I'm uploading all my pictures (which...aren't very good because I'm not a great photog...but my camera is GREAT- thank you dad!!!) to a Picasa WebAlbum and in case whoever reads this would want to see them here is the link. Enjoy!!
http://picasaweb.google.com/jayneaubreylong
Saturday, May 31, 2008
He used to drink like his mother, but now he drinks like his father...
Today we went to a Zebra's soccer game! That's the Botswana National 'football' team, and it was such a blast. So much of a cultural thing, and we all enjoyed ourselves so much. So far before today we have just been at the mall and doing a little bit of walking around a limited area of the city, but today was just so much of what I feel like this area is about. And it was so much fun and excitement and new things. I LOVE IT HERE!!! It's so weird...I was nervous for so many of the months leading up to this trip, and so far, I've had such a peace about where I am and what we're doing. I am so happy to be here and really feel like I'm at home and comfortable with my surroundings and our team and the people here. I keep telling myself to take it one day at a time (some great advice I've received from MANY people as I tend to love to look at the future!) and enjoy each second because the life we are living here is unlike any we may ever have again.
We made some quick friends at the game, and they were so friendly and helpful and sweet. (Danielle has pictures of our new friends on her blog.) They came and sat with us and said they thought since we were Americans we would not talk to them, but we were so excited to have new friends! : ) Everyone here is very outward about how they feel, personal space is kind of non-existent and I think we all are adjusting and I know Danielle and I are feeling at home in this environment! At one point during the game I looked up and around myself and couldn't believe how incredibly LUCKY I am to be able to LIVE in this place for ten weeks...I know I keep saying that, but I still feel like it's a dream that we are here and living and about to be working...SO great.
Anyway, the title of my blog comes from a little incident from the game, there were some older men sitting behind us and one of them just kept talking to me and not really making sense or saying much I could understand. I didn't want to be rude so I would try to listen to him, but it was just kind of hard to understand and I didn't know what to do. This just proved to be a testament to how great the people here are though, because within a few minutes of this guy talking to me, the other people around us and our new friends kind of pushed this guy back and said "Enjoy the game, don't listen to him, don't worry." And our new friend Lucas said something to the guy and then told me, "He likes beer too much, don't worry. He used to drink like his mother, but now he drinks like his father." We thought that was great!! I hope this story doesn't freak out my parents or my grandparents...don't worry at all! Our surroundings were VERY safe and I never felt scared or anything, I just couldn't understand, and yet still it was just part of the whole experience. ; )
As far as the game, no one ended up scoring and now Botswana has to travel in a week to go play Madagascar again but this time IN Madagascar. Lucas and Hope (a guy) said that this was "the worst game we have ever seen!" They were quite disappointed. I felt like such a soccer buff and knew that my bff Rach would be so proud of me enjoying a professional soccer game. ; )
Right as we were leaving our friends told us to be careful on the way out because everyone would try to step on us, which we also found very funny! ; ) Anyway...it was a great day, and a great experience, and the National Stadium is right across the street from the University so we plan on hopefully attending the games in the future. I cannot wait to continue this summer...IT IS SO GREAT HERE!!! I'm off to a dinner of Ramen noodles...haha JUST like at home. And we've all decided we need to start holding each other accountable in drinking lots of water because although it is "winter" here, the sun is so bright and warm and we've been drinking quite a bit of Coke Light and not a lot of water. So...at least four glasses a day it is!!
Hope everyone is having a beautiful Saturday, and I'd love to know how you all are doing. Email me if you would like, I would love it. Thank you again for all of the incredible support!!!
We made some quick friends at the game, and they were so friendly and helpful and sweet. (Danielle has pictures of our new friends on her blog.) They came and sat with us and said they thought since we were Americans we would not talk to them, but we were so excited to have new friends! : ) Everyone here is very outward about how they feel, personal space is kind of non-existent and I think we all are adjusting and I know Danielle and I are feeling at home in this environment! At one point during the game I looked up and around myself and couldn't believe how incredibly LUCKY I am to be able to LIVE in this place for ten weeks...I know I keep saying that, but I still feel like it's a dream that we are here and living and about to be working...SO great.
