Go siame

So, it’s Thursday. Too bad there aren’t any songs about it, it’s really just an ordinary day of the week. I did think that Tuesday was Wednesday for some reason, and that Wednesday didn’t really exist, but that’s not the point here.

My point is that I leave in tomorrow. In 24 hours exactly, I will be either on my way or at the airport, waiting for my 10:00 flight to Jburg. Not the longest leg of my trip by far, but the first. I’m pretty excited to see everyone! I’m a little nervous about the mechanics of my trip- layovers and checking bags through and everything else. But, at the same time, I’m an airline brat and absolutely love all that flying entails.

Last night we went out with Knight (from the Barcelona game) to a Brazilian restaurant. It was absolutely delicious and we had a great time. There was this table who had been there since 11 am (we got there around 7:30 pm) and their bill was already 20,000 Pula. Knight was explaining to us that it’s no big deal, pointing out the businessmen and their connections. He is actually quite well connected. We had sparkling rose, which I was not super fond of. Acacia also got a free piece of tiramisu because she told the owner it was her favorite. I need to learn how to do that… When we were almost done, we saw a bunch of people going over to the window and looking out. Someone walked past us, muttering, “eclipse.” Knight jumped up to check it out, and finally our curiosity got the better of us and we went to look as well. It was pretty spectacular. Every time we go out to eat I’m shocked at the number of lekgoa who are there. Acacia said it’s mostly only ex-pats who go out to eat because the Setswana culture doesn’t emphasize food as a social thing.

Today is my last day, both in lab and Setswana. Shocking, really, to think about. This week has been great- we did Western blots and ELISAs, both of which I’ve never done before. Our Western blots failed, but our ELISAs were successful, and Kelvin said we could keep them. Super cool. Today we’re only doing another PCR, pretty easy stuff. It gives us time to go to lunch with bo-Phono (Phono and company) at a supposedly delicious restaurant called Sanitas. It also means that hopefully we’ll get back to the flat early so I can start packing. I thought about doing it last night, but then I realized I had to finish this online ethical training for JSD so I did that instead. I was also waiting for an email from Luke Burbank, host of TBTL. Last week he said there was a good chance he would call me for their segment Call-makers but I went to bed before I got the email. I didn’t get an email last night, so I’m pretty bummed I missed my opportunity. Oh well.

Tonight we’re having Kelvin over for fajitas- supposedly the most Mexican food he’s encountered yet. We’re all excited that he’s coming to LA next semester. Acacia and Perri are scheming of places to take him in LA, which of course I’m going to tag along with since I’ve never really seen LA either. It’s going to be a great reunion- maybe Nina will come over from UCLA to visit. Hopefully we’ll also finish the second season of Doctor Who- pretty impressive- 2 seasons in 2.5 weeks. We’ll definitely go a lot slower during the school year, when we actually have work. Work, lol.

I’m definitely starting to be sad about leaving Bots. Gabs is a city, pretty much like any other, although with considerably less ease of transport for 3 young lekgoa women. I will definitely be glad to be back in the US- living a big city for the first time. My AMGEN roommate, Megan, says she’s never been to Seattle before, so I’m going to play tour guide, lol. One of the other girls also started a facebook group and I asked everyone where there was free parking- a parking pass is $350!! Luckily, a few of the scholars are from UW so one of them said she’d show me where it is. NICE! Ugh I also need to read the articles that the post-doc/grad-student I’m working with in Maly’s lab sent me. There’s my work, I guess. Hopefully we’ll get to come back next year, and I’ll be able to do more travelling around Botswana. I’ll have to practice Setswana and keep it up to date. Our NC State roommates left this morning for a 2-week excursion to Maun and Vic Falls. I heard them leaving, but thought it was Acacia going to the gym. Before I realized it wasn’t her, it was too late to say goodbye. Oh well, we weren’t really that close, although Lauren was a sweetheart. I’ll facebook them, or something.

I had a dream last night where I was having a lot of difficulties the travails from the beginning of this trip, but I’m starting to wonder if it’s a theme. Before I left Edinburgh, I had weird dreams about that too- me leaving without packing up or saying goodbye. At least the other girls will be able to take me to the airport. Phono cancelled our lesson because she also has to get things ready for her trip to America.

