Botswana - the Land of Diamonds, Desert, and Hitchhiking Adventures!

So I'm here in Botswana for the next month volunteering at a center for orphans and vulnerable children (many of whom have HIV/AIDS), as well as doing economic and healthcare research. And explore the country while getting myself into as many awkward/strange/hilarious situations as possible.

Thus far, I must admit that Botswana is an impressive place in its own right. And it's very impressive by developing country standards. Education and healthcare are free to all citizens, and the economy has steadily increased for the past 40 years thanks primarily to the diamond industry (which accounts for >1/3 of GDP), and also the beef exports and tourism. People are justifiably predisposed to hate on the diamond industry, but as far as that goes, Botswana has done a really good job of recapturing a substantial portion of the profits and redeploying the proceeds into diverse areas of the economy. And for African standards, the country has a high GDP per capita of roughly $14,000 (at least as of 2008, but I have a hunch that this may be skewed given large diamond industry revenues and the small population). This figure has fallen since the global recession. I believe that currently your average teacher makes somewhere in the ballpark of $4,500 per year.

Geographically speaking, Botswana is roughly the size of Texas. The country faces no challenge to its growth, with two small exceptions: it is entirely landlocked, and it is 90% uninhabitable (thanks to the mighty Kalahari Desert). As a result of the latter factor, Botswana's 1.8 million people live in the small, inhabitable portions along the eastern border. The people making up this number are called 'Batswana' (not Botswanans or Botswanians or some other derivation thereof), and the singular form of a person from Botswana (the first part is pronounced like 'Boat') is a Motswana (sounds like 'Moat'). And they speak a language called Setswana, which has similar origins to Zulu, in addition to English.

The capital, Gaborone, is located in the southeast. Gaborone is pronounced "Ha-bor-ron-ee" (Note that the g's pronounced as h and and the r's are rolling). Expats call it 'Gabs', with a hard g. The city has a little bit of everything: modern multi-story buildings; not so modern tin roof shanties; innumerable strip malls selling goods of dubious origin; and public transit consisting of 'combis' which are barely functioning vans that may or may not be marked, have undefined routes around the city / surrounding villages which are not published, are filled beyond capacity, and are only boarded by jumping in the road and hoping one stops for you since proper stops don't really exist. If this sounds like hitchhiking to you, you are getting the picture. It goes without saying that I really enjoy riding combis. So far, I get the impression that riding a combi is something that mostly locals use; I have never seen another foreigner or white person riding a combi so far (not that there are many white people here in general). As an added benefit, everyone seems to get a kick out of my poorly executed but well meaning attempts to speak Setswana.

On a darker note, Botswana suffers a massive HIV/AIDS problem. This cannot be understated. It has the second highest HIV rate in the world with 25%+ of all people being infected. This figure is largely believed to be an under-estimate due to a variety of factors including poor reporting data and social stigma (which prevents people from either reporting if they are HIV+, or not getting tested at all). For those of us disinclined to deal with numbers, that means that (statistically) at least one out of every four people in this country are HIV+. This is outrageous, and incredibly devastating in every aspect of life. The disease has effectively wiped out an entire generation, which has dropped the life expectancy of the entire country down to around 50 years, created a decline in skilled workers and left innumerable orphans...many of whom were left with nothing from their parents - except, of course, HIV.

I'll provide a more in-depth exploration of the topic and my research in a later post.