looking forward to see the delta

time is running out. i am using my last days to run all the errands in town, i couldn’t until now. i meet some people of the youth dialogue era and the botswana society last week and today.

also, i meet a lady at the WCCC who just opened her own ngo: reunion center of reconsiliation. it works on re-integrating ex-prisoners in society by giving them working opportunity on farms and so on. she has been in prison herself and told us about how challenging her situation was after she got out and her whole family had turned her down.

actually, i meet a lot of people here who are very excited about giving me jobs;). but i doubt that either of them has any funds to pay. but i might go into funding myself, since i met quite a few people who would pay for a fundraiser from europe or america to keep their ngo running.

i am at a point, where i am just really looking forward to my future. i am so excited what it might bring.

also, right now, i am excited about finishing up in gaborone and leaving to the north. i will miss some people i met here… but still, i feel it is my time to travel. i wanna go places, now!

how the people of botswana decided to build an university

you know, before botswana became independent, yu could not find a single town in the whole region of nowadays botswana. actually, it only consisted of wide plains of desert and bush scattered with houses.

that has changed a bit since then. the biggest city till today is gaborone, the capitol, in the far south of the country. at the time of indepence in 1966 it was no more than a small village. until today, the city center is quite small and people would say, that it hasn’t lost its village character since then.

for the last 50 years, botswana has worked on independence in all areas you might think of. of of them is the area of education. at indenpendence, the country only had a hand full of schools and not a single university. so, the people decided to build their own university. it is nowadays located on a huge campus in the city center and it’s extending constantly. back in the days, everyone in the country contributed to building the university with their own wealth.

that means, that everyone would come a bring a cow or so to gaborone. cattle are actually one of the most valualbe things in botswana and having many cows will mean, that you are a rich man or woman. so, everyone would bring something of their valuables to contribute to build ub (the university of botswana).

the people realized, that education is your strongest weapon in your fight for independece. until today, the vision of ub is: education is a shield. it will defense you against any aggression.

people, keep empowering yourselves through education, they say.

thinking of Port Elizabeth

folks! quite a few of you might remember, that i used to study in port elizabeth/south africa some time ago. this entry is especially for those, who spend time with me, there… studying, partying, travelling, cooking, whatever…

here, in gaborone, it seems to me, that i meet port elizabeth on every corner i turn. i came across so many people allreadz who used to study in pe as well. we would end up charing experiences about living and studying there. actually, it looks like, that quite a lot batswana go to pe for their studies. well, it is a good university, though. probably one of the best in thewhole of southern africa.

pe-folks… i have been thinking about you. lets meet up at some point to chare old memories and spend some time together.

greetings out of the african summer.

martina

my illusions on African summers

folks, I really wonder.

Botswana just made me loose all my illusions on African summer. Last week, it was raining for days non-stop. I cross my fingers, I had actually packed one of my woolen pullovers… otherwise I would have died of cold;). really, you will never believe, how cold summer can get down here when the rain comes.

Actually, this year is a quite dry one. So, people are still waiting for the first big rain to come, that will wash away last year’s soil. Now it looks like the big rain will never fall, as it would normally come on October or latest November. Rain in Botswana is probably more important than the diamonds, on which the national economy depends.

If there is no rain, there will be no harvesting and people will suffer. There is a national Drought Program, though. The government will give out food to the people to survive. Also, especially the northern aereas of Botswana (I live in the far south) do lie under national water restrictions. That means, there are not alloewd to use any water for special needs raging from washing your car to flushing your toilet. Here in Tlokweng, we don’t have any of those resttrictions.

Actually, if you live in or around Gaborone as I do, you will stay in the most luxurious place you can imagine. Someone called Gaborone a “plastic world” the other day. And I think, he is true. People here don’t know what it is like to live without running water or electricity, although most of them do have relatives in the villages, which they would visit regularly or would have been born in a village.

Pula is the Setswana Word for Rain, the currency here is called Pula as well. This might show you, how important rain is. Whenever you meet people on a long rainy day, when your clothes are drenched, when you’re cold and the streets are flooded… people will just smile at you and say in their typical calm manner: We are blessed.

No one would ever think about complaining about the rain, although you wont see many people out during rainy days. People will stay away from work, they will just stay inside of their houses and sleep or watch tv. Because honestly: what else is there to do on a day like this?

making ginger beer

on special request with very special greetings to Goettingen:). take good care of yourself.

 

 

Time is running fast

I only gut wo weeks left and I reallt feel that the time is to little to research on my topic. I mean, for sure, I will collect enough information untiul I leave Gaborone… but if I wanted, I could keep on researching for another six months or so. It is just like that, that once you opened the bottle, you cvan’t close it again. There is so many water spoilling out and I can’t prevent it from spilling on the ground. There is only so much I can pour in my cup.

But it’s a good felling, though. I will be doing another big  bunch of interviews this and next week. Also, next week I will be attending a workshop for two days. Today, I will be meeting the vice secretary of a youth organization here. Every day I am busy meeting people and I love it.

