Viva Botswana

Viva Botswana!
Hello all. I have arrived. A little update.

Temp: Heat, mostly mild, a little cold. My tan is increasing slowly. We are heading into winter here and it will only get worse. Luckily, Jo and I learned about “camping” while we were in Venice, so if it takes every item of clothing I have, I will prevail. I do not have enough warm clothes if you are quite desperate to send me a care package, think polar fleece. I am a size medium or large until I shed my MN winter layer or get a parasite.
Whichever comes first.

Most commonly worn pair of shoes: the electric blue crocs. I am a walking fashion plate.

Impressions: Immediate (glassy haze of confusion at the airport, which I expected and just hung out through and followed the chaos, as I listened to the others’ stories of my impressive sleep and followed along with the group doing yoga)- People will do anything for you to give them American dollars, so don’t worry P-funk, they’ll be plenty of helpers for you throughout the whole country. The next morning: of course we had too much baggage and had to wait for an hour for another small bus and I spent the time reveling in the verging on brisk air. The main way I knew I was in Africa- red soil. I had more flowery descriptions of the colors, but the paper is somewhere else. More on that later.

Country: We stayed in South Africa last night in a very posh hotel where I used the workout facilities (what what!!!), and now we are in a compound type hotel (read gates and such) in Gaborone, the capital City in Botswana. We are on lockdown because it’s not safe for our naïve asses to wander around without being robbed and abused and eaten by lions. We walked across the border and customs in S. Africa earlier today. We have been briefed by some current PCV’s and I am currently only losing my shit about learning the language. We’ll see how this goes. I’ve been pretty calm through the whole thing, which I suspect is shock, the jet lag hasn’t been the worst I’ve ever felt, as I suspected. This however, could be due to the amount of sleep I got on the flight-see flight.


Flight: We got on the plane mostly on time, and my new BFF forever Brent and I had a few glasses of red wine and then he revved up the saddest songs he could think of on the ipod and we sang duets until the Ambien kicked in. I then impressed the entire group by sleeping through the next 11 hours as we landed and refueled in Senegal, I ate a meal (which I vaguely remembered after some prompting- it was waffles) people repositioned me several times, and of course took my picture. …. Whatever. I am a champ.

People: People in the group seem pretty cool, and I think I fall right in the middle of neurosis and neurotic on each end of the spectrum. It’s inspiring to be with a bunch of people with likewise attitudes about things. Most of the people are in (or trying to stay in, more likely) relationships. Good mix of backgrounds and ages, ect.
Thoughts on shaving my head: as far as I’m concerned, still a go. A woman in our group already has hers done, and the estimated date is after the swearing in. I think I’d do it sooner, but I’m not completely ready, and I don’t want to do it during my home stay, because I’ve heard the host family might be offended, and or sad if I get rid of all my hair while I’m with them.

Jet lag: seems to be ok. We’ll see in the morning.

Things I’ve learned: not to use the internet at the same time as everyone else. Gets incredibly slow…and Takes nearly ten minutes just to get connected…
I have hesitated to journal and capture everything in pictures as this is my new home and not a place I am just visiting. I don't know if this will serve me well, but it's my instinct and I shall go with it.
Love you!
Jen