Batswana emphasize extensive greetings and inquiries after each other. It is polite to address senior men as Rra and women as Mma (literally, father and mother). Grown women should keep their thighs covered, but more and more women are wearing tight pants, and short skirts are seen in urban areas. While younger people should be deferential to their elders, and women to men, these patterns are sustained more strongly in villages than in the urban areas.
Makgadikgadi and Nxai Pans are two of the largest saltpans in the world and a result of a great lake that once covered much of northern Botswana. They transform from dust-dry basins to host birds in their thousands when the rains come.
