Clothes on the line

I don't think I've hung quite so many clothes up to dry in some time. It makes me think of Botswana, and I thought I would put up a post. It's been a summer and almost a whole semester since I was there. Today I saw snow for the first time since the day I left for Botswana, when it started snowing as I got on the plane and didn't stop for two days. But of course, I wasn't there to see it. :)

America is very different from Botswana. Adjusting back to life at North Park has been interesting, and a journey all it's own. Everything from how I relate to people to the homework load to how I view myself. I've had a lot of learning to do, a lot of mental baggage to sort through, and plenty to think about. It hasn't been easy work, but it's been good work, and I'm doing much better. I realized some mistakes I made, in how I related myself to people - or rather, didn't relate my self to people. I've gotten up, dusted off, and am ready for the next thing.

What is the next thing? That remains to be seen. Graduation is fast approaching, a mere five weeks, intense testing and papers stand between me and the completion of my higher education. I can hardly wait! And after that? I'll be moving back home, spending some time with my family and enjoying the winter sports and the snow (cross country skiing!!!). But of course, that can't last forever, so what comes next?

Well... I'll keep you posted. :)

End of the Adventures (for now)

I'm sitting in my bedroom on the other side - which looks a huge mess, a mix between unpacking, rearranging furniture and my continual purging of stuff - and I thought that I would take a break from my tidying to give "voice" to my thoughts.

A week ago I was on my way back from Botswana, and I've been in the states for seven days now. It's been interesting. In some ways I've had no trouble adjusting at all - such as my miraculous recovery from the time change. In other ways I don't understand why I am agitated or uncomfortable or wary of or by things that I never used to notice before. The initial English-speaking shock was overcome after just a couple days. I can now greet people in English on cue, as my Setswana use fades from the forefront of my tongue. But other things, like the vast majority of white people in my neighborhood, my church, the places I get my groceries - these are more difficult to get over. The fact of the matter is that white people were not to be trusted in Bots - they were often rude, snotty, unhelpful, and racist. So try going from five months of mistrusting white people and surrounding yourself with black people to being surrounded by only the former and having the latter on the periphery. It makes you rather uncomfortable, to say the least. But I'm working through it. And on the flip side, I'm seeing a lot of people that I didn't before, and in a different light, which is a good thing.

In general, I would say that coming back hasn't been too terribly rough. Yes, it freaks me out that we leave food out on the counter or the table, but since it's always fine and ant-free when we get back to it, I suppose that's okay. Yes, I've been overwhelmed by all the questions people have to ask me, but some people ask good questions that give me the opportunity to tell stories, and that makes me feel good inside to share my experiences with others. Although it hurts when they're judgemental or jump to conclusions about things, I have to recognize that not everyone can understand. No one I know this side has soaked up the culture that side so much as I did, so how could they understand everything?

To sum it all up: I'm doing well. My mom pointed out that I learned to stand up straight (finally) while I was over there, and the confidence and carriage I have as I go about my life these days has everyone giving me compliments. And I do feel different. Something has changed. I can't quite put my finger on what, just yet, but there is something new there that's busy flourishing right now. I'm looking forward to driving up to the U.P. this summer for work and having lots of time up in nature to unpack my last year - everything that has happened to me at home and abroad - and see where I am and I'm going from here. I want to prep myself to face my last semester of college. With great poise.

Thank you all for reading my blog - whether in public or in secret. I'm finding as I go around that there were more of you than I realized! Don't delete this one from your favorites just yet - after next semester there might just be more adventures in store and I may pick this one up again. So I would recommend checking it again around October or something... just to see. ;) Until then, ke a lebogile - for your support, for your prayers, and for your interest in my crazy, adventuresome life. I hope you've been entertained.

Best regards,

Jaclynn Botshelo Workman

Let the journey begin:

Alright, so perhaps this is a little bit preemptive, but I'm figuring that I won't be wasting much time on the computer tomorrow. I'm thinking I'll be out and around, taking pictures and saying more goodbyes.

Tomorrow I start the journey home with a shared cab ride with Kelsey to the airport. My first flight leaves at 4:50pm for Jo'berg, then later that day for London, where I'll arrive at 6am and then make my way over to my last flight to arrive in Chicago at 12:50pm. It's going to be a long couple days, but I'm well-stocked with chamomile tea and ibuprofen to keep me sleepy on the plane. :) I'm spending a couple days in Chicago, taking care of some business and meeting with some professors, and then I'll be taking the train home on Friday, when I'll finally get to see my family again - all of them, because my sister and her family moved to Michigan while I was gone - for the first time in 5 months.

Am I excited? Yes. Am I sad to leave? Yes.

Expect a highly reflective, nostalgic, concluding post when I get to the other side.

International: defined

I'm in between exams on my last day of exams, and the internet is finally working in my room again. How convenient. But even though I'm left with just one more exam and four days of chill before I leave Bots, I'm still learning new things.

Take yesterday for instance.

I stopped by the SRC offices the other day, as I so often do, and was invited to attend a meeting between the SRC and international students. One of the mainstays of the platform of the new SRC was that they wanted to create representation for international students - and eventually a cabinet position for an international student representative - so that their voice could be heard as well. Nobly, I had Kourtney create a facebook event and tried to get the word out to other international students, but I had little hope that anyone else would come. As expected, when 2 o'clock came around I found myself the only non-SRC person in the office. But then people started coming in. They weren't the "study abroad" international students I knew or expected. Not a single one of them hailed from Japan, Germany, or the United States. They were Africans. In that room we had representatives of Uganda, Madagascar, Nigeria, Zambia, Zimbabwe, DR Congo, and many more. I was astonished. I had never really thought about it before, but my definition of "what makes an international student" was anyone who wasn't an African. And that was exactly the complaint that these students had to lodge against the University.

"We're not treated like normal students, but our specific needs as international students aren't recognized either."

They discussed the large fee they are charged on an annual basis just to study here as internationals - a fee that is supposed to pay for the services they receive: help with immigration and residence permits, pick-ups from the airport, etc. Services that they have never seen, but which were given to all of us coming in through ISEP, ACM and other programs. Furthermore, many of the international students had been DENIED accommodation in the recent listing for next year. Where is an international student supposed to stay? They don't have relatives, they already have to pay a lot to get to UB, and they don't receive a government allowance or any other sort of income while they're studying like national students do. And don't forget that rent in Gabs is out-of-this-world expensive. As a student on the ISEP program, and the other largely-western exchange programs UB has agreements with, I was guaranteed accommodation. UB keeps expanding how many students they are accepting through these programs, and it is at the expense of true, long-term international students who need accommodation.

