My second family.

This past weekend I was fortunate enough to stay with the Sebako family for three days and nights.  During my stay I was exposed to cultural differences between the United States and Botswana.  At the lunch when I met mother it was a little awkward because she told me I was fat.  I was unsure whether to take this as a compliment because she called herself fat too, but in my head I was kind of appalled that this woman was so rude so quickly.

            Once I was taken to her home, I was introduced to everyone there.  I met her husband, who I was told to call Sebako, her housemaid, an aunt, and one of her sons, Thunder.  They were all very nice and happy to see me.  Mrs. Sebako and I then walked to a near by shop to buy food for my stay.  She bought 200-pula worth of beef!  It was quite a bit of meat that we had to carry back the house.  Once we got home the husband showed me the cow hooves and head that he bought from a different butcher.  I expected to see more meat, but instead I saw a cow head that still had the hair and eyeballs and the hooves that looked like they were just chopped off.  I almost threw up I was so disgusted by it, but I was able to keep it down.  He told me that he was going to skin it and then cook it to eat.  In more traditional days, only men were able to eat this part of the cow and women could not have any unless men gave it to them.  I did not try this meat, but everyone else seemed to really enjoy it.

            For dinner that night, I helped cook some mogobe, soft porridge, and some leafy green relish looking thing.  When they served me my plate I was stunned at the huge portions of food.  There was not way that I would be able to eat the entire plate, and I did not finish it.  It was strange to me that the family did not sit at the dinner table together and eat their meals; they instead were spread out throughout the entire house.  After eating, I collected everyone’s dirty dishes and did all of the dishes in the very specific way that Mrs. Sebako showed me.  The rest of the night consisted of us watching television and chatting about their family.  I learned that Mrs. Sebako works in the parliament and that Mr. Sebako was the first person to teach blind students in the country.  It was interesting to learn so much about their jobs and where these jobs have taken them.  Mr. Sebako has traveled around Europe and Africa while attending conferences for the country.  He was very knowledgeable about the world around him.

            The next morning I slept until seven, and although I thought that was early, everyone in the family asked why I slept so late.  I ate some breakfast, had tea, and then went to help with chores around the house.  I learned how to use a traditional broom and helped start a fire that they used to heat up water throughout the day.  Mr. Sebako was hard at work on the cow hooves (yuck!) and Mrs. Sebako milled about all morning around the house.  I was able to sit and watch some interesting soap operas with the younger daughter, Fatima.  She is in her last year of high school and is planning on going to the University of Botswana next year.  We watched television until the eldest daughter, Thato, came to pick up Mrs. Sebako and I to take us to dinner.  We went to Thato’s home where I met her husband and her two children.  I helped grill some steak and we ate a very large and delicious dinner.  After the women finished the dishes, we went to a lodge where the kids could play on the playground and us adults could relax.  They shared drinks with me and we had a great time.  We later dropped off Mrs. Sebako and the children and went out to some more bars and I was able to see Mochudi nightlife.  It was nice being at these places because I was not stared at as much as I am in Gaborone. 

            The next day I woke up early because I thought I was going to the cattle post, but we ended up leaving two hours after they had said.  We drove about an hour away to the lands and I was able to see the family’s goats and cattle.  After four hours there, we came back to lunch that Mrs. Sebako prepared and I was then able to rest for an hour.  The Younger son Thunder showed me how he makes sand art and I got to make my own.  At first I was like “how hard could it be?” but it ended up being a bit more difficult than expected. I now have more souvenirs though!  The rest of the day was very calm abd relaxing.  The family wanted to take a lot of pictures with me and we spent the rest of the night chatting and getting to know more about one another.

            Overall, this was a very educational experience.  Although my home was very comfortable I was put into challenging cultural situations that I had to just deal with.  I am not used to being bossed around by men and having to do everything for the men of the house.  It was a bit frustrating that women were doing almost everything in terms of chores around the home while the men just did their own thing.  The eldest brother looked me at as inferior and almost stupid and that was very difficult to handle.  Even though there were some rough patches, I was able to really enjoy myself and create wonderful relationships within this family. 

Here are some pictures:

I just really wanted to see a lion!

         After a week and a half of processing, I finally have the time to sit down and share one of the most amazing experiences I have ever had.

         For spring break (mid-semester break here since it is summer) the ACM students, our professor, and his family, all traveled up to the northern part of the country.  We were lucky enough to get to fly up there, so rather than a 7-8 hour bus ride, we had the luxury of an hour plane ride!  Our first stop was in Maun.  We arrived at our lodge/campsite and were quickly divided into tents.  Now these were no ordinary tents, they were big enough to stand up in and we slept on cots with bedding and everything!

         That night we were fed a very good dinner and prepared to go to an island in the Okavango Delta for the next couple of days. 

To get to this island, we took mokoros.  These were boats that were like a mix between canoes and gondolas.  My tent and mokoro buddy was Elise Beckman, a fellow Forester studying abroad.  Our poler, the person who basically rowed but used a big pole and pushed us along, was Paul.  He was a young man from the village we took off from.  Paul was very nice and I really think he enjoyed being with Elise and I because to pass the time away we sang any song that came into our heads.  Paul sang along a bit too!

