Ramblings

Another week older, with several more Aquatic Squad practices, pick-up soccer games, Gymnastics pretzel stretches, and UB Conservation Society meetings under my belt. Also, I have finally acclimatized to the different learning environment. Professors occasionally don't show up for class. Multiple lectures are often scheduled in the same room at the same time. Instead of eight pages of hastily scribbled notes per class period, I have been closing up my books with a mere four pages. Through the underlying anxiety I am telling myself relax, adapt, and “quality, not quantity.” At the very least, a number of healthy discussions/debates have sprung up during lecture, particularly Wildlife Biology. The professor is a tyrant! Of the rather humorous sort. I eagerly await the verbal sparring (on my part) and the deer in the headlights behaviour of the other students. Perhaps I'm speaking a bit too loud for a society where the vestiges of patriarchy are apparent...? The lecturer remains encouraging though, and I gamely answer his growled demands of “Where is the evidence!!” I can't help but relate to Mad-Eye Moody and “Constant vigilance!!” I do really need to apply that thinking to my studies. The growing list of tongue twisting scientific names to memorize for Plant Pathology is quite intimidating. Phytophthora infestans, late blight of potato. Ustilago tritici, loose smut of wheat. Plasmodiophora brassicae, club-root disease of crucifers. Lions and tigers and bears, oh my. The lecturer for this course also has some strange tendencies. Every few sentences he pauses to say “Look at me” in his heavy Indian accent. Today he mixed things up: “Are you looking at me?” Always a rhetorical question. He also admitted to encouraging the growth of strange fungal and bacterial diseases on his garden plants. Quite the dedicated Phytopathologist. I met some other devoted individuals today, this time hailing from the Botswana Society for the Arts. At long last a genuine volunteering activity. Hoorah for progress (though I'm still waiting on a reply from numerous other agencies). Why is it so difficult to offer free services? They're FREE!! Regardless, I'll have plenty of work to do with the Society for the Arts in preparation for Independence Day. With a calendar date of September 30^th, this event commemorates the separation of Botswana from the British Commonwealth in 1966. A massive undertaking has begun. The audience: Batswana youth/young adults. The final product: a performing arts production, including plays, cinema, traditional dance, choir selections, workshops, concerts, and...best of all...GoalMouth. This innovative idea unites a widespread devotion to football/soccer with the seemingly innate artistic abilities (seriously, when girls from my dorm floor sing in the shower it may as well be The Sound of Music) of the Batswana. A soccer match will not be “played”, but rather “performed”, with participants dressed in various different costumes and competing through dance movements and song. I understand this may sound a bit ridiculous, but have faith. One of the managers of the project, a lovely British lady by the name of Jane, showed me a video clip of a GoalMouth production put on a year ago in the UK. Stunning. My only reservation is that I won't be around to enjoy the Botswana Independence Day celebrations later this year :(

Food: I would like to pay a quick homage to the Diphaphatas. Resembling giant English muffins, these wonderfully doughy offerings are by far my favourite cafeteria fare. And although wheat is not grown in Botswana, imported bread flour has made its way into the traditional diet...thus the Diphaphatas, or “flat cakes”, are considered a national food. Yum!