Hide your kids

Let's start with how undergraduate dorms are shitty wherever you are... especially in Africa.

Good thing I'm living in a graduate student flat with five other roommates! 5 stars y'all. I've seen a spider on my bed. One of my curtains is broken so I safety pinned it up and my closet door doesn't lock. The best part is mopping after yourself because the shower overflows each time. College living sup. Don't get me wrong though, I've had one of the better living situations. 

The city has weekly power and water rationing cuts in sections to conserve energy because most of our energy comes from a local dam and well, it's drought season. So, a few of us were hanging out waiting for the water to come back and when one of my friends went back to her room...there was a layer of water flooded on her floor. There wasn't even a pipe that led to her room. It was so random and unexpected. Just a "did that really just happen" moment. Another flat has a bug problem so I'm sure that's fun to deal with. There are clothes lines outside for hanging up your hand washed clothing and there were birds inside the student building. This is Africa. 

There's also a creepy guy that tries to claim he's looking for a spare room to all of the international girl students. He seems like great news. I haven't met him personally but ya know hide your kids, hide your wife.
The randos are pretty sketchy at times though and you really have to be careful about where you put your things and how you present yourself. One girl lost $80 USD on a night out and the random attention gets annoying as well.

The Mozambique visa office is about a ten minute walk and the advice we got for it:

"The men that work there are notorious for hitting on American girls. Do not give them your phone number or let them deliver your passport to you (or any other ‘favor’), they will stalk you until you leave the country."

That's comforting.

But really, I do love Africa. 

Generally, I've heard this good things of this country...generally. I'll save the other stories for after I leave the country.

Best, 

Komal 

Settling down

Night 1: My travel sequence was as follows -Houston to Washington DC (3 hours) with a 2 hour layover - DC to Dakar, Senegal (for refueling-8 hours) with about an hour stay in the plane - Dakar to Johannesburg, South Africa (9 hours) with an hour and fifteen layover - Johannesburg to Gaborone, Botswana (1 hour)

I flew South African Airways and was pleased with my travel experience. I even received a boxed dinner and complementary drink service on my flight from Johannesburg to Gaborone which was about 48 minutes from take off to landing. Africa 1 USA 0

Landing in Gaborone was...an experience. No wifi for purchase. Immigrations wasn't bad either with that blue passport. Now, let's get to the good stuff. There were five girls in my program who flew DC- Gabs together and we met at the airport. We were all expecting to call our parents from the motel we stayed at because we were promised wifi at the motel (confirmed by members of the group who arrived earlier). Well, you can't have wifi if you have a power outage. So, I didn't get to contact the outside world until about two hours after my flight arrived to tell them I was still alive.

"Welcome to Africa" everyone kept saying. Now, I know what it really means.

The night went well and I met some cool people too. The first two pictures are of Oasis motel, where we had orientation. 

The next morning we traveled to UB, University of Botswana, where I am staying at. I'm rooming with two other CIEE program girls, Emily and Jamieca, as well as two graduate students studying abroad for veterinary school from the states and one Motswana (a Botswanian), Fiji, taking winter classes.

After this we went to purchase living essentials from a Wal-Mart equivalent  (The store is owned by wal-mart). So it was easy to find such like pots and pans, shower items, pillows and other items. The struggle to find an adaptor/convertor is no joke. From three prong rectangle outlet to three prong circle adaptor to two prong rectangle adaptor to two prong rectangle device. It is harder than it sounds due to certain stores only having certain types of adaptors. The variety is mind-boggling. Underneath I have all of my adaptors as well as on top, a European style two prong rectangular phone charger for a nokia phone to use locally and a macbook pro charger.

Is this real?

Since then, I've found a spider on my bed (not too big) and I also saw the largest scorpion I have ever seen out camping at the Mokolodi Wildlife reserve...which I'll give details about soon!

We also had a nice dinner at a Portuguese restaurant, Caravella, complementary of the program.

The process of obtaining alcohol is also different considering it is 18 and up. Alcohol is widely available and people take advantage of it here. There is a student bar ON campus called 411 (4-1-1) which is like the country's "place to go". I would associate it with a shitty, one bar version of Austin's 6th street (at least from the outside). It looks like a classroom from the outside. Tobacco is sold in the student convenient store and it's not uncommon for a man to say vulgar, sexual things to women (in Setswana). Generally, the local people are friendly and do not talk about "fluff." We have a few student volunteers from Botswana who are all really cool and just a bunch of college kids.

Being Pakistani/brown is different too considering I don't think I stick out as much as white people and there is a lot of Indian influence here seen through the city's cuisine. There is a large mosque right outside my campus as well which has a welcoming sign every time I pass by. I haven't particularly seen many people who I can identify as "brown".  One of the girls doing homestay has a sister who is Muslim and said she might be able to take me to mosque one day so that will be interesting and different. I don't know too much of any local stereotypes toward Muslims or Pakistani/Indian people so that will also be a sight to see when I find out.



I start classes on Monday as well as clinical rotations. Clinic is usually 8-12 and classes 2-4 or 2-6 depending on the day so I expect to have a variety of experiences!

Best, 

Komal