Mzungu from Botswana
Source : KUTLWANO
Author : Esaleone Molaodi
Location : GABORONE
Event : Travel memoirs
The only dreadful thoughts that always came rushing into my mind about East Africa were the ongoing wars, communicable diseases, abject poverty and myths. But just like any other country in the world, foreigners see Botswana in a mythical way as well.
Esaleone Molaodi is my name. I was born in Selebi Phikwe but I was raised in Mmadinare. I am a recent graduate of Associate Degree in Digital Photography from Limkokwing University of Creative Technology, also a progression student of BA (HONS) in Professional Design (which entails Graphic Design) and I will be completing my studies still in the same institution by end of this year. I completed my last semester in the corporate world reporting for Botswana Press Agency (BOPA) in the Dailynews paper where I was a news reporter intern on attachment at the Department of Information Services in Selebi Phikwe.
First and foremost, let me explain how I ended up in East Africa. It was towards end of 2009 when I met my fellow student by AIESEC (Associate Internationale Estudents Sciences Economics Commerciales) recruitment stall at Limkokwing University, David Lottering, from an international organisation called AIESEC. Well, AIESEC is a platform for youth and space for leadership development and it started in 1948 after World War II by seven students from seven European countries who envisioned peace and fulfillment of humankind`s potential. It then expanded to different countries in all the continents.
Our core element is exchange. There are two types of programmes namely Global Community Development Programme and Global Internship Programme. A Global Community Development Program offers voluntary internships. They are usually short term in nature and involve working on diverse community projects and in different organisations. This kind of an internship is suggested for students since its duration is six to 20 weeks. A Global Internship Programme is for recent graduates and offers paid management, technical and educational internships. They are normally long term in nature and they involve working on diverse business projects and in different organisations. The duration of this internship programme is six weeks to 18 months. Each year, AIESEC provides over 20 000 students with opportunities to live and work in different countries.
Now back to my East Africa journey. The Tswanalising East Africa Project was initiated in November 2010 through hard work. AIESEC Limkokwing Botswana managed to send a total number of 15 Batswana youth to Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda, myself included as well as our president, by then, Constance Kgosiemang-Mpolokang. We travelled by bus during December-January school vacation. This was very encouraging especially with the the fact that all of us who went for exchange dug deep from our own pockets.
I still feel so happy to have been one of those students. Thanks to AIESEC for letting us see the world and even today when I share the experience it still feels like we got back recently and also many thanks to Stephen Moloi, the former vice president for exchange who motivated me to go for exchange since I was hesitating right from the start.
THE JOURNEY
Before leaving Botswana for East Africa, we all got yellow fever vaccine as well as malaria tablets. We left by a combi which we hired to transport us from Gaborone to Lusaka, Zambia since we thought we could not trust any passenger who would be boarding Gaborone-Lusaka Express bus, let alone Zambians who would be at our reception when we reach Lusaka. From Lusaka we connected a bus to Dar es salaam, Tanzania and that was when reality struck in that we were now far away from home.
We arrived at the Zambia-Tanzania border at the busiest town that I have ever been to called Tunduma and that was at around 5am. By the way, Tanzania is an hour ahead of us while Uganda is two hours ahead. We slept in a bus for an hour while we waited for the border to open at six o`clock. The moment all the passengers were told to get off the bus which was going back to Lusaka, the little knowledge that we had, multitudes of men were outside the bus waiting so they could help us carry our luggage. These men could only speak Swahili and Bemba with a little bit of English keywords. That was where I discovered my sign language talent and also the ruthless character in me. Tunduma is a place for hustlers - you sneeze, you lose your luggage or the person who offers to help you carry your stuff disappears into thin air.
A journey by bus right from Botswana to Dar es salaam takes four days, then a day to reach Nairobi, Kenya and then another a day to reach Kampala, Uganda. So we connected buses until we reached our destinations. Sleeping, waking up, eating and chatting in Setswana became our only routine. Still in transit, we left seven exchange participants in Tanzania. We rested for some few days while we booked for Dar es salaam-Nairobi bus seats and exchanged the Zambian Kwachas in a local bureau de change. It took us a day to reach Nairobi and that was where we left two interns. Team Uganda did not spend much time in Nairobi but left the following night to reach Kampala.
To my surprise, people were still roaming the streets at around 2am as if it was broad daylight. Among them, were men carrying babies on their backs. I remember we went to a restaurant at around 3am only to find fresh sizzling hot food readily available for customers.
