botswana2008

CLOSING

2008-07-29T08:05:00.003+02:00

I apologize for not having already ended my blog neatly. The end of the trip was of course busy and hectic. Blogging of course took a back seat.

I am very excited to be back in the states. Of course it was an amazing experience, but some things are hard to deal with here when they normally run so well at home. For example, service. No matter where you go, things are slow. Restaurants, stores, banks, everything. And most Motswana that we talk to say it's from laziness. I think I do see some of that. It's not uncommon to wait in line at an ice cream place and have literally 9 people behind the counter yet you wait 3-4 minutes before anyone notices or assists you. When everything is like that, it builds up and gets frustrating.

Going into the summer, I dabbled in thoughts of possibly teaching internationally down the road in situations similar to this summer. However, while I did enjoy it, I don't think it's something I will pursue. I just don't see myself as being able to move away from anyone for a longer period of time. I also don't think I could deal with actually live-living in a place like this for lengthy stays. It takes a much bigger person than I am!

I did have a GREAT experience teaching though. The first few weeks were very rough because I just sort of watched the teacher and saw her doing a horrible job. I felt like I was wasting my time and didn't know why they even had my here. But as luck would have it, the teacher went away for a few weeks and the class was then mine! I loved the teaching and it was great to be able to establish norms and rules in my own classroom. The kids caught on and I actually noticed some significant changes in them. When I started they were only able to say about half the alphabet in order from memory. They couldn't identify any letters or know what sounds they made. Somehow I have gotten them to start to read a little bit. Some of them are able to get that a 'b' and an 'a' make a 'ba' sound. I mention this accomplishment not as my own but as me being so proud of my kids.

While living here there has been a sort of constant uneasiness. The other girls have also felt it. Being out either alone or with other girls is almost always uncomfortable. The men here are obsessed with white (and Asian) girls. And they are also very forward, so we are constantly being hit on and called at. This was something we were warned at before, but it's so so so irritating. If I am out walking alone they always ask where I am going, or if they can take me, or if they can be my boyfriend, or if they can have my number, or if I will marry them. The men here often ask the boys in our program to set them up with white girlfrinds. I've never felt threatened or unsafe or anything like that, but as I said, it's just uncomfortable.

The trip had challenges, but overall it was great. At times I wished I was in Philly or New York, but I don't regret going at all. It was certainly once in a lifetime experience. There's so much more I could write about, but I frankly don't have time right now and I wouldn't know where to begin.

Thanks to all those that read. I'm glad you could follow along and see what I was up to!

sans title

2008-07-28T14:24:00.005+02:00

Not much has been going on as of late. Simply enjoying my last little bit in Botswana. Today I went to Kamogelo. Tomorrow we have a lunch for the Penn interns and our various supervisors. Then I am going in Wednesday for my last day at Kamogelo, which will, of course, be upsetting.

I'm a little disappointed because they have finally figured out how to cash the $500 check. However, it takes awhile for it to show up. So I don't think I am going to get to buy the First Aid supplies and get the kits together before I leave. They are going to use the money for the kits, that's not a concern. But it's frustrating that I won't get to finish my project.

This past weekend I actually saw two movies: Wall-E and The Dark Knight. Wall-E was cute and hilarious while the Dark Knight freaked me out. I always get incredibly creeped out by those types of villians...

Last night we went to an Indian restaurant called Chutney. We've been twice and every dish has proved to be tasty-licious. And YES mom and dad, I have started eating Indian food. The world might as well come crashing down. I've even had it several times.

I started biting my nails again. UGH. I took off nail polish for three days and BAM it's like the last 2 months never happened. I am going to paint them again and hopefully that will help remedy the current situation.

A little bit ago we went to the Gaborone dam to watch the sunset:

cape tizzle

2008-07-23T08:24:00.004+02:00

Saturday morning we rose early to taxi our way to the Sir Seretse Khama International Airport. Rajiv, Pratik, Julio and I made our way to the single gate and walked out to a charming plane awaiting us and 20 other passengers. We flew from Gabs to Joburg and then on to Cape Town, South Africa.

Cape Town was different than our last trips because we had to plan what we were going to do and what we wanted to see in our few days there. Taking into account that we did zero planning beforehand, we did very well.

Day 1: We arrived around lunch and spent the day on a "topless bus" (hehe). The bus was a city tour that had about 14 stops. At each stop you had the option of getting off and exploring for a bit, and then getting on the next bus that passed through. While it was painfully touristy, it gave you a really good idea of what the city had to offer, which was obviously important in our circumstances. We explored one of the waterfront/marina areas that had some shops and restaurants as well as went up partway on Table Mountain. From there one could see lovely views of the city along the water. The city is really beautiful and a lot more like Europe that I had anticipated. I didn't really know what to expect, but it's MUCH different than Gabs. If one were to think about the Africa stereotypes, Gabs falls in line with them, and Cape Town not so much.

Night 1: Following the afternoon of touring, we walked to an Italian restaurant not more than 7 minutes from our hotel. It was charming, the dining room would have made a great club, and it had a very attentive staff. We sat by the window that overlooked the water, but it was dark, so I don't remember seeing too much of it... Because we had such an early morning, we then decided to nap. We roused around 11:00pm to go out. We were told that if we went to Long Street there would be a lot going on. This proved to be accurate. We stopped into a cafe by day, bar by night (Mr. Pickwicks) and had a few drinks. Then we headed to a dive club of sorts called Joburg. That was crowded, but a lot of fun. The music was, of course, all big names and almost exclusively American. After that we went to a club called Chrome. It was an entertaining crowd that consisted of 75% Indian boys between the ages of 18-20. 4:30am bed.

Day 2: After brunch we went to Company's Gardens which as you can imagine, consisted of nice walkways, gardens, and fountains. Being a Sunday, a fair amount of families were strolling and picnicking. It was nice to see copious amounts of green. The landscape differed greatly from that of the rather dusty Gabs. We stumbled upon the National Art museum in the gardens and paid a whopping 15 Rand (2ish USD) to get in. They had a very neat room.5 on a Portugese artchitect named Pancho Guedes. He did some REALLY cool stuff. Following the gardens, we attempted to go the University of Cape Town to meet Julio's friend for a brai (BBQ) they were having. This brai was occuring at 11 Cecil Road. We flagged down a cab and found our driver did not know this address or even where UCT was. He was from Zimbabwe and hadn't been in Cape Town very long. We asked another cabbie and we headed off in the correct general direction. He handed us a map and asked us to find Cecil Road. We quickly found Cecil Road, but shortly after found it was the wrong Cecil Road. We arrived at number 11 and a friendly young man informed us we were not at the right place. We walked to the main road to find we weren't exactly in the nicest of neighborhoods and we definitely looked out of place. It was an adventure, but we miraculously found another taxi. The driver turned out to be amazing and took us right where we needed to go. I oddly enough met two girls also from NH at the brai. Small, small world.

Night 2: We split up for dinner because Julio and I were interested in seafood, while Rajiv and Pratik were not (being vegetarian and all). After dinner we fell asleep and called it a night.

Day 3: Out to the vineyards! We rented a car and Julio drove seeing as he was the only one that could drive stick. It was incredible! There are literally hundreds of vineyards located about 45 minutes outside of Cape Town. We stopped at a first called Villiera. We walked around the cellar on our own and then had a free wine tasting. None of us knew much about wine, but it was interesting to get a better idea of what I like v. what I don't. Then we drove down the road and stopped at Eagleviel. This was a newer vineyard, so it didn't seem as old and prestigious, but it had beautiful views and we sat outside with a charming mutt of a dog lapping up any spilled wine. Following that, we stopped at another place I forget the name of for lunch. Unfortunately, lunch was nothing special and it made us very late for our 2:15 tour at a winery called Laborie. They said the tour had started, but another winery called Nederberg down the road had one at 3. We dashed over there and had an AMAZING visit. Since it was a Monday, none of the wineries were crowded by any means. At Nederberg, a woman about our parents' age led us on a private tour of this massive winery. She knew an incredible amount and was not condescending at all considering we knew close to nothing. Following the tour, we had a tasting where she spent a lot of time telling us about the different kinds of wine. She gave us tips about serving and whatnot. She was great. It was great. Life's great.

Night 3: Back in Cape Town we went to the Waterfront for dinner. It unfortunately turned out to be a basic mall, but they had a fairly good selection of restaurants. Our group split again and Julio and I went to a Portugese restaurant. Julio and I then went to a gelateria for dessert and then we all headed back to the hotel. Again we found ourselves exhausted and settled in for the night.

Day 4: This is Tuesday and our last day. We had to leave at 1pm for the airport to get our flight back to Gabs. However, we didn't want to simply mope about. We still had our rental car and we decided to drive to Cape Point. It's a peninsula with pulchritudinous views (do you notice a trend of this in Cape Town?). Sorry to use that word, I have been obsessed with it since I learned it whilst studying for the GRE. The drive along the coast was a little scary simply because it's so windy. The timing was perfect and we made it back to Cape Town just in time to get lunch and meet our ride to the airport.

smarties

2008-07-23T08:16:00.003+02:00

Before I even address my weekend in Cape Town, I would like to dedicate an ENTIRE post to Smarties. Please follow the link to find everything you will need to know about Smarties. These are not the weird, sour, sugary smarties back home, these ones are much, much better. I do hope this dedication shows the magnitude with which I love them. I have loved them my entire life and it's such a treat to have them available to me at every turn.

Also, I realized about a week ago how MUCH I love ice cream.

I dedicate this post to Smarties and ice cream. (Weird mood.)

kabelo & the vegetable party

2008-07-17T19:56:00.004+02:00

I feel this blog post title could also be the title of a children's story.

Yesterday I had my "vegetable party." In an effort to increase vocab and nutrients, I decided to bring in various veggies for the kids to try. They sat at their tables with their single paper towel eagerly awaiting the food that doesn't often come their way. I then gave them all samples of the following: green beans, tomatoes, lettuce, green peppers, onion, mushrooms, and carrots. They practiced phrases such as, "I am eating green beans" and the like. Following each veggie they voted (kind of) whether they liked it or not. I thought the onion was going to be more entertaining, but 23 of the 25 raised their hand in approval. I suppose children who don't have much food variety (or food in general) available to them have wider palates. Overall, I was pleased. I was hoping to do more of a math lesson with the data we accumulated from the votes, but the numbers were a little high for them.

We have been working on addition with numbers up to about 10. They're getting there. However, amazingly, I only have two more days at Kamogelo, so I am hoping what I have started continues after I am gone. I have also started to get some of them to read. Sort of. Each morning I will write words on the board, but each letter one at a time. We sound it out as we go along. The brighter ones are able to get it while the others repeat what they say or play with the carpet. You win some, you lose some.

As I said, I only have 2 days left, which is rather shocking. I have tomorrow and then next week is supposed to be my last day of the internship. However, the kids have school vacation. So I am going to go one last day the following week to say goodbye. Some of the other Penn students are planning to come with Ilana and me. They want to meet the kids and play for a day, which is totally understandable and acceptable. I was really heartbroken when today Lesego kept asking if we could take another bus. I keep having to say, "No, no bus. No bus." He then asked if we could take one next year. It's incredibly hard to think about the fact that I will probably not see these kids ever again.

Oh yes, and I haven't gotten to our title boy, Kabelo. He gives me the most trouble of them all. He is one of the smallest ones and always fighting with the other kids. I have never had my patience tested like so with him. I have also never been tempted to physically punish a child until now. I hate saying it, but sometimes he looks at me with those devil eyes and angelic smile and I could literally scream with horror. The only reason I am ever tempted is because it's the only method of punishment he internalizes. Because I don't hit him or the other kids, he doesn't really care about what I say. He likes to make trouble entirely for attention. It's frustrating because I want to ignore it and show it won't receive my attention, but I can't. Unfortunately his disruptions disrupt everyone. It's hard to work with kids that don't have anything. When I was a camp counselor I could remind them that bad behavior led to missing out on pizza parties and field trips. However, that doesn't fly around here. What is to stop them from doing what they want? Beating only. Which, of course, I don't issue. Ah frustration!

