If you read my last blog post, you’re probably asking yourself, “Why would she want to live in Botswana?” The events of this week are the answer to that question.
To give you some background, at just about the same that we started planning for Family Fun Day, a friend of mine from Guyana (also a Coady participant) suggested we host a bachelor/bachelorette auction to raise funds for the Hospice. I pitched the idea to Caroline and Pearl, and they both loved the idea. From there, we secured a free venue at Bull & Bush, one of the most popular bars/clubs in Gaborone.
We knew if we wanted to raise the maximum funds, we would need to attract Botswana’s most beautiful celebrities. We set up an appointment with a friend of the Hospice, Masego (her name means “blessing”- and believe me, she is one!) who works for Pulse Media, a marketing firm, and had organized fundraising events in the past on behalf of the Hospice, and seems to know everyone in Gaborone. She put out a few feelers to her network of celeb friends, and forwarded me their contact information. Without even realizing it, I had access to the top selling recording artist in the country, Vee, among various other celebrity radio personalities, rap artists and Miss Botswana finalists.
A few weeks earlier, on our way to running errands at Game City in preparation for Fun Day, I voiced my concern that we still needed more bachelors as we passed a billboard for Nivea men’s face cream, “Where are we going to get a bunch of guys as gorgeous as that man?” No sooner had we walked into the mall, did I see a poster of male body-builders, sans shirts, advertising the Mr. Botswana contest, which had recently passed- with cell numbers! I quickly dialed up Mr. Botswana’s organizers and told them about our idea, to which they immediately agreed to send us five finalists from the contest. It turns out Pearl is friends with the organizers, and they even offered to come teach our palliative care clients some exercise techniques!
Saturday was the Eve Against AIDS concert (lately the running joke in Gabs is who is actually for AIDS? But I digress…), so I bought a ticket to the gold section and checked it out with a few friends. There was a ton of local talent that just blew me away before the headliner performed. Eve was a big disappointment, to put it bluntly, but nonetheless it was very entertaining concert.
When I went to the washroom, I noticed Juju Boy (another top recording artist) was hanging out next to the braai stand. I quickly made my way over, and met up with Freakazoid, the male dance group from last week’s family fun day, only to learn that they share a manager with Zeus, one of Botswana’s top rappers. Zeus had already agreed to participate in our event, and was more than willing to talk to other artists to get them to join in. By the time the night was over, I had met rappers Scar, K-Bos and a few other radio personalities, who all wanted to be dates for “My Dream Date”!
In addition, I had also been introduced to Moroka, the owner of The Mirror, a major Botswana Newspaper, who gave me his number and told me to call him to explain more about the event. I told him we were getting local restaurants to sponsor dinner for two, so the winners of “My Dream Date” auction would get to go for dinner for free. My idea was that in addition to promoting the event beforehand, we would run stories about how the dates went afterward, and this would double as a marketing opportunity for the restaurant sponsors, as the celebrity dates would review the food too. Moroka loved the idea, and invited me to his office on Monday for an interview!
On Sunday I called Vee to confirm if he would be available on Dec 7, the evening of “My Dream Date.” He told me he’d stop by my place to discuss it in person. A few hours later, Vee called and told me he was outside my apartment compound. I ran down to the gate, only to discover our new security guard had suddenly decided to implement the rule that all guests must sign in with their national ID card. I looked at the security guard, and said, “You mean to tell me you don’t know this guy?” He looked at Vee, and shook his head. Vee said something in Setswana, probably something like “I’m Vee”, and the guard had to do a double-take and started laughing, “I do know him. He doesn’t have to sign in.”
My roommates Leigh and Sarah were both home, and we welcome Vee and his friend Timmy, a DJ who performed at the concert, to our flat. Vee was very sweet and humble, and loved the idea of “My Dream Date”, and was impressed by Sarah’s poster design. Unfortunately, he would be out of town that week on a Brand Botswana tour around the country, but he suggested a few more artists to contact. He probably stayed for about 10 minutes, but the experience of having Botswana’s most famous artist in my living room was pretty surreal.
Yesterday I visited Moroka at The Mirror. He offered me an advert of our poster and an interview on the spot, to be published in today’s paper! He was very supportive, and called his friend Mpho, a fashion correspondent at Duma FM, to set up a radio interview for Thursday. He gave me her number and told me to ask her to be one of our bachelorettes. With in a few minutes, she had agreed! He also suggested I call his “boy”, Kgotla, another famous recording artist, and ask him to participate. When I got back to the office and told Pearl that Kgotla was going to be in our auction, I swear she blushed!
The experience of organizing “My Dream Date” has taught me that when you ask for something, and you really need it, God has a way of answering your prayers. In a place like Botswana, with a population of 2 million and some people, you have to know how to network effectively, because everyone knows everyone. An event like My Dream Date has never been attempted before, but my dream is to see it become an annual event.
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