I am continuing to fall in love with Botswana. I can't believe how quickly my time here is already going by! It will certainly be difficult to leave this place in three and a half months. I have to soak it all in until then.
Here are some of the experiences (the good and not so good) I've had since my last update:
-sunburns
-rain... LOTS of rain, usually preceded and followed by blazing sun again
-hand washing laundry that didn't exactly get clean... and which ended up getting soaked in the rain
-kombi rides (those are adventurous enough on their own) and one terrifying taxi ride
-piling 6 girls in a cab to escape the rain
-meeting lots of wonderful locals
-reluctantly receiving an (too much) older bartender's phone number (these Botswana men are persistent)
-growing closer to my housemates (I'm hoping I'll get to try some of the delicious-smelling food they cook soon!)
-no water on most of campus for 18ish hours
-lots of eating at amazing restaurants (Primi, an Italian place; Embassy, Indian food; Mugg & Bean, where I got an awesome burger; and Equatorial Coffee are particularly scrumptious)
-interesting classes (especially my Politics of Southern Africa course)
-lots of laughter (especially with my friends Dominique, Nicole, Maggie, Jaclynn, and Kevin)
-room mix-ups, which just ultimately led to me making a new friend in my suite
I'm sure there are more I could list, but for now I think that paints a pretty decent picture of my week. I am beginning to have to coerce myself into studying. I keep reminding myself that I'm actually at school... school means homework. I've just had so much fun meeting people and hanging out on campus and around Gaborone that I haven't gotten into a study schedule yet.
I've had the chance to read Stephanie Nolen's book, 28 Days of AIDS in Africa, throughout the past week or so. My friend Maggie is reading it for a class here, but I was interested in it so she lent it to me. During the fall semester of my sophomore year at Hendrix I took an intro politics course on HIV/AIDS, where I learned a lot of the information I've been reading in this book. But it's especially interesting reading it here. A year and a half ago in this politics class I was reading about some country called Botswana, which has the 2nd largest HIV prevalence rate in the world (Swaziland is first if you're curious) and now I'm actually studying abroad in said country. Botswana is a prime example of a country which has its health care system figured out, with extensive treatment facilities and widely available antiretroviral drugs, but not a lot of social/communal support for people living with the disease. People don't like to talk about this terrible thing called AIDS; in other countries it's something associated with heartbreaking situations where people are cut off from their families and villages. In my Sustainable Development class the other day, my professor was discussing how even though life expectancy dramatically increased around the world throughout the 20th centuries, in sub-Saharan Africa those numbers have levelled off in the past decade. "Can anyone guess why that is?" he asked. I could just tell by the atmosphere of the room that the answer was embedded in everyone's minds but no one dared to say it aloud.
As difficult a thing as HIV/AIDS is, acknowledging how critical it is to talk about it is being solidified for me. Yesterday when I was at the clinic (evidently this week a lot of HIV tests were being administered) waiting to see if I could get more Doxycycline for anti-malaria, I noticed a young woman leave an examination room with a stack of papers in her hand and tears streaming down her face. I assume she tested positive for HIV. It's so hard, dealing with something so huge-- something that has caused so much social, political, physical, emotional and financial burden for so many millions of people, people who find themselves marginalized for simply taking part in things as normal (yet intimate and vulnerable) to human nature as sex or procreation.
I think, however, that we are called not to run away in fear, not to chastise or condemn one another, but to help one another face our pain with hope. Even though such a thought seems overly idealistic given the reality of so many nations, especially sub-Saharan African nations, battling AIDS, I think it is a vision that must be realized. We are called to meet people where their pain is. It's a theme I've been exploring in my mind the past few months, and it deeply resonates with the way I understand this world.
Thanks for sticking with me through that tangent. It's something I've been meaning to write about for a few days.
I hope you all are doing well. I miss your faces, but I'm so very happy to be here.
Go siame!
