Shorobe homestay

Wow, I feel like I have a lot to say. It may be random, so bear with me...

The past 2 weeks I've been in a homestay (my last one for the semester) in Shorobe. Actually, I'm in a village outside shorobe that 3 of us are in, but our main base is shorobe. It's actually really nice being outside the village because ti's so quiet. It's too bad I haven't gotten to do some things other people have, like go to soccer games in Shorobe, but it's so nice out where I live. My family is just my mom Oarabile (40) and sister Mauni (8). My mom also has 2 sons-one in boarding school and the other is about my age, I think. There are also about 5 other kids that are usually at our house at night. I think they come because my mom feeds them. It's really interesting how people take care of each other here. Nobody really has money, but I think my mom might be slightly better off than many families because she works full time as a cook at the school in shorobe. Our house is one room that's maybe the size of 2 dorm rooms, and we have a kitchen, even though she always cooks outside on a fire. They use the kitchen for storage, and I think they might cook there during the winter. We dont' have any electricity or running water, and the toilet is the bush. It's really an incredible experience. It really puts into perspective everything that we "need" at home in the US. Seriously, you don't need much to live. Even food. I don't know what they normally eat, but I know my family didn't have much food when I got there. My mom had to wait until I got there to go to the store because they get money for hosting us, and she didn't have money to get food for me before I came. They do a lot of subsistence farming and eat the melons and squash they grow in their own garden, and their diet has a lot of cheap carbs like rice, noodles, maize meal (a corn-based thick porridge-type dish).

The language barrier has been interesting. My mom speaks a little english, and I speak a little setswana so we can communicate enough to get through the day but I really wish I was more conversational in setswana. It's hard living with someone for 2 weeks, and never really saying much more than the basics.

We have classes in Maun, which is also a village nearby, but it's more modern. Our classes are in a nice hotel. That hasn't helped the transition to living in Shorobe. It's really difficult to live in really poor conditions and then come each day to a nice hotel with white tablecloths, powerpoint presentations, mints, our choice to whatever food we want to buy for lunch with our comparatively disposable money supply, etc.

Another difficult thing-probably the hardest-has been being a guest here. They're always serving me and giving me the best of everything. I'm served considerably more food than they are. Thankfully, I don't have to feel ungrateful about not eating everything because they're happy to finish what's left on my plate and I'm happy to leave food so they can eat more and because I really cna't eat that much food. I also sleep alone in the only bed in the house, while my mom and sister share floor space even though the bed is definietly big enough for at least 2 of us. That part has been really difficult. And when I offer to help do things-cook, clean, etc. I usually am told that no, it's okay. so I just sit there and continue to be served.

Some other things I've done...we went to the Okavango delta last friday, which is one of the largest inland deltas in the world-right here in botswana:) we went in on the sweet boats you see in cool places like venice...and the delta. Then we proceeded to go on a game walk in the hottest part of the day where there was pretty much no shade and we saw absolutely nothing. Oh, except "shit of an elephant" and "shit of a giraffe", as our guide like to refer to it. Then we went back on our boats. The boats were cool. game walk, not as much.

Shoot, I'm out of internet time. We did some other cool stuff. next week I'll be in the bush.