I have been neglectful when it comes to the small things…

I realize that often I become so concerned to show all of you who read my blog the really big things that happen, and I fail to show you some everyday life things.This is Boikhutso Simon, a very good friend of mine who comes by the office often to help me with all sorts of things…and talk about boys…you know… the important stuff.

I am going to try during this next week to show you some things that encompass my everyday life. To start, I should show you my office:
As you can see, I have a huge desk, a computer, a printer, and a telephone…I know it looks kind of amazing to imagine that I have all of this in Botswana (especially since I come from cubicle world)…but there are certain "realities" that one must keep in mind. Certainly, it is fantastic to have all of these resources in my office, but often they don't work, or they are being used by other people. I am far from complaining especially since I balk at doing any work on my own…it's always nice to have people come by the office to entertain me….or to, ideally, do my work with me. I'm not sure if you can see, but look at the edge of the picture at the front of my desk …Can you see them? Yep, those are condoms (they're pink)…I like to keep them around mostly because whenever anyone walks into my room they immediately become a conversation piece…some people like coffee table books…I like condoms.
This is Clifford Seroke. He is a good friend of mine who often comes by the office to "do work"….He is the Botswana National Youth Coordinator (BNYC) for Mochudi so we often collaborate on events when it comes to doing stuff with youth.

This is all just to give you a little insight into the things that I see every week- the things that make up my day to day good times!

Another weekend of good friends and good times

This weekend was our last weekend with Franco. We spent it trying to have as much fun as we possibly could. We accomplished this task by going to the movies, having dinners, sitting around talking…basically, soaking up as much time as we could get together.

One fantastic thing that we got to do was go see the movie "Blood Diamonds". Anyone who hasn't seen it should know that I really do highly recommend it! It produced, in my opinion, one of the best lines of a movie that I have heard in a very long time. It's actually kind of hard for me to say that because this movie line came from the mouth of one Leonardo DiCaprio, and yet it was a good line nonetheless (actually this year seems to be kind of a DiCaprio year…I have heard that The Departed is fantastic too…so, good for him). Anyway, let me try to recreate the scene: Leonardo is trying to hit on some woman in a bar and in doing so tries to guess why she is in Africa. He states, and I quote, "Are you one of those Peace Corps types? You, know, the kind of person that comes over to Africa with your laptop computer and your hand sanitizer who stays just long enough to realize that you're not going to change anyone." Well, in our little world of Botswana this line was delivered to a group of Peace Corps with their laptops stowed safely underneath their movie seats (likely with a foot through the laptop bag's handle in order to prevent theft), and hands freshly sanitized with sanitizer smelling of fresh flowers or clean fruit (take your pick)…and yet, this line was received with a ready laugh and acceptance that partly this movie line was fairly dead on….but for me, and I may be speaking for myself, but I do think that we change the way that people think, and I'd like to think that we get to see that change before we leave I just think that sometimes we change the people we don't even expect to see change from, and if we just step back from ourselves we might even surprise ourselves by the amount of people that we have changed…and who has changed us.

One thing that Franco gave Dereje before leaving was a football (or soccer for you American types) game for the computer. I think that Dereje now has a mission to provide a little bit of competition for Franco when they meet again.

Botswana Road Trip

This weekend was one of the first weekends that Dereje and I have had the opportunity to go on a road trip. We wanted to travel a bit up north to see some of our friends and to try to get away from some of the Mochudi heat! So, Friday afternoon we packed up the car and hit the open road….by "open" I mean a road riddled with pot holes and littered with cows and donkeys not to mention the goats…but a road nonetheless.

Unfortunately, our road-trip glee was slightly thwarted by the fact that one of my very good friends who lives up north has to go home (meaning back to America). It is difficult to imagine what it's going to be like without Franco here because he always brings so much life and enthusiasm to every thing that he does. In essence, he is the "life of the party". Luckily, Dereje and I were able to pick Franco up in Gabs and drive with him up to Palapye – which allowed us to have a little bit of extra time to talk with him, laugh with him, and commiserate with him.

So, because we had someone from our little family leaving we decided that the only right thing to do was to send him out in style. This involved a great Ethiopian feast…prepared by Dereje…and myself (my job was to drink wine and act like I know what I am doing), a trip to a local campsite which provided us a couple of beers and some good music…not to mention some very entertaining Afrikaners, and another feast of Sushi made the next day by Sarah and Bonnie Good friends, good food, and good fun…doesn't get much better than that (well, it would be better if Franco was staying, but it's best not to think about that)!

