I'm here in Botswana...FINALLY!!! i actually did it!!! :D

March 31, 2011

After somehow figuring out a way to shove 80 lbs of everything into a rolling duffel, a 65 liter hiking backpack, a regular backpack, and a computer bag…I managed to get on a 845 AM flight out of LAX to my favorite city, philly (except…NOT).  I arrived…as I had expected it to be and as I had last left PA, cold and rainy. Lol. Anyways, went through and did the whole registration thing, got my official government passport and some money (YA!). I met my roommate, she was pretty cool. We had fun chatting for a bit. (sorry, can’t really say much about other people just cuz I don’t want them to feel uncomfortable about them being on my blog, or if I’m even allowed to write about other people in my group, as per the government, since apparently I am now owned by the government). sat for a hot second and met up with my friend Grant for dinner. It was awesome to see him, since he was a friend from home, and it was nice to catch a friendly face in a different city. We went to maggiano’s and decided to be kids and ordered a bottle of wine with our pasta. It was all delicious.

I came back to the hotel and found another volunteer and watched jersey shore. I have no shame admitting that I love that show. Awesome. That show is just quality. Went back to my room. Exhausted…being that I didn’t sleep the night before. Passed out.

April 1, 2011

Woke up to room service at 630 AM in the morning (which btw, is technically 330 AM in the morning still for me…lol). Walked about 10 blocks in the sleet with very thin flats to go get my yellow fever shot (which about 5 days later my gland and arm is still swollen from). Then went to go stare at a piece of history…the great liberty bell. I saw a large crack. Awesome, I wish I could have licked it…just cuz it woulda been cool to lick the liberty bell. Lol. Then went to go on a search for a philly cheesesteak at 1030 in the morning with two other volunteers (whoops…I mean TRAINEES, cuz technically we are not called volunteers yet). Found a jim’s. got some cheese whiz. Got some mushrooms. And devoured it in less than 5 minutes. Delicious. I think it has to do with the bread. I can’t quite figure out why no other place in the world can actually make a cheesesteak like philly does. But I do have to admit that it was the best cheesesteak I have had. J

We then spent the next 5 hours going over everything about Peace Corps. Icebreakers. What we expect. What they expect from us. What our anxieties are. What our aspirations are. How to handle situations. How to communicate with others.  And of course we had a long conversation about the giant elephant in the room, the 20/20 episode. I’ve never seen a room go so somber so quickly. But hey, it was on all the females’ minds. So we were gonna talk about. At the end of the day, it neither made me feel any better but no worse either. My philosophy on that is that, look it can happen anywhere you travel. Just be smart and be aware, but don’t let it be a deterrent for what you want to experience in life. We finished feeling much closer to one another. All in all, it was productive and fun, so I’m glad we “set our stage” for what is to come.

I needed a hard drive, since my friends, previous to leaving, had completely filled my hard drive with their music (which I am thoroughly enjoying right now while writing this), movies, and tv shows. So I walked another 11 blocks in the rain with my rain boots and raccoon beanie. I had a woman stop me along the way to take a picture of my hat. Bought my 500 gb hard drive (yes, I followed your advice, kyle and chris!). then grant came and picked me up. The rest of the night reminded me of college, besides the fact, my friend grant had just bought a house the previous day and we were checking it out. AWESOME house (so proud of you, grant!). went back to the hotel, watched some tv, took a shower, and repacked everything. And by 230 AM, we were downstairs in the lobby, dragging our luggage to the bus.

April 2, 2011

Reached JFK at 545 AM. Bless her heart, Andra is already waiting at JFK (<3 you, andra).  She helps me distribute my weight through my luggage to make sure they are under the maximum 50 lb weight. We talk, eat breakfast at mickey d’s, and just hang out for the next 3 hours, all while checking in my bags. I was so glad to see her before I left. *sad face* had to say bye, and walked through security at around 845 AM. My parents called and talked to them for a bit. Talked to my friend greg about his new life and my soon to be new life on the phone. My parents called again…talked to them again. Cried when I said my last goodbye to colin. Got on the plane. Called max to say goodbye. Then I called my parents again…and told them I would call them when I was able to when I reached Gaborone, Botswana…all while my mother was sobbing on the phone. Off we flew to 1) to Johannesburg, South Africa, then 2) to Gaborone, Botswana.

April 3, 2011

I slept all 15 hours of the flight to Johannesburg, except when food arrived (haha…yes I know some of you are laughing). We got on a small flight to Gaborone where they told us, we were unable to move seats because that would redistribute the weight of the plane, and that could be a problem. And finally about 28 hours later…we are finally in BOTSWANA. YAY! we all clapped and cheered on the plane.  J SWEET.

Baggage claim, though not unexpected being that we had 39 volunteers each carrying about 80 lbs of luggage per person and we were on an itty bitty plane, did not have all of our luggage, or none of mine for that matter.

