We bid farewell to Fall 2017

Programs for this blog post

Community Public Health

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CIEE Gaborone

As the semester comes to an end, we bid farewell to our fall 2017 students in a special way. As the CIEE Gaborone study center, we hosted farewell braai and farewell dinner to the eight ladies. Still can’t believe that the semester has come to an end, the three months flew by so fast and we now reminisce at the memories we created this semester, from orientation week to Khama rhino weekend that was two weekends ago before the farewell braai.

Farewell braai

The rain clouds threatened the day, as the preparations for the farewell braai continued with no bother. Families and friends trickled in as we danced to music while preparing the food serving point, the meat being grilled on the braai stand (barbeque) and chats flying in the air, we even forgot that it was the farewell braai and left with a couple of weeks left till the end of the semester. We were all so excited to see each other, especially homestay families and kids already playing soccer and focusing on having the most fun with their friends.

FOOD:

Beside the regular beef and chicken, we added a twist of people bringing their own dish, different kinds pasta dish, dumplings (madombi), spinach, potato salad, garlic bread, green salads that had everyone rush in line. The braai food is the most exciting part about this day.

After we ate food and we regained our energy, we went on with the festivities of the day. We danced till our feet hurt and learned some few danced moves along the way.

The step dance move: such a very popular dance move at any event in Botswana, we put on some music, Mafikizolo’s new song Love portion, thathi skupu and step’d all the way.

The cha-cha slide: The students were so excited to teach us the slide, and  “Alright now, we gonna do the basic step, to the left, take it back now y'all, One hop this time, right foot. Let's stomp, left foot. Let's stomp, Cha cha real smooth” we danced for the four minutes and added another.

As the night invades, and the festivities had to come to an end it was time for us to clean up and head home.

Farewell dinner

Three months have come and past, we ended our semester with a farewell dinner at Phakalane Golf Estate. The theme of the night was Fabulous Botswana – Vegas inspired and everyone came dressed to impress, also looking to snatch the best dressed award.  Truth or dare game was played and that made us laugh that we even forgot it that this was our last dinner together. Superlatives were given out and gifts were exchanged, we thought we were going to avoid a tearing up moment, but then Emily’s letters too each and everyone of us made us sob for a minute.

To the Fall 2017 group: thank you so much for spending the semester with us in Gaborone, Botswana.

Tsamaya sentle, ka pula.(Go well, with rain). Till we meet again.