And the evening and the morning were the third day of Botswana Worlds 2011. People have just recovered from the ice breaking party when there are complaints about paranoia, the African heat and a belated adjudicators’ briefing – still more surprises for the international debating community from Worlds in Gaborone. However, the atmosphere is great thanks to good weather and friendly people all around, everybody appreciates.

Henrik Maedler (Jacobs University Bremen Debating Society), being on his annual leave now in Botswana, felt followed around by his employer as a picture on “Your German Correspondent” proves. The Achte Minute editorial team sincerely hopes that neither his commitment for judging nor for being our embedded journalist will be affected by this. But sunshine, beer and a relaxed day comforted Henrik and helped him to get past the horrors of the morning hours. Unfortunately, the free condoms in his dorm were already gone.

Rants about weather, meals and new friends are amass on Twitter. A Worlds participant called jozefthenu on Twitter states: “WUDC Botswana – Day 1. Africa is so damn hot!” He adds: “First day as a vegetarian.“ Apropos vegetarian: An obviously Muslim debater, aerierahman, missed meat in his halal meals: “Apparently, people who eat halal food is only given vegetarian food at WUDC. Those eating kosher gets chicken, fish and desserts.”

Twitterer udayan_m already made new friends: “Made contact with NZ contingent at wudc. Vic and Auckland A are joined by MEnglish, BKornfeld and TChen.” Despite difficulties with the guide he is amused: “In Botswana. Dorm accommodation and amusing blunders in tournament guide. Fully enclosed campus style tournament will be good though.”

Finally, kuzevski released the international debating community about the Serbs’ fate who got stuck at the South African/Botswanese border: “For all those concerned about Serbian delegation they arrived at WUDC campus this morning. They are OK but really exhausted.”

Moritz Kirchner (Wortgefechte Potsdam) finds the event quite chaotic so far and thinks that “the extent of being unorganized is alarming.” The reasons behind this: “The awesome pool is closed because there are not enough life guards around, busses were six hours late, accommodations have to be re-organised.” But still he is optimistic: “The atmo as well as the weather are still great. People are totally friendly, communicative and interesting.”

For the second day, no prelims had been scheduled, pre-rounds will not start before Wednesday morning. Today was reserved for adjudicators’ briefing including the adjudicators’ test for those who had not been doing it online beforehand. Achte Minute’s columnist Stephen M. Llano twittered live from the briefing. “There’s a lot of confusion here this morning.“ Rooms and time were changed. Stephen summarizes adjudication standards for Worlds 2011: ”The judging guidelines seem to highlight situational and holistic judging standards more so than usual.” Plus, the chief adjudicators are going to be strict – “if a judge misses their debate, the tournament reserves the right to remove a team from your institution from the tab”, Stephen warns debaters via Twitter.

The Cambridge Union Society greet their followers with a merry “Dumelang, bagaetsho“, Setswana for “Hello everybody!“ They have it leaked that James Dray, originally deputy chief adjudicator, was replaced by Vivek Ramsaroop, originally co-tournament director. The reasons behind this are subject to rumors and speculation, as is reported on the Union’s blog. And they mention the Masters’ Competition: It’s a small tournament among current adjudicators where they choose which country they represent. The motion of this afternoon’s Masters’ round read “This House would buy local.“

Tonight, Worlds debaters were expected at the official opening ceremony at the Indian restaurant Moghul. Dress code: black tie! Hey, debaters, got très chic – men wear a tuxedo, women an evening gown. Traditional dances were performed and videos of the arrival day were shown. The Minister of Education of Botswana gave a speech: “All words are good.“

Preview: iDebate – the Twitter account of the International Debate Education Association – promises a live stream from the pre-rounds starting on Wednesday. Stephen knows: “Some rounds in prelims will be streamed live on the internet, but people can opt out if they don’t want to be netcast.” For those of you who want to watch the debates live on the internet, there is a detailed schedule available online. Nota bene: The first round starts at 9.30 am local time, that is 8.30 am in Germany.

apf / glx