“The Place that Dried Up”

Botswana doesn’t really have hills. In fact, Gaborone reminds me a lot of Lubbock. It is flat, hot, there is lots of dirt all over the place, very few trees, and you see nothing but sky for miles. But, we do have one hill, which is more than I can say for Lubbock.

Our one hill is called Kgale Hill and is on the southern edge of town. The name in Setswana means, “The Place that Dried Up” which is quite fitting, given the lack of vegetation and abundance of giant rocks. The television series, “The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency” was filmed on a set built at the bottom of the hill. Since the series is no longer it has fallen into disrepair, but tourists who’ve read the books and/or watched the show often visit the film set. The other thing Kgale is known for is all the baboons in the area. We saw lots of them during our hike.

Fortunately we did the hike last Sunday, and then I broke my toe on Monday. So I won’t be hiking it again for a while, but at least I looked impressive doing it, right?

And here is a picture of Kgale itself. Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of town from the top of Kgale. Oh well, I guess that means I will have to do the climb again:

It takes about an hour to get up to the top, and then an hour to get back down. That is, if you don’t wander off the trail and get lost in the process. I was not the navigator; I was bringing up the rear. And since my hiking companions seemed sure of themselves I blindly followed them. That was until I said, “We definitely have NOT been before. We aren’t even on a trail! Where are we?” After about 20 minutes of wandering around, we found the trail and our fearless leader said, “Huh, wonder how I missed that?” Oh well, it was fun and at least I got to do the hike before the weather got too hot, and before I broke my toe.

One Stop Shopping: Buy Your Onions, Give a Geography Lesson, Visit the Doctor

According to the movies, which are always truthful and accurate, in the 1950s a trip to your neighbor supermarket was like visiting a friend. The grocer knew your name, you would stop and chat with the other shoppers because your kids went to school together, and people enjoyed the social, community-type experience. Nowadays it’s not really like that. It’s more of a get in, get what you need as quickly as possible, and get out, preferably without having to engage anyone in conversation. Botswana isn’t pure 1950s, but it certainly has a less stressed out and more laid-back approach than most people in the western world take when shopping.

Today I went to the grocery store just down the street from my house. I go there at least once a week, sometimes two or three times. It is midway between my house and the gym, so it’s easy to stop on my way back and forth. Also, the selection is rather limited, so often I will stop three days in a row and purchase nothing each time, until the onions I was hoping to buy finally arrive on day four. This afternoon, that was what I was shopping for, onions.

As I handed the cashier my credit card to pay for my onions she asked to see my ID, which is standard here. I gave it to her and then realized she was scrutinizing it in great detail. She then handed the ID to another cashier who looked at it and the two of them exchanged several comments in Setswana. As my friends here remind me frequently, “You don’t really blend in,” so I was curious what they were examining, but I didn’t ask. Finally my cashier pointed to my driver’s license and said, “Is this from the UK?” I told her no, it was from the U.S. Then about four other store employees got involved in a very animated conversation in Setswana. They were nodding their heads and sort of laughing and smiling. Eventually they came to a consensus and one of the men told me, “We always wondered where you are from. But it makes sense. You smile and talk a lot [in Setswana. Of course] you are from the U.S. English people don’t smile and they aren’t very friendly.” “Well, thank you very much.”

I packed up my bag and proceeded toward the exit when the male employee asked me why I was hobbling. I explained to him that I had fallen yesterday and my toe was in a lot of pain. It was right about lunch time and several Botswana Police Officers had entered the store from their offices across the street. The employee told me to wait a minute. A few seconds later he arrived with a police officer who told me to remove my shoe and let him see my foot. I hesitated and then he looked at me and said, “Hey I know you. You’re the girl that always bikes around the prison. Where have you been? We’ve missed you.” I was so shocked I didn’t respond. He continued, “It’s ok, I’m the prison doctor. I heard you hurt your foot. Let me see it.” So, the store employee brought me a chair, and the doc proceeded to examine my foot in the grocery store. “Looks like you broke your toe. That’s gonna hurt for a while, you should probably be careful.”

So, that was my trip to the grocery store. It wasn’t a true 1950s grocery store experience, but it was unique, kind of like everything else about my life here in Africa. :)

Malaria medication & HIV/AIDs testing with a side of perspective

Each semester at Texas Tech the Student Recreation Center holds Health & Wellness Screenings.  During these events students, faculty and staff can get their cholesterol checked, see if their thyroid is functioning properly, and get a number of other blood tests to see if anything is amiss.  If any of the tests come back with less than desirable results participants can make appointments with their personal physicians in hopes of designing a course of treatment.

This week here on campus we are having our own screenings, for HIV/AIDs.  The theme for the event is “I took the first step… I know my HIV status.”  All week long students can visit one of the five locations on campus and get tested.  Here is one of the mobile testing locations:

And here students are waiting to be tested:

Since nearly 1/4 of the population (1 in 3 adults) here has HIV/AIDs you frequently hear reference to this illness.  The “know your status” saying is a common topic of conversation and widely promoted.  Yesterday I was teaching a research methods class full of physical education students.  While discussing different types of questions to ask on a survey a student raised his hand and suggested asking participants about their HIV/AIDs status.  Before coming here that was something which would have never occurred to me.

