Wednesday, July 25, 2007

25 Things I Learned in Africa

Well the last few days in Africa and the ride home was tumultuous to say the least. The day before we left someone came into my room and stole my I-Pod. I was pretty lucky as my wallet and passport were both sitting out, but apparently someone liked my taste in music more than they liked my money. Fine with me, an I-Pod is replaceable, while being stuck in the hellhole of a country called Botswana without a passport would have done much more psychological damage. The flight home was long and by the end of it my legs looked like that of a cabbage patch doll they had swelled so much. Of course when it came time to collect my bags, Delta/Air Botswana had left one of them (containing all my clothes) in Southern Africa. Sweet, Botswana wanted to screw me one more time for good measure. It took me a few days before I finally received my bag and could stop worrying.

I am very happy to be home in America and now that I’m over my jet lag I figure I should wrap up this blog. Thanks to everyone who made it this far and liked my long winded writing. I enjoyed hearing from everyone who emailed me and IMed me with their thoughts. So I’ll finish it up with a few things (25 to be exact) I learned from my stay in Africa.

1. Gaborone, Botswana is right behind Compton and just in front of Hell in the race for the “Last Place on Earth Someone Would Go for Their Honeymoon.”
2. Cape Town is the best place on earth to go for your honeymoon.
3. African people love to listen to Akon. And R. Kelly. A lot.
4. Nelson Mandela is probably the most important person in the world. For his birthday while we were in Cape Town Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter, Peter Gabriel, Pele, Kofi Annan and other world greats turned out to wish him well. George Bush wasn’t invited.
5. No matter how lame a place is (see Gaborone, Botswana), the right group of people can make it fun. The people I was with were absolutely wonderful and I will definitely be paying many a visit to OU.
6. Botswana as a country is in a lot of trouble once their diamonds run out.
7. The HIV problem in Africa is much more serious than anyone can imagine. There are so many different aspects to the disease, which attacks every facet of every culture that it was tailor-made for a place like Africa, where over 900 cultures and tribes interact. A virus finally outsmarted the human race.
8. Everyone talks about Darfur, but nobody seems to know anything about Zimbabwe. The economic crisis there is slowly escalating and there are over 100,000 refugees now, but no response from the West. I won’t tell you what’s going, but if you’re interested look it up.
9. There’s a reason America doesn’t donate more money to third world country NGOs. From what I saw, a lot of the money is wasted by inefficient businesses. Or it is stolen by assholes.
10. Banning homosexuality causes a latent gayness amongst the men in your culture. Trust me on this one.
11. Girls, if you think the guys in American culture are very forward and creepy when they hit on you, go to Africa. Then you’ll be hit on by both guys and girls. Maybe they will just kiss you without any warning or offer your friends money so they can dance with you. Yep, these things actually happened.
12. Although every one complains about our cell phone usage, Americans don’t speak on their cell phones nearly as often as Africans. Maybe it’s because cell phones are still novel to these people, but even during important business meetings, they have no problem answering them and talking for the duration of the conversation.
13. On the same note, Africans don’t understand good business. In each of the cities and countries I was in, we had issues with people who didn’t want to serve us because they were lazy or exchange our money because they had tiny creases or help us because they were chatting on their cell phone etc etc.
14. Something that would take 2 hours here takes 6 hours in Botswana.
15. Afrikaners are the most pompous, unlikable people in the world. Period. Apartheid is over, time to wake up guys!
16. The view from Table Mountain in Cape Town will have you saying “Wow” and have you appreciating your life and how blessed you are every 5 seconds.
17. The beaches in Cape Town are 1000000000x better than any beach I’ve ever been to in America. Or the Caribbean.
18. Yes, there are computers (even if they are 1992 models) and cell phones in Africa. No, Africa is not just a large desert and no, not everyone in Africa is malnourished and dying. In fact, as a whole, Africans are much larger than Americans.
19. African soccer is the beautiful game at it’s finest.
20. Canadians aren’t so bad.
21. George Bush is the most hated person in the world. It’s not even close, he's way in front of Bob Mugabe, the Devil, and Eminem.
22. Botswana is truly at a crossroads of development. It seems stuck in the middle, not knowing whether to return to its traditional values or to become fully westernized, a problem that will have to be dealt with before they can make any progress in the fight against HIV.
23. The one thing I’ll always take with me from this trip is being in the poor area of Gabs and seeing the little kids’ faces whenever they saw me (a white person). It was always the same expression, a mix of shock and glee, faces I’ll never forget. Somehow without even trying, I had made someone’s day just because of how I looked.
24. Unless you are a cute African poor child, never stare at someone for being different because if it ever happens to you, it won’t be enjoyable.
25. Count your blessings that you live in America. I think you need to leave the country to appreciate all we have here.

