Weeks 1-4 and my robbery story

Alright, so it has been a bit of time since I’ve last posted, but here it comes all at once. I was in Durban, South Africa, two weeks ago, and I have not had internet in my room for a week now. Supposedly its getting fixed tomorrow, but I’ll see if that actually happens. I also got jumped/robbed over the last weekend, read next posts.
During the first week, the International office, organized a cultural dinner. Here I saw traditional dances and ate these Mopani worms. Click on the picture slideshow for more info. On January 11, classes finally started, well sort of. I showed up at my first scheduled class at 9am and the professor did not show up. At 10am I went to the start of my Macroeconomics class, only to again have the teacher not show up. My next class was at 2pm and its called the Roots of Crisis in Modern Central Africa. The teacher showed up late and just handed out the syllabus. My next class, was called social problems of Southern Africa. I say was, because I later dropped that class, due to various reasons. So Monday was done and later that night, several of my friends and I went to Bull and Bush for some good ribs. Tuesday, I got up for one of my classes, only to not be able to find the classroom. Actually, it turns out that I found the right classroom, but the class actually had been rescheduled for a different day and room, perhaps a sign of things to come. That was it for Tuesday. Also during this week, it was the chance to add/drop courses, and boy did I ever. It was almost impossible to find course descriptions before I came to Botswana, so that is why the need for all the changes. Also, my home university, changed some of their requirements for those graduating after the spring of 2010, basically allowing me more freedom. On Wednesday, my professor for Development Impact Assessments, showed up and we actually had class. My next professor showed up as well. I attended another class later that day, which I ended up not signing up for. The next morning I went to a 7am class, yes a 7am class called Education of Children with ADHD, which I have ended up keeping, as part of the class involves a project to travel to a local school in Gabs, and observe kids who potentially have ADHD. Also later that day, I met with a guy to inquire more about a class called, Traditional African Architecture. I ended up taking that class and I’m loving it. Friday was a bit hectic, as it was the last day to add a course. I attended a course called the Demography of Botswana, which I have stuck with to this day and it provides me with a direct insight into the culture of Bots. I handed in my registration form and the total was 7 classes worth 18 credits. My traditional African Architecture class actually ends halfway through the semester. Three of my classes are only 2 credits each. So onto the weekend.

Early Saturday morning, all the international students, including myself, boarded a University of Botswana Bus for our weekend overnight cultural excursion. Our first stop was at a food research center, where scientists are researching which foods can be produced locally in Botswana. Very few foods are produced here, and almost all of the products in grocery stores come from South Africa. Even the power comes from South Africa, well at least some of it. The next stop was at the village kgolta of Kanye. Here we met local chiefs and learned about the village. Next we went to a lake to have a braai, or bbq. I skipped a few rocks with some local kids. After lunch, we hiked up a gorge. My friends Kate, Eric, Dalton, Villa, and I hiked up to a spectacular view of the surrounding countryside. We arrived at our lodge area. We slept in tents, with two to three people in each. It was a very traditional way of staying in tents. This place had a outdoor shower, which I took advantage up. It was one of the top 5 showers I’ve ever taken in my life. And the sun was setting as I was taking a shower. For dinner I had some traditional beer, which came and out of milk carton and had small seeds in it. It was interesting. I saw traditional dances and gazed at the stars. The stars are different as I am down in the Southern Hemisphere. The next day, we saw some rock paintings, the Livingstone Tree, and went to a water park. The highlight of the day was a game drive in the Mocolodi Game Reserve. Here I saw giraffes, elephants, a zebra, wildebeests, a cheetah, antelope, and warthogs. It was so much fun. The neck of a giraffe is huge. Its nice to see them in a natural habitat. It was the en d of a great weekend.

