plants and papers

Last week was extremely busy -- or at least I was physically occupied. Two weeks ago, I learned that a team was coming to Gabs to train health workers, and I asked to sit in on the trainings. This seriously chewed up the week, what with getting up at half six, being at the training most of the day, and then trying to take care of the rest of my life in the evenings. Is it any wonder I caught a cold?

One of the reasons I was up early last week was because on Monday, I got a call from the local garden centre. This garden centre sports a lovely tea garden. Underneath the chalkboard on which the menu is posted is usually a large potted plant bearing the sign, "You could win this plant!" The garden centre holds a drawing each month for the plant in question. Now, I don't exactly remember entering this contest, but I must have done so at some point, because the garden centre was calling to tell me I'd won.

The centre opened at 7:30am, so I had a one hour window in which to pick up the plant and bring it back home before scooting off to the training. I absolutely misheard the name I was given on the phone; the woman to whom I was meant to speak turned out to be Maikutlo, which, I was told, meant "feelings" in Setswana. Maikutlo and I had a brief chat, a good portion of which was in Setswana, and then I heighed for home with my plant.

Botswana, said a friend in response to this story, is the place where people you know actually win things. Between last month's trivia night at the pub (wherein six of us walked away with P500 to share) and the plant, I'd say I'm doing pretty well.

I've been going to introductory Setswana classes at UB. I paid for them, and there's no intermediate class being offered right now, so I figured I would go and try very hard not to annoy everyone else in the room by being that kid in the back of the room who knows all the answers. It's been mostly review for me, though some of the vocabulary is new, but it seems to have the effect of encouraging me to try conversing in Setswana as I go about my daily business. That itself seems worth the $100.

The other news that came to me while I was at last week's training was that I was scheduled to give a paper this Thursday. Yes, this Thursday, the 16th. And I only found out about it because a friend was running an errand in the History Department and happened to look at the schedule. Now, one of my local advisors is in the department, and suggested some weeks ago that I give a paper. I agreed, but told him that I would like to wait until, say, March or April whenI would presumably have some data to work with. So much for waiting... and so much for advance notice.

Saturday I was wrapped up in a brunch and a poetry slam and getting some much needed sleep. Sunday morning, I sat down to revise my masters thesis, and almost immediately my nose started running. By the time I woke up yesterday, I had a full grown cold on my hands.

Now, let me also say that finding a decongestant in Gaborone is no small task. I did eventually find one, but it has also made me a general space cadet. (You may already have noticed that from the narrative style of this post.

I mailed the paper out Sunday night, and I actually just had a good chat with a mentor/colleague about how I might want to shape it towards publication (and to which publication I'd want to submit it). She seems to think it could be publishable, and hers was the feedback toward which I've been looking most seriously. If I stay on this decongestant, though, I may have to record the seminar so I can listen later when my head is less cloudy.