ay-yiy-yiy-yiy-yiiiiiy!!

I apologize ahead of time for how long this entry is about to be: you may have to take some breaks. I do not remember if the last time that I wrote was on thursday or friday, but nevertheless, nothing exciting happened on either of those days. I went out with some friends on thursday night to some local bars, and friday I just went out for dinner and hung around the dorms. Saturday morning however, the best part of my stay here in Africa started! We got on a bus around 8am and headed out for a cultural weekend excursion. I did not know what to expect because many of the activities that we do here, that are set up by the school, tend to never be what we all expected. We spent about two hours on a bus riding out into the rural areas of Botswana. I am in the city of Gaborone, but we were heading to some small villages outside of the city. On the way I saw more goats than I have ever seen in my entire life! Small, medium and large goats lined the roads just eating grass. We passed by many mud huts with thatched roofs. all made of completely different colors. The dirt here is a very deep, vibrant red (if that makes any sense), so many of the huts have shades of this red painted on the sides. There were many clothes lines with all of the weeks laundry hanging out to dry, little kids running around barefoot through the little villages, and chickens, goats and dogs running all over the place. It was incredibly fun to see. Not to mention the giant hills in the distance that made us feel like we were headed to the mountains. I started reading a book on the ride called A Whole New Mind by Dan pink. I would highly recommend the book to ANYONE. I am only 100 pages in, but it is truly fascinating (thanks mom and dad!). It is all about R-Directed thinkers and L-directed thinkers, and about creativity. The two hours flew by for me, and we ended up pulling up to a small village in the middle of the hills. We were required to wear skirts, so all of the boys piled off the bus, while the women slipped skirts over their shorts. As we walked into the village, a little girl greeted us with a little "booty-shake" dance for us. She waved her hands in the air, giggled, and shook her but right in the middle of the road. She was adorable! We continued on into the village. There were some mud huts, some more house-like buildings, and many other random sheds and smaller huts. It was like stepping into a whole different world. The atmosphere in these villages seems to be very slowed down, relaxed and extremely friendly. We went into an open hut (just a floor and ceiling) called a coutla (I don't know how to spell it), which means the court area or meeting area. There were about 5 gentlemen there who were representing the chief and the headsmen. The men did an interactive presentation for us. They used students from our group to do a mock wedding and two mock trials. Both were very interesting! The weddings in Botswana are not left mostly up to the people getting married, or their parents; it is the Uncles who have most of the say. Uncles from both sides of the families get together to negotiate the wedding and marriage agreements. The average bride pay for a wedding here is 4 cattle. This is not just in rural areas, my friends here at school say that when they get married, the bride pay will be paid with cattle as well. The average Motswana in the villages gets married at about age 16, in order to get the process of having children going early. However, in urban areas times are changing, and my generation is starting to follow western marriage trends. Everyone here at UB comes from a village however. No matter if their family moved to Gabs city at some point, they come from a village, and that is where they have their roots, and their morals from. The mock trials were also very funny. There was a case about a man stealing another man's cattle, and a case about a wife who was refusing sex from her husband. The second case was very interesting. The Chief ruled that in the marriage agreement, she had agreed to have sex with the man, so she must hold her end of the agreement. This was shocking to all of the students, and we had a hard time digesting it. Sometimes the values here are very different from our own, which puts us in a very uncomfortable position. In some ways it is much more free here, and in some ways it seems there are strong restrictions. The whole time the presentation was going on, our group leader was translating everything that the men said, because none of them could speak English. We spent more time asking questions about the culture and hanging out, and then we set off for lunch. The Chief representative came along with us to lunch. We went to a resort-like place. There were very commercialized huts, a pool, flat-screen TVs, and many other modern day objects, stuck in what looked like a cultural village. After eating lunch, we headed out to look at some rock paintings.
  A guide met us, and showed us some very faded rock paintings. Although it was pretty cool, I would say that there were probably only about 3 paintings and the hype was much more than what we actually saw. I did get to watch some pick-up soccer however! Soccer is loved by almost everyone here, and wherever you go there are dirt fields with goal posts made of sticks with groups of about 20 kicking around a ball. It is great to see. We also visited the Livingston Tree, which is pretty well-known. It was a very old fig tree, that had all sorts of low branches that wrapped around each other. Outside of this area there were three little girls who were very adorable that we stopped to talk to. Well, they did not speak English, so we mostly smiled and laughed with them, which to me was much better than talking. We gave them some sour candies that a student had brought and they were VERY appreciative. As we got on the bus and drove away they ran alongside the bus waving and shouting at us. They didn't stop until the fence at the end of the road.
