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