Ga Go Na Mathata

Thar be me, first stepping on Botswana soil, with the sketchy plane, short hair, and the same clothes I'd been wearing for two days.











On Tuesday we discussed our hopes, fears, and expectations. I believe they're all aspects of the same; I hope to avoid my fears, I fear I won't achieve my hopes, and I expect some combination of the two. Mostly, I have to remember to ignore everyone else's hopes, fears, and expectations.


This is a picture of our classroom.















Class is so much more engaging when the teacher stops every once in a while to say things like, "See how the warthogs kneel down to eat? It's because they have such short necks," or, "Those are baboons drinking from the swimming pool." Warthogs:














Then we went on safari. Oh man, it was actually that good. I learned tons and tons about animals of all sorts, and I will try to convey some interesting facts...along with pictures. Gosh, I hope this computer works well. Fortunately, the U in USB actually means universal.

These elephants aren't actually wild; they were rescued and raised by Sri Lankan men at Mokolodi. Elephants can only digest about 40% of what they eat, so their poop is mostly undigested plant matter. Oh yeah, if I haven't mentioned, I have no concept of what's "gross" or "disgusting." I think biology is cool.















Nobody knows why zebras are striped, but the best answer to why they evolved that way is that when they are running in a herd, lions can pick out any zebra in particular because of all the stripes. I know I get a little seasick watching only one zebra running through the trees.















White rhinos are not named for their color, but rather for the shape of their face, which is "wide". But apparently, "wide" is too difficult to pronounce for us people, so they became "white" instead. Their face is so wide because they need to be able to eat as much grass as possible in one mouthful. Also, their horns are not attached to their skulls, but rather protrude from the skin like fingernails. I think this picture is Mommy and Baby.














This is a picture of one of my awesome classmates in the safari truck that reminds me way too much of something from Disneyworld. The scene in the background is pretty much exactly what I pictured Africa to be.

There about a gazillion species of antelope here. I can't remember all of them, I can't recognize most of them, and they're all beautiful. Here's Simba pointing out a kudu. Kudus have curly horns. They're age can be estimated based on the size of their horns. I can say that for my Rosh Hashana, I got to see a REAL Shofar.

I don't know about you, but I've always wanted to know what a wildebeest looks like.

















I think giraffes look a lot like the Loch Ness monster. I also find it endlessly amusing that this giraffe appears to have evolved to be TALLER than the trees, and actually has to bend its neck down to eat. A giraffe has the highest blood pressure in the animal kingdom, because its brain is so far from its heart, so when it bends down to drink water, valves in its arteries kick in so that its brain doesn't start hemorrhaging out its ears.














I think it's the stars that make it all seem real. The sky full if stars is what separates the real Africa from Disney's Animal Kingdom or the Hall of African Mammals at the Museum of Natural History in NYC. The rhinos and wildebeest are all there during the day, but they're still there at night. I realize I haven't gone home, that the animals are sleeping under the same sky, even though I don't see them.

The sunset is beautiful, but it is only an overture to the night sky. Stars are everywhere like I've never seen before. The Milky Way is a bright smudge across the night as a hint of the billions and billions of stars that are too far to see, that are too numerous to fit in Earth's pigeon-holed view of the universe. I'm pretty sure the stars look different than at home, but I don't know enough to explain how. I think there are different constellatinos, or they're in different places, or something like that.

And then there's the comfort and security of knowing that the nearest group of people to us is probably several miles away, that the only dangers close enough to harm us have no interest, because they're sleeping under the stars as well.

And now a brief language lesson:

"I do this because I like strange people, and you are some of the strangest people I've ever seen."
-Matts, our Setswana instructor

In Setswana, the "g" is pronounced like the "ch" in "Chanukah", "Pesach", or "Bleeeeech".

The word "kgala" means "to dry up, like a river or lake". Therefore, Kgalagadi means "great thirst", which is forgotten by the rest of the world when they pronounce it "Kalahari".

Then there's the expression "Ga go na mathata", which, pronounced correctly, and then translated into Swahili (a Bantu language, like Setswana), sounds like "Hakuna matata". Ah, life makes so much more sense now.

Oh, I don't have the time/patience to proofread, so I sincerely apologize for spelling and grammatical errors, and feel free to point them out. (I'd do the same for you.)




<----"Ga go na mathata."