Thanks again to everyone for reading. It’s been a long, interesting ride and I’m glad to be back.
If you're interested in seeing pictures from the trip, they can be found here.
http://travel.webshots.com/album/560003159TqAwPV
http://travel.webshots.com/album/560000633ulAZjW
http://travel.webshots.com/album/560000704zhFxSX

Friday, July 20, 2007

Cape Town=Love of My Life

Well a lot has happened since my last post so bear with me. Our trip to Kasane and Victoria Falls was a huge bust. It started out pretty solid with a boat cruise along the Chobe River. There we saw tons of elephants (one swimming!), hippos, giraffes, crocodiles, and zebras. This was much cooler than our game drive as the animals were in their natural setting. Our lodge was right on the Chobe River, which is amazing, so everything was going really well. We even decided to do a night swim in the lodge pool that was about 10 degrees below zero. Unfortunately, that swim was interrupted with the news that Zimbabwe was on the verge of anarchy and the U.S. government had added it to the "Travel Advisory" list. This meant that OU could not allow us to go to Victoria Falls, even though it is very safe and people from our lodge were on their way there that same day. They also refused to allow us to see the Zambia side because it had not been an approved trip. Our group was told that if we went on our own we would be expelled from the program and have to pay our own way back. This was completely devastating as all of us had really been looking forward to the trip and had even planned to bungee jump off the Falls. I was upset with the world as the entire trip I felt had been incredibly frustrating. OU handled the situation very poorly and looked out for their own welfare (after consulting with their lawyers) before they looked out for ours.

With the time we had left in Kasane, we took a boat cruise in Namibia. This was relaxing, but hardly the thrill of jumping off the world's largest waterfall in the world. We did get a Visa extension in Botswana upon our return. Thank god, because I had been an illegal immigrant in Botswana since the first week. Apparently the guy at immigrations in the airport thought 6 weeks meant 6 days. I was so angry with the world that I went to an internet cafe to write nasty emails to OU and George Bush. Just on a whim I looked up prices for flights to Cape Town, as well as we all had decided it was time to get out of Gabs. They were cheap, hostels were cheap, and the next day we were backpacking it across South Africa.

We woke up early the next day, tried to get a luxury bus, failed, and ended up taking a combi to Johannesburg 6 hours away, where our flight was leaving from. Let me explain how combis here work. They are the size of minivans, privately owned, and don't leave until you fit 20 people into a car that should only fit 12. Also, keep in mind that all of us had large bags with us. So now you can picture the seven of us who decided to go to Cape Town, bitter about Vic Falls, working on 4 hours of sleep, and having traveled 12 hours in a cramped van the day before killing ourselves for 6 hours. Add to that the fact that our driver, driving a combi named "Slow Jamz", played Celine Dion, Britney Spears, Elton John, and Bryan Adams on a continuous loop for the duration of the trip. You can't make these things up.