In other random news about me, I tried to clean my computer with acetone. It worked really well, especially on the cord, except I realized too late that the acetone also took off all of the varnish. So now my computer is kinda rough instead of smooth and shiny. I really to get a case for it...

Also exciting, I found the bracelet that I braided at Catalina. It fell off my wrist during the first week or so but when we were walking to lab yesterday, I was looking at the ground and saw it! It’s basically as clean as when I was wearing it, but now it has African rain on it :D I also found and bought a bracelet that was really similar to the one that Mom sent me for Christmas in Edinburgh from her trip to Africa. That one fell off my wrist while I was moving out of my Sciennes flat. I think it’s a flaw in the design that makes the knot slippery, so I’m not wearing this one until I can figure out a way to make it stay.

We’re also thinking about coming back next year- I can’t remember if I mentioned that in the last post or not. We’re going to do more travelling than this trip- going around to different villages to do a cultural/anthropological study of the impact of vaccines, lumpy skin in particular. We would have done that this trip, except UB has a process to gain permission for that kind of thing and we wouldn’t have gotten it in time. It’s incentive for us to keep up our Setswana… I definitely think we will, and that we’ll continue to hang out back in Claremont. I’ve definitely bonded with Perri and Acacia much more than any of the Americans in Edinburgh. There’s something about 5C students, some quality, which brings us together. We really do belong to a bubble, but I really appreciate the friendships that it enables.

So yeah, that’s all for now. I might post another one once I get home, or if I have internet at the airport (doubtful). So, until next time, my lovelies, and it’s been real.

Go siame,

LeeAnn xx

Montaga di 13 tsa June

Hello everyone!

I hope your weekends were wonderful- I know mine was.

On Friday, we went to a [delicious] Portuguese restaurant and I had some delicious beef. We also split a delicious bottle of cabernet sauvignon and had a great time playing with the candle and toothpicks at our table [pyros]. When we came back to our flat, our NC state flatmates were getting ready to go out, which made us feel a little lame since we immediately got into our pajamas to start watching Doctor Who. Oh well.

We got to sleep in the next day and Acacia made delicious, delicious cinnamon rolls. We were going to go to Mochudi, but Acacia got word that some care packages (sent in April) had finally arrived. So Perri and I went ahead to River Walk to get cash while we waited for Acacia. We got our money really quickly and went down to the restaurant area, where we found a small bazaar. We still had illusions about going to Mochudi, so while I saw a lot of things that I wanted to get for myself and other people I didn’t get any of them because I didn’t want to carry them. However, by the time Acacia joined us, we figured it would be too late to go to Mochudi. So of course, we started shopping. On our way back to the flat, we saw monkeys playing in the yard/trees around this one house, so of course nothing would do but to watch them for a little bit. After that nice adventure, we headed over to Bostwanacraft to get the rest of our gifts. Basically, Saturday was a really great day of shopping. I’m really excited to give everyone their gifts, and I hope I can get days off in August to go to Michigan. We also watched some really good episodes of Doctor Who that night. Just sayin’.

Sunday, I decided to go to Mass. It took me about 45 minutes to find the mass times for the cathedral in Gabs, and even then I wasn’t sure about the reliability of the site. It only had one time- 10 am. As I got there I see 7:30 English, 10:00 Setswana. So the entire mass was in Setswana, which I thought I would have been able to follow, but all the responses were sung so I had no idea what was a hymn and what was part of mass. It also took 2.5 hours. Amazing. I was really surprised to see the amount of young adults that were there though, both in the congregation and involved in the choir. I suppose it’s not that unusual for the States as well, but it did make me realize that St. Anthony’s is an older parish. I'm hoping to find a nice church by UW- if anyone knows of one, please let me know. After I walked back, we headed for Mochudi. The leather store was closed (bummer) but we went to visit Acacia’s mentor from her independent study project. He’s a traditional healer, although he used to be a physics and maths teacher. He seems like a great guy and Acacia had a great experience with him.

Today in lab, we did so many cool things- we made and ran an SDS-PAGE gel. I’ve ran them in Claremont before, but I’ve never made them. Unfortunately they take 4-6 hours to run, which means we need to go back in at 6:30 to start staining it :( We also just got back from talking to UB’s Research and Development office to start working on the protocol for introducing a more anthropological aspect to the project. We’re all excited about it and want to come back next year.

