Gardening and Marriage Proposals

Pre-Service training is draining! I feel like I’m back at CSUF taking classes and going home with assignments and reports to be completed. So when I looked at our schedule to see that there were upcoming gardening sessions and a cultural site visit planned for us, I was ecstatic! 

I’ve wanted, for a little while now, to have my own garden when if I ever got my own place. Well, in about a month I will have my own place! My first place actually! Even if I end up living in a big city when I get back to the states I would still like to have some type of urban garden or small patio garden at least. Last week I looked at our schedule for PST and saw Perma-gardening scheduled for a random Friday and I was really excited for it. We were taught how to dig the soil and make plots in the dry heat here. We used chicken fertilizer to help the plants grow and soiled the ground so that there was enough moisture for the health of the plant. Botswana is abundant with spinach and so we planted spinach and onions. I was really intrigued with their process of planting vegetables and I really think that I’d like to have my own garden when I get to my permanent site. I’m going to do it! I can’t wait for the next perma-gardening session! It was really fun especially because it was my first time really gardening and using shovels, pitchforks, and hoes. 

Spinach!

Our team with the best looking plot ;)

Last Saturday was the cultural site visit in the village of Mmankgodi and it was really fun (and really hot!). We arrived to Batswana dressed in traditional outfits and the sounds of song and drums. It was really cool. Batswana sing all the time, for fun and while working as a way to make the workload a lot bearable and quicker. They sang a song for us as we walked in and the only word I could make out was “America.” They seemed to be really happy and fun and so that just made us adopt the same mood. The really exciting thing they did for us was have different age groups come out and sing and dance for us. They also showed us the long process of a traditional marriage ceremony and that was…interesting! As they danced, a group of bare-chested men came into the kgotla we were sitting in and danced around us and chose their “wives.” I told you before that the attention Americans get is ridiculous. The men constantly ask me to marry them saying that I’m beautiful and that I should take them to America or be their wife. Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not boasting at all but rather still perplexed at how simple they think it is to marry me and still just as surprised every day, as the first day, when they come up to me and tell me I’m beautiful and that I should be theirs. I am beginning to think that they have never, in their lives, seen a dark Asian and they think this dark Asian must be rich. But who knows. So back to my story…I am now married. The End.

Just kidding! But really, I was chosen first by one of the guys and my job was to take his hand, follow him out of the kgotla, and dance with him. We were told that this was a way to show off their skills to the women they chose to marry. Needless to say, my dancing skills in no way matched his and I was embarrassing. Oh, I danced alright, but I probably would never have a real proposal after that scene. Haha We were then told that during the ceremony the women would grind sorghum, and so I was off to do my new duties! That was fun grinding it up with a rock while singing traditional songs that I faked and mouthed. I’m pretty impressive when it comes to lip singing and pretending I know the words. We had to choose someone who would be the model of a real bride as they went through the traditional ceremony and honeymoon processes. We all chose Katy, another trainee, because it was her birthday the next day. (Poor Katy, we’re not sorry! Haha) She was dressed in a traiditional wedding outfit and made to sit with her new “husband” that she just met. She was then forced to go into a hut and have “relations” with her new husband while the elder women of her family watched and peeked through the windows. Yup, you heard me right. The women watch through the windows. Just remember, this happened a loooong time ago and rarely happens today. When the couple was done a female family member, usually an aunt or grandma, would go in to check to see if there is blood on the sheets and if there was, they knew the young bride was a virgin. We were all shocked that this was how a couple would spend their honeymoon but remember, different culture and different times. The whole thing was actually really amazing to experience, even if Katy was terrified the whole time. (Don’t worry, she didn’t really do anything!) When that was over, a different guy made me go up and dance again and so this time I just went all in. I was mimicking his moves, or should I say trying to, and going crazy while spinning and dancing in circles. I had so much fun and I really learned the concept of carelessness and fun. Everything in life is just so much more fun when you don’t give a crap! Wise words to live by. You can go ahead and quote that.

I was chosen...

Grinding sorghum for the wedding

Not giving a crap!

Dancing away

My friend Luis fitting right in with the dancers

Get it mama!

Traditional dancers

 These next few pictures are totally random like I am and are just things that I took pictures of since my last post. I hope you enjoy them. 

***DISCLAIMER: The last few pictures are of gross, nasty creatures that some of you may not want to look at. Feel free to have someone scroll past them for you (This is mainly for you Tammy Tseng)***

Best Lay's I've tasted

Best card I've ever received (Thanks Josh!)

He's a comedian

Even with a luggage limit I still manage to bring my these. Forget high end, brand name handbags and clothing, I am definitely a no name, comfortable shoe girl. 

happy

My unwanted 4 a.m. alarm clocks

What the heck?!

I thought it was funny that I beat this cockroach to death and only its antennae were sticking out from under the sand. I know, I have issues.

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Can someone please explain to me what this is?

Scorpion king IN MY ROOM.

Hairy with thorns on its legs! WTF?!

 I just want to let everyone know that these ugly creatures are now dead because that's what happens when they come into my room: I show them who's boss! And by that I mean I freak out, I sit in the middle of my bed with a can of bug spray, I pray that they don't jump on me, and then I get over it and beat them to death. True story.

Now for a happy picture...

Two good friends I've made so far :) Sarah and Luis

As you can see I am having a great time. Yes, there are days that are long and tedious ( Screw you PST!) and bugs/creepy crawlers I have never seen in my life and make me piss my pants, but when you take those things out and fully immerse yourself into a new and unknown culture it is a really beautiful thing to experience. No matter where we go and who we meet we all have more similarities than we do differences. We're all human and we're all connected in some way. I really believe that. I know that leaving my home for two years to live in a strange and new environment is scary and frightening and I know many people have no desire to do it. But I also know that my goal is to see the world, to see it and experience it completely, and I am well on my way in reaching that goal. And I love it.