A few photos:
Maggie and I cooling off with a Castle Light, a refreshing Botswana brew
Some children I enjoyed watching during my walk to Riverwalk Mall
Cute kids at the Indian restaurant I went to this past weekend
Here are some of the experiences (the good and not so good) I've had since my last update:
-sunburns
-rain... LOTS of rain, usually preceded and followed by blazing sun again
-hand washing laundry that didn't exactly get clean... and which ended up getting soaked in the rain
-kombi rides (those are adventurous enough on their own) and one terrifying taxi ride
-piling 6 girls in a cab to escape the rain
-meeting lots of wonderful locals
-reluctantly receiving an (too much) older bartender's phone number (these Botswana men are persistent)
-growing closer to my housemates (I'm hoping I'll get to try some of the delicious-smelling food they cook soon!)
-no water on most of campus for 18ish hours
-lots of eating at amazing restaurants (Primi, an Italian place; Embassy, Indian food; Mugg & Bean, where I got an awesome burger; and Equatorial Coffee are particularly scrumptious)
-interesting classes (especially my Politics of Southern Africa course)
-lots of laughter (especially with my friends Dominique, Nicole, Maggie, Jaclynn, and Kevin)
-room mix-ups, which just ultimately led to me making a new friend in my suite
I'm sure there are more I could list, but for now I think that paints a pretty decent picture of my week. I am beginning to have to coerce myself into studying. I keep reminding myself that I'm actually at school... school means homework. I've just had so much fun meeting people and hanging out on campus and around Gaborone that I haven't gotten into a study schedule yet.
I've had the chance to read Stephanie Nolen's book, 28 Days of AIDS in Africa, throughout the past week or so. My friend Maggie is reading it for a class here, but I was interested in it so she lent it to me. During the fall semester of my sophomore year at Hendrix I took an intro politics course on HIV/AIDS, where I learned a lot of the information I've been reading in this book. But it's especially interesting reading it here. A year and a half ago in this politics class I was reading about some country called Botswana, which has the 2nd largest HIV prevalence rate in the world (Swaziland is first if you're curious) and now I'm actually studying abroad in said country. Botswana is a prime example of a country which has its health care system figured out, with extensive treatment facilities and widely available antiretroviral drugs, but not a lot of social/communal support for people living with the disease. People don't like to talk about this terrible thing called AIDS; in other countries it's something associated with heartbreaking situations where people are cut off from their families and villages. In my Sustainable Development class the other day, my professor was discussing how even though life expectancy dramatically increased around the world throughout the 20th centuries, in sub-Saharan Africa those numbers have levelled off in the past decade. "Can anyone guess why that is?" he asked. I could just tell by the atmosphere of the room that the answer was embedded in everyone's minds but no one dared to say it aloud.
As difficult a thing as HIV/AIDS is, acknowledging how critical it is to talk about it is being solidified for me. Yesterday when I was at the clinic (evidently this week a lot of HIV tests were being administered) waiting to see if I could get more Doxycycline for anti-malaria, I noticed a young woman leave an examination room with a stack of papers in her hand and tears streaming down her face. I assume she tested positive for HIV. It's so hard, dealing with something so huge-- something that has caused so much social, political, physical, emotional and financial burden for so many millions of people, people who find themselves marginalized for simply taking part in things as normal (yet intimate and vulnerable) to human nature as sex or procreation.
I think, however, that we are called not to run away in fear, not to chastise or condemn one another, but to help one another face our pain with hope. Even though such a thought seems overly idealistic given the reality of so many nations, especially sub-Saharan African nations, battling AIDS, I think it is a vision that must be realized. We are called to meet people where their pain is. It's a theme I've been exploring in my mind the past few months, and it deeply resonates with the way I understand this world.
Thanks for sticking with me through that tangent. It's something I've been meaning to write about for a few days.
I hope you all are doing well. I miss your faces, but I'm so very happy to be here.
Go siame!
A few photos:
Maggie and I cooling off with a Castle Light, a refreshing Botswana brew
Some children I enjoyed watching during my walk to Riverwalk Mall
Cute kids at the Indian restaurant I went to this past weekend
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