Roving Rambler

Merry Christmas, Everyone! Last Thoughts On Botswana

2009-12-25T09:29:00.000-08:00

I failed to follow up on this blog for the last month or so of my stay in Bots, so here's all some of what went on in that time, followed by my conclusions about the experience. I'll post pictures once I'm state-side again, as I forgot to bring my camera. I'll probably continue to update the blog with other stuff from my life after this now that I have a new computer and a solid internet connection. So without further adieu...

On Halloween, we had a toga party to show American culture. This built on our beer pong lessons that we gave. John Belushi would be proud.

UB is so disorganized that they actually needed two weeks to take finals. IUP does the same in three days. Finals also seemed to be the only thing that students and the administration take seriously, and they were surrounded by much cramming and formality. I got the grade for my take home final, and I actually failed it. This probably has something to do with the fact that the professor did not communicate what she expected; a problem that I faced throughout my studies there. I passed the class, and I'm sure I've passed the others as well, so whatever.

During the two weeks, I had a break for a few days between finals, so rather than diligently studying, I went with Nicole to Pretoria in South Africa. We stayed at a hostel in the Hatfield area of the city, where the university is. The first night, we went out and met some international students from the university at a restaurant called Tings and Times, which had a Rasta theme to it. They had good veggie food. The next day, we went to a market and hung out at a botanical garden. The day after, we went to a cultural museum downtown, and the oldest Hindu temple in Africa. It was in a very poor part of town, and really drove home the shocking disparity of places like South Africa and Botswana. These countries really present an image of prosperity, but there is a large segment of the population that never sees it. The difference between the lavish mall that I saw the first afternoon after we got there, and that area was too stark to believe.

The last thing we did before we returned to Botswana was go to the Voortrekker monument outside of town. It looks like a citadel on a giant hill, and it's kind of strange to visit in post-Apartheid South Africa, since there are parts that celebrate the victories over native peoples by the pioneering Dutch voortrekkers. It was kind of weird.

Final Thoughts: Here's a lot of what I've learned about Botswana, Africa, myself, and pretty much anything else from my 4 1/2 months.

Africa is super interesting!: I'd certainly hope so, since it is the focus of my studies. The experience there has certainly been positive in the sense that it has only whetted my appetite for knowledge about Africa, its culture, politics, and people.

Botswana is not cheap: The cost of living is made high by a lack of farming, among other things.

Botswana and Africa in general are challenging: On a personal level, this came with frustration with classes, the school, and the general bureaucracy and inefficiency of Botswana. There were more than a couple days where I went to my room in the evening thoroughly sick of the place. On a grander level, this refers the fact that I don't really know what I want to do with my Pan-African studies education. I'm overwhelmed with what I've learned, as well as the overall experience, and I'm not sure of what I want next. I do know that I don't want to work for some organizations like the IMF and World Bank (Yay, structural adjustment!), so I guess that's a start. Right?

Rastas are cool: I learned traditional drumming from a Zimbabwean Rastafarian in Botswana. Yeah, be jealous.

Africa is scary: HIV/AIDS is big in Southern Africa, which is scary. People try to cure it by raping virgins and babies, which is scary. Violence is prevalent in many cultures, which is scary. Even Batswana, who pride themselves on a peaceful culture, do get a huge kick out of bar fights, and are extremely casual in their views on rape. Some countries have had continual violence for so long, that people just forget about them, which is sad and scary. Some of those countries have little to no functioning government to speak of, scary. Hippos are dangerous, which is scary.

Africa is fun: If I sound like I'm badmouthing, I'm not. Those are real issues, and I do want to emphasize that my time there was overall positive and fun. I traveled quite a bit on a fairly limited budget, got to taste new foods and beer, see lots of animals, meet fantastic people, and generally have a good time. Seeing Mosi-oa-Tunya and Johannesburg in person was unreal. Trying Chibuku and mopane worms were unreal. And I've made friends that I will keep in touch with for ages.

Stoplights are "robots": Hookah is "hubbly bubbly", "that side" is always the way to indicate direciton, blah blah blah is "whatwhatwhat", and "eish!" is an appropriate and expressive interjection.

Race, as we know it, is not real: I was made acutely aware of my different-ness every day. It was pretty much impossible to avoid reminders of it. However, skin color and nose shape only served as a brief and superficial reminder. The real differences were in cultural practices and knowledge. And this is why racism is so stupid. Hating a race is hating nothing more than appearance, which is sad and pointless.

Not everything in academia needs an African version: I learned about African Philosophy and African Feminism in my time in Botswana, and frankly I didn't like either. They missed the point of these subjects, and tried to make consolations for Africa in their application. In the case of philosophy, this came out as condescending and pointless. My professors seemed aware of this, and were more in favor of modifying existing subjects and systems, rather than trying to reinvent everything. Africa is different, but it is still people, and with tweaking, these subjects work just fine for African academics.

I'm self-centered: Living in Botswana made me realize that I'm not as chill as I thought, and I do look out for number one. It's not entirely a bad thing, but I'm definitely not as humble and giving as I would like to think.

I am naturally likable: Whether it was getting free whiskey from the bartender at hostel in Joburg, or getting the most tough-guy posturing gangsta I met (who had two tear drop tattoos below his left eye, but also happened to be a nursing major and was in the school chorus) to like me. I'm not as much of an awkward homeschooler as a I used to be.

I'm very definitely Western: I have always liked to think of myself as a "citizen of the world" or a "third culture kid", but that was because I'd never actually lived in a place like Botswana. I actually caught myself talking kind of down-homey as an unconscious defense mechanism. Seriously, though. I caught myself not liking things because the were too different and didn't make sense to me. I didn't know I could be so ethnocentric! Fun!

Chuck Palahniuk rules your face: I read several of his books while at UB, and it's true.

This cover the basic, at least. Post questions if you want, and I can add to this. I'll have pictures up in January.

It's Been a While

2009-10-18T01:03:00.000-07:00

Sorry it took me so long to write a new post, but the internet was acting goofy last week, and I haven't had that much to write about lately.

Botswana's national elections were held on Friday, and the results were announced last night. Unsurprisingly, the BDP won by a lot, but some interesting things still happened. The BCP, formerly the third largest party in Botswana, became the official opposition in Parliament, with 5 seats out of (unless this changed with the election cycle) 57. This is pretty big considering the party was founded in 1998, only had one MP in Parliament going into the election, and the BNF has been the main opposition for a while. The change is definitely due in part to the internal conflicts in the BNF, which weakened the party a lot in the leadup to the election. Also noteworthy is the fact that the Minister of Education didn't keep his job. It made a lot of people here excited, and many flooded out of the dorms in Vegas to cheer this result.

I've been vegetarian for about two solid weeks now, and I'm glad to be doing it. It's not too hard now that the refectory regularly carries "vegetarian sausage", which is not very good, but will have to do. Seriously, enough's enough. I think it may have been good to eat the stuff again to test my convictions, but I'm now sure that I don't want to eat meat any time soon.

I just finished a book about Fish Keitseng, a Motswana who worked in South Africa, and became involved in the African National Congress's (ANC) fight agains the Apartheid government. This guy never got any formal education, but managed to teach himself English, and figured out how to write enough to work in stores and keep records. The book is mostly recordings of an extended set of interviews with Keitseng, and covers his major accomplishments with the ANC and workers' unions. He also worked for the BNF for a while. I've also picked up a copy of Diamonds, Disposession, and Democracy in Botswana because a classmate insisted that I do so. It's by Kenneth Good, an Australian who used to be a Professor at UB before he was deported for writing the book. I'm looking forward to reading it, and it's nice an short, so I shouldn't have trouble sneaking it in between assignments.

2009-10-04T14:17:00.000-07:00

My first post as a 21 year-old, how exciting! As per usual, I planned on writing this post the day after the previous one, but that turned into 5 or so. There really was no excuse because I had someone's computer for the whole break, and I wasn't busy.

There are two things about my trip at the beginning of break that I neglected to mention in my previous posts. The first is that on the way back to our tents at about 1 am in Kasane, a security guard rushed over to us and stopped us. It turns out that there were two hippos grazing on the lawn near some of the rooms in the lodge. We got to see two hippos, the most dangerous animal to humans in Africa, from about 20 feet away on land! I wasn't kidding about the dangerous thing, either. In addition to being fearsome and quick in the water, hippos can run up to 35 miles per hour, and have been known to kill people for "fun".