My New Toy

Honestly, I sweat enough just sitting around the house, but it's always fun to have a little something there to make you really (disgustingly) drenched in sweat. Lucky for me I have been very comforted this week by finding out that human nature is the same no matter where you are in the world…that means that even in Botswana gym equipment is on sale during the month of January! Of course, one of my New Years Resolutions is to get into a good workout routine (I believe this resolution is permanently tattooed onto my eternal "New Year Resolution" list) and getting in a good workout daily is what I plan on doing. I actually just really love it when one of my New Years Resolutions involves buying something new!

Four exfoliating sugar scrubs…three new shirts…two vacuum sealed pillows…and a partridge in a pear tree

Good news! My other bag arrived! I believe that my greatest sense of accomplishment was when I asked the woman at baggage if Dereje could pick up my bag for me because he was already in Gabs…she quickly said "yes", but what she really meant was "anything to get you off of the phone." One more thing checked off my list of things to do: exasperate an airline more than they exasperate me…check.

So, one pepper grinder, one rock salt grinder, and two vacuum sealed pillows, and four sugar scrub exfoliating tubs later…I am complete! Turns out my second bag was filled with pretty much non-essential items that are absolutely necessary for me!

Okay….I just had an "Africa" moment…I looked over at my kitchen and thought to myself, "What is that crawling across my kitchen floor? And why is it crawling in a direction that would suggest it came from my pantry?" After swatting the thing to death (with my trusty fly/any other living creature swatter)…I am still at a loss for what it was. It might have been a centipede or a millipede (I can't remember which one of those is poisonous…but either way I vow from this moment on to always wear shoes before entering the kitchen…or opening the pantry…or, heck, the whole house is now off limits for bare feet).

One thing I have wanted to clear up. Because of my past blogs many of you have asked me, "So, you have a driver?" The answer to that is two fold…"yes, I have a driver", and "no, I do not have a driver". My driver is assigned to my district's office. His name is Ntseane and he is far from being "my driver." He is, however, incredibly helpful to me, and has become a very good friend of mine! For the last 4 months he has pretty much been strictly a friend and not a driver because our truck had no tires on it (honestly, I'm not kidding you, for 4 months our car has remained stationary because of an unpaid debt to this particular tire company…it kills me). Ntseane, however, texted me this morning to say, and I quote: "my vehicle now has tyres on it"! (The exclamation mark had been left out…but I think it was implied). I realized that I failed to mention that I went to his wedding a couple of months ago and forgot to post pictures! I shall remedy that now:

This is a picture of Ntseane before the wedding: he was helping to set up the tent that the reception was held.
There are always two weddings in a Botswana marriage (and we think we have it tough). There is one wedding at the groom's family's house and one wedding at the bride's family's house. This is so there can be two separate guest lists…one for the bride and one for the groom. Tradition says that when the wedding is at the groom's house he will go to pick her from her family's house and bring her to the party. Ntseane, of course, likes to do a little bit of dancing in the middle of everything).
A procession of cars follow Ntseane to his bride's house…this line of cars has a job: their job is to honk their horns and yell as loudly as they can outside of the windows. I was a part of this procession, and I joined the honking of horns with as much enthusiasm as any other Motswana! Oh, one more thing: in the picture with the bride and groom is their son. It's very common for couples to have children before they get married. Mostly, because it is very expensive to marry as the man must pay a lobola, a bride price. A bride price can be anywhere from 5-8 cows (translates to 5,000 – 8,000 Pula)…this can be very expensive to a man on a government salary.
Ntseane and his wife, Dineo

One down, one to go…

Today, one of my bags came into Gabs!!! It was very exciting, although I must say that there is likely no love lost between any of the people that work for South African Airlines and me. I have found myself more than once questioning whether anyone has ever heard of "customer service" and I find that I am constantly saying "no, it is not my fault that the bags are lost…I don't work in this industry. In fact, everything you do here is kind of like magic to me and I would like to keep it that way." Alas, I believe that all of this falls on deaf ears, but I am determined to make everyone at the airport rue the day they lost my luggage and search extra hard for it just so they can get rid of me.

Being the optimist that I am (only when things go my way) I will try to stay focused on being grateful for the bag that I have! The bag that I received is mostly filled with clothes (which are kind of essential) but, it also had a few other fun items in it.

