Cultural Day

Today Matlhako Library and Cultural Center took me to Ramokgonami's Cultural Day at their Library and Cultural Center (Ramokgonami is a village that is about 40km from Machaneng in the Mahalapye Sub district). Another volunteer from my training group is serving in Ramokgonami so I got to spend the day experiencing traditional Setswana, food, dance and fun! When the library staff picked me up I thought we were going to Matlhako's library so it was a nice surprise when I realized we were going to Ramokgonami. When I first got to the center I was introduced to the librarian there and some other important people. We sang Botswana's national anthem. Then they introduced me to everyone (they said I was the Peace Corps volunteer staying in Matlhako, but that's ok). There were many speakers and some of the Jr. Secondary Students preformed dances in traditional attire. There were some drama's preformed and even some traditional games played. The dancing and singing was my favorite part. It is really cool to watch. I find it fascinating how talented the children are, especially considering there is not much emphasis or resources for the arts in schools.

Everything was in Setswana so I don't really know what all was being said throughout the day, but it was fun to watch. Then they served us some Traditional Setswana food, dinawa (beans), seswaa (pounded meat), and bogobe (brown mush stuff made from maze or some sort of corn). All the food was cooked over the fire in these huge black pots. They gave us a heaping plate full and in Botswana style with no silverware, so we had to eat with our hands! Not my favorite of the Setswana dishes but it was ok. I also got to try this seed they cook and eat. I forget what it was called but it tasted a lot like sunflower seeds, so I enjoyed it. After we ate the other volunteer and I saw that people were tossing sticks, kind of like javelin, so we watched that for a little bit. I think the object was to see who could throw the stick the farthest. Throughout the day we were offered Shake-Shake (the traditional brewed beer), but we kindly turned it down. I tried it when I was in Moleps and it doesn't taste very good so I wasn't about to drink some more. The rest of the day was spent talking to some of the teachers from the Jr. Secondary School in Ramokgonami. After talking to them for a little bit we found out that one of the teachers is the son of the kgosi from my village. He was pretty excited that I was staying in Machaneng. The other volunteer showed me around the library which looks a lot like the Matlhako library and then it was time to go back to Machaneng. All in all it was a pretty good day.