Day 8: The Toyota Desert Race

Dumelang!

On Sunday while others were off to church I finally had the opportunity to sleep in before we headed to Game City to see the end of the Toyota Desert Race, a 1000 kilometer trek through the desert of Botswana that started on Friday (we actually met drivers competing at Bull and Bush Friday night).

So we shopped at the mall for a little bit (I finally got myself a souvenir, a spiffy new Botswana soccer jersey) and then pushed and shoved to try and get a spot where we could see some of the cars cross the finish line, but we kept getting ushered away by a very aggressive police officer. We were also warned about the potential for pickpocketers at the event because there were people there from all over South Africa. I tend to always be paranoid about pickpocketers anyway (I've worked out this "swinging arm" technique where I can constantly check if my wallet and my phone are in my pockets) and in broad daylight someone reached into the front pocket a girl's purse in our group. Luckily there was nothing there and she called the guy out on it and he quickly disappeared, but even so you never really take things like that too seriously until it happens to you so it was a startling experience. The race itself really wasn't all that exciting and we quickly left to return to wandering around the mall and fawning over how cheap everything is here. Sunday night was very quiet because everyone was exhausted from a jam-packed weekend and the next day we got to start work. Look forward to more interesting details to come soon.

Ke a go rata!

Day 7: The Fete De La Musique (French Music Festival)

(Author's note: I apologize for constantly being behind on these blog entries, my goal is to be caught up within the next three days, and because work is very repetitive I might combine entries during the week and reflect on only the interesting occurrences of my weekdays.)

Dumela borra le bomma!

Saturday started off as an adventure right from the get-go when we had the chance to try sauteed cow stomach for breakfast. It was a sickly green color, and the only way I can describe the texture is chewy, which doesn't make it sound very appealing and, to be honest, it left my stomach in knots and I found it very hard to pay attention to the morning presenters. We had student organizations, including Students Against HIV and AIDS and the Face the Nation campaign, both of which rely heavily on the message of abstinence as a pillar in their campaign. Although I concede that ultimately abstinence really is the only 100% effective preventative method, I just can't help but think that for the most part it is falling on deaf ears because it is on the completely opposite side of the sexual spectrum from what is the societal and cultural norms here. I feel like it would be more effective to change how people have sex than to tell them not to because if people want to have sex then they will have sex.

Following the presentations we had lunch and got on the bus to go to the Fete De La Musique at Botswanacraft, a French music festival where none of the artists were French and none of the music was in French...I guess it is an attempt by the French government to build a relationship between France and Botswana because there were posters and fliers with a giraffe body with zebra stripes walking next to the Eiffelle Tower and it said "Speak French!" In any case, the music was really cool and there was a very diverse variety of musical styles. The first band was a group from UB called Mogwana, which did a very traditional style of dance where the music consisted of them singing and clapping and using either bones on other things on their feet that when they stomped or slapped their ankles made noise. It was very elaborate and mesmerizing to watch.

After the first act I decided to check out the inside of the craft store there and was amazed at the wide variety of artwork including jewelry, elaborate wood carvings and all sorts of neat gifts. I did do some shopping, but because of the audience to this blog won't share what I bought. I got back in time to see Apollo Diablo, a local rap group that makes a point not to curse during their raps and talk about real issues in their lyrics. Below is a picture of the band:
After them I fell into sort of a daze before I was rudely awakened by the familiar sound of blaring guitars shredding through power chord after power chord. Sure enough, Crackdust, a metal band from Gaborone took the stage. They were four guys dressed head-to-toe in black and after casually tuning their instruments the singer came to the mic and said, "This next song is RETRIBUTION!" and proceeded to yell from his throat for the rest of the half hour. Other gems from crackdust included "pity the undead," "tainted in blood" and my personal favorite "born of the sorcerer." It was the oddest thing watching Motswana stare in horror at what was described as "the most extreme rock band in all of Africa" and when I asked Karabo if he had ever heard anything like it he said no. Apparently though metal is catching on in Africa, especially in South Africa. Crackdust has a website (http://www.crackdust.com/) and are on myspace (http://www.myspace.com/crackdust) and will be actually playing at the Carnal Residue Metal Bash this Saturday at Prisons Mess (which I'm afraid might actually be a prison) in Gabs (short for Gaborone, I'm picking up some of the hip lingo. ie. joburg=johannesburg) and I'm thinking about going just for the hell of it.
The rest of the evening was very relaxing and a bit chilly as we listened to a rock band and a jazz band and then called it a night at 7:30 pm (I know, we're lame, but you try getting up at 6 am consistently and we'll see how much you want to party that evening.). I'm really looking forward to tomorrow and our day off where I'll finally have time to actually relax and reflect on my time here because so far its been a whirlwind of activities and new experiences and I need to just decompress.