Anyway, the title of my blog comes from a little incident from the game, there were some older men sitting behind us and one of them just kept talking to me and not really making sense or saying much I could understand. I didn't want to be rude so I would try to listen to him, but it was just kind of hard to understand and I didn't know what to do. This just proved to be a testament to how great the people here are though, because within a few minutes of this guy talking to me, the other people around us and our new friends kind of pushed this guy back and said "Enjoy the game, don't listen to him, don't worry." And our new friend Lucas said something to the guy and then told me, "He likes beer too much, don't worry. He used to drink like his mother, but now he drinks like his father." We thought that was great!! I hope this story doesn't freak out my parents or my grandparents...don't worry at all! Our surroundings were VERY safe and I never felt scared or anything, I just couldn't understand, and yet still it was just part of the whole experience. ; )
As far as the game, no one ended up scoring and now Botswana has to travel in a week to go play Madagascar again but this time IN Madagascar. Lucas and Hope (a guy) said that this was "the worst game we have ever seen!" They were quite disappointed. I felt like such a soccer buff and knew that my bff Rach would be so proud of me enjoying a professional soccer game. ; )
Right as we were leaving our friends told us to be careful on the way out because everyone would try to step on us, which we also found very funny! ; ) Anyway...it was a great day, and a great experience, and the National Stadium is right across the street from the University so we plan on hopefully attending the games in the future. I cannot wait to continue this summer...IT IS SO GREAT HERE!!! I'm off to a dinner of Ramen noodles...haha JUST like at home. And we've all decided we need to start holding each other accountable in drinking lots of water because although it is "winter" here, the sun is so bright and warm and we've been drinking quite a bit of Coke Light and not a lot of water. So...at least four glasses a day it is!!Hope everyone is having a beautiful Saturday, and I'd love to know how you all are doing. Email me if you would like, I would love it. Thank you again for all of the incredible support!!!
Finally HERE!
We’re here!! Our travels went so incredibly smoothly, and after THREE full days of plane rides and taxi drives and bus rides we are finally at our real destination. The first flight from KC to Detroit was short and kind of bumpy, but I survived…good thing Danielle and Matt were sitting next to me reassuring me while I was curled up in my seat during all the turbulence. Turns out I’m kind of a nervous flier! : ) Our flight from Detroit to Amsterdam was fine, it didn’t seem 8 hours, which was nice, and it was for the majority turbulence free, so I definitely enjoyed that. I didn’t sleep much then, because I felt like I’d definitely want to sleep during the ELEVEN hour flight to Johannesburg. We were in the Amsterdam airport for about 3 hours during our layover, and it was kind of nice to be in a somewhat familiar place! Being that close really made me want to leave the airport and go out into the city again, but it wouldn’t be the same without my Jilly. We played some cards during the layover, and prepared ourselves for the long flight. 
Our preparation definitely included taking some Tylenol PM so we could sleep and not just sit there for 11 hours. Anyway, we finally boarded, and it was one of those GIANT 747s and I’ve never been on one of those before, so that was fun!! I slept basically that WHOLE flight which was kind of nice, because I don’t remember much and because of that it didn’t seem very long.
We arrived in Johannesburg around 9:10 Tuesday evening, converted some dollars into South African rand, and then were in route to our Backpackers Lodge for the night. Our first adventure of the trip happened when our taxi driver was basically being pulled over for about 10 minutes and finally stopped and let the police approach him. Turns out the lights on the trailer were out, and he didn’t stop to fix them, but it was kind of a weird 20 minutes! We got to the Backpacker’s Lodge, where we stayed in a dorm like setting, ,and all seven of us were able to stay together, so that was nice.
It was very basic, but worked for $10 a night! AND there were working showers! (Fun Fact: South Africa and all of Southern Africa are experiencing power outages right now because of problems with the power company, so we had about half hour outage there, and we are being told to expect outages here at the University every so often, and specifically on Friday afternoons.) 
