I spy rhinos

This weekend I’ll be chilling’ in Gabs so I figured a blog entry about all the excitement of last weekend is long overdue.  Last weekend the crew travelled to Khama Rhino Sanctuary in Serowe. We woke up early Saturday morning, packed lunches, breakfast for Sunday, and basically all other food laying around that could be consumed during the long bus rides to and from Serowe.  I hate to say that my stomach was giving me some problems from the Ethiopian food the night before, so I took every digestive relief pill Kaitlin had in stock (thank god she is a nurse and essentially a walking pharmacist). It seems that the only thing I can eat without getting an upset stomach is top ramen, veggie burgers, fruit, and eggs. I do not have a digestive stomach made of steel, which seems to be necessary when abroad. But because I love food so much, I just put up with the discomfort to enjoy the international flavors.

We got to the bus stop and surprisingly found the bus to Serowe with ease. The bus station is pure chaos, and because we stick out like sore thumbs, we get bombarded by people who yell at us to board buses and taxis left and right. Sometimes I wonder what would happen if we did board a bus that took us to some random village 8 hours away from Gaborone and then we told the driver it was because he screamed in our faces to get on the bus. It’s gotten to the point where we just say NO and walk around to try to find places on our own. I guess I can’t fault them too much, though, because they are competing with other drivers to get our business, and if they don’t yell while others do, they’re basically shark bait. The bus ride was 4 hours of roller coaster sized bumps. I prefer window seats so that I can sleep, but trying to sleep against the window on this particular bus was like asking for a concussion. Instead I listened to my IPod for 4 hours and looked at the shrubbery fly by. Once we arrived in Serowe, we wandered around the town to pass the time. It kind of felt like we were in the middle of the desert. We picked up water from the grocery store because we didn’t know if the tap water was drinkable, and got some snacks for the rest of the afternoon. When we found the bus that would take us from Serowe to the sanctuary, we were not thrilled to find out that it was super crowded and there were no seats for us to sit together. Because none of actually knew where we were supposed to get dropped off, it was a stressful ride filled with us trying to make eye contact with each other to figure out where we were and when we should yell for the bus to stop. Thankfully he bus stopped right in front of the sanctuary, which was really fortunate for us because if he had dropped us off just 100 yards down the street, we would have been completely lost. The Rhino Sanctuary was literally in the middle of nowhere (there was nothing but road and dust in eye sight). We entered the sanctuary and went to the main office to check in. After the lady at the front desk gave us sass for not having a car (apparently we were supposed to have a car to enter the sanctuary, oops), we checked into our chalet and somewhat figured out transportation. We would basically have to be specially driven to and from our chalet whenever we wanted to go anywhere since we didn’t have a car of our own. I’m surprised she didn’t charge us significantly extra for that, since I imagine having to tend to a bunch of girls calling at random times needing to be driven around was inconvenient. We tried to be good and called only once to be driven to the restaurant for dinner. The chalet was very nice and well furnished. There were two rooms, each containing two full beds, and a bathroom and small living room. There were tea bags and coffee packs for everyone and a kettle to boil water in. The chalet itself was made of wood and had a straw roof. Apparently the insulation is great during summer, but it is wintertime now and it got very cold very fast. If it hadn’t been for the tea, we would have probably frozen.

After dinner at the park restaurant, we were invited to say hello to some Botswana women who worked for the UN. Our driver (the one who had driven us to our chalet and picked us up for dinner) told us that he has spent some years in the US working at Disney World in the African Adventures area. He was very friendly with us and apparently told other people that we were staying at the park. The women working for the UN mentioned that they would love to talk to us, so at dinner he found our table and invited us to a bonfire. Not wanting to be rude (also fire equaled warmth), we agreed to say hello and stay for a few minutes. The women were having dinner around the fire. We talked about out internships here in Botswana and what sorts of things we’ve been doing around the country. The women were friendly, but they wanted us to stay for longer so that we could talk more. Unfortunately, we had scheduled a game drive for 6:30 am the next morning and wanted to get a full nights rest. When we tried to tell the women that we had to get to bed, they began to get huffy with us. They said that we were not living it up like Batswana, and that we were letting our “American stress” prevent us from having a truly good time. We felt bad, but we needed to leave. Eventually Julia took charge and got the driver ready to go. I felt bad, but at the same time I don’t think I have ever dealt with pushier women. They were being welcoming and wanted us to have a good time with them, but they didn’t understand that we were appreciative but had to leave.  I think they were the exception to the otherwise very friendly Batswana we have encountered.

