Dumela!

Smile. You are about to read my blog!

The smiling guy doing a self-shot portrait with water buffalo in the background,  that's me: Brian Broom-Peltz. I've decided to gather the scraps of notes and pictures I've taken of the last couple of weeks during my visit to Botswana and mold them into something similar to a coherent blog. 

To start it off: a quick feature of Botswana and why I've been here for the last couple of weeks.

Botswana is a land-locked nation the size of Texas with a population of ~2 million. I am staying at the University of Botswana located in the capital city of Gabarone that hosts about 10% of the total population [wikipedia: Gabarone].  The weather is dry and generally cloudless during the day, chilly at night (Pro tip: it is winter).

UBots - as we affectionately have been calling it - was founded in 1982 after a successful national fund raising effort known as One Man, One Beast was able to raise ~1 million rand (South African currency) in donations of cattle, cash, grain, and other donations [learned this by asking students from UB and by checking out the wikipedia: University of Botswana]. Statues of farmers with cattle branded UB are found in front of the library and by the University stadium.

I get to walk past this statue on my way to lab (white building in the background)

A couple months ago, I applied and was invited to join the National Science Foundation (NSF) sponsored Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) hosted by Case Western Reserve University at the University of Botswana named: "Sustainable Energy Research in Sub-Saharan Africa".  Not being one to turn down all-expense paid intercontinental travel, I accepted the invitation and have been having a blast ever since.  

For the past 3+ weeks I have been working under the guidance of Cosmos Muiva, a physics PhD candidate at the University of Botswana synthesizing and characterizing indium-doped zinc oxide thin films.  His dissertation is focused on the synthesis and characterization of conductive thin films for electrode applications.  Below, I am am posing with him in front of an XRD (X-ray Diffraction) machine located in the geology department. 

Quality time with the funniest man in the department

Throughout my research, I have partnered with the kind and brilliant Karabo Nikkie Ditsala, a student from the University of Botswana. Nikki has been attending the University of Botswana for the past two years and will be heading off to Canada to complete a degree in manufacturing engineering with scholarship.

Nikki holding a bouquet of red and orange bougainvillea that grows on campus. 

Together, over the course of three weeks, we have managed to familiarize ourselves with prior research literature, synthesize and characterize indium-doped zinc oxide thin films, present our initial findings to the other research students, and draft up a final report. We will complete our final report by  the end of our fourth week and will post it here.

In addition to academic research, I have also been exploring the country, culture, and language (Setswana); but I'll post more about those things in another post. 

P.S. Dumela means hello.  You just learned your first word of Setswana!