Ke a go rata thata!

Miss you and love you all!

Day 6: Visiting the Bahurutshe Cultural Village

Dumela bomma le borra,

Friday we had a break from all of the classes and instead traveled to the Bahurutshe Cultural Village outside of town. On the drive there, I saw more of what I thought Africa would look like, in Gaborone there were definitely very poor neighborhoods, then once we got out of the city there were wide stretches of low lying trees and you could see for a long way to hills in the distance. It was really stunning to see.The cultural village was like a living museum, where they demonstrate culture that doesn't really exist except for in really remote areas of Botswana. Driving up we were greeted by these 5 elderly women who began chanting and dancing when they saw our bus pull up. They were dressed in very traditional clothing and wore bones on their legs that rattled when they danced.
We were led into the village and the woman claiming to be the wife of the chief welcomed us. We were then told that we would get to see a wedding ceremony and needed a volunteer bride and groom and of course, trying to be proactive, I volunteered for the part of the groom. The ceremony began first with the tossing of the bones, a tradition done by the elder with the gift, depending on how the bones fall determines how the marriage will go.
Luckily for me I got a good toss and then drank the ceremonial beer, which was essentially fermented sorghum and was very bitter. Then we were paraded to the honeymoon hut to "consummate our marriage" (not really, don't worry Jamie). From that point on our married life together consisted of her grinding grains and cleaning and putting cow dung on the floors of our new home to keep snakes away, while I herded goat and played games all day long. It was pretty awesome being a male in this tribe.At the conclusion of our wedding ceremony the chief's wife noticed my star of david and said "shalom" to me. It was just a strange amalgamation of two very different cultures and I was caught off guard, but later at lunch she came over and explained that she had studied in Haifa and had married a Jewish man in Israel (originally from Manchester). It was amazing to hear this because at this point I had lost hope of meeting any Jews in Botswana because there are only 100 reported in the entire country. It was empowering to know that even in the face of antisemitism Jews have manged to spread and prosper to even the most remote areas of the world.

Here's our new hut (still under construction):The people here are very superstitious and believe that witches walk among people in the villages. Later on, when they demonstrated dances they showed dances that correspond to each of the wives of the husband. The first and oldest wife dances first to show that it is she who has the right to sleep in with the husband. Following this dance, the younger wife, believed to be a witch, does a dance where she turns into a frog to hop into the husband's bedroom.

Following the dancing we went on a short walk where we ate wild grapes right off of the bush and saw the totem of the tribe (the baboon). Similar to Native American culture tribe here each have a totem, an animal, that they believe to be sacred and eating it is perhaps one of the worst sins you can do. Then we had lunch where I got to eat setswa, a ceremonial dish which is just pulled beef, and we learned that the people who run the cultural villages also have renovated huts with cable and air conditioning so you could stay there for the weekend and work with the women and have a really romantic get away or an intense cultural experience. It sounded really like a really cool opportunity and I took down the number on the off-chance I'm ever backpacking through Africa.

When we got back from the village we ate dinner and then proceeded to go to "The Bull and Bush" a bar in Gaborone for a night out. When we got there we realized that most of the people there were ex-patriots or volunteers so we ran into people from Iowa and even DC. Since coming here I've been amazed at how many white volunteers are working here and how you can manage to see the same people over and over again. On one hand it's been comforting for me, but on the other hand I came here to actually feel like a minority and experience how unsettling that is and it just hasn't happened to me yet on the same scale it has happened to other people in the group. I'm sure though as I begin work my experiences will change.