The other thing I didn't really talk much about is how poor Zimbabwe and its inhabitants truly are. People would try to sell us figurines and such on the street, and if it failed, they would switch to begging. They were willing to trade what they had for clothes, pens, dead batteries, and who knows what else. They also tried to sell us 5 and 10 trillion bills of the now devalued Zimbabwean dollar, which I was opposed to buying. They tried to sell them by arguing that they were "proof of inflation". You don't need a silly bill with a big number to see proof of inflation, and the general abuse of power that has occurred under Mugabi. Here I was in Victoria Falls, a town that should have been huge, packed with tourists, and virtually free of poverty. It is none of those things, and it frightens me to think what the rest of the country is like considering this really is probably the most tourist-oriented place in the country.

The anniversary of Botswana's independence from Great Britain was on the 30th of September, and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. The day after, I went to Mochudi with Kat, but the museum there was closed. It turns out that most of this last week was national holidays of some sort, not just Wednesday. Oh, well. We wandered and admired the view from the hill overlooking the town, and played with some local kids, so it was still a good time.

In my quest to avoid doing homework over break, I watched a lot of movies. These included Dirty Dancing, District 9, The Hangover, Amélie, and the first half of The Gods Must Be Crazy. District 9 is worth mentioning because it's new and takes place in South Africa. For the first 20 minutes or so, it takes on a mockumentary style of explaining how aliens came to live in Johannesburg. During this time, the movie makers created a perfect imitation of apartheid South Africa. Everything, from the derogatory name for the aliens (prawns) to the armored vehicles, unlawful evictions, and violent, racist police and military employees all show how apartheid played out. Eventually it kind of regresses into fun and gory action movie (Peter Jackson loves him some guts!), but it still has a powerful message. It does precisely what sci-fi should do in my opinion; critique the past and present, and/or show concern for the future.

Edit: I've decided to just remove the last part of the post because it was sloppy and offended, something that I really am not trying to do with this blog. Sorry everyone; I'll do better in the future.

Mesi-oa-Tunya and Kasane Trip Pt. 2

2009-09-30T07:57:00.000-07:00

After a stop at the bar in Shoestrings that evening to talk to some people about activities for the next day, we hit the sack. The next morning we woke up early to get Christian and Carmen to one of the tour offices so that they could start their rafting trip. Nicole and I, prohibited from the trip by back injury and finances respectively, decided to cross the border into Zambia to view the falls from that side and get an extra stamp in our passports. The Zambian side of the gorge was really nice because it is the side that houses the river that flows into the falls. The dry season meant that we could walk further along the edge of this side and get some phenomenal views of the heaviest portion of the waterfall. It also meant that there were several natural pools that one could swim in. Too bad we didn't bring swimsuits.

Nicole and I stopped off at some market stands on the Zambian side and haggled for a few gifts before heading back to meet Christian and Carmen. They made the rafting trip sound pretty awesome, but I had rafted a couple of times before, and my eyes were on the prize: bungee jumping. We had lunch and left for the bridge between borders where we were to jump. Nicole and I had already crossed it going to Zam, and I had managed to do a good job of psyching myself out. Still, I didn't have too much trouble getting to the edge and jumping into the abyss above the Zambezi river. The jump was exhilirating, and quite a bit higher than my puenting (static rope swing, jump, thing) experience in Ecuador. The experience was enhanced by the post-jump bounces, which initially brought me almost all the way back up to where I had jumped from.

That night we went back to Shoestrings and had dinner. We also met a Zimbabwean drummer who regularly performs at the hostel. He let us play around on his drums for a while, which was awfully nice of him. We also met some Peace Corps volunteers who were there on a break. They were both a lot of fun and cool to talk to.

The next morning we left Zimbabwe and headed back to home sweet Botswana. On the way between border checkpoints, some workers stopped us and told us we had to walk through a bin with a muddy rag. At first I thought they were joking, but they got mad when we laughed, so I guess not. It turns out that the rag was soaked with disinfectant (not to mention inordinate amounts of mud), and it was to prevent hoof and mouth disease. Now I'm no expert by any stretch, but does making people wipe their feet in disinfectant really prevent the spread of hoof and mouth accross borders?

We got to Kasane in the early afternoon and prepared some lunch on the deck of the ridiculously nice lodge we were camping at. We then proceeded to pass out on the wooden benches there for about an hour and a half, but not before admiring the herd of hundreds of water buffalo visible accross the lake. We went into town that evening to get food, but a thunderstorm had caused a power outage, so we couldn't get anything but canned food. We mixed canned peas, tuna in tomato sauce, unidentified fish in chili sauce, and chakalaka, which is basically finely chopped veggies in chili sauce into a pot. We did not heat said pot, and just ate it cold like the bums that we are. Yummy, indeed.

I caught a tiny cramped bus to Francistown at 6am the next morning, while everyone else slept to prepare for their game drives that day. From Francistown I got back to Gabs and ate my prepaid meal at the refectory. Hooray!

Happy Botswana day everyone! I'm going to Machudi tomorrow to go to a museum there. I'll post about that and some of my learnings and observations regarding Swana politics when I get back.

Mesi-oa-Tunya and Kasane Trip Pt. 1

2009-09-29T12:21:00.000-07:00

Based on the title, some might assume that I didn’t make it to Victoria Falls. Au contraire, mes amis, I did go to Vic Falls, but I do not understand why people throughout Africa continue to call things by their colonial names. You’d think they’d insist on calling it anything else, but apparently not. Mesi-oa-Tunya means “smoke that thunders”, which seems pretty fitting with the overwhelming grandiosity of the falls.

But I digest… I left for the falls on Thursday evening, which had not been my plan at all, but Carmen, Christian, and Nicole all invited me to go with them. It worked out well because the Zimbabwe was the first part of their tour, so I could just go for the beginning and come back to Gabs on my own. We caught a bus that left at about 7pm from the bus rank in the city, and arrived at the border at 6am or so.

Throughout the trip, starting that night, I was treated to some German lessons and generally amusing dialogue, as all three of my companions are German. Christian has enjoyed giving me a few words here and there throughout our time as roommates. On the bus trip to Zim I learned the words flitzerkacke and dunschis, both of which are slang for “diarrhea”. This came up after we discussed food-poisoning in Egypt, an experience that a couple of us had shared. Yum. I spent the rest of the trip learning other amusing phrases and words, giving the trip a nice European flair. Or something like that.

We arrived at the Zambian border at 6 and took a cab to the Zimbabwean border, which we crossed without difficulty. Once in Zimbabwe, we took a cab for about 70 kilometers to the town of Victoria Falls, where we checked into Shoestrings hostel. We decided to camp in Christian’s tent for $5 a night, half of the price of a room. It was certainly an experience stuffing four people into a three person tent, but we managed to make it happen. Also, to save money on the trip I bought and prepared my own food. This meant that for the rest of the trip, it was Peanut Butter Jelly Time all the time. Mmm, roughing it.

After settling in and getting lunch, the four of us went to visit the falls and walk along the edge of the canyon they fall into. They are absolutely gorgeous, but almost get swallowed by how awesome they are. The incredible amount of mist that they generate partly blocks the view, especially on a cloudy day like this first one. We learned that this not even the time of year when the falls are at their heaviest, that comes between February and April. Still they were stunning, and we had no trouble spending the entire afternoon looking on in awe. The few times that we were distracted were primarily by the incredible foliage and the antics of some ridiculous baboons prowling around the grounds.

Fortunately, the clouds cleared up a bit for our evening tour of the Zambezi River. The tour was stocked with a bar that included Lion beer, water, and soda. The guide suggested that the more we drank, the more animals we would see. I don’t know about the other animals, but I did see several Lions! …I think even the crickets are too embarrassed to make a noise at that one. Seriously though, the cruise was really cool, and we did get to see several hippos, crocodiles, and elephants. The last of these were playing in the water, and we got to drive up to within 20 feet of them. There were also a lot of beautiful birds, including some ibises and egrets. Overall, it was an amazing start to a trip that would turn out to be filled with encounters with animals.

