People, Places, Things

This is a companion post to the "A day in the life" post because it is seriously lacking, and the areas I feel it is lacking in people, places, and things, are those items that have defined my life here in Botswana.

People
Many people claim that our lives are defined by the relationships we keep, lose, and wish we had. I don't know if thats true but I know relationships have meant a lot to me since I have been here in Botswana. (note:Dylan will be excluded from this post) I will organize the people into categories by which I usually associate them.

Onkabetse


Onky has been my best friend since I've been here. He has plans to go to GVSU or MSU business school and I can see us being friends in the future too. I met him through Dylan right when we got here. He is always available and is always up for hanging out. We go to riverwalk together and just hang out. He's cool because he gets me but he can also help me get him, in a weird way. I don't think when I go home I'll be able to be that friend for people from Botswana but I would like to try.
Roommates
I had five roommates at UB, that is to say that the five of us shared a bathroom, shower and kitchen/sitting area.
Brian was by all accounts a nice enough guy. He was a post-grad from Atlanta. He was really involved with some church in the area as well as face the nation and his girlfriend. He was kind of the absent roommate, so to speak.

(Biki and I)

Bikki was a really cool and funny guy. He was a grad student in enviromental science. He was also a pretty snappy dresser. I didn't get to spend a TON of time with him but when he was around he was quite the charecter.

(KT and I)

Ketumile was my oldest roommate. Ketumile was the hardest guy to live with because he was almost a caricature of some aspects of Botswana culture. He was very in your face, walked around in only a towel most of the time, asked for things that didn't belong to him and simply assumed you would share, and reminded us occasionally that we ought to respect him because he was older than us. He once said of Matt, "he can't say that to me. I am older than him. Does he think we're age mates?" Generally he was a really nice guy but the cultural divide that seperated us also led to some tension, at least on my side. I did my best to hide my feelings and use him to learn more about the culture. He also had a few quirks that made him unique. He was always laughing, always called me "Tommieway," and when sitting on the couch next to me occassionally would stroke my thigh. He was a nice guy and most of the time we got along great.

(Leonard, Me, Puso)

I would venture to say my favorite Motswana roommate was Puso. Puso is a chemistry grad-student who actually got a full time job while I was still in Botswana working for the ministry of water affairs.I liked Puso so much because we would sit together on friday and saturday nights and just talk, often when everyone else was out at a club or something I was just sitting and talking with Puso. We talked about everything. Usually the conversation would end up being about the things that are wrong with Botswana and what needs to be done to fix them. I learned a lot about Botswana, actually most of what I know from Puso. Puso wants to be a farmer eventually. Why would a masters student in Chemistry want to be a farmer? Only in Botswana, that point was infinitely funny to me.
There were also Charles and Leonard. Neither of them lived with us but both of them were in our room everyday. Leonard was a friend of all the guys in our room and was a part of our cooking rotation despite not being a roommate. He was a nice funny guy but I didn't spend enough time with him to get to know him. Charles was in many ways similar to KT, he also expected things be given to him and demanded respect becuse of his age. As far as I could tell beyond those things he was a nice enough guy but like Leonard he spend enough time around to really get to know him.

(Meet Matt)

Matt is a whole different topic. Matt is an American from University of Florida who was a really fun guy and constantly would surprise me. Matt was a huge social butterfly and many of the good times I had in Botswana were had by just following Matt's lead. He was the one who came up with the idea to go to Namibia. Theres part of me that wishes I could be more like Matt, just that really cool nice guy who is too busy having fun to really care.

"The Dutch Girls"
There were three Dutch girls, Megin, Maaike and Elles. Unfortunately I don't have enough comments on Megin to add here here. She was very cool and ultra nice but other than that we didn't spend much time together.

(Elles and I)

Elles was a super cool girl. She was from the Netherlands (thus "Dutch Girl") and always did her best to keep me involved. We hung out often mostly individually. We just liked to talk about things and joke around. She found out that I am a decent proofreader and I had a job all semester, word got out and I ended up proofreading papers for about four people in 6 or 7 different subjects. I felt pretty cool.