This weekend we are going to Cape Town for 4 days and I am super excited. This trip will just be Julio, Rajiv, Pratik, and I. I've heard nothing but good things.

I leave 2 weeks from tomorrow. This has all flown by! Eek! I am getting to DC early August 2nd. Then I am flying from Philly to NH that night. After spending a week there, I will be back in Philly on the 9th. The rest of August I am planning to babysit and hopefully make up some of the money I lost while not working this summer and study for the GRE. (Which I have totally slacked on lately.) I also plan on making trips up to NYC often to visit friends! I have mixed feelings on leaving. One part of me wants to stay, but a LARGE part is so excited to go back! I miss everyone and am eager for life at a "normal" pace again.

A video of some of the older kids singing. You will notice Sisca distributing some light beatings with the stick of doom. (Oh and they LOVE singing about Jesus.)

to paradise and back (long!)

2008-07-14T13:56:00.015+02:00

The weekend finally arrived when we flew up to Chobe National Park and Victoria Falls. I will preface this post by stating that it's going to be gushy. Everything was "amazingggg" and everything was "beauuutiful" and everything was "awesomeeeee." So just be prepared.

Friday morning I flew up with Ilana, Julio, Dave, Rajiv and Pratik. The hour and a half flight was painless and we shortly found ourselves being driven to the Kubu (meaning: hippopotamus) lodge. None of us knew what to expect and because of that we found ourselves blown away. This was one of the most amazing places I have ever been. I felt like I was on America's Next Top Model when they take the final 5 (or whatever) to some exotic location. There is always footage of the girls arriving and screaming at their mindblowing accomodations and throwing themselves on their short-term beds in fits of giggles and smiles. It was kind of like that. We had three "chalets" and dined each morning and night at the hotel restaurant (which considering the fixed menu, was rather scrumptious). The restaurant had a lovely deck that was perfect for breakfast and drinks before dinner. After 10pm we were told not to walk around outside because the hippos come out of the water and hang out on the property. We were hoping to spot one, but no such luck. You could only hear them grunting or whatever in the distance. Here are some photos of our weekend's oasis.

Rajiv and Ilana.

My room.

Good morning boys and girl. (Why so glum Pratik?)

I will note at this point that Thursday night I got very ill. I threw up a couple times and it was clear that my body wanted something OUT. However, I am not sure what. (Not from drinking! Poo poo to those of you thinking it.) For the first time in my life, I looked in the mirror and understood where the "looking green" expression came from. We had gone to a really incredible dinner in Gabs Thursday night, but I was the only one that got sick. So Friday I was not feeling so hot. I would feel fairly well most of the time, but I would get these INTENSE stomach pains every half hour or so. (Contractions?! Just kidding.) This weekend I was sick for much of it, but it was certainly overshadowed by the total awesomeness of everything else.

Back to Friday at Chobe. Around lunch I was very much under the weather, and not really looking forward to our three hour boat cruise in the Zambezi river. I felt faint, weak, sore muscles, and like I was going to vomit. The fresh air on the boat turned out to be just what I needed. I still wasn't that great, but still very much able to enjoy it. A guide took the six of us on a little boat and we darted around looking at animals. Hippos, elephants, crocodiles, water buffalo, giraffes (from afar), lots of birds (not my thing), large lizard thingies, and other creatures not as high on the food chain. We watched the sun set and took photos that easily would show up on google images.

Crocodile.

A pod of hippos.

Elephants bathing.

Giraffes. Not as impressive, but whatever.

AFRICA.

Back to lodge- spent our first glorious night. Woke up and were transported to Victoria Falls for the day. Vic Falls is on the border between Zimbabwe (!) and Zambia. Our trip was going to the Zim side, and everything went smoothly. We had to stop at a number of border control areas, but there were barely any lines and it was a painless process. It's so important to have a guide because he just led us around and told us what to do. There was an amazing disparity between Botswana and Zimbabwe even in the intensely brief time we were there. We stopped at a town in Zim to schedule the bungee jumping (that I did not partake in) and we were BOMBARDED with people desperately trying to sell us things. It was nuts. That sort of thing doesn't happen in Botswana, or Gabs rather, but where we were in Zim was ridiculous. It was really quite sad and heartbreaking. They are also incredibly persistent. We would say "No thank you" and get in the car. They would keep banging on the windows and holding up the art pieces and lowering the price. The currency used in Zim was actually USD (or Botswana pula). For one, it's a rather touristy area. Also, their money is worthless. (Thanks Mugabe.)

Exchange rates.

Watching the jumpers.

As for the bungee jumping, it took forever. That was rather annoying considering I wasn't doing it and I felt sick. It was something like a 111 meter jump over the river coming from the falls. They jumped from a bridge between Zim and Zambia. More power to the people that do it, but that's just not something I am down for. At first, Dave, Julio, and Rajiv did it. Dave actually got a package of three things: the slide, the bungee, and the swing. The slide was more of a zip line done while sitting. I would have done that had I not been sick. The bungee was the classic bungee and the swing is for the truly crazy people. In bungee you sort of fall/are pushed off. The swing you literally RUN off the platform. And it swings you back and forth as well as down. All variations of soaring/feeling like you're dying. We had been there a couple hours, and just when Dave was about to do his last, Pratik and Ilana decided to do it. So that was another hour or so. By the end I was banging my head against the wall because I was just waiting, feeling sick, burning in the sun. Oh well. I took pictures for people. Yay? [Dave was incredible with the jumps. He is a law student at Penn, went to West Point, and was in the Army for a while. He had flawless form and would LEAP from the platform. Most people needed a little push.]

Julio and Rajiv.

Dave leaping.

Dave's eyes are closed, but the shot shows the bridge's height.

Post jumping, we lunched in Zim and then headed to Vic Falls. I have been to Niagara Falls and so I sort of pictured a bar with lots of people posted up against it taking pictures. It was actually more of trail that you walked along. It wasn't crowded at all, and as you can imagine, it was incredible. I am not going to waste my words trying to describe seeing one of the 7 natural world wonders. Here are some photos.

For all you know, I googled it.

This reminded me of the Old Man in the Mountain, but with a flatter nose. I haven't been to see him since the fall, perhaps this is what he looks like now.

There were monkeys all over the path. Some were eating bananas. Be jealous, Nat.

Hehe.

The next morning, we woke up painfully [painfully] early for a game drive. At this point, I've been on a number of these, so it wasn't anything too crazy. Except the major highlight was that we finally saw lions. That was pretty exciting. Actually kind of terrifying since they would walk right by our vehicle. Really at any moment they might notice you and decide to snack.

This looks fake.

Lion Love. JPlay, they're sisters.

After the game drive we went back to Kubu for brunch and then to the airport. It was a great weekend that was overall, very relaxing. I felt like I was in paradise and it's certainly a place that I would love to one day come back to. I recommend it for honeymoons. I almost felt like I was on one. Ha.

This weekend we are heading to Cape Town!

kung fu panda: the aftermath

2008-07-10T19:27:00.006+02:00

Overall, Thursday went very well. I was pleased because it was all free for us, I was totally at other people's mercy. I was nervous that something would fall apart and there wouldn't really be anything I could do about it!

I will start with the morning. I was eager to get to Kamogelo and within five minutes of my arrival the bus office called my cell phone to say the bus was on the road ready to meet me. Now, it was rather difficult for me to fax the directions to the office because a) I don't know the directions, b) I don't have a fax machine and c) it's not easy to tell someone to "take the 4th dirt road and the middle fork and turn left at the dead goat" etc. Since Kamogelo is out in the village, it's certainly not an easy location to get to if you are unacquainted with the area. I was able to get directions and so I was pretty confident where they would be located. I have drawn out a horrid map to help with my story. (Scroll down.)

K is Kamogelo and lies about 400 meters from the road it lies on (A to B). I ran out to that road and couldn't spot the large white, charter bus anywhere. I called the office and they said the bus was waiting at the taxi stand. To my left, at point A, I noticed a conglomeration of vehicles. I started jogging the approximate half mile out there. On the way I waved down a combie and asked if that was the taxi stand. They confirmed my hopes and I contined my jog. I couldn't help but laugh at my current situation of running down the road in a village to find a bus to take orphans to see a movie about a Kung Fu Panda. Sometimes life is stranger than fiction. Upon arrival at point A, I found no bus and no evidence of a taxi stand. It was a combie stand. I instantly found myself stressed and offered a driver 10 pula to take me to the taxi stand. One was out of gas and another wouldn't go for 10 pula (or 15 either). I was informed by the various drivers there that the taxi stand was at point B, which is a 7-10 minute drive from A (they drive slow, pick up people, drop them off, etc).

I got in a combie headed towards point B. As I approched point B I saw a white bus heading driving away in the direction of C (Gaborone). I frantically call the office to ask why the bus was driving away. (I don't have the driver's number. There is unfortunately a middle man.) They ask where I am and I desperately try to explain that I am in a combie behind the bus following it back to Gabs. They check with the bus driver... apparently that is NOT my bus.

So somewhere there is a taxi stand and there is a bus waiting for me, yet I have no idea where they are. I get out of the combie I thought was pursuing my bus and sprint towards the nearest person. He explains that there is a special combie that goes specifically to the taxi station. Being the good man that he is, he flags it down for me and sends me on my way. I get on and it drives all the way to point D. By the time I get there, an hour has passed since I started my journey and I am laughing at this rather typical Botswana start to the day.

I outline this because it was just too typical of Botswana and hilarious to me. As stressed as I was, it worked out fine and I found the bus. We drove to Kamogelo to pick up the kids and it was off to the theatre. The rest of the day was smooth sailing. The kids put on wonderful behavior. I think it came in large part because they rarely do anything like it. Perhaps the mall shellshocked them. They filed into the theatre clutching their gatorades (imitation actually) and baggies of popcorn. We watched the movie and drove back to Kamogelo with the kids sporting new panda masks.

kung fu panda

2008-07-08T20:09:00.003+02:00

After a slew of phone calls, emails, and faxes the logistics are set and Thursday I have orchestrated that we will get to take 60 of the kiddos to see Kung Fu Panda at the Riverwalk Mall. We have a charter bus providing transport to the free movie. The kids will also be receiving free popcorn and soda. It's going to be great. I highly doubt that many of the kids have been to a movie theatre. I hope they send the teachers the kids listen to because it could be a mild disaster if not. Haha.

I will be bringing my stickers and firing through them rapidly. I bought a 700 pack of small gold circle stickers a couple weeks back. When I am trying to get them to do something, I will put a sticker somewhere on the face (nose, forehead, cheek) of a child that's doing what I want. From there, most follow suit or press into me begging for one. Either way, it's better than them rolling on the ground and shrieking. It's pretty much the only positive reinforcement they have for behavior. They simply have punishments for misbehaviors at Kamogelo.

Nat, I have forgotten to mention that I have seen monkeys on two separate occasions. Once at the Mokolodi Game Reserve and another time when I was walking to Riverwalk mall. They were on someone's roof. FYI.

On Saturday we went to an 4th of July BBQ hosted by the US Embassy. Mixture of boring and mild entertainment. While I waited in line for my burger, two middle-aged women were chatting about America v. Botswana and raising kids, blah blah blah. One woman stated that she wished she were closer to a Wal-Mart or Target. She looked the type too. We ate, then Julio, Rajiv and I waited for maybe an hour to get facepaint. Julio a tiger, Rajiv a kung fu fighter, and I a dragon on one cheek that was breathing fire across my nose and onto the other. I forgot how much face paint can itch! Fun experience to go to Riverwalk mall with it on post-BBQ.

