Dumela!

Well, there is lots to say and I have limited time at this internet cafe, but I'll see what I can fit in.

We got in Tuesday morning and Professor Mnjama and Dr. Totolo picked us up from the airport. From there they showed us to the graduate student hostel at the University of Botswana that we will be staying in for the week. It is very comfortable and accomodating. Tuesday we spent going to the Riverwalk mall and buying our cell phones and a couple of other things we wanted to pick up for our stay.

Everyone has told us that in Botswana greetings are extremely important, and it has definately proved true. We have spent the last two days meeting everyone!

Yesterday we met the head of the Library Studies department and the Dean of the University, a former librarian. Then we had a morning meeting with the Director of the International Studies Department and a couple of students about Setswana culture and what to expect when we get to our villages. In the afternoon we toured the University of Botswana library with librarian Blessing (cool name, huh?). It was very interesting. It seems that they too have a problem getting students to use their subscription databases instead of Google!

Today we spent the morning meeting EVERYONE at BNLS (Botswana National Library Services), and also me the librarians we will be working with at our village libraries. The commom consensus seems to be that the children in the villages like the libraries to play games, but it has been difficult to get the older community members to visit the libraries. One of our major goals here is to try to come up with ideas and ways to reach those people and bring them in the library.

We had a wonderful tea break and then went to Botswana Craft with Dr. Totolo, which is a huge and awesome craft store and outdoor restaurant. There is a lot of things that I would like to buy, but I'll wait until the end to go back. I tried the traditional food of Seswaa, a beef that is pounded for a long time until it is very tender. It sort of tasted like roast beef. It was delicious!

We also had a quick meeting with the U.S. Embassy representative, Dan. He gave us tons of valuable information on ways to reach the American Embassy and some useful tips for our travels.

Tomorrow we will be visiting all of the libraries we will be stationed at and meeting our host families. Exciting!

My time is running out at this internet cafe, but a quick exciting note is that we saw a monkey the other day cross the street!

Anyways, must go, more later!