Neo Sebolawe and the Weasleys

Mochudi, although labeled our “village stay,” is actually a rather large town of 40,000 people and an hour’s bus ride from Gaborone. Despite its size, it’s known for being one of the more traditional towns in Botswana, with the recent kgosi (chief) enforcing strict liquor laws (no alcohol can be drunk, even in your own home, before noon) and floggings are still part of the justice system. However, in my own home things seem to run happily and smoothly. As I mentioned, I live with my mom (who I call “mme” – Setswana for mother):

My grandmother who doesn’t seem to speak any English but often laughs at (with? J) me for unknown reasons:

My somewhat silent brother who is eleven and helps me with my Setswana homework, although he has resisted my attempts to engage him in conversation

And my 9 year old sister, who has become my friend and companion over the past few days

I also have a 26 year old brother who showed up at the end of the weekend, but he is out most of the time. After an absolutely sweltering combi ride into Mochudi on Saturday morning, we dropped each CIEE student off with their respective families. Our families span all socio-economic classes and family compositions, some people have a lot of siblings, some only a few, and the ages vary. My family seems to be on the poorer end of the total spectrum, although they manage just fine. It simply means that we make do without some of the amenities that other families have!

My lovely house!

A lot Botswana homes consist of several little buildings on a compound. We have two buildings, but life mostly happens in the home featured in the first picture (the blur is my sister)

As thank you gifts for my family I brought some cloth dish towels and then, for my younger siblings, something called Crazy Clay – play-doh that hardens into forms when left to dry. So my little sister and I spent the afternoon with Crazy Clay and then playing hide-and-go-seek. She tried to teach me jacks (played with stones) but as I can barely catch a rock when I just toss it up in the air, let alone trying to grab other things, we had to give it up as a lost cause. I also brought a stack of Colorado playing cards and most evenings my siblings and I play a couple rounds of Crazy Eights (everything here is crazy! J). Interestingly, they knew that game before I came, so either there is a Botswana equivalent or one of my predecessors was a good card teacher.

Crazy Clay success! (also in this picture is one of my sister’s friends)

Saturday evening, my mom bundled me off to go to “Mamareli’s” – one of the difficulties of the homestay is that my family’s English isn’t strong and my Setswana is downright horrible right now, so there’s a huge potential for things to get lost in translation. Before leaving, my mom wrapped my head with a traditional cloth and tied another one around my shoulders and then told my sister to take me. Bewildered, I walked for about ten minutes until we came to another Matswana woman’s house where she told me to go in and greet Tlhulofelo (the spelling on all these names is undoubtedly horrible). Turns out Tlhulofelo was Ani! Our host families are related and her mother (whose last name is Mareli) was taking Ani and myself to a Setswana funeral (hence my apparel). That evening we sat with over a hundred other people outside in the courtyard of the family of the deceased (an elderly man) and listened to speeches in Setswana. The funeral was a real social event, and apparently they are open to everyone, no invitations. After that we were served pap (a sort of gruel-like grain substance that is popular) and goat intestines (lucky Ani got mine J) and then we headed home. However, there was a follow-up the next morning where we arrived at the same home again at 6:00AM for the actual service. This time the coffin was there and the speeches were given for two hours, punctuated by songs started by the choir, but carried by the hundred plus people who were sitting in the courtyard. The songs (and speeches) were all in Setswana, so I couldn’t understand them, but they were really moving and seemed to capture the feeling of the ceremony. We then all got into cars and drove to the cemetery for more speeches and singing before the casket was lowered and every man present took his turn filling the grave until it was full. Then they covered it was rocks and lowered a sort of roofed cage over the whole thing before we headed back to the family’s house for more food.

After the funeral, my mother decided that we should visit some friends of hers so she took Ani and myself down the road to for some tea. Yes, even in this hot weather, tea is drunk! (I can’t say I object). When we got there we found that the girlfriend of my mom’s friend’s son (I’ll pause to give you a moment to read that J) was visiting her boyfriend for Valentine’s Day. She was a third-year student at UB like us, so we clicked pretty quickly, which was good because as the youngest women in the house it turned out to be our job to make lunch! We went shopping and then came back to cook for thirteen people, making our own mashed potatoes as well as some other traditional dishes (I’m becoming quite the chef!). The afternoon came to a wonderful close when it finally rained, cooling everything down – pula!

Now that it’s the week, we’re all bussing in to UB for the day and then coming home in the evenings, but I can’t say I mind the commute. It’s nice to have a quite start to the morning (and it is morning – I rise with the chickens around 4:30!).

My mom walks me to the bus stop!

As I said, my family isn’t terribly well-off. The toilet is an outhouse, and home to many bugs! On Saturday night I went to the bathroom and as I lifted the thing that is the toilet lid, and what should crawl out of the hole but a cockroach. For a moment, I panicked before reminding myself that bugs are my friends. To convince myself of this, I christened him Fred. Then Sunday night TWO cockroaches crawled out and I was like "Ah...Fred and George!" So fortuitously named. To my growing Weasley family I’ve now added a spider named Percy and a toad named Ron. That being said, I don't like cockroaches OR spiders and I'm terrified one will crawl up while I'm actually sitting on the toilet. J As I mentioned before, we have a collection of chickens that roam around the compound and alert me to the rising sun.

Chicken

My sister and I have been sharing a room/bed where she has demonstrated the remarkable ability to be heat resistant. While I lie awake sweating out every last drop of water in my body, my sister sleeps under a fleece blanket. A feat I consider nothing short of miraculous. To add to her list of skills, the other night a small bird flew into our room, which my sister then proceeded to catch with her bare hands!

Heat-resistant, bird-catcher extraordinaire!

It’s been a wonderful experience and I can’t believe that I only have four more days with my family. It’s reminded me how much I like living in a home, as well as how much I miss my own family. Incidentally, I'm no longer Kaija Bergen, but Neo Sebolawe, who quails not in the face of spiders! Hopefully Ani will write something about her experience - those with her contact information should pressure her!