Preliminaries

As many know, next semester I will be attending the University of Botswana in Gaborone, Botswana. This blog is intended to keep you updated, provide a resource for anyone interested in visiting Africa, and as a way to gather my thoughts and adventures into some semblance of a coherent document. I will try to publish as many links to documents and articles that may be interesting and provide more information about my travels.

As of now, I am still in the process of packing/figuring out what is exactly going on in Botswana when I get there. The class selection process takes place during our orientation, which is vastly different from American schooling, where we would have registered for classes two weeks ago! Also, there is no air conditioning in any dorms, and many dorms do not have Internet, which is a huge change. It will be very peculiar without such "amenities."

For now, since I have little information, I will just post some links to sites with good information. The only information I have so far is flight information. The total costs of airfare runs about $2500 round trip, for any interested. Almost all flights run through Johannesburg, South Africa en route to Gaborone.

On the medical side, I have so far received three vaccines (and supposedly a fourth?). I have had Yellow fever, Typhoid, and Hepatitis A vaccines. In addition, I was prescribed Malerone, which is an anti-malaria drug. Luckily, Gaborone has no malaria risk. However, many northern areas (especially the game reserves) have a malaria risk, so the medication must be taken while in these areas. I said "supposedly a fourth" vaccine, because I am currently in the process of trying to figure out whether I am supposed to get a Polio booster shot or not. Rabies vaccines are also recommended, although they are next to impossible to get right now in the US due to a shortage.

Finally, the exchange rate is looking pretty good. The currency in Botswana is the Pula. A little more than 8 Pula are equal to $1. Average costs and spending money per semester run about 6000P (pula) or around $750. This is a very small amount of money for 4 months!

Hope to have more information soon enough. Will eventually include a packing list.