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!