sarah mcVey: Week 6

This was a really excellent week! We did just the right amount of adventure, party, school and everything.

On Tuesday one of my closest friends that I have met here turned 21 so we took her out for the night, needless to say, after the amount of alcohol she consumed, it was no surprise that her Irish accent and overly cuddly self was an enjoyable addition to the evening. It was a pretty great time because we went out for karaoke and dancing at a local place called Zoom, this has become our favorite place to go. Anyways on funny story from that night was that Audrey (birthday girl) tried to do the worm in the middle of the dance floor, smashed her face on the ground and ended up with a bloody nose and a black eye- I guess you cant expect anything less from a 21^st birthday.

Also got a chance to talk to my soccer coach because I have realized that I am way less committed to this then they probably want me to be because we go on so many weekend trips and I volunteer twice a week which means I miss training… Anyways I was worried I would have to quit soccer since I couldn’t fully commit but the coach was very understanding and told me to come when I could make it, I get am getting the best of both worlds- traveling when I can and playing soccer when I can’t (two of my all time favorite things).

Volunteering this week was so much fun. So my Wednesday volunteering is at a place called Happy Hands, it is a club for kids in a poorer neighborhood. I am in charge of teaching the English class for 5,6,7 graders; teaching them Basic English Skills. This week we went over punctuation; things like quotation marks and apostrophize. We also talked about switching from singular to plural, which was so hard. How do you tell a kid that the plural of moose is moose, and for most words with a “y” at the end you “drop the y and add i-e-s” except for not with monkey- you just add an “s” on the end of that one. This class is actually really good for me since English has never been my strong suit and the best way to learn is to teach. They are so cute and enthusiastic about learning.

I finally presented for my Traditional and Alternative medicine class and it actually went really well, the teacher liked our presentation and that is saying something since the group that presented after us was stopped 5 minutes in and told to re-do their presentation and present on Friday- harsh guy but I guess that’s good for us?

This weekend I finally got the cultural experience I have been craving since I have been here. A group of international students went to a festival called “Son of the Soil.” It is a celebration of the traditional Botswana culture through food, games, dance, music and dress. So pretty much a little bit of everything. We showed up and the people in charge were so friendly and nice, they told us to go get involved in whatever we wanted to so a bunch of us went off exploring to see what we could help with. My first stop was at the spot where the cooking was happening. We helped make rolls and fat cakes (which are just oversized scones) in traditional ovens and then the real fun started. We got directed over to an area of the cooking that was working with the meat. We got to cut up an entire chicken, slice the entrails and intestines of a cow, and cook a pot of chicken heads. Pretty intense to say the least, the chicken was extremely hard to chop up and I say I succeeded with hesitation because it didn’t turn out too well. While we were there we tried about 5 different parts of the inside of a cow including the kidney, liver, and intestines. We also tried chicken neck and feet- personally from now on, I will be sticking to chicken breasts and thighs but to each his own. After we had finished helping cook, we took a break in some hammocks that were placed in a circle under a tree. We took a ride on a donkey cart, learned how to play traditional games like man calla, jump rope, and marbles. Then this little kid came over to me and was attached to me for the rest of the day, we became great friends doing magic tricks, playing with my camera and wandering around. He was so darn cute; his mom took a picture of us and started calling me “his new mom.” Then there was a fashion show called “RURAL SWAG” that was put together by a local trying to mix the western trends with traditional cultural outfits, and of course, he asked the white people to be a part of it. So we went back behind this stage to change into outfits, which we had to alter by ourselves to make sure that nothing was exposed- and then went out and literally walked on a runway showing off the outfits. I could NOT stop laughing, I think the stylist was secretly mad at me because of it but I couldn’t help it. It was about 3:30 or 4:00 at that point and most of our group was ready to leave but thankfully, me and two other people decided we wanted to stay and see what else would happen and I am sooooooooo glad that we did. The fun started after that because traditional dance groups got up and performed both bushman and other tribal dances rolling around in the dirt and acting out war stories and it was amazing. They are great dancers to say the least. Then there was a little sing off- northern Botswana vs. southern Botswana. We joined the southern side since we live in Gabs but ended up pretending to be from a tribe in Kanye. The sing off was pretty exciting because all the songs were in Setswana so the three of us were just yelling at the top of our lungs, but I think we pulled it off because the south won! The night was finished off by a concert type deal where tons of local performers came with their traditional outfits, backup dancers and instruments to perform for us. We ended up right in front of the stage and spent the next 4 hours dancing and singing to music. I found my new husband- who was a back up dancer for one of the bands, one guys band was playing the finger pianos which was sweet, and I got told I was the best white dancer people had ever seen. I would call that night a win.