Random Thoughts Inspired by Botswana

Random Thoughts Inspired by Botswana


1. If I get ONE more bug bite, I’m declaring war on ALL mosquitoes

2. As a forth-year college student it is practically my duty to put off papers until just before they are due. Its like an unwritten rule, why mess with tradition now? At least that’s what I’m telling my professors. :)

3. Word Swap! (Botswana vs. America)
a. Full Stop = Period (like at the end of a sentence)
b. To borrow = as in “I borrowed him my book” actually means “I lent him my book”
c. Full cream = whole milk
d. Knock-off = to leave or to finish (in terms of “what time do you knock-off school)
e. Motor Bike = Motorcycle (that one was easy to figure out)
f. Biscuits = cookies
g. That side = this side, over there, the other direction, the other end, etc.
h. Chips = French Fries
i. Airtime = Cell phone minutes
j. Car park = Parking lot (so British)
k. I’m coming = usually said while walking away actually means I’ll be back.
l. A rubber = eraser
m. Write a Test = actually means to take a test
n. Rumza = roommate (practically my name while in Bots, which I love)

4. I have to register online for my winter term classes at OSU. Of course since I’m in Africa it means my allotted registration time falls on November 16th at 4 am. So annoying and yet, kind of exciting, though I may not be too excited come 4am.

5. Legal Drinking age?….18. Legal age of Driving?.....18….Not the greatest idea.

6. Got to Love my roommate. Her name is Chimo and she is an amazing person. She also has this hilarious and sweet friend Jobe and this is possibly my most memorable conversation while here in Botswana.

Krisstina: “The first thing I’m going to do when I get back is go to Strabucks!”

Jobe: “Haha, is it?”

Chimo/Jobe: “What’s Starbucks?”

7. I live in Oregon where it rains or hails or snows or some has means of downward moisture, the majority of the year. Yet, I see almost twice as many umbrellas in Africa.

8. Its not easy to grow grass here, which is to be expected with such little rain. Yet they somehow manage to grow grass outside of the nicest buildings in Botswana. Though I must confess it doesn’t look like or feel like normal grass. Anyway, they figured out a way to grow grass all year round through a delicate balance of frequent watering and mass amounts of cow manure based fertilizer. That’s when it occurred to me. Why would anyone want the NICEST buildings in Botswana to always smell like manure? Skip the grass, take the dirt.

9. Speaking of dirt, they have dirt sweepers here. Ya know, to clean up the dirt a bit and make it look nice. Thought that was very odd, then I realized we rake our lawns…equally odd.

10. Someone was convinced I was Brazilian the other day. So I said yes and started speaking Spanish just for the fun of it. He was convinced and satisfied with is fine skills of perception…..They speak Portuguese. Just sayin’

Lovin' Bots...