Evading Hippos

Just returned from an amazing "vacation" traveling weekend in Maun, Botswana at the Okavango Delta and the surrounding area...I think it may be easiest to do a day-by-day breakdown of this one! It's probably going to be pretty lengthy...but you can read one day at a time and not all at once if it's too much!

Wednesday: During the day, we ran errands to prepare for our trip, including an adventure-filled trek to find where we could get our visas renewed since they only gave us 30 days coming in. Finally half of us (we got separated because of taxi issues) ended up at the right place, a literal hole in the wall, where you pay somebody outside 2 pula to write a letter on a piece of notebook paper for you explaining why you hope the Botswana visa people will renew your visa. VERY strange. Got my letter, went inside, handed it to the lady, who proceeded to look at me and half-laugh and then ask me why I was there because I had 90 days on my visa. I thought that I got that originally, but the writing was hard to read on my passport and every single other person in our group got 30 days so I just assumed...but the adventure was well worth it all. After this fiasco, Danielle and I set off for one of the malls to pick up a few last minute things, eat some lunch, and then headed back home to pack and shower. Around 8pm we headed to the train station, where we had pre-booked our sleeper cabin train tickets. As most things here, the booking of the trains was very relaxed, and the 6 of us (Jack didn't come to the Delta with us) were under "Jayne Long & 5 others." So...that was interesting, but worked out fine. Les, Marinda, Danielle and I all were supposed to be in the same 4-person sleeper, but very unfortunately there turned out to be a wall in between, so D and I shared one side and the two other girls had the other side. That was kind of a bummer, but turned out we were pretty lame and ended up "sleeping" sooner than we thought. The extra $10 for this sleeper train thing was totally worth it though- I'm sure you could see Matt's blog for explanation of the "club car" tickets. Didn't sleep extremely well because of all the jerkiness and differing speeds throughout the night ride, but it was still really nice to lay down and stretch out.

Thursday: Arrived in Francistown around 7am, earlier than Danielle and I thought, as we were probably the last ones off of the train...oops. We walked through the city to the bus station, and waited only a bit for the bus to Maun, then boarded. This bus was alright for the first 5 hours, but the last 2 weren't so great...heat and cramped spaces, not awesome, but still, it was fine. We arrived in Maun around 3:30pm and caught taxis to Audi Camp. We arrived and were just so in love immediately with this place. We had three two-person tents with "bedding," which I thought may just be blankets, but it turned out to be cots and blankets, which was DEFINITELY great news. The tents were so great, and it was nice to be able to camp. This was the first time of the trip when Leslie and D and I realized ... "Hey guys, we're...camping...IN AFRICA." : ) We had many more of these moments throughout the weekend. (It reminded me of last summer when Jill and I would be doing anything in Europe and stop and look at each other and say..."Hey, just wanted to let you know, we're sitting on our hotel balcony...in Paris." Love those moments!) The bathroom/shower facilities were great, and I'm not supposed to talk about them too much because it will take a little bit of credibility out of our "camping in the wilderness" credentials, but HEY we still slept outside. This campsite also had a restaurant, bar, pool...it was amazing. It was definitely a plus when we realized during dinner this first night that we probably wouldn't have to hit up any grocery stores the whole trip, as we all had enough food for breakfasts, and our lunches were covered both days, great news! Ended up Thursday night getting pretty bundled up to go to bed, don't think we quite prepared ourselves enough for the freezing freezing freezing cold night, but we definitely knew better the next couple nights. It was so incredibly peaceful to be able to sleep pretty much outside (tent walls don't really count, do they?) and listen to the bugs and donkeys and goats and cows (they roam freely in this country...), it reminded me of camping trips at home, and I kept thinking how proud my dad and my uncles would be of me being such a camping pro this weekend.

