Riverwalk Mall

When the first day of Orientation was over, the seven of us who are in the graduate housing (who I will refer to as “the gang” from here on) headed towards one of the local malls to do some shopping and grab dinner. We had no idea how to get there, but we figured we would just ask a local for directions. Asking for directions in Botswana is easier said than done, however. How it works is you ask one person where the mall is and they point in a general direction and tell you to just ask another person after a while. So we followed this pattern though it took us on a somewhat jagged path, as sometimes you would walk for a ways before you ran into another person, and you had already missed your turn.

The mall, called Riverwalk, was fairly westernized, with a movie theater, grocery store and tons of clothing stores. The item on the top of most of our shopping lists was an Ethernet cord and so we headed to the electronics store, but the cheapest cords were 250 Pula (which is like $40!), so we went to the shop around the corner and settled for ones that were around $16. It ended up being a lesson in Botswana consumerism, however, because a girl from a different group found the exact same cord for $2 at a different mall. It pays big to shop around here.

We were going to have a nice sit-down dinner, but the sun was going down and we didn’t want to have to find our way back in the dark, so we grabbed sandwich ingredients and hit the road. I suppose we should have gotten more traditional Botswana fare to initiate our cultural immersion, but a little taste of home doesn’t hurt here and there.

We were all hungrier than we thought and finished the sandwiches in the blink of an eye. We stayed and hung out around the dinner table for hours afterwards, though, and everyone shared various stories and adventures and I ended up learning a lot about the gang. The first full day was a great success. (I left my camera in my room today, though, which is the reason for the lack of pictures, but I promise the next post will be overflowing with photos)

Ham, cheese and green pepper sandwich for dinner…