  Next we arrived at the cultural village. We were greeted by two older women dressed in traditional clothing making these crazy noises with their mouths! The noise was a welcome greeting, and it made us feel like they were very excited to have us. On the walk from the area we parked the bus, to the part of the village which we stayed in, the women had us clapping and singing along with them to a traditional song. No one knew the words, or could really understand them for that matter, so we mostly laughed, hummed, clapped and walked, but is was a great welcome. When we got to the center of the village, there were other women sitting there, with a fire waiting for us. The village is not a true village. It used to be, however it is now set up to host guests. Everything is left the way it was, however there are not people who live there now. The women there used to live there, however they now just come and host groups. There were two big huts, with blankets and foam set up for some of us to sleep in. There were also green tents set up (about 8) for groups to sleep in as well. All of the guys were taken away to go and  set up their belongings at the cattle post; basically a clearing farther away from everything where the men would go to fight off animals. After we had settled in, we all headed back to the fire for our real greeting. I am in the process of uploading the pictures right now, but as soon as it is done I will send you the link so you can take a look at everything- it is hard to explain! The women sang, danced, and played the drums for us to welcome us to their village. They introduced the Chief- an older man who was also dressed very traditionally, who did a dance for us which was the official welcome. He also did something called "throwing bones" where he took a sack of bones and dumped it onto the ground. If the bones landed together, we were welcomed with open arms. If the bones fell and did not group together, we were not welcome. As you could have guessed, we were welcomed! After that they sang some more songs for us, and had us dance along with them. The Chief's dance was my favorite. He played a little whistle as he danced. All of the people were probably about the age of 50 and up (the Chief is 76), yet they were so agile and full of life. They were bending down, getting up, dancing around, and really moving better than any of us could! It made me so happy to see people with such life left in them. The people were incredibly heartwarming. As the sun went down, we headed in for a traditional dinner of greens, bread (not like ours), a pumpkin, green-bean, zucchini mix (for vegetarians), and potatoes. There was also plenty of meat for the carnivores (haha)! After dinner a group of about 15 of us spent the rest of the night, sitting around the fire playing camp games. We played a game called Mafia for about 3 hours. I have really only played it with campers, so to play with 20-23 year olds was very fun! It was probably one of the most fun nights I have had in a long time. Lots of laughing, talking and having fun. I realized that here in Botswana, although there is a very large drinking culture, there are also MANY people who still know how to have a good time without drinking. I know that all of you adults reading this are feeling weird about me saying that, but it is true. It seems to me that college life in America is so centered around drinking, however here there is so much else that fulfills the need for excitement. Sitting around the fire with friends playing games was very reassuring to me, and was something I really won't forget. I have no idea why; it seems so simple. We headed to bed around midnight, into our huts where we fell asleep listening to birds, a light rain, and the creaking of our door opening and closing.
  In the morning we woke up to a decent amount of rain coming down. It was nothing too hard, but it was not a sprinkle. We ate porridge, coffee, eggs and bread with peanut butter (my first bite of peanut butter since I got here!!). We hung around a bit after breakfast, but then sadly had to leave. I wanted to buy a plot in the village and live there forever- it was really that fun! Time was so slowed down and life seemed so simple. Sadly, I climbed onto the bus and headed to Mokolodi.
  Mokolodi is a game reserve about 30 minutes outside of Gabs. We were greeted with Champagne and Mimosas the second we stepped off of the bus! After drinking some champagne we loaded the safari cars and headed out to look for some animals. We rode around for about an hour and saw some great animals. Our guide had a great eye and pointed out some animals I never would have seen. We saw Zebras up on a hill VERY far away, impalas, warthogs, ostriches and we got to see two cheetahs (although there were in a fenced in area so that they would not hurt any other animals). The impalas were everywhere, and they came up pretty close to the car, so we got to really see their details. I have plenty of pictures for all of you, but the details that you could see in person were gorgeous. We arrived to the lunch area about 30 minutes after everyone else (we were searching for the Rhinos!), but we were greeted with some of the best food we have had yet. We had bread, a bean casserole thing, something kind of like coleslaw, pap ( a traditional dish made of maize), and salad. It was verry good! Although we did not get to see anymore animals really after lunch, the tour before lunch was great. I cannot wait until I get the chance to go on a real safari-everything is much larger and more detailed than I had imagined!
Unfortunately we had to get on the bus after the game drive and head back to school. I am sitting here writing to you now basically falling asleep. The weekend was one of the most fun things I have done in a VERY long time. The culture that exists outside of the city is so strong and rich. It makes you wonder why the U.S. is so culture-less. Yes we have pop culture, but true moral culture is severely lacking, and I believe it is what makes places like Africa so appealing. The people were so welcoming, and had so much to tell us about their culture. This entry gave you a very surface level overview, but the trip was really amazing. It is time now for me to shower, go eat dinner and then pass out. Classes tomorrow! After this weekend it is hard to think that I have to sit through classes tomorrow :(
  I hope all is well wherever you find yourself reading this, and that you all had a great weekend! I will post the link as SOON as possible for my pictures. I took about 400 so there will be plenty for you to see.
I miss you all, and hope you are doing well!

P.S. Still no sunburn!