Our first drive through Botswana! Chaparral, short trees, green grass, goats, kombis (small little vans), 2 lane highways, huts, giant houses, and a HUGE sky. I’m loving it. We get to our lodge. It has little huts everywhere. It’s so cute. None of us have luggage. After 30 hours of traveling by this point…WHERE IS THE BAR?! You find 6 of us immediately sipping down some Castles or Black Label Carlings. Best thing ever. We were happy. Just hung out and talked. Huddled in a small fake cave by the pool and just watched the rain come down and the thunder roar (and no…it was not mistakened for a lion). The volunteers who are already in service tell us it is good luck that it is raining on our first day. Yay! I like good signs. It’s comforting. African rain is beautiful. Large, cooling drops that just comes down like a sheet of water. It just pitter pattered on the pool. 6 of us were huddled in a little cave, sipping beers, just enjoying the warm weather and soothing sound or rain. Great way to begin our journey. J

Since Botswana was previously a British colony, they follow many of the same traditions as the brits…such as tea time! Once the rain died down, there were little sandwiches and tea for people to go and munch on. In attempt to keep us awake to avoid the jetlag, the existing volunteers put together a slide show of their villages and travels to show us. Unfortunately, although it was all very fun and interesting, everyone was WAY too tired to keep their eyes open through that. Luckily soon after, it was time for dinner. I’ve figured out the food here is very starchy, so potatoes, butternut squash, rice which are accompanied by stews. It was as I had expected it. Simple.

We couldn’t really keep our eyes open anymore by then. Bedtime! 830 PM. Hehe.

April 4, 2011

First day of training!!! They have us jump right in it. We begin by taking our first lesson in Setswana. J Dumela! That means hello! O tsogile jang? How are you? Ke tsogile sentle. I am fine. The cool thing is the “tl” is a click! It’s so hard when you first try it. I found out today that Setswana is a click language! And NO that doesn’t mean it’s ALL clicks. It’s just that they have clicks in their words. O robetse jang? Did you sleep well? The “r”s are rolled “r”s. I am on my way to learning a new language. Tswee-tswee, ke a kopa. Please, can you kindly…? Hehe. It’s pretty awesome to learn a crazy different language.

We got our malaria pills today. I got lucky with that stuff. I luckily didn’t end up with the insomniatic/hallucinogenic pills. Apparently mine is just sensitive to sun. SWEET.

DUDE it was SWEET today though. We went out of the lodge and wander the streets of Gaborone (it’s said like Hab-a-ron-e). As we passed we said “Dumela, mma!” – “Hello, ma’am!” and people would respond. And then we would say “ke a leboga!” – “Thank you!” pretty awesome. I talked to people in their language and they responded. Goal of the day…COMPLETED! 

So once again, since it was a British colony, they drive on the other side of the road. People were crowded into kombis. They aren’t too big on pedestrian right of way, so we really need to be careful. I almost got taken out by…a BMW. Lol. We had 2 little girls following us…slyly staring at us. Then they eventually ran off after I said “dumela!” to them. Haha. Whoops…didn’t mean to scare them off…they were so cute!

Came back. Ate dinner. Started drinking and just hung out with everyone. It was awesome just shooting the shit with the group. We talked with the people who are already serving. We talked with people amongst our group. We had a good bonding night over a few beers. Everyone was much more rested than the night before, so we all had much more to say and more to smile about.

All in all, it was a great first day here in Botswana.

April 5, 2011

More training today. Learned more about home stay. We’re going to be in Kayne, about an hour and half outside of Gaborone. And no…I don’t think Kayne West has ever been to Kayne (though you would think he would go to a city he would have thought was named AFTER him…lol). It’s a big town, so we should be able to get everything we need there.

I had to separate my luggage, because one piece of our luggage is going into storage for pre-service training (PST).  So basically everything I don’t think I’m going to need in training goes into the bag for storage. Luckily…there is no weight limit for this, so it was much easier for me to divide stuff up.

Not much to say about today, but that I was feeling a bit anti-social. It’s kind of like the first week of college again, where we are all trying to find our new friends, so everyone is talking at all times. And honestly, I’m a bit drained with all that trying. Lol. Hopefully, I will be better by tomorrow.

I look like I have a tumor on my forehead. I didn’t know bugs like to bite foreheads. Lol.

Oh…and sorry for taking so long. It’s been a pain trying to find internet access, let alone getting access. Apparently, it doesn’t like connecting to the internet.  I will try as hard as I can to find time. As of now, I’ve just been trying to adjust to everything that is going on and integrating myself into the new environment. As I said before, I am bad at keeping up virtually. But I will try my best. *hugs and kisses to all*

And I get my cell phone tomorrow. Yay! Shoot me an email if you want my number so we can chat! Miss y’all!