Ke a go rata thata!

I miss all of you!

Day 3 through 5 (part 2)

Dumela bomma le borra! (Hello ladies and gentlemen!)

After Setswana lessons the group meets with professors here at the university who specialize in different areas of AIDS. On Wednesday Dr. Chipfakacha gave a holistic presentation looking at not only the science behind the disease and why the specific strand in Africa is causing the increased prevalence, but also the sociocultural factors that cause the disease to continue to spread despite the billions of dollars being spent to combat the disease by both the government and the international community. His presentation was fascinating and he was easily the most interesting lecturer I have seen at least for a very long time. Following him, Dr. Maundeni gave a presentation on specifically why men are at risk for getting HIV here, a topic that is usually ignored (most AIDS research focuses on gender roles specifically for women and how their status leaves them less powerful to control their own sexual lives). It was a really interesting perspective and one of the leading factors that really resonated with me is how boys here really don't get any informal education from their parents. When a girl starts menstruating it promotes conversation about changes with puberty and what it all means, but for boys the topic never really comes up and actually westernization and urbanization ended the tribal sex education that was already available. Boys used to have initiation ceremonies where men would teach them about how to be a man in their village and this was the opportunity to talk about sex, but these ceremonies aren't held any more and were replaced with the Christian notion of abstinence, which is a very hard model to push on men who have learned from the media and their peers (mostly due to the absence of a father figure) that being a man means being sexually promiscuous and sleeping with a lot of girls (this notion isn't too different in the US even with comprehensive sex education). On Thursday, Dr. Pitso gave a presentation on the sociocultural factors leading to multiple concurrent sexual partnerships (MCSPs), one of the issues that is spurring the epidemic here. Dr. Ntseane also met with us on Thursday and discussed how indigenous knowledge systems impact HIV/AIDS and how the failure of the current fight against AIDS is the lack of acknowledgment of traditional values and customs. At some point I will write about how my view on AIDS has radically changed based on what I've learned so far, but for now I will just say that my notions of AIDS and why it is so prevalent have completely changed.

Wednesday night we walked 15 minutes to the main mall to shop and eat dinner and being there I was amazed at how I would forget that I was in Africa. The mall was very nice and there was a lot of stuff there and I kept running into white people, all of whom were volunteering and staying at the university, including a girl who lives in Ohio and a girl who worked at the White House. In general, it's amazing how many white people are here, I really came into this trip thinking I would be a minority, which is true and it has been interesting how much attention the group gets when we go out in public, but it hasn't felt overly uncomfortable or unsettling. The one awkward moment was when we were walking to the mall and street vendors along the side of the road started yelling "We love whitey" and wanted to give all the girls hugs. It was amusing because if I were to go into any predominantly black neighborhood (the one in my mind at the time was Southeast DC) and go around saying "I love blackie" while trying to hug people I would be shot instantly. I've never actually heard anyone refer to me as "whitey" so it was just interesting to hear it said. At dinner I ate an avocado and bleu cheese burger and it was actually one of the most delicious things I've ever eaten.

Since getting here I've suddenly become a futbol fan again (I really got excited during the last World Cup and I feed off of the excitement of people around me). Thursday night I watched Egypt win an amazing game against Italy 1-0 and was really excited for everyone here because it was the reigning world champions losing to an African nation (something Italy has never done) and everyone here went nuts. I still think that there is a lot of lag time during soccer games, but every shot has me on the edge of my seat so perhaps I'll keep watching when I come home. My other new habit will be tea time mid morning as a way to take a break and rejuvenate because that has been doing wonders to my energy level.

Also on Wednesday and Thursday, the potential organizations who we will be working with for the next 3 weeks came in and gave presentations. We ranked the top 3 we'd like to work for. I'll name each organization and tell you a little about what they do below:

SOS Children's Village: An orphanage for children who have lost their families to HIV/AIDS, the center provides them with a family structure and a house mother, leadership programs and care for children who were infected with the disease during child birth.