We finally made it to Cape Town and the smile has not left any of our faces. Landing at the airport was an unbelievable view and love at first sight for all of us. I'll do my best to explain but nothing will do it justice. Cape Town is blessed with stunning beaches, a quaint little city with awesome European architecture (think Bourbon Street in New Orleans), all with the backdrop of absolutely breathtaking mountains. It really is unfair how amazing the city is (especially compared to Gabs). My well traveled friends and I (combined we have been to almost every major city in Europe, Asia, and North Africa) all quickly decided it was the most beautiful city in the world. Our time there was spent taking in the views from the top of Table Mountain, where the city looks unreal (it has been voted "Most Beautiful View in the World" several times), hanging out on the world class beaches, and shark diving. Yeah, that's right I swam with Great White Sharks. 9 to be exact. Our group needed some kind of thrill to replace bungee jumping off Vic Falls, so we came to Cape Town on a mission. Instead of a 4 second bungee, we got to spend the day on a boat, whale and seal watching and shark cage diving. Although Cape Town is the Great White capital of the world (70% of shark documentaries are filmed there, including the Planet Earth episode where the shark jumps from the water), no sharks were guaranteed. The group had been there all of 10 minutes before we got our first one and then for the rest of the day we had a steady diet of 8 more, including a 13 foot long one (our guide apparently measured him). It was a surreal experience as they would ram into the cage, jump out of the water for the bait (Cape Town is the only place where Great Whites can breach the surface), and just circle the boat for hours. The guide said it was one of his most successful trips. Apparently, all of the frustrations endured on this trip led us to have unbelievable luck in Cape Town as everything went perfectly. My new vacation home, my medical school, and my next trip (2010 World Cup, anyone?) are all located in Cape Town. Trust me when I say, no vacation in Europe will be better than this place. I miss it already.

I'm writing my 10 page final paper now after pulling an all nighter, due in a few hours, and then we leave for America on Saturday! I'm definitely not looking forward to the 24 hours of plane rides, but being home will be awesome. I'll post one more time when I get back to the States. See you guys soon!

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Winding Down

I ended my work at the hospice today and the patients seemed kind of betrayed that I was leaving. All of them wanted me to stay longer and thought things would return to the way they were before I had arrived. I assured them that they were in good hands and that eventually I'd be back as a doctor to see them all alive and well in a few years. They thanked me for my work and the T-shirts I had given them (I gave them the rest of my Pitt T-shirts before I left) and two even cried when I left. Reflecting on my work at the hospice, I feel like I really did some good and accomplished a lot while I was there. Just through chance events, I was able to basically take over the nursing department and change things to make them more patient-oriented. I also was able to get Peter the Prick fired. Yeah, that's right...he got whacked. I'd love to sit here and tell you that it was all my doing, but I really think my complaints were just the tipping point. I went out to dinner with some friends from the hospice last week and they informed me that he was being "borrowed" from a company that basically lent their workers to NGOs who needed help at certain positions. I was able to obtain his bosses email address and sent her out a quick email explaining the problems I was having and the resignation letters accusing him of embezzlement. At the same time, he was being investigated by the company that oversees the hospice for claiming workshops had been held (which cost thousands of dollars), when in fact they had never actually been run. My email coupled with this accusation led to his demise…OK well the accusation alone would have led to his demise but let’s pretend I played a large role. So, while I wish I could say I was completely responsible for him being shipped back to the Philippines, I really only slammed the door on him on his way out. Either way, I have no remorse.

Everything is really slowing down around here as we leave for America in 11 days. We have basically seen all of Gaborone and have very few events left for us, although this weekend we go to Victoria Falls and Kasane which I've been looking forward to the entire trip. A big surprise will be reported on this trip when I get back, granted everything goes as planned. We did get to attend a U.S. Embassy party for the 4th of July that was a pretty good time. Hot dogs and Hamburgers never tasted so good. Being here for so long, I definitely appreciate American food and the American way of life much more than I have before. More on this at the end of the trip.

Thursday, July 5, 2007

On Hiking, Hardships, and Helping Out

This weekend was a long one due to a public holiday Monday, so my group and I took the opportunity to do some hiking. We climbed up Kgale Hill, which probably stands around 2,500 feet. Only four of us, myself included, made it to the top because the terrain was extremely rocky. I really enjoyed the hike as it gave me some reprieve from the stressful life that befalls someone trying to save the world.

We also got a chance to attend the Charity Cup, an all day soccer and music festival held at the Botswana National Stadium. It was a lot of fun until the end, when all the drunkards around us started hitting on the girls I was with and talking in Setswana about Lekgowa (white people). We decided to leave before the end of the final match, so as to avoid the inevitable confrontation. Unfortunately, this wasn't possible, as we saw one of the girls from the "Old Naledi Street Kids project" getting egged on by some trashy girls. My friends and I decided to try and help this girl avert danger, but apparently the people around us wanted to see a catfight and prevented us from getting involved. We left the stadium unharmed, but it was tough to see a girl who was so kind to us getting involved in such a mess in an extremely hostile environment.

