Dumela guys! I'm leaving today for a week long village home-stay (July 1st-July 8th) in Serowe, a little less than 200 miles north of the capital city of Gaborone. Everyone, including me, have been waiting for this trip from the beginning, especially the ones who were dorming at the university. This is our chance to experience and assimilate into Tswana culture from an actual perspective. Batsi, our director, told us that this village home-stay, for some, is going to be the most memorable part of the whole trip. Each of us were assigned to different families. I was living with the Gulubane family in Serowe. Here's the only info I received about my family.
Ms Marea Gulubane-Mom
Lesego 39yrs-Sister
Lenamile 36yrs-Brother
Tumelo 15yrs-Brother
Nametso 18 yrs-Niece
When I asked my suitemate, Tsolofelo [solofelo], about the family, he immediately recognized the surname. Tsolofelo's mom is from Serowe. He told me that families in villages are linked and people know each other well. I found this quite interesting considering Serowe is home to 47,000 people. So out of all the villages, why did the program pick Serowe for our village trip?
Serowe has a rich political history in Botswana. It used to be the capital of the Ngwato tribe prior to the country's independence and now serves as the capital of the Central District. The current president Ian Khama comes from the village of Serowe. It was also the birthplace of the first president Sir Seretse Khama and the former president Festus Mogae. Serowe has undergone tremendous expansion and development in the recent years. This would make sense considering the presidents' strong roots to the village.
Stay tuned!
