Geez, moving from Otse to Gabs has been a huge transition. I'm now living with my mom, Monica, and her 21 year old daughter, Mpelo. My family has:
A two story brick house. A car. Electricity. Two indoor bathrooms. A shower. A bathtub. Air conditioning (but we only turn it on at night). A fridge. Two freezers. A giant TV and a DVD player. A computer for my sister, a university student.
We have ice cream in the freezer, cookies in the cabinets, and ate salad with dinner last night. Mpelo has been to Las Vegas twice to visit her older sister, who now lives in Canada but went to school at Johnson and Wales (small world!). Mpelo loves movies and Hollywood and we watched the Oscars last night before bed. Both my mom and sister speak just about perfect English, although I still make an effort to throw out my Setswana phrases, which makes them very happy.
Mpelo HATES frogs. She refused to come inside last night until Mma took a broom and drove the frog 25 feet from the door. I think I'll probably end up taking over the frog-shooing responsibilities since I don't mind picking them up and moving them.
My mom has a cattle post 4 hours outside of Gabs and there is some problem so she'll be leaving tomorrow through Friday to go check it out. Then, next week, she's going to Jo'burg to take care of her granddaughter while her daughter and son-in-law go to Cape Town for some award the son-in-law won. So basically, it'll mostly just be me and my sister at home.
We're taking classes at UB (University of Botswana) now. We have two different guest lecturers each day, some professors from the university, some government officials, some people from NGOs, etc, etc. It's exactly like any American university, complete with power point presentations and carefully watered green spaces. Right now, however, the actual UB students have a mini vacation (so Mpelo sits at home, sleeps, and watches TV) but they will come back next week.
The one small problem is that most of the homestay presents are for the 10-and-under crowd... I doubt Mom and Mpelo want play-dough and bubbles, particularly when they can clearly afford a high standard of living and trans-Atlantic airfare. I'll have to ponder what I can give them as a thank-you gift... Any ideas??
2 comments:
They sound pretty Western, so would a hostess gift like we would give in the U.S. be appropriate? Like finding a nice sort of food store and getting some chocolate, or baked goods, or something similar that they like but don't have everyday?
I agree that buying something there would be a good idea, but you would score serious points by giving bubbles and/or play dough for Monica to take to her granddaughter, too. If she's a baby, bubbles would still be good, although maybe not the play dough!
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