Needless to say, it was a very educational experience for me, and I left with a lot more questions in my mind than when I came. I wish I had met these international students sooner, and had this new mindset sooner, so that I could get to know them and understand their lives and struggles as the real international students of UB - the ones who are studying here for four years and actually doing it for the education instead of the experience. If you're studying abroad, or going to study abroad soon, think about this and realize how much of a tourist you are, for however much you try not to be.

The main difference between the study abroad student and the average tourist is that we just happen to stick around longer.

One more week!

Exams have been going on for a week now, but mine start today with Setswana. Tomorrow I'll be writing my Afro-Caribbean Lit exam, Thursday I'll have off, then Friday I'll be writing my two hardest exams: History in the morning, and Principles of Ecology in the afternoon. And then I'll be done!

My last four/five days will look something like this:

Friday night - Saturday morning: plait hair

Saturday late morning/early afternoon: learn to make phaphata

Sunday morning: go to Setswana mass for the last time

Sunday night: skype my parents for the last time

Monday: do any and all remaining laundry

Tuesday: pack up and fly out!

It's crazy to think that I'm in my final week now. That 168 hours from now I'll be pulling things off my shelves and packing my suitcase, running around trying to find phaphata to buy to keep me nourished during travel, and saying my farewells.

This past week has been good, but not too terribly exciting. My days are spent mostly reading over notes and researching for my history exam. Although I did manage to get out to the Station to buy trinket gifts for my friends, and to Main Mall to spend every last pula I hadn't set aside for food on souvenirs that I've waited to buy until just now. It was a very successful shopping trip, let me assure you. I have officially finished all of my Christmas shopping for the year, save for one little thing that I'm planning on picking up Stateside.

So now I'm broke, and this week I'm living off phaphata and the remaining fruit left in my room. I've rationed everything out so that it'll last me 'til I leave. Pretty much, I'll be staying put this week: studying, taking exams, and possibly going out on a couple free excursions like the Ecological Park or a revisiting of the National Museum. But nothing too terribly exciting, just chilling and watching the days go by. I run into my local friends every now and then, and they ask me when I'm leaving and whatnot, but most people aren't out and about - they're hunkering down in exam mode. Still, I'm hoping I'll meet up with some friends and hang out again at least once more before I leave - probably over the weekend. We'll see.

For now, I think I ought to get going. I've got some snacking to do, and I ought to get reading on my Setswana notes and vocabulary and whatnot so I'm extra prepared when I go in to take the exam. Although at this point, I figure I either know it or I don't....

Go siame,

~Botshelo

Easter Pictures!

So I finally got my pictures up from Easter Break - most of which were taken by Kourtney, a few of which were taken by Kelsey, and very few of which were taken by me. Let me just say a couple things about our trip.

First off, it was very relaxing. We literally didn't do much of anything, just lounged around, walked around, ate canned food, and dessert waffles, and watched life go on around us.

Second, D'Kar was AMAZING. The little village had a great atmosphere. The Noro language, with all it's clicking sounds, was fascinating and I could not get enough of it. We really just showed up and started taking part in the village recreation, playing with kids, and watching soccer games. We got to see their Noro Choir perform on Saturday night, and enjoyed a good Reformed Church service on Sunday morning. It wasn't too far from what I'm used to, just that the Apostle's Creed was much more difficult to say than usual. :) We met a man and woman from the Netherlands, affiliated with the Christian Reformed Church in the Netherlands, who have been living in D'Kar for 20 years and are busy translating the Bible into Noro. The New Testament is almost done.

I think I'd like to go back there someday, and maybe stay a little longer and learn some of the language. That'd be pretty legit.

Alright, so the moment you've all been waiting for:

Check out my Easter Break album!

Last-minute purchases

I'm standing amidst a background of blues, reds, and browns, with yellow and orange and purple and green thrown in intermittently. The walls of mostly primary-colored fabrics are overwhelming: cuts of 3 meters, 4 meters, 5 meters, 6... all stacked together in rows and columns so that their designs all blur together, a long procession of the few millimeters that show on their edges.

Mosese wa letoitshe is the term for the traditional Batswana dress. It is literally a dress made from the "German print" fabric. Although why it is called German print, no one can really tell you. It seems strange to the outsider that the traditional dress would be made from something German. But hey, this is a postcolonial world.

A lot of Batswana own one such dress, but a lot of them don't, too. Some own just a skirt, instead of a full dress. The styles vary a lot, but tend to be pretty simple, almost juvenile with their big pockets. They're just kind of cute. Others, of course, are much more ornate, with flare and ruffles, large collars crafted out of shiny silk that complements the main German print of the dress body. But whether you're getting one of these, or one of the simpler kind, to buy a mosese wa letoitshe is to fork out at least P500. That's over $75. And they're usually more expensive than that. Thank goodness I have a crafty mother...

But back to the fabric store. Everything is the same, and yet everything is different. In the back of my mind I know what I'm looking for, but I can't find it in anything that is in front of me. I pull out a bolt here, a cut there. The employees are following me around with slightly displeased looks on their faces, helping me to pull out what I'm about to put right back on the shelf after I see it. There's something, there's nothing, maybe, but not quite... And then: there it is! Honeycomb. It's what my heart secretly desired. I'm off to the cutting table, then the cashier's, and then out the door, bag of fabric swinging in my hand.

With only twelve days remaining, I am going shopping. Things that I haven't bought but wanted to, I am now purchasing freely. More or less. Aside from fabric, I also purchased a pair of the trendy pants that people wear to make a statement around campus, and a Setswana Bible - with hot pink page edges. Tomorrow is a trip to pick up a few specific souvenirs for friends at the Station, Saturday we'll be hitting up the craft markets at Main Mall and River Walk - the former of which seems to have doubled in size overnight! Next week I'll be attempting to study for my exams and do well on them, next weekend will be my last in town, and then I'm leaving on Tuesday! Crazy!

I'm alive.

For those who are waiting to hear about my Easter travels, don't worry: I made it back safe, and yes, they were very enjoyable. The internet is not working in my room right now, so I've not been able to upload and update as much as I'd like. But don't worry, I'll post some pictures soon!

~Botshelo

Into the teens!

Today marks the day that my countdown officially falls into the teens - that's right, I've less than 20 days left here before I begin my journey home.

Today is also the last day of classes, and, thanks to a fellow-ISEPer's reminder Tuesday, I am busy getting signatures from my professors to prove that I took their courses. I'm just hoping that I can find them all!

Today is the day that we take the first part of our Setswana final: the oral exam. I'm just hoping that I don't clam up like last time and accidently tell them that I don't have a mother...

Today is the day that I present on my paper on the changes in jumping rope in America over the last three generations of youth. I've finished the write-up, and now just have to work on getting it printed. Always an adventure.