What's worse than lobsters on your piano? Crabs on your organ! Okay, I’ll have another post up either late tonight or early tomorrow.

Shake Shake and Some Educational Videos

2009-09-29T10:02:00.000-07:00

Alright, this is just a quick post before the details of my trip, which I'll provide in two more posts over the next few hours. I wanted to start, however, by mentioning one fantastic event that occurred just before I left for break. Anyone that knows me knows that I nerd out to beer like it's my job, and frankly I wish it was. On Wednesday afternoon I tried Shake Shake aka Chibuku. What the hell is he rambling about, you might be (indeed, probably are) asking? Shake Shake is a locally brewed beer done in a traditional homebrew style. It's made from sorghum and maize and God knows what else, and comes in one liter milk cartons. It is called Shake Shake because the traditional brewing style leaves chunks of what is essentially fermented porridge in your beverage, so in order to fully enjoy your experience, you are supposed to close the top of the carton from time to time and give it a bit of a shake so that you get chunks with every sip.

So how does it taste? Pretty sour, yeasty, and just odd. There's very little in the way of carbonation, and it is expected that you will drink it warm. The carton was a bit leaky, which added to the challenge, as well. Overall, I didn't enjoy it after a while and had a hard time finishing my carton, but I really don't care that it wasn't that good because I tried homebrew sorghum beer with a sweet name!

So here's a little video with some quality information about the continent of Africa.

This second one is actually about Kenya, but if there's one thing I've learned about Africa, it's that the whole continent is exactly the same accross the board.

Now that you all hate me for my completely uninformative post, I'm going to ask you to wait a bit while I compose my account of the trip.

Bears, Beets, Battlestar Galactica, Drum Lessons

2009-09-20T14:52:00.000-07:00

I am going to apologize in advance for this first paragraph, as it describes a bowel movement of mine. Frankly, you all should be overjoyed that it's taken almost two months for me to describe my poo to you. If this sort of thing grosses you out, just stop reading this paragraph now. This last week, I woke in the morning not feeling very well and went to the bathroom. After I had finished with my deposit, I checked out my accomplishment (I do this often). I was shocked and kind of annoyed because I had what appeared to be bloody stool. Sighing to myself, I grabbed the toilet paper and moved on, but took one last peek down below. The water was turning purple! I know that this is entirely because of the ridiculously high amount of beets in my diet curtousy of my Dad's stories from college. Thanks Pops, you saved me from some unnecessary panic!

I had my first test last week in a class that did not say anything on the syllabus about tests. It was kind of a pain because the prof refused to properly divulge what was going to be on it. This was not deliberate, rather, I think she just didn't know how to answer my questions about it. I also turned in my first paper in Africa in World Politics. I'm really interested to see the grade I get on that one.

My drum lesson with Ras Diva on Friday afternoon was thoroughly awesome. He and Meysa (I screwed that spelling up, for sure) taught us in a really relaxed, but still intense, manner. Meysa especially was crazy to listen to because he just oozes rhythm in whatever he does, and makes you want to do the same. Meysa also crafts drums that are in a style unique to Botswana, so I will probably pick one up for P200, a price that I think is more than fair. I'm also abosolutely certain I'm going to continue with the lessons because this is the only opportunity I'll have in the forseeable future to learn the drums from Rastafarians in Africa. Think about the awesomeness of that last phrase for a minute.

I finished In No Uncertain Terms, the autobiography of Helen Suzman, the South African MP that I described in an earlier post. It was extremely good, and really gives a pretty clear picture of the political scene in South Africa during apartheid. Also, I think it's impossible to read it without her becoming your new hero, unless you find her self-described unyielding support of "liberal values" offensive. Somehow, moral outrage, cranky old lady-ness, and kind heart tie together seemlessly in Suzman's truly appealing character.

I think for break I'm going to stay based at school, but take a couple of bus trips on my own. I will also check out prices for going to Victoria Falls on my own for a day or so, but I'm not sure that I'll do that. I may also meet a group of people in Zimbabwe. I'll let you know what my plans are as soon as they're more solid. Unlike the aforementioned poo. Sorry. But not really.

Johnny Appleseed was really just a lunatic introducing an invasive species with a pan on his head.

Liver For Breakfast and Raisin Bran Rain

2009-09-15T05:06:00.000-07:00

Sorry I haven't written in so long (again). I'm currently doing this instead of working on my paper on the DRC for Africa in World Politics. I've got a lot of assignments coming up at the end of this week, but I should post again over the weekend.

The refectory (cafeteria) by my dorms made the executive decision to stop serving breakfast because they were losing money on it, and not that many people were using it. That's cool and all, but they are contractually obligated to provide three meals a day, and I've prepaid. Sooo... I'm currently the only person that gets served breakfast. This amuses me to no end, although I do feel bad because they cook a special meal for me. Also, before we had this arrangement, there were several days that they were not prepared to serve me, so I had french fries and (I swear to Krishna) whole wheat fatcakes. The first day after this, they still hadn't prepared, so I had liver and onions, bread, and something vaguely reminiscent of sloppy joe filling for breakfast. Now, though, I'm happily eating eggs and bread again.

It rained again on Thursday evening, and was cloudy for much of the day, which was a nice change of pace. The rain smells really strongly here, and kind of reminded me of raisin bran muffins, but that's neither here nor there. I also had to go to a meeting Thursday night for my hostel (dorm) block. It's only a month and a half into the semester, so introducing us to campus life now is appropriate, right? I guess better late than never.

Friday night, we went out to celebrate Lucy's 21st at a club called Lizard Lounge near campus. It was really nice, but in a bit of a sketchy area. On Saturday night, some of us went out to see Public Enemies with Christian Bale and Johnny Depp. It was pretty good, although the intentionally crappy sound quality did not amuse me. Still, Bale and Depp are amazing in their roles, and it was a fun watch.

On Sunday morning I went to the Baha'i prayer service in Block 9, and it was unusual in several ways. First, they do not have any priests, so everyone contributes by reading or chanting a prayer from one of the books or from themselves. After that, there was a discussion based on some readings that were passed around. I plan on going back as much as I can for the rest of the semester to find out more.

Sunday afternoon, Christian, Carmen, Caroline, and I went to a small game park not far from the UB campus to use their picnic area for a barbecue. It was really nice, and we got to see some ostriches, a zebra, impala, and warthogs. We also got to share the lunch area with a group of monkeys. Christian and Caroline taught me some of what they had been learning in their drum lessons with Ras Diva (from the Afrojazz band), and invited me to a lesson on Friday. Unfortunately, the evening got a little stressful when we were locked in park for the night because our cab showed up late, but we managed to negotiate our way out after many phone calls and a Cab Dance that Carmen and I did around the fire while Christian drummed. I think the dance is what did it, personally.

So, I've realized that life here is more expensive than I anticipated. Botswana has the second largest economy in Sub-Saharan Africa, and I'm living in the capital, so a lot of stuff is not significantly cheaper than the US (if it is at all). I had been hoping to go to Victoria Falls and a few other places over the break with several other international students, but I may have to come up with more modest plans so that I can survive and prosper until November.

Joburg Pt. 2, Afro-Jazz, Poetry, and Racism

2009-09-05T02:28:00.000-07:00

After going back to the hostel and heading out to grab lunch, nearly everyone agreed that they wanted to catch a cab over to the Apartheid Museum at the edge of the city. This was easily the best part of the trip, and I have to recommend it to anyone that finds themselves even remotely close to Joburg. It's such thoroughly mind-blowing place, because it describes the setup and impelementation of institutionalized racism that lasted until I was five years old! The atmosphere of the place was well thought-out, and sets a sufficiently somber tone.

In the museum were two special exhibits that have supplied me with two new heroes, Neslon Mandela and Helen Suzman. To be honest, I'd never really bothered to read up on prisoner 32 of 156 from the Treason Trials. He's truly interesting, and even though he condoned violence in the struggle for equality, it came out more like mischief than anything else. Helen Suzman was an MP through much of apartheid, and the only one to completely and openly oppose it throughout her time in office. She put up with more condescending sexism during her time in Parliament than I could imagine. The exhibit was up because she died at the beginning of this year. I'm going to start digging into both of their biographies this week.