When we got back to the chalet, we were all freezing. I was wearing leggings, sweatpants, a t-shirt, a long sleeved shirt, a scarf, and my large bear sweater. After having a cup of tea, we called it a night and headed to bed. Much to our delight, our beds had thick and heavy comforters. Just to be sure no part of me got chilly during the night, I slept with my winter hat on.

The next morning we woke up bright and early for the game drive. Because it was so cold outside, we all took our comforters off the beds in the hopes that we could take them with us on game drive. When our driver arrived at 6:30 sharp, we asked if it was ok if we took the comforters with us, and she said that was no problem. As we boarded the truck, we were eager to see rhinos, but I think we were equally nervous that we wouldn’t see any. Several people told us that because it was wintertime, the rhinos sometimes stayed out of sight, and that it was possible that we wouldn’t see any on the drive. Even the driver said that because of the cold the rhinos would be harder to find, but that she would try her hardest to find some for us. For the first 45 minutes we just drove around the sanctuary without seeing any animals. Despite the cold, it was amazing to see the sun rise. It was a sight straight out of the Lion King. I tried to take as many pictures as possible to capture the sun just rising, so hopefully once I edit them all, I’ll have a good one to show everyone. As we continued to drive around, all of us were quietly intent on scanning the sides of the road for rhinos. Suddenly I saw something gray amidst all the dry brown shrubbery. My first thought was “that’s strange, there aren’t any other grey rocks around here” and then I realized that I was probably seeing the side of a very large rhino. I called out for the driver to stop and that I saw something. She backed up and lo and behold there was a rhino about 25 yards away from us. As it began to move, we saw two other rhinos with it. The driver told us that they were female white rhinos and that if we got lucky we would see the bull rhino, the male to whom the females belonged. We got lucky and within a couple of minutes the bull rhino came lumbering out of the bushes. He was HUGE. I never imagined rhinos could grow to be that big. They kept their distance for a few minutes, but eventually began to walk closer to us. The three female rhinos stayed together, and the bull rhino followed behind them. The driver told us that if the females strayed too far, or got too close to something it considered a threat, the bull rhino would herd them back to him, or attack whatever he deemed threatening. It seemed like the rhinos were posing for us; they just stood there and looked at us for at least 10 minutes.  Eventually they crossed the street, at which time I got a great picture of the bull. He looked almost as big as the truck we were in (which was big, we needed to climb into it with a small ladder). After that, I didn’t care if we didn’t see any other animals; I was content.

We continued to drive around for about another hour. We saw more impala and kudu, gnu wildebeests, springbucks, and wild dogs in the distance. At the very end of our game drive, we saw two more female rhinos playing in the dust. They seemed smaller and younger. We took a few more photos and then went back to the chalet. We got our things together and drove back to the front office. After checking out and thanking everyone for an amazing time, we began our journey back to Gabs. Thankfully, instead of having to wait on the side of the road for a bus to come by, one of the drivers from the sanctuary was taking a combi in the direction we were heading and offered to take us to a bus stop. When we got there, we befriended some local children who were playing by the bus stop. They played hide and seek with us, and wanted us to take their pictures, which we happily did. They were very cute and giggly. A woman who was also waiting for the bus told us that they were calling out to their other friends “whites are here, whites are here!” Apparently they don’t see white people often, and when they do it is a source of excitement.

Our bus came and took us back to the bus station in Serowe. We picked up some food for lunch and boarded a bus for the 4-hour ride back home. For some reason, the ride back seemed significantly longer than the ride to Serowe from Gabs. I’m sure we were all just really tired and eager to be back in the apartment. Unfortunately, the entire ride back our ears were graced with blasting church music, rap, and strange techno. When we arrived in Gabs, we practically ran off the bus. We made a quick stop at the Fruit and Veg Market to pick up some dried fruit and drinks then we took a taxi back to UB. The dried bananas I bought were tasty and super cheap. I hope to make another trip back to the store to get more fried fruit.