Today is quite possibly the last choir rehearsal, although there is a rumor that there will be one more. Still, we're going into exams now, and I can't think that there would be too many people at a rehearsal during exams if there was one. People take their exams very seriously here.

Tomorrow starts Easter Break, and three friends and I will be embarking on an 11-hour bus ride very early in the morning to travel up to Ghanzi and experience some Kalahari Culture for the weekend. We really have no idea what we'll be doing, but it should be fun. At the very least it will involve some unique souvenirs and four people sleeping very tightly in one little tent. I just hope it doesn't rain...

I'll be sure to put up some pictures from the trip when we get back. We should be in by Monday evening, and I don't have any exams the first week, so I'll have plenty of time to upload pictures.

Topics Course #3: Pula le Thebe

I'm sure that you've all been curious to see what these pula and thebe are that I talk about whenever I give prices for things, so I decided to do a topics course on the money. I took these photos the other day, when I realized that I had one of each coin and note. So without much further ado...

200 Pula - about $31. Featuring children reading with an elderly person, and on the back: zebras. There is only one type of zebra native to Botswana, and it has a characteristic "shadow stripe", so that's how you know if the zebra claiming to be from Botswana really is or not.

100 Pula - about $16. This note feature the Dikgosi Ditharo, or Three Chiefs, who came together to help bring about independence for Botswana. On the other side is a person inspecting a diamond, and a diamond quarry, showing the diamond industry on which Botswana proudly bases its economy.

P50 - about $8. Now we enter the realm of people I don't recognize. I couldn't tell you who this guy is, but he's on the 50 pula note. On the flip side is a fish eagle catching a fish (right where the dotted line is), and in the background is a poler standing on a mokoro. [Update: Someone finally told me who this guy is! This is the first president of Botswana, Khama, who is father of the current president, Ian Khama. I suppose that's useful information, even though I haven't lived in Botswana for a couple years now. I can definitely see the family likeness, now that I look at it...]

P20 - about $3.25. Again, I don't know who the guy is, but the back of the note is a factory. [Update: I found out who this guy is, too! This is Kgalemang Motsete, the composer of Botswana's national anthem. How cool is it that a composer got to have his face put on currency? Maybe we should put Gershwin's face on an American bill...]

P5 - about $0.75. This one is the coin on the bottom-right, with the silver inset in the gold-colored metal. The front is the emblem of Botswana, and the back is a mophane caterpillar - one of the delicacies of Batswana cuisine. Since I already tried caterpillars in Zambia and they look the same, I haven't bothered to try them again here. I doubt if they'd be any better.

P2 - about $0.35. The coin on the left, featuring the Botswana emblem and a rhino. It is slightly thinner than the P1 coin, but otherwise difficult to distinguish. Especially if the P1 coin you're holding is particularly worn...

P1 - about $0.17. The coin on the top-right, which is slightly thicker than the P2 coin, and displays a very stately zebra on one side, and the Botswana emblem on the other.

This is the P10 note (with the emblem-side of the P5 coin), worth about $1.53. This one has a picture of President Sir Seretse Khama Ian Khama. They change this note whenever a new president is elected, so that it always holds the portrait of the current president of Botswana.

These are the different thebe coins. "Thebe" means "shield", and so the backs of the smaller ones have just the shield part of the emblem. They are, from left to right, the 50 thebe, the 25 thebe, the 10 thebe, and the 5 thebe. There are 100 thebe in 1 pula, so you can imagine how little the 5 thebe is worth in American dollars. Still, you get farther faster when you pick up this "heptapennies" off the ground because there's only 20 of them in a pula, and before you know it, you can buy yourself a snack!

Alright, so that's the gist of money matters here. It's going to be so weird to come back home and realize that when people say "10 bucks" they really mean US$10. I think I might be balking at prices for awhile...

24 Days: 3 weeks and change...

Preparations are underway.

Today I'm busy trying to finish off my final paper for Children's Traditions and Dramatics - due sometime in the bracket of next week...

Next week is our last week of classes, and I won't even have all my classes each day because some are already wrapping up! I've pretty much finished up my Christmas shopping, and now I just get to blow everything I have left on a trip to Ghanzi next weekend and a week on the town before exams start for me the first week of May.

I'm hard at work trying to kill off as many small containers of hygiene products as possible before I go so that I don't have to take them with me: mouthwash, face wash, chapstick, deodorant, toothpaste, hard candies, you name it.

The weird thing about going back is that you don't need to make a packing list, and you can't really start packing early because you need everything you have? But you can slowly start getting rid of things, going through your stuff, and making sure you won't be carrying anything extra in all that you have. I've got plenty of library books to turn in, and I've got a couple folders of papers that I ought to go through and clear out any unnecessary pieces from. There's things that I will probably give away, and others that I will suggest the International Office give to next semesters' international students. Digitally, I need to take pictures of things and places and people that I won't get to see anymore in 24 days.

I'm excited to go home and share my experiences with friends, family, et cetera. But I'm so sad to leave this place and these people that I've come to love. Lord knows I'm taking as much of it home with me as I can.

"I de smell home"

In my lessons from Nigerians Suleiman and Mustaffa on West African Pidgeon English, I learned the phrase "smell home" the other day. The idea is that, when in your travels you are nearing the time of your return home, you can "smell home" more and more each day.

Last night I actually did get to smell home, in a way. Some of my friends got placed in the Graduate Village flats as their living quarters for the semester due to the lack of available rooms in Vegas. These flats are for adults, and come fully equipped with stove, range, sink, cupboards, and an assortment of pots, pans, random dishes, and oddball silverware from the years of tenants. After spying a large bag of beets in the grocery store for about P10 ($1.55), and a decently-priced container of feta cheese, I decided that I had a craving for one of my favorite foods: beet pizza. So last night my craving was satisfied. I went to 417-A1 and boiled beets, Grady and Caitlin made super-basic pizza crusts, and I oiled 'em up and covered 'em with beet slices and crumbled feta. After cooking them in the oven, I pulled them out, doused them in honey, and we made attempts at cutting them for serving.

People were pretty skeptical at first, but by the end, everyone who tried it liked it. Beet pizza was a hit with my American friends, as well as my Nigerian friends, and I would consider the evening a success. On a random note, Suleiman decided to include me in the acknowledgements of his dissertation and had me spell out my name for his manuscript last night. Cool!

Anyway. The smell of cooked beets really brought me home last night, and with exactly 30 more days to go here, I de smell home more day for day.

Ventures in foreign medicine

This week I came down with a cold - or what people here call "flu". Not "the flu", just "flu". I have flu. You can blame it on the fan, you can blame it on the cooler weather, you can blame it on spending too much time with Amon or any of the other numerous choir members who has it right now, but regardless of how I got it, I have it and now have to deal with it.

