*please note that the views expressed here are our own and do not reflect the view of the U.S. government, U.S. Peace Corps, or even other PC volunteers living in Botswana. This list was composed based on our own experiences and was not collaborated upon by other volunteers*
Today Peace Corps volunteers in our class celebrate our 1 year anniversary of living in Botswana. (already?!)
As a salute to the awkwardness of wading through a new culture in the effort to coexist with its people, we want to share with you our list; the Top 10 Awkward Cultural Norms of Botswana.
This chapter is a nod to the awkward, funny, amusing and odd parts of this culture we have witnessed since arriving on April 10th last year. Enjoy!
[In no particular order...]
2.Defecation Destination: You know the saying “When you gotta go, You gotta go!”? The saying is quite literal in our area of Botswana. On any given path, on any given day, in any given place in our village (and others) you are quite likely to stumble upon a man, woman or child doing their dirty business in pubic. Yes, you read that correctly. Pooping. And peeing. Or a combination. On the path, off the path, in the bus renk, in the market, outside their house. The opportunities are LIMITLESS! There are NO boundaries to what is considered a toilet and what is considered public property. You (as the innocent walker or by-stander) are safe nowhere! The first time Todd subjected to priceless cultural norm, he came upon two women next to the path he was taking (just feet away). One was standing talking to the other who was crouched. About the same time he smelled her Colonary Assterpiece, he realized that this adult woman was pooping in the same area he was about to walk into, while holding a conversation with the other. There is absolutely NO shame in performing this public display of alleviation and some are even inclined to make long awkward eye contact! In addition to stumbling upon these public scenes on a regular basis, there are certain areas in Gumare we stay away from because of their popularity for being a urinal. And be informed that these acts are not due to a lack of latrines or toilet facilities.
3. Boobies, boobies, boobies everywhere: Breasts are another thing that have no limits of exposure here. Sure, as to be expected, breastfeeding is no big deal and you whip it out whenever it is needed. But it goes a little further here. Many womens' tops are very revealing, bras are few, and boobs often flop out unbeknownst to the owner. We frequently see button-up shirts on women that are too small in the chest, thus opening 2 or 3 buttons for an all-day exposure. Our neighbor has no problem displaying her waist- length mammaries when she comes out of her house completely topless, as did our 75 year old host mom when she walked around the house at night. Breast-feeding is not done discreetly and can acceptably be done anywhere, anytime. Children can also pull their mothers breasts out of her shirt in public settings or during conversation without issue. Our friends Heidi and Ross once went to a performing art festival and watched as a girl in traditional attire (i.e. very minimal) danced her top right off. The large crowd of 500 were unfazed; it was no big deal to them. They did however go ballistic when another girl danced her skirt wrap right off!
4.Volume Control: this begins with an amusing pretext- that most Batswana families own a Television and a TV satellite and/or a stereo. They may not own a stove to cook on, or hook up running water in their home, or have enough mattresses for everyone to sleep on, but by the hammer of Thore they will own a TV! It is quite a sight to walk through a neighborhood of traditional grass huts and see satellite dishes attached to the outside of the mud wall. The interesting, and very annoying part of this activity is that the TV or stereo will be on ALL the time. Remember, most people in our area don’t have jobs, so all the time really is-all the time. Not only is it on all day, but at decibels of volume that hurt your ears when you walk into a house with a TV or stereo on. So at any point when outside, you can hear competing sounds from all directions. Also, they don’t bother to turn down the volume when a guest comes into the house. They just yell over the sounds bouncing around the small living you are sharing.
(I can’t be in a house for more than 15 minutes listening to this before I get a headache and have to leave. This is a very confusing norm and to an American, seems downright rude!)
5.The Greeting Game: It is considered proper to greet everyone you pass, whenever, wherever. So when walking around the village, sitting on our porch or in our yard, and when at work, the air is full of “Dumela”s and other greetings. The general rule of thumb is that the person entering the area where other people are is the one that greets first. So, if you are walking and pass people who are standing by, you greet them first. If someone passes by us in our yard, they greet us first. And when entering a room/building of any kind (yes, even doctor’s waiting lounges!) you greet the people therein. The awkward part of this (besides greeting 60+ strangers, acquaintances and friends a day) is that if you walk into an office where there is a meeting or one-on-one discussion going on, it is rude NOT to interrupt the meeting to say 'Dumela'. And on the other side, when we are in discussion with someone in the office and a random person (say, selling snacks or just passing through) enters the office, it is rude NOT to stop our important discussion and respond to their greeting! For Batswana, acknowledging the existence of another is more important than whatever thing they are ‘doing’ at that moment. The greeting usually consists of the greet plus a name or title for you and often the greeter will use several greetings in one encounter.