Friday: Woke up, showered EXTREMELY fast in the open-air showers, definitely pretty cold, but fine 5 minutes afterwards. Ate a quick breakfast, and headed off to our first adventure- horseback riding!
Now. I have limited experience on horses, as in, once a year on Memorial Day at my great Uncle and Aunt's, being led by my Papa, who I trusted completely, on horses that I thought were pretty trustworthy, and one excursion on a pony (yes, with two girls on it, so not too scary) at a girl's retreat at Bettina's parents' farm YEARS ago. All that to say, I was excited about this trip, but a little bit apprehensive. We arrived, and were assigned our horses, mine was named Kwena, Setswana for crocodile- which I just shrugged off at the time. He seemed like a pretty good horse, except I was warned to not let any other horse get too close to his backside because he likes to kick. Not too comforting news when I'm already nervous, but still...I was okay. Danielle and Marinda did an amazing job of comforting me and I was definitely laughing the first few minutes while being quite nervous at the same time. Once we took off, Les and I stayed way towards the back, and after we did our first "trot," Les asked me "Hey, Jayne, remember that Full House when Michelle falls off her horse and-" "YES, LESLIE THAT'S ALL THAT'S BEEN GOING THROUGH MY MIND." All I could really picture was this horse taking off and me not knowing what to do, and in that case, I'd decided I may just jump off, but wasn't so sure how that'd go. So. I was quietly nervous for the first half hour of so. But our guide, Kila, or as he told us "Sticky Buns" (a nickname to say how well he can stay on horses) was so incredibly kind to me and stayed with me if I was ever nervous, helped me learn how to trot, and comforted me completely. We rode through the bush for about an hour and a half or so, and saw some cool plants, cows, donkeys (which Kila tried to convince us were deadly lions), and just beautiful open spaces. We stopped for a great little picnic lunch, and by this time I was feeling more and more comfortable with my horse. As we went to get back on the horses, I realized Kwena had spent our lunchtime in the nearby pond just wading around, which explained the crocodile namesake. After we'd been on our horses for about 15 minutes after lunch, the water arrived. At the beginning of this trip, they had told us we would be going through water, so we may need to hold our cameras up, but I don't think any of us anticipated just HOW deep this water would be. Our guide went first and all the way across so he could stand and take some pictures of all of us crossing. Now Kwena, being SO fond of water, was very eager to take me in, and that he did. I was soaked from waist-down by the time I emerged this first water-excursion. It was great though, and for sure had all of us laughing and smiling really big, and I definitely felt by this time I trusted my horse. After this, the more experienced riders (AKA the non-scaredy cats) took off in a canter/gallop and Kila got me up to a canter for a few seconds, which I was pretty proud of! : ) He then stopped me pretty abruptly to show me an eagle so my pride was short-lived, but oh well. We then hit another river to cross, which turned out to be even DEEPER, and this time I emerged pretty soaked from the chest-down. Again though, it was all part of the ride, and so much fun, and kept us cool until we were picked up and taken back to camp! : ) We spent the rest of the afternoon back at Audi completely relaxing by the pool, reading, and talking. Much needed relaxation va-cay time! This night I wore THREE pairs of pants and a few shirts and a jacket, so I felt a little warmer!

Saturday: Woke even earlier this morning to head off for our all-day Mokoro trip. Rode for 2 hours in an open-air safari vehicle where my face was almost close to freezing off because of the wind. I kept my face covered for the first hour or so by a blanket to attempt to block out the wind...but no such luck. The sun finally started to warm us and we saw some zebras and other wildlife on our way to the river, and that was so fun to just see them out in the open. Once we arrived at the river, we met our guides, three guys from the local village that are "polers" by profession, and have been doing this for years. Mokoros are canoe-like boats that are made from hollowed out trees and basically sit RIGHT on the water with about an inch from the top of the boat to the water. We got in, and took off, and it was so pretty. The poler moves you through the water by using a large stick- a pole - to push through the mud and reeds, and the path of water is pretty thin in between all of the extremely high grass. The sun was so gorgeous on the water though, and it definitely warmed us pretty fast. We were on the water for about 2 hours, then arrived at a camp site, where we left our jackets and bags and went on a "bush walk." We didn't see much during this walk, but we did see some more zebras, up pretty close this time, and also some elephant bones that were gigantic, and were only a year or so old. We didn't make it to the hippo pond, which I was kind of disappointed in at the time, but it was okay because we were all pretty warm and hungry. We headed back to the campsite, where we ate our sandwiches and fruit. After this, we got back on the Mokoros to head back to our drop-off site.
Okay. The whole time we've been here I've been quite intrigued by hippos. I'm not quite sure why, but I just want to see them, and always ask if we can see them. It's kind of what my team members always laugh at me about, me and my hippo fascination. I know they kill more people in Africa than any other animal, but hey, I thought it'd be pretty cool to see them- don't ask why. (And the week before I left home, Charlie and Emma and I saw the hippos at the Topeka Zoo and they don't do much except lay down and since then I've just really wanted to see them in the wild here.) So. We're on the Mokoros, this time it's Leslie and I with the funny poler and we're leading the way of the three mokoros, and we're just going along pretty well, having a good ol' time. All of the sudden our poler stops and the two mokoros behind us stop abruptly too. We hear this pretty big sloshing footstep noise about 10 feet ahead of us in the reeds. At this point I think my heart sped up to like 50 times what it normally is, and not exactly because I was excited. I look back at our poler, who looks at Les and I and says "I think it might be the hippos." I ask, "is that bad?" And he nods at me. I'm scared out of my MIND, and Leslie and I start whispering to each other about how we don't want to die by hippo attack, and what do we do, and we're holding each other for dear life (okay, she's definitely holding me more than I'm holding her, but she was scared too). We look back and Danielle and Marinda have the biggest smiles on their face and tell us excitedly they are so happy to be so close to hippos, and they hope we can see them! Les and I turned around and didn't say a word to those two. Finally after a few minutes of silence, our poler takes off (remember, we're first in line, so first meal for the hippos about 5 feet away at this point, just hidden behind the tall reeds) and Leslie and I are still holding each other for dear life, turning our heads away from where we heard the sound, scrunching our eyes shut as if maybe this will keep us alive. D and Marinda still thought we were hilarious for how scared we were, and D managed to snap a pic of us holding each other and averting our eyes. We finally made it about 5 minutes away and my heart slowed down. Les told me later she could feel my heart beating throughout my entire body, and we laughed pretty hard once we OUT of the water about how scared we were...but decided that YES, we definitely want to see hippos, but NOT when we are sitting in THEIR water with absolutely no where to go. Les said all she could think was the headline back home reading "SIX KSU STUDENTS EATEN BY HIPPOS" and Jack having to go back to Kansas explaining that the hippos got the rest of us. I have to mention too, that our poler thought it was absolutely hilarious how terrified we were, and thought it was great to keep reminding us later about the hippos.
Along the way though, AFTER the hippo incident, Les all of the sudden gasped and we looked over at a clearing in the reeds, and about 30 feet from us there was a giraffe just eating in the trees. It was so incredible, we weren't in a park or a zoo or anything, it was just a huge huge giraffe out in the wild. When the other two boats pulled up, it ran away, and that was an incredible sight to see too, this huge animal galloping away...so cool. We never saw elephants, but we saw a palm tree over the reeds probably about 50 feet away that was shaking pretty hard at the top, and our polers told us that was because the elephants were shaking it to get the fruit down from the top...so that was cool! All in all, it was an awesome day, and it was cool to be so close to the wildlife, and on the water like we were, which was absolutely gorgeous. Spent the evening at Audi again, (I'm telling you, we were pretty obsessed with this place) had an amazing dinner and packed up our stuff for the early morning. This night I stayed very warm because the sun I had gotten on my face and arms was radiating throughout my blankets keeping me toasty!

