Three and 1/2-Week Mark
Three and ½ weeks. Three and ½ weeks from today I will have my little room in the Graduate Villas at the University of Botswana packed up and I will be homeward bound. Wherever did the time go?
If my previous blog entries haven’t expressed this already, I have very mixed feelings about leaving. Leaving, saying goodbye in particular, is not something I consider myself good at. There are lots of little comforts I miss about home, like my bed; my Hendrix and my best friends there; my parents; my Starbucks Coffee and late-night Waffle House runs with my friends. But I know when I get home all of those little memories related to being at UB and in Botswana (or Africa in general), even the ones I haven’t particularly enjoyed, will come rushing into my mind and my heart will ache. I will miss things like “Africa time” and the fact that Batswana utilize three speeds to indicate arrival time (“now,” “just now,” and “now now”); I will miss the pap smeared with chicken or beef stock, even though there were so many afternoons and evenings when I wished I could eat anything but; I will miss the combi drivers honking at me to step onto their vehicle until the sound drives me literally crazy; I will even miss hearing the crazy misconceptions that local people often have about the United States.
But even above those little things, I will miss the people I have gotten close to in Botswana more than anything. I will miss my fellow Americans Maggie, Dominique, Nicole, Jenn, Shannon, Laura, Sagan, Sam, Isabelle and Bailey and all of the crazy adventures we have gotten ourselves into together on this continent unfamiliar to all of us. What gives me hope, though, is the fairly high possibility of seeing them again. With many of my local friends, however, I have to realize that I may never see some of them again. I suppose that is just one of life’s mixed bags: if life is compared to a train ride, there will always be those people, however wonderful and however close we may be to them, who are only on the train for a few stops. The only thing I can do is be positive and cherish the time I did get to spend with them.
Sentimentality aside, since my last update, I have gotten to do some very enjoyable things. Last weekend I went to Khama Rhino Sanctuary in Serowe (in northeastern Botswana) with four fellow international friends: Maggie (from Boston), Dominique (from Tennessee), Olivia (from Pennsylvania) and Mari (from Finland). We had planned to have our local friend Stephen drive a rental car up there, but he had to make last-minute family plans to go to South Africa that weekend. It was a fantastic weekend nonetheless, and we actually saved a lot of money taking buses there instead of renting a car. We stayed in six-person dorm and were allowed to use kitchen facilities to make tea and fix ourselves noodles and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. The duvet covers on our beds made for excellent napping and cuddling in between our game drives on Saturday. The first was at 6 AM, and we were FREEZING COLD. “I didn’t sign up to be cold in Africa!” I think I said at some point. It was quite the surprise, after sweating under the hot Gaborone sun most of the semester. We went on another at 4 PM, where we got to see the sunset. Our guide, Bogolo (which translates to “greatness”), was really great, and it was neat having a female drive us around. We saw a lot of wildlife—rhinos of course (including one that was a week old!), giraffes, springbok, steenbok, heartabeast, warthogs, banana beak birds, and more. Saturday night we dined in the restaurant, got a good night’s sleep after talking and playing some cards, and Sunday got the bus back to Gabs. It was a much-needed break from the routine of school and it was good to get out of the city. As much as I love my favorite places in Gaborone, it was wonderful to be underneath the brilliant stars in Serowe, sleeping in the chilliness of the dorm with the woods around us.
This past Wednesday evening my friend Maggie’s parents came to visit. They graciously invited me to tag along with them on some of their outings around town. Thursday I joined them for breakfast, followed by taking a brief trip to the Botanical Gardens, Botswanacraft (a local market that sells handcrafted artisan products) for shopping and traditional food, and then to Main Mall to bargain with vendors for souvenirs. Friday night they treated a few of us to dinner at Primi, one of our favorite restaurants at Riverwalk. It’s been a nice week. Classes wrap up next Thursday, and then I will be looking for some things to do to keep myself entertained during Easter Break. I can’t believe I’ve already reached this point!
If my previous blog entries haven’t expressed this already, I have very mixed feelings about leaving. Leaving, saying goodbye in particular, is not something I consider myself good at. There are lots of little comforts I miss about home, like my bed; my Hendrix and my best friends there; my parents; my Starbucks Coffee and late-night Waffle House runs with my friends. But I know when I get home all of those little memories related to being at UB and in Botswana (or Africa in general), even the ones I haven’t particularly enjoyed, will come rushing into my mind and my heart will ache. I will miss things like “Africa time” and the fact that Batswana utilize three speeds to indicate arrival time (“now,” “just now,” and “now now”); I will miss the pap smeared with chicken or beef stock, even though there were so many afternoons and evenings when I wished I could eat anything but; I will miss the combi drivers honking at me to step onto their vehicle until the sound drives me literally crazy; I will even miss hearing the crazy misconceptions that local people often have about the United States.
But even above those little things, I will miss the people I have gotten close to in Botswana more than anything. I will miss my fellow Americans Maggie, Dominique, Nicole, Jenn, Shannon, Laura, Sagan, Sam, Isabelle and Bailey and all of the crazy adventures we have gotten ourselves into together on this continent unfamiliar to all of us. What gives me hope, though, is the fairly high possibility of seeing them again. With many of my local friends, however, I have to realize that I may never see some of them again. I suppose that is just one of life’s mixed bags: if life is compared to a train ride, there will always be those people, however wonderful and however close we may be to them, who are only on the train for a few stops. The only thing I can do is be positive and cherish the time I did get to spend with them.
Sentimentality aside, since my last update, I have gotten to do some very enjoyable things. Last weekend I went to Khama Rhino Sanctuary in Serowe (in northeastern Botswana) with four fellow international friends: Maggie (from Boston), Dominique (from Tennessee), Olivia (from Pennsylvania) and Mari (from Finland). We had planned to have our local friend Stephen drive a rental car up there, but he had to make last-minute family plans to go to South Africa that weekend. It was a fantastic weekend nonetheless, and we actually saved a lot of money taking buses there instead of renting a car. We stayed in six-person dorm and were allowed to use kitchen facilities to make tea and fix ourselves noodles and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. The duvet covers on our beds made for excellent napping and cuddling in between our game drives on Saturday. The first was at 6 AM, and we were FREEZING COLD. “I didn’t sign up to be cold in Africa!” I think I said at some point. It was quite the surprise, after sweating under the hot Gaborone sun most of the semester. We went on another at 4 PM, where we got to see the sunset. Our guide, Bogolo (which translates to “greatness”), was really great, and it was neat having a female drive us around. We saw a lot of wildlife—rhinos of course (including one that was a week old!), giraffes, springbok, steenbok, heartabeast, warthogs, banana beak birds, and more. Saturday night we dined in the restaurant, got a good night’s sleep after talking and playing some cards, and Sunday got the bus back to Gabs. It was a much-needed break from the routine of school and it was good to get out of the city. As much as I love my favorite places in Gaborone, it was wonderful to be underneath the brilliant stars in Serowe, sleeping in the chilliness of the dorm with the woods around us.
This past Wednesday evening my friend Maggie’s parents came to visit. They graciously invited me to tag along with them on some of their outings around town. Thursday I joined them for breakfast, followed by taking a brief trip to the Botanical Gardens, Botswanacraft (a local market that sells handcrafted artisan products) for shopping and traditional food, and then to Main Mall to bargain with vendors for souvenirs. Friday night they treated a few of us to dinner at Primi, one of our favorite restaurants at Riverwalk. It’s been a nice week. Classes wrap up next Thursday, and then I will be looking for some things to do to keep myself entertained during Easter Break. I can’t believe I’ve already reached this point!
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