As you may notice, we go to Riverwalk like every day. It's walking distance from UB and where restaurants, stores, and the all-important grocery store are located.

Nat, the hand turkeys.

You may recall that my friend Julio was the one working on building an airstrip in the Kalahari. He has been back and forth between Gabs and the desert the last couple weeks. He found out this week that the airstrip is being named after him. It will be called "Julio" and his name will be in 3 meter letters next to it. (Apparently visible from 2,000 feet.) Cool yeah? Side note, I think in rock paper scissors I am winning 27-19 or something. Victory smells so sweet.

This weekend we are going to Chobe and Vic Falls! Last weekend one of my roommates, Rebecca, went and said it was great. We've all been a little nervous about going on the Zim side, but she said there weren't any issues. Rebecca went separately because sadly, she is leaving us this Friday. She has to leave a couple weeks early because of another job she has lined up with a professor back at school. Wish she could stay, sniff sniff.

rando

2008-07-02T21:38:00.004+02:00

For those that care, I have stopped biting my nails. This may seem insignificant to most, but I have continued this nasty habit since the womb. Let's not forget the time I ended up in the emergency room while on vacation because my finger got infected. Upon our Gabs arrival, Ilana (a fellow nailbiter) and I found ourselves terrified that we were going to have small, open wounds on our fingers around the kids. I guess it took the fear of HIV to get me to stop because I have completely stopped since arriving. I am just hoping, hoping, hoping that it's a trend I continue when I fly back stateside. We bought nailpolish and most days I am sporting flourescent pink.

Labello. It is by far the most incredible chapstick to ever exist. Ever. I remember my friend Ali fawning over it when we traveled for fencing in Europe. I never got into it, and I now bemoan the many years without Labello. I will be bringing Labello back in bulk. At this point, I favor the HydroCare. But from looking at their website I can see that they have a much greater variety than I could have ever dreamed.

A couple weeks back I received a phone call from a producer at MTV. They wanted me to come to NYC to do another MADE reunion. I declined.

Setswana, the main language of Botswana has a lot of rolling r's. When working the kids especially, I have started to adopt these r's also. I also catch myself speaking more like the kids so that they understand what I am saying better. Rooster has now become .... rrrrrooostah. 'Z' has now become zed. Teacher has become ... Teachaaaa.

One thing that the other students and I have talked about it the clothes. We were told by the Penn people at our April orientation that Batswana dress very conservatively. We shouldn't wear shorts, shorter skirts, tank tops, not even v-neck shirts. This is false. Absolutely false. Everyone here dresses exactly like in the US. Perhaps the older generations dress more conservatively? But everyone within 5 years of us dresses exactly like kids in the states. For example, girls all wear skinny jeans with ballet flats or heels and tank tops. They did tell us that they tend to dress up more, which is true. There isn't as much casual wear, but it's all very similar. Most of the clothes are all pretty westernized. When taking the combie, it's completely usual to see a woman in a business suit jump off and walk off down a dirt road into the bush. It's rather amusing. I'm always thinking, "honestly, WHERE are you going in heels and a blazer?" It's a little frustrating that we were misinformed like that because I didn't really bring clothes that I would like to wear. I didn't bring any shorts for example. And even though it's winter, it still does get HOT. Oh well, excuse to shop. That's how I rationalize it.

Bed.

jury, brai, check, holiday, Zim

2008-07-01T19:41:00.005+02:00

1) Today I was finally removed from jury duty. I was scheduled for August 12th, but we know that's certainly not happening. I finally was able to contact a real human on the phone and explain the situation.

2) Last night Ilana, Julio and I attended a brai (BBQ) at our friend MK's house. [Note- the last couple days it's just been Julio, Ilana and I because the rest of the gang went to the Okavango Delta.] It was a lovely time. There were about 15 of us there eating by the pool and tennis court. After all, this is the "Switzerland of Africa." There were some highly entertaining characters there and I enjoyed their company thoroughly. When we were there, MK showed Ilana and I the latest issue of The Voice, one of the local newspapers. Fashion Lounge, one of the clubs here, has a small section devoted to parties from the weekend. Ilana, Jen, and I were gracing the pages. The caption beneath our photo read "the Queen and her princesses." It wasn't clear who was who in said tabloid photo.

3) Today was a holiday. Hence the brai and hence me not going to work.

4) I have some VERY exciting news also. As you may recall, I mentioned how I was corresponding with potential donors for First Aid kits. I was able to find one generous minister (Larry Benfield) who was willing to mail me a check. Well, I had no idea what to expect, but I was BLOWN away when I received it today. He sent a check from the Episcopal Diocese of Arkansas for FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS. I was in such shock that I was shaking. I am so excited to give it to Sister Margaret tomorrow. She is going to cash it and then we are going to take the funds and put together First Aid kits.

5) In a week and a half we have our trip scheduled for Chobe National Park and Victoria Falls. As I am sure you all know, there have been a LOT of problems in Botswana's neighbor, Zimbabwe, with the election. Victoria Falls is located at the Zambia/Zimbabwe border. Our travel agent has arranged for us to see the falls from the Zim side. It's a little nerve-wracking, but we've talked to various people and most say if we stay with our guide and aren't running around, we should be fine. Around those parts it's not so much an issue of safety, but more an issue of getting robbed and ripped off. People often try to bribe whites and overcharge on everything. Speaking of that current crisis, when Ilana and I were in the parking lot at Riverwalk a few weeks ago an older woman approached us. She looked worn and tried to show us her passport. She stated that she was from Zimbabwe and needed help. It was really upsetting because we had no idea what to do...

Well I need to go email the press releases. Toodles noodles.

i can't think of a good title

2008-06-29T19:13:00.007+02:00

Friday was bear day, and we are now hoping to spread the word about it. I contacted several of the local Gabs newspapers to see if they were interested in doing a blurb about the little event we had. The point of this would simply be to raise publicity surrounding Kamogelo. After speaking with a couple editors, I have found that two newspapers (Echo and Mmegi) are willing to publish an article if we write it. So Ilana (being the incredible writer that she is) will be writing up those press releases. Tomorrow I am meeting another reporter from The Voice for an interview about the event. Perhaps local organizations that serve children will look into contacting the Mother Bear Project because they have a large number of bears to donate! And perhaps people will be willing to help out Kamogelo as well.

Rebecca noticed a sign in the movie theatre bathroom about free screenings for orphans. I finally got around to checking it out and indeed they offer said activity. I called someone named Tebogo and inquired about setting it up. On Friday I ran it by Sister Margaret from Kamogelo and she seemed interested. She essentially told me to set it up and we can do it. So that's pretty good. I am going to be planning that this week. I am hoping they don't send Ilana and I alone with these kids. I can only imagine us trying to control them in a public place. Humiliation ^ 100.

I mentioned that through a Penn alumni network I contacted some ministers. One very kind man, Larry Benfield, has just informed me that he has sent out a check for us to purchase First Aid kits for Kamogelo. I can't wait for that to arrive! I have no idea what the check amount is, so it will be a nice little surprise!

This weekend was a lazy, lazy weekend. Friday we went to dinner at Primi, a really great Italian restaurant at Riverwalk, the closest mall. Then we went for drinks at Linga Longa and then on to Lizzard Lounge. We had a great time and Ilana and I befriended some girls in the bathroom. They told us they thought we were ma-14's. A ma-14 is an underaged girl, jailbait essentially. We insisted we were 20 and 21 and I even flaunted my stunning NH license. We exchanged numbers and are hoping to meet up with them next weekend.

Saturday I was supposed to attend the soccer game(s) with Julio and Ilana. I suppose you could say we were still recuperating from the night before, so we did not end up going. Instead I watched The Office online all day. It was marvelous. (That's what she said.)

Last night I went to Fashion Lounge with Ilana and Julio. Again, it was wonderful and I didn't get home until 4:30am. Every night is so late around these parts. At one point, Ilana and I danced on the bar with some other ladies. Think Coyote Ugly, but on amatuer night. It was an interesting mixture of humiliation and exhilaration. However, the humiliation was superseded by the fact that many girls sought to befriend us following our public debut. A middle aged woman dragged me over to her friends and encouraged (made?) me dance in the middle of their circle. It was a lot of fun and they made me feel like I was some sort of dancing goddess. It took me back to my MADE days. Ha. Ha. I exchanged numbers with some of the girls and hopefully we can meet up with them again next weekend! As odd as it sounds (and hopefully not too self-serving) but everyone seems to want to be our friend. It's some sort of mixture of being white and being foreign (American to be specific).

Friday when walking back from work, Ilana and I stumbled upon a cultural performance on UB's campus. It was such a nice treat. Video below. It was really interesting to see because many of the dance moves are ones I see the kids at Kamogelo doing. Neat how certain aspects make their way to the mainstream. I have picked up some of the moves from the kids and I use them at the clubs. People freak out (in a good way). It seems to make them hysterical to see a white girl doing them.

We have noticed a lot more cockroaches in the last week. Originally I was thinking that our poison trap resources were drying up, but now I am thinking that we are getting a little lazy about tidying the kitchen. I suppose I will have to work on that.

I have to write a report for my supervisors on what I have been doing at Kamogelo. I'm going to go pretend to do that now.

BEARS, beets, battlestar gallactica

2008-06-27T14:24:00.010+02:00

Today was the big day for the teddy bear handout. We received the bears from MotherBearProject and today were able to get them out to Kamogelo. It was AMAZING. The kids were so adorable. I am now going to bombard you with photos.

Don't know her name. I will play it PC and not state the obvious.
Mpho

Ofentse

Kabelo

Lesego

Portia

video test

2008-06-27T07:54:00.002+02:00

These are some of my 5-6 year olds in our classroom. I told them to "dance." They can normally dance better than this, I swear. I think the camera made them part-kangaroo.

the harder lessons from Kamogelo

2008-06-24T15:29:00.006+02:00

Last week I mentioned that Ilana and I taught the teachers how to use computers. They were all asking/begging for internet and we said we would talk to Sister Margaret (woman in charge of Kamogelo) about it. Ilana went to her office and brought it up. S.M. stated that she thought it would be "too challenging" for the teachers. She didn't think they could handle it. For one, this is completely false. Internet is not that difficult. We wouldn't be showing them how to set it up wireless or do anything crazy. We would simply be showing them how to use it. I felt this minor interaction summed up so many of the issues at Kamogelo. Low expectations seem to pervade everyone.

Speaking of which, Ilana had QUITE the incident yesterday. She was sitting in the classroom, and her teacher was speaking harshly to the students in Setswana. After, Ilana asked her what she was saying to them. The teacher told her that she was telling the children that... (to paraphrase and summarize)... "They are black children, they are not like white children. They are African. They don't learn from the word, they learn from the whip. White children listen and are respectful. African children must be beaten to listen." Ilana tried to say that white children also have to learn to listen, etc. But the teacher just laughed and shook her head. Now, we all know that this is NOT TRUE. But it's completely shocked us that people actually hold these sentiments. I am not really sure what to say about it because it's so messed up. Oh, and as a side note, all the teachers and all the children are black. Ilana and I are the only whites.

I don't think I have mentioned it, but the previous paragraph may hint at it. The teachers hit the children. Botswana still has corporal punishment in its schools and its legal system. My guess is that the man that stole my roommate's computer was beaten at the least. Seeing the kids get hit at school is probably the least enjoyable part of my job. It's rather tragic to see them get whapped on the forehead with sticks found around the property. Part of me wants to talk to Sister Margaret about it and discuss that maybe there are other ways to discipline the children. (Although she claims that the teachers are instructed to "discipline them kindly.") However, as I said, the nation of Botswana itself uses this type of punishment. So I am not sure if it would really make any sense or any difference.

Yesterday I was talking to Sister Margaret and I learned that none of the kids have TB, which is good news! She also said that all the kids that have HIV are in treatment, but I am not sure if this is entirely true. I actually don't know anything about the treatment of HIV in children, but I know adults must take medicine frequently. I haven't seen any children taking medicine at the center...

