Okavango

Dumelang! Leina lame ke Tumelo. Ke nna kwa Botswana mo Gaborone.

Hi everyone! This past weekend I went to the Okavango Delta, which is the largest inland delta in the world. The delta is supplied by the Okavango river flowing through Angola. Because it is in the rural northern area of the country, I am currently on anti-malarial pills as a preventative measure. However there were almost no bugs because it is still winter time, which was nice. There was six of us, and we took the bus up. We saw a lot of salt pans and the parts of the Kalahari desert. It was a 10 hour ride and we left 5:30 am on Friday from the bus station. We stayed at Old Bridge Backpackers, which was a very nice little lodge next to a river in Maun, where we rented tents.

On Saturday we went on an all day boat cruise of the delta. It was just us and a guide in the boat, and it was unlike any boating experience I've ever been on.

cruising along a path in the Delta

 To me the delta was basically like a river in the shape of a swamp. The water is very clean and we could see the clean, sandy bottom (usually less than 6 feet deep) the whole time. It is a massive expanse of reeds and grass, with little pathways going through it. There are many trees around, including palm trees, and we saw many birds.

For animals, we saw quite a few elephants and giraffes. It was very exciting to know that we were truly in the middle of the wilderness and seeing these wild animals at such close proximity.

Really close to a wild elephant. This is a young male.

Along the delta. Can you see the giraffes?

We stopped on an island in the Moremi national park for lunch and also went for a hike. Our guide showed us a lot of things about the plants and animals there. The Okavango was a truly incredible place to see.

A Strangler fig tree. It starts growing on another tree and eventually strangles its host tree with its roots which descend down to the soil.

The next day, we went to a basket weaving workshop. We spent about 3 hours weaving reeds, and I ended up with a little 2 inch circle...it is definitely a lot of work. I think I will use it as a beverage coaster. Our weaving teacher also gave us Setswana names. Mine is ‘Tomela’, as you can see in the sentence at the top of this post.

basket weaving

Then it was back on the bus for a 10 hour ride back to Gaborone. I was impressed with the quality of the roads, most of it was smoother than my hometown, and with a speed limit of 120 km/h on the non-divided highways. The bus driver frequently had to slow down and honk for animals on the road, including cows, donkeys and goats. This trip was a short weekend, but was certainly a worthwhile trip.

As you can see at the top of this post, I have been progressing in my Setswana class some. The introduction at the beginning means “Hello! My name is Aaron. I live in Gaborone, Botswana.”
This week I also went to a Young Adults group. The worship style was definitely an excellent cultural experience. It was vocal only, with everyone standing in a semi circle. The musical style was distinctly African with someone singing out and the rest responding, along with a lot of syncopated clapping. People would take turns going to the front and leading dancing as well. Not exactly easy to follow along with, but I really enjoyed it.

the Delta

Cultural Excursion

This past week I have settled into my classes, things are finally getting pretty regular. During the week I have been focusing on schoolwork, and hanging out with friends.

This weekend we went on a Cultural Excursion planned by the International Office. We left Saturday morning and drove for a few hours. This was my first time really seeing the countryside up close, and it was very cool to see all the flatlands and hills. There are many cows, goats and donkeys around the countryside and by the sides of the roads. (the bus driver used his horn numerous time throughout our travels)

view from the rock paintings

We went to a village and had a tour, including of their open air courthouse. We learned about wedding ceremonies. One of the traditions is that the groom gives a ‘bogadi’ to the bride’s parents, which is usually a certain amount of cows. The man standing on the right is the 'kgosi', or main chief.

the village courthouse

We also stopped at the Manyana rock paintings, which are about 2000 years old. They were very faded, but amazing to think that they are actually that old.

can you see the antelope?

some giraffes

The Livingstone tree

Livingstone was a doctor and missionary who did his work under this tree (along with many others) He worked under this tree in the 1850s, which means that the tree was already big at that time. It is a fig tree and is amazingly big and sprawling.

We spent the night at Bahurutshe Cultural Village. The people there showed us (and let us try) some traditional dances and ways of preparing food. It was cools seeing their traditional dress and dwellings.

the villagers preparing to show us a dance

On Sunday we went to Mokolodi Nature Reserve for a game drive. The landscape was mainly sparsely wooded savannah, and we were able to see quite a few animals.

I am thoroughly enjoying being able to go out and see and experience all of these cool things in between my classes here. Next weekend we are planning to go to the Okavango Delta, which is the worlds largest inland delta. Stay tuned!

view from just outside the village

back to school

I am back in school again. Well sort of…it seems the norm here is that the professors might show up for a class or two for the first week. I slept through my alarm on the first day, but it was okay because the professor did not show up for class. kind of annoying, but at least it lets us students gradually adjust to sitting in class again. My courses are Software Engineering, Computer Organization, File Systems, Linear Algebra and Setswana for Beginners. It turns out that I originally was registered for some classes that did not exist, so I had to do some work to get them all sorted out. Class structure has been pretty much the same as in Canada, my classes are a little bigger because it is a bigger university. My language course has probably been the most challenging course so far, it is difficult to remember all these different words.

Most of the week is pretty regular, things are settling into a bit of routine with class going on, not too much extraordinary goes on. I have taken the time to take some pictures of around campus.