I spent Saturday morning at the Lion Park outside of Joburg. It's basically a small reserve with some pastures for herds of different animals and a lion breeding program. They specialize in breeding white lions and even have a white pride (tee hee). Not only did we get to drive through and see a lot of amazing animals, but we also got to feed giraffes (awesome!) and pet lion cubs (holy crap!). It was a nice lighthearted way to cap off the trip before I left that afternoon on fundy busline.

I forgot to post something two weeks ago about a jazz bar I went to with a few of the German exchange students. It was a little unnerving waiting in the parking lot waiting for their friend, Komalema (butchered that spelling to death, I'm sure) because it was obviously a poorer area of Gabs, and we were unusual as visitors. The excursion was a lot of fun, though, and in addition to meeting Komalema, we hung out with a music professor and drum teacher Ras Diva. His band closed out the night, and played a lively brand of Afro-jazz that was easy to love. During the last song, he and several of his bandmates unfurled their mighty dredlocks and shook them around as they danced with seemingly boundless energy across the stage. The intensity and energy of all of the bands was palpable, and seemed to drip off of them with their sweat in the crowded little bar. Yeah, it was amazing.

I've also attended two events held by the UB Writer's Workshop, which is a group of poets and people just interested in sharing their writing. It's an exciting mix of conventional prose, slam poetry, hip hop, and acoustic songs. The people are also super friendly and welcoming to everyone.

Last night at one of the poetry events, I did have the pleasure of being on the receiving end of genuine racism, which was pretty disconcerting. This drunk guy came in and started asking me why I was in Botswana and such. To start with he was only mildly confrontational and actually seemed to like me. He kept raving about Malcom X ("The angriest man in the world!" he kept pointing out), and saying how he was really just like him. When he got the microphone up front, he started babbling, and then pointed to the three white people in the room saying, "Look at them, stupid whities! I want to kill them!" Shortly after, he was booed off of the stage and asked to leave. It was very surreal, and unlike any encounter I ever imagined having. Even though the incident was pretty mild, that feeling of being irrationaly hated was truly unforgettable.

I finished reading The Ugly American yesterday. It was a really good read, and had a lot of good points. It definitely made me wonder if I'm exceptional enough to travel as much as I do and make a good impression.

Joburg Pt. 1 and Other Tidbits

2009-09-01T11:06:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday morning at 5:30, a group of the exchange students met outside our rooms in Las Vegas to catch some cabs to the Intercape bus company office for our trip to Johannesburg. The company's Botswana office was extremely inefficient, but after a ticket mix up which caused me to have to pay a second time, the group finally got off just after 6:30. The bus trip was about six and a half hours long, but was supplemented by what was playing on the TVs on the bus. "What kind of programming does Intercape provide?" you might ask? Ridiculous fundamentalist propaganda for about four hours during the trip.

It turns out that Intercape tote themselves as an "ethical" company, which I guess entails bombarding passengers with messages such as "Evolution is not real!" and "Rothspeare was a rationalist, and he killed people for disagreeing with him. Don't be rational like Rothspeare!" The worst part is, that I payed these idiots twice. At least they didn't play the videos for the return trip.

Upon arriving, we took a cab and settled into the Backpacker's Ritz in the northern part of Joburg and took a walk over to a mall in the area. It was ridiculously extravagent, and made me kind of uncomfortable. They sold real champagne in a watch store, and had plasma TVs all over the place playing ads. The mall was also reminiscent of a citadel in that we couldn't figure out how to get in or out for the life of us. Afterwards, we went back to the hostel, ordered dinner, booked our tour for the next day, and hung out at the bar in the basement of the Ritz.

We signed up for a general tour of the city for Friday morning, and it was a good way to see a lot of the city quickly. Along the way, we saw several neighborhoods, found Nelson Mandela's old house, ascended the tallest building in Africa (50 stories), and found a replica mineshaft in the basement of a prominent bank. My favorite part of the tour however, was the African Museum. More specifically (and predictably) the exhibit they had on Gandhi (wow, no one saw that coming...) It was really cool, and focused on his time in and around Joburg, including his involvement in the campaign for equal rights in South Africa, the Tolstoy Farm, and the formation of his ideas for Satyagraha. Ooh, and a photo of Gandhi's possessions at the time of his death was one of the more moving things I saw... Until I got to the Apartheid museum that afternoon. I'll describe that and my time in the Lion Park tomorrow.

I finished Heart of Darkness this afternoon, and I really liked it. I've been trying to supplement my readings for classes with extras, and this one struck me as particularly interesting. If one ignores the blatant racism in Conrad's writing, there is a lot to be gotten. The duality of his admiration and concern for the psychopathic character found in Kurtz is really fascinating and disturbing. Also, the writing is really vivid, and plays a lot with light and darkness as evocative terms. Finally, it is important to remember that the story is based almost entirely on truth. It is a condensed, slightly fictionalized documentation of his visit to the Congo, and gives some insight into the craziness that was going on under Leopold's rule.

Dr. Selolwane talked a lot about the effects of colonialism on development in Africa today. The discussion took an unsusual turn when she brought up the question of colonized countries in Asia and South America emerging from underdevelopment while most African states struggle. It is interesting, because a few decades ago, it was blasphemous to suggest that anything but colonialism was a main cause for the conditions in Africa. The story is complicated by the growth of post-colonial countries in other parts of the world. I'm tired, so I'll post some of the reasons tomorrow.

In my UBCD-BCP meeting tonight, we had a visit from the Gaborone Central District MP, Dumelang Saleshando. How cool is it that this guy is willing to come onto campus to spread his party's message and just talk to people. I saw him speak at the rally, and was dumbfounded when he actually talked to me after the meeting. He's currently the only BCP member of Parliament here, but they are obviously hoping to change that.

Sarah told me today that she likes napping because it's like saying, "Screw you, sun!" I concur.

Still Alive

2009-08-31T12:44:00.000-07:00

I realize that my readership of about eight people was probably starting to get disgruntled enough to write me a slightly sarcastic email, and I don't think my little heart could take that. I am, in fact, alive and running around Africa, I've just been busy getting over being sick, getting injured, travelling, and getting sick again. I'll start with the days leading up to my trip to Joburg last Thursday, and I'll break the trip up into two posts that I'll start tomorrow.

The rally just outside of campus was pretty interesting, though entirely in Setswana. Fortunately, the people from the UBDC-BCP club on campus helped me out. Believe it or not, the electoral politics here are even more sensationalist than those in the US. Parties really don't back up their statements about each other in their literature, but talk about economic ruin, disorder, dictatorship, and everything in between. This is not supporters, but official party publications. I also was told about an interesting pseudo conspiracy theory by a guy named David in my history class. I'll post about it once I actually understand.

Last weekend I got to visit the national museum for Botswana just down the road. It was pretty empty unfortunately, but they were going to have an art exhibit sometime in September, so I'll stop by later and see how it is. I also got my phone stolen when a group of us went out on Friday night. Yay! I think six or seven in the group had their phones taken, and one girl had her Passport pilfered from her purse (gotta love the alliteration). My new phone only cost P150, or about $25, so that wasn't a crisis. It's also a souvenir of sorts because it has teal and black zebra stripes on it, representative of the Botswana national soccer team. I think the having such a cheap minimalistic phone is a good way to get the entire country using the Orange network, and just a good way to get everyone able to talk.

Oh, I jacked up my ankle on Monday trying to cross one of the rain ditches on campus. I think they have them because the ground is so dry and dense, and has a hard time soaking up pula when it actually comes. The ankle is almost completely better, but I have gotten a minor bug since the end of my trip to South Africa. Just a bit of congestion that I expect to go away soon.

A few more questions answered. Please feel free to send some whenever you want.

The cafeteria is pretty good, but obviously did not accomodate my self-imposed dietary restrictions. I decided to give them up. The meals always follow the same format of, lots of starch and meat, some sauce, and a tiny bit of veg. The starch often has the options of pap (a corn porridge) or sorgum porridge. They are pretty good, but I'm glad they aren't the only options every day. It is odd eating at the cafeteria because there are servers dressed up like waiters and waitresses. They take your plates and such after you have finished eating. This might be the most ridiculous thing I've seen on campus. It also makes me super uncomfortable. I'm at a college cafeteria, not a country club!