And now we come to the hospice. When I last left y'all the hospices only nurse had decided to take leave, so on Tuesday the nursing student and I decided to make some large-scale changes. The hospice had never been about putting the patients first, even though they were the reason for its existence, and Loni (nursing student) and I wanted to change that. All day Tuesday we made the nurses office into a "nursing clinic", by hanging up posters, sitting out old brochures, and digging out condoms that had been sitting in a drawer collecting dust. We also moved a copy machine out of the nursing office so as to give the patients privacy when it was time for them to open up in the counseling area I had fittingly dubbed the "Circle of Hope" in the center of the clinic. We got proper permission for it and everything, so no big deal right? Wrong. Apparently, there is a Filipino Financial Officer who thinks he runs the hospice. I had been handed three letters of resignation the day I got there, all stating they were leaving due to the FFO, whom I will just randomly call Peter the Prick, and accusing him of embezzling the small amount of money the hospice receives. Peter the Prick burst into our office at the end of the day Tuesday, after everyone had told us how incredible our clinic looked, and demanded to know why we had put the copy machine in his office. Well, we explained, because patients are going to start coming first around here and they needed some privacy. Peter the Prick, whose patient care techniques rival that of Dr. Jack Kevorkian, thought that the patients were fine sitting outside by themselves (perhaps furthering the stigma that comes with HIV infection) and that a copy machine was much more important. Well obviously I lost it, destroying him with an argument in which I uttered the phrase "patients are dying and you are worrying about a copy machine" somewhere between 20 and 2000 times. The director decided to walk in just as Loni and I were blasting this "guy", giving Peter the Prick an opportunity to ask why we were yelling since he just came in to ask us a simple question (oh the chutzpah!). The day ended with the director kicking him out of our office and apologizing to me for the incident.

The next day no patients came to the clinic because the hospice needs a whole day for office work even though people do that kind of thing while the patients are at the center anyway. Everything was going well until the administrator, who secretly (along with everyone else) wants Peter the Prick gone, told us that he was holding some medicines and foodstuffs in his closet (which conspicuously says "DO NOT OPEN UNLESS GIVEN PERMISSION"...yep, not even kidding, where are the auditors when you need them). Loni and I decide to go have a look, as PTP begins to yell "why are you looking through those, we need to buy them, they are samples...all while stammering and turning red. I take this opportunity to inquire as to why the patients are not seeing any of these medications, considering the fact that every sample I've ever seen has been able to be used. He tells me that in Botswana samples are different, to which I pull out a Merck and Pfizer pill bottle, containing ARVs (priced at about $500 a bottle) and tell him that these medications happen to come from America, where samples are usable. We go back and forth, people stare, I tell him financial officers at hospices should be seen and not heard, he tells me I'm an idiot, and the day ends with me yelling at everyone I can get my hands on and hating my life.

Today it all became worth it. We opened our clinic, and the patients absolutely loved it! I had come up with an HIV "Fact or Myth" game, with the questions being used as transitions into deeper conversations on topics like condoms, fidelity, and nutrition. It was unbelievable to hear what these people thought about HIV (a few samples: condoms have worms, drinking on ARVs is OK, HIV can be spread through shaking hands). I really could not fathom how these patients had been infected for so long, yet all the people who cared for them neglected to teach them anything about the virus. Anyway, the day went incredibly well, was PTP free and the patients told us that our clinic was what they had always wanted, a place where they could have open discussion about their feelings. They said they were worried that when Loni and I left that everything would go back to normal and they didn't want that to happen. I was thrilled with their reactions and felt like finally I had made a difference. The patients and the last few days have really helped me to see that yes, it's impossible to change the world, but changing a few people's lives, maybe even their days, is worth it, no matter how much trouble it takes.

Sunday, July 1, 2007

Quick Photos

Here are some quick photos courtesy of my group members who brought camera cords with them.


Playing with an SOS Child


Village Child

My group in the SOS Village


My "wife" and I at our traditional wedding





Elephant

Halfway Home

Well we've reached the halfway point of our trip, and I think everyone in our program is about ready to leave. Walking home from eating one night we all just decided that Botswana is no longer welcoming. The people who were once seemingly friendly and interested in our culture now just piss us off. Everywhere we go, people stare and no doubt judge us as Americans. I've even had one of our dying HIV patients ask me when President Bush is leaving. Oh, OK well I guess that should be your main concern right now! I’m thinking we’ve all just reached the point where the honeymoon is over and hopefully will get over it soon.

