Sunday in the Jazz Garden

There really wasn't much jazz (mostly good South African music, like Brenda Fassie) and the garden needed some tending, but around the fact it was Sunday remains no doubt. Our program director and quasi-Messiah, Batsi (pictured), took our CIEE group out to the Jazz Club Mountain Rest for a good old-fashioned braai, Afrikaans for "roasted meat". While I enjoyed the atmosphere and the company, the drive out to the village was amazing.

Coming from the Midwest, hills amaze me. And not just hills like Hwy 41 coming up from downtown Chaska, but HILLS. Botswana is nearly perfectly flat as well, except soaring high are these clumps of hills that carry a bluish hue that is almost magical in daylight.

Finally, my blogs have caught up with real time and we're back to this past Sunday. Just to fill you in on last week, I had class as normal all week long. And then Friday came along, with promises of renewed striking.

This time, the striking was over the suspension of the SRC (Student Representatives Council) by the Vice-Chancellor of the university. It would be like Student Council getting disbanded. While I normally would consider that little reason for a strike, it is important to remember that this university is the only major center of tertiary education in the country. Only in the past couple of years have a couple small private, and a couple public universities been founded. Thus, student grievances are not just in the context of a single university, but represent nearly the whole of full-time university students in the whole of the country. This is not to say, however, that I'm fully in accord with the striker's tactics but by the same token, I cannot fully discount them.

The movement in the talks between the ministry and the students has not been moving in a peaceful direction. Last night a score of students were arrested for demonstrating near the Faculty of Engineering building and reportedly, a few more were arrested this morning before the gathering could become more organized. We shall see tomorrow where this is all leading and as always, I will keep you all updated on the revolutionary activity going on here at UB.

If this talk of student struggles and police action causes you concern, relax and let me assure you my mind is on other things: namely, donkey-driven carts going many kilometers an hour through the village: