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I will be writing entries on my home computer and uploading several at a time when I have the chance to get to the internet, so be sure to scroll down each time you come to my blog to make sure you have read the previous entry, because the newest ones appear at the top. Some will be backlogged so you may find that two or three from previous days have been uploaded at one time.

Things are pretty good here. Batswana are significantly more reserved than Ghanaians, which is both nice but at the same time kind of unwelcoming. They are not unfriendly at all, but they are not really outgoing either. I don’t think I have had one person over the age of 12 actually walk up to me with the excitement you see in the rest of Africa. So it is much different than what I have experienced. This can work to your benefit, though, when you are walking somewhere and don’t want to be stopped by every person you pass (especially since my walk to work is just under one hour, and I have to be there at 7:30am). It definitely gives you some room to breathe.

Nights and mornings are more difficult than the days. The family goes to bed around 8, so I spend a lot of time alone in my room at night – which normally would be great, but I think until I am adjusted I find that I am tempted to feel lonely and misplaced. The rest of the people in my cohort live pretty far from me so I am kind of isolated. Upon waking I am greeted with the BRUTAL cold of southern Africa (God, they weren’t lying about how cold it gets here!) and waking up at 5am in the cold and dark, alone, and trying to bathe and make breakfast is certainly an unpleasant task! I will definitely be requesting a site in the north, where winters are significantly more mild. The problem is that there is a lot of competition to be up north, as this is home to all of the famous African wildlife. But anyway, once my day continues I do just fine… especially when it’s time to come home and play with my nieces, who unknowingly remind me to take the time to stop and breathe. Children have a way, don’t they?

I am becoming really close with Priscilla, but unfortunately she is leaving soon. Batswana are pretty dismissive of Zimbabweans and I think this has contributed to her departure. She is pregnant, and has told my family that she is going back to Zimbabwe to have the baby, though this is not true: she has actually decided to go to South Africa where she thinks she will be able to make more money. I will miss her. Every late afternoon I bring my iPod and speakers into the kitchen and we play Zimbabwean music – a lot of Thomas Mapfumo and Oliver Mtukudzi – and we dance and laugh and she teaches me to cook. I’m always fascinated at how close you can get to someone in such a short period of time, if the environment is right (Z). Mama doesn’t like how much I help in the kitchen, I think especially since I am helping ‘The Zimbabwean’ but I need to learn and Priscilla’s English is so pleasant and she has great stories of life in Zimbabwe before things fell apart, as they often do.

It may be another week or so until I can use the internet, but I don’t think much will change in the next few weeks anyway. For now just training, training, training. What’s new with you and America?