"They're my family. They're who I have".

   When you are training as a Peace Corps Volunteer, everyone tells you that you and your group of PCVs will become a family. Although I really liked the idea of working with people who would have this whole Peace Corps experience in common, I was a bit skeptical of the idea of developing the whole "family" feeling. I'm very close with my family,  and I have maintained some long lasting friendships with people who I do consider family at home, and I just couldn't imagine developing connections strong enough with people here that I would refer to them as "family". After being in Botswana for almost a year, I can tell you how wrong I was, and I really do feel like I'm part of a big family of PCVs here, especially with my training class, Bots10. A major reason is that they "get it". No matter how kind and supportive friends from my village and my family and friends at home are ( and trust me, they are awesome), they will never be able to fully understand what my life here is like. My PCV friends get it. They understand the roller coaster that is a PCV's service and how things can be great at site one minute, and the next terrible. They get that it takes so much time to develop friendships here in our communities and feel integrated and how hard that can be some days. They get that not every day is a "Yay I'm in the Peace Corps!" kind of day, but they celebrate with me when I have days that are like that. They get just how exciting it is to receive a letter or mail of any kind from home and how much a piece of chocolate can help sometimes. I think another reason why I feel close to my PCV family after a relatively short period of time ( compared to how long I've known many of my friends at home) is that they experienced both the worst of me and the best of me very quickly after getting to know me. When you are someplace where you don't really know anyone and experience rough moments, there literally isn't really anywhere to hide most of the time. At home, I would never have let a brand new friend see me sob a day after I met them, but that is something that happened here. Even though at the time  I was completely mortified, I'm now grateful that I was in a situation where I was forced to let my guard down very early on because I developed close friendships with people who still liked me and wanted to be around me even when I was a hotmess and at my lowest here. Since then, I've had many happy moments here , and my PCV friends have been there to celebrate those happy moments with me, and I have been there with them during their happy moments and through their tough ones as well. Like a family, my Bots family and I have experienced a lot of change. Some of us have left to go back to the U.S., and I would say all of us have changed at least a little bit personally since coming here. We jokingly make fun of each other and have inside jokes like siblings. We share everything from our houses and food to seats on the bus. Sometimes, like family, we fight or get frustrated with each other( because we care so much)When someone has something bad happen, most of the time everyone else finds out about it and worries about that person and checks on them. Yes, we are often in each others' business, but I'd say  that it is because we care  and want to take care of each other. My Bots family is diverse in many ways. We have some volunteers in my Bots family who are very parental, and I love them for that. For my birthday I was given a card with tea in it and a homemade chocolate cake and a brunch from some of my Bots family. Some  feel like older siblings to me who have experienced more in life, and I appreciate their wisdom. I get advice for my projects from them and about dealing with tough situations that they may have dealt with before. Sometimes I feel like a middle child just kind of absorbing what is going on around me and doing my best to get to know everyone.At times I feel like the older sibling watching out for other members of my family and wanting to yell at anyone who is mean or unfair to them. I worry about them and wish I could fix their problems.  Even though there are some I'm closer to than others, they are all family.I realize that this blog post is another example of something that people will not understand completely unless they've been here or are serving someplace else in the Peace Corps, but I felt the need to write it anyway. I'm grateful for each and every member of my lovable, crazy, sometimes dysfunctional, but mostly functional Bots family.