Medicine, Monkeys, and More

As this week comes to a close, so do all of Ani and my classes. Incredible as it seems, we are nearing the end of the semester and now is the time of finals and check-outs. But first, the past couple weeks in review.

The weekend before last was our final CIEE cultural excursion, this time to visit a traditional healer. Though Botswana has a large number of Western clinics and hospitals, traditional healers still have a large number of clients. We went to visit a man in Gaborone who cures everything from stomach aches to bad luck. Nine of us all piled into his small room – for those who have seen a Dupre single at Macalester, this room was slightly smaller than that. For those who don’t get the comparison, just know that Mac pays a fine because those rooms are smaller than regulations allow. His office was lined with class jars and tin cans filled with medicines. Some he said he collects here in Gabs, but others require him to go to Zimbabwe. Medicines are made from combinations of herbs, roots, bark, leaves, and animal bits – including a mixture of elephant dung that, when burned, brings you good luck and customers at your shop. Perhaps one of the most interesting –and troubling—cures that the healer offered was the ability to cure HIV/AIDS. He said that, should you come early on, when you are still fit, he would give you a medicine that flushed the virus out of your system. To do so, you would drink about 15 liters a day. This is actually one of the challenges for Botswana in confronting the AIDS epidemic. Many people will test positive at a health clinic and then, rather than consulting the physicians to whom the clinic recommends them, they go instead to a traditional healer for the “cure.” Nevertheless, despite this rather dangerous promise on the healer’s part, it seems most of the other cures that he told us about where more for bad luck, or women trying to find rich husbands.

After that we went to the Gaborone Game Reserve for a braai—Botswana barbeque! With Batsi and Joe the combi driver as our chefs we had fun watching the monkeys run around the camp site. Well, we had fun until one scoundrel of a monkey climbing above us in a tree decided to poop directly on Ani! She seems to be having a rather unfortunate time with the simians here in southern Africa: first the thieving baboon in Victoria Falls and now this!

Most of the CIEE crew

Batsi grilling away—he even brought vegetarian burgers!

Ani and monkey poop

CIEE Combi Crew

As many of you know, that weekend was also Ani’s 21^st birthday, an event that for Batswana is not as exciting, given the drinking age is 18. Nevertheless, we decided to celebrate in style and went out to Linga Langa, a restaurant at Riverwalk. Dessert is not as big a food item here as it is in the States, so we discovered to our dismay that this would have to be a birthday without cake. We made due with a lasagna.

Lasagna Cake

The Birthday Girl!

Another little experience Ani and I have recently had is that of doing our laundry by hand. UB has a number of laundry machines that we’ve been gratefully using for most of the semester, but last week must have been laundry-week for everyone because we couldn’t seem to find a free one. Undaunted we decided to try our hands (haha) at washing them ourselves, something much more common here in Botswana than back in the States. In fact, a number of Batswana swear its cleaner to do it this way, though I suppose it depends on your skill level!

Ani scrubbing away

Solar-powered dryer ;)

Part of ending the study abroad semester is souvenir shopping, for ourselves and people back home. One particularly original gift is that of Ani and my friend Sophie, who is buying her twin brothers and father custom-made sports jackets –in a vibrant, African print. We wandered over the African Mall pick out some cloth and were directed into the back of the store to talk to the tailor. After a great deal of rather amusing estimations as to how long her brothers’ arms might be, we got the order placed. Look for a picture of what are sure to some rather hilarious outfits!

Other than that, the focus here has been paper-writing for Batsi and wrapping up classes. There’s a two week period of finals and then we’ll be heading out on May 6^th. It looks like our flight should be okay, despite the ash that has delayed so many other people this past week—particularly everyone on their spring break in Europe! Fingers crossed everything should be fine for us. Ani and I are scheduled to do a ten day lay-over in the UK following the end of the semester here, so the blog will continue through there!