Traditional Culture

Hello Hello.

The last few days have been mainly dedicated to preparation for our presentations tomorrow (Sunday).  We also had presentations by a few UB professors and Dr. Sankaran on various topics.  One on how to give presentations, another on writing technical documents, and the last on how to apply to graduate programs.  It was a nice refresher to have as we started to make our own presentations and before we start writing our reports next week.

Thursday night, Scott (CWRU) had a chance to DJ at a near by establishment, so a bunch of us went to support him.  Things didn't go exactly according to the plan, but we all had a good time and made it home safely thanks to some awesome dance moves by Andrew (Rutgers) and hard work by all the boys (USA and UB).

Friday, a handful of ENGR students and researchers went to the Botswana National Museum, which was just a few minutes away from campus. It was interesting to see some of the history, but I'm sure if Alan was there, he'd have some major critiquing to do.  I wish I could appreciate museums more, but reading signs is just not my thing, so I breezed through it pretty quick.  To be fair, a lot of the displays were on animals, most of which we had seen in person on our safari.  I shrugged those off thinking I was an expert, but probably could've learned something new.

Saturday, the ENGR students and researchers went out to a village to experience some more traditional arts and culture.  First we went to see cliff drawings.

Then we stopped by the giant Livingston tree named after a European doctor.

Our final stop was at a small village, where they showed us some dances and told us a little about their traditions.  The children and young adults danced for us and invited a few of us up to dance with them.  We then took a lunch break before learning about the traditions.  The main host there was the "grandmother" or the chief's first wife.  Because she is the first wife, she gets the chose the other wives.  A man with more money has more wives.  One of the traditions when people want to come into the village is using the bones.  The chief will shake up his bag of bones and spill them out to see if it is right for the guests to come in.  The bones gave us a good sign.  We then danced a greeting dance, men first then women join them.  After all the dancing, we learned some chores.  The first was pounding grain.  The next was grinding flour. And last was cleaning the floor with cow dung.  Yes cleaning.  The whole experience was so enlightening and full of energy.  One of my favorite things so far on the trip.

After returning and finishing up my presentation, I kept Andrew company on the roof of the physics building while he collected data of the moonlight.  It was kinda shaddy getting up and down, but the roof contours to the body quite nicely for star gazing.  Also, there's wifi there, so that was super great to have for the time being.

Enjoy these pictures!  Videos of the dancing soon to come.  They take a while to upload and I would like to sleep.

Small solar panel from a house in the villages.  The family had it wired to a large battery and charged their phones from that.  This is not from the BPC Lesedi plan.

Maren (Yale) and Leslie (Rice) made some fabulous cookies this week.  They also looked super classy drinking from measuring cups.

Marc (CWRU) enjoying his steak.

Patrick (UB) teaching us the 'Waka, Waka' dance.

One lady in Lentsweletau had a beautiful garden.

Andrew (Rutgers) prolly starting a fight Zee (UB) like a Jersey typical boy.

Some statue on campus.

Mallory photo bombing Maren's picture in front of a pottery shop.  We stopped here on our way to the village Saturday.

While waiting for every to purchase their items, we listened to the singing from the wedding next door.  These bridesmaids scurried into the church and joined in the celebration.

Andrew (CWRU) climbing a tree.

Cliff drawings

Mallory (CWRU) using the stairs... with a dead end.

Brian (Tulane) quickly scaled to the top of the cliff just before we were told not to.

If you look closely, you can see him on his way down.

Giraffes

Justice guiding us through the paintings.

You can see the faint person on the center left side.

Rhino behind his hand.

Cave that people lived in during the war with Europeans (?)

A bench and table within the tree branches.

Looks like a giant bush from the outside.

The chief

Kneeling before the chief.

One of the Georgia students

Valerie (CWRU) dancing

Brian (Tulane) was really feeling the beat.

Andrew (Rutgers) and Nikki's (UB) turn

The baboon statues

Getting ready to test the bones

Boys dancing first

"Grandma"

Pounding the grain.

Me making some flour

Cleaning the floor and keeping snakes away by spreading cow dung.

Abby (CWRU) sifting flour.

Linda's (CWRU) turn

Kevin (UB) grinding more flour

KB (UB) showing us the proper technique

The sick are kept in a hut and cow dung is placed at the door.  In the morning, they stand on it and watch the sunrise to determine if they are better yet.

Few from the physics roof into the courtyard.