Sunday: Got on the morning bus back to Francistown, had a much less crowded ride, and had some good quality reflection, journaling and quiet time. Listened to some good music and just sat and thought for a long time, which was really nice. We arrived in F-Town at about 2:30pm, realized we had about 6 hours until the train left, sat around and played cards for a few hours, read a little, and relaxed. Danielle and Matt and I headed down to the station around 5:30pm to stand in line to book tickets, thinking it'd be an hour at the most, and then we could eat before we boarded, but turned out we didn't get out of line until around 8pm. It worked out perfect though, we had time to eat, and had plenty of time to catch our train. Slept better this time, definitely.

Monday: Arrived in Gabs at about 5:45am this morning, we all groggily jumped off the train, and caught a taxi back here to UB. It took me a while to fall asleep, so I checked emails, got to talk to Charlie for the first time in a couple weeks, but I was asleep by 7, and stayed that way until about 10. It's just been a day of relaxing, unpacking, reorganizing, and getting excited to go back to our projects. The vacation weekend was incredible, and was such a fun time getting to spend it with each other, and energizing for all of us. I came back with amazing memories, great pictures, and a pretty good start on a tan for the summer! And I think we all are super excited to go back to our kids tomorrow, which is a great feeling.

And...if you haven't had enough after this five-hour read, you can definitely check out my picture site for more pics, there are some great ones of the delta, and also check out Danielle's blog for videos of our trip and also of the kids. Love you all and miss you all like crazy, my only wish for a change of this past weekend was to be able to share it with my family, but we'll all just have to come back here. ; ) Sounds fine to me...

Our Dear Friend Billy

Still enjoying every second here, adventures and mishaps and happiness and not so great things too. I've been thinking a lot lately about where we're at and why I'm here, and especially what my reason is for being at the school and Tlamelo. Before we arrived here in my mind I guess I thought that I would really have liked to be able to do something medical or at least healthcare related. But the fact is, the more I'm here and working each day in the school of at Tlamelo, I realize that the relationships I'm forming there with the students and children are probably things I would have missed working in a healthcare environment, and the influence they are having on me and that I am maybe having on them is something I would not exchange for anything. I'm starting to appreciate the routine more, and feeling like God has really put me in this place and those projects for a reason, if for anything to teach ME lessons about life and loving and serving, and hopefully I'm serving and giving something to my students and kids each day too. I talked to one of my best friends from home last night, Rachel, and our talk really helped me to put all of this into perspective (although she probably didn't realize it!) and for that I am so grateful. Thank you to everybody back home for all of your prayers and thoughts, I think that I am definitely feeling them each day and that I am being protected and comforted and hopefully led in each step.

And now for the adventure of the weekend...I should have blogged this when it all first happened, because it was way fresher in my mind on Saturday evening, but I will do as best as I can to give you the full story!
On Saturday morning at 7am we all 7 met at the front gate of the University. Teacher Shirley, one of the pre-school teachers from our school was taking all of us plus Ana and Jessica (the two girls from KSU who are back again this year but on their own this time) to Gamadubu, a village about an hour and a half outside of Gaborone. We arrived at her tiny little truck (see below...) only to realize there were nine of us, plus three more to fit. We squeezed nine of us into the back of the truck...and it was definitely a TIGHT fit. But an adventure, nonetheless.

Once we arrived at Gamadubu, we began to chop vegetables (this day I learned how to chop cabbage, every day it's something new!) and get kind of acquainted with this particular feeding project. Teacher Shirley started this project 5 years ago after she met a boy on the side of the road who told her about the plight of the children in Gamadubu. She decided that something needed to be done, and since then, she has continued each Saturday to serve the children in this village, most of them who are sponsored, and there are 137 children that attend each week. It was so cool to be able to visit another feeding project and help out wherever we were needed, and also to see these new children and a village that was definitely very primitive even compared to Old Naledi.

