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.