            After arriving to our island, we had hours of siesta time before we went on a walking safari around the island.  This first walking safari was a little uneventful, but I saw a beautiful sunset, some elephant dung, and hippo tracks.  We returned to our campsite to eat dinner and go to bed.  The next morning we woke up very early to venture off to another island for another walking safari.  Now for this walk, I was with a guide name Best, and he really was the best.  We saw herds of zebras, giraffes, wildebeests, and warthogs.  I could not believe that I was walking around with these animals.  I think it finally hit me that I was in Africa!

         We returned to our island had lunch and more siesta time.  We took a lovely boat mokoro ride before dinner and then enjoyed everyone’s company during dinner and for a little entertainment afterwards.  The next morning we ventured back to the lodge.

Elise and I with giraffes!

         Once at the lodge we were greeted with one of the best surprises in the entire world.  Apparently they double booked our campsite, so we were upgraded to chalets and suites with bathrooms, big beds, and tvs FOR FREE! We were all very excited! After a long shower that was full of scrubbing off all the dirt I acquired in the past two days, we had a lovely meal and went to bed.

Our upgrade

         Our next adventure was traveling to Moremi Game Reserve.  This was a long drive and the sun was brutal in our safari cars.  My left arms felt like it was on fire, but it never looked sun burnt.  The pain was indescribable!  Even though I was in pain, I saw so many incredible animals.  We saw elephants, giraffes, a crocodile, and wild dogs (which are quite rare to see).  We finally reached our campsite right before it was getting dark.  We all immediately put on our bug repellent and long pants so we didn’t get eaten alive. We ate dinner and went to bed.

Wild dog sighting

         The next morning we woke up and headed out on another game drive and saw some more animals like storks, cranes, jackals, and impalas.  We then ventured off to Savuti.  Now I was expecting this be a normal safari drive, but boy was I wrong.  We ran into some issues along the way.  The first being a huge puddle that my safari truck go stuck in.  Now this wouldn’t have been that bad if we didn’t get stuck at a 45-degree angle with water being a foot away from my face.  We were all ok and we got our truck out, but the other truck definitely had some fun taking pictures of us.  The next issue was another puddle (more like a pond/lake).  The other truck was going through and the truck stalled.  We had to pull it out.  We were running extremely late and our game drive within Savuti was more like a lion hunt because it was getting dark.  I really wanted to see a lion, but unfortunately we did not.  We arrived at our campsite, we ate, we heard hippos calling, and we went to bed.

         On our final full day all together, we traveled to Chobe National Park.  This park was huge and amazing.  We ended up driving up to 55 elephants playing in the water.  I saw Namibia and so many more elephants.  There were breath taking views and huge trees.  It was all unbelievable.  After getting to our campsite, we went on one last game drive/search for lions.  We saw a lot of animals, but no lions.  I gave up on them and we went back to camp, ate dinner, had an elephant come into our campsite and hang out, and then went to bed. 

Mama and her baby

         On our way out of the campsite we saw something amazing…LIONS! FINALLLY!  There were 3 lions just hanging out on the side of the trail.  They were beautiful and calm.  I loved them.  We left the park on a great note and ventured into Kasane where we were all dropped off at our lodges.

 Finally! A lion!

         Elise, Emily, Kayla and I planned to stay at Thebe River Lodge and go to Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe the next day.  Our rooms were so nice and comfy!  We got to take long showers, well mine was long because I had to get all the dirt off again.  We ate dinner in the lodge restaurant and had drinks that night.  We sat down and wanted to try the spring rolls for an appetizer.  We thought these were normal small spring rolls, but to our surprise, these were spring burritos, like Chipotle size!  They were good, but we each had one to ourselves.  Then we ate our main course, which was ok and then we had milkshakes.  We ordered everything before we had our spring rolls, so we just made ourselves look like big fatties. 

          The next day we went to Zombabwe.  We were all very excited to be going to this country and seeing a wonder of the world, Victoria Falls.  It was incredible! None of my pictures do it justice! We ended up getting soaked but it was so worth it.  After seeing the falls, we were driven to te bridge that most people bungee jump off, don’t worry mom and dad, I kept both feet on the ground.  But I did get to go into Zambia (without a passport stamp).  I was able to hit 3 countries on the trip and I was very excited about that.  From there we went and had lunch at Victoria Falls Hotel.  This place was gorgeous! It was very old and gave off a little creepy colonial vibe, but the food was delicious and the view was spectacular.  From there we went to a market where we were bombarded with sellers.  It was a little to much for us, so we did not stay very long.

Me at the falls

         We returned to Botswana and had a fun night in store for us.  We were too lazy to try to go out for dinner so we went back to the lodge restaurant.  On our way there we met some guys from Maun that were here for a cricket tournament.  They were very nice and invited us to join them.  They bought us drinks all night and we had a great time just chatting with them.  They were all married or in serious relationships with girls back home so they weren’t hitting on us, a nice change!  We ended up eating dinner with them, which consisted of pizza and KFC, and it was so good!  We then had to get to bed to catch our 5:30am bus back to Gabs the next day.

         We woke up at 4:00am so start the terrible day.  The bus ride sucked! It was the worst 12 hours of my life! I don’t even want to talk about it.

         Now I am back at University of Botswana starting my independent research project and writing papers.  I am looking forward to my next trip to Durban, South Africa.

I have made my facebook album public so you can enjoy all my pictures! 

My mid-semester break photos  <---- click here to unleash the beauty!

There just isn't enough time.

I got back from my mid semester break only to realize that I don't have enough time to blog and give this experience the time it deserves.  I can't wait to share all the amazing things I saw, but until I find time, here is a teaser...