But there will be a lot of people I would love to meet. But I can never do it, because I will be leaving Gaborone soon.

I will miss this place, you know. I feel like I made friends her, which is a redicoulus thing to say after four weeks. Let me say it differently: I met a lot of people, I will take home in my memeries.

Isn’t that a good thing to say?

Take care

Paranoid and fundamentalistic ;)

That is, what I think sometimes, when I think of religiosity in our household. It is God 24/7 for my boss. Reading the Bible, listening to Gospel, watching Emmanuel TV (yes, it’s some kind of God TV). And everything, that is happening in the world… it’s God’s doing. Well, and if it is bad, it’s Satan’s doing.

With that comes a big mistrust for people. Mz boss always says: ” I don’t trust anyone. I just trust God.” And that one is true. God is his best friend, his only love and the only one he wants to trust truely. He would feel, that God is the one that porovides whatever challenge you go thorugh and that he will be the one that will always stay by your side as long as you pray and confess your sins.

Actually, I learned quite a long about christianity in the last few weeks. I feel like I made a degree in Christianity. So, whenver you have any religious question… come to me, I feel like I can answer them;). I am at a point, where I think, that I truely understand the meaning and place of sin, prayer, repentance and whatever in Christianity.

Christianity has its own logic and all the peaces actually fit together nicely, if you know how the full picture is supposed to look like.

My boss says, I will not go back home the way I came. He is right on the one hand, on the other hand he is not. What he is saying is, that I will grow spiritually and turn to God during my stay. I can ensure you: I will not. But still, I will go back differently. I have learned so much here. So I grew intellectually.

But I also see very clear, that I never want to become a Christian. Their moral values can never be mine. Really, like their sexual morality is sooo conservative. Lust is bad, homosexuality is bad… I even wonder, if enjying sex at all is a sin. Also, they consider jealousy and anger as sins. But I say: where would humans be, if we would be jealous or feel anger? Those are powerful and cleansing feelings, as well.

So, I restisted Christianity for four weeks, now, staying with the pator in his house, accompaniying him to every church service. I am so proud of my thickheadedness (you understand, what I mean?), really;).

Meeting the Germans

Guys, something really strange happend the other day: I met some Germans here in Gaborone.

Actuyally, there are quite a few around, since the DED (Deutscher Entwicklungsdienst), the GTZ (Gesellschaft fuer Technische Zusammenarbeit) and the Friedrich Ebert Foundation all run offices here in town. So those three german companies would stay in close interaction and the Germans working there would spend a lot of free time togehter as well.

So, the other day, I was given the mail and cell number of another German girl, who is working for the GTZ (thanks Anna;)). We were meeting up at “Linga Longo”, which is a true white cafe and restuarant. I am telling you, I have never seen so many white people in one place before in Botswana.

Actually, I didn’t even know, there were so many;).

So, I really liked talking to her and later one we met some of her German friends. But to tell you the truth: to me it felt very strange to meet Germans and to talk German, too. Alo I felt how much more reserved and closed-minded Germans are in comparison to Batswana. Germans would watch and wait to see, who you are. They would not be as open minded as the Batswana.

So, whenever Germans ask themselves still, if they really want to get to know you or not, the Batswana would still have given you their pohne number.

Guys, I really liked that easy going openness. I meet so many interesting, fun people here, allready. I can tell you!

And I felt, that I don’t want to sp[end my time with Germans here. It just doens’t feel right. I didn’t come to Botswana to speak German… although, today on the combi I met a painter who has been attending an art festival in Vienna/Austris once. So, we would end up speaking a bit of German. I was impressed to say the least.

I am going back to my Afreican people, still .

Go siame,

Martina

Sorry for the delay

hej folks.

I am so sorry for the delay. It has been an awful long time since you last heard from me. You see, the problem is, our internet cafe closed down until december.  Also, it is not so easy to get an internet computer at university. I try it everytime I am there. But still, at times they would all be in use by other people.

So, right now I am actually at Game City. This is one of the latest shopping malls here in Gaborone. It is still in the process of building and I can allready see, that it will become huge, I am telling you. Game City is actually pretty far from tlokweng. By combi (the public transport here) it would take me an hour or even more to get here. So I hardly ever go to Game City.

Today is one of those special days, becauuse I came to pop in the Vision 2016 office, which is just around the corner. I was hoping to get some pieces of information about my research topic Botho, that I could use. Vision 2016 is an approach of the people of Botswana to their government and in that vision they summoned up all the wishes and expectations they have, that the government might reach them by 2016. And the government is really struggeling to reach those aims that its people it putting onto them.

In the end, it didn’t bring me too much to go there, although they gave me a pretty new idea of who to speak to about Botho.

Stay in touch!

I long to hear from you.

the parliament is one of the most impressive buildings in the governmental quarter in Gaborone.

the ministry of health is probably the biggest building around. Botswana actually does not only spend much money on the ministry houses, but also in health care itself, since Botswana is one of the top 3 countries with HIV/Aids in the world.