The next day, Julia and I took one of our off days and didn’t go to work. Sleeping in was glorious, especially after our 6:00 am wake up the previous morning for the game drive. After a late breakfast and some lounging, we got dressed and walked to the Main Mall for some souvenir shopping and lunch. The main mall is really cool because of all the little booths with handcrafted items lining the main walkway. Also, there is usually upbeat, cultural music playing loudly at the booths. After lunch, we visited the local Eco-Friendly Recycling center where we toured their organic garden, community-recycling center, and “green” gift shop. Everything sold there was made from recycled materials. There were very cute little trinkets and jewelry. We spent some time looking around, and then headed back to UB to hang out before everyone else came home.

This week I spent a lot of time in the HIV testing caravan, which was interesting for several reasons. I saw some people who tested positive for the first time, which was both saddening and eye opening. I was expecting the people to react hysterically. Even though the ARV drugs make having HIV no longer a death sentence, it still is a huge life changing moment to test positive for the virus. The majority of the people who were positive just sat there and quietly listened to the instructions for the CD4 count and viral load tests. One women even seemed in denial of the fact that her test clearly read positive. The most common and shocking trend I noticed was that the majority of people testing were women who did not know the status of their partners. Although knowing your HIV status is hugely important, equally important is knowing the status of your partner. This is especially true if the partner is not being faithful, an unfortunately prevalent situation here.

I also spent time in Mother Child Care. I have become very close to the nurses, and was made aware of the nurses’ feelings when I returned to work on Tuesday and the nurses told me that they missed me and were bored on Monday when I wasn’t there with them. I only have two more weeks here, and I think saying goodbye is going to be bittersweet. Meeting them and becoming their friends has been wonderful, but knowing that I may never see them again will be hard. 

Shout outs!

Before I begin this entry, I would like to make a shout out to my sister Erika Bernal who graduated from Armijo High School this afternoon. I regret not being able to be there in person to celebrate her accomplishments, but I send all my congratulations and happy wishes to her. Good job sis, I am so proud of you!

Today ended my fourth week of working in the clinic and marks the end of the first full month I have been in Botswana. The time has flown by remarkably fast, and I can only imagine that the rest will be a blur. I am having a wonderful time and learning so much, but I must admit that this week also marked the beginning of missing some of the luxuries of the US. For example, I miss being able to satisfy any food craving with a simple phone call, or quick drive/walk. I miss not having to schedule my life around when the sun goes down. I miss having reliable Internet and phone service. I also miss being able to talk at a normal pace without having to stop halfway through my sentence to restart at half the speed. It may have just been in my head, but it seemed like patients had an especially impossible time understanding me on Wednesday. It got to the point where I just wanted to say “I can’t do this, someone else please ask them in Setswana what they are feeding their baby”. Not being able to communicate and having people not understand you are some of the most frustrating things I have ever experienced. It also makes me extremely grateful when the nurses take the time to explain things to me in English, or converse in English so that I can be included.

This evening Kaitlin, Julia, Lina and I had dinner at an Ethiopian restaurant at Riverwalk. Every Friday, the restaurant offers a set price menu that has received raving reviews. Our information packets even included the restaurant as one of the must go-to places in Gabs. All being Ethiopian-naïve, we were curious and excited for the meal. I didn’t have the slightest idea what Ethiopian food was like and to be honest, I was a bit wary because I am extremely sensitive to spicy foods and I didn’t want to have an upset stomach the night before taking a 4-hour bus ride to Serowe the following morning. When I asked the server if the food was spicy, she told me that parts of the meal were, but that I had the option of making it mild. I made sure she understood that I wanted the mildest option possible. I think she was amused by my insistence, but definitely followed through with my request. When we received the food, we were all stunned by the phenomenal aroma and presentation. One of the staples of Ethiopian food is a thin, spongy type of bread that is used as a utensil to grab and eat the other parts of the dish. On top of a large circle of spongy bread was a meat and onion dish surrounded by lentils, some sort of mashed vegetable, lettuce, and a sort of sweet cole slaw. There was also a roll of spongy bread that we could unwrap and use to grab and eat the food. Think making your own taco with the spongy bread. Everything tasted AMAZING. The meat was by far the best quality meat we have eaten here, and the spice level was perfect. The lentils and vegetable were incredibly flavorful. To drink we all had cappuccinos, made with famous organic Ethiopian coffee beans. After sampling cappuccinos at several restaurants (they seem to be a favorite here), I can say with confidence that this restaurant boasts the best cappuccino.

