Wave Your Flag, TIA (This is Africa!)

I’ve been in Botswana a month now, and I still feel like I’m on one big vacation. The past two weeks in Gaborone and traveling around Northern Botswana have been a whirlwind of unforgettable memories. I feel like every time I get the chance to post I have so much to say, so I will try to condense my thoughts and stories to only the most interesting information ☺ (You all know how great I am at telling stories)

Last weekend, I went to one of my host cousin, Utsile’s, graduation party a very “So-Cal” Golf Resort in Phakalane, a town on the outskirts of Gaborone. It was a little taste of America—a pretty change from the rest of the past month. Aty, Tumisan (Alicia’s sister) and their cousin Abigail requested we do a photo shoot of them. They are quite the diva trio with high heals and model-like poses. Delicious all-you-can-eat buffet, it truly felt more like a wedding than a graduation party. Apparently Utsile had been in the UK for the past 10 years studying in a private boarding school and the University of Glasgow. She even had a British accent! The party was a very warm welcome back for her.

We also celebrated Krisstina’s 21st birthday in style that Saturday night at Primi (I wasn’t too hungry after the graduation party but it was still a great time!) and Lizzard Lounge. Lizzard Louge wasn’t very crowded when we got there but by the time we left, it was hopping. Clearly the American girls bring the crowds ;)

Sunday morning I woke up early so I would catch my mom before she went to church. The service was at Bible Life Ministries and lasted from 9 am to a little before 1 pm. Despite the length, it was truly a spectacular service. Everyone was dancing, jumping, singing and praising God – mind, body, and soul. I got pretty emotional just observing how people were consumed in prayer. Coming from the very structured, “hands-off” parish at St. Teresa’s in Summit, it was refreshing to see such an enthusiastic congregation. The pastor would read Bible verses, preach a bit, and then have the congregation repeat him. Sunday’s service was about death—a pretty relevant topic for this audience. I would definitely go back again.

Scandal at Old Naledi Clinic! The head matron for the district came to the clinic on Monday because doctors were complaining about the lazy, unmotivated nurses at the clinic. When she came to check on the clinic, all of the nurses hid in the trailer outside to avoid facing her or dealing with any of the patients. Of course this equated to even longer queues. We have been talking to Batsi and our professor Dr. Phaladze about switching around clinics. To get the most out of our public health education experience, it would be nice to see how other clinics, hospices, hospitals, and home-based care work. Hopefully they will have made some changes by the time we get back from our week long homestay in Mochudi because clinic work has gotten pretty mundane.

I had quite the scary experience on the combi a few days ago coming back from UB. In the chaos of getting my money out in the very crowded combi my phone fell through the crack between the combi door and the floor. The lady behind me was very helpful and called my phone twice. The second time, a man picked up! He had been driving his combi and spotted the phone in the road, picked it up, and happened to be going to the same station that I was at. What are the odds!? I gladly gave him 20 pula ($3) for his drinks that night.

On Thursday, Alicia, Kelsey, Krisstina, Christina, and I headed off for our Salt Pans adventure. We had quite the 5 hour bus ride to Francistown. At every stop, vendors crowded onto the bus trying to sell us cold, day-old Hungry Lion (fast food chicken and chips), brown bananas, airtime, and random candy. After the intial shock of these overwhelming vendors, it just got pretty annoying. We had a good time though, telling stories and singing along to American music on our ipods. Skae and his friends G, BG, and Malik graciously (and may I add, somewhat drunkenly) at the Francistown bus rank. Skae is Thobo’s “brother”/best friend- and Thobo is Kelsey’s 24 year old uncle who lives in Francistown. Skae and his buds took us to Thobo’s
“house” aka tiny servants quarters. Pictures don’t really do justice to the size of the room. The lieu was outside and the room consisted of a double size mattress pad on the floor. Man were we in for an interesting night—at least it was free! Skae, BG, G, and Malik took us around town and somehow we ended up in a parking lot dancing to “Wavin Flag” and Jason Derulo on someone’s car stereo. A good time was had by all.

After another three hour, VERY crowded bus ride to Gweta the next morning, we arrived at Planet Baobab. It reminded me of all the luxury hotels we stayed at when we were traversing South East Asia. After a little scare about our quadbiking trip (they said they didn’t have any room for us. Luckily we were forceful enough that they made room!) we settled into our accommodations. Since one of the tents was broken, they upgraded two of us to a hut—so Krisstina and I volunteered to stay there for the night. The hut was beautiful with mosquito netted beds, traditional decorations, and best of all, a rainfall shower!!! This weekend already couldn’t have been better. Although we didn’t have swimsuits with us, we braved the unheated yet very beautiful pool (see pictures!) While we were sitting around the pool as the sunset, we started chatting with an American woman and her daughters Fanny and Lucy. She was very friendly and told us all about her family’s adventures around Africa. Half way through the conversation we asked about her job, and she revealed she was an actress, an actress we all knew and loved from Grey’s Anatomy— what an awesome surprise!