If you've ever looked in the pharmaceutical aisle in a foreign country before, you'll know what I mean when I say it's overwhelming. Even the ones in the U.S. can be overwhelming at times. But just think: a whole aisle of pharmaceuticals, but you aren't familiar with any of them at all! That's why I chose to go to Choppies to look for something instead of one of the big grocery stores: less selection means less labels to read before I figure out what I'm looking for.

After about ten minutes of pondering over labels and boxes, I ended up settling for Vicks Acta Pluss Cough Syrup with its "Triple Action Relief" that "soothes throat", "fights dry cough", and "relieves chesty cough". Pretty sure I have all three of those in various degrees. The price was right: 100mL for about P26, or roughly $4. Okay, so it was pricey, but isn't that always the case? I took it home, opened it up, and filled the lid (I don't actually know how much the 10mL dose is, but I'm guessing the lid was probably 5mL), and connected my taste buds with some of the most terrible-tasting gobbledy-gook I have ever put on them in my entire life. Needless to say, I didn't bother taking another capful. I'm not one for taking full dosages anyway. But at least it did feel really good going down. However...

I should have bought the 50mL bottle.

Rapping it up!

My time here in Bots is really coming to a close. With less than 40 days left before my departure, only 3 more weeks of school, and then 2 weeks of exams, things are really starting to fly by. But I am determined to embrace the moment as much as possible to soak in every last bit of life here before I leave.

Take last night, for example. After choir I ate supper with some fellow choristers, then walked back to Vegas with them. We were standing around outside, and before you knew it, Amon was laying down beats and we were all taking turns rapping. This went on for about an hour, in English and Setswana, and was quite fun. I surprised everyone because (and this is a little known trivia fact about me, but now it's going viral, so I guess you'll all know!) I am actually a pretty decent rapper, especially for a white chick, and threw down some awesome rhymes last night. To the point where Amon and Condra told me I need to start writing these things down. Needless to say, I earned my rapping stripes last night.

Last night also marked the end of my political party-hopping here at UB. I have made it an activity of mine to make an appearance at every political rally here on campus for every party. It's been a blast. I learned a lot about the student culture, and I connected with a lot of neat people. But voting went down yesterday (and yes, I voted, a mixed ticket - lots of fun) and the results came out. I didn't stay up for the results, since the campus was pretty stocked with drunks already at 10 o'clock and I didn't think it smart to go out by myself and see what would happen when everyone found out who won. There should be a memo out sometime today with the official results, but judging from the singing I heard when I woke up this morning, and the green shirts I see walking around outside, I'm pretty sure that BNF-BCP coalition took the cake.

Not much else to say for this weekend. I'll be in a choir concert tomorrow that's a pretty big deal, and that's about it. Nothing too exciting planned. A couple of my friends went to Swaziland this morning and will be out hiking and camping for the weekend. I'm a little bit jealous, but I actually really enjoy hanging around campus with my local friends and doing crazy things like random throw-down, bilingual rap sessions.

~Botshelo

Just a little taste:

Last night the choir went to a multicultural event hosted by a group called Reteng ("we are here") which promoted multiculturalism in Botswana and further recognition and representation of the 28 or so languages that they have here. They seemed like a nice group, except for an odd comment from the man giving introductions to all the board members (who were spread out in the crowd) that went something like, "It is disturbing that our board members are so far from us; but I suppose that what is not disturbing is that they are all men." Say what!?

The night got started pretty late (as was expected), but the show was interesting and included a poet, a musical/street theatre performance on embracing ones ethnicity within Botswana, and of course: the UB Choir. :) We actually sang the national anthem, which was terribly embarrassing because I had never sung it before, didn't know the words, and had only heard it maybe once or twice. And I was in the front. I was definitely mimicking Rati's lips as much as I possibly could and praying that no one would notice. Eek! But the rest of the evening I was conveniently located in the second row so that no one could see how I was struggling to get the dances right during our songs and whatnot - I actually got pretty good by the end of the night, I think. And after we performed, we got to eat a free meal. It was the same old: samp, sorghum mash, morogo, chicken, and soup, with the added bonus of smashed beef, which was SUPER DELICIOUS. To drink we got little plastic juice containers of "Ginger Juice". That stuff has a KICK! I couldn't get halfway through mine, it was just too much, so I said "ke shapo" and handed it off to Thuna.

I didn't get any video or pictures from the performance on Sunday, but I did take a few videos in the combi on the way over and back from the performance. You can't see anything because it was dark, but this gives you a pretty good idea of how we roll in UBC. Of course, you probably won't understand half of what we're saying... To see(/hear) the video, click here!

Hot chocolate

Today my adventures led me to get caught in the rain. Twice. :)

This morning we decided to explore a bit outside of Gabs. We got on the combi to the town of Oodi, in search of the Oodi Weavers. I'd been to the town before - it's where I went on the fateful choir camp extravaganza - but I hadn't been to see the weavers. It was a pretty neat, out-there shop. Just chillin' in the middle of a field. Several ladies were hard at work weaving beautiful tapestries of various shapes and sizes. They spin the wool themselves, and dye it themselves, and weave it themselves. Unfortunately, they don't sell the yarn, only the finished products. ;) But I was able to buy a nice little knapsack that looks like the Botswana flag. It started raining while we were in the shop, and we had to cross the street and wait under an awning for the next combi back to Gabs. But we didn't get as wet as we would get later on in the day.

In the evening we met up again to go to a "pitch party" - that is, all the parents come out to watch little kids try to play soccer and everyone buys concessions to help support the school. While we were waiting for the combi to come it started to rain again. But this time it was merciless. The ground quickly became a slippery obstacle course, the umbrella itself betraying its handler with streams of collected water that bent in the wind to soak those beneath. Strangers found themselves clinging together under umbrellas. The pull-out for the buses became a 6"-deep pool, and naturally the Broadhurst 5 decided to wait a good 20 minutes before showing up. But are spirits certainly weren't dampened a bit! We went to the school, enjoyed a mouth-watering burger, and came back to campus to enjoy something rather rare: being cold. I got to take a long, hot shower for the first time, put on my full pjs for the first time in a long time, wear my slippers, and even drink a tin mug of hot cocoa (thanks, Mom!).

Overall, I would call that a successful day. Tomorrow I'll be working on homework and research, then in the evening the choir is singing at some cultural event.

See pictures of the weavers here!

A dream fulfilled...

It's been a recurring dream that I've been having since I got here: I'm walking around campus, searching through all these passages and hallways - buildings that I haven't even seen before. It's much more complex than in real life. And suddenly, I find it. What I've been looking for all this time. I walk through a door and I find myself in a very large room, filled with pianos.

Today, in my waking hours, I found the piano room.

~Botshelo

Matsalo a me!