Tomorrow we are going to the village Serowe for the weekend. We will be staying at the Khama Rhino Sanctuary, which is home to the endangered animal. The sanctuary is named after the first president of Botswana, Sir Seretse Khama, who was also the chief of Serowe (yes, villages here still have chiefs!). The position was passed down to his son, Ian Khama, who concurrently serves as the president of Botswana. We plan to leave UB for the bus station at 9:00 am and hopefully catch a bus Serowe by 10:00 am. The ride could be anywhere between 2 and 4 hours. We seem to have gotten mixed information about the length and price of the ride, so we figured we should get there early to be on the safe side.  Also, depending on whether we get dropped off in Serowe or a neighboring town, we will have to catch a ride to the actual village. We plan to pack lunch and just explore the village for the remainder of Saturday. Hopefully we can grab an early and inexpensive dinner so we can be in bed early. We scheduled a 6:00 am game drive for Sunday morning, which will be both awesome and a struggle to wake up for. Although none of us are early birds, rhinos apparently are, and so the best time to schedule a game drive is very early in the morning. After the game drive we’ll probably grab brunch and head back to UB. Because I am sure we will be exhausted from the early morning and long bus ride, I decided to use one of my off-days to take Monday off work. I will probably use it to sleep in, do laundry, and hopefully set up wireless on my computer (finally!!!).

Also, Happy Belated Birthday to my Grandma Delia, and in case I do not post before Sunday, Happy Father’s Day to all fathers, especially my dad. I can’t thank him enough for being an amazing father, role model, teacher, coach, provider and support. Love you!

Half-way mark

I have managed to fall ill to either food poisoning or some type of stomach virus. It has put a major damper on my weekend as I have been in bed for most of the past day and a half.

All’s not bad news though! Friday was fantastic; we got off work early to have our program midterm lunch. Nikki and Gill took us to the Gaborone Game Reserve to have a delicious lunch of sausage, steak, potato salad, beans, and fresh greens salad. We reported to everyone how our internship has been going and then enjoyed each other’s company and ate. Now that we are all working, times when the entire group are together is rare.

Friday evening was also a success. We were FINALLY able to do laundry here at the school (I had previously hand washed a few necessities) and in the evening we went to the theatre to see X-Men First Class. For those of you who don’t know, I am OBSESSED with the X-Men movies, and this one surpassed my expectations. Basically, this movie is the prequel to all the other X-Men movies and the story focuses on the young Professor Xavier and Magneto. In itself it was a good movie, but having seen all the other movies made it even better because there were tons of subtle references to what is going to happen in the subsequent movies. Because all of us liked we, we began to load all the other X-Men movies to watch in the evenings.

Because I still feel nauseous and without energy, I will probably not go into work tomorrow. Hopefully this is just some 24-hour thing and I’ll feel better tomorrow. My fingers are crossed! 

Week of Adventures

We have a severe roach infestation and tonight we may have killed the mother. Think giant bug circa Men in Black. It was not a pretty sight, but we are optimistic that we got rid of the source. Hopefully we see a decrease in the number of smaller ones that seem to take over our kitchen at nightfall.

I realize I have not blogged in a week, and I apologize for keeping you waiting on the edge of your seats (jokes, I doubt my writing is that riveting). I’ve been busy with work and weekend adventures, and in the evenings I just want to sleep. Excuses aside, I’ll try to update this more frequently in the future.

I’ll start from today and work backwards. We finally have another doctor working at the clinic. For the entire time I’ve been here, and who knows for how long before, there has only been one doctor in the entire clinic, and she has been stationed in the ARV caravan where she only sees HIV patients. Up until now, the nurses have had to do all consultations. The new doctor is from Zimbabwe, which is actually great for me because he also has some difficulty understanding Setswana and so conducts his consultations in English. This afternoon I shadowed him in the morning. It was good to see doctor-patient interaction. He was very thorough with every patient, which is absolutely to the patient’s advantage, but it got him some complaints from waiting patients for “being too slow”. It is impossible to please everyone. I also think his presence might be off-putting to some of the nurses because they have become so used to essentially running the clinic. Having the doctor there did make me realize how disorganized the clinic is and how dangerous complacency is to work quality.