So, that’s all for now. It’s starting to hit me that these people are really far away from me, and that while I’m excited to go home, I don’t when or if I’m coming back. It’s kind of a weird tension between wanting to go home, feeling bad for wanting to go home, and realizing that I’m only now getting comfortable with this trip. Isn’t that the way it goes, though? I’m really glad that I’ll get to see Acacia and Perri next year, and I hope that Phono and Kelvin can come visit. Phono is coming right after we leave Bots, but I won’t be able to make it down to Cali because of UW research. I’m feeling much better about my roommate sitch now- we’ve exchanged a few messages and she seems really nice- as are all of the Minnesotans that I know. So anyways, less than a week til I’m stateside and my feelings about it are growing ever more confused.

LeeAnn xx

The quickness of time

I cannot believe I have less than a week left here.

Disclaimer- this post is quite long and unfortunately has no pictures. Sorry folks.

Cultural Lodge

So last Thursday, we went to Mgankodi and the Baharutsa Cultural Village. We took a bus there but the driver let us off one stop too far, so we started walking up a dirt trail. We walked for probably 20 minutes through the trail as it turned into a riverbed, passing a group of kids who were gathering wood. A couple of them followed us a little ways and then stopped, dancing and trying to catch our attention when we looked back. We finally stopped and Acacia called the ladies who run the village and realized we had walked way too far. Of course, we turned to the kids for help. They graciously walked us all the way back to the entrance of the village. The BCV was started by a group of Motswana basadi who decided that since the younger generations were moving away from the traditional villages towards the cities, someone needed to teach them about their culture. So we got there and were promptly greeted by 2 grannies (as they call themselves) ululating. It was pretty nervewracking, actually, because I wasn’t sure what they wanted or what my reaction should have been. So they welcome us in and we dumedisa (greet) the grandfathers and sit down. They start with a welcome dance and then throw bones to decide whether or not to invite us into their tribe. Luckily, we were accepted and then we each had to dance with them. Larry danced first with the two men and then Claire, Perri, and I danced with the grannies. They told us to imitate them, so I started imitating the oldest one, but I think she might have been doing a separate dance although she seemed happy to let me mimic her. Except for one, they only speak Setswana, and ours at that point was limited to a few different verbs and the greetings. So after the dance, they showed us what the traditional women of the village would do. We got to pound sorghum with them and then one of the grannies showed us how they would spread cow manure on the floor of the huts in order to clean them and keep away snakes. We ended with more dancing, and I got to dance with the best one there again.

Jazz festival

The next night, Friday, we went to Botswanacraft for a jazz concert. Botswanacraft is an organization that sponsors basket weavers and gives them an income in order to sell. They also sell a lot of other things- that’s probably where all of your presents are going to come from- and have a café and outdoor eating area. In this outdoor area, there’s a stage where they often hold cultural events/ concerts like the one we went to. We stayed for 3 of the artists, who got progressively better. The last one we stayed for, Acacia and I got up to start dancing. People were starting the electric slide and just dancing for fun. I started doing some Charleston and salsa and the photographers went nutso. I really wish I could stick around to see the pictures, but oh well. I can say that I introduced traditional American dance to people in Africa ;)

