Botswana!

Hello! I just wanted to update people on how things have been going the past few days of my life in Botswana...

4/3/11

   Right now I am starting pre-service training  in Botswana with my Bots10 group. We are staying at a lodge until Thursday and starting language lessons and so forth. Then we will move to our training village and in with our host families. It is so good to finally be in Botswana!

   I'm actually kind of tired and a little overwhelmed feeling right now though. We spent about 30 hours total traveling. I've been kind of sick so I was actually vomiting while waiting at the airport (gross, I know)  Then many of us found out our luggage had not arrived here from NYC, myself included. Everyone says this is normal and that we should have our luggage soon, most likely tomorrow, but I'm still a bit worried about it. I'm kind of worried about not having clean clothes because although I had some in my carry on bag, most of my clothes were in my hiking pack, which I do not have yet. I want to make sure I have clean clothes by Thursday so I'm not bringing a pile of dirtily laundry to homes stay. I also realized I don't have an alarm clock, watch, or an adapter for my computer. Ugh, how did I not think of these things before now? 

   I know everything will be ok, and I'll figure things out though. I just will have to wash some things in the sink here if my bag doesn't get here tomorrow. I already figured out using my alarm clock on my ipod for now. I will figure out the adapter thing at some point as well. I'm in a busier area so someone will know where around here I can get one. 

I just need to take a deep breath and take it one day at a time 

4/4/11

   Today has been a much better day than yesterday! I woke up very happy to be here and joined my group for training. I also got pula ( money in Botswana) for the first time today!  I had my first Setswana lesson today as well. It was fun and it is cool be learning a new language. I'm a little nervous right now because this is the first time I'm learning a spoken language, and I'm having a tough time with pronunciation. Everyone says that is normal though. I'm going to study like crazy. One of my biggest fears is not being able to communicate well enough with people in the community I end up in so I really want to work hard on it now so that I will be able to build relationships with people here. I also got my malaria medication today and will be getting more vaccinations tomorrow.

   I know some people are wondering about bugs. So far there aren't too many here at the lodge we are staying at. However, my roommate and I did have our first encounter with a somewhat large spider. I would describe it as not much larger than wood spiders I've seen in Maine. The only difference I would say was that it would not die! It took about 6 wacks with a phone book. I felt kind of badly, but it was really creeping my roommate out since it was climbing right above her bed, and we didn't have bug nets yet.  There were a bunch of tiny ants hanging out in the shower as well, but they were very little and not scary.

4/5/11

   So last night was kind of rough because I was stupid and took my malaria medication too early before dinner so my stomach was too empty, and I got sick.  oops.I ended up just laying still  on my bed and falling asleep through dinner and missed out on a walk down the street here in Gaborone because of it so I was a little sad about that. I ended up waking up after dinner and joining some Bots10ers to study Setswana and hang out for a while, which was nice though. I felt a lot better and even though I got less sleep because of being up later I was in a good mood when I woke up today after taking time to relax for a while. 

   Today we had more Setswana lessons and the focus of training was on home stay, since we will be going to our families on Thursday. I'm both very excited about this and nervous. I have no idea what they will be like, if they will speak very much English, how nice they will be, or what they will expect from me. One of my biggest worries is that I am an awful cook . I will do my best to help out with cooking for sure, but I do not know how to cook well in America let alone in a country I have just arrived in. I hope they don't mind that too much and that I am able to learn from them. I'm excited about learning more Setswana from them and about life here in Botswana though. The fact that I know I will still see other Bots10ers for training makes me feel a  little less nervous as well. 

   Right now I'm hanging out in my room with my roommate during a break. All we have left today is a slide show presentation and dinner, The food here so far is pretty good. I've tried some sausage that was different form what I've used to and some soda that tastes different. Other than that, the food I have tried so far isn't very different from food in America. Later I'll most likely be studying some Setswana and hanging out outside with other trainees. Today is much cooler out than the past two days have been. It is kind of windy and a little rainy here. I love this weather though.  Today's weather reminds me of a cooler summer day in Maine when it starts to rain a little after it has been really hot out. 

   Oh, and I washed some of my clothes in the bathroom here, and it wasn't bad at all! They are taking a while to dry because they are in a closed in room, but I'm now glad I didn't bring very much clothing because with hand washing clothes once a week I will have everything I need. 

   Peace out for now. I will try to write about how things are going at home stay. I may or may not be able to a access internet at an internet cafe now and then.