Culture Shock x3

Shorobe is everything that Kasane was not. I'm living with my 21-year-old "mother" (can I really call her that?) Dimakatso and her 19-month-old son Junior, who we call Mmpina. My 13-year-old cousin Namune also seems to be staying with us. Our home is a rondaval with thatch roof, dirt floor, and walls built with beer cans mortared together with mud. The radius of the house is at most 5 feet. The yard is about 10 x 10 feet and fenced by tall wooden sticks. There is a communal pit latrine in the distance, so my bathroom is really wherever I feel like going. Namu told me it's perfectly acceptable to go in the middle of the dirt path as long as no one is coming--if someone's there, we go in a corner of our

backyard. We also bathe inside the house, which adds a whole new dimension to the "don't splash the floor too much" thing: if you do, the house turns into a mud puddle. Not to mention that if you splash at all, you end up splashing the bed.

Also, my family only calls me by my Setswana name, Malebogo. Except they've shortened it to Lebo, so I'm trying to get used to answering to that!

My family here really is very nice. Namu does, however, talk INCESSANTLY. She speaks fairly decent English (as does Dima) but she will talk in any language. Dima is much quieter, but I can still tell that she's a normal 21 year old. Half the time I'm impressed by how old and mature she seems (in comparison, I feel more like Namu's age) but the other half, I feel like she would be right at home hanging out with my friends. An interesting dynamic.

Also interesting that we are currently taking classes in Maun (40 minute drive away) at the conference room of just about the nicest hotel in town. We have a break for tea and sandwiches every morning at 10:00 and there are bowls of mints, notepads, and pens on the tables waiting for us. Talk about culture shock! I think I may bring my swimsuit and a surreptitious bar of soap tomorrow to "go swimming."

Lastly, some of my photos from Vic Falls (the waterproof camera bag was a good decision):

Me, Stevie, Nick, and Peter try to pose in front of the falls. Too bad you can't see them for the solid sheet of water behind us! (And over us. Notice how drenched we are. We've given up on raincoats and hoods at this point.)

Candice basically sums up all our emotions in this exuberant photo!

And this is what the falls looks like when you're not standing in the middle of the spray.