Dumelang! (Hello friends in Setswana)

I have been in this beautiful country for four days after two days of travelling with KLM. It was two days of Dutch accents and blue surroundings...and amazing food. I think that airplane food has significantly improved. And the containers bring fun facts...did you know that the first evidence of soup was in Africa 6000 years ago and made from hippos? How would anyone ever figure that out? Maybe drawings of hippos in giant bowls being stirred with big sticks...

We have had three days of intense learning. My mind has been filled with information about the history of Botswana, it's current economic situation and the HIV crisis in the country. The presentations have been full of passion and have left me with critical thoughts of what it means to do "humanitarian" work in a developing country. I will give the example of land tenure. I wrote a paper last semester about the land conflicts between the government and the San, the traditional people of the Kalahari. When the San were removed from their land by the government when diamonds were discovered, their case was taken up by a British NGO that claimed that the diamonds should belong to the San and the removal was unjust. Although much of their position may have reason, I think they don't understand the traditional system of land tenure in the country. Land officially belongs to the government and is granted to people upon request. With the discovery of a natural resource, policy is that people are made to move with proper compensation of the government. Now, that is not necesarily what happened in the San case, but a lot of the later blown up conflict with the government was due to a lack of understanding of and respect for the traditional system of land distribution.

I realize that was probably not as interesting to most of you as where I'm staying and what exciting cultural aspects of Botswana I have been exposed to as of yet. So for a short description:

For the first week, the 13 of us are staying at a guest house of the Agricultural college right outside of the city. We are doing an orientation that involves cultural events, educational sessions, tours of the city and our placements, and Setswana lessons. THe language, by the way, has the most difficult pronounciation of any language I have ever attempted to speak. I have gotten really good at saying thank you - Kea leboga - but I get a lot of giggles from Batswana when I just repeat it over and over.

Last night we had a BBQ at the home of Kathy, the permanent staff person from WUSC. SO MUCH MEAT. The traditional dancers performed for us, and even had us dance with them. I tried out some super speedy gumboot dancing with one of the dancers who informed me that the South Africans stole the dance from the Batswana who worked in the mines during colonialism.

We are off to a traditional village to take part in the harvest celebration and watch the dancing troupe again.

Hope all is well in Canada and on your various travels,
Lots of love,
Jenn