(that's pronounced "AISH!" btw... it's southern african ghetto speak for "holy crap!" or "damn!" or "confound it!" or basically anything in the "yowza!" department. I keep forgetting it's not phonetic and doesn't really pack the same punch when blogged)
Anyway I have never been so happy to return "home" from anywhere in my whole life. Well except maybe that one Orchestra tour for U of Wyoming back in '94. But that's a whole 'nother story altogether involving redneck boyfriends, punch-ups, bible-banging host families, psycho pervert conductors and well... Nebraska. <>
It's not that the trip itself was bad or anything - just hella long and totally exhausting. We covered 2200 km in 6 days. We ate petrol station food and got totally dehydrated from lack of (drinkable) water.
The translator (Mr. Sechele - aka "Sech" - which also happens to be our current foster dog's name and sheds a bit of light on how he got that name, by the by) was actually great and a real character. A retired school teacher and headmaster, this guy was one smart cookie and had the best sense of humour I've ever encountered in a Motswana so far. I love him. But I was also glad as hell to kick him out of my truck in Serowe on Friday and be done with all that malarkey!
It was great bonding with our current work experience student that we dragged along, EM, all week. This is a guy I could really be good friends with. Totally hard working, unbelievably respectful, and completely grateful for the experience of actually working for us. HA! What a concept! Actually, living this long in this close of quarters with 2 Batswana gave me a lot better understanding of their culture and how they manage to raise up the most polite, respectful, honorable and intriguing group of people I've ever known. It gave me a lot of insight into the differences between how westerners raise their kids vs. africans, yielding a completely different type of adult. When I see and talk to EM, I'm totally stunned. I love that kid. If I were ever to have kids I would want his mother to give me classes or something. I have lots of theories...
Then there was R., my public consultation specialist and man that guy is brilliant but GOD was I even MORE glad to get his ass out of my truck at the end of the week!!! Talk about a cultural enigma - the essence of "colonial expat", he's like my dad's age, born in Uganda to really eccentric colonists, has lived in BW for over 30 years, married to a Motswana lady and thinks BW is the best country in the world, speaks like Prince Charles (even when speaking Setswana - which is good for a laugh), knows EVERYTHING about EVERYTHING and will not stop telling you EVERYTHING about all that he knows, and is the worst backseat-driver I've ever had to contend with. I'm exhausted even just thinking about R.
He's one of those guys who you'll greet in the morning asking if he had a good night and he'll greet you back with a 10-hour story about he KNOWS the best method for sleeping well because he is an EXPERT at everything. The story will go on for about 10 minutes, typically inclusive of a story about the one time when he was in _______ and how he almost didn't sleep well but he did _such-and-such_ and ended up succeeding in his endeavour and so on and so forth. But he'll never ask you how your night was. That's just how R. is.
My GOD it was a long week. Every day up and at 'em at 6am, working like asses til dark (6pm?) then filling our bellies with crap and passing out to do it all over again the next day. But yes, informative, good experience, full of interesting new people and personalities, and let's just say my love for Gabz-City is now bigger and more intense than ever before. Man we saw some serious shitholes. The award for biggest shithole ever goes to the town of Letlhakane. It's such a shithole my cellphone even got pinched there - and now some dude is holding it hostage for a hundred bucks from 6 hours away! Nice touch!
Thank god we found a decent lodge in Serowe, where we could stay for a couple of the nights. They had cold beers behind the bar and a pool table. A pool table that was missing the 9 ball and sat on top of some rocks at some whacky 3 degree angle with no chalk for the crooked cues, but hey, that's some serious entertainment when compared with the rest of the week we endured. Unfortunately, that was at the beginning of the week and so the nice part was out of the way quickly, leaving the crap part to finish the week on. That and the Mr. getting sick... weirdly enough on the same day that on the other side of the world in Houston, A.'s Mr. was getting the same kind of sickies! Amazing!
Driving at night in BW is NOT something you do if you can help it. All the livestock and donkeys on the road are murderous, as are the drunk drivers and road hogs on these little 2-lane strips. But both up and down, we got stuck doing it. I'll never ever remember thanking my lucky stars to be alive more than seeing the lights of Gabs on the skyline at 8pm on friday night as we came around the bend to home, on suicide highway. We kicked all the guys off at their various residences (which couldn't have been MORE spread out across the board and farther away from our place) and hit the chinese takeaway for some grub and were cashed out in bed by 10pm.
MAN what a week.
This weekend was full of relaxing, sleeping, bonding with the puppies, nursing the Mr. back to health, eating salad, watching movies, and generally groaning with exhaustion. We went to the Adventure Challenge multi-athalon -thingy yesterday to see all our friends compete, etc., and hardly made it through an hour of socialising before it just got too hard and we called it a day! Now THAT'S exhaustion.
Finally saw Babel & Little Miss Sunshine ... now can someone remind me why either of those movies got nominated for ANY awards, exactly? Let alone won?