CULTURE SHOCK
Every now and then from Kazungula ferry up the map, fully armed soldiers swamped the area especially in shopping malls. I closed my eyes and prayed to the Lord to spare our lives. To me, seeing a soldier strolling in the mall carrying an AK47, observing me from a distance and sometimes smiling or nodding at me, appeared deceptive. That was the moment I just told myself to keep on walking. If that was time for the gun to be shot, then so be it. A lot of Batswana do not travel abroad that much which made it difficult for Ugandans to believe I was a “Botswanian”, like they used to call me, and that Botswana is actually in Africa. To them, it was their very first time to see a Motswana. They believed that I was a “mzungu”, a white person because of my “brownish colour”, I didn`t say this, they did, western culture, clothes and my accent. Most times children screamed the word “mzungu” at me while elders thought it was Colonisation Part Two. So everywhere I went people stopped and stared at me, asking whether I was Muslim or Christian. The moment I told them that I was a Christian they would be asking what my Christian name was and they would laugh in disbelief that my name did not even exist in the Bible. They said I looked so spoilt that they even thought I could not lift a finger to hold a broom, let alone peel a potato.
FOOD
A lot of people rely on junk food which is mostly sold in the streets and restaurants. They deep fry fish at the same time cooking potato chips in the same pot. The way we were so welcomed in Uganda made me realise our reception to foreigners here is not good enough. We were always being given free food and very fresh fruits for the sake of being foreigners. Uganda`s staple food is cooked bananas which is being prepared with all the methods of cooking while beef is for the rich who will always have maybe two small pieces of stewed beef with plenty of thin soup. One needed to specify the kind of soda they wanted as well as its temperature, otherwise hot soda would be readily available for sale. It cost as little as P2.50 to buy soda. That`s way too cheap that I could afford to buy it almost every day. Believe me I did that and people believed that I was stinking rich.
CLOTHING
Uganda is a Muslim country so long attires are worn by women while men wear the Muslim outfit. One may think of how old fashioned those women looked during the day but come midnight, one may wonder where those beautiful people came from. Botswana maybe 30 years ahead of Uganda in almost everything.
TRANSPORT
The main mode of public transport is matatu (combi) and bodabodas (motorbike). Matatus are the cheapest since we paid 500 Ugandan Shillings which is equivalent to P2 while a bodaboda is double. Bodabodas are the most convenient since we were not caught in traffic. Instead, they weave between cars and you need a helmet for safety. Pedestrians need to be always alert since the bodabodas invariably speed and every time and again there will be hooting. The moment you panic and your knees start to tremble violently they reverse to ask whether you need a ride instead of apologising for that near accident. They stop at almost every household. People are always in a rush and some bump accidentally into each other. There was a time I found myself supporting a corner of a 50kg sack full of coal with one of my shoulders and when I expressed surprise, a man looked at me with a face full of anxiety as if asking himself “isn`t this normal” and then he disappeared into multitudes of people.
WORK EXPERIENCE
Colline Hotel in Mukono town was the company which hosted me for a traineeship and it was some few kilometers away from Kampala. I worked in all the departments including health club, front office, restaurant, housekeeping, kitchen and food and beverages. AIESEC Uganda Christian University initiated the Africa Tourism project which collaborated with Tswanalizing East Africa Project and they organised accommodation for us in the hostels. So my workplace and the university were just a stone throw away. At work there were some other exchange participants from Kenya and of course my fellow country woman, Onneile Pholo, whom not even the mightiest pliers could pry the two of us apart even though we got to know each other in Uganda.
CURRENCY
Now that Pula is one of the strongest currencies in Africa, converting Pula to American Dollar then to Ugandan Shillings made me a millionaire for the first time especially after our allowance was accredited.
LANGUAGE
Since Luganda is the official language in Uganda and only spoken nowhere else, it was somehow difficult for me to pick up so many words. Ugandans are the slowest speakers in both English and Luganda. Sometimes they just laughed and at the same time got surprised at the way we spoke Setswana. They always said we spoke as if we were rapping especially our mother tongue.
NEGOTIATION SKILLS
The markets were always busy and the best way not to lose somebody that you went with was to hold hands even though the sellers were pulling us to their stalls in a belief that no foreigner would visit a foreign country dollar less. Nobody asks for a price to compare and contrast. No, if you ask then you will have to buy it. If you do not, the seller will keep on reducing the price until you come back.
Items were way too cheap especially second hands and one may get a t-shirt for as little as P2.50. Speaking of negotiations, everything that is for sale can be bargained for even bus tickets. Survival of the fittest in the financial industry was to negotiate for almost everything, even where prices were very low.
CONCLUSION
This is the little experience that I can share with Batswana otherwise this whole Kutlwano magazine will become my exchange journal. After an exchange I became the Local Committee Vice President Talent Management of AIESEC Limkokwing Botswana for the 2011/12 term. That motivated me further to go for another Global Community Development Program in Tanzania last year December until January this year where I worked in a Fine Touch Media Company as a graphic designer and a photographer. Now that unemployment is the biggest concern in Botswana, I urge tertiary students and recent graduates to join AIESEC and I also plead to parents to allow their children to go for exchange to gain international work experience as well as to diversity. They can join AIESEC also at University of Botswana, Gaborone Institute of Professional Studies, Botho University and Ba Isago University, which is the only Local Committee in Francistown.
It`s is not like each and every country has wars. There are more than 110 countries and territories that AIESEC exists in that they can still choose. ENDS
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