The interesting part started about 5 minutes after we arrived however. Teacher Shirley announced to us that herself and a man that helps her with the project were giving us a goat. A live goat...that would soon turn not so alive. We all kind of looked at each other, realizing that this is a huge gift and a major sign of respect and honor, but definitely not of the type we are used to back home. But, as we've done so many times so far this trip, we decided to just go with the flow. About an hour later a few boys came up with a goat on a lead, tied it to a tree, and left it there for a few hours. After it seemed like maybe our friend Billy (we named him, which turned out to be not such a good idea, because I think it fostered some attachment to the poor thing) had defied death, all of the sudden a few of the older boys of the village called Matt and Jack over and announced it was time for Billy to meet his end. Jack felt way too squeamish to be involved, and even though the deed is supposed to be for the males of the village, Leslie and Marinda and I decided to take a peek at the proceedings. And...it was just as we thought it would be I guess. They killed our Billy, cut him into pieces and then literally hung him out to dry. And so we have dinner for quite a few days in our freezer. DEFINITELY an experience I will never forget.

Amidst the rest of the day, a chicken was also killed (Marinda did that deed, it was great), we rode on an "African taxi"- a donkey pulled cart-, learned how to make papata- a Botswana flat bread-, played with some precious amazing children, met some incredible women, watched a gorgeous sunset, and squeezed back into the truck, this time with an one extra human, a not so alive goat (now packed into an extra plastic bag that a comforter had originally been in...) and a not so alive chicken. All in all, the day was not one that will probably ever be forgotton, and experiences that were amazing.

Sunday morning we finally made it to church, after discovering it had kind of been right under our noses the whole time. We were a little early to Old Naledi, so we decided to go see what little kids we could round up and take them with us. We went to a house or area of houses that is right by the Tlamelo Project, where we know a bunch of our little ones live. We got there and were met with open arms from the parents, who quickly gathered all of their kids and washed their faces, changed their clothes, and handed them over. We actually gathered quite a few more than we were expecting, and it was the best thing walking through the village to church, just the 5 of us Americans each holding one or two of our little kids and the others holding our hands. I really wish I had a picture but I think the mental one will last quite a while. Church was good, it lasted quite a while, but it was really nice to be back in that environment and also to have the new experience of church here. We attended The Open Baptist church, which is the one that sponsors Tlamelo, so a lot of the ladies we work with in the kitchen were there, along with more of the kids we see everyday, so that was really neat too. The rest of Sunday was extremely lazy, which was very nice. We took naps, lounged around, and talked to family. I also got to talk to Jill for the first time in a month (we usually talk about every day during the school year so I think I've definitely been on withdrawal!) and we had so many laughs and stories and adventures to share...SO great. : )

The last couple days have been working at the school and the project and getting prepared for our weekend travels! Tomorrow during the day we are going to renew our visas, as they only gave us 30day visas when we entered a month ago. (CRAZY that we've been here a month.) Then at 8pm we are headed to the train station, where we get all aboard at 9:30 to leave for Francistown. We think that train ride is about 7 hours, and Marinda, Danielle, Leslie and I got the sleeper cabin for the four of us so that will be very fun...time for some pillow talk! From Francistown we board a bus to take us to Maun, where we should arrive sometime in late afternoon on Thursday. Travel, like most things around here, is pretty laid back, so the times of departure and arrival aren't exactly set but we're confident we'll arrive even if we do have a few adventures along the way. ; ) Friday we have a horseback ride planned all day around the Okavango Delta, and then Saturday is the all-day Mokoro trip through the Delta. I'm sure I'll have many stories and pictures to share when we get back! Sunday we begin our journey back, and we should arrive home at the UB sometime early Monday morning. I'm so excited for this trip, please keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we embark on yet another adventure!!

Personal Body Guards

It's the end of another crazy, hilarious, perfect week here and I still cannot believe how fast this time is flying. This week was good, I spent a few days in the classroom, which I am loving more and more each time I'm there. I'm loving getting to know my kids more and more, and also talking to my teacher during the downtime (which there is a ton of in my classroom!). There are a few kids in the class that are total spitfires, and a few really really great students, so it really reminds me of home in those ways! In the classroom, I usually teach the math and science lessons, and grade their work and then help grade and assign English work for the day. Tiny, the spunkiest one of them all, is always telling me that I should teach Setswana to them, and I think she just wants me to look really dumb in front of the class! I am definitely getting some big ol' arm muscles from all of the writing on the board that I'm doing! They only have about one or two textbooks for each class, and so most of what their notes are I have to write up on the board so that they can have it to study for or learn from later. I've taken a few pictures of my classroom, and Les took some of her's, but every time I get my camera out it's a pretty big distraction so I'm trying to limit that to a minimum!

My time at The Tlamelo Project has really been great this week too. More time in the kitchen, but even more so I am starting to really enjoy the kids and their emerging personalities that we are getting to know so well. They are starting to know and recognize us and get all of our names, and it's so cool to show up and have them all yell hello to you. I have a few that I am really enjoying getting to know, one of them is Bareng, she is a 12-year-old who is so incredibly smart and is such a sweet, quiet spirited, caring girl...I've told everyone already that I'm bringing her home. She told me yesterday that now I can be her mother...so I think that a mother needs to bring her daughter home, right? : ) I just love talking to these girls and listening to them talk about their lives, their schools and their families, I would love to visit them at their homes some time. Bareng really wants to come visit me at the University here because she hopes to attend here when she is older, and so I am going to try to figure out how to work that out, because I would love to do something like that for her. In addition to that, my group has been talking about how cool it would be to figure out something or some day trip sort of thing to get some of these kids from Tlamelo out doing something fun and exciting. They don't really do field trips because there isn't much funding, and we thought it would be so cool if we could take them out to Mokolodi (the game reserve we visited a few weeks ago) for a safari...I'm not sure if it'd work out, but stay posted for that!

