A Botswana Student's Experience

14 June 2024

ByDuduetsang Baatweng Rapitsenyane

My flight landed at Frankfurt airport early April and when I looked outside the airport glass doors, my eyes were met by an expanse of grey that signals extreme cold. This was exciting for I would spend four months away from the scorching Botswana heat. Little did I know that summer in Landau is sometimes as oppressive as summer in Botswana. The road trip to Landau was pleasant because I was grateful the student buddies assigned to Botswana exchange students had decided to use their cars to pick us up from the airport. If I had been asked to take the train or bus, I probably would have been helpless, especially since I don’t speak or read German. When I was shown my room, after being out in the cold for a while, I was pleased to find an inbuilt heater. I immediately made a comparison to my country because there one is more likely to invest in a fan and not a heater. When lecturers began, classrooms were packed, but as Landau got sunnier days, I noticed the classrooms were less packed when it's sunny, and this was interesting because back in my home university people miss class when it’s raining or cloudy. Gaborone gets countless sunny days so a rainy day is used to rest indoors and enjoy the cool weather. In Landau, students miss class on a sunny day and go to parks to enjoy the sun. When I went shopping, I had to settle for unfamiliar brands, which was annoying at first. I spent hours shopping because I had the task of translating ingredients written in German to English. The great difficulty came when I had to do my hair and the closest salon that understood African hair was in Stuttgart, and because of the anxiety of traveling alone I didn’t go. I instead wore a hat for three months. When I landed in Botswana my hair was so damaged I had to cut it. The next time I’m traveling to Europe, I am getting dreadlocks! The salons were also ridiculously expensive. In fact, everything seemed expensive especially if one converted the cost to BW Pula. After a while I just stopped converting because I would never do anything if I kept comparing the Euro to the Pula. At the end of the trip, I had learned so much from my stay abroad. Because of interactions, conversations in Landau, and constant reflection, my identity as a black African positively deepened.