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So this post is late, I know. But at this point, since I have been able to see most of the people who read this blog in person, this final post is more for myself than for anyone else.

I spent the last few weeks of the semester working at Nkaikela Youth Group, dialing for dollars, helping out at condom distributions, and teaching some of the volunteers there how to use Facebook. On December 3, our group flew out to Kasane, a village in the north of Botswana, for our final program excursion. We camped in Chobe National Park, where we saw dozens of animals, including four of the Big Five. (We never saw a leopard.) Here are a few pictures!

After spending a few days in Kasane, we headed out to Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe. The falls were drier than usual, but were breathtaking nonetheless. I’ve attached pictures below.

After visiting Zim, we flew back to Gaborone, and then back to the States. I have mixed emotions about being back. My old university now seems so much more fast-paced now that I have adjusted to the slow, plodding notes of Botswana life. I no longer know how to use any of the weight machines in the gym, since I did all of my training on Botswana machines that are slightly different. But I’m glad to be home with family and friends, and I can’t wait to someday return to Botswana to resume my adventures. Until then, sala sentle!

Wrapping it Up

So that’s it, then. Yesterday I took my last final exam, next Wednesday is our re-entry workshop and farewell dinner, and on Thursday we’ll fly out to Chobe for our final 5-day excursion with the program. It all seems surreal. I finally have an easy excuse to refuse people who shamelessly hit on me—“Oh, by the way, I’ll be leaving town in less than a week.”
“When are you coming back?”
“I don’t know, maybe never.”

Because why wouldn't I take a picture of a family of monkeys?

But life goes on. Yesterday, I planned and cooked an entire Thanksgiving meal for my host family and their guests, a total of 10 people. With three friends helping (s/o to Isaiah, Keante, and Aziza!) we cooked:two roast chickens, stuffing, gravy, glazed carrots, green beans, mashed potatoes, dinner rolls, and two butternut squash pies. So minus a few substitutions (chicken for turkey, butternut for pumpkin), it was a pretty classic Thanksgiving meal. In classic Amanda fashion, I took no pictures, but several of the others did, so I’ll post those in a few days.

Today, I said goodbye to the adorable preschoolers at BORNUS, who are going on their Christmas vacation. After I told them (in Setswana) that I would be going back to America, they all started waving and saying, “See you tomorrow!” I’m glad they’re remembering the English phrases I’ve taught them, but I don’t think they fully grasped the meaning of that one. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The preschool graduates, at the ceremony a few weeks ago.

After wrapping up at BORNUS, I headed over to the Condom Use Campaign organized by Nkaikela Youth Group. We had local entertainers perform, and we distributed hundreds of condoms, but my role was more mundane. I was the snack girl, and my job was simple—not. I had to make sure that everyone who was staying for the condom demonstrations received snacks, that interlopers did not receive snacks, and that those who had already received snacks did not receive more snacks. Meanwhile, there were dozens of people yelling at me for food at all times. I stopped for a moment to take a drink of water, and a man asked me, “How many bottles of water have you had?” “This is my first,” I responded. “Well, you’re letting us die of thirst over here, while you just keep drinking and drinking the water that’s supposed to be for us.” Right.
For comic relief, we had a ridiculously drunken man attempt to grope various members of the crowd (including me). One of said crowd members happened to be a police officer, and she cuffed him, much to the humor of everyone else. He attempted to run, fell flat on his face, and was taken away by some other officers a few minutes later.

In the next few days, I’m trying to visit all the places I’ve been eyeing during my combi drives through Greater Gaborone. I went to a beautiful tuck shop I’d only seen from the road (yes, I actually took a picture of this one), and I’ve planned to visit a traditional healer next week with one of my weightlifting buddies. According to the sign, he offers a variety of services, including resolving property disputes and solving “all love and sexual problems.” We’ve decided to ask for luck, because who knows when we might need it? I also hope to check out the Obama All-American Restaurant and the Alliance Française, so we’ll see how that goes. Only 11 days until I leave this beautiful country! Until then, sala sentle!
 

