Blog #13 – A New Day

Today is our first full day alone and wild in the street of Gaborone! I woke up early, showered, and got ready for my first day of business with my summer volunteer placement. I was going to be heading to the World University Service of Canada office just a few blocks from the hostel to begin my in-country and pre-placement orientation. It was a little unnerving this morning waking up alone, without any roommates or friends at a beckons call. Having breakfast by myself and heading off on my own adventure. It felt as if I had matured over night – as if forced to grow up into the responsibility ahead of me. Silly part is, there is no added responsibility and I am the same as when I went to bed.

After breakfast I set out navigating the small city blocks until I got onto the main drag that housed the WUSC office. The city is no different from anywhere else really. Small sideroads with quaint and basic housing. The odd shop here and there with small ma and pa operations along the way. One of the biggest differences must be the amount of hair salon or hair cut stands. These rickety little shacks or awnings that offer “the best cut in town” or “the newest fashion hair styles”… I am sure I will take advantage of one of these in my summer here, so that will be a story…or I may just grow my hair out and dread it, haha! Only time will tell!

Anyways, back to my day! I arrived to the WUSC office to find it much busier than expected. There was a short line at the door and three or four office staff trying to assist a good amount of locals with different questions and forms. I quietly told someone that I was hear to see Olefile and took a seat. Only a few moments later Satuna came out from the back and said that she would be helping me today as Olefile was not in until later that day.

Satuna and I spent the morning together – she is a lot of fun. She was a recent graduate of UBotswana and volunteer with WUSC. We spent the morning going over health, safety and security orientation regarding the different culture here. There were a lot of useful scenarios…one that I found incredulous was that if a male buys a female a drink and she accepts it, then it is given that she has agreed to sleep with him. Ridiculous! We also spent some time in the morning doing a quick tour and drive around the city. We stopped at the bank to withdraw some pula! It is wicked when you can take a thousand out of an atm and it really doesn’t amount to that much! Makes you feel special :)

We headed to the biggest mall in the city for lunch – called Game City – and it was literally one of the largest malls I have ever seen! A sprawling block of stores and shops with a mess of traffic and parking all around! This is why many people consider Botswana to be so developed – you can get so much of the new technology and luxuries of the first world at places like this. However, it is really only accessible to the tourists that come from other places or the middle to upper class citizens. We ate at a place called Nandos (which I didn’t realize was a chain at the time). They quite possibly some of the best chicken I have ever tasted! I got a wrap and it came in this really nifty box that you just pulled on a tab and it slowly tore away as you were eating it! The one thing that I have noticed that is a little unnerving is that everyone has pop to drink with their meals – or fake juice – there really isn’t any milk or real juice! In regards to nutrition and diet, it seems very North American: greasy, heavy carbs, heavy meat, not much vegetables (and if there are it seems as if ever vitamin and nutrient has been cooked out of them!). People must have to go out of their way to cook their own food or hunt down healthy options, so that will be an interesting struggle as time goes on.

Following lunch we continued our drive out of the city and north east towards Francistown. Luckily we weren’t making that six hour trek, but were instead going to Mokelodi Game Reserve, just fifteen kilometers out of the city. Imagine an amazing wild zoo, or a suped-up ‘African Lion Safari’ just minutes from the big city! Pretty convenient! I wouldn’t be doing any safaris today though – I was going to speak with Brian from the Cheetah Conservation Botswana project regarding wildlife preservation and environmental conservation in the context of community outreach and education. We had a good chat about his work to try and protect the cheetah population in Botswana and his endeavors to educate and inform local populations about the importance of this species and how to take preventative measures to protect themselves and the cheetahs from a bad ending. I gained a lot of insight into how these programs are run on the ground and the common types of problems that they run into. It was a good introduction to the concepts and will act as a good tool of measure with my community outreach and education on conservation placement in Maun. Not to mention, I have a great contact now if I ever need any help, advice or opinion on things!

Brian and I chatted way overtime as we started getting more into the issues facing Botswana the country and Batswana culture, so we didn’t get back to Gabs until later. We had a few minutes to check my email – yikes! How that accumulates! – and then it was off to the last and orientation session for the day! I was really excited for it: HIV and AIDS over a free dinner! What more could I want, haha!

Melissa was the lady that I met and chat with – interestingly she grew up in Dunnville, ON which isn’t too far from where I live. She studied at UWO and then did her masters here in Southern Africa (Swaziland or South Africa…but it escapes me now). Anyways, she is here on a long-term volunteer contract (will be three years in total) working with the Department of Education as the HIV/AIDS instructor for all of the vocational teachers in the entire country! She runs these educational sessions all over the country, which lets her travel around, and she is really the first and only real line of education regarding HIV and AIDS. She trains the teachers who will go out and pass on the message to their students, apprentices and workers.

Our chat regarding HIV/AIDS was meant to be an information session and orientation to the risks I would be facing – so that I could better understand for myself as well as deal with the cultural impacts of this disease. Luckily I was already well educated and briefed on the medical and scientific aspects of HIV and AIDS as well as the cultural side of the disease in regards to North America. So, we quickly got into a discussion regarding the program and funding here in Botswana to battle this pandemic and the effectiveness of all of the different strategies and campaigns that have been undertaken. Botswana was at one point the country with the highest rate of HIV infection in the world! The Botswana government commits six percent of its total budget to HIV/AIDS projects each year – think what that kind of commitment back home could do for people. While it has been decreased by these programs, the rate is still quite high with up to one in three people being infected depending on gender and age class. The facts are great to have, but Melissa seemed to know about all of the other aspects as well. Let’s just leave it at: Melissa knows a LOT!

This was probably one of the best chats that I have ever had with someone, we instantly hit it off and the three hour dinner flew by! I am totally going to be keeping in touch with her over the summer and hopefully I can find something more to do in this area in my spare time! The day felt so productive and was so useful – I know that this is going to be a wicked awesome summer!

The social and business culture here in Botswana is definitely more relaxed and at a slower pace – what we have come to affectionately call ‘Africa time’ which gives you a really big cushion on any timelines and deadlines. People show up when they can and stroll casually down the street stopping to chat to many people and will often just stop and have a full fledged conversation with people they know! Botswana is definitely a small country and it almost seems like everyone knows each other, or at least people are much more friendly, approachable and willing to chat with strangers! It is all in all a really friendly and happy place to be.