Back to school

The University of Botswana is nearly the size of Utah State University (USU) and has a student population similar to USU, with about 15,000 students. Most of the students are from Botswana, although there are students from other countries in Africa and exchange students from the U.S., Canada, Europe and a few other countries.

I live in Block 480, also known as Las Vegas, which ironically shares the name of my hometown. Block 480 has both shared and private rooms and each block within the hostel houses men or women. Blocks A1, A2, B1 and B2 are for women and blocks C1, C2, D1 and D2 are for men. My room is about the same size as a shared room in Valley View or Mountain View Towers at USU, and comes with a bed, desk and chair and closet. There are community bathrooms, but each is not shared by many people per floor, which gives a more homely feel. And the bathrooms have hot water, which is a big relief after a semester of cold and lukewarm showers in Ghana. I am sharing a sharing a room with another exchange student who is from Finland. This allows a unique opportunity for me to learn about another culture that I was not already familiar and also houses me with someone who is also interested in learning and exploring the country. I’m glad that I’ve been housed with the local students rather than segregated to international student housing like I was in Ghana.

I am studying fourth year (senior level) marketing in the business block on campus. The classes I am taking this semester are: Managing Marketing Relationships, Marketing Management & Strategy, Marketing Ethics and Consumer Psychology (a class in the psychology department). The business block is three stories tall and is equipped with Wi-Fi, study rooms, computer labs, classrooms, offices and one of my favorite places hangout on campus, the Koffi Cabin (a coffee shop that has donuts, sandwiches, drinks, cake, cupcakes and other goodies). Although I do not study marketing at USU, I want to continue familiarizing myself with key business concepts, as I did while I was at the University of Ghana last semester. Classes here are taught in English (the official language in the country), although most local students speak Setswana (the national language in the country) amongst each other. I find the classroom atmosphere similar to that in the states. Teaching styles vary depending on my professors, but I’d say that I don’t find school here much different than in the states. As many say “school is school”!

All the students at the university that I’ve met have been welcoming and open to sharing their culture with me as well as allowing me to share my home culture with them. A large part of the culture within the college community is westernized. Many of the students watch American movies, listen to American music, and dress similarly to Americans, follow American politics and are familiar with American culture. Therefore, my social interaction with many of them is fluid.

Each day, I make a conscious effort to meet new people and to make new friends. Although I do hang out with international students occasionally, I put forth more effort towards being more immerged in the local culture, so I chose to hang out with locals. My efforts have paid off and I’ve been invited to local’s homes, churches, bible studies, to the local hot spots around town, to braais (barbecues), house parties, been taught some Setswana , shared many long meaningful and inspirational conversations about culture and life with locals and most importantly, begun to build friendships.

There are two cafeterias on campus for students as well as a student bar. The largest cafeteria is Moghul. The cafeteria food is good but they serve a lot of the same foods day-to-day so it only takes about two weeks to get tired of it. I’ll usually have a choice of either rice, phaletshe (grinded maize), bogobe (grinded sorghum), stempa (samp and beans) and occasionally matemekswane (bread- dumplings), followed by a choice of either chicken or beef and occasionally seswaa (pounded meat), a choice of soup, and a choice of either coleslaw, beets, cabbage, shredded carrots or pan-fried potatoes. A few of my favorite dishes are phaletshe, bogobe and matemekswane. I was actually relieved that the food here didn’t hurt my stomach when I first ate it. Many people usually experience traveler’s diarrhea, but that wasn’t the case for me. That’s probably too much information, but I’m just putting it out there!

I’ve settled into my new environment and I am looking forward to what the rest of the semester may bring.