Sorry Al Gore

I just had the most interesting taxi ride since coming to Botswana, it even beat the one where the driver asked me if I like Botswana men. This particular driver for some reason decided to quiz us on history (because one of us was from Europe was hsi explanation...?) He asked us "What happened in 1945?" I just stared, not really knowing where to start, and he pointed at us americans and then the japanese girl and said "you dropped a bomb on her country! See! you don't know anything about history! A Motswana has to tell you" Bring up a sore subject why don't you..... He then asked us who invented the internet and when we answered al gore he said "No! the Nigerians!" and proceeded to tell us that Japanese 10 year olds had laptops in 1945 and that is why the US is so behind Japan. Wow; way to go nigerians I guess, first to invent the internet and the email scam.

In a similar history lesson, after telling my friend about the book "A thousand Splendid Suns" that I had just finished which describes life for women under the taliban, my friend told me "but those are just stories! The taliban did not do any of that, the US government just tells those stories after 9/11. Sheesh! look at some independent news sources once in a while." My head did not explode, altho it came close, and I think what eventually came out was no no no no no no no no no....... The conversation did not progress because another student said "Tali who?" and I just put my head down. I still really don't know how to deal with that; this friend is really smart in science classes but apparently does not believe that the taliban made women wear burkhas and forbade them to work. I'm going to go cry now. (By the way, not a reflection on Botswana, her family is from a different, more politically touchy culture) Uh , yeah, sorry, not a funny post.

(PS Beth and hubby, I don't know how to respond otherwise but I wanted to let you know I appreciated your response a lot and it was really sweet! I wish I could show you zimbabwe too!)