While the HIV/AIDs testing is not a personal concern to me, I am involved in my own health issues here.  Today marks the beginning of 17 days of malaria medication for me. Friday morning I leave Botswana to attend the United Nations World Tourism Organization General Assembly which is being co-hosted by Livingstone City, Zambia and Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe.  Due to the prevalence of malaria in both these destinations I am taking medication as a precaution.  According to the World Health Organization there were 219 million malaria cases and 660,000 malaria deaths in 2010, most of which are in Africa.  However, malaria mortality has dropped almost 25% in the last decade due to awareness, treatment and prevention.

Having both of these health concerns at the forefront of my mind this week certainly puts things into perspective.   Back home neither of these illnesses would typically cross my mind.  But here they are quite normal, not much different from having a cold or the flu.  I remember when I was in Sierra Leone one of my friends there contracted malaria.  He and his family took a very nonchalant attitude when telling me about it, “It’s no big deal.  We all get it once or twice a year.  He will be ok in a few days.” This is just another one of those almost daily reminders of why I am so appreciative for what I have.

It's Official! I am NOT an IDIOT! And I have papers to prove it!

As a Fulbright Fellow, since I am working and living in Botswana for a year, I am required to become a Botswana resident.  I don’t know exactly how you become a resident in other countries, but I am almost positive if you wanted to become a resident in the U.S. that the process would be a little bit different.  Most of the paperwork is standard: copies of passports, residence permit application, photos verifying you are who you say you are…. And then there is the medical exam, which I would classify as not so standard.

Yesterday I went to the doctor to get my “medical exam.”  There was no measuring of height or weight.  No blood tests taken.  He didn’t use the little hammer on my knee to see if I had good reflexes.  Nope, none of that.  Instead we had a two minute meeting in his office where he engaged me in conversation.  We talked about how I was from the U.S. He told me he had been to Baltimore and loved it.  I mentioned I went to Johns Hopkins; turns out he did too.  Then he signed a paper, handed it to me, and wished me a good stay in Botswana.

This is what he gave me:

 In case you didn’t read it closely, please do so now.  Here is a copy of the important part:

 TA-DA!  I am officially NOT an IDIOT!  And I have papers to PROVE IT!

While this exam is quite out of the ordinary for the practice of medicine today this is common 1920s medicine.  And since this is just so unusual I figured I would provide a brief history lesson centered around my medical exam.  Please refer to bullet points in the picture for corresponding information:

(a)    An idiot is an individual with an IQ of 0-25, an imbecile has an IQ of 26-50, and a moron is at the top of the heap with an IQ of 51-70.  All three of these terms are formal medical categorizations for people with severe mental retardation.  So keep that in mind next time you call someone an idiot.  Or feel free to be a smarty pants and when someone calls you an idiot say something to the effect of, “Actually if I was an idiot that means I would have an IQ no higher than 25 and we all know I’m the more intelligent person in this conversation, so who feels like the idiot now?”

(b)   The term imbecile came into vogue in 1927 when a U.S. Supreme Court case ruling allowed for forced sterilization of “unfit” individuals, including those classified as mentally retarded “for the protection of the health of the state.” 

(c)    Feeble-minded was used in 19^th century Europe, again to specify a type of “mental deficiency.”  However, it should be noted one would rather be feeble-minded than an idiot because feeble-minded was considered the highest-functioning group of those with “mental deficiencies.”

(d)   “Being an epileptic” has nothing to do with mental capacity, but rather is a chronic neurological disorder.  I thought it curious that Botswana would be concerned about this, however, after some research I found 50 million people have epilepsy, and 80% of those people are in developing countries.  Botswana is by far the most developed of any “developing country” I’ve ever been to, but I suppose this is still a major concern here.

(e)    Technically, I’ve never officially had a previous attack in insanity, but I’m sure my students, particularly my graduate students, would beg to differ.  I’m sure if given enough time they could come up with plenty of creative responses to this, so instead I’m going to surmise what I would expect them to say: “You put a red pen in her hand and it’s like a matador waiving a red flag in front of a bull in a china shop- she will bleed all over your paper with reckless abandon and then gloat when you ask her if she enjoyed her weekend reading your dissertation.”

(f)    In 1922 Dr. William House wrote an article about Constitutional Psychopathic Inferiority (CPI), which stated CPI had only become a recent problem because when society was less complex CPI was less likely to have any real impact.  Prior to society’s development and increasing sophistication, “inferior persons… mingled with their fellows without attracting attention (kind of like the aliens from Men in Black), but with advancing civilization they… failed to amalgamate and became conspicuous.”  Dr. House goes on to state inferior persons “produce social discord, contribute to the divorce problem and other forms of legal controversy, propagate infections, cause and suffer from an excessive number of cases of illnesses, accident and injury, and furnish a majority of the inmates of almshouses, asylums and penitentiaries.”

(g)   As for alcoholism, alcohol abuse is considered a prominent factor in the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Botswana has the second highest HIV/AIDS rate in the world (24.8%) behind Swaziland (26.1%).

In summary, according to the doctor here in Botswana I am not an idiot, and therefore fit to become a Motswana resident.  I’m sure my parents are very proud.