Sing to me, oh muse, sing to me of Mochudi

Hello all, I was dropped off at the university at 7am by my host parents on their way to work (mind you we had to leave at 6am in order to get to Gaborone in time for work) and as my first class does not start untill 10am I decided to take this opportunity to update everyone on my homestay in Mochudi.
Naturally the family is very nice, the coolest member by far is the five year old named Pako who does not speak English but does give me very direct orders in Setswana. He also tries to do traditional Setswana dancing whenever he hears music- that kid has a definite entertainment career in his future.
In any case, here is a collection of random thoughts that have occured to me whilst in Mochudi:
Bathing- Everybody in the family bathes at least twice a day, sometimes more. I only have bathed once a day, and I think my "mother" is concerned about my lack of hygeine; She asked me one night if she could draw me a bath in the morning, as my hair was still wet from the bath I had just completed less than twenty minutes previous I declined. I think they must think I’m a very dirty American, Lol. I hope all of those people who are convinced that Africans must not bathe very often are choking right now

Rooster- Apparently roosters are as confused in Botswana as they are in Mississippi. I was not so nostalgically reminded of our rooster neighbor in lakeshore when the one next door started crowing at 12am; shame no hurricane will drag this one away.

Noise: The family watches a lot of American TV including what is potentially the world's worst movie: "Demolition Man" with Sylvester Stallone, Sandra Bullock and a plethora of other famous actors who made a really poor career decision involving futuristic cop movie made in the 80s. I recommend that everybody watches it. Due to the upcoming national elections there are also stupid political slogans being blasted from a loud speaker in setswana somewhere in the village. It is enough that I may go through the trouble of marrying a motswana and living here long enough to get my citizenship just so I can specifically NOT vote for the dumbass who thought this was a good advertising technique.

Really Sweet: My family gave me a setswana name, Naledi (star), because my smile is like a star that lights up the Ndebele house. (If I were able to cry tears of joy in such a dry environment, I would have). I was really touched and surprised that I have been able to spend this long with a family without weirding them out, apparently.

Bus: I take public transport home o Mochudi and it is awesome. There are guys selling popsicles, water, and (of course) cell-phone airtime. I suspect that there are more entrepreneurs per square mile in Botswana than at a business convention in las vegas.

Hover cars and shake shake: One of the guys in the group was asked by his new "brother" whether or not we have hover cars and robots who make our bed in the US; awesome. We think that one of the previous exchange students might have been messing with him..... In other news, my friend mark met the kgosi of another village, and was subsequently asked to buy him alcohol. Since he was the cheif, mark could not actually say no and so bought him "shake shake" the local beer that comes in a carton and must be shaken before consumed... questionable.

Cooking: It officially took me forty-five minutes after meeting the family to break something in the house. Fun fact, pottery dishes shatter into billions of tiny shards when dropped on a tile floor. I also cooked a small apple gallete (like a pie but not) for my family. Turns out they had never used their oven, except for storage, and the little boy Pako was shocked. I have also had a request to teach the mother to make pancakes, I am thrilled to do so and I feel like I am spreading both traditions of the south and Hopkins.

Lab stuff: I have had several science labs within the past few weeks and I thought I would share one particular treasure:
In parasitology when we were supposed to start dissecting there was a Cockroach shortage for the class. We only had 5 roaches for 50 students. I have had to kill at least three cockroaches in my room and I nearly died from the irony- the science department should hire out some entrepreneurs from the bus for lab prep.

Okay, that is all of the spewing of random stories I am able to do for the moment so until I am dropped off at an ungodly hour again (oh right, tomorrow) and I feel like blogging (probably not tomorrow, altho only the muses know) peace out home slice! (PS, pics of the family and mochudi to come)