Today we all attended a football (soccer) game that the boys from our school (Naledi Education Centre) were playing in, and although I had to leave before the game actually started, it was a great experience. These kids don't have a coach, and I'm not sure from where they got their uniforms, but they just were having such a great time playing and having a team of their own. It's boys aged 13-19 or so, and it's so neat to watch them all together. I guess after Leslie and I left they repeatedly asked Jack to be their coach, and we all think he should take on the job for the remainder of the summer! : )
As Leslie and I were leaving to go to the train station to inquire about tickets, the boys were practicing before their game started and they stopped us before we got off the field. They were SO concerned with Leslie and I walking out with just the two of us. They checked Leslie's bag and said she may be okay because there were no valuables in her bag, but then they looked in mine and saw my camera and money and decided amongst themselves that we would not be safe walking to the Combi stop on our own. It was so incredibly sweet, these guys were so concerned, and Les and I saw no problem because the stop was pretty close but apparently, as they kept telling us, "there are many thiefs around here, you two girls cannot walk by yourself!" They told us they would get some other boys who weren't warming up to walk us to the Combi stop, and ran off. Les and I are trying not to crack up at this point because we think it is so so sweet and cute, but sure enough, they come back with three boys in tow (one only about 8, another about 14, and another 13 or 14 year old) and they take their job SO seriously, grabbing both Leslie and I's hands and leading us to the Combi stop. The whole walk, they keep talking about how they need to be our police and protect us, and Les and I are grinning ear to ear. Once we get to the Combi stop, they hail the Combi for us, and then hold our hands until we step on there, watch us to our seats, and tell the driver we need to go to the station. We are rolling in laughter and flattery as we get on, and everyone already on the Combi is laughing and smiling too. It was a perfect, hilarious, wonderfully typical Botswana scene.

We've gotten all of our travel plans figured out, and we all are SO excited for what is coming up. Next week we head to the Okavango Delta, which is an overnight train ride and a bus ride away from Gaborone, and we couldn't be more excited for being there. We're staying at Audi Camp (click here) and have a Mokoro (hollowed out canoe things...) trip planned and a horseback day trip also to see all of the wildlife in the area. I'll post more about those plans and the trips later- I always try to keep these blogs kind of brief and they always end up being about fifty thousand pages long so again I apologize...

I'd Definitely Say It's a Mountain...

At the start of another week, I cannot believe that we are into our FOURTH week here, it doesn't seem right at all! Please don't make me leave?!

I know I'm halfway across the world, but I cannot help but mention the crazy weather and sad news from back home and our campus from last week. Thursday morning we all got word of a crazy tornado hitting Manhattan and our K-State campus pretty hard...and it's been hard for us to hear of that and not be able to do anything to help right now. A neighborhood in Manhattan lost 30 homes that were literally leveled to the ground with only the foundations remaining, and the area around campus and several buildings on campus had severe damage ($20 million just at KSU alone!!)- it seems so surreal that it actually hit Manhattan. Sitting with Danielle on Thursday evening, we were just talking about how when it sunk in that the tornado actually hit our school, it really made us sad...that's our home and we love it so much and we can't do anything to help right now. I think we all realize though that there will still be plenty of clean-up work to do when we get back, and we are all just extremely thankful that no one was hurt in the huge storm. Our thoughts are definitely with anyone there who is cleaning up and rebuilding. (For pictures of the storm and the damage, click here.)

Other than the tornado news, last week ended really well. I spent Thursday and Friday just at Tlamelo, not at the school, and worked in the kitchen more, cutting meat and veggies, and learning the Rachael Ray way to cut onions! : ) Leslie made me start running with her last Thursday after we got back here to UB and we've been keeping it up most every day. It's nice to have that bit of routine from home, and I think it's helping me back into a normal rhythm of stress/thought release, which if you know me, I need to let a few of the five billion thoughts in my head out once in a while!! I never really run with anyone back home, just my iPod, and it's been great to have Leslie with me pushing me and not letting me stop. The weather has been incredible too, around 4pm when we run it's about 70 degrees and the sun isn't too hot, and of course the humidity here is nothing, so it's not reminding me of home at all!! We have a nice little route though and she talks of expanding it, but that's for next week maybe...

Anyway, Saturday some of us decided to try to find the village of Thalmaga which is well-known for the handcrafted pottery and markets. We set off for the bus rank, which like the Combi station, is just six or so streets full of buses that aren't in any particular order and have no real schedule for arrival or departure. We are DEFINITELY learning to be flexible through public transportation systems alone!! We got to the bus rank and waited for about an hour where we thought we should be. When our bus never showed up, we decided to head for BotswanaCraft, a local shop that sells a TON of Botswana-made arts and pottery and jewelry and about a billion other things. It was an awesome store, and I am definitely planning to return towards the end of the trip to find some great souvenirs and gifts. After that trip, we came back and napped for a while, which has gotten to be quite the trend around here. : ) Saturday night a few of us went out to dinner at an Italian (they have about every kind of food here except Mexican and local food) restaurant that was really fun and had a really cool environment.

