Toyota Desert Race

The Toyota Desert Race took place for two days in September. Apparently it's been happening for a few years and is very popular among locals and visitors/racers from South Africa (and further- we met an Icelandic team!). This is a picture of a truck during it's refueling break.
Check out all the gasoline! They used two of these things. Seems like a crazy sport to me.

You can sort of see a truck coming barreling down the dirt road from the bush, kicking up lots of dust.

A primary school boy who was showing me how to hitch (and helping me hitch a ride) while I was on my way to visit a friend. He and his friends told me to sit down and they would find a car for me. They wouldn't let me get on the bus that went by because there were no seats and they didn't want me to ride in a truck- they were determined to find me a nice car to sit in. Thanks boys!

My garden

Our finished product! The green netting is to keep the chickens out and to provide some shade from the intense sun. Me and my garden helpers. I promise I didn't make them do hard labor- they wanted to help! And they knew a lot more about gardening in this soil than I do.

Planting the seeds

Swiss chard/spinach/greens are called Rape here. I still havne't gotten used to seeing "Rape for Sale" at the stores. So far though, it's the only thing that's sprouted in the garden.

Food!

A lovely dinner I prepared for myself one night. The lump of grayish stuff is called Bogobe. It's made with sorghum and you make it like you'd make grits or polenta, but you just cook it longer. You eat it with your fingers and sort of dip/pick up the other foods with it. The accompanying food is cooked cabbage and a carrot/potato/onion/soy protein mix. Yum- sort of. This was our meal during the Independence Day celebration at Bokaa Dam. We braai-ed (past tense of braai or bbq or grilled) lots of meat (since it is not a meal with out meat). There is a giant piece of beef (as you can probably see) some potato salad (or cooked potatoes, cans of green peas and lots of mayo), a lump of palache (similar to the bogobe above except made from corn meal) and a piece of chicken.

This was my Sunday afternoon meal two weekends ago. Palache and meat (including intestines). We cooked in a large black caldron-like pot outside. Cooked intestines are called serobe and everyone loves them. Except me.

This is my mix of RI and Botswana food: johnny cakes with cabbage! We had johnny cakes (corn meal pancakes) with syrup growing up (which I have done a few times here too!) but I'm eating them more with vegetables these days. I've got some cooked cabbage and baked beans in tomato sauce here.

This was my huge plate of food at the graduation party of sorts we had for some Form 3s. We ran out of rice and chicken, so my plate consists of huge helpings of beet salad, potato salad, coleslaw and beef stew.

Also, people don't drink until they are finished with their meals because they say it will fill them up and they won't be able to finish their plate. I still couldn't finish my plate, but the students at my table were happy to finish it for me.

Classes at Moruakgomo JSS

Students in Agriculture class The first year students at my school (Form 1's) and third years (Form 3's) have to plant in the school's garden as part of their practical grades for the course. During this time of year (Spring) the Form 1's are planting maize.

Students waiting in line to fill their watering cans at the well.

These are pictures of a Form 1 class in a guidance lesson. This classroom is just one room detached from other buildings on campus. The lesson here was about relationships. The groups each drew a picture of a ship (Relation-SHIPs....ha, I didn't come up with this one on my own!) and then wrote the things that make a relationship good and bad. We used the backs of old posters and markers that I was sent from home (thanks mom and Aunt Shirley!).

A little bit of Batswana culture

This is my at a bridal shower a few weeks ago. Traditionally, women (and especially married women) wear these shawls to cover their shoulders and scarfs to cover their hair.

There is obviously a lot I don't know about wedding traditions here, but one thing I do know is that before the wedding the married women in the family go 'collect' the bride from her family's house (wearing these shawls and such) and talk to her about what it is like to be a wife, her wifely duties, etc etc. So we did a little make-shift talk like this at the bridal shower and I was put on the spot to provide wifely wisdom to the bride. I didn't have any.

These pictures are from months ago now, but they show you what some traditional dancing looks like. Most of the dancing here involves singing, clapping and stomping, with no instraments.

No more hot showers

More game playing. This was during the vacation before school started again. I borrowed monopoly from our school library- where it was still wrapped in plastic and didn't look like anyone was ever going to play it. The fact that all the cards were written in Afrikaans and English made playing extra interesting- plus the monopoly money was in Rands.

My massive clothes washing operation. This was the second attempt- first time was thwarted when the water went out and I couldn't rinse my clothes.

I haven't taken a real bath in here yet. I don't have hot water so I'd have to use my electric kettle or boil water on the stove and it would take so much water. So, I'm still bucket bathing- but just doing it in the tub.

My lovely 'cleaning my backyard clothes'.

Clearing a yard with only a shovel = lots of sweating.

Great beginning to month 5!

Mail here is delivered to my school. Our school messanger goes to the post office once a day (maybe not that often....) and returns with any letters or mail for teachers. The packages remain at the post office and we are given a slip saying we have a package waiting. The mysterious part is the secretary at school keeps these package slips so you never know if one has arrived for you.

On Monday, after returning from 2 weeks of training in the capital, I decided to walk over to school and say hello to the non-teaching staff who has been working even though the rest of us teachers are on vacation until Sept 7. Lucky me, the secretary is there and hands me 4 package slips! 4! So I immediately rush home, grab my passport (for id) and start the walk towards the main road. After a 3pula taxi and a short wait at the post office, I'm soon in possession of 4 amazing boxes from the states. Luckily, I brought some bags to carry them in but even then, there was no way I could do the 2 mile walk back to school. The gods must have been smiling on me that day though because a car stopped and took me all the way back to my school- which NEVER happens since people hate driving on the dirt road that my school is on.

In short, Monday was a fantastic day. I got all sorts of thoughtful goodies from the states- beautiful earrings, food, a ton of arts and crafts supplies and pictures of family, amongst many, many other things. Thank you so much!


This is in the front yard of my across the street neighbors- one is a music teacher and the other a science teacher. They decided to have a fire that friday night to 'celebrate' the end of the term, so I joined them. You can see my trusty nalgene in the front of the picture.