Gaaaabs

We've had quite the week here. It's really not school at all, we go on some field trip each day to take a tour or here a lecture and that's it. No one here's complaining, though - the wireless in the office is finally working, so for the first time we've got reliable and regular internet access. And now that it's finally sunny again today, we can use the pool out back!

Last Thursday before the Easter holidays started we had quite an intense field trip, to the Botswana Meat Commission (BMC) in Lobatse. That's the slaughterhouse that produces the majority of beef for the country, as well as exporting a lot to Europe. We went in, got dressed up head-to-toe in sterile white uniforms, and got a full tour of the slaughterhouse. I haven't seen Food Inc., but from what I hear I may have seen the real-life version. Sooo nauseating and graphic (WARNING, you might want to skip ahead to the next paragraph) - we saw the entire process in action, from the kill floor where they stun the cows (though some apparently weren't stunned enough to stop kicking and mooing), hoist them up by the back leg, and slit their throats, all the way through the process of hacking the meat off the carcasses and gouging the eyes and brains out of the skull, to loading the meat in boxes into the freezer. Quite the experience. Definitely nothing you could ever do in America - and they let me take pictures (which I haven't had the stomach to look at yet) of the whole operation.

Friday and Monday we had off for Easter. On Saturday, some of us went to Lion Park, an amusement/water park about a half hour outside of Gabs, in coordination with the first sunbreak of the weekend. There was a huuuge water slide and wave pool and those swings that make you fly around in a circle... so much fun. Then on Sunday, after a fun (not so much) morning at church for Easter, we got together for a quesadilla fiesta. (Mexican food has been an eternal quest for a lot of the group this trip.) Everyone stresses here how it isn't safe to walk outside after dark, even in a group, so three of us had to wait for my parents to come drive us. Unbeknownst to me, though, they'd gone out to a braai, and didn't come to take us home til after midnight - far past all our bedtimes here.

During our last day off on Monday, Peo (Heather) and I took a bus into Manyana to visit our first host families. It was so weird to be back in the village we'd lived in for a month... all the rain had made the scenery a lot greener than I remembered, but otherwise everything felt familiar. While Peo went to play with her adorable five-year old sister/best friend Tshiamiso, I went back to the Mangope house to say hi. As it turned out, my entire family was home: Mme and Rre, and my bros Labo and Mogolodi. It was great to see them all again! Mme had just made samp and stew for lunch, so I ate my fill, and also feasted on maize and watermelon that they'd harvested from the lands. I stayed and talked and watched soccer with them for a few hours, but Peo and I had to leave in order to catch a khombi home before dark.

This week so far has been more of the same, field trips and eating out and hanging out at the mall. Passover ended on Tuesday (I actually tried to stick to the basics, i.e. not eating bread, so my sister and I experimented in baking matzah at home), and Wednesday Peo insisted we go to a coffee house at Riverwalk to get the most heavenly chocolate cake in the world. Totally worth it. This was after we'd found what may be the only pad thai in Gabs.

Tonight we're having a slumber party at the office (which is actually our program director's old house), so we can leave eeearly tomorrow to go to the Jwaneng Diamond Mine. Should be fun, even though I somehow doubt they give out free samples. And then.... this weekend I'm leaving the group, heading out on my own to Maun (near the Okavango Delta) for independent study. Everyone else is doing research or internships in Gabs, so it'll be sad to leave, but they're already talking about coming up to visit one week so we can go on safari together. I'll be in Maun for six weeks. It's not finalized what I'll be doing there, but as of today I've gotten two offers: I can intern with the Bots Dept of Wildlife, and/or I can do field research with a prof at UB Maun who I think is doing work in conservation, land use, and tourism. Gonna call him today to find out more.

So, I guess that's it for me in Gabs. It's been a great couple weeks here, I've gotten to spend more time with some of the others and bonded nicely, which only makes it harder to leave. Still, I'm super excited to get out and see more of the country, and of course spend more time with the animals around there. ;-)