The weather has been truly Northwestern; heavy low overcast with rain, only warmer/hotter in between. We’re taking Setswana classes at UB and it is interesting to be on campus. It is full of the same spectrum of students found on any campus; jocks, chatty groups of coeds, metro-sexuals, rural based kids that dress as such, openly effeminate men dressed in makeup and pressed denim, and Jane and Joe Average. The professors are busy teaching evening classes and the corridors (all outside) are buzzing.
Setswana class is tough but if a Batswana can learn to speak English the least we can do is learn the national language here. On the wards is a perfect place to practice and it adds humor to the day for many of the patients.
I’m still impressed with the number of Batswana that ask me on a daily basis about the election result and my opinion of it. Uniformly and without exception they are excited about the new administration. They see Obama less as a black man that I suspect the average American does (after all in the US you are white or you’re not, even if a parent was white). To them he is an inspiration but as a person of color, in this case mixed race, he lends validity to the US in areas of the world like this.
Things are greening up at an accelerated pace, three weeks from now it will be so different. The weaver birds are all bedded down in their nests so there is much less courting than a week ago. Next up, baby weavers!
The staff people at the hospital get a huge kick out of the fact that I ride a single speed bike to work. The good news about that is that virtually everyone knows it’s mine. Security in familiarity doncha know. Time to sign out, thanks so much for your comments and letters, I sure enjoy them.
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4 comments:
Well, we are having a warm storm here, temps in the 60's with winds supposed to gust to over 40 MPH. It caused a power outage that forced us out of the pool 23 minutes early - strange to be suddenly swimming in the semi-darkness. Language class and time on campus sound like great fun.
Miss you!
So, did any of the male weavers outside your windows manage to woo a female? It would be awesome to have front row seats for watching the babies =) Love you! Shan
Eli is loving our Northwest weather and I, of course, am longing for warm, dry days. It's nice that at least one of us always likes the weather!
I love the fact that you get a bird's eye view of what the rest of the world thinks about the election. I don't think I can even comprehend what this means for us. I do know that listening to Obama's acceptance speech was the first time that a presidential speech made me shed tears!
Big HUG!
amber
Obama's speech was the first time in recent memory that I wept tears of joy at an acceptance speech. I'm certain I cried like a baby during Dubya's glorious '04 speech (or maybe I'd quit listening to him by then and it was '00, who can remember), but the tears were not joyful ones.
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