So two weeks have gone by and I've had as many articles published in the newspaper. Here are the online versions for your reading pleasure.
The First One
The Second One
Things are going well here. 3 weeks to go, but I'm not counting. I know I will miss Botswana and Africa in general, but I miss my family, my home, my friends a lot too. I think it's going to be really strange coming home, the first few weeks anyways.
Coming here has made me think about what I want to do in the near future and I'm starting to get a few short term thoughts in focus. I'd like to move out of Los Angeles for a short while after college in conjunction, or separately from, graduate school of some kind. I'd like to continue traveling abroad a lot - starting hopefully next summer with an internship in Europe through the EU Center of California (part of the Claremont Colleges). For people thinking "Fulbright," I'm not particularly interested in teaching, but who knows. My mini-dream right now is to get a job/internship related to the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, which would be a nice union of my love of international goings-on and sports.
But for right now, I have to go bug the editor for some assignemnts.
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Lunch
File Under: The Continual Absurdity That Is My Existence in Botswana
Today for lunch I am eating a brie and carmalized onion toasted sandwich. With this I also bought a cappuccino and a bag of 6 chocolate chip cookies for a total of about $8.50.
I can't say this is what I imagined in Botswana, but it's Botswana none the less, and really really delicious.
Today for lunch I am eating a brie and carmalized onion toasted sandwich. With this I also bought a cappuccino and a bag of 6 chocolate chip cookies for a total of about $8.50.
I can't say this is what I imagined in Botswana, but it's Botswana none the less, and really really delicious.
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Part 3 of the Carter in Botswana Movie Trilogy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTHqqMHuRa8
Enjoy this video of Victoria Falls. It's not technically in Botswana (at all), but I was there so it's here.
Stay tuned for the Prequels!
Enjoy this video of Victoria Falls. It's not technically in Botswana (at all), but I was there so it's here.
Stay tuned for the Prequels!
One Month Left
It's hard to imagine, but I'm now embarking down the last 1/4 of my trip. It has been an incredible experience so far, one that I am really happy I committed myself to.
Anyways...
Today is my first day working at the Gaborone (the capital) newspaper Sunday Standard. I just talked with the Editor in Chief Outsa Mokone who seemed genuinely happy to have me on board. It looks like I'll be splitting time between doing actual field assignments/article writing and editing work. The fact that I'm a writing tutor at Pitzer was a big plus and a big factor in the latter. I'm definitely nervous. The last proper article I can recall writing was for Lil' Eagle, the Brentwood middle school newspaper - an interview with Mr. McAusland I think (random!). Anyways, I jumped at the opportunity to go out into the field despite my reservations, because I trust my instincts (sort of...) and I'll gain some valuable journalistic experience (maybe), which seems like something I might be interested in doing after college, because I like writing and politics, sports, art/entertainment, etc. etc. Anyways, if there's one thing coming to and being in Botswana has been a metaphor for, then it's my attempts to force myself to do really uncomfortable things hoping that whatever doesn't kill me will probably only leave me scarred for life and probably unable to communicate with Americans on any real level........yeah. No, I'm okay, this is a really interesting place. There's a lot going on but so many problems.
The biggest one is capacity. There's a general lack of a lot of services - the most glaring is waste management. But this is basically expected given the challenges of running a country of 1.7 million people the size of Texas with a very narrow range of natural resources (of course, they have the most diamonds in the world, but poor soil for farming, sporadic rainfall, etc.) Virtually everything is imported from South Africa and 99% of retail is SA based - not a very good economic development strategy. There doesn't seem to be a lot of entrepreneurialism, but part of the problem is the lack of access to capital (or awareness of government programs), a big enough market for products, disposable income, etc.
Botswana is officially Middle-Income according to the UN, because it's GDP pre capita is something like $10,000, but the distribution is so skewed that 40% are below the poverty line and 40% are unemployed. It seems like developing some production in the country would go a long way. Tourism is supposed to be the big thing to help diversify the economy away from diamonds (which will be all dug up, polished, sold by 2025 or so). But tourism works a lot better if the lodges/companies are buying Botswana furniture, food, and eating ware, but right now that's all coming from SA. So, no profits for Bots there, no employment either.