Just Keep Swimming…

In honor of the Finding Nemo sequel coming out soon, I couldn’t resist. I only have three weeks left in Botswana, and I’m a presentation, a paper, and two finals away from being finished with all of my schoolwork for this semester. This weekend, instead of travelling, I decided to stay in Gabs and just appreciate some of what this city has to offer. On Friday night we went out to eat at Jalapeno’s, a Mexican restaurant, followed by heading out on the town. We went to Absolut, a local club we had been to earlier in the semester, on the roof of a local hotel. For those of you who know me, I’m not exactly the master of spontaneity. But it was really hot out, and I had just checked my gym bag, which had a towel and a change of clothes in it, so I decided to jump in the hotel pool next to the club. Best part—I was wearing black, it was dark, and I got in and out pretty fast, so none of the bouncers or security officials ever saw. But I got a round of applause from a few of the locals, which felt pretty good. Hurrah for finally breaking out of my comfort zone! (Perhaps this post will mark the day when I turned from a law-abiding citizen into a dauntless trespasser. Or maybe not.)

The next day we had a farewell braii (barbeque) at a farm just outside of town. I helped make spicy chakalaka, a local vegetable stew. I’ve attached a stock photo below to show you what the dish looks like, since I forgot to take a photo. (Characteristically, I took no pictures of the event either, but I have attached a couple taken by friends from the program.)

That night, we camped out under the stars, with massive herds of chickens stalking our every move. I slept in a hammock, which was wonderfully cozy, although I almost fell out when a rooster crowed from directly underneath me at around 2 am. Whoever said that roosters only crow at dawn has clearly never lived in a place with chickens.

  

Now that classes have ended, I’m looking for something else to fill my time. My public health program requires 100 hours of clinic work and 20 hours at an NGO, so I have decided to continue working at my assigned NGO full-time, even though I will have already met the requirements. The organization is called Nkaikela Youth Group (http://www.nyg.org.bw/), and it works to provide education, HIV/STI testing, and job skills training to current and former sex workers. I’ve been helping with their current campaigns: a Condom Festival that they had about two weeks ago, a Young Mothers conference that they had this week, and their upcoming 16 Days of Activism. It’s heavy stuff, and after hearing some of the sex workers’ stories, it’s nice to go back to the preschool at BORNUS for a little while. But I’m glad that the work is meaningful, and I am definitely learning a lot by being here.

In just over two weeks, I will set out on my final excursion before leaving southern Africa, heading out to Chobe National Park in the north of Bots and Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe (Zim). Until then, I’ll try to make the most of my time left here! Sala sentle!

The Oldest Woman in the World

…Potentially. The weekend before last, I was able to visit Homo naledi in person at the Cradle of Humankind in Greater Johannesburg, South Africa! To sound like a total tour guide for a moment: Potentially a primitive version of Homo erectus, Homo naledi was first discovered in 2013 and was fully excavated as of September 10, 2015. It has not yet been dated, but the cave in which it was discovered is approximately 3 million years old! It’s not every day that an incredible archeological discovery is made only 400 km away, so a couple friends and I packed up and headed out to Jo-burg to catch the last weekend of the exhibit. While there, we stayed with some lovely friends I had met at Yom Kippur services in Cape Town, and the whole experience was incredible!

Besides gawking at Homo naledi in Maropeng, the museum of human history, we also explored the caves in which the fossils were found! The Sterkfontein Caves contain an abundance of breccia, which is an especially good material in which to find fossils. Plus, the natural architecture was beautiful.

This past weekend, I did something I never thought I would do—I cut class to look go star-seeking. We found out that A United Kingdom, a movie about the love affair between Sir Seretse Khama (first president of Botswana) and Ruth Wilson, was filming in Mahalapye, a $5 bus ride from Gabs. So at 8 am we headed out, walked to the hotel where the stars were staying, and chatted with Rosamund Pike, AKA Amy in Gone Girl and Jane in Pride and Prejudice. Because when in Bots, right? And then we asked someone for the casting director’s number and offered ourselves as extras. Turns out they were pretty desperate for white people, so it ended up working out in our favor. We made about $60, got two free nights in a hotel, and had the chance to be in a movie! You can see me walking with my two children (!) in the background of one scene, and in other scene, I am sitting in a lawn chair while my children play tag. So those are my barely 10 seconds of screen time, but I assure you, they will be the highlight of the movie! Here’s me with some of my fellow extras, circa 1947.