I also learned about the cost of food at Kamogelo. (The photo is of samp with vegetables. The samp is the stuff on the right. That's what the kids eat, but sans the vegetables on the left.) They are having financial trouble and finding it difficult to buy enough food for the kids. I asked how much it costs and they said it costs around 2500 pula for a month's worth. That is absurdly cheap.
130 kids x 2 meals/day = 260 meals/day
260 meals x 5 days/week = 1300 meals/week
1300 meals x 4 weeks/month = 5200 meals/month
2500 pula / 5200 meals = .48 pula/meal
.48 pula = approximately 8 cents
So even with spending 8 cents per meal on a child, they can barely find the money. UGH.

In other news, I bought a new camera. And now I feel bad about myself. I should have donated it to Kamogelo for a month's worth of food instead.

actual teaching?!

2008-06-24T15:04:00.002+02:00

Just to recap, I have been teaching in the 6 year olds classroom under a woman named Mma Mbosa. Like most of the teachers here, I find her teaching style a little difficult for me to deal with. I've been chewing it over and over and I simply think the teachers don't know much better. As much as I want to help them and change things, I am not really in a position to do such.

Thankfully, last week Mma went off to do who-knows-what. She stopped in today to inform me that she won't be returning until the 18th of July. This could not make me happier. Since she left, a new teacher has stepped in. I don't remember her name, but she just returned from maternity leave. This new teacher lets me essentially run the classroom. At times I am almost in heaven. I am not trying to toot my horn here, but....

I am really enjoying it because I am actually teaching. I'm not just running arts & crafts projects or helping them do their writing. Since they are in my control completely for a couple hours, I am actually able to do lesson plans and work around the themes of the week. Each morning, after breakfast, they fling their little bodies upon the carpet and look at the wall where the posters are displayed. We go over the alphabet and the sounds each letter makes, days of the week, seasons of the year, numbers and basic addition, and then do vocab based on the week's theme. This week we are doing winter clothing. Last week was wild animals. The week before that was farm animals. For almost an hour I quiz them and have them "irre" after me. It's not exactly difficult, but it's the first time I've really done something like that.

I have started using really over the top gestures. Almost every word I say has a physical accompaniment. Yesterday we did the winter clothes vocab (hat, scarf, jacket, etc) and today I got them to compose sentences such as, "I am wearing a hat" or "I am wearing a jacket." I know it's not much, but I am actually seeing fruits of my labor.

What I am hoping to accomplish, and I know it's a rather large task, is to START to get them to read. When the teachers do the alphabet, they simply go straight through A-Z. However, the kids have just memorized it. If you point to any letter at random, they have more trouble identifying what it is. So of course, since I started teaching, that's exactly what I do. I am also trying to get them to know the sound each letter makes. For example, I will point to 'f' and they will shout 'k' or 'x' or pretty much anything. Next to the f you will find a picture of a fish. So I point and ask them what that is, and of course, they get it right. Then I will go back to letter and they will continue to shout incorrect letters. I am trying to get them to see the tie between the letter and first sound. Most the children can write their names. Almost perfectly in fact. However, if you point to any letter in their name, they have no idea what it is. We'll see how it goes.

PS- Nat. I made hand turkeys with them. I will take some photos soon. They were really top notch.

say my name, say my name

2008-06-19T21:56:00.003+02:00

These are the names of my kids. Most are rather adventurous, but some are pretty standard.

Laone - class pet, helpful sometimes, but also thinks he is an exception to the rules
Melissa- AWESOME, bright, outgoing, pretty good listener
Kabo- cute, makes high pitched shrieking noises that I almost can't even hear, cries a lot
Boitshwarelo (bu-shwa-ray-lo)- good kid, still have massive trouble with his name
Goemeone (no idea, it's not what you think)- quiet sweetheart
Thato (ta-to)- has gotten better, used to be too clingy
Mpho (mm-po)- often flies under the radar, isn't as interested in me as the other kids (which is fine)
Gorata- a handful. good girl, but often gets in trouble, always wants [needs?] to be line leader, very active, cries and shrieks when things don't go her way
Tumisang- used to be really grabby with my hands and push other kids away, thankfully has stopped
Tiny- the tiniest one in the class, also doesn't speak like the others [even in Setswana] she almost sounds deaf, but isn't
Katlego (kat-ley-ho)- AWESOME, very bright and helps me sound out Setswana names and words, understands that I don't speak Setswana so she has given up talking to me in it (most of the others still babble away)
Ernest- wonderful boy with cool hair and missing fingernail
Portia- does the best coloring in the class, very neat and usually deferential
Bernard- he likes to grab my waist, look up at me, and growl. wild child
Akofa- cutest boy in the class without a doubt, intelligent, class leader? (of sorts)
Kabelo- trouble, napoleon complex, always coming into the closet when he shouldn't be, always touching things when he shouldn't be, hides crayons from other kids, wants attention only when I can't give it
Onelethata- ?
Kaelaboga (kayla-boga)- odd girl. today she was getting a little too touchy with my toes
Kago- eats a lot, was quieter, but has become more outgoing, sometimes the class clown
Oteng- ?
Duduetsang (nickname- Dudu)- tallest girl, very smart, good friends with Katlego
Oftense- ?
Bojelo (bo-jyelo)- we often raise our eyebrows at each other as high as humanly possible
Lesego- like most of the other kids, a mixed bag.
Leah- she often bickers with Gorata, but is friends Portia, so that's good
Otsile (oot-seal-ay)- his two front teeth are two brown, rotted little toothpick size stubs, rather sad. but he seems cheery enough and "a pleasure to have in class" (ha)
Tasana- good artist, assiduous
Otladisa- eats more than everyone else, speaks the least English, he started coming around the time I did, I think it's his first time in school
Keba- still too clingy. wants attention all the time. always stands in front me (thus interrupting whatever I am doing) and just stares at me. i hate it saying it, but the most "annoying" child in the class
Mphoentle (no idea on pronunciation)- ?

jesus christ superstar

2008-06-19T14:51:00.004+02:00

Religion, Christianity to be precise, seems to be rather important around these parts. Last week a benevelont, middle-aged woman led me to the police station post-robbing and she immediately asked if I was a Christian. I nodded through my tears and said "Kind of." I certainly wasn't in the mood for proselytizing. I spent the four minute walk half listening to her insiting I pray. Her theory was that if I prayed hard enough, my camera WOULD come back. (Note- camera is still MIA).

This week Ilana and I have been teaching the Kamogelo teachers how to use the computers. They are learning the basics and after classes they sit down to peck away at the keys with the speed of a tortoise. (Hopefully they win the race too.) Yesterday one teacher opened a word document that she entitled "My Life." In "interesting" spelling and grammar she wrote about how she was a 21 year old girl and she dreamed of owning her own day care center. She noted that life was full of ups and downs, but if you believe in LORD GOD then everything will go smoothly.

The computer teaching is interesting. They know the basic basic basics. Except one 40(or 50?) year old woman who saw a computer for the first time when we brought them into the room. She seems dedicated and wants to practice every day. Ilana and I are hoping we can find some sort of Mavis Beacon typing program. I hope the computers help with efficiency. A lot of the teachers' time is spent writing 30 copies for the class of the same thing. (For those that click on the link and know what MB is-- doesn't she look younger than back in the day? New person or botox)

We also learned today that the teachers don't know anything about blood, HIV, or first aid. Ilana noted one teacher (Perpetua) was cleaning up blood rather freely. (AKA touching the blood with her bare hands.) Ilana spoke to our supervisor at Kamogelo and asked about it. On Monday we are planning to give a First Aid session about tending to wounds and cleaning contaminated areas. I haven't mentioned it yet, but I have spent a lot of time this week emailing Penn alumni that work at Red Cross and various ministers to see if they would be willing to donate to us. We are hoping to put together First Aid kits for the center since they have absolutely nothing except water spiggot. I've found some people interested in helping us so I'm pretty excited.

Also, the Mother Bear Project is an organization that donates teddy bears to children in Africa who wouldn't otherwise have them. Mom met the woman who runs it and I have exchanged a number of emails with her. We planned for her to send me 150 teddy bears and they arrived yesterday! I have not seen the boxes yet, but one of my supervisors has them. We are going to be handing them out next week. I am so excited. The kids are going to be ecstatic.

This last week I have started to think about LIFE AFTER COLLEGE. I have my heart set on New York City Teaching Fellows. That's ultimately my top choice, but I was reminding myself that it's competitive and I need other options. I am also planning to apply to Teach for America, which is a similar program. In these programs, I would learn to be a teacher in a crash course of sorts the summer after I graduate (next summer). I would then start teaching in the fall. I would also work towards earning my masters. NYCTF is more in line with what I want to do because they are looking for TEACHERS. TFA is looking more for young, passionate teachers for two or three years. They want my peers that are going on to Goldman and law school and blah blah blah. Interesting idea, but not exactly what I am planning. In addition to these programs, I am looking at grad schools too... Teachers College (Columbia), GSE (Penn), Steinhardt (NYU), and Harvard. The grad schools have later applications, so hopefully I can hear (good news) from the other programs before going through the whole process...? Wishful thinking?

For the grad schools I need to take the GRE (college equivalent of the SAT). So I am studying for that and I am finding it rather difficult. There is just SO much vocabulary to cover. The math shouldn't be too bad, I just need to brush up on the rules I haven't thought of since senior year calculus. Pythagorean theorem whatttt?? Area of a circle?? Who remembers this stuff??

Better go. GRE, application essays, Kamogelo planning... I am a lot busier than I thought I was going to be.

mokolodi

2008-06-15T20:38:00.010+02:00

Today Ilana, Rebecca, Pratik, Rajiv and I went to the Mokolodi Game Reserve which is right outside Gaborone. We went for a game drive and ended by PETTING CHEETAHS. I do not lie. When we arrived we actually ran into 5 other students staying in the flats and so we all ended up going together. We all had a good time and I graced everyone with my inappropriate comments. For the most part they were well received. (Example- I suggested we cuddle/spoon with the cheetahs... We didn't end up engaging in such activity.)

While our last weekend in the Kalahari was cool, we were excited because we saw more exotic animals on today's drive. For one, we saw two elephants. They were eating leaves. I contemplated what I would do if one stampeded. I did not reach a conclusion in this hypoethical scenario. We also saw some more ostrich and antelopes much like before. Then, we saw PUMBA(A). We were ecstatic to see a parent and baby warthog. When we drove by and shrieked like girls, the broken family immediately froze and stood completely still for a few moments(butts to us). Then they darted away. The fastest photographers of our group got their behinds only.

Note- Since my camera was stolen, I obviously didn't have one with me. However, everyone else had one, so I will have to steal their photos.

Additionally, we saw hyenas. The two creatures were the most rancid smelling animals my nose has ever been around. I kept giggling at them trying to get them to laugh or whatever it is that they do. Failed. Then, as I stated earlier, we saw cheetahs. There were two cheetahs (brothers) who were abandoned when younger so the reserve took them in. They stay at the reserve because they never learned to hunt and would not survive out in the wild. Because they were raised on reserve, they are accustomed to people petting them. Apparently they have attacked a couple people though (males only and not at all fatally) so it was a little dangerous. Above is the shot of me with cheetah 1 and cheetah 2, my new best friends.

(These photos are all credited to Ilana who thankfully has not had her camera stolen.)

peri peri seasoning and people

2008-06-14T10:29:00.009+02:00

My last several posts have been far from positive, but don't worry, I am not too, too miserable. I am liking several things, so I thought I would post about those!

Peri peri (or piri piri) seasoning. It's absolutely delicious. Nando's is a fast food equivalent here and they have various chicken menu items all with this seasoning. It is amazing. I tried Nando's and immediately ventured out to find some peri peri of my own. Does anyone know if they have it in the states? If not, I am going to bring home a whole box! Now I am craving Nando's.

