Seems like forever since I wrote on this blog just about Botswana. I feel like have been in Gaborone now for eons. With my African Traditional Religions final this upcoming Wednesday, the Botswana vs. Tunisia soccer match (biggest match of the year…supposedly a qualifying FIFA game) Alicia and my Setswana Food presentation on Thursday, a public health paper due Friday, and my parasitology exam the next Wednesday, i can see the bittersweet end to my stay here in Gabs! After finals I'm heading up to Maun and the Okavango Delta for some quality safaris, mokoro rides, and camping with the CIEE folk. Im getting super super excited about that...it will be nice to have everything planned out. We'll be livin the good life flying to Maun rather than suffering through 12+ hours of stuffy combi rides on buses that may or may not break down or run out of gas. December 4th I am officially headed off to GHANA!! After a lot of changes in my plans, this ended up making the most sense. I will be working in Accra at African Street Kids Orphanage Foundation (www.askof.org) for four days before meeting up with my gtown friend Ivy Higgins and a few other girls who have been working in middle-of-nowhere Navrongo doing public health research and travelling the coast. To say its going to be an adventure is quite the understatement. They seem to be much better experts at Western Africa so it will be interesting to see what they plan. I know there will be beaches, markets, slave castles, rainforests, and stories a plenty. Lets just hope I don't get malaria in the process! I’m stoked to work at the orphanage...it will be interesting to see the differences between poverty in small Gaborone and sprawling, dense Accra.
The last month or so have been pretty much same old, same old here in Gabs. Some highlights though include:
- working with the Kings Foundation: One day I was walking to Riverwalk when I saw a car with "Kings Foundation- Developing Kids through sports”. I was intrigued, so when I reached Linga Longa I decided to look the foundation up. Based in the UK, Kings Foundation also has a branch here In Botswana. I decided to shoot the Botswana contact an email, and within about five minutes, the guy responded! Since then I have been helping out with the Tsholofelo Outreach Program. Tsholofelo is one of the more impoverished areas in Gabs. One evening two drunk girls walked through the field our kids were playing in and shouted in Setswana in presumably much more violent/angry words: “Nothing is ever going to come of this program. This kids aren’t going to be anything!” It made me and the other leaders pretty upset, but there is not much you can do about that. Hopefully the kids didn’t make much out of it. Kings Foundation runs sports and games for kids of all ages every Friday from 4-6 pm. They have organized soccer, cricket, and parachute games for the little ones. After the first hour and a half, the leaders (who are students/young adults who used to be part of the program) sit the children down and teach them about the Holy Spirit and good Christian morals. Although my Setswana isn’t perfect, its so exciting to see how into the program the kids get. Oliver, a loud, gregarious sports coach, leaders King’s Foundation in Botswana. He’s been so helpful, actively trying to get me involved. This past Friday, Krisstina and I led a Frisbee station. The kids were super enthusiastic and loved the relay race competitions. At the end we played a little ultimate. Not quite like the Foyas, but the kids got really in to it! Hopefully we can try it out again this upcoming week. On Saturday, we are also going with the kids to BBS mall to help with garbage cleanup! Not the most glamorous of Saturday morning activities, but should be rewarding.
- Halloween Party at UB- In true American fashion, a few of the International students put together a Halloween Beer Olympics Bash. I was pretty stumped about what to wear..not exactly a lot Halloween stores much less fabric stores or Goodwills. Luckily someone suggested an American tourist—the perfect suggestion for me given the mounds of safari gear (read: sun hat, khaki button down shirt, zip off pants, tevas, money belt) I brought/inherited from my mom. I thought I looked pretty good, someone even asked me if I was South African. The evening was lots of fun—really got into the flip cup and cricket competitions.
- spinning with Ntati @ 5 am: After getting lost several times running in the dark in Block 6, I decided to search for alternatives. One day when my Setswana teacher Ntat was giving me a ride home she mentioned she was a spinning instructor. My mind flashed back 12:15 spinning class with Ron and I jumped with excitement. She mentioned how there was a new gym in Block 6..and sure enough..its only a 5 min walk from my house! I have religiously been going on every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. SOO much fun..I feel like im back into the swing of things—getting back into Frisbee shape will definitely be easier. The classes aren’t as demanding or as long and the bikes aren’t as nice, but its pretty impressive for Botswana. I just wish I had found this jem earlier!
