"There are no strangers here, just friends you have yet to meet"

Meeting at 9am – no address, no one knows where it is…find the place and our contact person was gone, need a phone, no electricity, find a phone, calling card doesn’t work, wander around to find a taxi, no taxi’s so we find a combi, I say ‘station’ they say ‘get in’, we end up at the bus station NOT the combi station, wander around again until we find the actual combi station and head to Old Naledi. That's basically a normal morning when nothing works out and we don’t even really care because we always end up somewhere worthwhile.
Arrive at Tlamelo…it’s impossible to care about being lost all morning when you’re playing with the kids. Les and I are trying to learn our way around the kitchen – I think we almost butchered a whole cow for the kid’s lunch on Friday.

After Tlamelo we stayed in Old Naledi and helped clean up a few yards and made a hole where we put trash in to burn – so basically I kinda fell in the trash hole and lost my shoe…some nice guy from Tlamelo frantically dug for my shoe while everyone else laughed at me. My shoe was safely returned. Then the boys tried to rip out some electrical thing from the ground and it started sparking everywhere, after a few more pulls and sparks they finally left it alone. Then we headed across the street where we saw the nearest electrical pole on fire. OOPS, guess we started an electrical fire in the middle of the village. For some reason no one seemed too concerned and it went out soon after. Just a typical day starting fires and falling in trash holes.

Loved being at Tlamelo again, I think we all look forward to days spent in Old Naledi and have started to look forward to the week much more than weekend…although we do still enjoy our weekend excursions.

Oodi weavers on Saturday afternoon – a women’s village that hand weaves beautiful wall hangings and such. Several of us ordered custom made designs. Went to Bull & Bush Pub on Saturday night – very cute little restaurant and bar hangout. Really enjoyed the night. I’m sure we will be back soon.
Bull and Bush Pub

Aunties and Uncle Jack

I can hardly believe this is my life. This morning I woke up at 6:30 and headed out to Mokolodi game reserve. Leslie, Jack, Marinda, Meeka and I were the five that decided to return to Mokolodi. We had coffee and biscuits with their wonderful staff and then took 40 pre-school aged kids on a safari. A SAFARI. Seriously, I would be perfectly happy staying in Bots forever... The weather is beautiful, the people are welcoming and most importantly we all feel so comfortable here.

We are still in the midst of site visits and determining where and when we are going to volunteer – tomorrow we have a 9am appointment at a local women’s shelter and then we are headed back to the Tlamelo project in the afternoon. I haven’t decided exactly where I will be and when, but I know that I will spend a great deal of time at the Tlamelo project and most likely a day or two a week at Mokolodi.

The Tlamelo project just gives you that feeling the instant you walk in - you never want to leave. Champ is the director we work with and is just an all around amazing guy. His dedication and passion for the project is really inspiring. Tlamelo is in the heart of Old Naledi (which is a very very poor area of Bots where HIV/AIDS rate is incredibly high) and provides approx. 150 orphaned children with a meal in the afternoon, there is also a lesson circle time and plenty of time set aside to simply pay attention and love on the kids.

Lessie and I riding in the back of Peter's truck through town from Mokolodi back to UB

From the World's View

Mokolodi Safari

An amazing day.

Today was everything we had imagined and then some. We began the day with our first site visit to Mokolodi Game Reserve where we were greeted by a wonderful man named Peter. He said that he had something we would appreciate and that he would change his clothes and return. He came back minutes later sporting a shirt that said “Bro’s before Ho’s” with Barack and Hillary’s pictures below…it made for a pretty good laugh.

Peter sat with us and discussed what we could add to the ongoing programs at Mokolodi. Mokolodi is an absolutely beautiful stretch of land that gives tours, provides camp sites, has a nature/animal education program for children, teaches sustainability etc.

After our introduction we had the opportunity to hop in a safari vehicle and ride all around the reserve. Incredible. Our first stop was called “World’s View”, from the top all you can see is miles of endless clear blue sky and the entire game reserve. Warthogs, ostriches, monkeys, horses, cheetahs, impalas, snakes, crocodiles were some of the animals we had the opportunity to see on the safari.

Tlamelo Project

You would think Mokoldi would have been the highlight of our day…but then we arrived at Old Naledi Tlamelo Food Project.

There were only a handful of kids left in the afternoon but the second we were surrounded by the children I could tell that we were all a little in love. It's an amazing sight to see these beautiful children laugh and play.

In Old Naledi at the Tlamelo Food Project

More about what goes on at Thamelo after we spend the day there on Wednesday. Can't wait to go back and be with the kids :)

They will tell you they love you...

