Re-Entry and Re-Adjustment

I love that they call coming back to the States "re-entry." As if I've been in outer space and am flying down through the burning, gaseous atmosphere to once again set my feet firmly on the ground.

I guess that could be pretty accurate. Botswana was in some ways an entirely different world. One of the most interesting readings I did over the semester was an essay entitled "The Values Americans Live By." It was a "how-to" guide for foreigners immigrating to the US. How to survive. How to deal with these crazy Americans. How to understand their culture. American culture is pretty strange, if you stop to think about it. All this super-competitiveness, focus on money and productivity, and independence.

I know, I know, you're thinking: "But those are good things!" And that's the American way to think. In most other countries in the world, time isn't money and asking for help is an important part of building community. In Botswana, the best thing you can do is foster good relationships. "African time" evolves out of this belief: why rush away from lunch with a friend to go meet with a colleague and then scurry from there to dinner with the kids and then back to the office to meet with your boss? None of those relationships will gain anything at all. Instead, spend an extra fifteen minutes finishing lunch with your friend and then if you meet a woman on the street, help her carry her groceries and talk to her. In the meantime, the colleague you're supposed to meet with may be playing an impromptu game of tag with the neighborhood children or discussing politics with fellow office staff.

Batswana think we're crazy for always being so rushed and overscheduled.

And it's true: one of the most striking things I noticed upon "re-entry" was that everyone here goes about life in their own little bubble. You walk down the street and no one says hello as they pass you. You sit next to someone on the Metro and barely greet them with a smile. People are so determined to be independent that it seems like they forget the other 300 million people living here with them.

Also, life here is so cluttered!! No, Mom, I am not talking about your tidy house. But there is so much unnecessary stuff here. I remember talking about how exciting it would be to come home to a full closet after 4 months in the same 5 outfits, but I've more or less been wearing the same 5 or 6 things since I've been back. Do you really need more than that? And the stores! The mere thought of spending a Botswana week's living allowance on a pair of flip flops sent me into an emotional breakdown in the middle of the shoe store.

But overall, it's nice to be back. It's nice to walk down the street without seven marriage proposals a day, and it's nice to know that if I skip a shower one day, no one is going to care (or notice). Also nice: a full refrigerator, washing machines, green grass, free internet (because goodness knows uploading all these photos in an internet cafe would have depleted my entire bank account).

Ahh, yes, the photographs. It's taken me I-don't-know-how-many hours to sort them and upload them and I apologize if they still aren't very well organized or captioned. I did narrow down my 1800 photos to 497 of the good ones. I was planning on also uploading a smaller album for those of you who just really don't care about seeing more than one zebra, but I'm tired of sitting at my computer waiting for photos to upload. I may or may not get to that later. I'm moving on African time, you know.

If you are interested, though, here's the link to my photos: http://picasaweb.google.com/claire.santoro/KeNeKeNnaKoBotswana