Wedding

When we were in Baharutsa, the Kgosi (chief) of Manyana, a village that Acacia stayed in, called to tell us there was a wedding the next day. So, of course we went, although none of us knew who was getting married. Acacia assured us it would be no problem, although it still made me a little anxious. We had an interesting time getting there- we took a bus to a stop closeby and then hitched the rest of the way. A lot of people did this, and luckily a couple with a huge truck drove by and stopped. So we all ran to cram into the bed of this truck and drove the next 10 minutes with the wind whipping our hair. It was pretty great. So we get to Manyana and can spot the wedding from the middle of town. As we head over there, I’m getting more and more nervous about this. It’s pretty normal for lots of uninvited guests to make their way to these weddings, but we would be the ones that stood out the most, by a long shot. When we get to the house, there’s a long line of the male elders from the village. So of course, we greet them all, stumbling over their questions in Setswana but they were happy to meet us and I think glad that we tried to speak their language. The bride and groom arrive from their church ceremony and everyone forms an aisle for them to walk through into the yard where the reception is. It’s traditional for the wedding party to do a choreographed dance into the yard and since the groom was in the armed forces, there was a guard. As the couple walked past each pair, their swords went down and the couple kissed, to much ululating from the matrons of the village. It was a great way to start the reception and celebration. As we made our way into the yard, we met two girls who were friends of one of the groomsmen. We were extremely lucky because they took us under their wing and got us into the tent. Supposedly, weddings are pretty casual affairs with people coming from all over and dropping by, but this was the most organized wedding Botswana has ever seen. There were invitations (which we obviously did not have), tables and settings, place cards- I felt like a wedding crasher. We learned later that some of the tables, including ours, were actually meant for uninvited guests so it all worked out. It was just awkward because we looked the most out of place. When we went through the buffet, we had to go past the head table, and the whole time I kept thinking that this couple has no idea who were are or where we come from. Everything turned out alright, and we got to eat delicious food and watch a group of traditional dancers perform. Unfortunately we had to leave to catch the bus before the reception really started- the bride had gone to change into her second dress- but c’est la vie. On the bus back, Perri and I attracted some little kids, who we taught to play slide and snag campfire songs- unfortunately I only got to the nest in Rattlin’ Bog before they had to go :(

Zebras

On Sunday we were going to watch the band from the wedding play at O’Hagans (where we saw the futbol game) but on the combi to Game City, we found out that the national Botswana football team, the Zebras, was playing that day. It definitely explained why we saw so many people in baby blue, black, and white. We went to Game City and shopped around for a bit- I got a new pair of shoes- had lunch and then headed back. It took us a while to get to the game because while the stadium is right next to UB, it was under construction. We walked all the way down the road to the UB field, just to find out that the ticket vendor was halfway back the way we came. So we turned around and by the time we finally got to the field, the guards weren’t letting anyone in, saying they had to wait until half-time. It was pretty frustrating, but we finally got in, standing room only, and watched the rest of the game. There were some pretty good moves but the final score was 0-0. It was worth it just to see the fans- they went all out. The Zebras just qualified for the African Cup for the first time so team spirit is pretty high. We ended the day by going out to dinner with Larry and Claire since it was both of their last nights. We definitely ended on a high note with them, which was nice.

During this week, we haven’t done all that much, although labwork is starting to pick up which is nice. We did some transformations, plating, PCR and gel electrophoresis. I’m really excited to do Western blotting and ELISAs next week because I haven’t gotten to do either of those techniques before. We’ve also cooked a lot of good meals- roast chicken and veg with the leftovers for soup, lots of yummy homemade bread, and this morning we made cinnamon rolls. There was also a really cool thunder/lightning storm one day and we had a perfect view from the guest room. It was absolutely spectacular. Last night (Friday) we went out for Portuguese, which was absolutely delicious. I’m not sure what the plans are for this weekend, but I’m sure we’ll think of something.

UW

One quick note about what’s going on with my next adventure- I found out what exactly I’m going to be doing in Dr. Maly’s lab and I still have articles to read about it… I also found out that I’m going to have a roommate, which I was not at all prepared for. She’s bred and raised in the Midwest, which will be interesting. I’m somewhat nervous and worried about it, but as Acacia and Perri assure me, I can get along with just about anybody and what’s the worst that could happen? I’m praying that it will be a learning experience, since I haven’t lived with anyone since freshman year….

So that’s all for now, folks. Sorry again about the really wordy and picture-less blog… Acacia was taking a lot of pictures for us at the Lodge and unfortunately my battery was dead when we went to the concert and the game and none of us wanted to draw any more attention to ourselves at the wedding. I’ll get them from Acacia at some point, I promise. Bug me about it when I get back to the States (and let’s hope I have a better time getting through customs than when I came back from Scotland).