The work at the hospice has slowed down as of late. I've done very little but take vital signs and try to talk to patients who don't understand a word of English. The hospice as an organization is unbelievably inefficient. There is never any rush to do things, patients always have to wait to be seen because of lack of transport, and as of now there is no nurse on staff. Yep, that's right no nurse and no doctor. My medical education has just been expedited. Apparently, on Friday our nurse decided the staff was doing such a good job he needed to take a one-month leave starting Monday. Are you kidding me?! First, no manager in his or her right mind accepts a request a day before the leave is to start, when you have no one else to fill that position. Secondly, are you kidding me? Not only that, but the nurse just up and left without telling any of the other nursing staff members. Starting tomorrow, I will be one of two other people (a nurse's aide and a nursing student) who will have to take care of 20 critically ill patients. I'm sorry, but I was planning on coming to Africa to play God after I get my medical degree.

Finally, during one of the down periods at work, one of the social workers took me to the dumping grounds of the poor area in town. It is basically a huge landfill, but it’s packed with literally hundreds of people, hanging out, cooking, or scouring the grounds for leftover food. I seriously felt like I was at a refugee camp, as people approached us constantly asking for help. Our purpose there was to find kids who were skipping school and tell them to go get an education and also to find children for the local orphanage. At one point, we were offered dump food from a child who couldn't have been more than 10. Of course the picky eater I am I took it and ate it (later to spit it out) because the social worker wanted to build a trust with the child so that later he could register the kid in the orphanage. It was probably the most eye opening experience I've had here to date.

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Hospice Work and T-Shirts!

The beginning of this week saw my start with the Botswana Council of Churches. For the most part we were briefed on what the BCC did and taken around to some of their various projects. The one that was the most interesting was "The Place of Hope", a school set up for street children in a rough area of Gaborone. Some of the children were orphaned and forced to the street, but some were there because it was profitable for them (it was explained to us that these kids were similar to our gangs…just not violent). There were about 40 of these kids, varying in age, and many were affected by or infected with HIV. Fortunately, this program was doing really nice work and had turned around many of their lives, getting some of them jobs and even sending a few to Universities. I decided this was the perfect place to distribute some of the T-shirts I had collected from Pitt. I handed them out to the one class that was in session while we were there, and from the looks of it they were really thrilled. The kids were hugging me and rocking their Pitt wear proudly, even joining me in a “Let’s Go Pitt” chant. I got a good amount of pictures for those who donated T-shirts (thanks again!) and also so that Chancellor Nordy can use them to plug Pitt (I can see it now…”Carl Krauser wasn’t the only street child we saved”). The kids enjoyed me so much they asked me to join their futbol team, which I accepted, as I will any chance I get to dominate small children (actually the soccer team competes in a city league and has kids as old as 25 on the team...the head of the school says he’s won championships with interns before and expects nothing less from me). All in all, that was the most fulfilling day I've had thus far.

The first few days with BCC were to show us their programs, but today was the first day that we got involved with a specific program within the Council. I chose to work with a Hospice which deals with HIV and cancer patients. They only employ one nurse and one nurse’s aide so they were very happy to have me and within an hour we were on our way to an extremely poor area to see some home-based clients (usually the patients who were too ill to come in to the hospice). The truck we were driving in was very small so I rode in the back (its legal here). While driving, a number of small children in the area started screaming Lekgowa (white person) and running after us (smiling, thank god). For just a minute, I felt like Paris Hilton or Lindsey Lohan when they are being chased by the paparazzi...unlike them however, these kids didn't drive me to cocaine, rehab, or even alcohol). Most of the patients we saw were just check-ins, but I did see some thing I’ll probably never see in the States. One patient's disease had progressed significantly and she was clearly in her last few weeks. When we arrived at her house, she was so bed-ridden that she had developed intense open bed sores all over her body, which at first I thought was gangrene, something the people I was with had never heard of. The nurse was ill-equipped to treat such a condition and only used a saline wash to cleanse the wounds. Additionally, she was suffering from a uvular cancer that was extremely gruesome and had completely taken over her pelvic area. When asked why a doctor was not being consulted, the nurse said no one would operate because of her HIV positive status and that she wanted to die in peace. Unfortunately from what I saw, there was no way this woman would get what she wanted.

