after 17 days here…

Posted by Brittany on May 30th, 2008

Dumelang!!!

i have now been here for almost 3 weeks and have already seen and done so much! below is a few interesting thigns!

During my week of orientation i have seen most of Gaberone. The group i was with did alot of things! we saw a traditional dance group, learned some setswana, went on a mini safari, went to a traditional village and ate their amazing food. we listened to many speakers from different NGOs all over Botswana, we listened to one woman speak about how she was learning to live with HIV (she was so strong and comfortable with herself it was amazing) i have been shopping in downtown outdoor markets as well has huge malls, they have 3 in Gaberone alne! The outdoor markets are the best though, they have the most interesting, well everything, from home decor to beans to oranges to earrings. Even in a big city like Gaberone people are so friendly, people passing bye will jsut say hello to be friendly, its nice! Its a really big community here as well, everyone seems to know everyone, at red lights people are talking to the car they happened to stop next to, i dont know if they actually know each other or not, but i think its cool!

Anywho, i arrived in Francistown on Monday morning (after a 5 hour bus ride, with setswana gospel music playing really LOUD the entire time!) and went to the place i will be spending the rest of my time! the SOS childrens village is really a nice place, and my little houseis nice too! i have breakfast and lunch in the kindergarten, but i have started to make my own dinners… and well, i will get used to it but its not that much fun! and there are no washing machines so tomorrow my task of the day is to handwash my clothes!

Other than the kindergarten i have been working in the village. The craft classes will start this monday, but there are also other projects that i will hopefully compete while im here. (organization of the SOS library, starting a boy/girl scouts group

anywho thats pretty much it for work stuff but i have a few random things that i thought were interesting…

instead of saying excuse me, people say sorry. it gets me confused sometimes.

there is a store up the street from SOS and its called “the hyper store” and its exactly like costco!!

there is a little tiny lizard living on the wall of by bedroom.

people literally sleep during their lunch breaks. once i came back early from lunch and went to the main office only to find the secretary sleeping on the chair!

Also, there is alot of boys wearing girls clothes and visa versa, and in little kids i can see them getting away with it, because they probably wont notice those things. But i noticed, during a youth study group that i go to, that there are 2 boys and 1 girl all wearing the same jacket, which is clearly a girls jacket. But no one seems to care, its just a jacket that will keep you warm!

anyways, this email is probably long enough lol.. but jsut so you guys know, email me back! i would love to hear from all of you!!… send me random messages, its nice to get news from home! i only get internet access every sat. morning, so it may take me a while to reply but i will!!

i miss you all tons and tons and i hope you are all having a good and safe summer!!!

Posted in Botswana