Kgale Hill and UB Classes

Sunday marked the beginning of a new type of hiking for me. As listed on our schedule, we went to Kgale Hill – the tallest point in Gaborone (only because the real hills are about twenty minutes away in South Africa) – prepared for sunburn and sweat. This hike was unlike those I’ve gone on before because our program director Batsi likes to hike this hill without using the trail. This is apparently acceptable in Botswana, where I think the forest service can be a little lax. J First, however, we had to make a very important stop to get…fat cakes. Actually called that, fat cakes are like a combination of excellent donuts and lembas bread in that one can fill the stomach of a grown man.

Preparing to eat my heart attack

We then arrived in our combi (as I mentioned, this is the white van in which most people get around – as a group we generally put fourteen people plus the driver in there, although after the hike we added Batsi’s two kids to make a cozy 16).

Shot from the back of the combi – hard to really give a sense for it.

Intrepid Adventurers

As promised, no path. In the foreground, a disgustingly relaxed Batsi.

The hike was pretty tough. Forget us not using the path, the thing was steep as you can probably see in the photo. I drew heavily on my memories of other climbers such as Frodo and Sam to inspire my trek. You’d be amazed by how much cooler you feel stumbling through bush when you tell yourself you’re like Aragorn. That and the fact that there were bugs like this one:

This fellow starred as one of the extras in the Hakuna Matata scene of the Lion King.

Took us probably two hours to get to the top. However, upon gaining the summit (it was an epic climb) it was worth it. From Kgale Hill you can see over into South Africa as well as overlook the entirety of Gabs. Also, it helped that there was a brisk breeze there to cool off the sweaty, out of shape Americans.

Part of the successful climbers and a helpful sign for those wondering where Beijing was from here

“Meditating” over the city – although my shoulders are blinding white in this photo by the end of the afternoon they had turned about the color of my shirt, despite the SPF 50 I put on them. The rest of me, however, remained pale as ever. Thus fail my hopes for a tan.

We then hiked down (using the trail, thankfully) and were picked up by our combi with Batsi’s kids and made our way to Lion’s Park—Gaborone’s water park. On the way we saw some baboons, but they were too fast for a good photo so you’ll just have to imagine them. Once at the water park we finally cooled off by hitting the wave pool and the rides, which were very much like old carnival rides from maybe the late eighties/early nineties. This day was further perfected by the fact that we had pizza. Delicious pizza.

The next day classes began! Here, everyone is still registering themselves for the school year, so the first day of classes consists more of students lining up in long queue. The professors don’t always come to the first day or even first week of classes and rarely will you get a syllabus on the first day. With my magical class-picking abilities I had every professor show (although no class ran its full 50 minutes), but Ani only had half of her professors come. The policy seems to be show up, wait for fifteen minutes and if the professor isn’t there you can head out. Finding classes worked better than I expected and I think I’ll enjoy what I’m taking for the most part.

Ani’s Classes

• Demographic Aspects of HIV/Aids
• Gender in African Literature
• Epidemiology (this might change because literally no one showed for that class)
• Psychopathology
• Setswana
• CIEE Setswana

My Classes

• Demographic Aspects of HIV/Aids
• Gender in African Literature
• Politics of Poverty in Southern Africa
• Literature of the African Diaspora (Afro-Caribbean Literature)
• Setswana
• CIEE Setswana

As you can see we are taking two intro to Setswana classes, which totals about nine hours of Setswana instruction every week. Hopefully this will transform us into native speakers in no time!

As predicted, refectory food is already getting old. We went out and saw Avatar last night (not in 3D, there is no 3D in Botswana) and ate at Riverwalk. That's not a permanent solution though because even though things are slightly cheaper here, Riverwalk dining will definitely start to add up. Also, I would like to announce that I have very excitingly won a bet with my father, who predicted I would not be able to conveniently find peanut butter. It is sold both at the school convenience store and Riverwalk. Therefore, I am now the proud owner of a jar of “Black Cat” peanut butter.

You can buy peanut butter in tubs!

So, Dad, that’s 120 pula you owe me! This weekend we have plans to visit a village outside of Gaborone and then possible do some “Game spotting” aka look at wild animals!