Thursday, June 21, 2007

Beating a Kenyan in a Race

This week has been rather uneventful. The weather has been amazing, as it really never gets too hot here. It reminds me of the period of time when all the girls Pitt has to offer decide to start dressing up and lying out even though it's only like 70 degrees. The only difference is that here all of the people are wearing winter jackets...it’s a bizarro Pittsburgh! My friends from UNC are out living with the Bushmen and we've been stuck in repetitive lectures the entire week. Most of them have talked about the same thing as our textbooks (to sum up: the country of Botswana is screwed), although one WHO doctor was really interesting. He agreed with me on the fact that all HIV positive people should be quarantined and testing should be mandatory for everyone, but we disagreed on the fact that a cure is coming. I think I'll thank him in my Nobel Prize speech.

Today, all of the organizations we could work for presented to us. It wasn't looking too good for me as all of them were counseling or human rights things, which I'm not really in to and I thought I was going to spending quite a bit of time in the Harvard Research Lab. Then the Botswana Council of Churches presented and blew me away! They work in prevention, supporting orphans, and in providing medical care to those with HIV. Plus, spending three weeks with a Council of Churches can’t hurt my standing with God. So now everyone gets to hear about my adventures with BCC for the next three weeks! Stay tuned.

Finally, I beat a Kenyan and a Batswana in a race. I've been playing soccer with a large group and after a pick up game one day, the Kenyan decided to challenge me to a race. Bad idea. Although I may have pulled a Jerry Seinfeld, for one day at least, I returned to the glory of my high school days, and pulled out a definitive victory. After the race while the others made fun of the Kenyan and Batswana for losing to me, I looked around for an American flag to run around the track with. Unfortunately, there wasn't one available. Oh well, maybe next time.

Sunday, June 17, 2007

End of Week 1

Our orientation week of “hakuna matata” has come to an end. I had written a very impassioned post earlier this week but I decided to hold off on drawing such harsh conclusions about American media until the end of the trip. Anyway just this week I have learned so much about America, Botswana, and myself from the numerous excursions we have taken. In the last few days, we visited their national museum, a battered women’s shelter, and what they call the “Main Mall”, a place where they sell hand-made crafts and, for some odd reason, American college sweatshirts (the one on display was WVU…I almost threw up). I really enjoyed a visit we took to the local hospice, in which they explained that 95% of their patients were suffering from HIV. In America, our hospices are usually reserved for cancer patients, but here they are filled with patients dying of AIDS. I was fascinated to here that this hospice, which is supposed to be providing end of life care for people, did not have one physician on staff, or even have a doctor they were affiliated with. It seems to be a common theme in the places we visit that the people and government of Botswana are not supporting the efforts of non-profits, which is a shame because for the hospice it must be very difficult for them to provide adequate end of life care without at least a physician on call.

The impassioned post I have held off on had to do with our visit to the wealthy and poor areas of Gaborone. Our program director took us out of our way in order to visit these places, and I found our presence extremely disrespectful as we basically used these people’s houses as a tourist attraction. When driving through the ghetto, we saw many of the reasons why Westerners consider all African people to be so poor. Their living conditions were very sad for us, but the people really didn’t seem to care. They all smiled and waved to our vans, and a bunch of small schoolchildren even jumped up and down screaming “Legkowa” which means white people in Setswana. Even though some African people are extremely riddled with poverty, I realized that maybe they don’t want our help, that their primitive life styles suit them just fine. We later visited a rich area, where houses were worth hundreds of thousands of US dollars, houses that never get shown in the magazines documenting Africa. Gaborone remains an anomaly in that sense to me, as there really seems to be no middle class…the people are either very wealthy or extremely poor. I still haven’t figured out if that’s a good thing or a bad thing for the city.