My roommates and friends. Obligatory awwwww. The group of Penn students I spend my time with I enjoy immensely. And we've obviously spent a lot, lot, lot, lot of time together.

Ilana- all day, every day is with Ilana and it's completely wonderful. As I said, we work together and she lives next door to me. I feel that every thought I have had about the country is discussed with her. Each oddity of the country we chat about. Each observation is analyzed. Often times when one says something, the other admits they were thinking about that same thing as well. We've made a pair and have gotten fairly proficient at tag-teaming the many conversations that come up about where we're from, what we're doing, etc. (Third from the left, green sweatshirt.)

Rebecca- Rebecca is another of my roommates and she is working at a hospice for patients with AIDS. She is also technically doing the Education internship and therefore supposed to be working with children, but has found most of her time is with adults. (She seems to be handling this disappointment with grace and aplomb that I certainly would not have in the same situation.) She's wonderfully sweet, easy to talk to, and I wish she could work at Kamogelo with Ilana and I. She's very interested in psych with kids. She worked at University City High School in Philly serving as a second, unofficial guidance counselor. (Second from the left, light blue sweatshirt.)

Jen- My last roommate from Penn is working at the Ministry of Health. She is one of these uber hard workers who takes 8 classes/semester during the school year. I take 8/year. Ha. She is in the nursing school and Wharton, so it's crazy intense. She also works as a waitress at Morimoto in Philadelpia. Where she finds the time with those classes to work a job downtown (and one that you can't do homework at) is incredible. Despite a rigorous program, she's a completely chill person. She is working with Rajiv on a project that looks at the standards of all the hospitals around here. Essentially, how to judge that a hospital is doing the best job it can and providing the best care. (Middle. UCLA sweatshirt.)

Rajiv- As I just mentioned, he's working with Jen. In fact, they are flying to somewhere in Northern Botswana in a couple weeks to do something with a TB clinic up there. Apparently the region has the highest TB rate in the world. Don't know what they're doing... perhaps more standards stuff. Rajiv is absolutely incredible. We all love him. He worked last summer in India doing health care teaching with children. He is so reliable and I feel like I could turn to him for anything. He goes out of his way to do favors or make sure everyone is doing well. Nicest person on the trip-- or nicest person ever?! Something I will have to deliberate on. (Second from the right, next to me.)

Pratik- Pratik is also working at the Ministry of Health, but in another position. Pratik entertains me greatly and I feel like he's the best one to negotiate in certain situations. He's starting to plan our various trips and I feel like he's the absolute perfect person to do so. Courtesy of the worldwide Indian network, Pratik and Rajiv have befriended this group of Indian girls. Ilana, Rebecca, Jen, and I refer to them as their wives. (Far left.)

Julio- Last, but certainly not least. Julio is the one off in the Kalahari designing an airstrip. Despite him leaving for his extended camping trip immediately upon starting his job, he's still considered very much a group member. He thankfully came back for our camping trip last weekend and I am so happy he did. Julio is hilarious and I love his humor to pieces. He and I have a running war of rock/paper/scissors. It is currently tied at 8-8 and I am looking forward to his return so that I may prevail. Oh yes, he and Ilana are both in St. Elmo (coed fraternity at school). So they are very close and were next door neighbors this past school year. (Far right, tall.)

Friendliness. Botswana is unabashedly friendly. It's something I am trying to get used to. I have never been one to chat it up with strangers and I am trying to get better with that. While it may not be the best thing to do, but I am usually one to smile or answer, but engage no further than that. While in the US it's entirely acceptable in most places, it is rude here. However, sometimes you must blow them off because sometimes the people are sketchy. I suppose I am honing my skills of differentiation about who is good news v. bad news. In the same vein of being sketchy and over friendliness- men are always asking for our number or where we live. They are just very forward here. Of course we don't share with them either of these pieces of information. We politely say that "we're around."

The "we're around" statement is actually true here in Gaborone. Over time you get used to the faces and recognize people. For example, last night when we were out we saw an IT guy we met from UB and another guy that has helped us several times at the electronics stores. When they talk to us, many people say they have seen us before. We are a distinctive crowd of whites, Indians, and Asians. We stand out and are not easy to forget around here!

Well I have to go. We went out pretty hard last night and are still recovering I suppose you could say. We are going to a movie and then hopefully back to sleep!!

PS

2008-06-13T15:18:00.002+02:00

PS- Last night I saw a dog get hit by a car. I teared up when I almost hit a squirrel three years ago, so the dog thing was so not cool.

robbed! again!

2008-06-13T14:53:00.003+02:00

The week continues its positive vibe. Or not.

Today Ilana had to try to get her Visa since she is staying on for the fall semester. So while she headed to the Embassy, I was off to work at Kamogelo solo. Work was interesting. Essentially today they ate, took a walk, played, ate, then went home. Now this walk was LONG. Almost two hours of walking through the village and the bush. How the two year olds did it is remarkable! It was really interesting when everyone was peeing. I was very confused at first, but then I realized that's just how they do. We'd be walking along and the children would just stop whenever and pee along the side of the dirt road that served as the path for the 130 little kiddies. No shame. Girls were squatting right and left and little boys were turning to show us their butts. At our midway break one of the little ones actually did a little MORE than pee. Since I was carrying my backpack, the other teachers asked me if I had a plastic bag. At first I said no, but then remembered that my GRE flashcards were sitting in their ziploc bag home in my front pocket. I dumped the cards into my bag and donated the ziploc to the little boy so he could carry home his soiled underwear. So weird.

On my way home from work I decided to stop at the Main Mall to see what sort of stores and goods they have. I had only been once and it was for dinner, so most of them were closed at that point. Even though I love, love, love spending all my time with Ilana, it was nice to walk around alone a little bit. I felt so independent and self sufficient in a new country. I walked into one of the stores (the FIRST store I walked in!!) and was looking at some shirts when suddenly I realized that the shopkeeper was yelling with a thick, thick accent, "They are stealing!! They are stealing!!" and pointing at me. I then realized that two men were quietly and quickly rifling through my backpack. Of course when called out they sprinted out of the store. I chased after them, but when I got to the door and looked around, all I saw were tons and tons of people. I had only seen that it was two men, so I had no idea where to look or who I was looking for.

Well, with the week I have had, I just sat down and sobbed. The two thieves took my digital camera. My precious, $450 camera. The store clerks tried to comfort me and told me that they often see those creeps hanging around their store and stealing. The police station was across the street and encouraged me to go. So the police spoke with me and then with the store clerks. Everyone seems confident they will see them again hanging around and be able to catch them, but I am not so certain. And finding the camera is looking even more dismal. Here in Gabs, electronics are stolen and then immediately sold, then sold and sold and sold. The police all gave me double glances because hadn't I been there the past two days? Yes. And hadn't my case been closed? Yes. Was I back and crying? Yes!

I am really hoping this weekend turns things around.

unreal or surreal? the Hamburgler

2008-06-12T17:09:00.006+02:00

So I just got back from one of my oddest experiences ever. Not just here in Botswana, but in LIFE.

As I mentioned yesterday, someone stole my roommate's laptop, my (thankfully virtually empty) backpack, and my Fisheye camera. This was all done because the painters left the room open for ventilation. Frankly, I'd prefer the fumes. So my roommate Neo and I had to go to Security and from there to the police station to file various statements. The painters and the cleaning lady who unlocked for the painters had to come give statements as well. It was actually fairly uneventful, but we did learn they had a lead. Apparently there was a UB student who has a history of stealing things...

So this afternoon after work I was called by UB security to come and identify my bag and camera. I went over to enter an office with about 8 people in it. My bag, camera, and the laptop were all on one of the tables. One of the men in the room was the Hamburgler himself (a UB alum actually). It was SO, SO awkward because he profusely apologized to me and at one point while he was writing his statement he asked what room number I was. HA! I had no idea how to act. Neo came shortly after and identified it to be her laptop. From there, we all went to the police station. Neo, me, the Hamburgler himself, and two of the UB security. Something I found very peculiar was that Hamburgler carried Neo's laptop to the police station for her. What a gentleman! He was clearly trying to get Neo not to press charges. The entire time he was begging her to have mercy.

We filed into a room with several other police. I read a lot through all this because the discussion was almost entirely in Setswana. The police grilled him as he sat next to me on the bench which was also uber awkward. Like the Hamburgler, I was nervous and so very giggly. I had to repress my inappropriate nervous laughter. The police decided to detain him and so all 12 of us or so watched as they wrote his name in chalk on the thingy. I clearly don't know what it's called, but the picture articulates it. He frowned and they took his photo.

Now I am back. I am not pressing charges because it's only my bag, but Neo is going to. I am glad she is because this guy apparently often steals for money. He stole Neo's laptop and then sold it. The laptop is worth 5500 pula (just under a 1000 USD) and he sold it for only 1000 pula!! That's only 150 dollars! The police at the station knew him already and criticized him for being back.

Interesting to see their system at work. I am hoping not to sound horrible here, but it's all very... tribal. I mean this in the sense that everything was a group discussion. At UB security and at the Gabs police station, everything took so long because everyone had to put in well over their 2 cents. Maybe like 8 cents a person actually.

In other news. We found out today that they are trying to ban Skype from our computers. Clearly there has been an uproar. UB bans their students from using it since it requires too much bandwith. (We had no idea about this rule.) We're all upset because it's been working, but now they want to take it away. And the only reason they even know we have it is because we called the ITs about getting it to work on Ilana's computer (a mac). Keep in mind we didn't know it was banned. Clearly we weren't using up too much if no one noticed. Plus this is the university's break! No one else is here! They told us to have one of their supervisors contact them, so we are hoping it all works out. We're all super stressed because this is the only affordable way for us to call home! I feel that this is such a unique (and stressful and challenging!) experience that we MUST be able to speak to people from home. If I don't, I will literally go crazy. God knows I bounce so many thoughts and decisions off of mom!! Frustration.

More frustration... We might not get to go to Victoria Falls when planned. Because of all the stupid drama with whether we were "allowed" to go, it delayed our booking by several days and now the flight we had planned to take is full! WONDERFUL. We are hoping it opens up, but are very skeptical since we are a larger group. Maybe we can figure out if there is a bus or train instead...

Despite this week's troubles, things are fine. My spirits are moderate. Work was a little better today because I leapt at the opportunity when the teacher asked if I "had anything to do with them." I did a VERY low-key arts and crafts project with them. (Draw picture, add glue where desired, put sand on glue and shake excess.) The kids were in awe. I feel like they've done nothing like it before. I had also made a caterpillar out of egg cartons yesterday to hopefully do with them. I showed it to them and they were scrambling out of their chairs. I don't understand why the teachers don't use their available materials! I am not sure if it will work, but I am hoping if I do these little projects, the teacher will seek to emulate. Doubtful, but I am hoping.

DRAMA camp (warning: negative post)

2008-06-10T22:03:00.007+02:00

So it's been quite the start to the week. So I may have mentioned that a group of us have been planning to go to Victoria Falls and Chobe National Park a week from Friday. At the first orientation session, one of the supervisors was telling us all about it and how we need to take a flight up on Friday morning. She mentioned over and over again that we HAD to go on Friday. That was the ONLY day there was this specific flight. The hitch was that we all work on Friday. All us Penn interns work at different sites, so we asked our various supervisors for that one day off. We've been planning this and were moments from booking. I had to call another supervisor about making sure Julio (who's working in the Kalahari) would be able to get back for the trip. This led to us being yelled at and forbidden to go on this trip. Now this was a little confusing since they were the ones that even put this idea in our head. Apparently we were ABSOLUTELY NOT to take ANY days off from our internships. At all. All summer. Ever. Even if we got permission from immediate supervisors. And apparently they claimed that they made this "very clear" at the orientation session. That's rather funny that we ALL missed it though, huh? And funny that they were talking about the Friday flight, huh? Well, the supervisors weren't happy and then I was called once by another supervisor to be told we could not go. Then I was called twice in a row by a third supervisor to be yelled at. This was while I was at work, so it was rather awkward. I was visibly upset and the kids kept staring at me. It was really uncomfortable.

