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.
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.