 

these trees were purple according to google earth...apparently not right now

a prickly tree at the entrance to my dorm

I have walked to some of the nearby malls to do some shopping. There are some Americanized malls that feel like home, but there are also some market style areas as well. There are often people who will approach me just to say hi, it seems like it’s a novelty to them sometimes. Things are cheaper here, but I’m trying not to buy very much stuff because I’ll never be able to bring it all with me. The exchange rate is about 6.5 pula for $1 Canadian, which is a little bit weird to think with when shopping.

the Riverwalk mall

combis on the street near Riverwalk mall

To get around town, the primary method of transport are combis. Combis are vans that hold up to 16 (crowded) people. It costs 3 pula per combi. They are owned by individual drivers and follow virtually undocumented routes around various parts of the city. Basically the only way to find your way around is to ask people for help.

riding a full combi

I have been getting to know the other exchange students better, along with some of the local students who have been hanging out with us. We went out to a braii, which as a barbeque party. We basically had only meat for dinner and hung out, it was a lot of fun. People are friendly and fun to be with, although there is usually a bit of a communication barrier with how the Batswana speak English. I have also met some Christians around campus and have been getting to know them as well.

On Saturday, some of us went on a hike up Kgale Hill. It was a pretty big hike, especially near the top where it got really steep. It was a very nice view, we could see around the whole city and a lot of the surrounding countryside. There were some communications towers up there, along with this sign:

we're 6085 km from Cairo

My profile picture is currently taken up on this hill, along with the background picture for this blog.

My accommodations are in a double-room dorm block nicknamed Las Vegas. It has a nice bricked courtyard, and the rooms are pretty nice as well. There are 10 students per floor who share a washroom. Unfortunately there are no kitchens in any of the dorms, so we have to eat in the 'refectory' (cafeterias) most of the time. My roommate's name is Comfort, he is a local student who is studying physics.

hanging with roommate Comfort (next to me) and his friends

in front of my dorm

the first week

I love travelling - I enjoy the getting there part just as much as being there. My first flight was on Monday evening from Toronto to Amsterdam, a 3 hour layover, then off to Johannesburg, South Africa. The 10.5 hour flight was during the day and I had a window seat. It was quite the view crossing the beautiful Mediterranean and coming over the coast of Northern Africa and the Sahara with fairly clear skies.

Northern coast of Africa

Africa is amazingly brown!

After clearing the clouds I got to enjoy an excellent sunset as well.

I had a cold overnight layover in the Joburg airport, because I lost my sweater and jacket in Amsterdam. It is winter time right now, and the nights go down to about 5° C, and the afternoons go up to around 20-25° C. (Don't feel jealous about the weather just yet, apparently it has been colder then usual here) We actually were delayed because of ice on the plane’s wings. It was a short one hour hop on Wednesday morning over to Gaborone, Botswana, with a great view of the once again brown countryside.

Upon arrival I found out that my suitcase was not there. Our student guide Kevin picked me up and brought me to the University. 40 some hours after leaving home with almost no sleep and I was finally there! In the evening we went back to the airport and thankfully my suitcase was there. I spent the day getting to know some of the other international students and registering for courses. There are at least 60 exchange students here (Botswana is a popular destination), of which many are American so I do not feel too far from my own culture when I am with them. I am the only Canadian here, and it is interesting hearing all of the American and Setswana (the language) accents. Apparently I have an accent as well, and sometimes get a few chuckles when I say ‘aboot’ and ‘Eh!’

Over the next 2 days we went through orientation at the university. We also had a brief tour of the city, including the government grounds (very nice but no pictures allowed), and a monument of Khama III, Bathoen and Sebele.

  

They were leaders who appealed to Britain for protection of the Bechuanaland protectorate in 1885; Botswana gained independence in 1966. The countryside is very brown now (it is the dry season), and there are plenty of different looking plants and trees. We also had a tour of the university, which is very nice with many different buildings close together, and a lot of covered walkways going in between them. There are about 15,000 students (a little bigger than Laurentian, my home university), and it is sort of like a maze around campus in some places.

On Friday, we went out for a traditional meal in a field just outside of town. We ate around a campfire and had goat, Phalatshe (corn meal) and Mopani worms.

trying a mopani worm

 I unfortunately did not do very well with the worms, but I managed to eat half of one. The taste was not bad (salty), but the texture and crunchiness was a little too much for me. The food at the university is pretty good, and they eat a lot of meat. There is usually rice, pasta or Phalatshe with chicken or beef, and some (not very much) vegetables. Unfortunately there is not too much variation from this, but I am happy with it so far. They also eat a lot of ‘fat cakes’, which are deep fried balls of sweet dough. They are very good on their own, or can be dipped in meat or sauce.

On Sunday, I walked to a fairly big church called the Universal Church. It is close to the university and is very nice. It was cool to see a different style of worship. I am looking forward to going to a few different churches here as well and experiencing the different bodies of believers here.
One thing that is different out on the streets is that the traffic drives on the left hand side, which is very strange to see when you are not used to it. It also takes a lot of getting used to, especially looking to the right when starting to cross the road. After a close call or two, I started looking both ways just in case I forgot which way the traffic would come from, but now I am getting used to it. It will be interesting to see what going back to right hand side traffic will be like.

I have been getting settled in here, and getting a little bit used to some things that are different, including often having cold showers, and chilly evenings and mornings because the buildings are not heated. There is also a lot of time spent waiting for pretty much anything, whether for food or getting paperwork done. This is definitely the place to be if you need to develop some patience, but I am getting used to it. Next week I start school, and I’m looking forward to what it will be like...but not so much the studying part :-).

just outside of my room