KalahariLog

There's been quite a bit of rain in the last couple of weeks. I woke up last night to the sounds of a steady rain, unlike the typical rain-showers or thunderstorms. In the morning there were even puddles to jump over! It is not supposed to rain this time of year, but nobody is complaining -- this is a welcome relief after the rain-free rainy season of November-February. With the wetter and cooler weather there's a noticeable increase in the mosquito population. While most of the ants that used to roam the house are gone they are replaced with tiny mosquitos, small enough to squeeze through the window screens. On the positive side, many trees are blooming for a second time and it's much greener than before.

The second semester is nearly over. This is the last week of classes, during which almost no classes take place. Most classes end up not having lectures in the first and last weeks of the 12 week-long semesters. Students don't seem to stress as much over exams as students do in the US. There is no culture of trying to get an A, to do better than the other students in the class, or to keep a high GPA. Even the best students rarely get more than 80/100. This reminds of the transcripts I see when students apply to the Arizona PhD program: the "good students" have marks in the upper 70's and rarely in the 80's. My feeling, after two semesters working with graduate and undergraduate students in Botswana, is that very very few students take their studies as seriously as students in the US. To paraphrase an old Bulgarian saying, "we pretend we're teaching them and they pretend that they are studying."


This academic year was notable because the students didn't go on strike. In past years students have gone on strike for reasons such as hikes in the meal prices or in protest to chaotic exam schedules. Of course, the staff did go on strike over parking fees last semester but that was swiftly quashed. Staff have been on strike in the past too, mostly over money matters. This year all University of Botswana employees got a 6% raise; this is better than any year in the six years I've been at the University of Arizona...