We were all very angry about this incident. Suddenly none of us were nearly as excited about being here. Half of the appeal is to travel and explore the area. When else am I going to be in Africa?! I understand there had to be constraints on days off. However, we're not huge slackers. I hope that's obvious. We had discussed travel plans that simply required two days. Almost any job would allow a worker 2 days off over the course of a 10 week program. We're not babies.

The result was we spoke to some people at home and now we're allowed to go. Yay.

Today at Kamogelo was rather difficult. It's a lot different than I thought it would be and the problems I see at the school are things that I am realizing I can absolutely not solve. Kamogelo is DECKED out with resources. They have tons of craft supplies, scissors, posterboard, glue, paint, glitter, full sets of books, paper galore, etc. However, virtually NONE of it is used by the teachers. Ilana and I are having a lot of trouble understanding it. I hate saying this, but I really think it stems from laziness. There is about 25 minutes of actual instruction a day. Another 45 minutes is spent singing songs and dancing. The rest of the time is spent doing nothing. I am not joking. It makes me sick. Nothing. And I am not really in a position where I can start an activity with them when I want. I can only really do an activity if I am asked or if I mention it early enough in the day so she can "fit it into her lesson plans." (Laughable.) The kids misbehave more than any group I have ever dealt with. However, it's easy to see they are really sweet kids. They are just bored. Absolutely and positively bored. If you were to add up the amount of time they spend sitting on the carpet goofing off without an activity or any stimulation, instruction, or supervision- it would total at least 2.5 hours a day. I am surprised each day by how much English the students know. However, of course, the teacher does 10 minutes of English a day, so I don't get to see that unless I work with them on my own. And they WANT to learn too. That's the worst part. They are always eager to tell me sentences they know. ("I am washing my hands. I am washing my face. I am brushing my teeth. I am eating my food. I am finished.") They get it, just the teachers don't.

To top off today, Ilana and I came back to find that our apartment was wide open. Our front door was unlocked and all our personal bedroom doors were unlocked and wide open. THANKFULLY nothing of real value was stolen. Today painters came in and left everything open. I am actually missing a backpack with my Fisheye camera in it. (AGH!) While that sucks, we are thanking our lucky stars that our PASSPORTS, LAPTOPS, CELL PHONES, ETC were not stolen. (Which so, so easily could have been.) I am still baffled why just the bag, but oh well. We had to go to campus security and report it. I am being financially compensated for those missing things by the painting company, but it's more just disconcerting that irresponsible people have access to our rooms. I don't think hiding things in the closet will cut it anymore, I may need to cut through the tile and build a secret room underneath my bed.

There have been two positive things this week though!
- I bought a webcam and got it to work.
- Last night we went to an open mic/spoken word event at a cafe called Khwest. It's every two weeks and it was really great! Not everyone is wonderful, but some are very good. And it's a friendly environment. Ilana even went up and read a poem she did! It was so great! Some of them were light and fluffy (one about boobs for example) and some were a little more intense (one about Africa's deplorable situations and another from a guy who is dying of AIDS and said it was probably his last time performing...).

Well I have to go, one of my roommates came back and her laptop was taken when the room was open. I think they used my bag to carry it out... thank goodness I hid my stuff in my closet.

hakuna matata (the Kalahari camping edition)

2008-06-08T21:14:00.011+02:00

Saturday morning the Penn program and our faithful volunteers woke up early to head off to the Khutse Game Preserve in the Kalahari desert. We camped overnight and drove around in several Land Rovers and one, large, Safari Monster. Note its grandiosity above. It was about a 5 hour drive away from Gabs through villages and long, long dirt roads. Children would yell at the cars and ask for money. The ever-caring Rajiv gave his bag of Doritos to one group of kids.

Upon arrival we set up camp, which was in itself an experience. The last time I pitched a tent was in my 683 River Road backyard. That tent was all the primary colors and about 2.5 feet tall. So clearly that experience did nothing to help me on Saturday. We were actually successful and set up enough tents for the 25 people in our party to sleep peacefully away from the lions.

We actually did not see any lions, which was mildly disappointing, but I believe everyone had fun regardless. We saw several other game such as ostriches (huge, males=black, females=gray), steenbok, springbok (tons), gemsbok, antelopes, ground squirrels, and kudus. We spent a very large part of our time driving around and looking for animals. It was completely surreal. My land rover party consisted of Ilana, Jen, and Rebecca (my roommates). Then our driver, Joe. And Larato (volunteer from the university) and Julio. It was a great group and we certainly had the best car to drive in. One could roll back the canvas roof on ours such that we could all stand on our seats and look in every direction while zooming along. It was absolutely incredible. The only thing I can liken it to was like riding in a high speed boat and going through choppy water. As we rolled through the sand we were tossed around a fair bit. In fact, I believe I have some bruising on my left rib cage. However, it's obviously well worth it. We spent a LOT of time standing and poking out. It was the closest thing to flying I have ever experienced and probably ever will. (Especially considering I am too much of a scaredy-cat for skydiving or bungee-jumping or anything along those lines.)

The landscape was so crazy. The preserve we were on was 22,000 square kilometers, so it was HUGE. And it was just so, so, so flat. We couldn't get over it. There was just nothing taller than a 8' tree for as far as we could see. The sky was, of course, incredible. We watched the sun set, the stars were brilliant. Blah blah blah. It was mind-blowing (!! h.h.a.) in all the ways one would expect when looking at the sky in the Kalahari. I am not even going to try and articulate it all because I know it would be impossible. Simply think Lion King. Speaking of Lion King, on a number of occasions we tried to lure the animals out with acapella renditions of the soundtrack. I am not really sure why, but it did not work.

I won't go into the bathroom situation, but you can just imagine. Food on the other hand was great! Lunch saturday we had chicken with rice and other goodies. Sunday brunch was eggs, bread, and bacon. Then Saturday night we had a really incredible pepper steak, leek & potato soup, and mashed potatoes. For that evening we also had wine and local beer enough to make the entire group mildly inebriated. We sang by the fire and one of our guides played a bongo-type instrument (I don't know what it really was.) Our rendition of City High's "What Would You Do?" was really top notch. My tentmates and I also started referring to our tent as "The Invincible Tent." For one, we were confident no lion could permeate it's thick fabric. The second reason was because we were also very confident that no one would hear us singing, talking, gossiping, and giggling.

This morning as we sped around Khutse, I stood up and held my blanket out like a cape. If we were moving fast enough I looked like a taupe-colored bat. This may have been my imagination. Oh, and yes we DEFINITELY needed blankets. It's their winter down here so during the day it was very hot (by our standards, not theirs), but during the night it was COLD (even by our standards). I wore four shirts, three pairs of pants, a scarf, and a jacket to bed. I was also encompassed by several comforters and the body heat of three sleeping neighbors.

Now I am back in Gabs at my dorm and we have work bright and early tomorrow! Tuesday we are planning to attent a "cool poetry thing" with a girl we met at Fashion Lounge last weekend. We are slowly broadening our Batswana social circle and hopefully Tuesday we will meet other people who will invite us to other "cool things."

oh yeah! i'm in africa!

2008-06-04T15:04:00.011+02:00

Today two little boys and I chased a goat off the center's property. It was thrilling! Especially when it tried to eat our lettuce!

Ilana and I get out earlier in the day than the other Penn interns, so we have afternoons free. I wake around 7, leave around 7:30. We take the combies to work and get there between 8:45 and 9am. Then we are there until almost 2pm. We typically get home between 2:30 and 3:30. This afternoon we went to the national stadium which, I believe I mentioned, is right across the street from the UB (University of Botswana) campus where we are living. At that national stadium Ilana runs and I go to their gym and do a little lifting, etc. Today it was incredibly nice, so we climbed up to a top row in the seats in attempts to get some African sun. I read and slept. It's really a tough life.

DyRoach works wonders! We haven't used nearly as much DOOM. It's a little poison that they are tricked into eating. Then they die off in a dark corner. I only see 2-3 buggies per day now, which is incredible considering our previous numbers.

Botswana has an interesting mix of Western and "native." It's very common to see women with kitten heels and secondhand designer bags carrying bundels of sticks on their heads or massive bags of samp. I had samp the other day at the day care and it wasn't too bad. Some sort of maize/corn mixture. Speaking of their food- they eat more or less one thing in about 5 forms. It's kind of sad because the kids eat samp, mealy pap, and some other porridge type substances. The kids down them quickly and we believe them to often be their only meals- the breakfast and lunch at school. The various foods are all made of carbs and the kids are given a little bit of gravy. With the gravy they receive once piece of meat and one of potato. These pieces are about the size of your thumb. No meat or vegetables beyond that, no fruit, no beverages either.

Last summer (winter here!) another Penn student, Mara, was working at Kamogelo. Here is the website she set up. Ilana and I are hoping to update it and make donations a possibility also. I will let you know!

The first couple days of this week were rough. Ilana and I were feeling frustrated that we weren't really DOING anything. Sure, we play with the kids and give hugs, but we don't feel like this is DOING anything. We can play with kids anywhere. It's certainly not unique to Botswana. The kids are also young enough that I don't feel I am making a huge impression on their lives either, especially since we can't communicate all that easily. I have thought about it and a lot stems from the existing teachers. The school actually has a LOT in terms of resources. There are multiple closets full of paint, books, kids games, art supplies, etc. However, the teachers don't DO anything with them. It's really frustrating! I often feel like I am wasting my time when the teachers don't plan anything. If they plan activities then it's easy to help out: writing, learning letters and numbers, practicing English, etc. However, the teachers seem totally comfortable with a lot of in-between time. In between lunch and an activity or whatever, they will let the kids play on the carpet (without toys or anything) for well over a 1/2 hour. Tomorrow there is no school, which is a vacation day for us. It's a "Teachers' Day," when apparently no teachers come to school either...?

Today was better simply because my teacher actually had stuff for them to do. So I was able to help out more. I'm not really sure how I am going to work this into an adequate senior project, but it's still early on. I can't remember if I mentioned but I am thinking about doing something with early elementary ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages). That's still broad, so I don't know yet.

Two kids were sent home today with Ringworm. Thankfully they were amongst the little, little ones, who I don't spend much time with at all. I looked Ringworm up, and that doesn't look as bad as other things that I could catch there... Don't worry though. We actually haven't had any blood incidents since the first day. And I am pretty nuts about washing my hands. Every 20 minutes? And I use a lot of that instant hand sanitizer, which I have been opposed to almost my whole life until now. It won't really help with the big things, but the kids do have colds too, so I am just trying to avoid everything icky. I have convinced almost all the kids to stop kissing my hands thankfully. I keep having to remind them "no mouth." Also, we now have tile on the bottom of our shower! Great news, now I am much more willing to shower which is important after a day of handling these children.

So besides the almost constant fear (well at least at work) that I am going to catch something, everything is good! Tonight we went to dinner at one of the malls nearby. Have I mentioned how popular malls are here? Epic. I think there are maybe 5 or 6 malls in the city. Pretty similar to our malls also. Different stores though. When I went to see Sex & the City at the closest mall (Riverwalk), I came out and it was a good minute walking around before I remembered, "Oh yeah! I'm in Africa!"

weekend update

2008-06-01T20:58:00.003+02:00

Last night we went out to Fashion Lounge, which is one of the popular clubs here in Gabs. We all had a fantastic time! They are really into dancing, so we danced until about 3:45am and then called it quits. The clubs stay open so late here which is good and bad. For those that it means anything to- it reminds me a lot of Making Time. (HEAVEN!) We were a group of 9 or so, and then there were some other Penn students there too who we don't hang out with as much. We met another group of people from Gaborone who went to university in the US. We all exchanged numbers and are hoping to do a group dinner this week. It was nice because the group was not all guys, so we weren't too sketched out by them or anything (only mildly). I really liked one of the girls, Thandi. She is going to medical school in Spain in the fall.

