Blog #35 – Bella the Goat

Today I was flying solo and feeling lonely, haha! I was the only one that would be in office today and got to spend the whole day just working by myself. The lack of noise and excitement was definitely conducive to getting things done. It was a little odd not having anyone else to talk with, bounce ideas off of or get permission from ;)

I spent the majority of the day preparing media release packages for all of the different groups in town: the one radio station, the one TV station and the plethora of different newsprint companies. It was interesting going around and visiting the different outlets. The majority of them were in the same ‘communications’ block, so it didn’t take too much walking. When I visited the television station, Botswana Television (BTV), there were two guys that worked there that both were pretty avoidant of adding any more work to their plate. One of them was literally controlling what was going on air and the other was just chilling at the desk doing nothing. The radio station guy was really cool and really into the project, which is good and I can’t determine which media reaches more people. The different newspapers went well, a range of private and independent papers with different focuses and publishing times.

After dealing with the media I spent the afternoon visiting all of our different Education Ministers and government bureaucrats who were helping organize the program (when I say that I really mean do nothing, but give us permission and take a lot of credit for it). It was good talking to them now as a lot of them were heading out of town for the rest of the week – tomorrow is a national holiday.

All in all the day went really well and I got a lot of important things nailed down. However, I did realize and decide that I would never be totally cool with just working by myself alone. There is just so much more that can be done within group, team and pair settings. And it is just way more fun and enjoyable to have people around :)

The end of the day was even better than the beginning. Camello, a local Motswana, was cooking us a tradition meal. This wasn’t just traditional food though; this was the whole package! We sat out by the campfire and just chatted and relaxed while he cooked over the fire. It was fascinating to watch him cook three rather complicated dishes over one small campfire. He had these three huge black pots that he just continually added spices and water to and slowly cooked everything over the entire evening.

I can definitely see why the culture here is so relaxed. It takes so much time to cook the food and you can’t really do anything else while it’s cooking. Sitting around a campfire is obviously not a high-strung activity and once the sun goes down it is the only real source of heat and light.

On the menu tonight was a dear friend of the family named Bella – don’t worry she wasn’t a human. She was a deliciously tender and tasty goat. She had lived a good life and had the privilege of roaming all over the village of Maun. It was one of those times where you realize that the meat producing ways back home are so much colder and impersonal than here. In Botswana, people get to go and pick what animal they would like to kill. The animals aren’t force fed any chemical concoctions and they aren’t injected with anything unnatural. You get to know their name, who owned them, etc. Here, you can also be a part of the butchering process and can get the animal prepared anyway you would like. It really is a fascinating difference – and a little disturbing at how greedily people pick up food back home and devour it without knowing where it have come from and what its life was. Regardless, the meat here definitely tastes delicious and I totally think we should start eating goat back home!