Sunday we attempted again to get to church, but as we still don't have directions and are a little wary of getting lost for the billionth time, we vowed to try harder next week to find directions and get there! I'm really excited to go because most of the kids from Tlamelo attend this church, and I think it'll be really neat to see them in a different environment.

Sunday afternoon Luke, the guy from Canada who works at Tlamelo one day a week, and his friend Graham took our entire group on a "hike." This hike turned out to MUCH more, more like a climb for sure. It was so much fun though, and such a great experience for our group. The "hill" we climbed up was QUITE a bit taller and steeper than it looked, and I really think it was a mountain, but that's just me. ; ) Such a work out though, and so much fun with those two guys and our whole group. And the view from the top...amazing. (It's called Kgale Hill and it's pretty much in the city still, and things have just built around it. ) Half of the view was the city of Gaborone, and the other half of the view was of the game reserves and the Gaborone Dam and the lake around it, so it was incredible. I did my first "photo stitch" for an attempt at a panoramic view of the sights, and it's not great, but it was cool to be able to capture so much of the view. We were so far up and in these huge boulders that were stacked at the top of the hill...it was incredible when we made it to the top. The heights convinced Leslie further that she's definitely bungee jumping at Victoria Falls and convinced me further that I am for sure NOT going to take that plunge...

Today started another week at the school, and I am not quite loving the extremely early and chilly mornings, but starting to enjoy my students more and more and hope that I can get to know them further as the summer goes on. I am really starting to feel a routine here and enjoying that feeling. I know very soon it will be thrown off by our travelling, but as for now, it's very nice and relaxing. I'm on my fourth book of the trip now, and looking desperately for a cheap American book store to buy some more. I am SO enjoying that aspect of the evening downtime!! Things are still great here, and I am attempting to slow our time down as much as possible...can't believe we only have FIFTY days left in Africa...

Partly Cloudy

The last few days have been interesting. Definitely the feeling has changed for quite a few of us I think, and it is still an incredible thing to be here, but the outlook and perspectives have been altered. Talking with the girls last night though, I think we kind of knew this would come at some point, that there would be a time in this journey that all of the sudden it wouldn't be so "sunshine and butterflies" all the time...but now that it's hit, we're feeling it, and adjusting to the other side of being here.

I've been teaching in the Standard 6 classroom for the past few days, and it has been an incredible and insightful experience. The teachers, the students...the more I am in the classroom, the more I feel like I am let into their lives and their realities. And all of the sudden it's not such a high anymore. Still perfect, still nothing I would ever change in being here, but just maybe not such the emotional high anymore.

95% of the people in the village we are working in are HIV/AIDS positive. 95%. And the more we hear their stories, that statistic almost seems the least of their problems.

Playing with the kids every day like we have been for the past week or so has been great, but talking with the other girls last night, I think it is really easy for us to walk into Tlamelo each day, spend 5 hours cooking and playing with the kids and seeing them smile, and feel good about the kids without actually knowing their realities.

On top of getting more stories from the kids in my classroom, today after lunch and clean-up Champ, the director of the Tlamelo Project, took us on a walk around the village. He explained to us that he and the other leaders of Tlamelo (5 or 6 young guys, in their mid 20s) make these home visits every few days and pray with and support the citizens of the village, and the families and parents of the kids they serve each day. (So, so cool.) We met with one lady in particular who has been going through some incredible hardships, nothing any of us can imagine going through, and yet she sat and talked with us with a peace and a hope that seemed unexplainable. Champ translated a little bit to us, but mostly we sat and listened to her speak in Setswana, getting understanding from her expressions and the manner in which she talked. Jack and Meeka and Marinda offered some words of encouragement to this woman and Champ translated, and that was so awesome of them to be able to give something in that way. At the end, one of the Tlamelo leaders prayed for her and it was so incredibly powerful... Walking out of there we were all pretty somber but as we continued our walk I was thinking about how Champ just kept talking about how to her, there is a light at the end of this road, and he was telling us about the hope that she has, when this woman should logically have little reason to hope. And...if she is having all of these devastating things happening to her and her family and yet she still has a hope and a peace beyond understanding... ah. Just completely put so, so many things into perspective. Amazing. I am so thankful we had the opportunity to visit these people and walk around the village.

So. Things have been getting a lot more real here. My Grandpa Gordon told me the week before I left that this summer would be wonderful and horrible, and not that any of what we have gone through has been horrible, but I think I am starting to see that side of things here. But seeing that and being in those experiences is not making me want to leave and or making for a horrible trip, it's just a different side of the experience, a necessary one I think. The feeling I feel is a little bit raw, like we've seen the life of these people and now it's time to actually feel a little of what their every day is like, and not just see smiles for a couple hours.

We've been here for two full weeks now, and I am still having the time of my life...and wouldn't trade this time and place and service for anything ever. I am grateful that things are changing, and the reality of this world and this city is setting in, and that is perfect. Only makes us want to get out there more... for me today it started feeling like helping just one person, or doing just one thing isn't going to change these lives that are so down, and yet, that is a pretty defeated outlook! This place and these people are beyond words amazing, and I won't leave feeling down. We're here to serve in whatever way we are needed and however we can best be put to work, that's where we'll be. Be here, and live here, and serve here. I love this life...still.