The second week of classes started, rather its really the first real week according to the local students. On Monday of course, I went to Bull and Bush with friends for some ribs. It’s a Monday night thing you know. Classes were uneventful, but during Tuesday and Wednesday, it was raining cats and dogs. And the drainage system didn’t could not exactly hold all of the water, thus causing the street outside my dorm to be completely flooded. A backhoe came through to try and shovel water into the grass. There was also Spectacular thunder and lightning. For the weekend, on Friday night, my friends and I went o Lizard Lounge. Saturday was spent hanging out with my friends Montle, Kabo, Ras Diva, and Vinny. Kabo and Ras Diva are members of a local band. I saw them practice. Later that night, we found live music in Gabs. Week three of classes started, and guess what, on Monday I went to have Bull and Bush Ribs once again. On Tuesday I went to softball practice for the Universities’ team. Softball in Africa you may think is strange, but it is actually more common than you think. It brought me back to the days I used to play baseball. It was quite fun. I continued to go all of that week. My friend Eric, and I went to a cricket practice. It was fast paced. I also went out for the running team, and did various track workouts during the week.

In the middle of the week, several of my friends, Antonio, Eric, Andrea, Lucile, Dalton, and Morgan traveled down to Durban, South Africa. I decided to join them on Friday night. I left Gabs on a combi at 6am in the morning. A combi, is a mini-van type deal with about 15-20 people inside. At the border of Bots/South Africa you get out of the combi and walk through to the South African side, where you meet your vehicle. Its quite funky. The combi went to Johannesburg or Jo’burg as will call it from here on out. Nearing the station, there were mass amounts of people going every which direction. It also looked like you could buy your whole household needs from the numerous street vendors. It was mass chaos. Various people opened the combi door and inquired where I was going. I told them I was headed to Durban and they said they could lead me to the bus station. The driver of the combi, specifically told me to stay on, as those people will lead you and then ask for money. The driver said those people can be dangerous and are not to be trusted. Speaking of danger, Jo’burg is one of the world’s most dangerous cities. I always took the necessary precautions of guarding my stuff and never giving anyone money. The combi driver had actually arranged for someone to walk with me from the combi station to the bus station, which was right next door. I appreciated how my driver was looking out for me. I got into the bus station and purchased a 2:00pm bus ticket to Durban. I had about 2 hours to kill and just hung out in the station. I boarded the double decker bus and ended up having to sit next to a very large man, who was halfway on my seat. He was so fat, the armrest could not go down. I had a picture, but lost my camera. The journey to Durban lasted about 7.5 hours. The bus stopped and I got out to rain and I thought to myself, I’m actually cold, for the first time in a month. These two nice Indian ladies, helped me get a taxi to my hostel and at 10pm I walked into the hostel. Outside of India, Durban has the largest population of people living in a city with Indian decent. My friends were shocked to see me, as they were not sure if I was going to make it down to Durban. We went out and had a great night. The next day, we went to the beach, where I saw and swam in the Indian Ocean for the first time. That night, we went out with some South African guys we met at our hostel. Sunday was another beach day. Later that night I got my seafood fix at Italian restaurant. The only downer of the day, was that my friend Dalton, got his shorts stolen with his wallet in it. Someone swiped it right off the beach while some of us were sitting there. His shorts were behind the group. Swimming in the Indian Ocean, was nice and warm. Sadly we had to leave the hostel and Durban. The hostel had a pool, was extremely clean, and had a great atmosphere. It was the best hostel I stayed in. We took a night bus back to Jo’Burg and then early Monday morning took a bus from Jo’burg to Gabs. After a long night/morning of traveling, Dalton and I went straight to our class at 2pm.