LeeAnn x

Goings-ons

Weiseths

Before I left, my dad had mentioned to someone at work that I was going to be in Botswana. They knew of a furloughed Alaska pilot who is living here for two years with his family, so I got in touch with Pete before I left. On Tuesday, I went to their house for dinner. Pete is a pilot for an organization called Faith Aviation (or something like that). He’s in the branch that has contracts with other companies (they’re working on one with Air Botswana) and what he’s doing now is flying medic planes. It’s pretty cool stuff. Shelly is a biology teacher in the international school, teaching grade 7 through IB 1 and 2. It’s a lot of work because she has to make 5 lesson plans every day and the schedule is always different. Caleb is in grade 5 at the same school. As Shelly was tucking him in, she asked if I was a chick, a concept he was working on. He replied, “no! Chicks aren’t nice and they aren’t Christian and they don’t come to Africa to do good things! All chicks care about is shopping and looking pretty.” From the mouth of babes… Malena, who they adopted when they lived in Mozambique, is the youngest Weiseth. They were extremely thoughtful in the preparation of dinner, cooking spaghetti and salad, guessing correctly that I would be longing for American food. We had banana bread and hot chocolate for dessert while we talked about everything from racial politics to aquariums. I definitely hope to see them again. I’ve invited Caleb to see what my dad does- he wants to do aviation just like his dad (and his dad) so Pete wants him to see what other things there are besides piloting. I also invited Shelly to come see the lab here at UB when (if) we do something particularly interesting.

Cooking

So there is a natural transition here to mention that we finally got our checks for our meal stipends- got them and tracked down the people needed to sign them off to get them cashed. We went grocery shopping and cooked our first meal for Larry and Clair. As I speak, we’re heating up chili we made last night in prep for today. It took us a while to find a way to open cans- because a can opener is something I always forget about- but we got them open using Acacia’s plier/knife tool. Acacia’s baking bread as well- I’m pretty excited for this lunch!

Although this picture doesn't reflect it, I helped too!

Meatballs and Spaghetti

Lab

So the lab isn’t quite going the way the other girls thought it would be. I suppose I came in with lower expectations- it was kind of just my opportunity to come here- but they were looking forward to doing a lot of labwork. The problem is that there just isn’t that much to do. Our counterpart here, Kelvin, has been unsuccessful in either getting or looking for grants, so there’s not much money. We’ve started doing some projects but nothing groundbreaking, and it feels a lot like busywork. We’re going to try to do some internet research once we get set up with UB’s wireless system on grants and procedures relating to clinical trials. We might also start a cultural evaluation project travelling to different villages that Acacia’s been to and interviewing Batswana about the importance of cattle to them as well as their perceived needs relating to cattle. I’m really interested in doing this, because I kinda mentioned something like it in my grant from Scripps, plus it’s going to be a great project and opportunity to practice our Setswana. It’s kinda daunting though, especially since we only have 2 more weeks here. It would be an interesting follow-up project, however. We did do something interesting today though- we had a tour of the Botswana Vaccine Institute, which develops and manufactures vaccines for foot-and-mouth disease. It was kinda like the biotech company Althea that I visited with the Grill lab a couple years ago.

Dr who/projects/homesickness

Since there’s no wireless internet in our rooms, these book-y projects aren’t really something we can work on in the evenings. Since there’s not that many things to do in Gabs, plus it’s pretty unsafe for 3 women to be walking around at night and expensive to take cabs all the time, we’re pretty much stuck hanging out in our flat. Which is actually completely fine with me since it is the start of summer, after all. I’ve introduced the others to Doctor Who and we’ve watched the first two episodes. They both really like it, which makes me happy J I’ve also started making a photobook from my semester in Edinburgh. I’m going to put my blog entries in it as well. Acacia does a lot of crafting- sewing and scrapbooking, etc- and it’s inspiring me to start all of these projects. I should probably start downloading and reading my lab articles for UW as well L Oh well.

I’m starting to get pretty homesick, mostly because I’ve realized I won’t have an opportunity to spend a lot of time at home for a while, if ever again. Since I’m living at UW, the most time I’ll get to spend at home is a weekend, and then a week at the end of the summer. I suppose I’ll be spending a couple weeks at the very least over Christmas break, but it’s still not as much as a summer. It seems like the older I get, the more I want to go home. I also hope I’ll be able to get a few days off from UW to go to Michigan. I’m sure it will all work out. So, I’m super excited to go home, although I’m having a great time here.

Anyways, we just pulled the bread out- so I’m off to eat a delicious lunch!

xx

Mokolodi

It was so cold. Acacia must have been dying.

Clair

Larry

Perri

Acacia

Me! OMG.