My host brother in Gabs just told me the other day that he wants to start his own furniture company here using local wood and I practically jumped out of my seat and said "DO IT!!!" It's practically a national moral obligation - to the extent that Development is the governments main goal right now. I'm considering coming back here and starting my own Tequila production, the climate seems right for growing the Agave. But two hang-ups: 1) Alcoholism is a problem here, especially among the poor/unemployed (like everywhere in the world), I don't want to help that in any way. 2) Apparently you can't call it Tequila unless its made in Mexico, so I'd have to call it Tswana Fermented Agave Nectar - just doesn't have a good ring to it.
So maybe you've guessed that I'm just killing time at work right now until I get an assignment. But that's okay, it's good to get a chunk of time to get this all down.
Yours truly,
Carter
Anyways...
Today is my first day working at the Gaborone (the capital) newspaper Sunday Standard. I just talked with the Editor in Chief Outsa Mokone who seemed genuinely happy to have me on board. It looks like I'll be splitting time between doing actual field assignments/article writing and editing work. The fact that I'm a writing tutor at Pitzer was a big plus and a big factor in the latter. I'm definitely nervous. The last proper article I can recall writing was for Lil' Eagle, the Brentwood middle school newspaper - an interview with Mr. McAusland I think (random!). Anyways, I jumped at the opportunity to go out into the field despite my reservations, because I trust my instincts (sort of...) and I'll gain some valuable journalistic experience (maybe), which seems like something I might be interested in doing after college, because I like writing and politics, sports, art/entertainment, etc. etc. Anyways, if there's one thing coming to and being in Botswana has been a metaphor for, then it's my attempts to force myself to do really uncomfortable things hoping that whatever doesn't kill me will probably only leave me scarred for life and probably unable to communicate with Americans on any real level........yeah. No, I'm okay, this is a really interesting place. There's a lot going on but so many problems.
The biggest one is capacity. There's a general lack of a lot of services - the most glaring is waste management. But this is basically expected given the challenges of running a country of 1.7 million people the size of Texas with a very narrow range of natural resources (of course, they have the most diamonds in the world, but poor soil for farming, sporadic rainfall, etc.) Virtually everything is imported from South Africa and 99% of retail is SA based - not a very good economic development strategy. There doesn't seem to be a lot of entrepreneurialism, but part of the problem is the lack of access to capital (or awareness of government programs), a big enough market for products, disposable income, etc.
Botswana is officially Middle-Income according to the UN, because it's GDP pre capita is something like $10,000, but the distribution is so skewed that 40% are below the poverty line and 40% are unemployed. It seems like developing some production in the country would go a long way. Tourism is supposed to be the big thing to help diversify the economy away from diamonds (which will be all dug up, polished, sold by 2025 or so). But tourism works a lot better if the lodges/companies are buying Botswana furniture, food, and eating ware, but right now that's all coming from SA. So, no profits for Bots there, no employment either.
My host brother in Gabs just told me the other day that he wants to start his own furniture company here using local wood and I practically jumped out of my seat and said "DO IT!!!" It's practically a national moral obligation - to the extent that Development is the governments main goal right now. I'm considering coming back here and starting my own Tequila production, the climate seems right for growing the Agave. But two hang-ups: 1) Alcoholism is a problem here, especially among the poor/unemployed (like everywhere in the world), I don't want to help that in any way. 2) Apparently you can't call it Tequila unless its made in Mexico, so I'd have to call it Tswana Fermented Agave Nectar - just doesn't have a good ring to it.
So maybe you've guessed that I'm just killing time at work right now until I get an assignment. But that's okay, it's good to get a chunk of time to get this all down.
Yours truly,
Carter
Saturday, November 3, 2007
More Video!!
Hi Everyone,
Glad to report that I have a new video for you all to enjoy. It's a montage of clips of the wildlife in Chobe National Park in the northern part of Botswana. We visited there a few weeks ago for a "study trip," which as far as I can tell was just a really good excuse to go on safari for a week. Just follow the link to YouTube, because I think that's easier for me than to post the video directly into this blog. The music is a song that I wrote and recorded in January. Enjoy!
Love,
Carter
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DiuT1XDyZKw
Glad to report that I have a new video for you all to enjoy. It's a montage of clips of the wildlife in Chobe National Park in the northern part of Botswana. We visited there a few weeks ago for a "study trip," which as far as I can tell was just a really good excuse to go on safari for a week. Just follow the link to YouTube, because I think that's easier for me than to post the video directly into this blog. The music is a song that I wrote and recorded in January. Enjoy!
Love,
Carter
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DiuT1XDyZKw
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