What Do You Get When You Cross...

...an Evangelical Christian church, a traditional African village, and the soundtrack of the Lion King?

Really awesome music and really uncomfortable Jew. It's not the sitting for hours while people around me chant in a foreign lanugage; I'm used to that. It's when the priest stops after his sermon to summarize in English for me his speech about Hellfire and damnation that I feel out of place. And I'm still a little unclear about the wafer thing. But, for my second time in a church ever, (the first was Mass at St. Paul's Cathedral in London, which is the polar opposite of this) it wasn't too bad.

Other interesting discoveries I've made in Otse:

Even after two tries, I still suck at doing laundry by hand.
Otse has its own cheese factore/store.
People here nap in the afternoons, when it is the hottest. Sweet.
Bathtubs were not intended to be filled all the way. If you fill it up about a third of the way, it is so much more practical.
A stamp to send a postcard to the US costs 4.90 pula, or about 85 cents.
The obsession with female modesty does not apply in the church, where I saw mroe shoulders and knees than I had seen all week.
Everyone here loves Mr. Bean.
At noon, Botswana TV plays 7th Heaven reruns.
Young children are easily amused by an iPod. They can subsequently be distracted from the iPod with a Slinky.
Home Alone 2 is a really good movie. I'd forgotten.
Be aware of doors that open inwards on pit latrines. Goats haven't quite grasped the concept of privacy.
My host mother likes Smallville.
Every family has a big party on Botswana Day (Sept. 30), to which all friends and family are invited. I wonder how there is anyone left to attend these parties.
Donkeys look sad, all the time.
Seasons of Love is also a Setswana rap song.
My host family hires a cleaning lady to wash the floors once a week.

You know, the "it's a small world" phenomenon is not only limited to white Jews in America. I discovered this the other day. I had to interview Otse townsfolk about transportation for an assignment. My partner decided we'd find potential interviewees at the cheese store on the edge of town, so we trekked there. On Yom Kippur. Ohhhhh cheese. A man buying cheese and I had the following conversation:

"Dumela-rra."
"Dumela-mma. O tsogile? [How are you?]"
"Tsogile sentle. [I'm fine.] Wena, o tsogile?
"Tsogile sentle. O tswa kae? [You're from where?]
Ke tswa ko Amerika.
Where in America?
New York.
Hm. I'm from the ATL.
Cool! I have friends from there. Where do you live in Botswana?
Kanye. Where in New York are you from? The city or upstate?
Long Island.
No way, you're lying.
Uh, no. Why, you've been to Long Island?
I almost went to university there. Have you heard of Adelphi?
Whoa, my mom went there.

Cheese. Bringing kindred spirits together.

We went on another game drive safari-thingy. My camera wanted to stay home that day, so I don't have pictures. There were tons of giraffes and several species of antelope. (Elands. Maybe. And gemsbok? Springbok too?) A highlight was definitely the springbok spronking. (No, it's not that. It's when they hop really high because they're happy.) It reminded me of all the things I love about the world. I then became homesick for a lovely little place where all thought can be conveyed in strict poetic form, like maybe the haiku:

Look! Springbok spronking
Beyond that acacia tree.
The Earth's Happy Dance.

Or, perhaps, the double dactyl:

Dumela tawana
Botswana's wildlife:
Antelopes, zebras, too
Many to list.

See the unparalleled
Biodiversity?
Useful for tracking the
Ecologist.

(Biodiversity is my new favorite word.)