- Maternal Health Clinic at Princess Marina Hospital- Towards the beginning of our stay in Gaborone, Kelsey, Alicia, and I met Dr. Nicola Zetola when he was starting research into multi-drug resistant TB and HIV at Old Naledi Clinic. He had mentioned we should contact him but we never did anything. I finally decide to shoot him an email to see if he could give us some insight into healthcare in Botswana, and boy, am I glad that I did! Dr. Zetola basically took us under his belt and we are now working at the Botswana-UPenn Partnership funded Maternal Health Clinic at Princess Marina Hospital. The clinic deals with mostly HIV-positive women with precancerous lesions. Women are Leeped (a surgical procedure in which the lesion is cut out of the cervix on the same day that they are examined. Women who get pap smears at local clinics or are seen for smaller procedures are often referred to this Leep Clinic. In exchange for help with data entering and cleaning, Kelsey, Alicia, and I are developing our own clinical research projects to hopefully be published in the future. Mine is looking at HIV-related factors and the progression of cervical cancer in Batswana women. Although I haven’t developed too much yet, I’m super excited to continue with my study when I get back to the US. Along with doing data collection and entering, we also get to observe in the clinic. In just one morning, the doctors performed 17 Leep procedures! Talk about efficiency. It was so awesome helping out in the surgery room and asking Doreen questions as she performed each procedure. Our experience at the clinic has been all the more rewarding because of the amazing staff. Ronnie, a South African born in Zambia, is like a mother to the three of us. She is basically the source of all answers. Ronnie took us out to Fresh Café and even let us stay at her gorgeous house in Phakalane for a night! Between the refrigerator exclusively for drinks and chocolate, relaxing by the pool side, doing all my laundry in her WASHER AND DRYER, and watching Slumdog Millionaire, we had an amazing time! The doctors and nurses at the clinic are also great. Dr. Zetola isn’t around much, but I have grown to love Mimi and Doreen. Doreen is the gynaecologist and basically wonder woman. I seriously don’t know how she does it. She basically runs the entire Botswana-UPenn partnership and performs almost every Leep procedure! Doreen is training Mimi to eventually take over her job. Mimi is an absolute joy to be around as well—always has something cheery to say. Lastly, there is Ma Minare, the nurse and “mother goose” of the clinic. Her compassionate and caring nature make the clinic all the more enjoyable.
- climbing Kgale Hill, twice- One Saturday, my international friend Nick and I decided to climb Kgale Hill when we were bored. After forging our way up to the top (batsi style) and enjoying the views of Gaborone, we decided to head down before the sunset. We also thought it would be prudent to take the path down so that we would for SURE get down before it was dark…..well…..we got to the bottom and there was a tattered sign that said “Turn around” and a huge locked gate. Just fabulous. We ended up trekking up the entire hill all over again. However, by the time we reached the top it was dark. We couldn’t find the path and were forced to scale the hill down, step by step, with only our cell phone flashlights to guide us. Luckily we only have a few scars to show for the horrific 2 hour journey down. Definitely not easy climbing down the rocks/through very thorny bushes in the pitch dark. At one point Nick fell and we had to stop because he got dizzy (he told me later that he was incredibly squeamish about blood and almost passed out!). All I can say is, I don’t think we will be going back there any time soon.
Lions Park- In an attempt to make the most of the scorching Botswana sun, Kelsey, Krisstina, Christina, and I headed out to Lions Park Resort for some splish splashing, quality fun in the sun! It was no Noah’s Ark (shout out to Wisconsin Dells!) but it was fun nonetheless. We took some great pictures, went down the slides more times than I can count, and got some all-to-obvious suntans/burns. I nearly threw up on the spinny rides (teacups, swings, etc) but that's just because my stomach is weak. Headed back to gabs when the Pula started to come..but it was an awesome morning nonetheless!
next time I post probably won't be until after the Delta, and possibly Ghana! Here's to the final month of exams, souveneir shopping, good-byes, traveling and adventure :)