Anyway, We spent Tuesday night at the Backpacker’s and found some food the next morning at a gas station, waited for a taxi (that didn’t get pulled over!) and then arrived at the bus station. We arrived here in Gaborone, Botswana Wednesday night around 8pm after an 8-hour bus ride from Johannesburg. We were all so glad to be here, and it was so nice to actually settle in and be in our rooms that we’ll be living in for the next EIGHT weeks. (Crazy!)
Below are pictures of our flat, which is just so nice, and we are so lucky to be able to stay here. These are the graduate flats at the University of Botswana, and so far I think we are all just SO excited to be here at UB and the staff and students are so extremely friendly and helpful in getting us all settled in. It’s been so, so great!
And NOW we have our internet back, so that is great great news! Tomorrow we are going to a qualifier game for the 2010 World Cup between the Botswana Zebras and Madagascar! I will try to update periodically but as we've learned so far, our connection is real sketchy (good Botswana word so far!) so we'll see. BUT we all are alive and very well, and I miss all of you very very much. I am so so excited for our appointments with local organizations on Monday, and will be sure to let you all know how those visits go. Thank you to everyone so far for all of your support and prayers, and I am so grateful for all of my family and friends backing us from back home. It is just so so surreal to be in this place that we have spent the last six months preparing ourselves mentally and logically and emotionally for this...and so crazy. So far, it's gone wonderfully and just great and I couldn't have asked for anything better. The people here are so incredibly friendly and the culture is so welcoming, and I cannot wait to be further immersed and living in this place. (It is ABSOLUTELY crazy to think that we are LIVING here for 10 weeks...in AFRICA!!) So THANK YOU again for all of the support, it means so much and just has made such a difference so far. Anyway...love you all! Keep in touch!!!
Our preparation definitely included taking some Tylenol PM so we could sleep and not just sit there for 11 hours. Anyway, we finally boarded, and it was one of those GIANT 747s and I’ve never been on one of those before, so that was fun!! I slept basically that WHOLE flight which was kind of nice, because I don’t remember much and because of that it didn’t seem very long. We arrived in Johannesburg around 9:10 Tuesday evening, converted some dollars into South African rand, and then were in route to our Backpackers Lodge for the night. Our first adventure of the trip happened when our taxi driver was basically being pulled over for about 10 minutes and finally stopped and let the police approach him. Turns out the lights on the trailer were out, and he didn’t stop to fix them, but it was kind of a weird 20 minutes! We got to the Backpacker’s Lodge, where we stayed in a dorm like setting, ,and all seven of us were able to stay together, so that was nice.
It was very basic, but worked for $10 a night! AND there were working showers! (Fun Fact: South Africa and all of Southern Africa are experiencing power outages right now because of problems with the power company, so we had about half hour outage there, and we are being told to expect outages here at the University every so often, and specifically on Friday afternoons.) 
Anyway, We spent Tuesday night at the Backpacker’s and found some food the next morning at a gas station, waited for a taxi (that didn’t get pulled over!) and then arrived at the bus station. We arrived here in Gaborone, Botswana Wednesday night around 8pm after an 8-hour bus ride from Johannesburg. We were all so glad to be here, and it was so nice to actually settle in and be in our rooms that we’ll be living in for the next EIGHT weeks. (Crazy!)Below are pictures of our flat, which is just so nice, and we are so lucky to be able to stay here. These are the graduate flats at the University of Botswana, and so far I think we are all just SO excited to be here at UB and the staff and students are so extremely friendly and helpful in getting us all settled in. It’s been so, so great!
