Mma Precious Ramotswe is the first female detective in Botswana. She sells her father's cattle to buy a little office for her detective agency. I learned a lot about how people respect each other in very different ways in Botswana. For example, Mma Ramotswe is asked to figure out if a man claiming to be someone's father is actually their father. The women who asks Mma Ramotswe to do this has taken "her father" under her roof and is cooking and cleaning for him all day while he sits around. This is the first time she has ever met her father, yet because he is her parent (or he claims to be her parent), she gives him her utmost respect because that is how you treat your parent in this country. You do whatever they ask even when you are an adult. No questions asked.
Mma Ramotswe's father also talks about his life in South Africa and working there as a miner. He describes the hardships he faced, how racism impacted his job, etc. It is so amazing to me that so much is done by miners to gather things like coal and diamonds and no one ever thinks about that when they are using the finished product. I really enjoyed reading about the effort and learning so much history. I thoroughly enjoyed this book!