I had my first birthday out-of-country/continent yesterday (and as usual, it carried into my favorite holiday today!) and I have to say that it was a great time.

I learned something important about throwing parties here: if you want people to come, provide the food, and they will provide the fun and company. If you ask people to go out - no one will join you because they're all broke. If you bring cake to them, they'll throw you a party like you couldn't imagine.

Yesterday Chimo, Kourtney, Kelsey, and Sarahi joined me for supper at Spur, an international steakhouse chain. I got ribs - delicious! - and a double-thick chocolate malt. I was supposed to order my first drink, but I got so full, and then I just didn't feel like it. I'm such a creature of habit. :) The guy waiters all came out and gave me a small dish of ice cream with a sparkler in it and sang/chanted this crazy birthday song for me. It was hilarious, and lots of fun. When we got back, Caitlin and Abra were waiting for me with a cup of ice and a bottle of Wild Africa cream liquor. I took my first taste of spirits. I lasted four small sips and then decided that I couldn't handle the taste anymore. Classic. :) They felt bad for not making it to supper, so they offered to help me out with a cake problem that I had looming on the horizon for today...

I got out of class at 3pm today and went to join Caitlin, Abra, and Grady on the already-in-progress cake baking operation. The plan: bake and frost two single-layer cakes and bring them in at the last 10 minutes of choir to surprise everyone. The idea was inspired by Wazha, who told me that it's normal to bring a cake or something similar to share on your birthday so that everyone can celebrate with you. I went to choir with Sarahi at 6pm. We had a small turnout - maybe 12 people or so, but we practiced nonetheless and had a lot of fun singing songs. It was Sarahi's first time, and I think she had a lot of fun. And then during closing announcements, who should appear but Grady and Caitlin with two chocolate-frosted cakes!! Everyone got so excited, and they sang me a bunch of songs, waited for me to finish my piece of cake before anyone else could take there's, and then continued to sing songs and dance and take pictures, until finally we were all just goofing off entirely. They had me make a speech at one point - I said something about having a good semester, learning to speak Setswana with their help, and that "ke a go rata you all." :) It went over well. The party was fun, lasting a good hour after usual knock-off time, and involving quite a bit of goofiness. I wouldn't have had it any other way.

So now my birthday (which always ends up being a two-day celebration) is coming to a close. I have forgone the opportunity to legally ingest Irish car bombs this evening in the hopes of getting to bed at a reasonable hour and maybe even sleeping in tomorrow if I can. I haven't made a single plan for the weekend, so I don't know what'll go down at all, but we'll see. I'm sure I can come up with something fun to do.

Until next time!

~Botshelo

Topics Course #2: Intro to Morula

Allow me to introduce to you the morula fruit.

You don't buy morula. You pick it up off the ground.

Morula trees are all over the place. I can pick up a ripe, juicy morula on campus, on the way to Choppies, or even in the yard of the Catholic Church when I get out from Setswana mass.

The skin of the morula is thick and leathery. To break it you have to bite through, or pierce it with your fingernail. When you break through it is sudden and the tangy juice jumping into your mouth can cause a sharp reaction.

The texture inside a morula is rather like a mango. You suck the tangy, fibrous fruit off the central pit.

You peel the skin back bit by bit until nothing is left to protect you from the sticky insides and you plop the whole fruit into your mouth.

With tongue and teeth, you strip the pit of as much pulp as possible before popping it out onto the ground.

And that is the morula fruit. Delicious.

For the complete set of pictures from our Morula Fruit Photo Shoot, click here.

Spring Break Photos are in!

So in case you were still wondering, I not only survived my mid-semester break, but I also had fantastic adventures! It would take a good hour or more to tell all the stories of what happened, so I'll spare the details here and just say a few highlights.

I will never forget seeing my first elephant. Sarahi and I were hitching a ride in the back of a little red pickup truck from Nata to Kasane. I was lying down in the bed, trying to get out of the wind for a bit, when Sarahi started slapping my leg. "What?" I asked, getting up. Her response was an awestruck face, a pointing finger, and the wind-strangled cry, "ELEPHANT!!!" I turned and saw: a massive gray creature the size of a tree, flapping its ears at us and pulling up grasses from beside the highway. It was the biggest elephant I would see, but it was certainly not the last. Dozens more would be spotted along the road on our way to, and later from, Kasane. They weren't kidding when they said it was elephant central up there.

Victoria Falls really took my breath away. It was quite impressive, and definitely lived up to its name: Mosi-oa-Tunya. The smoke that thunders. That was my first impression of it, and those three words were all that I could say for a moment or two. The mists surrounding the Falls are hard to describe - they're like the mists you get from misters, except that the droplets are much thicker and actually will rain up and down and all around you. It's bizarre, and such a cool feeling. There's a bridge you can cross that takes you right through it, and it's like getting super-soaked and then lying out in the sun to dry on the other side. Very cool.

The Okavango Delta is probably the most chill, serene, zen place I have ever experienced. Everything is so calm and slow. You're sitting in a dugout canoe, a man poling it along with a big stick, and just gliding over crystalline water and through tall reeds whose gaps form a veritable causeway of paths and junctions and ways from A to B. It's very neat, and very beautiful. The experience of hiking around on the Delta islands, the earth under your feet, taking things at your own pace, seeing animals and reacting to them and they to you... it's much more real and much more natural than the safari truck rides. You have much more of a sense of caution and uncertainty that keeps you on your toes and really on the lookout for animals.

Alright, well if you have any questions, feel free to ask. If you'd like to see pictures, click here! :)

Motswana Tota

Yesterday I underwent a very Botswanan experience: I got my hair plaited. The word in Setswana is "loga" (LOH-ha), and last night unto this morning ke logile. Chimo, my roommate, did the plaiting: I did the sitting. We started around 9pm last night, worked until 1:30am, took a nap until 4am, got up and worked again until 6:30am. At this point, Chimo got ready for class, and I took a nap before skyping with Marlee. When Chimo got back we started again, around 9am, and the whole process was finally complete at about 11am. Overall it was about 9.5 hours, and I made it through today really well considering that I had a mere 2.5 hours of sleep under my belt.

I decided that I was not going to look like all the other international students who got their hair plaited in one solid color that didn't quite match their own and gave no depth - and in fact looked a bit strange. I bought a pack of blond, and a pack of black with maroon. So my hair is mostly blond extensions, with a fair amount of maroon, and a few black braids because we ran out before we finished! Every local I told thought the colors would be a bit iffy, but when I showed up at choir tonight with my hair all done up I was admired by everyone, and told that my roommate not only did a great job, but that the colors were amazing and the braiding followed the shape of my head really well (which is an odd way to make the odd compliment people give here that you have a nicely-shaped head).

