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!