Day 6: Stayed up way too late excited about internet finally working in our flats. Slept in a little and got ready for the game. The seven of us went to the Botswana versus Madagascar soccer game. It was a qualifying game for the World Cup, South Africa 2010. It was so much fun! We met two guys there – Lucas and Hope who were super friendly and funny. Game ended 0-0 and the Botswana Zebras will have to travel to Madagascar for a rematch. I think we will attend another game in two weeks.

Below: group pick (minus Jack) with some guys we met at National Stadium

Day 5: Friday. Woke up early due to cheerful students and others wandering around outside my window. It was a really relaxing morning – unpacked the rest of my things and made breakfast before my flat mates woke up. Went over to get the boys around noon. Walked to Riverwalk and hung out at a really cute little coffee shop.

Trying to become more familiar with campus – slowly but surely. Visited with Charity who is contacting our service sites – appointments on Moday at 9am at Mokolodi game reserve and at 2pm with the Thalemo feeding project and education centre in a nearby village. I think we will be more than ready to visit the sites and start volunteering by Monday.

Attending a national qualifying soccer game tomorrow at National Stadium just across the street from the UB. Should be an exciting afternoon. Meeka cooked the seven of us a homemade dinner and Jack and I met a few new friends.

I've never been an early riser - but here there seems to be more life to live.

Day 4: It’s hard to believe that our first week is almost over. Time is flying by already. Yesterday evening we moved into our graduate flats at the University of Botswana (UB). The five of us girls (Leslie, Jayne, Meeka, Marinda and myself) are sharing a flat with one other grad student from Kenya - she seems pretty friendly. The boys (Jack and Matt) are right next door.

We woke up early and joined Riley (a grad student from Canada) for a nice breakfast in the staff cafeteria on campus. We then had a few meetings with the international student office, security etc..as well as a tour of campus. Beautiful campus – it’s refreshing to see the staff and students so proud of their school. So far everyone has been very friendly, especially around UB. We need to get comfortable using Setswana greetings…it’s a bit uneasy at first but we will get the hang of it.

This afternoon we joined Ana and Jessica (two other K-State student also living at UB) for lunch in the Riverwalk shopping centre. We spent the remainder of our afternoon exploring the shopping plaza and buying a few things for our flat as well as grocery shopped at Pick and Pay. Had a good time picking out a bowl, plate and mug each, candles (for scheduled power outages as well as the unexpected) fresh fruit and bread.

Its nice to recognize the simple pleasures of a day.

Day 3: Woke up early and explored the grounds of the Backpacker’s. A really beautiful view from the top of the gardens. Took a little walk down the street to find some food. Found a gas station and settled for hot dogs for breakfast.

above: view from the backpacker's ritz

Caught a cab from the Ritz to the Intercape bus station. Boarded the bus for a 7 hour journey to Gaborone. Pretty scenery. Crossed the South Africa border (where we all climbed out of the bus and walked across the border in the middle of the night) and were slightly harassed by the Botswana border patrol. Only received a 30 day Visa…oh well, we can take care of that later. Important thing is that we are finally in Botswana! We have been planning this trip for so long for some reason it feels strange to finally arrive at our destination.

Arrived in Gaborone and had a slight mix up of transportation from the university – this was easily fixed by shuttling back and forth a few times. Unloaded in the Graduate Flats at the University of Botswana – home sweet home for the summertime :)

Days 1/2: Flew from KCI to Detroit, Detroit to Amsterdam, Amsterdam to Johannesburg. Had no idea what time or day it was when we arrived in South Africa. Picked up at the airport by a man named Frank, who patiently waited as we exchanged our U.S. dollars for South African Rand and helped load all of our gigantic luggage into his van.

On the way to our hostel he proceeded to try to outrun the cops. ..Probably for about 5 blocks until the cop pulled out in front of us. Welcome to Jo-burg!

Still unclear as to why he got a ticket - I think it had something to do with the broken tail lights on the trailer…and him not pulling over for a mile or two… Stayed the night at the Backpacker’s Ritz…about 10 dollars a night and all the character that goes along with that ten bucks. I liked it. The seven of us shared a dorm room full of bunk beds. Matt couldn’t sleep and crawled in and out of the windows trying to ‘explore’ throughout the night. Pub in the hostel that I was unfortunately too tired to test out…planning on making another stop at the Backpacker’s on our way back.

"Stripped of your ordinary surroundings, your friends, your daily routines, your refrigerator full of food, your closet full of clothes - with all this taken away, you are forced into direct experience. Such direct experience inevitably makes you aware of who it is that is having the experience. That's not always comfortable, but it is always invigorating."

- Michael Crichton