My Setswana continues to improve, although still very light in conversation, I understand more and more every day. I text here, which is something I never participate in back home, and I have started using Setswana in my texts. A fully non-English text to a motswana friend of mine got me this response: Wena o motswana tota. Translation: you are a true motswana. One of the my favorite comments on my hair tonight was, "You look like an African." I suppose I'm fitting in pretty well here.

And now the part you've all been waiting for this whole time...

Pictures!

National Botanical Gardens

Sometimes you just know something is going to happen...

This morning Kelsey ushered Sarahi and myself to the National Botanical Gardens. What better way to make such a trip interesting than to take goofy pictures? These are just a couple of the shots we got - just the ones from my camera, she's got a few others on hers - that really "capture the moment" as it were.

When you read this sign, which plant do you think is the one I unknowingly walked up to and started touching before reading the sign on the other side of it?

Ants decided to attack Sarahi's feet when we were out walking later on today, on our way back from African Mall and Main Mall.

I bought some traditional springbok sandals from a vendor at Main Mall to wear with my choir uniform in the competition next Sunday. They are available in two forms: super-furry, or slightly-furry. I tried to find something in between, but no luck. Still, these are nice and simple. And casual enough that I can wear them around and not just when I am dressing up for something. In the words of my rumza, they're "NICE!" on me, so I guess that's good. :) So now I'm up to breaking them in for the next few days or so so that I'll be able to stand in them for who knows how long at the choir concert on the 27th!

Until next time!

~Botshelo

A different kind of discrimination.

I'm walking back to Vegas, on an emotional high after a brief time of hanging out with local friends, and almost back to my dorm when a car pulls up and stops at the gate. They're asking me something, but I don't know what, "Rra?" is my clueless response. A man gets out of the car and comes forward. Was he trying to drive through? "The gate is locked," I offer. He comes up to me, hand extended. "Oh, no," he tells me, "I just wanted to say 'hi'." The smile falls. The high is gone. I take the hand as disinterestedly as possible and keep walking. He tells me his name and asks me for mine. "Botshelo," I say. I'm already past him, I keep on walking, and leave him to his startled confusion.

It's after dark on a Friday night and I'm trying to get from Game City back to UB with my friend. We approach one of the taxi hawkers and ask for a lift. "Forty pula," he says. I'm indignant. "Forty pula? No, fifteen." The bartering continues and he refuses to budge. Another woman - a local - comes up to approach the hawker and he tells her the same: "Forty pula." She becomes just as indignant as me. "Don't worry," I tell her, "I'll walk away and he'll offer you a more reasonable rate, he just can't let on right now that he's trying to charge me more than he should because I'm white." When all was said and done we got the cab for P30. Still too much. And the whole way we listened to the driver tell us things about the U.S. we had no idea were true: that we all have millions of dollars, that we are sponsored by the government to go to school 100% like here in Bots, that we are all guaranteed a job and no one is unemployed, that everyone has fancy new cars and everything that they could ever want. It was hard for him to hear the truth - and I still don't think he believed us.

It's a different kind of discrimination that you find here as a white person living in an African country. When people see you, they almost automatically assume that you have loads of money. Listening to some of the ideas people have about life in the U.S. is disturbing, to say the least. And if you're a woman, you automatically receive much more male attention than you would ever want or need. Perhaps it's just a more verbalized culture here, but I have gotten hit on more in this month and a half than I have in my entire life prior to my arrival in Bots. Frankly, it's rather annoying. Examples like the first one (which happened just a little while ago today) are fewer and farer between for me than they are for some of the other international students - for what reason I cannot be sure - but they can turn a good day into a sour moment real quick. It's insulting to be assumed to be x, y, and z because I'm a blond, white girl walking down the street.

It's a different kind of discrimination which makes you pay more for the same quality products, makes you the potential sexual object and societal leg-up for any male that eyes you, and renders you unable to trust people completely because they may just be hoping to get close to you and steal your stuff.

But it's something you learn to live with, and to try to move beyond. I wouldn't say I'm bitter about it, and so I wouldn't want you to get the wrong impression. There are guys out there (although they are fewer and farther between here) who will actually get to know you before they ask you for your number so that you can meet again, or who don't ask you what you like in a guy and proposition you within the first five minutes of a conversation. And I really don't get it as bad as some of the other international students do. Perhaps because I keep a lower profile, perhaps because I dress more modestly, but who knows?

For now I'm off to choir where, aside from a comedic engagement at camp, I have not been uncomfortably approached by any of the guys. I suppose I've found the good ones.

Not too far from home

This morning after doing some handwashing I went to the mall with my friend Kourtney in search of Cadbury Maple & Pecan Mousse chocolate for my roommate to use as an example for her presentation on how maple syrup is made (which I helped her write. ;). We no sooner walked into the store than were greeted by a stand of Valentine's Day gifts, from the chincy to the cheesy. Okay, I thought they were all cheesy. But what can I say: I've never been a fan of Valentine's Day.

The holiday is pretty well-celebrated here. Several people were wearing red shirts today - especially the BDP people, whose shirt is red, and which they were even selling at a booth outside. I would say at least 40% of the campus that I saw, if not more. I received an anonymous text wishing me a happy Valentine's Day, and multiple friends that I ran into wished me a happy Valentine's Day as well. Not to mention that the number of guys and girls actually holding hands in public today was much higher than it usually is.

Today is just a short post. Just a little bit to say that I find it funny how a commercial holiday in the U.S. is practically the same here, with the red, the gifts, the couples, the advertisements for V-Day dances, the cheesy romantic music playing on the UB radio station, and whatnot. You name it, it's probably here. Today, I could have been in the U.S. and seeing the same things. Interesting how things carry over like that.

One time at Choir Camp...

I have decided that the UB Choir is one of the best things that has happened to me since I came to Botswana - right up there with the discovery of phaphata.

This weekend the choir went "camping" (more like a retreat) at Oodima Junior School about a half hour or so from Gaborone. We spent our time there in a mixture of activities ranging from intense rehearsals (we got a new song that is in Italian - or will be when we add the words - and is very, VERY difficult) to eating, to goofing around. The "official" camp lasted until about 8 or 9 o'clock on Saturday night, leaving the rest of the evening and the following morning for games and fun. And there was plenty of both. We had a braai (bbq - pronounced like "rye" with a "b" in front), but we didn't eat until after midnight, so the intermittent time was spent chatting, goofing off, singing fun songs, and playing games. Not only did I get engaged, but I also learned more games than I can shake a stick at - it was an absolute blast!