Here are the typical greetings:
Dumela Mma/Rra= Greetings madame/sir
Warang, Mosadi?= What are you saying, woman?
Le Kae Rra?= Where are you (guys), sir?
Hey Mista!= Hey Mister
Ok kae, Mma= Where are you, ma’am?
O teng?= Are you around/here?
Eeh/Yes wanyana= yes Chica! (an acknowledgement)
Yebo!= Yes/Hey/Whats up (an acknowledgement)
Eita!= Hey/Whats up/Yes/ (Its kind of not translatable)
O tsogile jang?= How are you (literally: how did you rise [this morning])
O tlhotse jang?= How are you (literally: how did you spend the day)
Uh *grunt*= hey (literally: Yes)
6.Animal Appreciation: Firstly you have to understand there isn’t really such a thing as a ‘pet’ in this country (the expats and some more educated people living in cities have them). Dogs are….how do I say this without making you want to start a “Save the dogs” foundation in Botswana?...dogs are treated as the lowest form of a living being possible. Cows, goats and donkeys are more important than dogs. They are seen mostly as a pesky annoyance that one has to “deal with” in order to have a form of security at their house. Though they are used as guard dogs (not trained…they just bark at people) they are often abused. We constantly see Batswana throw rocks, kick and hit them with sticks and do what they can to scare them out of their way. Dogs are often a scapegoat for people in a bad mood or with an anger problem. Then they don’t understand why dogs act the way they do after abusing them, so they abuse them more. Dogs are allowed to be the wild animals that they are by letting them roam free like the other stock animals, finding their own food and water and fending for themselves (they are very hardy and self reliant!). They can often be seen in packs because of this. When they come home they are fed scraps of leftover food if any.
People find it very amusing that we pet our dogs and are nice to them. But many people still throw stones when our dogs bark at them. They think barking is an unacceptable behavior for a dog when directed at them, even though that’s exactly what they want their dog to do at passersby! And worst of all, most people think it is their right to hurt any dog, without regard to who owns it or if the owner is around.
However, you wouldn’t get away with abusing a cow…
Cows are regarded with the utmost importance in this culture, as in many African cultures. One must own cows in order to have importance and value and to embrace his own culture themselves. However, they don’t own cattle as a form of income- they are not for slaughter or for milk (at least in our area- other areas supply Europe with most of their beef). They own cattle for personal prestige and self-worth as well as to be able to supply meat for a large party (wedding, funeral, etc), should the need arise. It is also seen as insurance for some people- if they desperately need money, like to build something or to buy a bride, they could sell a cow for some cash or give it as the bride price. Almost everyone owns at least 2 cows including those without a job (that’s the part that doesn’t make sense). They will spend many difficult hours walking out to their cattle post (5-20k away from Gumare in the heat) or try to hitch out there in order to tend to them for a few days or weeks. They spend their long days herding the cattle to and from water, greener land, out of danger, etc. and camp out during the night. When the owners walk back, their hired cattle boys take care of the cattle. You can see they put a LOT into the care of their cattle- long, hard work, money, time, the expense of their lives, etc, without getting much back from it. But it’s not about the money you can make from having cattle, it’s about the feeling of pride you have from owning them.
7.Phone-foolery: This is another aspect that is humorous when observed in context. Just as with TV’s, a person will live in a hut, cook outside on a fire, be unemployed and own little else but will certainly get money to buy a cell phone! And cell phones are not cheap either! In fact many unemployed people have MUCH nicer phones than we do, as volunteers who get a living allowance. The awkward part about cell phone use here is that there are no rules or standards of its use. It can be used anytime, anywhere. Whenever it rings it will be answered- it doesn’t matter if the person is in the middle of a conversation with you, if they are on the toilet (or path), in a meeting/workshop (see below) or even the keynote speaker in front of an audience! The same goes for texting. Cell phones get precedence over any in-person conversation. Another volunteer observed that answering cell phones anytime/anyplace might be because it is free to receive calls, whereas you pay to make calls.
