As a requirement of the program, I had to write an "Initial Impression Paper" to describe what I expected Botswana would be like. I decided to share that paper here:
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Initial Impressions Paper
When travelling, I try not to have too many preconceived notions of the places I am going. The images I create in my mind are rarely accurate and usually not as good as what I ultimately end up experiencing. That being said, however, I have of course begun to imagine what Botswana will be like. I do not know how correct these assumptions are, but they are nevertheless the basis of my initial impressions of Botswana.
One aspect of life in Botswana that I have been forced to confront is the weather. I cannot very well pack my suitcase without some prior knowledge about the climate. I will admit I have done some research. I know that Gaborone is very close to the desert, and I know that deserts have high temperature fluctuations. With that in mind, I looked up the average highs and lows for Gaborone in June and July, as well as the precipitation averages. The data confirmed my suspicion that June and July are the middle of a dry winter with very little cloud-cover, leading to big temperature differences. Unfortunately, this has made my packing more difficult rather than easier.
In previous travels, I have found that I remember certain colors. From my experience living with a host family in southern Germany, I remember Bavarian blue; reflecting on my trips to the Czech Republic makes me think of the red dye that many women there use in their hair; and, oddly enough, I will always remember the strange, pink sauce on my hamburger at a small racetrack in Estonia. I will not know the colors that remind me of Botswana until after I have returned, but I can imagine what colors might stand out to me. For some reason, I associate the African continent with the color yellow—maybe it is because yellow is a prominent color in African flags, maybe because a few of my African studies textbooks have been yellow, or maybe the Sahara and Kalahari look yellow on maps. Whatever the reason, I expect to see more yellow there than I do at home.
I also know that the colors of people’s skin will stand out to me. Obviously, the United States has a racial majority of whites/Caucasians, albeit this majority is getting smaller and smaller all the time. I think being in the racial minority for the first time will be an eye-opening experience. I am eager to reassess and reshape my expectations that most people are white; I look forward to a white person being an anomaly, rather than the norm.
Smells are some of the most difficult things to imagine prior to a trip, but smell is always the first sense to bring back memories of my time abroad. I can still imagine the smells of the Steinbergers’ old Bavarian farmhouse in Aich and the fresh air off the vineyards that poured into our hotel window in South Tirol. I can not conjure up the scents of Botswana without having experienced them, but I do expect them to be different from anything I have smelled before. I think the air there will be fresher and the scent of the dirt will remind me how far away I am from home.
Having been told that a lot of the meals in Botswana consist of meat and starches, I have been wondering what the food will be like. For a long time, I was not a meat-lover at all. I desperately tried to be a vegetarian but settled for very little red meat and more fish. After being at college, I have become a much less picky eater. However, I will still choose raw fruits and vegetables over beef or chicken if given the choice. To me, meat and starches at every meal sounds flavorless and heavy. I think the diet will be the part of the experience that will follow the culture shock phases of honeymoon, negotiation, and adjustment.
Finally, the sounds that I expect to hear in Gaborone are very much like the smells: difficult to create without actual experience. Based on the size of the city, I expect to hear cars and voices on the street. However, at night, I think the city will be quieter than most since it seems that it has relatively little public nightlife.
On the one hand, I hope that Botswana lives up to everything I have imagined. On the other hand, I also hope that Botswana is totally different from everything I have imagined. I think it will be a little bit of both: the country itself will be unlike anything I could dream up, while the experience will be above and beyond my imaginings.