Yesterday the Botswana national rugby team came through the clinic to get yellow fever vaccinations for an upcoming tournament in Cameroon. It was pretty cool to meet part of the team, especially because the day before (Sunday) I got to meet some of the players from the Botswana national soccer team, the Zebras (pronounced “Zeh-brahs”). We went to the Zebra game against the Malawi Flames, which took place right on campus. It was exciting to see how dedicated and crazy the fans here are. The Zebras are a pretty big deal, like their faces are on billboards throughout the city. After the game, some of the other interns made friends with one of the police officer/security guards, who said that he could get us pictures with the players after the game. We went with him to the Botswana National Football Association Headquarters, which is right across the street from UB and waited for the players to get out of their post-game meeting. Although we did not get to take pictures with the entire team, we did get pictures with one of the star midfielders, which was great because I noticed him during the game as being the primary playmaker. He is #8 and plays for a club team in South Africa.

That morning before the Zebras game we went back to Mokolodi for our cheetah-petting date. Five of us were driven into the reserve to the cheetah enclosure (which is actually just a huge piece of land fenced off from the other animals) to spend an hour with the cheetahs. There are two male cheetahs in the enclosure, both of which have been raised in the reserve since they were cubs. A farmer killed their mother when they were very young, and so they never learned how to live in the wild. They were actually smaller and much more lean than I expected, but knowledge of their speed and killing abilities were enough to keep me on guard. They didn’t seem to mind too much that we were there, but our guide was very careful to make sure we didn’t do anything that might startle them or put us in a dangerous position. They kind of just lay there while we were allowed to pet their heads. However, it was very unnerving when it rolled around to face us, or when the other one walked by us while we were still kneeling near the ground. While we were leaving another couple was coming to also pet the cheetahs. When they asked if the animals had ever bit a person, the guide responded by saying “dogs will sometimes bite their owners”.

Saturday a group of 6 of us visited Gabane, a village about 26 kilometers out of the city. We had to ride a combi, which is basically a minivan packed at least 3 people beyond capacity. The good thing about combis is that they have set routes outside of the city and are very inexpensive, only 3 pula each way. The bad thing about combis is that the routes aren’t actually written down anywhere, and the drivers don’t really speak English. It’s up to you to holler at your stop, which can be problematic when you don’t actually know your stop, like us. We just rode the combi to its very last stop, which was luckily the stop we wanted. Gabane was a very simple village with a few bars, a few convenience stores, and many goats and cows. Our primary reason for going to the village was to visit an awesome pottery shop. One of the employees was kind enough to give us a full tour of the pottery facility, and even showed us how to shape clay on the wheel. We then spent some time looking at the pottery and purchasing a few items for souvenirs.

Thursday was a holiday, so a few of us decided to go grocery shopping at a different mall than the usual Riverwalk. For those of you familiar with the show How I Met Your Mother, the theme song of this trip is basically Robin’s mall song. The main mall is really cool because all along the walk there are vendors who sell handmade Botswana crafts for very low prices. It was fun just stopping at every booth to look at the items and compare prices. It was also a great opportunity for bargaining. I bought a nice wood-carved decoration for 35 pula when it was originally priced at 65 pula.

Wednesday was the night before the holiday, so we ordered pizza and had a girls night in.

That’s pretty much as far back as I can remember.

Now the strikes are beginning to get violent in cities around the country. In Francistown, workers are burning things in the streets and breaking into cars. The government and union seem to have reached some sort of consensus on a 3% wage increase, but there is still disagreement about how the money will be allocated to people of various incomes. From what I understand, there is some sort of pyramid structure where the bottom of the pyramid (lowest paid workers) will get the greatest pay increase, whereas those at the top of the pyramid will have the smallest increase. Everyone is becoming impatient, which only raises the tension of the country.

There is a huge storm outside right now, and we are experiencing torrential downpour. I don’t think I have heard thunder this loud in my life. I am going to bed soon, though I think the noise and sporadic lightning may keep me awake. Walking to work tomorrow is going to be very muddy. I hope we don’t get flooded. I also hope the rain drowns all the roaches.