Lifeline: provides free anonymous counseling services either by phone or in-person, the organization also trains counselors and provides counseling services to other NGOs. There are over 270 locations globally.

Salvation Army Psychosocial Support Initiative (SAPSSI): A coalition of 4 churches that sponsor peer mentor programs, provide counseling services, promote leadership through community development and provide day care centers for kids under 5. The goal is to raise kids so that they don't take up practices that leave them more susceptible to HIV.

Baylor International Pediatric AIDS Initiative: Works with the government of Botswana to provide medical services and counseling to kids who are HIV positive. They work to break down social family barriers by having the entire family be a part of the testing process so that the children are able to take responsibility for their treatment. They also provide an intensive follow-up clinic where a social worker, psychologist and nutritionist meet with the child at their home to see what their home life is like.

Botswana Network of AIDS Service Organizations (BONASO): An umbrella organization for NGOs working to combat AIDS that focuses on policy influence and advocacy, capacity building, information and dissemination, resource mobilization, and research and monitoring of NGO activity to determine its successfulness. This organization was my first choice and where I will be working. I was interested in it because I will have the opportunity to work with a number of NGOs and would like to be part of the both the training and capacity building aspect, and the policy influence side. All in all I think working with them will help to give me a very holistic and in-depth understanding of how an NGO functions. It is also a good fit because a lot of the other organizations really focus on counseling because most of the people on this trip have a counseling background, but because I don't I was really more focused on NGO experience. I'm also really excited because the girl who gave the presentation is a peace corps volunteer who just extended for a third year here to continue her work with BONASO and I'm really looking forward to picking her brain about her Peace Corps experience and what advice she has about that entire process.

Kagisano Women's Shelter: Provides counseling and shelter for women in violent relationships. Also provides counseling for the perpetrators, which I thought was an interesting way to deal with domestic violence.

Botswana National Youth Council: Umbrella organization for national NGOs focusing on youth development. They coordinate projects and provide a lot of training and capacity building projects. They also hold training for programs concerning adolescent reproductive health, an important step in combating HIV/AIDS.

Makgabaneng: A radio soap opera using the CDC's MARCH (modeling and reinforcing to combat HIV/AIDS) model to influence behavior by providing realistic characters who deal with HIV/AIDS issues (edutainment). The organization also hosts reinforcement activities including free testing sites and youth programs to encourage safer sex practices.

All of the organizations seem really interesting and I look forward to hearing about everyone's individual experience with their organization.

Ke a go rata thata! (I love you very much!)

Go siame! (goodbye)

Days 3 through 5 (part 1): Orienting ourselves at UB

(Author’s note: This first week has been so jam-packed it has been difficult to keep up with this blog, but once we start working next week and I’ll be back by 3:30 PM consistently it should be a little bit easier. Sorry to all of you who follow this thing religiously.)

Dumelang! (Hello! pl.)

We had a packed first few days in Botswana getting oriented with the place and the culture as best as we could before we our sent out to work with various NGO’s. We’re staying at the University of Botswana (henceforth UB), which, after given a tour on Tuesday, I realized was a very respectable University and had elements of it (including its brand new business building) that reminded me a lot of Athens or were even better than Athens. Again, I’m not sure whether it was my western ignorance or what, but for some reason I didn’t think that what was considered a third world country would have such state-of-the-art facilities, but in retrospect it would makes sense for a government to spend on universities because it in turn is creating an educated workforce that can drive the economy forward. Talking to Karabo and Thato are guides, both of them don’t actually pay anything to go to the university, the government provides scholarships for 70% of the kids who go to college, which is an incredibly impressive feat for a government that is struggling economically.

