Well after a few days of running around UB's campus to find where everything is, and get all of the necessary forms filled out, this was definitely a much needed relaxing weekend.  Most of my teachers showed up for class on Thursday and Friday, but I learned that one of them is currently in Sudan for the referendum which is really awesome.  I am not sure if he is Sudanese or if he is there because it is related to his field, but I really hope he will talk about his experience there and what is happening; the mood of the people, the security/dangers, etc.

There were so many things to do this first week that I felt like I was a freshman at Villanova again when I had no idea exactly what I was supposed to be doing and no idea where anything was.  I basically operated on hearsay for the first few days of school.  All of the international students had to take care of registration (along with the rest of the school), get our UB ID's, get wireless internet configured onto our laptops, among other things.  Luckily when I went to get all of these things done on Thursday afternoon I had the help of a Motswana girl to take me to all of the 'blocks' - what they call their buildings.  (Instead of naming their buildings after people or places like we do, they give every building a number and it can become very difficult to remember where numbered buildings are, especially when they aren't in any sort of order).  It took close to two hours because there are always lines, or queues as they are called here.

Last night was two of our group member's 21st birthdays so we all went out to dinner and then to a club called Fashion Lounge.  Dinner was at this really nice restaurant called News Cafe and we ordered drinks and got food.  When we got to Fashion Lounge a couple people were wearing flip flops and sneakers and they originally were not going to let us in because of the dress code.  Part of me thinks that the only reason we got in was because we were 10 white kids from the United States and they did not want to say no to such a large group.  I felt a little weird when they let us in, but when we got in it ended up being a fun night.

My roommate from Zimbabwe, Farai, has already submitted his thesis for his Ph.D. in Medical Biology and the guy loves to talk.  Sometimes it can get a bit annoying, however, the guy is so insightful and is obviously a brilliant man given what he is getting his Ph.D. in.  Anyway, the other night all 3 of us Americanos, Farai, and Max (from Botswana) got to talking about disease in Southern Africa.  Obviously the most talked about thing in the USA is the HIV/AIDS pandemic, especially in Southern Africa.  And given that Botswana has the second highest HIV/AIDS rate of infection in the world, it is a big deal here, too.  However, Farai made the point that while there is so much information about HIV/AIDS and the entire world is making an effort to try and eradicate the disease, malaria kills so many more people each year than AIDS.  Between 500,000 and 1 million people die every year from malaria, which is probably more preventable than HIV.  All you need is chloroquine, malarone, or some other malaria prevention drug and a bed-net.  However, people have made such a big deal about the decay of people with HIV, even though most only suffer for about one year.  If the pharmaceutical companies in the USA were not so corrupt and money-driven, they could provide the medication to people in Sub-Saharan Africa with incredible ease.  Farai made the point that while HIV/AIDS is a heinous disease, the people in Africa are far more fearful of getting malaria because of how it quickly debilitates the body and most people who get the viral type of malaria die within 3 weeks.  (And it is not to say that it is a good thing that people with AIDS suffer for an entire year, but it is important to understand that the people here are living in the midst of HIV/AIDS and malaria, and they know what really is best for the people here.  HIV/AIDS can be prevented with [more or less] common sense, whereas malaria is a product of your environment, and many people cannot afford to move to a malaria free area (let alone buy malaria medication).  Anyway, it really made me think about what we in the United States think when it comes to saving all the people infected with AIDS and what the people who live with AIDS all around them think.

Well it definitely is the rainy season here.  After having nice weather for the first week and a half, it rained a good bit on Friday, all day Saturday, and has been raining for a few hours now on Sunday - part of me wishes it was just snowing all of the time, but I guess I'll trade snow for temperatures in the 80s every day.