Botswana Know How to Party!

  My first big celebration! OK, so it happened over a month ago…

  The Botswana really know how to party! When there is a big celebration they rent a lodge out by the cattle post, or farmland and party for 24hrs straight. I went to my host brother’s college graduation party over a month ago and what I thought was going to be an afternoon at the lodge with a BBQ turned into an all night rage with the DJ starting at 10pm and playing until 5am. The next morning, at about 8am was breakfast and the hair of the dog. There was well over 100 people there by midnight.  

Here is what my host brother wrote on Facebook…

I would like to take this time to express my sincere gratitude for what transpired during the weekend,words fall short to script how magnificent it felt to be appreciated and motivated in the manner that i am and i would like to promise and assure you that you have not yet seen the best to come out of me.The following deserves to be mentioned: God, my late dad,mother,my beautiful and handsome siblings, my cousins, my friends,niece & nephews,uncles,my grandmother and relatives,
When people drink here they do it to get drunk... I mean REALLY drunk!! It's not uncommon for a man or a woman to have 20+ beers, or ciders in one day, with a few shots mixed in, and get up the next day and start all over again. They tease me when I have 1, or 2 drinks. I'm told that about 80% of the drinking age population drinks regularly. I was told that they don't really drink during the week, so they make up for it on the weekends. There's also a saying by the employers "employees drink all weekend and have their hangover on their employers time" There’s a lot of napping in the office. 

It’s now festive season and there are parties, or Braai’s, practically every night. I went to the Botswana Railways Bike team Braai (BBQ) on Monday and cooked my ass off! I hope to go to the Homecoming put on by the Botswana Railways, the biggest party of the year in Mahalapye. It’s an all night rave that starts at 2pm and goes to 6am. DJ’s from all over Africa come to entertain, some pretty famous ones from South Africa, so I’m told. There’s food, drink, music and lots of dancing! It’s very common to dance in a circle with each person taking his or her turn in the middle. I’ve been dancing more here than I have in years.