I haven't talked about the food a whole lot because up until this point it hasn't been too drastically different, but breakfast was the first shocking meal I had. It consisted of what looked like hamburger helper, a gelatinous porridge thing (which we later found out was the staple food of Botswana and they eat it everyday) and then eggs (both hardboiled and fried). Most of it was delicious, but I felt pretty strange eating hamburger, however I will not complain about it if it keeps happening. Meat is a staple food as cattle is one of the main industries in Botswana so every meal has meat in it, which I’m finally starting to feel the effects of. I also am still made uneasy about how accommodating the people have been for us, they clean up after us after we eat and are willing to cook more food that we are used to and I feel like we are here to have a Batswana cultural experience and learn just as much as we are here to work, and the rest of the group feels the same way so, as a result, at some point soon I will be eating worms.

Speaking of culture, I've begun noting some cultural differences and so far I've noticed that instead of saying "eight-thirty" to denote 8:30 they say "half-eight." We have been learning a lot of interesting cultural nuances that I’ve been making a point of noting and I’ll be including throughout this blog. One interesting one is how differently our notion of drought is with theirs. Botswana is landlocked on all sides by Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa and drought to them means 2 to three years without rain, which becomes a very dangerous situation for the people and causes a number of deaths. We also learned that Batswana are very friendly, have different (closer) notions of personal space and are very aware of those around them and would be able to tell if someone was missing in a large group setting.

After breakfast everyday we have Setswana lessons and I’m actually learning a whole lot. I think taking Arabic has provided me with a little bit of an advantage because it has a lot of sounds that aren’t present in English and therefore the muscles in our mouth aren’t trained to say them, and Setswana is very similar in that it has difficult pronunciations. The only one I still struggle with (which actually people from the north part of the country struggle with two and simply disregard, which makes me feel better) is the pronunciation of the letter “tlh” (which I don’t think I can even begin to spell out phonetically). I will try to incorporate a little Setswana into my future posts so you all can get a taste of the language, as you’ll notice I’ve already done.

On Tuesday we all reflected on why we were here and I really liked hearing how even though we all go to the same school, we have such a wide variety of majors and interests and most importantly reasons why we're here. I'm here because this trip combines my two passions, traveling somewhere unique and foreign to me, and volunteering. At tea time (another cultural difference, which we will have every day at 10 AM) I talked to Jenny, a first-year masters student in our group who's really interested in international development also, but using sport for social development to create an environment that can teach not only about life issues but about other important issues like HIV and provide a safe environment for kids to ask questions about delicate issues. I've never really thought of sport being used that way and found it really inspiring and interesting.

I’ll give you the second half of this blog post really soon.

I miss you all!

Ke a go rata thata. (I love you very much).

Day 2: Welcome to Gaborone

(author's note: I am writing this entry at 5:58 AM my time. Why? Well, because my body still has no concept for what time it really is (mostly due to jetlag and a 6-hour time difference) and therefore I went to bed at 10:30 PM my time))

The first day in Gaborone was a complete blur of activity. We woke up at 6 AM to catch our 8:30 flight from Johannesburg and on the drive over to the airport I finally realized that you drive on the left-hand side of the road and therefore the wheel was on the right-hand side of the car and all of a sudden I was fascinated and disoriented and confused all rolled up into one. From that point on I suddenly noticed how simply changing what side of the road you drive on changes everything. All of a sudden, the down elevator is on the left-hand side and naturally people walk on the left-hand side because it seems intuitive for them having driven on the left-hand side their entire lives. This leads to conflict though when I instinctively walked on the right-hand side and am forced to dodge people until I realize why I'm always in the way. The airport mall in Johannesburg did not give away that you were in Africa (except for the fact that there were some really cool stores with overpriced African artwork and soccer jerseys) and I have never seen a Ferrari store before. The other thing was security in South Africa at the airport was surprisingly lax, I didn't have to take off my shoes, they didn't need anything, including my laptop, in a separate container and I was through line in less than a minute.