And...I'm still staying forever. ; )

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!!

Every Day Better than the Last

Things here...just keep getting better and better. If you don't want mushy (Danielle...) stop reading now! : ) I still can't pinpoint exactly what it is that is making this place so easy and perfect and fun and alive, but I do know that I am so at peace with being here and things everyday are great. An adventure, and a crazy and chaotic one, but perfect. Everyone here, really, everyone is so helpful and friendly and nice and I think that has a ton to do with the comfort I feel here. The entire city is a friendly community and even sitting on the Combis in the morning, every person who gets on greets you and smiles, and I still am getting used to that level of joy. It is a perfect peace, and even though we still haven't nailed down where and what we will be doing day in and day out, it is not bothering me, and we are still serving wherever we are each day, even though it's not a consistent location yet. So...again. Thank you to everyone back home supporting and praying and backing me up in being here, because I know that is a huge part of how great this trip is so far, and I am so incredibly grateful for that. But...what I think I'm really trying to say here is, Mom, Dad, family, Charlie, Bffs? Can I just stay for a few more years? I'll come home eventually...
Tuesday we had orientation here at the University in the morning and then did laundry/lounged in the afternoon. It was a nice day, but I started feeling kind of stir-crazy again and ready to get out into the city again by Tuesday evening.
Wednesday we spent the day at Tlamelo again, this time doing more work in the kitchen and more time with kids. My roommates and Charlie will be so proud to hear that I peeled some potatoes AND cut (chopped? I dunno.) them! AND did dishes!! So, I think it is well-known that was definitely a well-accomplished day for me. Also, we spent more time getting to know the kids, ran around with them, held them, and talked. I really enjoy being able to talk with the older kids (the 8-13 year olds) and getting more of a picture of their lives and their days. I would really like to go on some home visits with Matata or any of the other directors to visit these kids' homes and see their worlds. After making the dinner we spent some time with the littlest kids who had just been let out of school and were SO adorable with their little backpacks on. Then some of the older ones arrived, and they had a group gathering under the tree before lunch. The leader of the kids asked for one of the people in our group to do a Bible story for the kids, and somehow I got thrown into that one and did a VERY brief version of David and Goliath. I was so embarrassed because I'm pretty sure these kids knew the story way better than me already. Jack and Leslie acted out the story for me though, so that was nice! (one of the pictures shows this little play we put on!) After it was over I apologized to their leader for my story being not so great, and he said "oh, it was fine, just very short." : ) I'll know better next time. Then it was lunch time, and Jack helped all the kids wash their hands and I attempted to keep order in the hand-washing line. Apparently, it's quite the thing to be able to get your hands washed first. Who knew?!
Today Matt and I decided to tag along with one of his roommates, Michael, to the Holy Cross Hospice to see if they were in need of any volunteers. This however entailed leaving UB at 7am, which was QUITE early for me. It was okay though, I was excited for the opportunity to visit. It was FREEZING this morning, but we walked from the Combi station to the Hospice and then stood outside for a while waiting to talk to an administrator. It turns out that they would like us to submit a resume and a letter letting them know our specific interests and areas of experience, so that they can match us, and I'm not even sure they are in dire need of volunteers right now, as it seemed to be quite the place to help out early this morning. But I enjoyed seeing it, and meeting the people there, so no problem getting up early. After that Matt and I ventured back to UB and left again around 10am with another of his roommates, David, who is a law student at Penn and is here doing an internship with the Ministry of Justice. His ride didn't show up this morning though, so he decided to come along with us to Tlamelo, and that was great.
We ended up getting on the WAY wrong combi though (if I haven't mentioned before, there is no route map or anything for these things, and the "station" is basically like a couple streets that are packed with combis and you are expected to figure out which one goes where you would like to go...) and ended up riding it for about 50 minutes until we got back to the station, and finally got on the right one to get to Tlamelo. The long ride was great though, gave us a chance to see another area of the city or outskirts, and it was nice getting to know David.
Once we arrived, it was another day of cooking and playing with kids. I met Luke, a guy from Canada, who is a coordinator for a missions organization here. He works out of his office on Thursdays and volunteers at Tlamelo. He's probably like 28 or so, and it just seems so cool that he's moved here and serves and works...sounds like the life to me! (Again...sorry mom!!) Tlamelo has started a rugby team with the kids under 13 and they were able to take their rugby team to England a month ago for a huge tournament, which I think had to have been just an amazing experience for these children. Today a few of the older boys and Luke were throwing the rugby ball (is that what it is called?) around, and I attempted to learn how to throw it. Luke taught me one way, and the boys taught me another, but I didn't get it either way, so I ended up looking dumb and having them laugh, but they were all good sports about it, so I definitely enjoyed myself!! Anyway, I am starting to feel more at home there at the Tlamelo Project. I also kind of feel like after the third day of being there I am recognizing more kids, and maybe they are recognizing me, and it is SO great to have someone to look forward to going back to, and I feel good that they can have us there on a somewhat consistent basis.
Matt talked with Charity (our contact at UB) again when we returned home and she has set up a meeting for us tomorrow with a women's shelter, and so I think a few of us girls are going to go tour and visit over there, so I am excited for that opportunity. At this point, I just am really enjoying visiting as many different organizations as possible to figure out how their businesses run and what specific things they do and are in need of. It's so interesting!! Charity had also set up quite a few more appointments and contacts, so the next half week or so should be filled with those, and I will keep everyone updated.
I am SO sorry my blogs always seem to be so incredibly long, please forgive me and definitely feel free to skip over any parts that may bore you!! : ) Thank you to EVERYONE again for the support and love backing me up...miss everyone, and cannot wait to share this incredible amazing experience in person when I get home.

