Mrs. Hess 2A
Senior Bible
October 6, 2014
Botswana
This year, the seniors will be going to visit the Bushmen tribe in the Kalahari Desert, which is located in Botswana, Africa. In order to prepare ourselves, we’re all learning more about the people’s everyday lives, cultures, religion, government, etc. Its important to learn as much about a country as possible before spending two weeks there because not only do you need to know the basics in order to stay out of trouble, you also don’t want to offend the people that you’re there to help. On top of that, we are representing our country, our school, and Christianity, and failure to be sensitive to the cultures of others can paint us in a bad light to the people and can either …show more content…
The government has been denying the Bushmen entrance into their land on the Central Kalahari Game Reserve. In 2006, the Bushman won the right to return to the reserve after being evicted in 2002. But since then, the government has done everything in its power to keep the people from entering without a permit, claiming only the original 189 Bushmen named on the court documents have the right to enter, not anyone else. These permits only last one month, and anyone who doesn't renew will be evicted. Children of the original 189 are allowed to live freely until the age of 16, then they must have the monthly permits to return. No one on the reserve has been granted a hunting permit, making their subsistence hunting illegal and making it extremely difficult to acquire food.
Education: Botswana has a literacy rate of 88% and all Botswana people are expected to finish 12 years of school. There are seven technical colleges in the country that students can attend, as well as the three universities and many private tertiary colleges, or students can take up vocational learning like nursing and teaching. Although the colleges are very nice and the professors are very well paid, the primary (k-12th grades) schools are lacking resources and funds. The government is trying to provide the primary schools with libraries, and hope that by spending more of the nation’s income on education, over time the country’s people will become more and more independent of diamonds as their primary source of