The last two days of our orientation were a lot of fun. First, we visited a traditional village, where they showed us how the people of Botswana used to live (and how the people of that village still live). I was even married to one of our guides in a traditional wedding ceremony. The ceremony was very intricate, as the two hours we spent there were dedicated to my new bride and I, with traditional dances, chants, and such. The people of the village talked of how before the wedding, the bride and groom would go to their significant other’s parents’ house and confess as to whether they had been cheating. The villagers felt this method stemmed the spread of HIV because of the belief that if one lied to their in-laws, they would die. Well I completely disagreed with their assessment and thought that the belief demonstrated the fact that if Botswana ever wants to curb its HIV problem, its culture needs to evolve.

We then went on a safari that was pretty sweet, but not as exciting as I thought it would be. We saw zebra, rhinos, and elephants, but I felt that it was basically a glorified zoo, as some of the animals (the elephants and cheetahs) were led out to us with workers next to them. I’m much more excited for Kasane, the small village in Chobe National Park, that we will be staying in at the end of our trip where the animals will be seen in their natural environment. After the safari, my Kenyan friend George and I went to the National Stadium (also the place where I was able to get a gym membership) where we saw the Botswana National Soccer Team play Mauritania. African soccer is extremely graceful and Botswana, who has quite a bit of potential to make the 2010 World Cup, ended up winning 2-1. I was really disappointed in the turn out of the local fans, as already a small stadium by international standards, was only half full. The ones who did show up were very passionate though, as at one point one fan threw a bottle onto the field, hitting one of Mauritania’s players. Well obviously this occurred right in my section and a mini riot erupted. I decided that the center of the riot wasn’t the best place for seemingly the only white person at the match to be, so I did the man thing to do and ran. I’m not ashamed.

I have really enjoyed the company of my two Kenyan friends on the trip who have taught me a lot about Kenyan culture, even giving a tribal name (Carioke, meaning the one who never dies…that sounds pretty sweet to me). With such diversity on my trip (besides the Kenyans, there are people from Japan, South Korea, and the Caribbean), I have learned about more cultures than just those present in Botswana. From discussions with all these people, I have come to the conclusion that America does a very poor job in teaching us to go anywhere other than…well America. All the people in Botswana and those from a foreign country in my program with me are fluent in English, as well as their native language. They know how to deal with the over-friendly people who are proposing marriage to the white girls in our group because they understand that these people are not as threatening as we perceive them to be. They also know how to deal with not having the technology of America (my Kenyan friend was extremely skilled in hand washing my clothes…I failed pathetically in my first attempt and instead enjoyed watching him). It seems much harder for my fellow Americans and I to adapt to these cultural differences than the foreigners…so Ke a leboga, America (that means Thank you, America in Setswana)!

Next week is really the only week we have classes, as after that we go to work with our HIV organizations. I haven’t quite decided what organization I’d like to help, although the hospice was very desperate for people, and it seemed like I would be doing things very similar to the work I do at home. My research with Harvard will probably begin next weekend, although I’ve been talking with a girl from Harvard who works there and stays in the hostels we are in, who says I should try and avoid it at all costs…so we’ll see. Until next time…

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Dumela from Botswana (That means Hello from Botswana)

We have finally arrived here in Botswana after a hellacious flight which totalled 24 hours by the time all 4 of them were done. We stopped off in Akon's hometown of Dakar, Senegal where everyone, including women, were over 6'5. After departing we flew over most of Africa, which did little to dispel the idea that Africa is nothing but a barren desert. After 8 hours of those incredible views, there was a quick layover in South Africa, where I still was not in the minority race. After flying Air Botswana from Johannesburg to Gaborone and sitting next to a well established doctor for the CDC, I crossed my fingers that my luggage would arrive. Luckily, mine did. Unfortunately, the bags belonging to five members of our group did not, and only recently have they received their bags (with some items missing). Depressed and exhausted, we arrived in our Graduate Student Village to find...AMERICANS!! Apparently we have taken over the Village, as students from BU, UNC, Kansas State, as well as Med Students from Penn are all staying in the same place as our group. I even met one girl who stays in Ocean City for the summer. No matter where in the world I go, it seems I can always rely on finding someone who vacations at the Shore.