Now I’m back, and school is finally picking up. All of my final projects are due in the next few weeks, so I don’t have any more exciting plans for a little while. Before I know it, though, classes will be over! Finals start the week after next, and then in December I’m off to northern Botswana and Zimbabwe! Until then, sala sentle!

Traversing the Bots

I know it’s been a while since I last posted, so here goes. After all of my international travelling, I decided it was time to explore within the country I’ve been living for three months now (I can’t believe it’s been so long!). The weekend before last, my fellow CIEE students and I went camping at Mokolodi, the game reserve where we had earlier seen our first rhinos. It was delightful; the nighttime weather here is perfect, and the stars looked incredibly beautiful. We even got to see some giraffes on our way to the campsite! Here are pictures of one of the giraffes and of us, the happy campers.

This past Thursday, we travelled to Orapa, which houses some of Botswana’s most important diamond mines, managed by the Debswana Mining Company. The town itself is closed, so we had to carry permits wherever we went. After a two-hour safety lecture and video, we got dressed up and headed over to see the mines—from a distance. We were taken to a balcony overlooking the mine, where we could stare deep into the Earth without really being able to see anything. The sun was blazing, our gear was hot…in short, we were all pretty cranky by the time we left the Debswana facilities. Because of confidentiality restrictions, we were forbidden from taking pictures, so you’ll have to imagine the experience (not that you’d really want to).
That night, however, we travelled to Serowe, where we went on our first nighttime game drive at Khama Rhino Sanctuary. Once again, the weather was perfect, and we got to watch a whole herd of zebras galloping past our vehicle! We also saw a lot of rhinos, as I tried to show below. I wish the pictures had come out better, but part of the magic was knowing that everything we saw would only remain in our memories.

The next morning, we went to Serowe’s cultural museum, where we learned about the history of the area. Central to this history is the love story of interracial couple Sir Seretse Khama, the first president of Botswana, and his wife, Ruth Williams. In fact, this story is about to become a movie (“A United Kingdom”) starring David Oyelowo and Rosamund Pike, along with the always-incredible Tom Felton. We couldn’t finish part of our tour because of the filming, but we were able to take pictures on the set before we left!

We returned to Gabs on Saturday night, and I went with a friend to watch a street dance performance at a local school. The first act was a “dance-play” about a chemistry class gone awry, and it was told through classic hip-hop, as well as animation, crump, and b-boying. I was blown away by the talent (shout-out to TNT Dance Crew Bots!). The crump was better than I’ve ever seen, even on TV. The second act was a retelling of the Passover story (Moses and the Israelites leave Egypt). This act called into question a lot of how I’ve imagined the story. When Moses’ mom carried her baby to the river, she carried him on her back wrapped in a bright pink blanket, the way Batswana often do here. The image seemed so incongruous to me, and I realized that a lot of my perception of the story is colored by where I come from. Still, seeing Moses kill an Egyptian using capoeira was awesome.
This weekend, I’m travelling internationally for the last time. I’m heading to Johannesburg, where I’ll be visiting the Cradle of Humanity to see some of humanity’s ancestors, including the newly discovered Homo naledi! So proud to be a nerd right now Until next time, sala sentle!

P.S. Photo credits to Leah and Jake for the Mokolodi pictures and the shots of the film set!

Travelling Broke

Hi all! For those of you who don't know, I've spent the last two weeks travelling in Cape Town, South Africa, Swakopmund, Namibia, and (impromptu) Windhoek, Namibia. Here's a brief account of my adventures:

I headed out to Cape Town on September 19 with a few of my friends from the group. First, we took a bus from Gabs to Johannesburg (Jo-burg), and then we were supposed to fly from Jo-burg to Cape Town. However, due to airline policy, you must be carrying all documents used to purchase your ticket to the flight. Because I didn't bring my credit card, which wasn't approved to work in South Africa, they wouldn't let me board the plane! They couldn't verify that I was who I said I was, despite the fact that I had all of the card's information memorized. Instead, I had to repurchase my plane tickets on the spot, a move which cost me a decent amount of money. (Word to the wise: do not fly Mango Airlines. I'm still seething.) Because of this, I have been travelling on an extreme budget ever since.