And NOW we have our internet back, so that is great great news! Tomorrow we are going to a qualifier game for the 2010 World Cup between the Botswana Zebras and Madagascar! I will try to update periodically but as we've learned so far, our connection is real sketchy (good Botswana word so far!) so we'll see. BUT we all are alive and very well, and I miss all of you very very much. I am so so excited for our appointments with local organizations on Monday, and will be sure to let you all know how those visits go. Thank you to everyone so far for all of your support and prayers, and I am so grateful for all of my family and friends backing us from back home. It is just so so surreal to be in this place that we have spent the last six months preparing ourselves mentally and logically and emotionally for this...and so crazy. So far, it's gone wonderfully and just great and I couldn't have asked for anything better. The people here are so incredibly friendly and the culture is so welcoming, and I cannot wait to be further immersed and living in this place. (It is ABSOLUTELY crazy to think that we are LIVING here for 10 weeks...in AFRICA!!) So THANK YOU again for all of the support, it means so much and just has made such a difference so far. Anyway...love you all! Keep in touch!!!
Friday, May 23, 2008
Still So Much to Do!!
Three full days left before we leave...and I am in NO way ready to get on that plane and leave the country for 10 weeks. Mentally and emotionally I am definitely getting there, and a lot more so than I thought I would be, but in terms of getting things together and packing to leave...I am SO not ready!! The next three days will definitely be packed full though, and I am hoping that along with getting all the packing done (I HATE packing, and definitely procrastinate quite a bit with it...) I will be able to spend as much time as possible with my family and some close friends.
I'm not sure if many of you know our itinerary yet for the first few days, so here it is! We leave KCI around 1:30pm on Monday, the 26th, and we'll fly to Detroit from there. We then leave Detroit for Amsterdam at 5:30pm on the 26th, and we'll get into Amsterdam at 7:35am (Amsterdam time-7 hours ahead of Kansas time!). At this point I think we'll all be quiiiiite tired, but we'll leave the Amsterdam airport at 10:30am and arrive in Johannesburg, South Africa at 9:10pm. And if we're not mistaken, they're in the same time zone...which means, YES, that is an 11 hour flight! Oh well, pleeeenty of bonding time, right?! ; ) When we get into Jo-burg we're going to stay at the Backpackers Ritz that evening, and then we'll be leaving the next day, May 28th, at 1:00pm on an Intercape bus for Gaborone, which we'll hopefully arrive in around 9pm that evening. So...that definitely makes for a VERY packed two days, but it is definitely a blessing that we'll be able to stay in Jo-burg and maybe get some okay sleep that first night, and I am sure we will all be crashing as soon as we get into our flats at the University on the night of the 28th!!
I just am so so excited to see what this summer holds, and even though there are definitely times when I can't imagine being gone from home and normalcy and my family and friends for 10 entire weeks, I know this can only be good, and my time in Gaborone and Botswana will be incredible. My team is INCREDIBLE, and I just can't wait to see where we'll all end up working and serving this summer.
I'm not sure if many of you know our itinerary yet for the first few days, so here it is! We leave KCI around 1:30pm on Monday, the 26th, and we'll fly to Detroit from there. We then leave Detroit for Amsterdam at 5:30pm on the 26th, and we'll get into Amsterdam at 7:35am (Amsterdam time-7 hours ahead of Kansas time!). At this point I think we'll all be quiiiiite tired, but we'll leave the Amsterdam airport at 10:30am and arrive in Johannesburg, South Africa at 9:10pm. And if we're not mistaken, they're in the same time zone...which means, YES, that is an 11 hour flight! Oh well, pleeeenty of bonding time, right?! ; ) When we get into Jo-burg we're going to stay at the Backpackers Ritz that evening, and then we'll be leaving the next day, May 28th, at 1:00pm on an Intercape bus for Gaborone, which we'll hopefully arrive in around 9pm that evening. So...that definitely makes for a VERY packed two days, but it is definitely a blessing that we'll be able to stay in Jo-burg and maybe get some okay sleep that first night, and I am sure we will all be crashing as soon as we get into our flats at the University on the night of the 28th!!
I just am so so excited to see what this summer holds, and even though there are definitely times when I can't imagine being gone from home and normalcy and my family and friends for 10 entire weeks, I know this can only be good, and my time in Gaborone and Botswana will be incredible. My team is INCREDIBLE, and I just can't wait to see where we'll all end up working and serving this summer.
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