Eating Peace

The Batswana are peace-loving people. They have a saying, "Ntwa-kgolo ke ya moloma", which means something along the lines of "Peace comes from the mouth." In other words, peace comes from talking and negotiating, not bombing the shit out of people. There are so few shootings because guns are illegal here. Even the police don't carry them. (Gosh, but how can we feel safe if there aren't guns everywhere?)

In fact, when the BDF (Botswana Defense Force? Maybe? Something like that.) goes and liberates places like Somalia and Lesotho, they don't carry weapons. And the liberated are always so grateful to Botswana in particular because of this. Imagine that. Liberating people without causing destruction. (The only time BDF will use force is if they come across a poacher hunting illegal game. That's worth shooting on the spot, before they shoot an endangered animal.)

Today I had a discussion with my host-sister, Mphelo, that really opened my eyes. We were discussing the war in Iraq. She agreed that Sadam needed to be removed from power, but not by bombing the shit out of the country. And the killing hasn't stopped. The terrorists aren't the ones who are suffering; it is the women and children and sick and hungry and blown to bits.

First, I was reminded of so many stereotypes that, though I keep telling myself that they're wrong, I still seem to believe deep down. I mean, this is a girl in sub-Saharan Africa criticizing the Americans. Whoa. Mind-blowing. If she thinks the American military is exhibiting cruel and unusual behavior (or being ordered to), then it must be bad.

This then led to a discussion of other horrible things happening in the world, and then horrible things that have happened in the world. And, because we were watching a documentary on eugenics, the discussion turned to Hitler and the Holocaust. And then we started hypothesizing why bad things happen to good people. She thinks things are "meant to be" and "planned by God". I disagree; I told her (adding some religious stuff of my own) that I think God just sort of set the universe in motion, and people have the ability to make their own decisions. And they just tend to screw up. A lot.

There's something so wonderful/interesting/cool/weird about having a deep philosophical/political/theological conversation with someone from a completely different culture. And I don't mean different culture like Western European, I mean actually different. (Though not so different by Otse host-uncle's standards. See Yom Kippur post.)

And now I'm going to change the topic before I start rambling on about free will and such.

In Gabs, it seems that wealth is measured in Zim. As in, "we have a Zim(babwean maid)" or "tonight our Zim cooked pasta" or "our Zim offered to do my laundry". Our Zim is a really cool lady who works here so she can send bread home to her family. You can't get bread in Zim. That's how bad inflation is. They're planning on making a new currency; that should be interesting.

Next week we go up north to Kasane. We do cool things like have a boat tour on the Okavango and go to Victoria Falls in Zambia.

I'm in Africa. Heh heh heh. (That was my best impression of Jon Stewart's George W. Bush laugh.)