a love/hate relationship

Things I like about here:

1. Long life (UHT) mik. I love this stuff. Maybe it's total nostalgia from being in Germany as a child, but I really think it tastes better. Even the 2% stuff tastes better. And you can stock up on it when the price is down, and it just sits there until you're ready to open it. No more realizing at 11pm that there's no milk for tea in the morning! Why don't they sell this stuff in the states? Anyone?
   
2. Lunch on the side of the road for P10 (appx. $1.66). A guy I met yesterday called this "African McDonald's", but that simply doesn't begin to do it justice. (There's not a single McDonald's in Botswana, by the by. KFC is the only American chain that has been allowed in. All the others are South African or local.) Anyway, around 11:30am, ladies arrive with their pots of food, which they lay out on folding tables. For P10, you get an enormous amount of food -- even more enormous if the particular lady serving you is tickled at having a lekhoa (white person) purchase food from her.
   
   It seems to be your choice of starch, two pieces of meat, and a small helping of perhaps three salads. The meat seems to be chicken most of the time, fried or in a curry. The starches include rice, corn porridge (pap or paletshe), a sorghum porridge (bogobe), and samp (corn & beans). The salads range from grated beetroot to potato salad to cooked greens (merogo ). You also get gravy (called "soup") and chakalaka. Yesterday's meal even included dessert, which was canned and fresh fruit in yogurt, but that's the first time I've found that.
   
   Your food is dished up for you, generally, into a styrofoam box. You can have it wrapped in a plastic bag, if you like. You pay your P10, take a plastic fork, and go on your way.
   
3. Unsweetened juices and other fruit products. You pay through the nose for these in the states. Not so here.
   
4. Greeting people is a serious business. I screwn this up out of habit all the time, but I rather like the practice of asking after people when you meet them, even if you've just seen them recently, if you just need a moment of their time, or if you don't know them from Adam.
   
5. Radio. I only hear it when I'm in the car, but I rather like listening to the radio in Setswana. I can't understand much -- really, just a word or two here and there -- but I like how it sounds, and I like to be able to listen to Setswana being spoken without worrying if I'm eavesdropping (or worrying that the content has anything at all to do with me).

Things I really don't like about here:

1. Early mornings. Batswana wake up early. OK, perhaps they really don't wake up any earlier than anyone else in the working world, but four years of graduate school has turned me into a night owl. Around here, I'd fit in better in the world if I got up at 7am. This means seriously curbing that late-night computer-game habit.
   
2. Honking. The combis (minibus-taxis) will honk at potential passangers. It's a way of saying, "Hey, need a lift?" As you can imagine, this leads to a lot of honking. It's part of the acoustic atmosphere of Gabs, but it still makes me jump, especially since I'm still accustoming myself to driving on the left, and particularly sensitive to signals from other drivers that I'm doing something I shouldn't.
   
3. Being asked to marry someone. This has actually happened only once so far. It happened at the University as I was waiting for the lift (elevator to you, Americans). The lift doors opened, a man came out, stopped the conversation he was having, and offered his hand to me, introducing himself as he did so. I shook his hand and told him my name. Then he asked me to marry him. I can take this all in good humor -- I had to haggle with the luggage handlers in Lagos who wanted to give me a husband instead of my suitacse -- but I hope this doesn't forespell a trend.
   
4. Spiders. Some of you heard about the spider as big as my hand that appeared on the wall of my toilet when it rained a week or so ago. Not my idea of a good time, but, I'm told, Botswana has few poisonous varieties of spider. Nevertheless, there are more of them inside my house from time to time than I would prefer.
   
5. No Grape-Nuts. I'm not going to pout too much about my breakfast cereal of choice. Pro-Nutro's not bad, and the back of the box serves as a reading lesson in Afrikaans. I do miss the crunch, though, and I found boxed cereals in southern Africa are far, far sweeter than anything I want to eat in the morning.