Good news y’all. The blog restriction is 30 minutes per day, not for the whole time :D Hehe.
Picture Incident/Hotel Gaborone/ Mma Ramotswe
Friday, we went to look at the government buildings. We had to walk through the Main Mall to get there. The Main Mall is a polyglot of street vendors that lines this huge walkway with established stores on either side. During the weekends, there are sometimes performances in a couple open spaces along the drive. As Larry was explaining the meanings behind the symbols, I tried to take a picture. As I did a security guard walked over to us. After exchanging the greetings, he explained that we weren’t allowed to take pictures unless we had a special permit. I offered to delete them, which I guess he figured was a reasonable enough charge. I mean, what could I have done with them? At any rate, we turned and walked back through a little park area to the Mall. We had tea (well, afternoon beverage- I had tea) at the Hotel Gaborone, overlooking the Mma Ramotswe tea corner. The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series has definitely been embraced here.
Mokolodi/Cheetahs
On Saturday, we got up super early to go to Mokolodi Game Reserve, about 15 minutes from UB. We saw a few different types of animals, mostly various species of antelope as well as a few ostriches. However, highlight of our trip was by far getting to pet cheetahs. They felt a lot like a normal housecat would, although I could never forget that these cats were way different in temperament from normal housecats. Larry didn’t seem quite as wary as we were- a couple times I really thought he was going to get swiped. Our guide was very nice and helpful and it was overall a great experience, although I didn’t get to see that many animals. Everybody’s going on safaris with their moms right after this, although one girl is going with her whole family, so they are all excited to see more animals, but I won’t get a chance to do that since I’m starting UW pretty much right away. Plus, Mom did her safari thing last year.
Football Game/bar
Saturday night, we ended up watching the Barcelona vs Manchester game. Acacia and the two other girls from her spring semester program had been interviewed on the radio. The radio guys kinda folded them into their clique and had been hanging out with them a lot and invited us to watch the game. I was thinking we were just going to be in some sort of bar/pub – the place, O’Hagans, is a bar that is supposed to resemble a British pub- I guess it succeeded. When we got there though, there was a massive queue and the radio DJ we were with just walked to the front and gestured us through. We then went into this VIP room where all the media and Heineken suppliers were sitting. The tickets our DJ hookup had gotten for us were VIP tickets, entitling us to 6 Heinekens each. I definitely didn’t drink that much since we were only there for a few hours but it meant we got free Heineken for the entire time we were there. Pretty sweet. The game was, of course, riveting, and we were in the minority cheering for FC Barcelona. I started the Ole, Ole, Ole! cheer after one of the goals, which I’m pretty proud of. It was a great night J
Kgola Hill
Sunday morning we got up to climb Kgola Hill. It starts near a quarry and then goes up. It reminded me a lot of Arthur’s seat, although the path is way rockier and less established, although it’s probably hiked just as often. Oh, and there are definitely no BABOONS on Arthur’s Seat. I was trying to figure out the best way to deal with a baboon attack. They’re pretty vicious, but luckily nothing happened while we were there. We got to the top and had a nice sit-down with some gorgeous views. While the mountains aren’t very tall where we are, there are a lot of hills that I wasn’t expecting. Our professor is pretty athletic and competitive so he was going pretty fast up and down. Perri and I took our time on the way up and Clair joined us on the way down. The path was really rocky and I definitely didn’t want to sprain an ankle or worse if I misstepped and slipped. Larry says next time, he’s going to run it. Jeez.
New Flatmates
We also got 2 new flatmates this weekend from North Carolina, Lauren and Caitlin. They’re really nice girls on a program designed by their school. They’re taking Setswana, International Public Health Policy, and International Communications, and get to travel to Maun, a village in the north, to stay for a couple weeks. It sounds like a really interesting program. We had dinner at the cafeteria with Lauren last night and got to know her better, and she invited us clubbing with her group. Apparently, they have a van that’s dedicated for their use. Nice.
The Fate of Africa
I started reading this book that Acacia has called The Fate of Africa. It’s really good, explaining about modern politics in Africa starting from the early mid-20th century and the independence struggles that most of the countries faced. I’m only a few chapters in, but I would definitely recommend it.
Lab/Setswana
We started our lab work yesterday after our Setswana lesson, although it was really after tea after our Setswana lesson. It seems like we’re not going to have that much to do since none of us have our own projects. It’s basically 5 people (Kelvin who’s a grad student here at UB, and the 4 of us American girls) doing one person’s job. Clair (and Larry) is leaving in a week so that will alleviate it a little, but it still is going to be interesting. I might see about getting my computer set up with the campus’s wireless internet (which doesn’t reach this far) so I can do research while I’m there, if that’s something Larry wants us to do. I expect we’ll have a lab meeting at some point, although he’s been in a lot of administrative meetings, trying to find funding, cutting through red tape. It’s hard for him to adjust to the fact that everything moves much more slowly here- he’s still pretty uptight about timing and it’s driving Acacia, who’s been here for 4 months already, nuts. She is definitely on Botswana time and is getting used to that schedule.
Weather
The weather is pretty amazing- its really chilly in the mornings but hot in the afternoons. Our apartment is quite cool, which is nice. I woke up this morning to a sound that was rain-like, and since the sun wasn’t quite up, the sky looked grey. I was worried it was raining for a second, especially since I didn’t bring my rain jacket, but the sky is blue now and the sun is out.
I’m starting to feel a little homesick, but also really excited for what we’re going to do each day and a little more comfortable here. I’m not sure that I’m falling in love with this city/country/continent (I think Edinburgh already stole my heart) but it definitely is a comfortable and nice change of pace. I’m really glad that I was able to come here, and I love talking with Acacia and Perri. Overall, I would say that I’m doing really well. Or in Setswana, ke tlhotse sentle (I am spending the day well).
Bisous! xx
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