8.Nasal Nonsense: The nose: another body part that is free to have its waste expelled at anytime. This is how it typically happens: You are in a one-on-one conversation with someone…say, they are telling you something serious that you really have to listen intently to- and they proceed to go knuckle deep mid-sentence. Then you, the American, attempt to keep a straight face and hold in the laughter until that person leaves, when you can bust-a-gut and pretend that you are laughing at something else. This norm applies to everyone; key-note speakers and meeting chairpersons included! If you’ve got some nose gold, Its fair game to dig it out anywhere you are.
9.Acceptable Appearance: The rules on appropriate dress that Batswana lives by can be humorous and at times quite odd to the average westerner. For starters, though the weather is extreme in both seasons (mind numbingly hot and skin numbingly cold) and in many places they walk everywhere, they do not dress for their own comfort. They dress firstly for their society, for other people. Appearance is everything in this culture, so it’s really important to them that they look their best. That means 1. Every article of clothing is well washed 2. Every article of clothing is well-ironed 3. Your shoes are always shined (throughout the day) 4. You dress ‘up’ when you go out into public 5. You wear professional, suite-type outfits to work (except for cleaners and grounds keepers). These rules go across the different socio-economic and (generally) tribal groups of Botswana. Even the most poor among them can take pride in their appearance. We see people wearing very old, torn and holey, mismatched clothes because they can’t afford new clothes, by gosh darn it they are superbly clean and perfectly pressed! Because of the nature of business clothes, and other reasons I will never understand, people torture themselves with layers of heavy clothing even during the summer. It is amazing the intensity of heat they put themselves through just to look good! So it is common to see sweating people in long sleeve, collared shirts, slacks, jackets (plus ties for men), sweater vests, sweatshirts and jeans, with full closed toed shoes (high healed for the women!) in 100 degree weather! And babies get the worst of it. They are bundled up in winter wear all year round. Imagine wearing this attire in extreme heat at your rural village, full of deep sand, where you walk everywhere you go! A-mazing.
10.“Workshoping”: verb; pronounced /wrk-shoap-een/[rolled ‘r’]; origination, Botswana; root word: workshop; meaning: to attend multiple meetings of any kind over the period of a work week or more.
I don’t know who introduced the idea of a “workshop” to this Botswana, but it quickly became the popular fad word and concept all over country. Collectively they decided that the best way to give information to any number of people, on any topic, for any reasons, was to do this: invite them to sit in a room at tables (classroom style) for 8 hours a day and listen to people give (usually awful) presentations; breaking for tea at 10:30am, lunch at 12:30pm and afternoon tea at 3pm while placating them with Endearmints (mint candies) and glasses of water. It can last for one day or 2 weeks.
In our experience, most of these workshops rarely perform as actual workshops- an interactive meeting using intense discussion or practical work, or a place where you learn and practice knowledge and skills to take back to your home base. It is really just an all day meeting where people listen to someone talk (or “disseminate information” as they would say) for 8 hours breaking only to eat ungodly amounts of food. We have actually been told multiple times that the most important part of a workshop is the food. Organizations spend a LOT of money on what could be an affordable meeting, to turn it into an all day sitting meeting with tons of food and drinks.
Since the idea became popular it has turned into the only way and only term for a meeting of any kind (this is how many parts of this society work-'If you find a system that 'works', use it! For everything!'). I have heard teachers refer to kids camps as “workshops” and other people refer to simple staff meetings as “workshops” too!
So with the rampant use of workshops for gathering people together (especially in the government, social and civic sectors-where Todd and I both work) came the necessary auxiliary verb: workshoping. Our friends and acquaintances are invited to so many workshops from the many different departments that sometimes they are gone for weeks at a time, traveling all over the country or region attending workshops of different sizes and topics.
I personally avoid them like the plague. I can't sit that long!
I hope you enjoyed getting a glimpse at some of the most awkward cultural norms and customs we live amongst! Come to Botswana to experience them yourself! :)
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