The police officer that helped me with my laptop was extremely incompetent, but judging from what I have seen, I think he was exceptionally so, and most other officers are good. I don't know anything about fire services here, but I was told not to go to the public hospital if I could help it.

I don't feel unsafe in Gabs for the most part, especially during the day. I can pretty much go anywhere without concern. At night, it is much better to take a cab anywhere. On campus, I think security is not raised enough as an issue. Call me paranoid, but my laptop was taken out of my room for Chrissakes! There are no locks on the front door for the hostels (dorms), so anyone from any part of campus (or the city for that matter) can stroll into the buildings. There is security patrolling, but there isn't that much that they can catch in the large areas they are assigned. Also, the campus is poorly lit, so girls walking across campus alone is a big no-no.

Tomorrow, posts about Johannesburg and such!

In my philosophy class, one guy asked the professor to slow down, and everyone agreed with him. Fair enough, the prof agreed that he would pause for questions more, but suggested reading some of the books to keep up. He said that when he had taught in the states, he used to actually assign readings for every class, but that does not work here. The student replied, "C'mon man, this is Africa. We don't read!" I wanted to cry.

Kind of Famous

2009-08-19T09:49:00.000-07:00

I'm very proud to announce that excerpts from my blog can be found at the IUP study abroad page. I'm especially pleased that they used my ridiculous profile picture and most of my description from this page. I guess the fact that I've posted this here proves that 1. I am a complete egomaniac and 2. I don't understand the internet, because posting the link here is kind of circular... Oh, well.

I went to another meeting for the BCP last night, and they were really excited that I'd returned. Apparently I'm getting a free t-shirt and other such goodies when I attend a rally off campus tomorrow. I can't believe that all of this has fallen into place because of the crazy random happenstance of being pulled into one of their meetings. It's very cool and interesting to go to meetings where people address eachother as "comrade" without being fasicious.

Apparently, some of the leaders of the youth movement for the BCP have been arrested on some ridiculous charges of disturbing the peace and whatnot because they went to a TV station to inquire about the coverage (or lack thereof) of one of their events. They weren't disruptive, and left peaceably, but someone within station decided to call the police and have them charged after the fact. There is a lot of concern about these elections because the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) has won all 9 of the elections in Botswana since its independence. Worse, the current President is starting to do some questionable stuff, like incorportating military forces into the police force, and creating a committee to monitor and regulate news content. Personally, I'm rooting for any of the opposition parties because it would bring about some change and government accountability.

Since I'm on the topic, I might as well mention the fact that there is a real, live socialist club on campus. It's well advertised, and I'm curious to know if a lot of people attend the meetings. It's just shocking, because if such a thing cropped up at, say, IUP, some surviving McCarthyite would probably storm the meeting and start distributing American flags and apple pie to all of the lost children of our country. I'm probably not going to bother going to a meeting, but I will try to find someone who's a member and ask some questions.

My philosophy class is pretty interesting, but going at a very slow pace. No one has even opened the book yet, and I'm almost done reading it. I think the concept of African philosophy and its very definition is a very interesting topic, and I think I'm going to wind up doing a lot of supplemental reading just because I can.

So, God made dirt, and dirt don't hurt, but I don't know if I buy into that because God also made poinsonous snakes, fire, Limp Bizkit, and about a million other things that hurt a lot.

Fatcakes, Sex, and Gender in Botswana

2009-08-16T10:25:00.000-07:00

I know that I've been a terrible person for not posting in the last 5 (!) days, but I've got some good excuses. For starters, in spite of a false alarm, I still haven't gotten any real news about my precious lappy yet. I also fell sick toward the end of the week, and while I'm feeling better, I still haven't gotten most of my voice back. There was a third reason... oh, yeah! I went on a freaking safari and it was awesome!

Actually, the weekend trip only ended with the exploration of the game reserve; Saturday was spent seeing other neat sites in the region. We saw rock paintings that were some 2000 years old, which isn't as old as some of the ones in the Sahel and Savanah regions up north, but is pretty cool nonetheless. We also visited David Livingstone's tree. It is named this because the British missionary used it as a sort of office/meeting place thinger back in the day. It is also named this because as our guide said without the slightest hint of irony, "Livingstone was the first white man to sit under the tree." Again, no irony, but I found the choice of words to be both hilarious and a little bit painful all at once.

Saturday night was spent in a pseudo reenactment village thing. It was not nearly as cheesy as I expected, and we got to try some more traditional food. On the subject of food, I have a new obsession, and its name is fatcakes. The other day, a couple of students went to a local fry place to get these treats, and they took me along. A fatcake at Pop In costs P1.35, which is roughly comparable to pocket lint, and in return for this marginal sum, you get one deep fryed piece of dough shaped in a rough donut ring. It tastes a bit like a cross between a donut and a funnel cake, but minus the extra sugar. This omission leaves an even sweeter marriage of fat and carbohydrates in a crispy, squishy form. I am excited to get many more fatcakes while I am here, but I'm worried that it may lead to cardiac arrest before I make it back to the States.

Today we visited the game reserve about 20 minutes away from school for our little safari adventure. Said adventure could not begin, of course, until the group had been given mimosas. If sipping on bubbly and OJ in the morning while in the middle of Sub-Saharan Africa doesn't make you feel colonial, then you'll probably feel no remorse planting your flag in a foreign land. After said beverages, we did get on with the program, and it was pretty amazing. We saw impalas (which caused me to proceed to recite the chorus to Too Short's "I Wish"over and over), some angsty teenaged elephants, warthogs, unus (large antelopes with really big corkscrew horns), a variety of birds, cheetahs, and even a giraffe. All in all, it was a fun-filled day with lots of exciting moments. I will post pics sometime, but I'm not sure when, yet.

One set of issues that has interested me since I got to Bots is that of gender and sexuality here. One person mistakenly told me that it was illegal to be a homosexual male here, but there was no problem with women. I have checked and found this to be untrue; however, this and other incidents seem indicative of a very slightly more tolerant social stance towards lesbians. It isn't shocking when one considers the very male-dominated culture here, but I'll get to that in a minute. For now, let's stick to the gay issue.

I found myself asking the other day where the line would be drawn here for a law against homosexuality, after all, in the States it is usually phrased against sodomy, but not against homosexuality in general. It turns out that typical of many in the older generations here, the government is very loathe to mention anything too sexually explicit of specific. The resulting law is the following:

Section 164. Unnatural offences“Any person who;(a) has carnal knowledge of any person against the order of nature;(b) has carnal knowledge of any animal; or(c) permits any other person to have carnal knowledge of him or her against the order of nature, is guilty of an offences and is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding seven years.”

Nice and ambiguous, overall. Like I said, this type of language has been typical of older people here when it comes to sexual issues of any sort. During the orientation for exchange students, we listened as our advisor deftly avoided the words "sex" "HIV" and "AIDS". There is a huge gap between generations in terms of what people are willing to talk about, and I have only seen the gap lessened in the classroom setting between some professors and their students.

I did say sex and gender, and I think it is important that I explore the sexual roles prescribed in Batswana society. The young men I've talked to at school are mostly of the opinion that women may be entitled to some or even all of the same rights as men, but they will never be able to keep up. This majority of men have talked very romantically about the power of their bodies in comparison to women, and how this literally makes them better than women. The type of people that take this stance is actually incredibly varied, and included some really smart guys who just refuse to believe that women can be on the same level as men in most capacities. All of the men I've talked to on this subject, as well as a large portion of the women seem at the very least uncomfortable with homosexuality, if they don't reject its tolerance outright.

Botswana is only just coming to the end of winter, and already it is reaching the high 70s during the day. It actually feels hotter than this some days because the sun is very strong here, and I have spent a lot of time walking back and forth on campus settling in and moving paperwork to where it needs to be. Fortunately, this should slow down some from here on out now that I'm pretty much settled.

I got the BCP manifesto for the coming election, and I'm very excited to read it before the next meeting. I've also joined the Students Against HIV and AIDS (SAHA) club on campus. I should start volunteering this week courtesy of some people in one of the other study abroad programs who have invited me along to wherever their program takes them to volunteer next.

