Linga Longa

Botswana-Baylor Children's Clinic Centre of Excellence

The last couple days have been basically the same. Wake up at 6:45 or 7, sometimes shower.. other times just get ready for work and hop online to read whatever message Andrew has sent me and write him back before UB blocks facebook for the day lol then we head to breakfast from 8-8:30 and walk to Baylor during which my feet are usually nearly frozen. Note to self: when they say its winter it's probably smart to bring shoes that cover your feet at least for the mornings and evenings! After dodging several lanes of traffic and probably almost getting hit by kombis because I continue to look the wrong way before crossing we make it to the clinic and head to the Visiting Scholar's room. We've been continuing to compile information for the Caregivers Adherence Brochure and were almost done. We just need to meet with Mmapula to make sure we got all the info she wanted and edit out some of less important info and decide how to best articulate the concepts. Bakani (the social worker) and Lindsay (the psychologist) have been wanting to create a couple different groups. Kate and I are try9ing to determine what we cand o to assist in this process and have decided to focus on the Caregivers Support Group and Child/Adolescent Grief and Breavement group. We hope to create a cirriculum that they can use once they set the group sup as the screening process has yet to be completed.

Some of the art from inside the conference room at Baylor

In the mornings we run the play group which is basically just hanging out with the little kids and playing games as they wait for their appointments. Yesterday I hula-hooped with a little girl for awhile and then played some soccer with the boys. Two young girls taught me some hand clap games they play. One was called Shakah and the other they sang to the ABC's song. Today I played badmitton with a couple different groups of kids and then sat with one of the boys who seemed pretty tired after only a few minutes of activity. He told me was 10 years old and about to turn 11 in a few days. I would have guessed he was 6 or 7 based on his size, his language on the other hand definitely gave way to his older age as he spoke nearly perfect English to me. He told me all about his family: his younger brother and two younger sisters. Apparently his one sister was bitten by a snake but said it wasn't that bad lol He also said that they don't live with him and that he is currently not going to school because he wants to go to a better school but has to wait for his parents to have the money to send him. He told me he had 4 dogs and 2 cats (which I found surprising since most people in Botswana do not like pets and especially not cats) but that his neighbor killed his dog as revenge, but he didn't say revenge for what. He said that some bad men came into his house and stole his television and that his father had to call the police. His mother was with him at the clinic and came out at one point. He told me she said that he could stay and talk to me until he was done. We probably talked for another 15 minutes and then I encouraged him to meet up with her because I felt bad that she has been waiting. I walked him up to meet her and she was very nice. I told her what a nice young boy he was and she seemed to appreciate the compliment. I wonder if I'll see him again since most of the kids only come in once a month. After that some of the older girls sat down with me and I helped them make some bracelets out of this random string we had laying around. They were pretty excited about them and I have one too! Some of the other girls in my group were saying that the little kids love their hair and run their hands through it all the time which I hadn't previously experienced but today while we were making the bracelets they kept touching my hair and going on and on about it in Setswana...finally one of the girls told me that they were saying I had smooth hair and they really liked it haha

Wedneday night we decided not to go out and watch the game and to just hang in instead. Kind of a bummer considering the U.S. upset Spain in futbol. Probably would have been really fun to watch with a bunch of the locals and other international vistors but we played some catch phrase, which of course I enjoyed. I got to call Andrew from skype and talked to him for about 12 minutes so that was nice. You never really realize how much you miss a person's voice until you hear it again! He's been good about sending me little messages every chance he gets so that's definitely helped but nonetheless it was nice to talk to him!

Last night (Thursday) we went to Linga Longa at Riverwalk to watch the Brazil/South Africa game. Josh and J.W. from work came also so it was a good time. It was a pretty crowded place so we had to stand the whole time ugh but we were only there til 10:45ish. Everyone wants to try and get tickets the U.S./Brazil game this Sunday so we'll see what happens with that!

The only thing different about today at work is we went out to lunch at Main Mall..there were actually quite a few of us: Me, Kate, J.W., Josh, Ed, Stu, Lisa & Maryah so it was nice to get to know a few other people. We went to KFC lol and it tasted pretty much like it does in the States. I particularly enjoyed their mash & gravy but was slightly disappointed that they didn't have mac & cheese or even some kind of variation. They do not seem to eat cheese here at all which I find disturbing because to me,

cheese is its own food group separate from dairy lol

1st Pic: Roommates (Kate, Mandy, Me & Clare) at Linga Longa

2nd Pic: Baylor Scholars (Me, Josh, Kate & J.W.)

