Dreaming of Now Now

Botswana is definitely not a country for the impatient. I’d learned the terms “just now” and “now now” in South Africa, but forgotten them in the emphatically “right now” society of the U.S. (and especially of third year med school) until I got back here. People here rarely use the simple term “now.” Instead, they’ll say, for example, “he’s coming just now.” This means he will arrive in anywhere from 15-20 minutes up to maybe a couple of hours. If we’re likely to see him in, say, the next 15 minutes, they’ll instead say “He’s coming now now.” “Now now” is a beautiful thing. I silently pray for “now now” every time I talk to an administrator of anything.

I think people are simply more used to waiting and “queuing” for everything in Botswana. Daily life is full of waiting and being transferred from one office to another. Making even a single photocopy at the university library, for example, is a 3-step process that involves trips to three buildings--to get the form to apply for a copy card, to pay the cashier an exact amount of money, and to have a different administrator actually issue the card. All of these offices have different and limited hours, which do not include lunch hours, evening hours, or weekend hours. Since it’s hard for me to get to campus between, say, 2 and 3:20 pm on a Thursday, 6 weeks into the semester I’ve only just now gotten a card. I inaugurated my card last week and discovered that only one photocopier in the whole library was working. I was literally the eleventh student standing in line for this copier, but nobody was complaining. 27 minutes (and 6 weeks) later, I got to make my copy.
As a side note, nobody is allowed to bring a bag of any kind into the UB library, and there are no lockers or anywhere else to leave bags, so dozens of people just leave bags and backpacks in piles outside the library (despite the sign prohibiting this “for security reasons”). I’ve been known to pile up my books and papers, stuff my pockets, fold up my totebag and stuff it down my shirt, just to get into the library!