Anyway I have never been so happy to return "home" from anywhere in my whole life. Well except maybe that one Orchestra tour for U of Wyoming back in '94. But that's a whole 'nother story altogether involving redneck boyfriends, punch-ups, bible-banging host families, psycho pervert conductors and well... Nebraska. <
It's not that the trip itself was bad or anything - just hella long and totally exhausting. We covered 2200 km in 6 days. We ate petrol station food and got totally dehydrated from lack of (drinkable) water.
The translator (Mr. Sechele - aka "Sech" - which also happens to be our current foster dog's name and sheds a bit of light on how he got that name, by the by) was actually great and a real character. A retired school teacher and headmaster, this guy was one smart cookie and had the best sense of humour I've ever encountered in a Motswana so far. I love him. But I was also glad as hell to kick him out of my truck in Serowe on Friday and be done with all that malarkey!
It was great bonding with our current work experience student that we dragged along, EM, all week. This is a guy I could really be good friends with. Totally hard working, unbelievably respectful, and completely grateful for the experience of actually working for us. HA! What a concept! Actually, living this long in this close of quarters with 2 Batswana gave me a lot better understanding of their culture and how they manage to raise up the most polite, respectful, honorable and intriguing group of people I've ever known. It gave me a lot of insight into the differences between how westerners raise their kids vs. africans, yielding a completely different type of adult. When I see and talk to EM, I'm totally stunned. I love that kid. If I were ever to have kids I would want his mother to give me classes or something. I have lots of theories...
Then there was R., my public consultation specialist and man that guy is brilliant but GOD was I even MORE glad to get his ass out of my truck at the end of the week!!! Talk about a cultural enigma - the essence of "colonial expat", he's like my dad's age, born in Uganda to really eccentric colonists, has lived in BW for over 30 years, married to a Motswana lady and thinks BW is the best country in the world, speaks like Prince Charles (even when speaking Setswana - which is good for a laugh), knows EVERYTHING about EVERYTHING and will not stop telling you EVERYTHING about all that he knows, and is the worst backseat-driver I've ever had to contend with. I'm exhausted even just thinking about R.
He's one of those guys who you'll greet in the morning asking if he had a good night and he'll greet you back with a 10-hour story about he KNOWS the best method for sleeping well because he is an EXPERT at everything. The story will go on for about 10 minutes, typically inclusive of a story about the one time when he was in _______ and how he almost didn't sleep well but he did _such-and-such_ and ended up succeeding in his endeavour and so on and so forth. But he'll never ask you how your night was. That's just how R. is.
My GOD it was a long week. Every day up and at 'em at 6am, working like asses til dark (6pm?) then filling our bellies with crap and passing out to do it all over again the next day. But yes, informative, good experience, full of interesting new people and personalities, and let's just say my love for Gabz-City is now bigger and more intense than ever before. Man we saw some serious shitholes. The award for biggest shithole ever goes to the town of Letlhakane. It's such a shithole my cellphone even got pinched there - and now some dude is holding it hostage for a hundred bucks from 6 hours away! Nice touch!
Thank god we found a decent lodge in Serowe, where we could stay for a couple of the nights. They had cold beers behind the bar and a pool table. A pool table that was missing the 9 ball and sat on top of some rocks at some whacky 3 degree angle with no chalk for the crooked cues, but hey, that's some serious entertainment when compared with the rest of the week we endured. Unfortunately, that was at the beginning of the week and so the nice part was out of the way quickly, leaving the crap part to finish the week on. That and the Mr. getting sick... weirdly enough on the same day that on the other side of the world in Houston, A.'s Mr. was getting the same kind of sickies! Amazing!
Driving at night in BW is NOT something you do if you can help it. All the livestock and donkeys on the road are murderous, as are the drunk drivers and road hogs on these little 2-lane strips. But both up and down, we got stuck doing it. I'll never ever remember thanking my lucky stars to be alive more than seeing the lights of Gabs on the skyline at 8pm on friday night as we came around the bend to home, on suicide highway. We kicked all the guys off at their various residences (which couldn't have been MORE spread out across the board and farther away from our place) and hit the chinese takeaway for some grub and were cashed out in bed by 10pm.
MAN what a week.
This weekend was full of relaxing, sleeping, bonding with the puppies, nursing the Mr. back to health, eating salad, watching movies, and generally groaning with exhaustion. We went to the Adventure Challenge multi-athalon -thingy yesterday to see all our friends compete, etc., and hardly made it through an hour of socialising before it just got too hard and we called it a day! Now THAT'S exhaustion.
Finally saw Babel & Little Miss Sunshine ... now can someone remind me why either of those movies got nominated for ANY awards, exactly? Let alone won?
Glad you survived your week, was looking forward to hearing all about it, will have to read Hannes's interpretation of it when the kids are asleep!
So what are your theories on how kids are brought up in Botswana - i need help!!!!!
I'm telling you! It's about respect for elders and everything else stems from that. Like how the youngest person in the room will ALWAYS jump up immediately upon an older one entering the room, and give their seat to the older one. (Just 1 example) This results in the younger one not only expressing respect, but also humility and non-laziness as well(obviously you can't be lazy if you have to do a lot of jumping up for your elders, etc). Let me see if I can refine my theory in more detail...