I'm not really sure what the plan is tonight but I know we cancelled dinner...people were talking about going to get pizza (we all miss it!) or maybe I'll eat the P&J I had originally packed for lunch lol Clare had said something about going to see a movie (the Hangover, which I didn't get a chance to see before leaving) and some other people mentioned going to Bull & Bush again or somewhere similar. Whatever the case, I'm sure it will be fun. Go siame! (Goodbye: pronounced Ho see-ah-may)

Welcome to the Sunday Sermon

We woke up bright and early today and headed to Mmshumi's church. It kind of looked like an old strip mall that they had taken over and turned various building into different departmens like an office and then they had the actual chapel. When we first got there we stood outside for awhile, at first I was wondering if there was a problem with us coming but it turns out they pulled out all the stops for us. We were sitting in the main building 3 and 4 rows back from the stage, behind some of the elder preachers. We passed people sitting outside, and just a reminder it's winter in Botswana, under tents for the 2 1/2 hour service. I kind of felt bad being inside when so many people were outside because it is definitely colder in the morning. But they seriously wear sweaters and coats all day and it will be in the mid 70s! It's funny becuase they are like "It's winter, it's coooold!" and we're like "This weather is great!" We were all starving when we left church because I don't think anyone thought it was going to last until 10:30 and none of us had time to eat breakfast which we have become accustomed too. They served our breakfast at 11:00ish but a couple of us had to wait almost a half hour for food which wasn't a big deal except they said lunch would be at 12:30 and there was no way we were going to be hungry. Breakfast was good so I really wasn't hungry until dinner anyway and because we didn't eat lunch we missed out on live....oh darn! lol

Thato and Pearl came and took Me, Kate, Clare & Mandy to Game City for a girls day! I got a couple things.. a cute dressy top that's gold, a white long blouse, a pair of gladiator heels, and a necklace all for like 70 dollars. I can't get over how cheap things are. I'll spend hundreds of pula

but it only amounts to 30 dollars or something. Crazy. It's good to know that my shoe shopping problem translates across cultures but I love what I bought so far! I think Kate, my former college roommate for those of you who don't know, would be very proud of my collection! She's is the queen of shoes and it's definitely rubbed off on me!

Tonight after we napped and went to dinner we decided to go to the courts. Some people were playing basketball and soccer but some of the other girls decided to do our own exercises. We did a mini pilates work out and lunges, squats and ran. It felt good to do some physical activity because besides walking I dunno that I have done much. I think we're going to start making it a daily thing just because most of us feel better and have more energy when we work out in some capacity. Apparently there is a gym we have access to so that would be nice to figure out.

Tomorrow we start our placements. I'm excited and nervous at the same time. I'm anxious to see what they will have us do. Here is the link for the their website if you want to check it out: http://bayloraids.org/africa/center.shtml and of course I'll let everyone know tomorrow how the first day was! I hope I can sleep tonight because I'm so excited!!!

I called my parents today. I finally figured out my skype account so I put money on it so I could wish my dad a happy father's day. The phone cut out a bit so I didn't exactly get to say goodbye but it was nice nonetheless. I let Mandy use it to because she doesn't have a computer and we still don't have phones here. It seemed like her parents enjoyed hearing from her. That's one thing I've really enjoyed about this trip, everyone has been sharing with everyone. Anytime anyone needs anything there's someone offering to help out, which isn't how things always are. I also called Andrew to say goodnight. We've mainly been using facebook chat and messages so it was nice to hear his voice. Well of course it's midnight already (where does the time go?) Broko.

Bahurutshe and Bull & Bush

Yesterday was the most fun I've had so far! We started off the day at 7:30 of course with a delicious breakfast: fried eggs, toast and bacon.. I made a breakfast sandwich :) Then we headed to our final Setswana lesson of the trip. Le ithutile thata (I have learned a lot!) After that we preceded to Bahurutshe, a cultural village outside of the city. They demonstrated their traditional singing and dancing and also showed us their wedding day rituals. It really is a whole village celebration. It was interesting to hear them talk about how traditionally the bride and groom were cousins but only through brother/sister relationships not through sister/sister. They said that a lot of westerners say that the children will be messed up or have defects if they marry in their family but they felt this was only true if it was one sisters child marrying another sisters child. It would have been interesting to hear a little bit more about why they believed that. I'll be honest, thinking about it made me feel a little sick to my stomach. I just can't imagine marrying someone in my own family but I think I understand their reasonings. A main one was the idea of keeping the family's wealth within the family. If a woman married outside of the family then the son-in-law would be paying a dowry to a family outside of his own, if it's his cousin then it's sorta keeps the dowry within the family. Paying 8 cows to your aunt and uncle still gives you access to them. The reality is these kinds of traditions still go on in royal families throughout the world and yet because of their wealth we often ignore the incest component. They are less common than before and I feel that this is probably due to the fact that many cultures have eliminated a dowry component so there's not as much worry about where the money is but also disapproval by some larger groups seems to have made an impact in some areas. I think my real problem is less with the within the family thing and more to do with the age at which this tends to occur. I guess this is just one of those places you have to agree to disagree.

