Time Machine

Whoa. Homestay #3: Shorobe. This is the African village I pictured in my head. Thatched- and tin-roofed huts, no electricity, cooking over an open fire, gas lanterns...and I'm lucky that my house even has a pit latrine. I live on a dusty property with several houses. I'm sharing one with my twenty-something host-mom, Monthusi. One room, two beds. And her four-year-old son, Makogi. (His father is dead.) I think my luggage takes up half the house. Other houses on the property belong to her mother, sister, brother, and others. There are chickens. Dinner was standard Setswana fare: maize meal and beef. My "shower" was a bucket of bioled water and a tin bathtub, both evening and morning.

Fortunately, class is in Maun, at the Botswana Wildlife Training Institute, so I can sve my serious bathroom business for then.

Bedtime: 9 PM. The house is way too hot, and a candle burns through most of the night. When I awake at night, I have to take my headlamp to the pit latrine, terrified. Wake up is at first light, around 5:30, at the beckoning of the roosters. The house has no floor, just dirt covered by rugs. I helped cook breakfast: fresh baked bread, beans.

This family has very nice people, although Makogi is frightened of me. He has never seen a white person before. Shorobe is really interesting, but exhausting! They're not poor. This is just how life is in Shorobe. In fact, they're pretty well-off. They don't long for electricity or television or cars; I think they secretly think less of my because I can't cook over an open fire like they can or boil my own bathwater, just like I unconsciously think less of them for not having these things. (I can't help it, twenty years in America leaves its mark.) It's a very quiet, content life.

Otherwise, I've come to terms with my vegetarianism, or the end of it. Meat is okay. Sometimes it's good. But it's not necessary. It takes unnecessary time, money, and effort. I have no problem eating meat. I have no problem not eating meat. But, if I have the choice, I'd much prefer a nice chunk of tofu.

It's lunchtime; I have a nice pile of indulgence waiting for me, in the form of chocolate, fresh fruit, and granola.