Pre-Short Vacation Life Update

Post 2

So its been ages since I last posted. Next week is short vacation and so this week has actually required me doing a significant amount of work for my ACM class and my research project, meaning that realistically this has been one of the most productive weeks of the semester so far. Fortunately, that is exactly in line with what I was hoping for from my time here. By having only 2 real classes (Setswana is interesting and difficult but is still an intro language course) it has allowed me a significant amount of time to meet new people, go to new places, and travel around both the city and the country. I have already briefly mentioned my trip to Durban and, while I have plans with the ACM group to go on Safari in the Okavango Delta (it’s the Planet Earth episode where the fish come out of the mud and crawl to the water when it starts raining!) and then to Central Kalahari Game Reserve, which takes up almost a quarter of the country. I think. Anyways, after that we’re already making plans for Easter Break (because we get 2 days without classes, I think) to go up to Victoria Falls for a long weekend. Some friends of mine have already made the trip and said it was absolutely amazing, so I cannot wait. That’s in the future though. For now, I’m pumped for the safari, and for the week away from Gaborone. As fun as it is being in the city, after a little while it really dawns on you just how small it is. I come from Portland, which is a reasonably small city in and of itself, and I can imagine going home and being overwhelmed with everything that there is to do. It’s not just the international kids who feel this way though. A couple Sundays ago some friends of mine from Zimbabwe loaded a bunch of people into the back of a pickup truck and took everyone outside the city to a nearby village called Gabane. We didn’t really see much of the village since it went from sweating-while-cruising-down-the-highway-in-the-bed-of-a-truck weather to its-raining-and-you’re-in-the-bed-of-a-truck-genius weather about halfway there. The overcast sky and occasional rain continued for most of the evening, leaving us stuck in a restaurant bar combo called Mountain Rest. Or Mountain View. Or Mountain something. Everyone agrees there is a Mountain in the name, but after that it gets confusing. The great part about this place is that you can buy raw meat and braai (grill) it there. So what we end up doing is sitting around, having a drink, buying and braaiing some meat, having another drink, and just relaxing. Taking things easy on a Sunday, most people have at least a little work so it’s not too crazy and you just get to spend some time out of the city, out of UB and into a different place. It’s exactly what you need sometimes, just a change of pace.

Another thing that I want to mention really quick before ending this post is Rib Night. I’ve shared my experiences with it to some people individually but I want to get this out on the interweb. Rib Night is the greatest invention of all time. I plan on replicating Rib Night when I come home. I don’t know how to cook ribs, but I’m going to learn. Rib Night consists of half priced ribs at a couple of places around Gaborone. This means that you can get 2 giant racks of ribs, 2 or 3 beers, and cabs there and back (if you split with friends) for around $15 US. That’s impressive wherever you are. To sweeten the deal even more, the ribs are good. Not like good for the price, I’m talking plain ol’ fashioned this is how ribs are supposed to taste smothered in barbeque sauce good. PLUS they give you chips (French fries). What else do you need in the world expect maybe a new belt after the first 3 or 4 of them? That’s rhetorical, the answer is “nothing.”

Okay that’s long enough for now, I’ll either update once more before flying out to Safari or else expect some sort of post in which I gloat over being able to see really really big animals. Up close. Ah sneak preview! We’re canoeing down a river that’s full of hippos and crocodiles! So excited!

Day 41 (ish)

I was going to write a really long post detailing my adventures in getting to Botswana, but the trip was reasonably tame so after writing a bit on that I figured I’d just be boring you to death. There weren’t any disastrous in flight problems or hi-jacking attempts. The worst thing that happened really was that I spilled pineapple juice from my AirBotswana breakfast on my shirt right before getting into Gaborone. The weirdest thing, however, was when we were flying to Johannesburg the airline is required to do some air sanitizer spraying of the cabin to try to kill airborne germs or something like that, but which mostly just makes the place a little odd smelling for a while.

So I’ve been in Gaborone for the last month and a half and have been having an amazing time. Classes have been exactly what I expected so far: The Program Director class has been interesting though a bit generic, I’m horrible at Setswana but try which the professor appreciates, and the UB elective (Demographic Aspects of the HIV/AIDS Epidemic) has been more of a lesson in cultural differences in the ways that HIV/AIDS is viewed than a really intense academic experience. The UB elective has been particularly pleasing as one of the reasons that I was attracted to this ACM program was that it gave me a chance to see the types of classes that University of Botswana students were exposed to and the ways that a variety of people interact with their professor in a system that is significantly different from the academic system that I am used to at Macalester. Anyway, that sort of sums up the academics here so far. I expect that as soon as I start doing some real substantial research for my independent project that I will be swamped with work, but until then this has been a nice opportunity to get to know a wide range of people in Gaborone. It helps that a lot of the International kids that I hang out with are perceived as being interested and willing to do pretty much anything at anytime, something that I personally am able to do due to the small workload that I have had for the first month of school. An interesting side note: The first week of classes at UB is a add/drop period during which a large number of the students don’t attend classes as they feel nothing important will happen. This, in turn, has encouraged a large number of the professors to stop attending their own classes during this week as they expect no students to show up. Totally random but it’s not something that I think would fly at Macalester or most other small liberal arts colleges.

I’ll end this brief post talking a little about my living situation and day to day life at UB. It’s a little mundane and all but I think that there are some cool differences. First off, I’m living with another international student from Finland. There are several international guys who are living with local roommates, something I’m a bit jealous of though I get along really well with my current roommate so I’m definitely not complaining. Anyway that’s a big start, having not had the opportunity to live with any international students while at college in the states. I’ve been eating most of my meals either in a refectory (cafeteria) or from women who sell sausage dogs or homemade food, similar to the refectory food but a bit cheaper and much tastier, outside the main gates. The campus is significantly larger than my home campus in the States and so I have been walking a lot more than usual going to classes and trying to take care of stuff at the international office. This has made me a bit late for class sometimes when I forget how far I actually have to go and how long it takes me and has frustrated me when I am forced to return to the International office a half dozen times over a couple days to try to take care of visa or student waiver issues so that I am legally allowed to remain in the country. Oh, and I have successfully hand washed laundry twice, though I started using some of the washing machines on campus and found them to be a bit easier…

Okay, that’s all for now, please post some responses or comments if there are any particular questions that you’d like for me to address!