About a week and a half ago, I uttered one of the most horrible, unintentionally funny anecdotes about Botswana while waiting in line. In my frustration, I muttered to one of the other exchange students I was waiting with, "Whoever said progress was a slow process might have been talking about Botswana." I immediately registered the horror on her face, and quickly realized the actual implications of what I had said. I would like to take this moment to emphasise that I did not realise the implications of what I had said, and really meant it more for the bureaucracy of the University. I'm pretty sure there's a special circle of hell for people that say things as horrible as the crap that spews forth from my lips.

So Much For No Classes Before 9am...

2009-08-11T14:09:00.000-07:00

From the very beginning of my time in college, I have hoped and prayed and sacrificed goats to not have a class before 9am, but that changed today. My French class was moved from 11 to 8am because some people in the course had a scheduling conflict. You see, there is no online registration for classes at UB, and people are too lazy to check the times for their courses. This means that students come to school with screwed up schedules, and expect profs to move classes to accomodate them. My French professor did just that to make the 8am, but today, someone showed up who had missed the first week, and she had a scheduling conflict with the new time. This resulted in the professor changing the time... to 7am. God bless America.

I realized I haven't done a good job of answering a lot of basic questions that people might have. So please, if you want to know anything, get questions to me while I'm here. Here are answers to some questions from the 'rents and my Grandma that I felt like sharing:

My courses all transfer back to my major and minors at IUP. My grades will not count, which is a relief, because you pretty much have to crap gold bricks to get an "A" here. Although, I hear that exchange students tend to get better grades than most since we're so eager to impress. There is also the fact that people get paid to come to school at UB by the government, and I've met not just super seniors, but super duper ricockulous amazing seniors that are in their 8th year here and still getting money.

It's a 6 hour difference between here and the east coast of the US. The very same timezone as Brussels, incidentally.

The water really does swirl the opposite way down the toilet here. Also, it goes virtually straight down on the equator as I learned in Ecuador.

I don't see the same constellations here. One of the other exchange students had a friend try to comfort her by telling her to look to the north star...

The French they speak in my class is very easy to understand and virtually the same as what I heard in the states. English, on the other hand, is very different. And it is deliberate, because I've heard Batswana correct eachother away from the pronunciation I would use. They seem happy with having their own accent for English.

Public toilets in the city and in the surrounding villages have been actual toilets thus far. The only problem is that they're pretty dirty and never stocked with TP. I swear, you'd think that toilet paper was the currency here. Which brings up another good point...

The currency in Botswana is actually the Pula, which means "rain". This made me think that US rappers should consider using Pula in their videos when they talk about making it rain on dem hoes and such. But I digress. They are obsessed with rain here; mostly because they don't get any. It has rained once since I've been here, and it was a source of great excitement for many people. It's also really dusty. After a few weeks here, it's easy to see why the British gave up Botswana without much of a fight.

I got pulled into a meeting today for one of the student groups that runs for office on campus. It is interesting because they affiliate themselves with a national party. In this case, I went to a meeting for the UB Democratic Congress (UBDC) which supports the Botswana Congress Party (BCP). The meeting had an agenda, but got off topic pretty easily. I'm really excited to keep coming back, though, because the BCP was the opposition party that attracted me the most, and everyone liked having me there. This should be a good opportunity to learn about Batswana politics outside the classroom.

Why do they call it "breaking up" when a phone call starts getting scrambled or fading out? It seems very counterintuitive for couples on the phone, and has led to a million bad jokes in romantic comedies.

Still Settling In

2009-08-10T09:53:00.000-07:00

I'm still working on settling in in a number of areas, but I've been making some progress, and things are looking up. I still haven't had class in two of my courses, but that should change in the next couple of days. Ïn the mean time, the rest of my courses seem pretty cool; I even have a homework assignment in French!

On Saturday morning some of us got up early to go out to a village near Gabs and see a ceremony for the young men in said village who had spent the past six weeks in the wilderness as an initiation. It was kind of a surreal old-meets-new experience because even though parts of the ceremony were traditional, it was brodcast on TV, and there were jumbo-trons for people who couldn't see the action from afar.

Saturday night was kind of spoiled for me because I had to help break up a fight outside of the student bar. While I had been in my room, one of the girls in our group had left her student ID at the bar by accident. A guy found it, and wanted us to take him to meet her. That's right, he was holding her ID card hostage so that he could meet her... surely she couldn't resist such a smooth tactic.

Some of the exchange students confronted him, and on of the Matswana that they had been talking to threatened the guy. I met up with the girl and took her back to get her ID, and not long after I got there, the two overzealous guys started trading blows. Fortunately, both of them were fairly small, so I just picked the one guy up and pulled him out of the mix. Unfortunately, watching people to stupid crap like that puts me in a bad mood, so my night was pretty much ruined.

Sunday was nice and relaxing, I did some more reading in the Ghagavad-gita, and even cracked open my Book of Mormon. If you're looking for a weird read, that's a good place to start. The Gita was nice after the night before, because I found some verses on nonviolence, and why it's so good. I also found an endorsement for vegetarianism from Krishna, which amused me. I'm honestly pretty sick of meat already. Though I know that statement will shock many people that know me, it is actually true. It's not bad, but I don't like it as much as I used to, and I think the diet here is one of the reasons why I've caught a small cold.

Today was very productive, and tomorrow should be as well. I went to the embassy and got a copy of my passport notorized, and then turned all of my paperwork in at immigration, so now I just have to go back tomorrow and pick up my permit to stay. I also transferred some extra money to my debit card because the estimates for how much money I needed were a little conservative, and I'm planning on traveling. Tomorrow I'm going to call some places to try and volunteer, and finally get around to doing my laundry. Still no word on the computer, but I'm giving them til the end of the week before I pester security again.

As one hilarious Matswana told us, "There's and F-word, you should use it.

Laptop

2009-08-06T09:50:00.001-07:00

Unfortunately, my precious lappy was stolen from my room this morning. Here are the answers to all of the questions I anticipate you asking:

Yes, I locked my front door. I put my computer in my closet, but did not lock that door in my rush to get to class.
No, my roommate did not do it. He's super trustworthy and cool, and he was at work all day.
The only thing that was taken was the laptop. My iPod, camera, and money, all of which were in the closet with the computer were not touched. Also, none of the cords, including the charger, were taken. Which brings me to my next point...
Whoever took the computer is obviously not computer literate. They did not take any of the necessary hardware, and will probably try to sell the computer in the next few days.
This is good news, because the police will find the person that took it based on the sale. It is almost guaranteed that I will get the laptop back.

Now for the lessons I've learned:

Always lock the closet. I didn't take this rule seriously because I figured the front door was enough. Unfortunately, the people that did this got ahold of either a master key or my individual room key.
I think it was two construction workers that were outside my room this morning, so in the future I will make a concerted effort to close my curtains so that no one can see where I store it. If I see people outside my window (it is not a common area) I will make sure that they see me calling campus security.

This one really wasn't because of my stupidity or carelessness. It was done by people with clear intent, and there is only so much I could have done to stop them. Everyone, both local and exchange students, has been really supportive, and I know this is gonna be fine. I'll post something more fun and interesting in a day or two. If you have any other questions (parents...) then comment or send me a message.

Communism? That's just a red herring!

Hooray!

2009-08-04T09:57:00.000-07:00

I had a class today! It wasn't for the whole period, and she didn't hand out the syllabi, but it was a class! My African Social Thought class actually met and had the prof show up, which made me really happy. The professor's name is Dr. Onalenna Selolwane, and she and the course both seem super cool. There's supposed to be a lot of philosophy and history in the course, and we'll be researching a lot of African thinkers from different historical periods.

Dr. Selolwane told us a story about when she was at an academic conference early in her academic career where she presented on democracy not being entirely true to its ideals as long as we have separate states but a global community. The concept actually makes sense in the context of a superpower, like the US, in relation to a smaller state like Botswana. Because the US is so influential in areas like the global economy, every action affects the entire world, often in a profound way. The probelm is, that people from areas that are drastically affected by our elections cannot vote in our election. So even though they may have democracy in their own borders, Batswana have no say in a potentially huge part of their lives. This idea seems pretty obvious, but it had only occurred to me in parts, never as this complete and profound concept.