Today I went to see Sex & the City with Ilana and Rebecca. It was THE biggest chick flick I have ever seen in my life- and I loved it. I cried, I laughed, I envied the clothes and closets.

Speaking of clothes. This is a dangerous place for me. The clothes are ridiculously inexpensive. I am not lying when I say that today I bought a dress that came out to be LESS THAN 3 US DOLLARS. I just have to make sure that I can fit everything into my bags to go home. It helps that I am leaving a lot of the clothes I brought with me here. I brought a number of "bad" clothes that I haven't worn since high school or freshman year.

Sorry this post has little substance, but I was a total girl this weekend.

internet extravaganza!

2008-05-31T19:32:00.009+02:00

SO, EXCITING NEWS. I now have my own internet set up! It was very exciting for everyone here. We were all screaming and jumping up and down. Tonight we will toast to internet. I went through and added some pictures to the appropriate posts. You will note David, Flava Flav, the Phane worms, and glorious kiddies.

Today we went to the soccer game. It was a tie, but a lot of fun. Batswana are a very friendly people. Sometimes too friendly? (To girls and guys alike. Rajiv was proposed to today by a man, as was Ilana by a woman.) But you can just smile and say "bye" and it's not a problem. It's actually considered very rude if you don't speak to someone that is talking to you. So as a female in the US, I'm used to sort of ignoring strangers that try to greet me on the street, especially in Philadelphia. But here it's expected that you say hello. Which is kind of weird, but I am getting used to it.

Now that I have my own internet, that means I have my skype! So for those that want to, we can set up a skype date.

Here is one of the little boys. I unfortunately can't share his name with you. The names are almost impossible to pick up. I can barely pronounce them, let alone store them or spell them. He is actually 6 years old, but he looks like he could be 3 or 4!!

end of the week

2008-05-31T10:27:00.004+02:00

These are two pictures from right by the day care center. It's about a 45 minute commute via the combies. Note the "Phone Shop." There are a lot of these little shed-type things in Gabs. However, they rarely offer the services they boast.

The currency here is the Pula & there are about 6.3 Pula to the US Dollar. Their cents are called Thebe (Teb-ay). It seems that everything is almost comparable, but a little bit cheaper. When I went grocery shopping I spent about 350 Pula ($55ish). But, I would have ballparked it a $70-75 shopping trip in the US. Last night we went to dinner at a very nice Pan-Asian restaurant. For an entree, bottle of wine that we split between the table of 6, and a dessert, I spent about 17 dollars. I got stir fry with chicken and vegetables, and it was the spiciest thing I have ever consumed. Delicious nonetheless.

I have taken out my camera a couple times when at Kamogelo and the kids are so funny about it. They all know that it’s a camera because they all leap in front of me and say “Cheese!” Post click- they immediately rush me and want to see it. They burst into hysterics upon seeing themselves on the camera screen. It’s an entertaining process.

Yesterday Ilana and I asked Perpetua, one of the teachers, about some phrases. The kids don’t listen very well and so we thought maybe if we learned what we wanted to say in Setswana, it would help. We now know “Stop,” “Go,” “No hitting,” “Let’s go,” and a couple others. No hitting would be great since they don’t seem to understand that concept. The kids are mischievous, but also painfully sweet. A lot of it is done for attention. The same goes for their fake crying. They're clever and they know that's how to get us.

I’ve been thinking a lot about when I was running my group of girls at Girls Inc. during the summer and how I controlled them. I would sit them down and have a discussion about their behavior and how poor behavior means we don’t have fun projects, field trips, and the ever-important Canobie Lake Field Trip. However, you can’t do that here. For one, they don’t speak English, so a discussion is not in the stars. And additionally, they don’t have anything or do anything to threaten them with. Unlike Girls Inc. where girls would bring toys and trinkets from home, the kids come with nothing and leave with nothing. (Which is definitely sad, but from my perspective as “Teacha” it’s actually good because then there aren’t any disputes!)

Today we are going to a national soccer game of Botswana v. Mozambique. Then maybe to see Sex & the City and then out to one of the various clubs here tonight. We’re all excited to have stuff to do! Tomorrow we plan to go to the Gaborone Game Reserve.

I spend pretty much all day, every day with Ilana. We work and commute together, live and hang out together. Luckily she is wonderful and one of the only people I think I could tolerate that much time with! We spend most of our time with Rebecca and Jen, our two other Penn roommates, and then Julio, Rajiv, and Pratik. We don’t see much of the other Penn students, but it’s fine thus far. We have a great group. However, we are all saddened because Julio is off in the Kalahari desert for his internship. He arrived the first day and immediately they asked him to come camping for three weeks. He is doing the engineering internship and they are having him design a runway for planes by himself! Amazing! So while we miss him terribly, he’s doing really amazing stuff.

PS- Ilana and I have already decided to make our own First Aid kit for work. No worries.

Kamogelo Day Care Center

2008-05-29T18:40:00.002+02:00

So I’ve spent two full days at Kamogelo thus far and of course, the kids are painfully cute- which was to be expected. As I mentioned, it’s maybe 130 children broken into 4 classrooms. The 6 year olds, 5 year olds, 4 year olds, and then the 2 & 3 year olds. For one, the kids are physically very small. This is supposedly coming from malnutrition, neglect, and sometimes abuse. The 6 year olds are probably the size of the average American 4 year old. The 6 year olds speak a little English, the 5 year olds a little less, and younger than that- nothing at all. Pretty much all the kids want out of you is to touch them. There are often fights about who gets to hold “Teacha’s” hand. Those can be hard to mediate especially when their English is so limited. The main teachers speak to them with a fair amount in English, however they seem to either ignore me or not understand when I use it. Things such as Let Go, Stop, No Hitting (with wild hand gestures from me) don’t really work… They will also pigpile on top of you. Which is fun for a minute until it actually starts to hurt. The refusal to listen when you say ‘get up’ or ‘stand up’ (which I KNOW they understand) is challenging. Additionally, the teachers do very little in terms of helping or controlling them. It’s actually kind of driving me crazy how little discipline there is. I am not a huge disciplinarian or anything, but it’s almost zero here….

I have a lot of problems with how the teachers run things besides the lack of control over the students. The kids have a lot of downtime. A teacher will make them sit on the ground, cross their arms, and sit silently for a good 20 minutes while we wait for lunch to be ready. There is very little planned activities. The kids pretty much hang out while the teacher does… nothing? There is also a lot of yelling used to control the kids, which isn’t the best way to go about it obviously.

While all these things bother me, I know that things are done differently here and I also must be respectful and therefore, keep silent. I don’t believe if I were to say anything or make suggestions that it would be accepted with open arms. I am the young, American, probably naïve, girl here for a few weeks. I’m not worn out by the kids yet or tired of their shrieking. One teacher told me she had just been there so long that she was just tired of it all. I suppose it makes sense. They are certainly a handful. And if anything, we should be grateful there ARE teachers.

The facilities are actually great. They have three computers, which they don’t really know how to use very well, but they have asked Ilana and I to run some lessons. I turned them on today and they are actually pretty well equipped. They are new computers with Windows Vista, Word 2003, DVD players. Not bad at all considering the circumstances. The whole center was only founded in 2005 so it’s all very new- building, equipment, etc. There are stocked closets which actually have as many resources as some classrooms I have seen.

Kamogelo is a 45 minute commute via the combis (public mini-van/buses) in a village right outside Gabs. When Ilana and I get off #7 we walk a five minute walk down this dirt road in the village to the center. There are a number of small houses along the way. Many women have babies tied to their bodies and there are a couple little stands selling various foods. It’s pretty far out there and along the main road it’s empty except for the occasional van chugging through.

Yesterday in the 5 year olds classroom it was a little scary for Ilana and I because two kids bled. Natural kid injuries, but considering where we are I was nervous. The teachers didn’t seem phased at all. One boy, Emanuel, got a bloody nose that dripped a little on the carpet and some on the floor on his way out. The teacher took him outside to get him cleaned up. Ilana and I tried to get the remaining children to sit down, but surprise surprise, they would not listen. One child grabbed a plastic bat and dipped it into the blood. I grabbed and tried to get them away. Then another started to use a dry mop on the blood. I swiped that as well. I wiped off the bat and then thankfully the teacher came back to clean it up. Despite the high prevalence of HIV/AIDS here, there were no plastic gloves, no safety precautions, and the blood on the carpet left untouched. Another girl later got a bloody lip that I had to take care of. Nothing got on me and I didn’t touch anything shady. In the future I am actually not going to assist with those sorts of things. I am just going to send them to the teachers as horrible as it sounds. It’s just too risky. The teachers seemed pretty low key about it all. However, perhaps they know who has HIV and who does not. While most of the students are orphans due to AIDS, an article on the wall said 15% of those tested did. However, not all have been tested. So it’s probably a little more. That’s not as bad as I thought it was, but it’s still pretty scary. I think that a number of the kids have TB also…

Our supervisor is Sister Margaret and she is away this week in fact. Monday she will be back and we are hoping to talk to her about those sorts of health issues we’re worried about. I believe everything will be fine, but at the same time, I’d like to know what’s around and how concerned she thinks we should be.

There are so many other things I can talk about, but it will be a long summer, so I just wanted to talk about my first impressions now. Plus, this post is long enough already! I will go into their food next time.

Fear Factor: Botswana Edition

2008-05-27T07:13:00.003+02:00

Today was filled with lots of exciting things. Before I start, I would like to mention that The Sex & the City movie that comes out May 30th is going to be playing here as well! I am super eager to see it and now feel that my life is complete.

So today we had orientation which went very well. Safety, health services, transportation, sports and entertainment, etc. It was all covered which is great because prior we had no idea how to get around, let alone where to actually go! And since nothing is really within walking distance… it has been a long couple days. There are several big soccer games coming up in the next month-ish. We know which bars have quizzo on which night. We know what clubs to go to for dancing. We know which mall has the best restaurants. We know where the gyms are. Now there is so much to do and I almost don’t know where to begin!

The weekend of June 7th we are camping at Khutse, which is out in the Kalahari desert. It sounds great! It’s about 3.5 hours from Gabs and we will see all sorts of wild animals. Gill Jones, one of the director-type people here, also suggested a number of Game Reserves and other Safari weekend trips for us to do. I believe we are going to make a trip to Cape Town also. There is a lengthy, 4-day weekend towards the end of July which is incredibly popular for traveling. This week we hope to book it since apparently everyone leaves Gabs then and places fill up quickly!

I also spoke with Niki Jones (another support person) about Kamogelo, the day care center where I will be working. It consists of children ages 1-6. There are 4 classes of about 30 students each. Each class is run by a teacher and assisted by a Helper- which is what I will be. I also learned that the 5 and 6 year olds are actually learning numbers, letters, colors, shapes, etc. I am excited about that because I would really like to do some actual teaching if I get can get the chance, versus playing games and doing puzzles with younger children (which is still great). Tomorrow I am going to Kamogelo for the first time! I am working there with Ilana Millner, another girl from my program who is also a friend from Penn! We will be driven on the first day, but the rest of the time we have to brave the combis. The combis are the public transportation here. They are like vans/mini-buses that seat 15-18 people. They are very inexpensive, but a little difficult to navigate. Paraphrasing someone who did the program last year: “I would get on, but I had no idea where it was going or how long it would take.” Tomorrow one of the UB volunteers will assist us in this adventure. His name is Molls (malls), he is 6’4”, and uber skinny. Molls, Pretty, and Lorato have been the three volunteers helping us get acquainted and answer all our “youth” questions.

