due January 6, but since it’s her second child, her doctor told her it might come as early as December 15 (my birthday!) and a date when I’ll still be staying with her. She wants a Christmas baby and might wait to induce labor on Dec. 25. But her major dilemma is that her birthday, as well as her husband’s and daughter’s are all in January and it’d be fun to all celebrate the same month. She gets huge cravings for watermelons every day and will eat up to half a watermelon during any one sitting.

My dad’s name is John. He’s a newly elected MP (Member of Parliament) for the main opposition party, Botswana National Front. He brought home a paper for me every day and told me to read it so I’d know what was going on. He left both weekends I spent there to visit his constituents in Serowe, where he’s from and was elected.

My sister’s name is Ame (pronounced – ah-may). She’s 15years old and in Secondary School. She walked me to school the first day I had class and we talked the whole 45minute walk. She’s really fun. I think she feels a little over protected by her parents and wishes she could do more extracurricular activities but her parents really want her to focus on school work and not much else. When her dad was elected to office earlier this year, they moved into government housing and away from most of her friends. She says she doesn’t really see her friends outside of school anymore.

My house was really cute. It was an apartment in a gated and guarded area. I had to convince the guards that I was living there my first day because they hadn’t been warned my family had just acquired a new child. Once I talked to them a few minutes in Setswana, they were comfortable letting me through the gate. Our house was two stories! You walked in through the front door that was on a hinge so that it swiveled and didn’t open as ours do in the States, into the sitting room. There were modern black couches, a few huge mirrors, and lots of family pictures. Past there was the dining room with a table and display case. The kitchen was just the right size for the four of us to closely but comfortably cook breakfast each morning. Tiny had converted the garage into another room, where there were more couches and a TV. Upstairs were the bedrooms. I had my own bedroom with a balcony! There was even a shower!!, which I took full advantage of every morning.

Everyday I was in Gabs, we had class at our program house. Each morning, I walked the 45minutes to get there alone and had a great time. Each afternoon I walked back as well. I passed the State House two times a day, which is where the President lives. He had an enormous white house with beautiful landscaping, from what I could gather through the thickly barred fence I walked by. There were always four armed guards standing outside who I greeted and waved to. I passed a number of embassies during my walk since I lived in a government housing section of the city. My personal favorite was the Swedish embassy because they had a really cheesy sign out front that looked like one you’d find outside a burger joint in the States. It was a white sign with blue writing that read: Sweden House. The second ‘v’ in the w of Sweden was yellow, so you pretty much had to say Sveden when you read the sign out loud.

Class included a number of lectures and field trips, some of which were incredibly interesting and some seemed pretty pointless, the latter included topics like unions of Botswana and drawing in foreign investments, which are both incredibly interesting but were presenting in an amazingly dull way. Amazing and informative lectures included human rights in Botswana by representatives from an organization called Ditschwanelo (translates directly to rights) and HIV/AIDS in Botswana by an incredibly active Canadian who has been here for a number of years and currently works with the government. Great field trips included a few hours at the BMC, or Botswana Meat Commission. Beef is Botswana’s second biggest industry after diamond mining. We were given a tour of the facilities. It was fascinating to see the carcasses hanging from hooks and being sliced with such precision. In addition to being my first visit to a slaughter house, I realized I’d never seen a large scale factory line before. I was struck by the monotony of the workers’ jobs. They cut the same piece of meat from the bones of a cow 1600 times a day. After seeing the butchering, we saw the actual slaughter house. The cows were loaded into a small compartment where a man placed an air gun to its head very nonchalantly. The cow went into shock but didn’t die. It was hung up by a back leg and then died when its throat was slit by someone from the Muslim faith so that the meat was Hallele. It was tough to watch the cow continue to move after it had been shot, and then watch the blood gush out from the neck. I’ve never seen anything die in front of me before. But I think the most disgusting part of the entire production was watching the skin get peeled off. A man on a forklift grabbed the skin at the legs and lowered the forklift as he held on. It peeled off so easily and in one piece. We also took a field trip to the Gaborone Dam, although something had broken and we couldn’t get a tour.

We ended class before noon most days. We’d been given a lunch stipend for the two weeks, but I mostly stayed at the program house and ate peanut butter on bread as I used the free internet. I did check out a very sketchy Chinese restaurant on our first day and luckily didn’t get sick after trying the veggie chowmein. A few other times we ventured to a mall called River Walk to eat at Linga Langa, a great ex-pat restaurant with amazing burgers and pizza (and free wireless) or a yummy Indian restaurant called Embassy. On our last day we went to lunch at a wonderful restaurant with amazing food (paid for by Pitzer!). The main course was good, but the desserts were to die for. Jesse and I (excellent eating buddies, as always!) went halfsies on an order of Chocolate Waffles and Amaroula Ice Cream. Holy Cow.

On Sunday, I hopped on a 6am bus with Ian, Katie, Vince, and Vince’s cousin Francesca (aka. Cuz) to Maun to start my five week internship with the Wildlife Department.

pictures: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2069203&id=1036350539&l=1771ebeda9