Neighborhood Kids

Every day on my way home from work, I take a shortcut to my house from the main shopping mall. Along the way, I pass by several houses and lots of kids. The kids quickly run over to hold my hand or beg for things like candy. 

There was one precocious little boy who really stood out. He would run up to me, grab my hand, and start talking rapidly in Setswana. My friend translated what he said one day. He asked for candy, which did not surprise me at all. What did surprise me was his reasoning. He said that he could ask for money to buy candy but if we just gave him the candy directly, we could cut out the middle man. 

I had to laugh at that one, and if I had any candy I would have given it to him; even though I have a rule about not giving out anything. 

I now see that little boy almost every day. His name is Mangwato (Mang-wha-too) and he is on the right in the above picture wearing the red shirt. When I first used to see him, he would run out to see me yelling, "Lekgoa!" (White person!). I have taught him how to give a high five and how to say "high five" in English. Now instead of asking me for things, he will run out and ask for endless high fives. He also carefully inspects my bags when I come from the store and asks me in Setswana what I will be cooking. 

Now when I walk by he will come yelling either "Legkoa la me" or "Tsala ya me." The first translates into "My white person" and the second translates to "My friend." I find the "my white person" one particularly amusing. 

Now when I walk home I am bombarded with a chorus line of little voices yelling "high five!" from all directions. I stop and give all the kids high fives before heading home.  It is the perfect little pick-me-up after a day in the office.

I Hate Roosters

When you think of a rooster, you might imagine one perched on a fence post, waiting in the predawn hours to crow as the sun rises to welcome a new day. What a fairy tale that is. Roosters don't just crow as the sun rises. They can crow at any hour, even in the middle of the night, and some roosters crow all day. 

During training when I lived with a host family, it took me a while to get used to sleeping with all of the animal noises. There were barking dogs and braying donkeys, but the worst by far, were the roosters. Their piercing cries woke me up at night and reaffirmed my love of eating chicken. 

When I moved to my site, there was a rooster that lived in one of the houses next door. It crowed at all hours and I seriously considered killing it. Very early in the morning, it would perch itself on a wall and belt out its annoying cry. I looked for items to throw at it and even briefly considered getting a slingshot. Mercifully, the rooster disappeared one day (hopefully into someone's cooking pot) and I was able to peacefully sleep again. 

In my new neighborhood, I constantly see chickens and roosters but I never heard them at night. Then, my neighbor across the street  bought a rooster. He struts around the yard and likes to start crowing around 4am. I asked my neighbor if they were planning on eating the rooster at some point, but he just shook his head and said they were hoping to start breeding chickens. that rooster is there to stay. 

The rooster is something I am just going to get used to but if he ever crosses into my yard, he will be in big trouble.  

Botswana's First Gold Medal

Botswana may not be a major player on the international sports stage, but the people here are quite passionate about athletics nonetheless.

Since the country's independence in 1966, Botswana has never won a gold medal in the Olympics or the World Championships. That changed very quickly (49.56 seconds actually) this past week when Botswana sprinter Amantle Montsho won the Gold Medal in the women's 400-meters at the World Championships in South Korea.

Besides being a world champion sprinter, she was also the first woman to represent Botswana in the Olympics, when she went to the 2004 games.

Before the event, the secretary general of the Botswana Athletic Association said, "We have diamonds. We have beef. We said we wanted gold."

Now they have all three.