Before I forget, Sisi’s Setswana name is Shesophatso. Maybe it was her hysterectomy or maybe the fact that she has turned most of the hunting over to Pudi, but man, she is a porker.
Anyway, we had a great Saturday. I left my house headed to meet my niece Lucia in Gabs to see Breaking Dawn Part I. I was warmly greeted by a stranger who introduced herself and told me she was a volunteer for Home Based Care. I greeted her and told her who I was and that I was a volunteer at Camphill. This was all in Setswana! Basic, but still. Then I rounded the turn and saw my neighbor, who runs the bottle shop, on her way to work. We greeted each other, walked along together and talked about the weather, how it was better today with the wind to cool things off, but it had been too hot and how she had to work at home and now at the shop and then we agreed that we both work too much. THIS was all in Setswana! Okay, her Setswana was perfect and mine was words or very short sentences and grunts and groans, but it worked!
I should probably just spend my days at her bottle store having her teach me, but then I would get a reputation for being a drunk. On the other hand, maybe I would become a drunk, but a better-spoken one. Either way, I know I would learn from her because she doesn’t speak much English. That is really what I need; time with people who aren’t in a hurry and don’t have anything else to do but to sit and listen to me sputter words out. That is so much what people who own bars end up doing, isn’t it? Entertaining drunks and listen to them sputter out words?
It won’t happen at work (the word sputtering or the drinking), because everyone is working and it is much faster for everyone if they speak English to me. However, maybe, now that things are starting to slow down in some ways and I will be purposely NOT going to the office every day, I can start sitting and having these simple conversations with people who have already slowed down enough.
So these two nice conversations had me in good humor as I boarded the way too full bus to Gabs and ended up standing the entire hour ride. I realized that standing for that long in a hot crowded bus was better in some ways than sitting for that long because I didn’t so obviously end up drenching my clothing. Standing, with whatever wind blew in from both sides of the bus, I could keep some airflow going around my skin and not look like I wet myself (my back, my legs my butt, etc.) as I do when I sit that long and then stand up to leave the bus. I just relaxed my knees, planted my feet firmly and held on to anything secure and non-human and let my mind relax as I gazed out the window.
Gabs was crowded. I don’t think I have ever made the trip there on a Saturday, come to think of it. I met up with Lucia and we took a combi to the mall where the movie was showing. We were in the last row of the combi; I had the window seat and had the window wide open. I was doing what I do best when I am in a cramped vehicle and sweating out all of my bodily fluids– zone out and hope some throws a cold bucket of water on me – when everyone in the combi started yelling and pointing. Well, I am no fool, so I knew something was wrong.
It would have taken a long time for me to know WHAT exactly was wrong without Lucia there. Apparently, at the stop we were sitting at, the guy sitting in the back row with us and hanging out the other window was mugged. Yep. Someone reached in the window and grabbed his phone or IPod or whatever he had his earphones hooked to and yanked it right out the window. He took off running and everyone in the vehicle started yelling at the driver to pursue him! People were pissed. We drove wildly forth until we came along a fortuitous police vehicle. Men jumped out of our combi and ran to the police and told them what happened. Then both vehicles were in hot pursuit. Except none of us really knew where the guy had gone, since he wisely didn’t just run down the road but ducked off somewhere.
We had been taught in our training that people here do NOT like thieves (except I suppose the thieves, they must like themselves, right?) and if you yell “legodu” you better be serious because if people get their hands on the guy you are accusing before the police do, they are likely to give him a good thumping. For the guys in our combi, and the owner of the apparatus, it was sadly not their day to thump.
We continued on to the mall and it was an exciting reminder that you have to be careful with your stuff when people around you want it. I never take my earphones or mp3 player anywhere in public. Mostly because I like to hear Setswana I can’t understand in the background as I am having my quiet thoughts. I think it helped Lucia to remember to be careful with her brand new cell phone, which though not very fancy, is fancier that mine, and teenagers can be a bit nonchalant with things they didn’t put their own money into…..
We wandered the mall, got a bite to eat and readied ourselves for the movie. Lucia told me she was making family history because she was the first to see a movie in a theater. She also said one of her aunts was teasing her mother that I was stealing her daughter away from her. I hope she doesn’t think so. I am really only in the market for nieces and nephews on as many continents as I can manage. The other sisters all told her that I was the best aunt now. I will have to remind them that while in this magical world of Peace Corps Host Families I am technically their sister, I am really closer to their mother’s age and have had more time to save money to be frivolous with because I also didn’t have five kids and have a husband who died on me like “our” mom. I just don’t want them feeling bad, but I think they are all probably joking around.
The movie was, of course, grand and over too soon. The theater was so air-conditioned that we were at first cold, but then I was in bliss. I know where to go when it gets really hot. I will just stay in the theater after the movie sitting quietly in the dark until they drag me out. Lucia wants me to tell her what happens in the next movie and when we could go see it. I told her it might not be out until next year, but she could read the book first, since I had it. No, she said, just TELL ME! No, and no. Please though, those of you in the US, tell ME when Breaking Dawn Part II will come out again. If I am still in Botswana, I will need to save my Pula for the next trip. Maybe I will drag the whole family along.
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