Ga ke itse Setswana (I don't speak Setswana)....yet!

Completed a successful combie trip to UB this morning…left at 6am to make it to my 7am lab…found the lab room, went in, sat down, and waited for my professor and classmates to show up. When 7:30 rolled around and no one else showed up, I got the picture that there was no lab and was disappointed that I had gotten up so early!!! My next class wasn’t until 1, but I found some things to do until then, including taking a nap in the nice air-conditioned library. It was nice, though, to see all the kids going to school in their cute uniforms…some were in the combie with me. There were so many people up at that time…it is a lot cooler then, so they get a lot of outdoor work done then. I had my second Setswana course at 1 and learned some useful phrases! Ke bokae? (How much is this?) Ke kopa ____? (I’m asking for ____?) The professor is really nice, but she speaks so fast! The CIEE students are also taking another Setswana course, and I’ve heard that with both of the language courses we will advance faster than the other international students who just take the one.


Kaija and I walked to Riverwalk Mall after Setswana course; she needed peanut butter and I needed some long skirts and laundry detergent. None of the women wear shorts here…although Monkie does at home…it’s always pants and long skirts. Doesn’t make sense with this heat, but people tend to dress more conservatively. I got some coffee, too…I’m struggling without it!!! It is not very common here…NO Starbucks! But if you do buy it, it’s all finely ground dissolvable powder…even finer than Starbuck’s new Via coffee. I stayed at the mall for a little bit to use the internet at the coffee shop there. Saw my mom and dad were on Skype, so skyped them, but they didn’t pick up!!! I don’t have wireless at home yet, so I’m limited to some slow wireless at that coffee shop and also at my school library…so slow I’m having trouble uploading pictures to the blog!

I walked home after the mall, and decided to do a little bit of laundry. I’ve never hand washed a full load of laundry before, so I just read the directions and went with it! After a while, I went out back to Gale’s room to get a bucket in which to carry my wet clothes to the clothes line. Once Gale found out I was doing some washing, she came in and showed me her skills…she has got it down! She is so sweet…and just the cutest thing. And she took all of my socks out and did them for me! I showed Gale and Yao the Khale Hill that I climbed on Sunday…we can see it from the house…they were impressed! Yao said for as close as he lives to the hill, he has never climbed it…I told him that when we do it again, he should come along. Later, I showed Gale my worksheet from Setswana class…she went over the phrases with me and helped me with my pronunciation. We laughed at my inability to roll my rs…and also my struggle with the ‘tlo’ sound…which is sort of a clicking sound…it’s hard!!! I should try to take a video of my Botswana family to post on the blog.