I was the only international student who went out of the three of us who have been attending more-or-less regularly. At first I was a bit nervous - the language barrier can make things pretty awkward, especially when you don't know people. But by the end of the weekend, I was glad that I had been the only international because it forced me to come out of my comfort zone and really start to make friends with the locals - and gave them a chance to make friends with me, the less outgoing of the international students in choir. When Sunday rolled around I was someone people could have fun with, and no longer just the girl who comes in and tells people how to sing rhythms because they don't know how to read music, I was Botshelo (boht-SAY-loh), the international student who somewhat fits in as a very light-skinned Motswana. I also became much more comfortable with the situation of having people speak Setswana around me. And, while my Setswana still isn't good enough to be conversant, I would say that I am starting to speak it myself - little by very little - and that I can actually somewhat follow conversations (the more English helper-words thrown in the better!) and stories even though I don't have much of an idea what they're actually saying aside from a couple words and phrases here and there.

My next goal is to find someone who will be willing to help bring me up to conversational level, because the Setswana course we take is not terribly immersive or intense, and if that's all I have to go on I won't be speaking much better than I am now by the end of the semester. My professor told me that I didn't belong in the class because I was putting things together too fast and asking too many questions about manipulating the information I already knew to make out information I haven't been taught yet, which tells me that it will be entirely up to me to take my Setswana to the next level before I go.

Well, I hate to sound like a broken record, but I have to finish my light supper before I head off to choir rehearsal. Hopefully we can make a bit more headway on this terribly difficult new song of ours!

Until next time!

~Botshelo

The Black Market on Lab Coats

It was Tuesday, the day of my first real lab in Principles of Ecology. I sat awkwardly at the back of the room, positioning myself behind the other students to hide my color in a sea of white. At the University of Botswana, it is mandatory for all students to wear a lab coat, buttoned up, while in the lab - even if all you're going to do is count colored corn kernels and it's 86° outside with no fans and no AC to cool you down.

The lab began with the usual announcements, and a stern warning about wearing the proper lab attire for future labs - a sort of "we'll let it slide: this time." I partnered with a random guy at the back who introduced himself as Owen. Our experiment, a simulation of natural selection which required the counting and moving of colored corn kernels, was a breeze. We flew through it, and were out of our three-hour lab session about half-way through. The first ones - and no one else looked even close to finishing.

On the way out, he asked me, "Do you need a lab coat?" "Yes," I replied. "How much can you pay?" he asked. "Fifty pula," I stated. "Ok, I'll call you when I get it." We exchanged numbers, parted ways, and I headed off to an early supper before choir rehearsal. Let me explain something about what just happened: lab coats are not cheap. The school bookstore has the monopoly on them, and the chances of me finding such a random article in another store are slim to none. The cost for a lab coat from the UB bookstore? app. P180. That's about $30. And P50? You're looking at about $7.40. It's a pretty significant difference.

The next day I was eating lunch at Moghul when Owen came up. Turns out he'd been calling me all day but had one digit wrong in my number. No matter: he pulled out the lab coat, I tried it on, folded it into my bag, and handed him a P50 bill. Transaction complete.

It was Tuesday, the day of my second real lab in Principles of Ecology. I sat right up front, just another white lab coat in a sea of white lab coats. And of course, at the University of Botswana it is mandatory for students to have their lab coats buttoned in the lab, even if all you're going to do that day is watch a video, so I was sweltering in 86° heat with no fan and no AC to cool me down. But standing at my workbench, lab coat shining in the sun, I have to say that I felt pretty darn cool.

:)

It's all in the details.

Moths aren't uncommon here. Most windows don't have screens, and the bathroom windows are always open, so I see lots of different insects in my daily comings and goings. But this little guy I saw last night was definitely my favorite so far. Super small, and so beautifully and solidly colored that he didn't even look real at first.

It's the halfway point of the week and I've been busy. On Saturday I went to a Seventh-Day Adventist church service in the UB Student Center with a girl from the poetry reading sessions. On Sunday I went to an Anglican Church down the street. Both were interesting experiences, but I think I might keep looking around. Sunday afternoon saw me at choir rehearsal from 1600 to 1900, and then a skype date with my parents, leaving me pretty voiceless for the rest of the night. Monday was laundry and swimming - 1000 meters this time! - both of which occurred at portions in the rain, but luckily my clothes were still dry by the end of the day. Tuesday was another busy day of classes, including a fun ecology lab that reminded me of predation lessons from middle school science (probably the last time I dealt with most of the topics ecology is going to cover). At choir rehearsal last night they announced that we would now be meeting on Mondays and Wednesdays too. Since Wednesdays are when I go to the poetry reading session, I'm not sure I'm going to be making that, but we'll see how it all balances out. I could always come late to poetry, since choir is only one hour long and poetry is two and a half at least.

Today is paper-printing, more laundry-washing (if things stay dry), possibly swimming, and poetry tonight - at which I may just read my poem "Stairwell Jazz" that I wrote freshman year. I'll let you know how it goes if I do! :) The homework load is starting to pick up just a little bit, with a decent amount of reading and now a lab report to write for next Tuesday, but it still doesn't compare with the amount of work we have to do in the States. I suppose I can't really complain. I may start delving into some independent research of my own just to see, since I will probably do an independent study next semester. We'll see!

Gotta have my Chucks...

Converse All-Stars. Chuck Taylors. They are the iconic American shoe. Something we developed in the 20s or 30s and have kept looking the same classic style ever since. They've made appearances in several films, from Sandlot to Grease. It's fairly common for people to have them in the U.S., although I wouldn't say that everybody has a pair - maybe 50%.

In Botswana, that number is more like 85%, if not higher.

Chucks are super-popular here, and everyone seems to have a pair. In general, they cost more here than they do in the states. I've seen them go for around P300, or $45, and more, for just the plain classics with nothing special about them. Crazy! But as with the instance of the ethernet chord I got for P10 when everyone else paid P80+, you really just have to shop around and get lucky. I was at Main Mall and found a pair of burgundy hi-tops in my size only for P70 - just over $10. Best buy ever. I splurged, and now I have my first pair of real Chuck Taylors, and I wear them with pride with every other Motswana here. I've even been complimented on them.

Fashion is interesting here. It's a strange combination of meetings between African, American, Indian, and European styles. A lot of outfits you see people wearing have a bit of distinctly African flair, and there are certain brands (Ama Kip Kip!) that are specifically African, but you can see a lot of American influence in styles as well (need I repeat my epithet on Chucks?). And then there are the styles that perhaps existed in America at one point, but certainly aren't there now, but people are rockin' over here. Example: the girl I saw wearing boy-cut, semi-skinny jeans that had that bleach/acid stain pattern that was popular for awhile in middle school. But she was rockin' those jeans. No girls wear plain tshirts here - it's all fitted, and often fancy or stamped with some saying or other (some of which are funny to me, like "skate 'til you die"). I tried to fit in for awhile, but on the day when I ran out of fitted shirts I slipped on that baggy tee and blue jeans and I decided that I can't be dressing up all the time because it's just too uncomfortable for me. I love wearing t-shirts and jeans. And the Chucks, of course, are an added bonus.