The professors at the conference were very impressed with this speech. "Saying that the US is depriving us of true democracy simply with its power? Sweet!" She soon lost their praise when she projected the idea onto the home lives of African women. See, some African cultures encourage rape within marriage (not unlike the old-school Catholic church), so the wife has no say in sex. Dr. Selolwane argued that this was similar to her example about the US, just more personal. The professor's were outraged, wondering how African men were supposed to get laid now. Dr. Selolwane stuck it to the men.

In conclusion, I think this course is going to be awesome, and I am looking forward to studying under Dr. Selolwane. That chick is awesome!

I gave Helen Keller a basketball, and she hasn't stopped reading for days!

First Day of Classes

2009-08-03T12:08:00.000-07:00

My first class today was Africa in World Politics at 9:00. I showed up to the class on time, but was greeted by a common experience in the first few weeks of class at UB - the prof didn't show up. A lot of times they don't show up for as long as the first two weeks during add-drop, which seems highly counterintuitive to me. Shouldn't they show up so that we know if we have the right classes? Anyway, in addition to these wasted classes, there is talk of a student strike in the coming weeks because some students have not gotten housing yet. This could keep us out of classes for up to two more weeks, and I say bring on the revolution! They obviously plan for this crap with the 4 month long semester, so why not disrupt the monotonous life that the tyrannical administration forces on its students? We shall rise up and take control of our collective destiny!

While waiting for the prof, I talked to a Matswana named Abraham. This was only after I realised that the exchange students and local students organised themselves on opposite sides of the classroom with a row of desks in the middle. I announced that I would not have us regress to 1960s America and moved to the center of the room. Point is, Abraham was really cool, and he told me some of his concerns about Botswana. One of these was that "Africans are lazy," (his words, not mine!), and this slows progress. It seems to be a common theme among conversations with people around here, that they think Africans or Batswana are lazy, and this is going to hurt future generations. I'm going to listen to what more people have to say on this subject, because it is definitely not what I expected to hear.

The second class of the day, History From Slavery to Colonialism in West Africa, was cancelled. Actually, the word was "deleted", which caused me to shout out "Deleted!" like Strongbad for the rest of the day. This meant that I had to find a new course to substitute; I chose History From Slavery to Colonialism in East Africa. It's a senior course as opposed to junior, but I don't really care. I just wanted to take some African history from that period, damnit! I am also going to sit in the back of the Setswana classes that many of the exchange students are taking. I'm not going to sign up, because it's five hours a week for a measly two credits. The prof didn't bother showing up for that class either.

I got a super snazzy haircut today, and the result can be viewed in my new profile pic. It was not cheap, as the only places to get haircuts in the city are at salons. Still, the guy did a good job and took his time. It was funny to watch him continually wet and spike my hair up so he could gauge the length. I guess he wasn't used to floppy white guy hair, but I was impressed with how well he adapted for me and my crazy hair.

The fascist pigs over in IT have finally blocked Facebook during the day. It's supposed to be usable after 8pm though, and it is currently not. This has upset me greatly, and made me all the more apt to partake in the aforementioned protests. They also blocked all of the proxy websites and Youtube. I wouldn't complain if they would just turn the blockers off at night like they're supposed to so that I can keep in touch with friends some 16,000 miles away...

Hopefully none of my classes tomorrow are cancelled. As they currently stand, I have:

African Social Thought 9-1050

Intro to French Literature 11-1215

African Philosophy and Culture 1600-1715

I'm especially psyched for the last one, and I really hope we focus heavily on the philosophy element of the course.

I got ahold of a list of organisations I can volunteer for in the city while I'm here. I'm looking at Amnesty International, Transparency International, Habitat for Humanity, and a few others. I can't wait to get the ball rolling on my volunteering here. I'm also looking to join a club while at UB, so I'll post about that when I've decided.

Oh, in spite of the complaints I've posted, I am loving it here. I'm relishing the the difficulties that I encounter here as opportunities for learning and growth. So while I may not like being unsure about my classes and not having Facebook, I'm rolling with these issues and seeing where it will take me.

Our society was progressing at an astonishing rate... until we made Tamagotchis. I'm pretty sure those things were just a portal for satan to enter this dimension.

Saturday Tour and Bar, Sunday Hike

2009-08-02T11:31:00.000-07:00

The group of exchange students left campus late on Saturday morning for a bus tour of Gaborone. A lot of what we saw was kind of a waste of time in my opinion, because we went to several malls (that many people in the group had already been to), which are obviously unique to Botswana. This meant that I spent a good chunk of the day wandering or waiting in a restaurant with little to do.

Other than that, we did visit some cool sites in the city, so here are a couple good pictures:

This first one is the three chiefs that went to Britain in 1885 to plead the case for Botswana (Bechuanaland at the time) to be a British protectorate, but not a colony. Their request was actually accepted, and the region was kept safe from more powerful surrounding nations like South Africa, Zimbabwe (Southern Rhodesia at the time), and Zambia (Northern Rhodesia). So while Botswana has always been counted as an occupied country for most of its history, they actually kind of liked it, and the British didn't really harass them because they were just a little desert country.

In 1964, several Batswana chiefs went back to Britain to get independence. Diamonds were still undiscovered in Botswana, so Britain had no problem letting go. I believe the conversation went something like this:
Queen Elizabeth II: Say what now? You guys want independence?
Batswana Chiefs: Word.
Beth: You guys are crazy. You're either dumbasses, or just have big brass balls. Go for it!

Here's Botswana's Parliament. They didn't people taking pictures of it, but I like to imagine that I'm rebellious, so I took one anyway.

Here's the first President of Botswana. The current President is his grandson, and their party is the only one that has ever held the presidency in this country. I can't wait to learn more about how Batswana politics work!

This salon sign was in the Main Mall area of downtown; it's basically a large indoor/outdoor market with both temporary and permanent vendors. Note the first hairstyle listed in the second line of the black text. Yes, I'm 10.

We went to the Bull and Bush (which I continually referred to as "Bowling Bush" until I saw the logo) bar last night for a while. It was good, and I got to try several African beers.

Castle: I tried this one in the Airport in J-berg, which works because it is the most popular beer in South Africa. It is not bad, with a fairly light lager flavor, but a little bit of a clean hoppy kick at the end that made me think of pilsners. Castle has a moderate frothy head.

Windhoek: This Namibian beer is named after the capital city, and it is pretty good. It has a distinctive and full bodied flavor, and a very easy finish. The head of Windhoek was comparable to that of Castle.

St. Louis: Another South African beer, but this one sucks. Don't waste your time; it's like a watered down Maes. St. Louis had a small thin head, and a lighter yellow-y color.

Hansa: This South African lager was my favorite! Delicious complex flavor, with little bits of sour and smokiness that reminded me of Stella Artois at its best. It was a little darker than all of the others, and I did not get to see the head of this beer as I drank it from a bottle.

Today's hike up Kgale Hill was really cool, and really intense. I did the whole thing in my flimsy Vans slip-ons, which may not have been the most practical choice, but that's neither here nor there. Here are some pics of the fantastic views:

This is a view of Gaborone from the top of the hill. Pretty impressive.

Here's the world's sexiest man at one of the highest points in the Gaborone area. At the bottom of the picture is a quarry that we walked by.

After the hike, we came back and rested, went to dinner, and then I set out to look for my classes. This turned out to be quite the quest. I've been to some confusing places, but Jesus H-bomb Christ this campus makes no sense! And it's not a cultural thing, because everyone new to UB can't find their way around. The numbering system makes no sense (when the numbers are even visible), there are dead ends galore, and no path goes straight for very long. The whole thing is one big fustercluck, but I did manage to find all of my classrooms (I think).

While exploring campus the other day, I found a stand for a religious group near the student union with peace, equality, and other granola-muncher symbols painted on a banner. I was immediately drawn in by the hippie stuff, and being the easily interested and excitable religion stalker that I am, I stuck around to learn more.

The religion is called Bahá'í, and they promote the idea that all religions stem from one true God. They excuse differences between religions as "social teachings", while consistencies are "spiritual teachings". Social teachings vary with time and location, while spiritual teachings about love and the existence of God remain the same. Apparently, Bahá'í has over 6 million followers in hundreds of countries, and its appeal is undeniable. In addition to the whole "everyone finds God" thing, the literature they gave me emphasises reason and rational thought in preventing religion from becoming mere "superstition". This is a cool concept, but I don't know how well its executed within the religion, because they seem to put a lot of trust into every word of religious literature, which is certainly neither rational nor reasonable. I left my info with the people, and I hope to meet with the group and get a lot of questions answered. Hooray for learning new things!

