CIB (Cait in Botswana)

Today I came home and decided to clean my house.  Between just coming in last weekend and planning on being gone this weekend I figured now was as good as time as any.  I got to the bathroom, squeezed the Handy Andy into the sink and the bathtub and armed myself with a giant sponge.  As I scrubbed the sink I turned on the faucet and felt a little zap.  Thinking I was just a little crazy I tried again, zap.  Bathtub? Zap.  Ok, that’s not normal.  Went to talk to my landlady, apparently she was having the same problem.  Electrician comes in the morning.  Meanwhile I’m using a potholder to do any mandatory tap turning.

Funny thing.  This is not the first time I’ve had this happen.  I can think of at least 3 other residences I have been in where I’ve had this happen to me.  Shocking.

Yesterday I was walking from the office to meet another Peace Corps Volunteer in town for lunch.  Up ahead of me is a man walking with a large object on his shoulder. As I focused in on the object I realized what it was.  A cow leg.  A skinned, rather mangled looking, cow leg.  The funniest part?  I didn’t even think twice about it.  I just processed the sight and walked ahead of him…the leg kinda smelled when you stood downwind.

The day before that I had a friend over.  This is the friend who has no problem telling me how my approach to keeping my house is, in their mind, incorrect.  Awhile back they were over and I was filling a bucket from my bathroom in my kitchen sink.  I was promptly scolded.  Items from the bathroom do not cross over into the kitchen.  Kitchen items do not go into the bathroom.  Who knew?  For example, you wash your kitchen towels in the kitchen sink not with the rest of the laundry.

Sothe day before yesterday remembering my previous “lesson” inhousekeeping when my friend was over and I decided to wash my kitchenfloor I did NOT take the bucket out to put my mopping water into.  I plugged up the kitchen sink and put my mopping water in there.  (Now my rationale is that I’m going to clean my sink after I mop the floor…;)  So I finish mopping the floor and start to let out the water when I hear my friend over my shoulder, “Gorata, did you put your mopping water into the sink where you put your dirty dishes?”  Well….yes.

Then came the explanation that mopping water is allowed to be emptied out in the bathroom.  And why would I even want my mop and my dishes to take up the same space (even though not at the same time….)?  I could only laugh…in my attempt to prove that I learned my lesson I find out that I’ve erred just as much this go around.  Sigh.  This is not uncommon.

Life in Botswana may be a lot of things but rarely is it without a story or two.