Following this morning’s orientation we had lunch at the Staff Cafeteria. I tried some interesting new foods (steamed bread?), but it was fairly low key, so nothing too crazy. Following that we took a bus tour of the city. We stopped at the village right outside Gabs (sadly I forget the name) which was actually in existence before the city. In fact, the fast-growing city is technically a PART of this village. We went to where they solve disputes and met an actual chief! No lie, he looked exactly like Flava Flav. I snuck a couple photos. It might have been his slender stature and blinged out glasses, but to me the likeness was uncanny. We learned that they beat village members that do something like steal land or cattle. The higher offenses go to another higher court. The death penalty here in Botswana is hanging. Guess I will have to restrain myself…

Following our tour we went out for the “traditional dinner.” It was pretty fantastic! Maybe not the food so much, but the experience. The house was amazing and we sat around a fire out back. We were out of the city and the stars were incredible. I know it’s cliché, but I’ve never seen stars so bright, or so many in general! We ate various “mushy” substances, a spinach-type dish, pounded beef, WORMS, INTESTINES, and biscuits. (I frankly liked the latter menu item the best.) I tried everything except the worms and intestines. I wish I could say I did, but I was just too much of a wimp. Some other people did. I didn’t hear the verdict on the intestines because the worms got most of the attention. Apparently they were like dried, fried, salty, crunchy fish. Once I get internet onto my own computer I will try to post the BEAUTIFUL pictures I have of them. Really gorgeous. After dinner, our hosts danced and sang in the native Setswana. They eventually lured us into a dance where they pull one person from the group and they dance, then they go pull someone else, and so on. It was like a little show where one by one all the pressure was on you. Since our hosts seemed to be really into footwork moves, I chose to the ever-classic C-walk, heel-toe, and some random third step to “woo the masses.” I think it worked fairly well. It’s a good thing I am a MADE superstar. Ha. Then a younger guy rapped for us. The only response we could muster was a group rendition of “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.” It was pretty pathetic, but amusing nonetheless. We concluded the evening shortly after that. I wonder why.

Well, it was a busy day. But I need to go DOOM some bugs, shower, read a little bit, and then rest for the little babies at Kamogelo tomorrow. Feel free to email me updates on all your lives! I don’t often get internet for very long so I don’t really have time to email everyone yet, but I will definitely try to respond to those that email me first. (!)

travel & arrival

2008-05-25T05:45:00.001+02:00

So maybe I am a little too reliant on the internet? I don't have internet set up yet and I've never been thirstier for the world-wide-web.

Anyway, let’s start the very beginning, a very good place to start…

FLIGHT

The flight from DC to Jo-burg was amazing. I was nervous that I would be uncomfortable sitting down for 16+ hours. However, I fell asleep before we even took off (in true Abby fashion) and woke up for the dinner meal. I ate the dinner and watched a movie and a half. The first, The Great Debaters, was right up my alley. Race, education, overcoming the odds. What more could I ask for?! The second, Love in the Time of Cholera, was not very good. Something about watching a man obsess and CRY over a woman for OVER 50 YEARS is not enticing. He’s like 40 years old and sobbing in bed about his love, Femina, while his 134 year old mother tends to him. Not a fan. Well, after half of that, I went back to sleep…. for almost the entire rest of the flight!! I couldn’t believe it. I woke up with a mere hour to spare, which wasn’t even enough to watch a movie. In fact, I found myself disappointed that I slept so much.

JO-BURG

So I arrived in Jo-burg safe and sound. Customs fine. Bags fine. Then I had to get to the hotel. I was spending only about 20 hours in Jo-burg, so I didn’t do any sight seeing. I felt uncomfortable running around as a little chica who had no idea where she was going in arguably one of the most dangerous cities in the world. Especially since there have been all these riots… what if they think I am an immigrant?! So, I asked information where to get a shuttle to the hotel. She directed me and as I came outside a porter grabbed my bags and insisted on helping me get there. Normally I would be okay with this, but I felt bad because I remembered Mara telling us that people are going to do favors for you and then ask for money. I hadn’t gotten any South African Rand yet, so I knew I was about to find myself in an awkward position. When we arrived, I told him I had no money and he reluctantly said he would accept an American dollar. So- that’s what I gave him! I felt bad giving him this small amount. As some may know, I usually type more than I should.

The hotel I stayed at was about 5 minutes from the airport. I chose to stay there because I was told the city was a good half hour away and I since I wouldn’t be doing any touring, I might as well stay close. Well, this hotel was NOT what one would except when first arriving in AFRICA. It was called Emperor’s Palace and it has an American sibling… Caesar’s Palace. Yes indeed. It was like reliving my wretched days in Vegas (which anyone that knows me knows how much I despise that city). I arrived at the hotel around 5pm and my night consisted of working out at their little gym, ordering quesadillas, and watching bad American movies. Anything that has LL Cool J as the hero MUST be good, no?! I took a picture of the arcade with roller coaster and large David statue. Hopefully I will get to share its glory with you.

GABS

The next morning I was off the airport to catch my connecting flight to Gaborone, Botswana. I was worried I would have too much luggage for the little flight, but no problems! Rebecca, another girl on the program, and one of my suitemates was also on my flight. Again, I pulled an Abby and passed out before we took off. Dr. Noma Oagile, an advisor for the program picked us up and let us into our dorms.

My room is quaint and the apartment set-up is as expected. However, there are some little things that show my “privileged Americana upbringing.” I hope this doesn’t come across as complaining, because it’s not. I am just sharing the “fun” details! For one, there are bugs EVERYWHERE. Actually, they are roaches, but they are babies, so they’re thankfully small. But I prefer to call them bugs, much easier to handle. We have a spray called DOOM. So we are constantly DOOMing these bugs. Thankfully there aren’t really any in my room. Only a few infants, but I DOOM them anyways. No mercy. Clearly I am not Buddhist. They seem to be all in the kitchen area. We are told that even when we kill and spray, more come back! Wow! This is really roughing it! Also, I’ll be honest, the shower scares the living (insert noun of choice) out of me. They removed the tile and it’s now a cement mixture that comes up when you shower. (We have no idea when the tile will be returned.) The water also goes immediately to the floor and must be mopped up afterwards. Showers will be short, sporadic, and hopefully not too bug-filled. So really, the apartment is fine, it’s just the bugs everywhere that give me the heeby-jeebies.

Also, we arrived on Friday and apparently on Friday evenings for about an 1 ½ or so of no power. It has something to do with power issues in Southern Africa. Apparently it’s some huge political issue, but I will have to look that up. There is also no food within walking distance. So we hung out, in the dark, without food, for a couple hours. But it was fine. From this experience I can already see that my days camping at the Audoban (spelling anyone?) Center in Concord are long over, but I am still glad to be here.

There are a couple volunteers (one named Pretty) to help us get acquainted and today they took us to the Riverwalk Mall- which is where essentially everything is. We went grocery shopping, got adapters, Ethernet cords, etc. So now we are all feeling a little better now.

We don’t have orientation until Monday, but I think we’re all looking forward to that because then we will be given our cell phones, informed on how to get around, hopefully functioning internet, etc. And those seem to be everyone’s priorities.

Despite being in Africa, I actually don’t feel like it’s a completely different world. In many ways it reminds me of Europe, however that might simply be because things are “different” and prior to this, the only “different” life experience I had was in Europe. The grocery store is very similar to Europe, the bathrooms are also similar-- I guess it is pretty similar. Or perhaps the world is the same and America is just different!??! WOAH. I hope my jokes come across via the internet….

The weather is great. It’s warm during the day, but not humid at all and certainly not too hot. Most Batswana (people from Botswana…) were wearing long sleeves or jackets, however we were out and about with our t-shirts just fine. At night it gets pretty chilly. I wear a jacket I normally wear in the spring or fall and that seems sufficient thus far.

Well, this post is kind of sporadic because I am sort of dumping my last 3 days all at once. Let me know if anyone has any questions, etc. All is well, but I am excited to start working on Tuesday at the orphanage! I would say I miss you all, but sorry, not yet... (just give me a few more days!)

the Washington Dulles airport

2008-05-21T23:48:00.000+02:00

I doubt any of you will use it (why would you? it's probably ridiculously expensive for you), but my cell phone in Bots is going to be: 00 267 72399276.

Last night I slept a grand total of three hours. However, this is probably a good thing since it will force me to sleep for a good part of the 16 hour flight. Per Evan's suggestion, I also bought some Tylenol PM just in case I can't sleep. I am praying (religiously) that the plane has the small TV screens on the seat in front of you. I am also praying that I will get to select what I watch and when I watch it. This said situation makes the flight exponentially better. I've never been on a flight that can outlast my iPod charge, so this should be 16 hours of PURE AWESOMENESS.

I'm actually flying from Dulles to Johannesburg (that's the doozey), then spending the night and leaving the next afternoon for Gaborone (short flight).

On the 26th I have my orientation for the Program. I will get bombarded with the nitty gritty details before a city tour and "traditional dinner" which sounds... adventurous.

packing

2008-05-20T07:35:00.000+02:00

A little shy of two days now and there is just so much to do! I am actually almost done my packing and I am SHOCKED at how well I am doing. Anyone that knows me knows how much STUFF and CLOTHES I have. I was really worried about overpacking, but I don't think I am at all. Granted, I have all my selections in a couple piles- we'll see how it goes when actually putting them into bags.

I believe that the program we're doing is going to have a photosharing site with flickr. I will post that link once it's all set.

I am rather tired, but there's a lot to do before I go away, so I don't think I will be sleeping more than 6 hours tonight or tomorrow. I normally require a solid 9 or 10, but sacrifices must be made, no? One thing I have to do is try and take care of my jury duty selection. I was selected for May 1st and I wrote in saying "I'm a student blah blah blah" and so they postponed it until August 12th. I really would NOT like to do that, and I might even be visiting New Hampshire at that point in time, so I'm trying to escape the government once again. However, it seems impossible to actually speak to anyone at the office.

Well, nothing really new on the Bots front, but wanted to say hello! Next time I write will most likely be from Mother Africa. Toodles dudes.

6 days away

2008-05-16T05:29:00.001+02:00

So I am just six days away from my departure and I'm getting quite excited. A couple weeks ago I had my shots, four in total. Embarrassingly enough, I fainted after the first one. I had to take the remaining three lying down with an ice pack and blanket. At least it wasn't as bad as when I was 18 and I toppled to the ground in the pediatrician's office when they pricked my finger. Awkward. Also, I have been trying to get all my prescriptions for malaria, the wretched-sounding "traveler's diarrhea," etc. Who knew dealing with insurance/the pharmacy/multiple doctors was going to be so irritating?

This summer I am going to try and work on my senior thesis/independent study/capstone project. I am not exactly sure what my topic is going to be, but I will have to see what my experience in Botswana is like. I might look at alternative forms of education and compare it to here in the US, or look at students' attitudes towards education, or dozens of other options. We'll see what I have to work with. Note: the name of the orphanage I will be working in is Kamogelo. Kamogelo children singing!

For those interested in actually speaking to me, and not merely imagining my sweet and melodious voice in their heads, I should have skype when I am in Gaborone. I will be 6 hours ahead so I am sure we can work something out.

Tomorrow I am actually going to tea here at Penn to meet a former president of Botswana, Sir Ketumile Masire. That's about all I know about it.

well hello

2008-02-29T13:53:00.000+02:00

This summer I am working in an orphanage in Gaborone, Botswana. I am not sure precisely what I will be doing yet, but I'm super excited regardless. I will be living at the university there, which from what I understand, is very similar to the college setup we have over here. The population of Gaborone is just over 200,000. This site is targeted for family and friends to stay updated on what I am doing! In the map above, I will be the little red star. Feel free to email me if you have any questions or comments! More info to come!