Sunday, July 6, 2008

The 4th of July - Botswana Style

The 4th of July to me is the epitome of summer --- friends and family all together with good food out on the grill, maybe a small town parade or a dip in the lake, with it all building up to a fireworks show after the sun has set. No matter how the 4th of July is celebrated, it's always been a highlight of summer.

My 4th of July started out with taking a shower in the pitch black. There is an energy crisis in southern Africa and blackouts randomly happen. So, I had just jumped in the shower Friday morning when the lights went out! I was able to finish showering and to get ready for school by the aid of candles, though, I would have preferred electricity!

School was great, as it was one of those days that the students truly understood the lesson. I loved seeing smiles of self-satisfaction light up their faces when they realized that they do know what congruent figures are! A rewarding day in the classroom!

After finishing the day at Tlamelo, Matt and Meeka accompanied Teacher Shirley to a funeral (check out their blogs for more details) while Leslie, Jayne, Danielle, Jack, and I headed to the Main Mall to pick up our laundry. When we got back from Maun earlier this week, we found out that the laundry facilities here at UB are now closed until school resumes in August. There's no such thing as a laundromat here so the next best thing is to have our clothes washed, dried, and folded at a dry cleaners, which is why we needed to stop by Friday afternoon to pick up our much-needed clean clothes. The Main Mall is mall full of chain clothing, electronic, and grocery stores, as well as local vendors that sell traditional Botswana handicrafts, food, candy, and cell phone airtime minutes. Random assortment, yes. We spent some time browsing the area, until our clothes were to be finished.

The clothes weren't folded yet, though, we are in Botswana, after all, so we had an hour to kill and decided to go grab a cup of tea or coffee at the President Hotel. This only is significant if you have read the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency Series by Alexander McCall Smith (like most of us here have) because this is where Mma Ramotswe goes for tea. The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency Series is a fictional series of novels that is based out of Gaborone. Even though it's fictional work, the places in the novels are real. In fact, the publicity of this series has brought tourists here to Gaborone! Fun fact, huh? It's a good read and mirrors the life here.

Anyway, after enjoying a late afternoon cup of tea, we grabbed our laundry and headed home for the day. Jayne, Leslie, and I wanted to celebrate the 4th by going out for dinner! We decided to eat at new restaurant to us and I was excited to see ground-beef hamburgers on the menu! Most places here serve minced-beef hamburgers, which have a different texture that I am not so fond of. How could I pass up a ground-beef hamburger on the 4th of July? Small pleasures, yes, but it was a great meal in even better company!

Saturday afternoon we had plans to attend the U.S. Embassy's 4th of July party. We called around 12:30 or 1ish for two taxis to come and then we waited....and then waited some more...called the taxi company, who insisted the taxis were on their way...waited some more....called the company again, who then insisted they came and we never showed up. We were sitting outside---there was no way we could have missed 2 taxis. We called another taxi, which did arrive in a quickly manner. The time of arrival: 3:00pm. Only a mere 2 hours after we called the first taxi did we finally get to the party! The party was supposed to be over at 4, so we just asked the taxi to come pick us up in an hour, and he agreed to do so. This is an important detail for later - I promise.

At the party, there were arts and crafts, face painting, a live band, and my favorite...food on the grill! The tables were covered with patriotic tablecloths and red, white, and blue balloons were tied to benches and tables around the courtyard. We grabbed some hamburgers (ground beef, yes!) and brats and listened to the band as we ate and watched kids play some football (soccer). Matt and Jack got their faces painted, too! It was almost like we were back at home in the States at a 4th of July BBQ!

The party was dying down and we waited out by the gate for our taxi to come pick us up. We waited a good 20 minutes until we gave up and started walking back to UB. We hit a combi stop first and hopped on to save us some trekking. Taxis weren't on our good side after standing us up twice in one day. But, even with all the trouble, the Embassy party was a nice way to celebrate the 4th of July in Africa!

Quite the different 4th of July weekend! Being away from America on her birthday (in addition to this entire experience) had made me realize how truly blessed I am to be an American! And how truly blessed I am to be able to celebrate the 4th of July - Botswana style!

2 comments:

Wade said...

Glad you had a great 4th of July!
Keep up the great work!

Julie said...

I'm so happy you got that summer BBQ!!!