The flight to Gaborone was 45 minutes, a piece of cake after the 15-hour jaunt the night/day before and when we landed and got off the plane (down a flight of steps onto the ground outside, so weird!) we went through customs where we had to fill out a form saying whether or not we were feeling any symptoms of the flu because we came from a "swine-flu risk area" and the last thing the people in Botswana need is another epidemic ravaging their country. It was just really unsettling to have to admit to whether I had a long list of very ambiguous symptoms like overtiredness. The whole time I was thinking about Ellis Island during the early waves of immigration and how even today the US runs strict health checks on immigrants because we have this notion that we are a predominantly healthy country, but swine flu (like other overly-hyped diseases) has turned everything upside-down. In general, its amazing how much people, in general, try to control the flow of bacteria in a society that is so globalized and so transient. It almost seems like a lost cause because even with quarantines, if you miss one person the chain starts all over again. That's the problem here in Botswana: there is such a stigma against people with AIDS that they hide the disease and don't receive treatment. This only spurs the spread of the disease both in the individual because they aren't getting help and in society because no one knows who has the disease. I don't really know how to combat that except with massive reforms to the social norms and educational institutions in place here and the reality of that happening is difficult to imagine.

I traded my $150 for 973 and some-odd pula, which seems like a ridiculous amount of money, but I guess the pula is pretty strong because that is nowhere near as extreme as the 47 rupee per dollar exchange rate in India (as Jamie pointed out to me). Still, I feel awkward spending 100 of anything on something even if that really only translates to like $15 because it just seems wrong in my head. I guess it's another adjustment I'll have to make. The land in Gaborone is more like I expected, with wide stretches of dirt and low-lying trees and grasses as far as the eye can see. It's amusing to see our guides (Karabo and Thato) pick us up in sweaters and jeans and talk about how unusually hot it is on a 70-degree day (or 21 degrees Celsius, another thing I need to get used to along with the metric system).

The rest of the day consisted of getting settled, listing all the problems with our room (the broken light in the shower room was my biggest concern, otherwise everything else seemed kind of trivial in the big scheme of things, I mean I am in Africa after all), walking 15 minutes to the store and watching futbol with Batswana who are a routy bunch when it comes to futbol. It reminded me a lot of watching football with my friends and really gave me a sense of how big futbol here really is. Well it is time for me to start my day, but expect more entries soon.

