The flight from Columbus to Atlanta was awfully bumpy and made me a little nauseated. The flight from Atlanta to Johannesburg was not as bumpy, but obviously considerably longer. I didn’t sleep very well on the plane and it has affected my ability to adjust to the time zone—so pardon me if this blog jumps around a little.
Our overnight stay in Johannesburg was at the Garden Court Hotel, just by the airport. I roomed with Mandy Heck, another student on the trip. We had a very nice room. We changed and went down with the rest of the group to the restaurant downstairs. Everyone tried at least a sip of Savannah lite, a South African malt cider that is also popular in Botswana. We’d heard about it from one of our program directors, Dr. Pillay, who is from South Africa; we knew we had to try it. The restaurant itself was actually American themed, so most of us had burgers or TexMex food for a late dinner.
I didn’t sleep well in the hotel, despite being so tired from the plane—but it was nice to finally have someplace flat to sleep!
In the morning, we loaded our baggage onto a shuttle and made our way back to the airport for our South African Airways flight from Johannesburg to Gaborone. The flight wasn’t bad. It was a little bumpy but short. The pilot came on the speakers about halfway through to say, “We have now reached our cruising altitude and are ready to begin our descent into Gaborone.” It’s never easy on the stomach and ears to head back down as soon as you’ve finished take-off!
The airport in Gaborone was a stark contrast to the shiny, new, metropolitan airport in Johannesburg. The airport was clearly an older building and very small. It seems that it services only two airlines: Botswana Air and South African Airways. There is no real separation of the terminal/gates from check-in areas, although customs has a separate section. At the airport, we got some Botswana Pula (about 6-something to the dollar) and met the Batswana professors in charge of our program as well as Dr. Pillay, who had gone ahead of us to assure our arrangements.
The Gaborone Airport
Driving through Gaborone was a unique opportunity to see the city. Some areas are clearly very poor—but there are also giant buildings with bank and corporation names on them. The roads were paved and people drove Mercedes and BMWs, but people who walk use dusty dirt paths. It is clearly a city of contrasts, including the contrast between huge economic growth and a deadly pandemic; it’s hard to believe that around one out of every three people here is HIV positive.
When we finally reached the University of Botswana (UB,) we had a big lunch (ALL of the meals are big here) and were assigned our rooms. I am in an apartment of 6—all five of the girls I live with are a part of my program. Others are in apartments with other international students and Batswana grad students.
The living conditions are similar to dorms in the United States, although some of our things are in disrepair. My apartment doesn’t have a light in the kitchen or the bathroom and another group of girls is missing a toilet seat! We’ve had a little trouble with the internet—but that was just an IT issue. The conditions aren’t bad by any stretch of the imagination, but they have made us grateful for the conveniences of home.
My room at UB!
Helping us adjust have been Karabo and Thato. They are students here at UB and have been assigned to us as guides. I don’t know if they were ready for 20 OU students, but they have been incredibly flexible, helpful, and understanding with us. Like all other Batswana we’ve met, they are very hospitable. We’re starting to get to know them very well.
After getting somewhat settled into rooms, we went to the Riverwalk mall. The mall here is different from American malls; it has clothing stores, a movie theatre, and some restaurants—but it also has a grocery and and all-purpose store. The grocery, Pick N Pay, has all of the grocery items you would expect in the United States, including toiletries, detergent, fresh fruit and vegetables, etc. They even have some things that I liked a lot in Europe that I can’t easily find in the US, like Kinder Schokolade, orange Fanta, and TLC face cleansers.
After our visit to the mall, we had dinner (again, a LOT of food!) All of our meals have been chicken and beef with a lot of starches. Things I’ve read about a lot, like mealy-meal and sorghum are staples in the diet here. Mealy-meal was actually introduced as a way to keep people full, despite its total lack of nutrition. I didn’t realize it had been so accepted into the diet.
After dinner, we went to the boys’ apartment to play some Euchre and some people had a few of the African beers and ciders they purchased at the mall. A few people bought a bottle of famous South African wine—which was apparently very good. Then we went over to the international student lounge to watch USA v. Italy in football (soccer). USA lost, but it was nice to see the Batswana cheering for our team! (Or maybe just against Italia…)
I tried to stay awake for as long as I could, but around 9:15pm, I hit a wall that didn’t let me stay up any longer. I headed back to my room and had one of the best night’s sleep ever!
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