I start classes tomorrow, and I'll let you know how that goes. I'm also getting a haircut, so I may post a pic of that.

I wish parts of my life could be sped up with the Benny Hill music playing.

Friday Dinner

2009-08-01T07:13:00.000-07:00

For dinner last night, the International Office took us to a local woman's home in a village (this term is used loosely, since it was a town of about 15,000) outside of Gaborone for a meal featuring traditional Batswana dishes. Here's the plate of food that ensued:

The whole meal was delicious, with a lot of earthy flavors (read, "tasted like dirt, but good dirt"). The green mass at the bottom was especially interesting. It's made from boiled leaves, and tasted a bit like dirt and tea, but somehow it was good. On the upper right of the plate are mopane worms, which as far as I can tell are not worms at all, but rather caterpillars. I enjoyed shocking people with my nonchalance when I tried them, and they tasted pretty good; very chewy, salty, and almost fishy, with little spines on them that got stuck in my teeth.

After dinner, we did some dancing around the campfire, with each country bringing some sort of dance or rhythmic game to the group. It was a lot of fun, and as I watched people laugh, I realized that these kinds of simple group activities can bring a deeper and purer joy and laughter than any joke, gag, or comic ever could. It's the type of laughter that comes from the very essence of humanity, and for a few moments takes away all the bad in our lives. Humans naturally crave group acceptance, and a group that will take your silliest movements and wildest cries without question may be the ultimate acceptance.

On a more practical note, I forgot to note that my mailing address is:

Daniel Critics
University of Botswana
Office of International Studies
Private Bag 0022
Gaborone, Botswana

In case you want to call my phone using Skype, my cell number is:
+267-7524-3996

I think I'll start my revolution with a pillow fight skirmish.

Arriving In Botswana

2009-07-31T07:57:00.000-07:00

Hey! So this is my blog for my trip to Botswana; if I decide I like it, I'll keep it up when I get back to the states. I'm going to try to start typing in British English, since I'll need to be doing that full time in a couple of days. I've been at the University of Botswana in Gaborone, Botswana (it's pronounced *phlegm* ab-or-oh-nay in case you were wondering) for 4 full days now. I arrived safely on Monday night, and I've got about a bajillion things to write about, so I think I'll just organise this first post day-by-day.

Sunday-Monday
I flew out of JFK early on Sunday morning on South African Airways. The flight was about 14 and a half hours long, but overall it was as nice as I could hope for. There were dozens of movies to choose from on my personal monitor, and they started and stopped as I commanded. The lovely people on the flight hooked me up with some awesome vegetarian meals, which was a nice change of pace from camp. My point is, the flight was shockingly good, and I don't have any major complaints about South African Air.

In spite of how cool the flight was, I only managed to grab about a little over an hour's worth of sleep. At first, this really didn't phase me. After all, here I was finally in South Africa! The "dark continent" was my oyster... at least within the confines of an incredibly boring airport. I got bored quickly with the pasteurised shops, and to top it all off, the airport was mostly full of British tourists! I wandered around trying to kill my 7-hour layover, but ultimately grew weary and made my way over to the bar. A couple of beers (legally!) put me in a great mood to nap over at the terminal for my flight until it began boarding. I also napped on the 35-minute jump from Johannesburg to Gaborone, so by the time I was in Botswana I felt much better about the whole sleep situation.

The Airport in Gabs could not have been more different from the one in J-burg. The South African airport was huge and western, filled with white people and massive tile floors. Gaborone's hub was small and a little bit dingy, but it seemed to be all that was needed - not a lot of flights go through Botswana. They seemed very concerned about Swine Flu, and had information about the symptoms of H1N1 posted in customs. I was interrogated about any symptoms I might be experiencing, but was not questioned any further when I showed my US passport and said I had nothing to declare.

It was now early Monday evening. I was driven to UB with a couple of girls from Norway who had arrived before me, and saw Gabs and UB for the first time. I remember being astonished by the number of newer looking cars in the city. Botswana has been doing well thanks to the mining industry, and many people are doing well for themselves. Unfortunately, there also seems to be quite a disparity in some areas.

At the University, I got settled into my room, got linens and such, and met a group of foreign students who had arrived in the past few days, and we went out to River Walk to get dinner. River Walk is a mall in walking distance from the campus with a lot of western-style stores with names that don't shy away from the typically taboo word "corporation". I got a veggie pizza for dinner, came back, and died. I had managed to stay awake until about 10, a success that I have to credit to my afternoon naps. I slept right through the night, which helped me to completely beat jet lag in a single day.

Tuesday
While I slept well, many did not. It is winter here in the Southern Hemisphere, and Botswana can drop below 50 at night. The dorms or hostels are not heated, and are made of concrete and tile. I live in block 480, but it is better known as "Las Vegas" because it is purported to be the nicest on campus. I think this is primarily because it is new and has a few built in shelves, because other than that there is no significant difference between Vegas and the other hostels. I share my dorm with a Syrian named Bashar; he is not a student here, but is in Botswana for a month of work-study. Complaints that I had when I got here included the fact that there was no shower curtain for the only shower in our section, there was no hand soap, no toilet paper, and no internet connection. I bought toilet paper, soap, and a curtain, but as of today all but the curtain have been stolen. There is now a stash of TP in my room, and my trust for the people in the hostel has diminished. If the communal sanctity of my hand soap cannot be respected, then I am definitely going to follow the advice I got in orientation and lock up my valuables in my closet whenever I leave.

I have gotten ahead of myself, because orientation did not begin until Thursday. In fact, I did not receive any help except from other exchange students in getting settled with an ID card and internet connection. I spent over 8 hours over the course of two days waiting in line to fix my courses, pay for my ID, and actually get my ID. It was a miserable time, and the inefficiencies of the system seemed obvious to me. Still, I'm trying to be ridiculously optimistic by tacking this one up as a cultural experience and trying not to dwell on it. After waiting around, I got to go to the mall again so that I could get a SIM card and a few other minor items. I also had what was to be my last meal before I broke my self-imposed dietary restriction. For dinner on Tuesday night, I had beef stew with my meal, and hot-diggity was it delicious!

I think that in order to put my decision to start eating flesh again into perspective, I'll contrast it with my decision to abstain while working at camp. You see, like here, the diet at Heritage Reservation was primarily meat-based, and I regularly had little to eat. I ate a lot of PB and Js, and drank a lot of milk, but my diet was still protein deficient. In spite of this, there was very little internal conflict for me about my diet. I was there for only 7 weeks, and frankly, I think I did myself a favor by not eating the shit that passes for meat there. Here in Botswana, I've decided to eat meat because I think that coming to such a new place and hoping to absorb from it requires opening up my soul as much as much as I can make myself. Anything that I can comfortably say yes to here, I will.

Wednesday
This day was also filled with more line waiting and shopping for necessities. I got scissors, and managed to tear apart some of my magazines that I had brought to get some pictures for my bulletin board in the room. I was irritated that I still had not connected to the internet.

Thursday
Orientation began in the morning, and it was boring. I got connected to the internet in the afternoon, and then went to the River Walk mall by myself for the first time. I like the group of study abroad students, but being able to walk around in solitude was a nice change of pace.

I found that I have a hard time meeting people's eyes here; I am, after all, not just a minority, but a privileged minority. It is clear to me, that I cannot ever fully appreciate the African American, even in a place where I am a part of such a stark minority. I am not poor (despite my best efforts), and I am not looked down on here, though I do fear that I will be. It is hard to meet a local's gaze because I do not know what I will see. In the US, I know a person will most likely avert their eyes, and if they don't, they do not typically look at you with anger or sadness. Here, they look back, and I cannot tell what people think of me... It is something that I'm going to have to work on.

I hope this first post isn't too boring. I kind of droned, but I think it will help contextualize future posts, which I should have up shortly. I'm also going to add pictures once I get on the ball.

In the words of Hindu Santa: Hare Krishna to all, and to all a good night!