Monday, September 20, 2010

Of course there are Jews in Botswana

I keep comparing this experience to my year in England in my head--there are a lot of weird similarities. Like the fact that everyone speaks English but I still can't understand what they are saying.

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We spent Yom Kippur with the Jewish Community of Gaborone. It is a mix of South Africans and Israelis, who are mostly involved in the diamond trade or setting up cell-phone companies or industry. They live in beautiful houses, with lots of security and servants. (We only have ONE servant.)

Then there's us (me and A and P and another student, K), with our patchwork ethnic purses and comfortable sandals, looking kind of dirty, not wearing any jewelry. We are here to save the world! (Except for me.)

So it's a weird contrast, and people use words like "third world" and talk about how nothing works in Gaborone. We are much more euphemistic.

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The babka at the break fast we were invited to was amazing. Unfortunately, it's from Johannesburg and A has kind of banned me from ever going there. So I ate a lot of it while I could.

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After break fast, we couldn't get a driver to come pick us up to go see "Karate Kid" at Riverwalk, so we headed back over to our apartment and sat on the balcony eating crackers and processed gouda (it looks like American cheese but isn't) and drinking our favorite beers: Carling Black Label and Castle.

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Today at clinic, we literally had a ratio of 1:1 between volunteers and children. Talk about feeling useless. The volunteers were way better at the circle games.

5 comments:

  1. Like that line about the English language. They say that Americans and Brits are two people divided by a common language (but I'm sure you've heard that one). But maybe your stay in English prepared helped you be ready for this experience.

    Speaking of drivers, how do you get around then? I was wondering about that? Public transport, taxis, walking?

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  2. PS The volunteers were way better at the games than the children or than you?

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  3. Going to write a post about transportation...
    Volunteers were way better than the children. I rock at games that are in English, less good at those in Setswana.

    It was cinnamon chocolate. If I get really ambitious I'll make smitten's recipe for babka. Looks intense though!

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  4. After reading your other post about making Sukkot dinner, im curious to know what the grocery stores are like there? can you find all the regular ingredients you would need?

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