food...and...food...and...FOOD...and community integration. :P

April 18, 2011

Went into Gaborone (Gabs) today. We were supposed to get our banking done, as well as our immigration papers taken care of. Unfortunately, the civil workers were on strike today. And when we got to immigration…the system was conveniently down. We were only able to get our banking papers done. But immigration will need to be followed up on a later date. Don’t worry…the day was nowhere near a waste.

WE ATE PIZZA. OMG…you have NO IDEA how happy that made many of us. The staff let us wander to the mall nearby, which had all sorts of fast food, but most importantly… PIZZA. It was buy one get one free. I honestly thought I was in heaven. I got 2 pizzas and cheesy garlic bread. Then we got ice cream. We all had HUGE grins on our face. That was PERFECT. For the first time in 2 weeks, I finally felt full. Uncomfortably full. But full. And we had ALL missed that feeling. Something I am jealous for all of you still in the states…is that you can eat EVERYTHING and ANYTHING/make EVERYTHING and ANYTHING. We have to live off of what we have in the kitchen…and $4/day. So even if I wanted to go to the market to buy food to make, I can’t even afford it, let alone go out to eat (today was an exception…out of sanity sake).

An important thing to clarify. We are not hungry here because there is not enough food. Let me emphasize this. In fact, often, our families load our plates up so much that we can barely even finish half of our plates. It was just that we’re not used to the food and find it difficult to become accustomed to the new tastes. Many of us eat…to eat here, but not so much to taste anymore. So we don’t eat until we’re full, we eat until we feel like we’ve gotten enough nutrition out of the meal, since we’re not enjoying our meals as much. But for the most part, we end up hungry still or sooner than later because we haven’t eaten enough (out of choice). So today’s pizza meal, was our first satisfying full meal, and it was amazing.  I can say I am now a happy camper again.  J We can’t wait for our next immigration trip to Gabs (and boy, were we glad that the system was down)!

April 20, 2011

Sigh…oh 4/20. Happy 4/20 to all of you who enjoy this day! Anyways, today started out pretty good. I got a call from mom and dad. Then I got a call from mikey! Yay!!! J so good to hear from friendly voices. Thanks for calling! I made breakfast…and I made a CHINESE breakfast. We call it dun dan. Which means steamed egg is Chinese. So what it is…an egg, milk, and some sugar. Beat the mixture. Steam the egg in a cup, and there you have it…dun dan! What made this so special to me was that I just used what was in the kitchen and I was able to make a home comfort food. So that started my day out pretty good. J

I was running a bit late with everything that was going on this morning. So I told the others to head off to the kgotla before me, I didn’t want them to wait. I had been taken on a short cut a couple of times to the kgotla, so I decided to explore and take this route. I can’t emphasize how awesome it is. It’s awesome because, this is what the locals use and only locals know this…and I did this on my own after being shown it twice. You go through narrow dirt paths in between houses, turning right then left, then right…so on so forth. What would have normally taken me a 30 minute walk by paved road…got me there in 15 minutes. AND I beat everyone. And I finally feel like I’m getting a hang of living out here. I remember the first time I went on this shortcut, I thought to myself “wow…there is no way I could ever remember this, how do people remember these little paths?! I’m never gonna get used to this…” but I did it!!! J YAAAYYY!!! This is a big step at making myself feel more a part of my surroundings. Super proud of myself.

So did the whole class thing today. We had healthy outlets, which just means working out. Instead of basketball, they have net ball. Which basically means a metal pole with a circle on top. No backboard. No net. Just a hoop. It is incredibly frustrating and difficult to get the ball into the hoop. I played with a hula hoop (my friend has one) and a jump rope. Haha I haven’t done these things since elementary school, but fun nonetheless.

Then I had the Peace Corps driver drop me off at Choppies (more like I jumped out of the car and took off). I go shopping. No one bothers me. No one says anything to me. I don’t get strange stares. I’m actually grateful. I’m guessing, being that I was by myself…they probably just thought I was just one of the normal Chinese people that are around. I am totally ok with that right now, in a way it makes me feel like I blend in. I grab a few things, and I get to the checkout counter. “GORATA! O tlhoktse jang?!” wow…even the checkout lady knows who I am. I am surprised. Then, all the other check out ladies and bag ladies are saying “GORATA!” I have no idea how everyone knows who I am. I swear I had only told one of the checkout ladies what my name is…but I guess I’m a hard face to forget around here, the one asian normally with all the white people. I couldn’t help but laugh. Not gonna lie, I kinda liked it. This is interesting. I guess this is what Peace Corps calls community integration. Lol. I run into my LCFs at the market. They ask me “Who are you with?” haha…”whoops…ya…just me…” haha. They just smile. They’ve heard the stories. They tell me, we heard Gorata walks around by herself. Gorata knows her way around town. And now...everyone at Choppies knows her. I say go siame to everyone, and I climb into a combi and then walk home. J

Today was a good day. Today I proved to myself that I can live here. It gave me that confidence that I can be on my own. That I will be able to integrate into my community. That I can be a part of a community that knows who I am and will look out for me. That I can make friends out here. Today showed me tangible progress that I can do this.  Now I just need to be weary of the praying mantis that is flying around the house…I can’t kill it because apparently it means good luck for a praying mantis to enter your house in Botswana…go figure. *Ding* cultural difference. Lol.