We were off to our quadbiking excursion early – good thing I’m so used to getting up at 6 am! The five of us were accompanied by a couple from Germany and a man from the Netherlands. Our guide (can’t recall his name, but he was very amiable!) drove us in his safari vehicle for 1.5+ hrs. through the bush to our destination. It seemed like forever—perhaps because we were just so excited! Stopped by the meerkat colony and got up close and personal with a bunch of Timon-like meerkats! Disney really did it right with their Lion King characters. The meerkats were lots of fun to watch dig and pop up and down—and they didn’t mind human presence one bit! Shortly after “playing with the meerkats” we started our quadbiking adventure. I rode with Kelsey (she drove half, I drove the other half). I have truly never seen anything like it- white expanses of pure NOTHINGNESS! We actually saw water mirages in the distance because it was so barren. Its crazy to think how little life existed in the salt pan. It got pretty warm by midday, luckily we had on our head scarves on to keep sand out of our face and protect our heads from the strong rays. The guide told me the ground can get up to 60 degree celcius during the summer months—definitely not something you want to touch! We attempted to take pictures jumping in the air—it took a few tries, but eventually we succeeded! The guide showed us some authentic stone tools guides had found over the years from hundreds of thousands of years ago. We ended up driving about 46 kilometers total—a very worthwhile and enjoyable experience! The excursion was followed by a delicious lunch with our guide and a drive back on the main roads (through the villages) rather than the bush.

My very dusty self was quite excited to take a warm shower when we got back. We spent the remainder of the evening chilling out, taking pictures, and watching the sunset on top of new friends’ (Grey’s Anatomy family) rented safari Land Rover at the waterhole. Although we didn’t see any elephants (Plant Baobab guides were telling us that they frequent the waterhole at dusk), we had a great time. Late dinner (it took them 2+ hours to prepare our food), but at least it was a change from the peanut and jelly sandwiches that had become an official staple in our traveling diet.

Given the rather sketchy/non-existent nature of buses from Gweta to Francistown, our new friends offered to give us a ride in their safari car. It was a tight squeeze to say the least—two in the trunk with the luggage and three in the middle with the kids on our laps. It was only bearable because we stopped several times to changes seats! But the mother gave us a lot of great information about places we should visit for spring break /after classes ended. I’m truly grateful for all of their charity this weekend. I can only hope that I will have the finances and time to come back and travel extensively with my family as they do! The bus from Francistown to Gaborone was another headache and a half (as per usual) but our sweaty, exhausted selves made it back to Gaborone in one piece. "Wavin Flag" and "Waka Waka Africa" were played on repeat for the entire 5 hours-- you can only imagine how annoyed of it we got! It was a crazy weekend and it felt good to be home, but I wouldn’t have traded the experience for anything!

Its been back to the swing of things at UB/the clinic now. We are headed to Mochudi on Saturday, so I have been working on the several essays due when we get back. Its been pretty hard to be motivated to do work after such an awesome weekend. And, every time I have internet, I have the unrelenting urge to check my email or chat with friends and family on Facebook.

On Tuesday night, I was diligently working on my clinical log for my Public Health Practicum when my sister Aty came in my room and informed me that my host mom had just been robbed and was at the police station. Apparently she had been driving home from her sister’s house and was stopped at a traffic light (called a robot here) when a man came to the passenger side door, shattered the passenger-side window with a sharp object, took her purse, and ran. My mom was, understandably, pretty shaken up and worried after the incident. Luckily she was ok, but she wasn’t able to cancel her credit cards until Wednesday morning because they don’t have 24-hour services here! I’m sure its very frustrating to have the added financial burden of paying for a new window (not covered by insurance), lost cash, and new IDs.

On Wednesday, Alicia, Kelsey, and I went to Gaborone City Council with an environmental health professor to talk with an officer there about the environmental health system here in Gaborone. The presentation was pretty unimpressive but one thing I got out of the morning was with regards to meat inspection in Gaborone. Apparently because the task is shifting jurisdictions, no one has been inspecting meat since last September! I was pretty outraged considering the number of health concerns surrounding meat. No one is inspecting slaughterhouse facilities and practices, meat quality and safety, and food-borne diseases. And the worst part is, the public is totally unaware!! To all my vegetarian friends out there--after the day’s proceedings, I decided to officially become vegetarian (at least for the duration of my study abroad experience). If circumstances allow it, I hope to get involved in exposing the issue to the media and raising awareness for meat safety here—I feel like this could be something very rewarding to get involved in. More to come in a few weeks hopefully!

Wow...if you are still reading, God bless you. I’m sorry I’ve dragged on for so long, but I feel like I have so much to say. Next week I will be doing my village homestay in Mochudi which I’m sure will be quite the experience. Two weeks after that my parents are coming and then I’m off for Spring Break. This semester is already going far to fast!

Until next time..Go Siame!


PS- JW—you were definitely right about Linga Longa. The perfect place to a) get internet/skype b) chill c) get awesome food! I see myself spending a lot of my free time in the future there.