(Maaike and I)

Maaike was also really cool. Maaike quite enjoyed saying outlandish things and watching me squirm. I met both Maaike and Elles during our "cultural weekend" organized by the international students office. Maaike and Elles were also the two who organized the Zim I Am Campaign. Maaike would come by at the most random times when I was really bored and invite me to go to riverwalk or some other place for the fun of it. I really appreciated it. Maaike was also the one who took me to Choppies. Choppies is a supermarket but it is a less nice than Pick 'n' pay or Spar. I was used to going to those nice, mostly white supermarkets, and she dragged me to Choppies, it was an experience nothing extreme but one of those moments worth appreciating.

Everyone else
All of the international students I met here were cool and I really liked a lot of the. The guys from Penn: Daniel, Sebastian, and Ilana were really cool. I could see becoming friends with them if I had enough time but they did their own thing and I wasn't always with them. Then there were the CIEE kids. Celene and Walter were the only ones who I ever became friends with. I didn't know Celene well but she reminded me of my science friends at home. We did hang out, but not a lot. Walter was much the same, again I could him being a cool guy just to chat with. A couple times when he was drunk we had interesting conversations about religion, politics, linguistics and other topics. The norwegians: Eli (pronounces Elly) and Arnhild were also really cool. Arnhild and I had economics together and we got to know eachother that way. She was so nice and had a endearing way about her, everyone really liked Arnhild. Eli was really peppy and outgoing. She was the one who organized the sports originally and was constantly getting things together. She and I got to know eachother when we both worked PR for Zim I Am.

Places

(Graduate Village)

The graduate village is where I lived this semester along with all the other international students.

(Riverwalk)

Riverwalk is the mall nearby. Someone characterized it as "very suburban." I think that is very accurate. It has a lot of restaurants, a movie theater, some boutiques and a couple supermarkets. It was a default hangout all semester.

My room was where I spent the largest amount of time this semester. I should have spent less time in my room, but it has helped me learn about myself as well.

The "circle" was a typical hangout place for the international students. Many Friday evenings were spent sitting in the circle just hanging out when no other activity could be thought of. A lof of good times in that circle.

The courts are where we played sports twice a week for the whole quarter. It was mostly just us internationals but we would invite our Motswana friends along to play as well they just usually weren't into it. It was such a fun way to exercise and have fun in a sometimes boring town.

The laundry room...What can I say, I hand washed my clothes for a whole semester in a tub-sink and it didn't kill me and I don't even smell too bad. I never could get my socks quite clean, but I did the best I could.

Things
Admittedly this category is a bit of a stretch but I will find some interesting tid bits to add to it.

(UB Mascot)

This is, apparently UB's Mascot. Yes, yes it is a man and a bull. If you didn't believe that herding is a big part of Tswana culture now you should. The story behind this statue is that in order to found the University ever family in Botswana was asked to donate a bull for the good of everyone. It is with money that the University was built and in that spirit that the statue was made.

(A discarder carton of Chibuku)

Chibuku is, for the record, something akin to Botswana moonshine although that is not all together accurate. It is legal, in fact it is mass produced but it is not marketed ike other alcohol in order to get it you have to go to sellers, who are basically people selling it out of their garage. The factory where it is made is also similar to a garge. The stuff doesn't taste too bad but it is chunky, I could never get past the chunks and as a result drank it only once. Apparently it can really make you drunk very quickly but I never had enough to know for sure.

(Our cooking rotation checklist)

One of the best parts of this experience was the cooking rotation. It was great having food made for me and it ended up being really cheap. When I first arrived I thought the food for me was so delicious and unique, but as time wore on I realized I ate the same meal 5 days a week for an entire semester. I have only recently realized that this is because Batswana men do not cook, and they are not taught to cook. As a result all we had was boiled beef or chicken, pasta or pop-pop, and a vegetable also boiled usually frozen. The food was fine but the lack of variety did wear on me. As a result I actively tried to fix "American" food to give to my roommates to show them what I eat, and to give myself a break from the Botswana food.

For now that is all I can think of,
Love to all,
Tommy