Precision Planter project
Blum Fellow Stephanie Lew
Botswana Summer 2017
Today we hitched a ride with some people into town because we needed to go to the bank to get money to pay for rent. They dropped us off at the bank and told us to meet them at the Kalahari Arms Hotel when we were done. We called and asked them how long they’d be and they said 10-15 minutes. The wait ended up being more than an hour. Also, I was expecting the excursion to take an hour or two but it ended up taking nearly 6 hours—which was basically our entire day. Furthermore, we may agree on a time to meet and do work, but people here are generally 15 min-1 hour late. These experiences highlight miscommunication in regards to time and timeliness that I think stem from cultural differences. Back at home I’m used to living a lifestyle in which I am always on the go. There are days where I have things booked every hour of the day, so 15 minutes makes a difference. When I’m here I find myself getting frustrated at others for being untimely because I come from an environment where being late is unacceptable. However, here in D’kar, it’s okay. There are people here who will ask to meet you in the morning or afternoon… In my book, morning can be anywhere from 6am to 11am, and so saying “morning” isn’t specific enough for me to be able to plan out my day, but for people here, they get it. Being untimely ultimately has resulted in slow progress, which is another thing that doesn’t work back at home. College is fast-paced and you can’t afford to be slow, so living this way is not something that I’m used to. When I look past my irritableness of the situation and realize that these are differences in culture, it really begins to fascinate me. I get to live in a way that’s completely different from what I’ve known.
Traveling is like getting the opportunity to find your favorite color. Imagine your way of life and the set of values and beliefs are all collectively one color—let’s say black. Before you travel, perhaps all you’ve ever seen and know of is the color back. This makes it hard to really decide whether or not you like black because you’ve never seen any other color. When you travel, you get to immerse yourself in a different culture and life gets to be different. Let’s consider this new life like the color white. Now that you’ve seen white, you can compare black and white and see which one you like better.
The world is full of different ways of living and being, and different values and beliefs. In the same way, there are so many different colors, in addition to all of the different tints, hues, shades, so on and so forth. Traveling makes life more colorful, and only once you have traveled can you truthfully determine what our favorite color is.
Living in D’kar and understanding their culture, values, and way of life has given me the ability to question the culture, values, and way of life that I’ve only ever known in California.
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