Water and the internet

I've never paid attention to how much I use these.  It is hard to get both here.

Water

Even just washing a few dishes in the sink uses more than two gallons of water.  There are four of us living in this suite right now, but there should be six for the semester.  We share a kitchen with an electric stove, fridge and cupboards that were already full of the basic kitchen things.  We have an understanding that everything that we keep out in the common area is for sharing, but if there is something special that we don’t want to share, we should keep it in our rooms.  I like this.  After seeing how many flies are around, and sometimes lying awake with one in my ear, I think my stuff can just be in the cupboards of the kitchen.  We also share a room with a toilet and a sink and another with a shower and a sink.  I heard before I came that there are scheduled water outages each day.  From what we’ve seen here so far, there is no schedule.  There was a day where it did not go out at all, for more than 24 hours.  But on the other days, it just seems to come and go as it pleases.  So we keep big jugs of water in the kitchen for dishes.  Before I got here, I was afraid that “no water” meant “no water.”  But actually there is a spigot out in the front yard that always works.  This is how we fill up the reserve water.  Also, there is a bathroom on the second floor that is shared by all the suites in this building.  It has a tub with a hand shower, a toilet and a sink.  This bathroom always has water. Our housemates say they feel comfortable drinking the tap water, but that it is possible that it could upset our stomachs.  So for now, I am only drinking bottled water and, if there is an emergency, I would boil the tap water.

Internet

Oh, the internet.  This new MacBook is definitely designed for a wireless connection.  But I do have a SIM card in my phone.  I paid $15 for 800 MB of data and the 3G service is good for browsing.  I am more aware of how often I feel the urge to check social media and email for no reason at all and am coming up to alternatives to this like reading, writing, editing photos and making playlists from my iTunes library.  Why don’t I make more time for these things regularly?

A new friend just helped make Cristina's computer a hotspot, so I want to frantically say as much as I can about what else has happened before I lose the connection.  Ok, so what else?  I'll start with the last flight here, a quick jump from Johannesburg to Gaborone on Air Botswana.  The snacks!  Beef jerky!  I was so excited.  Beef is a big deal here, I've had steak twice already and beef sausage once and it is all amazing.  

I've spent most of my time with these two.  Cristina on the left is the other Fulbrighter. She's from South Carolina and is a teacher in rural Alaska.  Bongy is a PhD candidate who will defend her dissertation in sports management and physical education this semester.  

We all live together in graduate housing at the University of Botswana (UB).  In the first three days, Bongy drove us all around and helped us get set up.  She has given us much of her time, ensuring that we aren’t overcharged for our purchases and helping us even we make ridiculous mistakes (getting back a SIM card from the restaurant garbage after I dropped it on the floor, trying to talk down an angry man upset about his picture that I accidently took as his car pulled into the cloud shot, negotiating a fan return that somehow landed Cristina in a holding area of the electronics store, and much more).  But most of all, she has quickly become a friend as well.  

Today all three of us went to a run/walk with some of the people from the Kalahari Hash House Harriers.  Cristina and I went to our first official hash with them this past Sunday and are looking forward to this coming weekend when they will be hashing at a place outside of the city.  

Today, some of them met up at the Gaborone Dam which is almost completely dry.  We ran a 5k and then had happy hour and dinner at the Yacht Club.

Here are few shots of where we live in the graduate village.  We caught this beautiful (double) rainbow on our first day back from shopping.  

Thanks WFUV for this hat which I've hardly taken off when outside in the sun!  

And, finally, here a few shots of my (back to college life) room.