Fire Fire Fire!

Short version recap of the past few days: Lost in the city, wonderful kids, cleaned up a field, boys got electrocuted, started an electrical fire, Danielle fell in a trash pit, blackout night, Oodi Weavers, Bull 'n' Bush, attempt to go to church, relaxing day laying around, lost in the city again, movie time...start all over again.

I love living life here.

Friday morning us girls had an appointment at the women's shelter, showed up via taxi (aka didn't really know where we were), were told that no one was there to meet with us, they had no phone to call for another taxi, attempted to find a taxi, got taken to the wrong combi station. No worries though, we navigated quite well and again, the people in the city never cease to be the friendliest ones in the world. We finally arrived at Tlamelo, where we spent another day loving and running with lots and lots of kids, and also chopping up lots of raw raw meat for the lunch of the day (my cooking skills are becoming superb haha). After we were done with Tlamelo, Champ took us to a field that will be the site of the new offices of The Tlamelo Project, and we cleaned up a lot of trash that was there. With 7 of us, it didn't take long at all. They put all of the trash into a big pit which Danielle kind of slid into and lost a flip flop, but no worries, it was returned!! When we were pretty much finished, the guys went to try to get this pole out of the ground that was in the middle of the field. The four of them pulling on it all of the sudden jumped back really fast and kind of yelled...turns out the pole was connected to the electrical line which was not turned off as they thought it was!! They tried again to get it out of the ground (boys boys boys...) and got a little shock again and quit. We then were ready to move on when Champ realized there was a smaaaalll electrical fire going on at the electrical pole right around the corner that was presumably set by us. Oops!! No harm done though, just a little bit of scary-ness for a while, but it burned itself out and the electricity company came soon enough. Champ then took us to visit The Tlamelo gardens that they have started, where they will attempt to grow all of their own food for the lunches they serve, and maybe have the kids help out with the garden? I'm not quite sure about that. It seems so cool, and it is a pretty big plot of land, so hopefully it will work out pretty well. We're going to probably do some gardening there when they need us to in the next couple weeks or so.

Friday night was Black Out night again, except this time the Black Out lasted from 6p-9p which was a little too long for our likings. It was fun though, we all played hearts, had some great convo and enjoyed being here...

Saturday we went out to Oodi, a village outside of Gaborone. There is a community of women there that run a business called Oodi Weavers, where they support themselves fully by weaving these beautiful tapestries and wall hangings. It was a great trip, and we all ended up buying something, mostly because the work is so incredible, but I also just really like the idea and concept of the business.

Saturday evening we all went out to a really fun and cute restaurant called Bull 'n' Bush, and had a nice dinner and dessert...very nice to relax and hang out all together at a nice restaurant. I remember a moment that evening and I just sat there and realized I still can't believe this is where I am...and that it's just so much more amazing than I could have ever imagined.

Yesterday we attempted to get to the Old Naledi church, but couldn't figure out transportation in time. Hopefully next week we'll have it figured out, because I'd really like to check it out soon. We ended up having a very relaxing day around here, played hearts and read. We went to a movie last night here (our Sunday night ritual now!) and then came back and relaxed some more. A great Sunday...

Today I got up early and went with Marinda to the Old Naledi school, to see if they could use me in any of the classrooms. They immediately put me to work in Standard 6, the second highest level in the primary school there. I don't quite understand the school system here yet, but I am sure I will learn soon. I really like the teacher I am working with, and the kids in my class seem great. I ended up teaching some math this morning and writing a science test AND I brought home some compositions to grade...so I think my work is cut out for me! (My mom will be so proud...!) I really like being in the school there, and hanging out there all day. Their school goes from 7:50am to 1pm, so after school gets out I will go hang out with the younger kids at Tlamelo and have a perfect day!

Hope this catches everyone up...sorry I've taken forever to blog all of this. I miss every single person back home and would love to hear from you. Hope you all are enjoying the pictures and everything...thank you again for everything!!