So that's my little bit on fashion. I just thought I'd reflect on that a bit. I am now a member of poetry reading session, University choir, and possibly the History Society. We'll see how things go. No big plans this weekend, just hanging out, going to the movies, baking brownies, and writing my first paper of the semester. Should be good.

Until next time!

~Jaclynn

UB Choir

I know I only posted just a couple days ago, but I had to write a quick post on my experience tonight. After a long and full day of classes I wound my way through the maze of the western UB campus to find the "old student center committee room". The building has nothing on the new Student Center, but I do appreciate the open courtyards filled with trees. But I digress.

We found the committee room, and we found the UB choir. It is a club, sponsored by the Student Representative Committee (SRC). It is free to join, and probably contains about 30 singers by rough estimate. We sat around for a minute or two when a young man with impeccable posture in a wife beater and English cap led us all in stretches. Were we in the right place? Yes. This choir stretches, arms, legs, and back, before singing. After our stretching we did some vocal warmups. Everyone started singing a song that they all knew that I couldn't make out the foreign words to. But no matter, I picked out the alto part and sang along anyway, even if my consonants were all wrong.

Our director switched to a small man dressed very well who handed out sheet music and began to teach us a song in four parts with do-re-mi instead of the words that were given. I suppose that it was alright, since I would be trying to pronounce unknown words and sing notes I was unsure of at the same time. After we got through the first two pages, an hour had passed, and after some announcements we called it a day. It was an hour of listening to the strongest basses I've ever heard, to the untouchable beauty of African chorus, and to the simple language of solfege. Rehearsals are Sundays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays. The concert is the Sunday beginning Spring Break. Will I be able to be there? I don't know. But we'll see. For now, I enjoyed the singing and the song.

The first week of classes?

There's many factors that come into play when one discusses the first week of classes at the University of Botswana. I'll try to summarize them below:

1. Problems with registration (done manually here) meant that many people were still waiting for their print-outs (verification of successful registration) on Monday and Tuesday, or in my case, Thursday.

2. Professors, likewise, and for the same reasons, do not have print-outs of their class rosters.

3. Students received their monetary allowance from the government this week (and who wants to get an education when they're rich?)

4. It is typical for both professors and students alike to miss the first week of classes entirely because, as many Batswana will tell you, nothing really happens.

I survived my first week of classes, but most classes were sparsely populated and very little happened in many of them. After a bit of finagling, I have created a class schedule that leaves my Fridays completely open. Translation: I won't have to skip classes to get in a 3-day weekend of travel. My courses are as follows:

1. History - Growth, Policy, and Poverty in Africa, Latin America, South and Southeast Asia.

2. African-Caribbean Literature

3. Biology - Principles of Ecology

4. Introduction to Setswana

5. The Sociology of Literature

6. Children's Traditions and Dramatics (looking at children's game, storytelling, and other traditions. I thought it might be useful to my park ranger career. :)

The last two I am trying out new this week, and I may drop one or the other, or I may keep both if I think I can handle 6 courses. The credit load is only 16 hours, and the word on the street is that homework loads are much lighter here than back in the States, so I'm thinking I might be okay. Whatever the case, I need to keep myself busy, because so far I've been academically bored, and that's no fun!

A couple fun things I've done in the past several days include hiking up Kgale Hill (pronounced KHAH-lee; see pictures here), a visit to the National Museum and Art Gallery (where I was startled and a bit disturbed to witness the HIV/AIDS awareness movement in the form of phallus and condom art), the purchasing of a pair of burgundy hi-top Chuck Taylors for 70 pula ($10.57) in Main Mall, and this weekend's cultural excursion through the international office which included learning about traditional administration and judiciary goings-on at a kgotla (KHOHT-lah), ancient rock wall paintings, the biggest, oldest wild fig tree ever, sleeping in a mud hut, and more! (see pictures here)

The first real week of classes starts tomorrow, and I'm excited to see how school goes once we all fall into the swing of things.

Until next time!

~Jaclynn

Topics Course #1

I have a mini notebook that I keep with me here in which I'm going to write on various thoughts that occur to me during my time here. It's something a bit less formal than a journal, and a bit more commentatively specific. When I write a good one and choose to post it on here, I'm going to call it one of my "Topics Course" series. So, without much further ado, here is Topics Course #1: Ants.

How many of you have to shake the ants out of your toothbrush before your teeth-cleaning regimen? My guess is none, but I do. For some reason the ants really appreciate my toothbrush. Before brushing, I shake off my toothbrush case on the outside, open it and dump out my toothbrush before shaking off the inside, & then shake off the toothbrush itself. Kind of a process, I know, but it seems to do the job. I think that once I meet more locals I'll have to ask if any of them have this problem & what to do about it. Until then, they don't bother me too bad, so long as I don't eat them and they don't eat me - which is more than I can say for the vigilante mosquitoes.

Arrived!

I'm safe and sound in Botswana. The experience so far has been interesting, and I have been made grateful for my experiences in Zambia, which already taught me the art of patience in Africa. While many around me have been reeling at the unclarity and the long waits, I have simply observed and not partaken in their agitation. The weather here is terribly hot and sticky, but it's cooling down a bit at least for the evening snooze. Tomorrow we register for classes and the other students return to campus. We will also get moved into our official dorms (these were just placeholders for now) with local roommates. I'm excited to have someone to tell me what I'm supposed to do with myself. :) Anyway, I will write more later, when there is more to write. For now, I'm going to hang out with other international students, and then attempt to sleep off my jet lag. Welcome to Botswana!

Lift off!

It's the moment we've all been waiting for... well, maybe I'm the only one who's really been waiting for it fervantly. Regardless, it's here. In a couple hours my parents and I will be driving down to Chicago, to O'Hare, where they will drop me off and I will embark on the late-night beginning leg of my journey to the University of Botswana. I won't arrive until Wednesday morning, and I probably won't be able to sit for longer than 20 minutes until Saturday, but either way I'm pretty excited.

The bag is weighing in at 49.8 lb., with a stuffed carry-on and an equally-stuffed "personal item" to boot. Luckily I discovered that on the way back, South African Airways allows for 30kg in your checked luggage. Essentially 66 lb. But for now, I have to deal with the all-too-American limit of 50 lb. and cut my losses (namely several travel packs of kleenexes and two bars of soap).

It's hard to believe that I'm really on my way, that this day has actually come, and that in a few days, I'll be waking up in a dorm room in Africa. And the next time that I post to this blog, it'll be through the internet services of the University of Botswana.

You're allowed to think I'm nuts. :)