For anyone planning to travel to Cape Town on a budget, here are some of the activities we did over the week, with pictures. All prices are approximate.

• Climbing Table Mountain (free, although the cable car down cost $10) 
• Afternoon Tea at Mount Nelson Hotel ($25, but feeds you enough to last for lunch and dinner)
   
• Botanical Gardens ($5)
  
• Climbing Lion's Head Peak (free)
• Going to the beach ($5)
  
• Robben Island Tour ($20)
  

Instead of taxis, we used Uber, which was a much cheaper alternative. We also stayed in an amazing backpacker's hostel (Once in Cape Town), which was very reasonably priced and where we met some really incredible people. Most of the nightspots didn't charge cover fees, and drinks were cheap, although I was able to save as a non-drinker. :)

Tuesday night/Wednesday was Yom Kippur, so I headed out to the Gardens Shul in Cape Town, the oldest synagogue in South Africa. A lovely family hosted me for break-fast, and I learned a lot about Jewish life in South Africa. The Cape Town Jewish community is extremely insular; almost every Jewish child attends Jewish day-school, and many live in the same neighborhoods, creating unofficial Jewish quarters scattered throughout the city. Interestingly, although the synagogue was similar to an Ashkenazic Modern Orthodox one in the States, many of the congregants live very secular lives outside of shul, despite interacting almost exclusively with other Jews.

We returned to Gabs on Sunday, September 27. On the 29th, the eve of Botswana's Independence Day, I went to the national Independence Day evening celebration. The national stadium was packed; there must have been thousands of people in attendance. Most of the ceremony consisted of marching band performances (sans color guard, unfortunately), followed by fireworks at the end. The entire stadium went wild at every opportunity. People were cheering and whistling for every new marching band and at every burst of a firework. Although I didn't understand what we were applauding most of the time, it was hard not to get caught up in the excitement.

Very early on the 30th (4:30 am), we headed out to Namibia in a combi driven by our local taxi driver and his friend. The whole drive to Swakopmund lasted over 18 hours, and we finally arrived at our hostel around midnight very tired and cranky. Unfortunately, this hostel was rather unpleasant. The beds were damp, and we found mouse droppings on the floor. Breakfast was not complimentary (approx. $6), unlike at most hostels I've stayed in the past. Thankfully, I had packed food from home to last me through the trip, so I saved money by eating muesli, fruit, peanut butter crackers, and microwavable soup for breakfast and lunch every day.

While in Swakop, we went to the beach, and we went sandboarding, one of the most amazing experiences of my life. I was a lie-down boarder (as opposed to stand-up boarding, which is essentially snowboarding on sand.) Basically, you hop on a thin sheet of waxed particle board and cruise down huge sand dunes. The fastest I went was 67 km/hr (approx. 42 mph), although speeds in our group ranged from 30-68 km/hr. The best part about it was that there was pretty much no way to get hurt. Even when I wiped out completely, I would just roll through the soft sand, dig my board out of the dune, and start walking back up to the top (no lifts, since it's not really possible to build a lift into a sand dune).

On Friday night, we went out to a club in Swakopmund. I left early with a friend, but the rest of my group came back at about 2 am, blaring music from our combi. The manager was angry, and at 9:30 the next morning she marched into our room and announced that we had until 10 am to be out of the hostel. After our unplanned exit, we headed from Swakop to Windhoek, the capital of Namibia. We had a few hours to explore the city, and then we crashed at a backpacker's hostel. Instead of getting a room, one of my friends and I slept in a two-person hammock in the camping area, which proved to be a cheaper, but far less comfortable, option. Fortunately, the Namibian night sky is beautiful. At 3:00 that morning, we began the long drive back to Gabs.

Now, I'm back at my house in Tlokweng, and life is pretty much back to normal. It's hard to resume my life as a student, when my heart is so full of adventure. The next trip we have planned is an excursion to Serowe, a local village, as part of my public health program the weekend after next. Until then, it's just classes, weight-lifting, and dealing with this unbelievably oppressive heat (upwards of 90F every day!). 'Till next time, sala sentle!