My apologies for the delay in posting but yesterday was the first time I'd had internet since I got here. All is well so far though!! We miraculously made all three flights on time despite fog delays in JFK, a turtle being on the plane which delayed us in Dubai, and severe wheather delays in Joburg . The flights were not too terrible but it was deffinitely nice to have both feet on th ground in Gaborone. As for my past week here, we haven't been doing too much. We got in very late on Monday so that day was shot and then Tuesday was filled with lectures given by staff of UB (University of Botswana). They basically explained the differences between the teaching styles of US profs and Botswana prof. I also found out that I was accepted to do the public health track offered by the study abroad program!!! That's awesome because that was my whole reason for coming to UB. :-) This will involve working in some near by clinics and most likely dealing with the HIV/AIDS issue at hand here in Africa.
After all of the boring stuff was done, we finally left the hotel and went into city center. Batsi (the program director) gave us a scavenger hunt to do for the day while traveling around on combis (buses), taxis, and cabs. It was ungodly hot, however, so all 12 of us ended up calling it quits around 4:30. We got some Botswanan pizza which was actually quite good, some cider, and headed back towards home.
The next two days were not quite so interesting because we had to do the regular orientation with all the other international students from other programs. Apparently CIEE is one of the best run programs becaus we were all way more prepared than the other students. The best part about those two days was meeting people from all ovr the world. I met a girl from Ghana, one from Swaziland, a guy from France and one from Germany, and many more from all over the US. The orientation made me appreciate my small group here, we have grown pretty close in the past week.
Finally, our first weekend was filled with moving into our dorms which are in Graduate Village, shopping for room essentials (including the much needed phone), amazing dinners, meeting local students, and most recently, hiking a mountain!! That was pretty awesome. I hope to be able to put pictures up soon. We were about 110 km at the top and had some amazing views including BABOONS!!!! Probably the coolest thing was watching a storm roll in and seeing the rain falling on certain parts of the city at certain times. That was probably the scarest thing too because the storms here are generally accompanied by thunder and lightening.
Speaking of the storms in Botswana, it was very funny the first day to see every one pull an umbrella out on a gorgeous sunny day but thy all use them as protection from th sun as well as rain. (I've started to get in that habit as well) As for the people here, they are all so nice and welcoming. I love that you can walk up to someone, introduce yourself and they will want to talk to you and get to know you. I had a nice dinner last night with two of the boys from my program and some Batswana we met in the dinning hall. Turns out one of the is in med school in Durban and the other is the president of the medical students association at UB. Connections come from EVERYWHERE!
Life is Botswana moves slow and is definitely different than the US but that's exactly what I was looking for in my study abroad experince. The registration system for the school is currently down so we can't get into classes for tomorrow but around here, it's ok...everything will work out in due time. Not much has really made me homesick yet except for the thunderstorms which make me wish I could be sitting on my porch with my puppy like old times. Hopefully the semester keeps me busy enough to stay away from homesickness. Well, its time to shower and get ready for dinner and prepare for my first week of classes!!
Until next week,
Michele
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