And so the 4th week of classes started. I handed in a project in my architecture class. I continued to show up for softball and running practice. I went to this thing called poetry night, where students perform songs and other things they have written. The weekend was interesting. On Saturday my friend and I decided to go on a hike. We left this shopping mall and headed out on a road towards a quarry and then turned off to hike this hill. We were surrounded by about 20 baboons. We continued to hike up a the hill and came to an area that had 3 rock walls around it. We were just about to climb up the side of one of the walls, when these three men came out of nowhere. We were going to ask them if we were going up the right way. The next thing you know we were both tackled to the ground. There were two guys on me and one guy on my friend. All of them were bigger than us and were in their late 20s early 30s. I had a backpack full of our stuff, thus the reason two men were on me. I struggled with them a bit. They opened my wallet took all my cash out of it, about 30USD. They took my camera out of my pocket, and proceeded to go through my backpack. They took my friend’s camera, which had his money inside. At one point ,one of the men tried to choke me, as I was making a ton of noise and trying to stand up. I pushed his hand away. I tried to throw my phone into the bushes, but to no avail. They got off and my friend and I both stood up. They had my water bottle and a pair of headphones, which somehow I asked for them back and got them back. They were headed towards the road, we were also headed there. They realized we were not stupid, and turned around with broken glass in their hands. At that point we just raised our hands. We did not fight back during the entire deal, as you do not know if they have knives or any weapons. They proceeded up the hill and we gathered ourselves for a minute and immediately headed back down to the nearby mall. At this point I realized I had sustained several cuts from the dirt, on my knees, elbows, and hands, but nothing serious. Once there, we explained to security what happened and after about 10 minutes we finally got our point across and they called the police for us. While my friend, was waiting for the police in the mall parking lot, I went to the edge of the mall parking lot, to see if maybe the guys would come down the hill. I would ask people and several people told me that they had fellow co-workers at the quarry have their handbags stolen. So it was fairly common. The police finally came after an hour of waiting. Eric was in the front seat and I had to go in the back of the covered pickup. When I sat down, I looked across at the window and side panel of the pickup to see multiple blood stains. I thought, oh I had better watch out for my open wounds. We went back to the site with the police officers and there was not much they could do, and so we went to the police station. My friend rode in back with me and at every stop light, curious onlookers would point and laugh as we were in the back of a police truck. We arrived at the station, and went in to give our reports. My friend sat in 1 room and I sat in another giving our stories to the police people. In the room I was giving my report, there were tattered cushions everywhere, and something about social studies on the board. I thought, gee am I really in a police station. There was also another man and a woman in the room giving a report to each other. The man was more curious about me and asking what part of the states I was from etc. I could care less as I had just gotten jumped/robbed. I finished the story and went back into the main part of the station. Here my friend and I sat for another long time. At one point I went through my backpack and found Eric’s phone, what a nice surprise. I went to find a bathroom, only to find no toilet seat and poop left in the toilet. Also the sink did not work. Again I am in a police station. My friend was asked “Do you believe in God?” He said yes and then gave an oath swearing the story was true. I did the same. Everything was done in paper in this station. The phone jack was crooked coming out of the wall and there were piles of paper work. One police officer came in with this traditional beer called shake, shake. When we were just about to leave, a man came in with no bottom teeth and only two upper teeth. We had to explain to the police, that we had no money to get a ride home. Well actually the thieves did not steal my wallet or cards in the wallet, so we just needed to get to an atm. Also at 515pm, 1.5 hours after we had gotten into the police station, they asked us if we needed to go to the hospital. I think at this point I would have known if I needed to go to the hospital, I would have told them already. Again this is a police station. As we got into the back of the police truck for our ride back to the university, the police said, “do you mind sitting with a bloody person?” We of course said no and they dropped us off at a nearby mall and we took a combi back to campus.

Several things were shocking about this experience. The most important thing is that we are both completely SAFE and unharmed minus the few scratches. You think it only happens in movies, then it happens to you. It’s a bit surreal. Also the police was the most shocking of the day. Their response time, was pitiful. Once in the police station, I thought to myself, this is why Botswana is a third world country. The police station was run-down and nothing was electronic. I wonder if Eric or I had gotten stabbed, what the response time would be. There were paint chips everywhere and the bathrooms were filthy. This is what its like to be in a third world country. While, Botswana may have first world ideals, its still important to remember that it’s a third world country. At the end of the day, the most important thing is that my friend and I did not get stabbed or seriously hurt. We remained calm throughout the entire experience which helped us out, though we were a bit frustrated right after the incident, nonetheless still took the necessary steps. My friend and I walked to a restaurant later that night with some other friends, to have a celebratory, we did not stabbed dinner. These things do happen in Southern Africa. No country, even Bots, is exempt from this petty crime. I am continuing to enjoy my time in Bots and will continue to do my daily activities. I am completely fine, as these things happen. I do not feel anymore unsafe in Botswana. This happened to people last semester as well. Please do not worry, though I appreciate your concern and thoughts on the issue. I stress that I am doing well and having a great time in Bots. I’ve finally caught up and will post pictures, once I get a new camera.