The first night we were so incredibly jet lagged that we did nothing but find our flats, which was a chore in itself as our guide (an Alton from the Real World/Road Rules challenge look alike) and our pretentious Batswana professor (who drives a brand new Jaguar and has suits tailor made for her) barged in and out of rooms looking for three together. We finally found one which housed Ressaho, a Batswana who is studying Computer Science and is a huge Michael Jackson fan (whose music is played everywhere here). He has been extremely helpful in teaching my two roommates and me the culture and language of Botswana. In exchange I have taught him "The Heizman" and "Snap Ya Fingers" dances, which he immediately performed better than me.

Our first day we drove around getting to know the city of Gaborone a little better. Apparently, getting to know Gaborone better entitles going to the Westernized shopping malls. The city is extremely interesting, as many of the people are very poor, however the endless supply of shops have prices comparable to those in the States. There are also brand new Beamers, Mercedes, and Audis all over the place. According to Ressaho, they can be bought for as little as 40,000 pula (less than $8,000) and everyone who gets a decent job immediately buys a nice car. The people here for the most part are very friendly, however they are constantly staring at us (or at least I think they are constantly staring at me) and many have approached our group and asked us about America. I even got a "whitey" call from a teenage group in the mall the other day. I was so proud.

Today we visited the SOS Children's Orphanage, where we got our first look at the devastation caused by HIV in Botswana. There were 200 orphaned children in a rather small village, many (the "father" of the village said about 75%) losing their parents from HIV. There were also 18 who were infected with the virus. Our group spent about an hour there playing with the kids and talking to the (surprise, surprise) American teachers! There was another group from Pitzer College in California teaching at the kindergarten in the village for a month. Apparently the Westernization of Africa is a little more advanced than I thought.

So far, everything has been incredible. We have a decent place to stay (it's about the size of a Tower C Single), hot water that occasionally works, and incredible weather. It’s very funny because the mornings and nights are in the mid 50’s while the afternoons go up to about 80, but the natives think it is so cold and that we’re crazy for walking around in shorts. The food is also really good. They feed us frequently, and it really hasn’t been so bad (we have had delicacies like chicken liver and sorghum). All in all it has been a great 3 days!! Keep the emails coming!

Wednesday, June 6, 2007

Thoughts Before Leaving

This coming Saturday I will be leaving for the University of Botswana in Gaborone where I will be staying until July 23. My purpose there will be two-fold. I will be working with a non-profit organization to further educate the people of Botswana about the devastating HIV/AIDS epidemic currently affecting the country (38% of their population is infected) and also attempting to get some scientific research on HIV done with the Harvard-Botswana AIDS Institute. Along the way, I will be blogging whenever I can find a computer with internet access to anyone who would like to listen (probably only my mom) about the adventures I partake in, including safaris and a trip to Zimbabwe to see Victoria Falls, the largest waterfall in the world.

Preparations for my trip have included getting vaccinated for every possible disease (including some that don’t even exist) and watching a “Man vs. Wild” episode in which Bear gets trapped in the middle of a savannah and has to escape elephants and rhinos. Quick sidenote: Does anyone else think that a more practical episode for the show would involve Bear getting trapped in an inner-city Compton ghetto and proceeding to show viewers how to escape by pointing things out like “Look over there, it’s a Crip gang member. You can identify them because they wear blue flags on their left side. If you are ever in a situation where you encounter one of them, it’s best to give them everything you have and run.” This would probably apply to more people than the 1 in 1000000 who get trapped in Africa or on a volcano, right?

So, today I finally finished all of the extra precautions and running around (such as getting my hair did) necessary for leaving, even finding time to get some packing in. My favorite items in my suitcase have to be Message in a Bottle, flight reading material written by the author of The Notebook, and sunscreen that can be attached to your belt. Who would send those kind of things in a care-package to a MAN leaving for Africa, you ask? No one in their right mind that’s for sure.

I told myself brevity would be the greatest asset of this blog and thus far I have failed miserably. My two inspirations for doing this are the blogs of Emmy Mandel and the emails of Ashley LaFata, which is probably why I am having so much trouble being brief. The next time I write I will be in Botswana with no cell phone or laptop, so if you would like to contact me, send an email to tdsports@gmail.com, something I'll check every chance I get at internet cafes. I hope everyone stays safe and enjoys America, with its sanitary water, malaria-free mosquitoes, and cell phones.