PS: If you want to see more pictures, you are more than welcome to visit my Picasa WebAlbum at http://picasaweb.google.com/jayneaubreylong

You don't need this, I can take it?

AH! I've been looking forward to today, and getting started with our service exploration for a while now and now that the day is coming to an end, I couldn't have asked for a better experience.
This morning we took a taxi to our first appointment at Mokolodi Game Reserve, which is right outside of Gaborone. We got there and met with Peter, and man who is from Massachusetts, but came to Botswana 31 years ago through the Peace Corps and has stayed ever since. He started out the morning by showing us his Barack Obama for Pres shirts which we all enjoyed!! We then got a quick tour around the Education Centre which hosts schoolchildren of all ages for day trips or overnight trips, and they teach them a lot about conservation and wildlife. I really loved the mission and focus of the education they provide and think maybe they've got this whole "go green" thing down! After the tour we went on a safari! Okay...well not exactly a real safari...but a ride in one of those open truck things with benches! We drove around a portion of this game reserve and the tour lasted about an hour and a half. The scenery itself was just gorgeous and none of my pictures can do it justice. It still was so weird to be sitting in that truck and think "I'm in Africa...in the desert with the animals!" We saw a variety of wildlife, including warthogs (which Jack and Matt were extremely excited about), impalas, many ostriches (which are HUGE!!) , cheetahs, wild horses, different kinds of monkeys or baboons...many others but I can't remember. Right before I left to come over here, someone told me that hippos kill more people in Africa each year than any other year combined...I shared this with my grandma and scared her...but I just thought that was such a weird statistic! But today we went to a part of the reserve that is a river, and the guides told us that two hippos and one crocodile live there...but we had no sightings. No worries! I kiiinda wish I could have seen them though!! : ) We're going to return on Thursday to help them with a class that they are teaching to pre-schoolers and see where we can fit into their organization best. After all of that we decided to go back to a mall that was kind of close to the reserve and have some lunch before our next appointment.
Our next meeting was at the Tlamelo Project, a feeding project for all children in a village called Old Naledi, that is kind of inside Gaborone, and kind of on the outskirts. Old Naledi is a huge village, and it is pretty much enclosed from the rest of the city, but it is definitely a more destitute area than the rest of Gaborone. Walking in there though was kind of cool, because everyone seems to know each other and it is a huge community.
We found the Tlamelo Project, and the second we walked in the gates about 50 kids came over and immediately one literally jumped into my arms. When that happened, I just felt like...this is where we are and why we're here! It was so exciting! We just played with the kids for about 20 minutes while we waited for the director, Champ, to arrive, and it was great. They all kept coming up and the older ones who know English would ask various questions and it was SO amazing being able to interact with these kids. They kept asking our names, and trying to pronounce them, and it got easier for them to spell them out in the sand so they could see what our names looked like and then call us their version. Mine is apparently Jayney, which is fine as Danielle and Les are calling me that anyway now!! The younger ones didn't really know English yet, but they just wanted to be held, or to hold your hand or to get on your back or on your shoulders. They loved all of our watches and kept trying to take mine off saying, "You don't need this, you can get a new one, I'll take it for you..."! I think Jack taught the boy on his back to grab my hair so that was an adventure! I walked out of that place looking rough, but NO problem!! : )
When Champ arrived, he sat us down and talked to us a little about Tlamelo, explaining to us that it feeds about 170 children each day from Old Naledi, and they come to Tlamelo after they get out of their school, which is just down the road. Tlamelo gives them a good meal (which for many and most of the kids is their only real meal for the day) and also gives small lessons, has a few volunteers that meet almost daily with each child to talk to them and consult with them, and they play sports and games with these kids. He just kept saying that we are so welcome there and they are so grateful to us for coming, and I felt so great about being in this place. He told us to be at home, not just feel at home, but to "be at home" with these kids, and do what we want to love and help them and to serve them...it's so incredibly exciting!! That's such the way that I've felt the whole time we've been here...not to feel at home, but to be at home, and it was just great to hear that from Champ, just further reinforces the kindness and attitude of the people of Botswana.
As we left Tlamelo the kids stayed attached to us and we told them we'd see them Wednesday when we are going to return. I can not WAIT to get back there. Kids are kids everywhere, but these kids seem incredibly happy and enthusiastic and just simple. I'm so excited to see where this leads us and the work that is being prepared for us.
We also conquered the Combi system today (public transportation! - little white vans that pack like 18 people in!) and it wasn't as scary as I thought, but it definitely helped that Jack and Marinda and Les and Meeka had a little precursor the other day!! I feel so comfortable here...and I still can't pinpoint it, but am so glad that this is where I am and what I'm doing and who I'm with. Each day just gives me more excitement and I can't wait for the next day, and I think I'm really enjoying that kind of living.