They made us a delicious lunch. I have been pleasantly impressed with the food. The only problem is while it may taste great, it doesn't always agree with my stomach which is nothing new since I'm lactose intolerant and love cheese, afredo sauce, and ice cream. But still having my stomach hurt a couple times a day is getting old. The one thing that does surprise me though is they always serve us pop or canned juice that's really sweet. There food seems moderately healthy so I would think they would drink a lot of water but we've only been offered water one time and of course we all took it. I think I'm really dehydrated so I've been feeling funny at times. I sure the amount of coffee I'm drinking isn't helping the cause but I only had one cup today because of the no water thing. Can't chance it when I don't know when I'll be able to flush again lol Thankfully the cultural village had water so I jumped at the opportunity to utilize it. Apparently you can stay their overnight. We went in the huts which were really nice, small but cozy. It would be the perfect getaway for a night or two! They also gave us clay and had us making something for them to keep in memory of us. I'm not so creative so I just made a sun.One of the ladies made a pig and handed it to me..I kind of wish I could have kept it but I don't think I was suppose to. It was really cool to see their traditions and even have opportunities to be participate in them. At first I was thinking I should have volunteered to play the role of the bride but once she had to take cow poop and spread it on the ground, I was glad I didn't! (The second picture in this blog is of the women showing her how it's done). I was advised by Dr. Bates to talk about the things I didn't like so much... for instance the men first rule and women do all the work. I prefer to feel as though chivalry never died and ladies go first haha no really I don't care who's first..I'd rather all go together. Then we were sweeping while the boys played games! I have seen documentaries in the past and it showed the men just kind of sitting around the village while the women cook all day and clean and hunt. It just seemed kind of ridiculous that they didn't help at all! It seems like so much more would get done and a women wouldn't have to spend her whole day slaving over every tasks but apparently that's not how they see it.

We still didn't have hot water when we got home and my hair was absolutely disgusting so I decided to wash my hair in the sink. It was awkward and the water was freezing. I compared it to dipping my hair into the Arctic Ocean. Of course about 4 hours later all the water was back but its whatever. Let's just hope there isn't a next outage!

It was our first night venturing out in Gaborone! Almost the whole group headed to a popular bar: Bull & Bush. There were a lot of tourist & locals so it was a nice mix of people. We met a lot of really nice people there including two marines. I was asking them quite a few questions since that's what Andrew plans to do next year. They actually made me feel a lot better than someone I had talked to a few weeks before. I guess each person is different but it's comforting to talk to people who are actually a part of it and see that while they have seen some scary stuff they aren't necessarily scared for life or anything. There's no doubt in my mind that some of the stuff they see will never leave their memory but all you can hope for is that they develop health coping skills and seek counseling if necessary. (Obviously I would say that since it's my field lol) It was a really fun night though! We were all dancing and just letting loose after a long week. I'm not gonna lie, I took one too many poker face pictures haha We also met up with some of the other exchange students staying at UB from UPenn, Kansas, Finland, Germany, etc. I had come to expect being hit on hardcore as we warned that the men often come on strong here because if they don't they are afraid you won't be interested but we didn't really have that problem at all. Maybe some of that had to do with being at a bar that had a lot of tourist or the fact that we were in a large group but whatever the cause I was happy not to be bothered too much! The guys we did meet were extremely polite and they had MANNERS! (Of course Andrew has manners as well, but I'm referring to how strangers in US with the ones in Botswana) Yes apparently on this part of the world they have no died yet! No but seriously, everyone- girls and guys alike, that we have met so far has been really nice. At the end of the night we went to Bimbos..yes it is really called that. It's pretty much like a Sonic so we all endulged in drunk food in Botswana and it was delicious!! Here are some pictures to document our fun times lol

with some new friends..

Manders & Corky :)

P-p-p-p-oker Face!

Clearly having way too much fun!