Day 1: Landing in Johannesburg

I got to Dulles airport at 3:15 PM where after a tearful goodbye from the family I went through security and to my gate where I would first fly to Atlanta and then Johannesburg, South Africa. Fortunately, Meg, a girl in the group was also flying from Dulles and conveniently enough sat next to me for both flights.
Sitting at Dulles airport I finally get a chance to actually think about the trip itself. The last few days have been a blur of visiting families and friends and packing that I haven’t spent anytime really reflecting on the fact that in a few short days (now a matter of hours) I will actually be flying to Africa. The realization now is both exciting and intimidating. I find myself in a daze just trying to wrap my mind around just the idea that I’m actually going, not even beginning to try and comprehend what it would be like when I get there and what I would see and experience along the way.
Prior to the trip I can only base my expectations on the two stereotypical views of Africa present in my stream of consciousness. The first is of the mythical, and very tribal notion of Africa inspired in kids by films like the Lion King. In my head all I can see are rolling grasslands and deserts and herds of elephants and gazelles marching gracefully across the earth that’s bathed in a glorious orange sunset. My concept of the people is very much based on the National Geographic magazines I’ve gotten lost in throughout my life (part of what has inspired me to travel around the world); I see people living in huts and living off of the land farming and hunting for food. Their habits are very foreign to me and they have strange piercings and jewelry and furs for clothing. I know rationally that this is a very outdated depiction of the people, and like the rest of the world Africa has gone through significant industrialization and urbanization in the last 100 years, but in my imagination Africa is still the stuff of classical fables and natural splendor, an ideal more than a reality.
The other stereotypical view I have is the depiction of Africa is on the complete opposite side of the spectrum, the Africa you see in newspapers and covered by the media, an mass of people starving and dying of disease, women and children caught in tribal warfare that mercilessly ravages entire villages and slaughters the innocent as part of the “cause.” This depiction is much more graphic and terrifying and while the prospect of seeing the affects of such a powerful disease as AIDS in the eyes and the day-to-day lives of the people is really frightening, I feel like its important as part of my growth as a human being. I can read about AIDS and its impact on Africa from my safe insulated bubble, but doing so would never really give me a full understanding of what it was really like to be living with a disease that is ultimately and painfully going to kill you, and up to that point you will be shunned and demonized from society for something that you may not even have had any control over. As a journalism major I used to dream of being a Pulitzer Prize winning foreign correspondent uncovering the atrocities to the impoverished in the third world and bring them to the forefront to gain the attention of the industrialized western world. Again it was a very idealistic dream of what my future would be, and as I continued to study journalism and read about foreign correspondents I began to realize what a toll being surrounded by that much pain takes on a person emotionally. The story that keeps running through my mind is about Kevin Carter, a photojournalist covering the genocide in Sudan. He was shooting pictures of refugees who had to walk miles to get water and suffered from severe dehydration and malnutrition/starvation. His Pulitzer prize-winning picture is of a young girl who is drastically underweight to the point where she looks near death who is crawling to the nearest place to get water with a vulture waiting behind her, knowing that death was imminent. As a journalist you face the ethical conundrum of staying an objective observer and wanting to help the dying girl because, after all, you are still human and can’t bear to see that much suffering. The photojournalist was told not to help the refugees because the need was too great and if you help one person others will come asking for help. Still, I can only imagine how agonizingly painful it must have been to see a girl dying and do nothing to help. Ultimately the journalist committed suicide because what he had witnessed was too devastating and left him believing that the world was an evil place and that life was meaningless and futile. I’d like to think that I’m stronger than that and that I will be able to remain hopeful despite being surrounded by suffering. This is part of the reason I’ve shifted my future ideal job from foreign correspondence to working for international nonprofits/NGOs. It is not enough for me to cover the problems, I want to be an active part of the solution so that I don’t feel like the suffering of millions of people is being ignored by selfish westerners who choose to insulate themselves from the real world. This is what influences the other half of my view of Botswana specifically and Africa in general. It will be interesting for me to see how AIDS manifests itself in society and what its like interacting with people with the disease. I’m afraid that my first instinct will be to remain distant even though I’m well aware that the disease can’t be transmitted through physical contact alone and it is one of my serious goals to push myself out of my comfort zone and be very open to the culture and the people. I want to challenge the common belief that the people of Africa are forgotten about and disregarded by Americans.
The flight to Atlanta was an hour, but the flight to Johannesburg was 15 hours and a 15-hour flight is a test of patience; patience in those around you, patience in the flight attendants and patience in yourself, especially when sleep doesn't come easy and you spend most of those 15 hours awake. Fortunately, Delta (which apparently now flies all over the world) provided excellent entertainment options to help pass the time.
Finally, after 12 hours I woke up and looked out the window and all I could see for miles was desert. It was unlike anything I had ever seen before while flying, kind of like looking at the surface of another planet. I'm not really sure what I expected, but I certainly didn't expect the land to be so desolate. Things quickly changed as we approached Johannesburg, which, basked in a glorious orange sunset, could easily be mistaken for any number of mid-size US cities with its bright lights and suburban neighborhoods.
When we finally landed around 5 PM (Central Africa is 6 hours ahead, as indicated by the clocks on my blog) the first thing I was struck by was how everything as in English and everyone spoke English pretty fluently (albeit, with a heavy African accent). I guess I've always associated international traveling with not being able to understand anything/anyone so to feel so secure about where I was going was both comforting and unsettling considering I was in such a foreign place. The other thing I noticed was that there were advertisements for the FIFA World Cup, to be held in South Africa in 2010 (a picture is below). I sort of wish that I had taken this trip next year so I could at least briefly be a part of all that craziness.
After getting settled into the hotel for the night I had my first meal in Africa, a hamburger and a tall frothy Castle beer (a local brew). It was comforting after such a a long flight, but in a way I felt kind of silly traveling this far and eating distinctly American dinner. Oh well, I guess I have the entire trip to try new things. Tomorrow morning we wake up bright and early for the 1-hour flight to Gaborone (the capital of Botswana). Sleeping now will be tough though because I'm so excited for what lies ahead.