Friday night (June 17th): Isabelle and I are neighbors in an area called Monarch BZ and so we usually take a taxi together from work. I hadn’t met her hosts/neighbors yet and so after work, I went over to their house for introductions. Isabelle’s host Mrs. Otusitse is quite the women. She studied psychology (BA and MA) in Missouri and is a lecturer at the same institute as my host Mrs. Tshabo. She also has very good command over anyone that enters her home. When introductions were good and dusted, she commanded Isabelle to fetch me an orange and when I hesitated to take it, I got a cultural lesson. Iz, Tom and I had gone for milkshakes earlier in the evening and so I was already quite satisfied and in no mood to eat. Yet after the orange, traditional nuts along with the Morojwa fruit (hard shell, gooey insides) were served. Then out of nowhere came the main course dinner meal. Again I hesitated and again I got a cultural lesson. The meal consisted of cabbage coleslaw, 2 chicken pieces and 2 dumplings (Batswana style) the size of my fist. I finished the entire meal (surprisingly), said goodbyes, walked home and into the kitchen for a drink of water only to find Mrs. Tshabo cooking MORE DINNER. The thing with Mrs. Tshabo is that she is so soft spoken and nice that there is no way I could have just rejected her offer of dinner.
Ma Tshabo: “Oh Hi Fai, I cooked you dinner :)” (Fai is my nickname)
Me: “Hiiii…..I just ate at Ma Otusitse’s house….Buttt don’t worry, I didn’t eat too much….Lets eat.”
That was the biggest mistake I have made on this trip. The food was served with a liberal hand and I got the biggest portion…..It was “paleje” which is mealy meal, “morokh” which is like spinach but not, and moar chicken. The thing with paleje is that its literally a compressed sponge when you eat it and then it expands. I got about half way through when my body decided that it wasn’t going to let my brain do this for the sake of being nice to my host. I started feeling so nauseous that I had to get up and go sit in my room while everyone watched tv. The only problem was that my stomach was so bloated that I couldn’t sit down (not exaggerating). My situation was so bad that I could see a visual bulge in my stomach and had to switch into clothing that would let my stomach expand freely. After about 30 minutes of seriously labored breathing while standing up, I decided it was time to sleep. You know when you have a really big meal and get really sleepy and lethargic afterwards? Well I basically got knocked out cold. Though I had to sleep on my back because sleeping on my side was too uncomfortable. And that’s the closest Ill ever get to being pregnant.
The only silver lining to this dark and very dense cloud of a night was that my body had enough food and nutrition for the journey to see the Chief of Bobonong…
Stay tuned
Faisal
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