Now that we can blow dry our hair, we can't wash it..

So Clare's bag came today. Just as a I suspected, right after she replace all the things she thought she lost! Oh well...but hey at least we can blow dry our hair now...yeah that's what we thought until I came home and discovered that we had no water pressure. I know they told us to expect this from time to time but I dunno I guess I didn't expect it during our first week. I'm just going to hope that it's working in the morning...otherwise I'm gonna look a little gross.

So I took my computer with me to give me opportunities to write throughout the day and I'm just going to post everything I wrote before and then maybe add some more about the day.

I've drank too much coffee the last few days...case & point:
Coffee Talley: 11
Nescafe is the best thing ever invented. I’m glad it’s available everywhere unlike Starbucks.
I was up wayyy too late last night trying to get my last blog to post so I decided to bring my computer so that I could type throughout the day and not have to worry about doing it all in the evening.

In our Setswana lesson we learned their equivalent of heads, shoulders, knees & toes. It’s pretty funny watching a bunch of college kids sing and dance. I actually like this song because I actually learned the words pretty well.

I sorta feel bad because it seems like they are changing the cuisine to make it a little more American for us. While some of the food is definitely different than what I’m use to and I’ll probably not eat it when I go back but it is part of the experience. For instance, during tea time they keep giving us these really good muffins and they are an American recipe. At least they are made in South Africa, right? I don’t want to sound like I’m complaining though because these muffins are awesome. Tea time is my favorite time…even though I always drink coffee, I still love it.

I swear this food just sits in my stomach. We just finished lunch and I didn’t really feel that full initially but now I think I may explode. I guess this is my cue to cut back on my portions a little.
We just had several more organizations come talk to us about what they do and what we could expect to do if we worked with them. I narrowed my choices down to 1) Baylor Pediatric Clinic 2) Lifeline 3) BCC. Each have an emphasis on the counseling component so that made them the most appealing. BCC didn't actually come talk to us but from the description of our instructor it sounds like they do a lot of different things. I really feel like no matter where I get placed it's going to be an awesome experience. I'm just excited to find out where I will be!

Tonight we had a welcome dinner. The food was AMAZING! There was this shredded beef that I would have stolen if I could have. I hope they make that in the cafeteria sometime lol Afterward we decided to go back to our place and change and then just hang out at the guys room. I was going to shower and that's when I discovered..NO WATER. ughh, my hair is really gross. I hope it's working in the morning or I'll be doing a little cold water rinsing before the cultural village which I am extremely excited for! So then we still went to hang with the guys and played catch phrase. It was really fun! I love that game. A bunch of other people came up too so that made it even better. Titus and Karabo had never played before so it was fun to teach them...they actually did pretty well after the first couple tries :)

Ok I really need to stop staying up so late. Perhaps that's why I need 4 cups of coffee to function each day....BOROKO!

When In Africa...

Me at dinner...notice, we got "fresh chips" tonight...aka french fries :)

It sort of already feels like I've been here for 4 days but its really only the second full one. This is probably because I haven't been sleeping very well. I have absolutely no concept of time because I figured I could use my phone as my watch despite having it turned off but unfortunately because it doesn't get service it won't even show the time at all. I'm relying on Clare to make sure I'm up on time and to meals on time..and everything in between. I think I need to buy a watch because I might go crazy. I actually woke up in the middle of the night and Esela (i think that's how she spelled) was awake.. I asked her what time it was and she told me 1am, I didn't believe her...she even gave me a clock and I was so thrown off that I turned on my computer just to see if she was for real. It's not like I really thought she was lying but I really thought I had been asleep a lot longer. Like I said...zero concept of time.

Botswana does NOT have a McDonalds!! However, it does have KFC..which I think is slightly odd...especially because I actually like the chicken they've been serving even better than KFC's and everyone knows how much I love KFC original recipe lol Breakfast was interesting this morning..the porriage was well...let me put this way, it's consistency resembled hair gel but it really didn't taste like anything until you added some sugar. They also don't really serve coffee but they have these instant packets that I love. And they have tea time in the middle of the morning which I think I'm going to need to incorporate into my life back home. If only they believed in nap time also...

We learned A LOT of Setswana today. Unfortunately most of the vocab is escaping me at this time because I think my brain just shut off.

We're trying to figure out what we want to do this weekend. Thato and Karabo (our guides) offered to take us to different malls and out and our roommates also suggested that we go to Botswana's 1000K Desert Race with them so I guess we'll see. I'm excited to get out and see other stuff though...it's been interesting so far!