I didn't realize how crazy this fan was until I turned it on! It is awesome. It's hard to tell in the picture, but basically the fan gives off a fantastic light display as it keeps me cool! I can't wait to take it to work. I think that whenever someone asks me something I don't know I will just say, "hey, did you see my fan…look at all the colors."
Another great gift that I got from Santa was this really cool electric toothbrush. I find it not only good for my gums, but also very pleasant to look at (although sometimes she does kind of scare me if I look her directly in her eyes…I have found that her eyes kind of follow me…but that's cool, I'll just brush my teeth with my eyes shut)! Thanks again Santa!

It was tiring, it was frustrating, but it's over…

So, I made it home safe. Unfortunately, I cannot say the same for my luggage. I pray and hope with all of my might that it will make it to Gabs sometime this week, but I won't be shocked if it doesn't happen. Now, some of you might worry that because I was flying for 2 days straight I might not be able to get in a workout. Fear not, I am happy to report that I had to run for every plane that I caught, which sped up my heart rate in more ways than one (sorry to the old man at the security counter that I may or may not have mowed down…I imagine that my apologetic response of "they just did a final boarding call for my flight!" was lost on either his huge hearing aids or his inability to understand that yes, you do have to take off your shoes to go through the metal detector). Despite the running, I made all of my flights and ended up home.

There were some good things and some bad things that met me at the airport in Gaborone when I came home:

Good thing: my boyfriend (Dereje) was there to greet me as I walked off the plane.
Bad thing: 97° F of blasting heat was also there to greet me.
Good thing: my house remained intact and free from crime while I was gone.
Bad thing: It's bloody hot.
Good thing: There aren't too many spiders and the rat that I was hearing up in my ceiling before I left may have left on a vacation (or maybe he is just too hot to move).
Bad thing: I'm sweating while I sit here and type.

Okay, so you get the idea…I'm home, everything is great, the house if fine, and it's freaking hot. I promise to shut up about the heat as soon as…well, as soon as the season changes…or maybe as soon as my bags get here - that might be a promise that I cannot keep, but it never hurts to tempt the powers that be into thinking that you'll stop whining if they just give you what you want.
I hope that everyone is having a fantastic New Year! I certainly plan on making this one the best ever…as soon as South African Airways gets me my bags.

My flight leaves what time?

Much too early tomorrow I will be boarding a flight, then another flight, then another flight, and then one last flight which should take me to my home in Botswana. What sort of crazy wild things have I done my last night in America you might ask? Well, I have talked on the phone, washed some clothes, packed my bags, and have found myself systematically hitting my head against my hand when I remind myself that I have to get up around 4am to get to the airport on time. One of my more important accomplishments in my preparation to go home is the fact that I have finished scanning I-Tunes for the one-hundredth time just to make sure that there is nothing else that "I can't live without"...Honestly, my trolling of I-Tunes is mostly focused on anything that is free - here is a sample of typical conversation between I-Tunes and myself:

I-Tunes: do you really want a copy of a no-name show that never made it past the pilot and has absolutely nobody in it that you would know?
Me: Is it free?
I-Tunes: well, yes, but it will take you 45 minutes to download and will be chocked full of advertisements
Me: But it's free right?
I-Tunes: yeah, could you get out of our online store...unless you're actually going to buy something.

After having fun with I-Tunes I promptly poured myself a bowl of Cheerios and turned on the television to an America's Next Top Model marathon...it doesn't get much more American then that.
I am very happy that my holidays were spent in America, but I am also very happy to be going home to Botswana - It was really wonderful to get back in touch with old friends and I apologize to everyone that I wasn't able to see/talk to/have lunch with etc...
Please keep up lots of e-mails and keep me updated on everything while I am gone!

It's cold outside...but the pool is warm

So, I've been talking about how cold it is here in Arizona...but the nice part about vacationing here is that Arizonans seem to feel strongly about keeping their pools warm...which I wholeheartedly support. Ana, Megan, and I have made it down to the pool about three times. I must admit, it looks deceivingly warm in the pictures (the key is to keep all of your body in the water)!After swimming Megan and I always take Ana into the steam room. I know that Ana looks scared and/or petrified, but I am here to tell you that she absolutely loved it.
Especially because Megan and I feel as though it is our personal duty to entertain her the entire time she is in the steam room.
I do, however, think that her favorite part is putting on her monkey robe at the end of it all - either that or the fact that she knows that lunch is coming her way as soon as we get home!