Getting adjusted

 I left Indiana on the 31^st of March, but it seems like it has been so much longer. On evening of the 31^st, I finally got to Philadelphia after a rather fun delay (Delay reason: aircraft delayed). Our staging/orientation period in Philadelphia went well (Side note: not sure if it's a chain, but El Vez or La Vez, has the most incredible guacamole of your life in Philly). We had dinner there with about 10 of us from our group and overall it was awesome to finally meet everyone in my group. There are 39 of us now. We had meetings at our hotel there for a few days and then left at 2:30 in the morning to take a bus to NYC for our flight. Just before our airplane took off, we were told that one guy in our group decided not to go at the last minute. Could just have easily have been me, I think. The anticipation leading up to this big life change was just horrible.

About 15 hours later we landed in Johannesburg, South Africa. From there took a rather tiny plane to Gaborone, Botswana. Peace Corps put us up for a few days in a place called Big 5 Lodge, which was pretty swanky compared to our accommodations now.

We are now staying in homestays in a decent-sized village. When we got here, there was a 'matching ceremony' at a government building. Some local officials and the local kgosi (chief) attended. One of the officials talked about how he studied in Michigan and mentioned Gary and I-90. My homestay has a mom and a dad, a 23-year old girl, a 21-year-old boy (those two speak conversational Batswana English...to be explained later), a 14-year-old boy, an 11-year-old, boy, and a 4-year-old boy. I haven't met the dad and I've just met the mom briefly because she has been at the family cattle post for the last few days. Now that I've gotten used to it a little bit I enjoy living here. They have electricity- a tv, stereo, overhead lighting, a little stove and oven and a fridge- but no running water. Instead we fill up a little pail at a tap outside. In the mornings I get up really early to heat water to wash up and stuff.

Botswana is even more rural than I expected so far. It's a very serene and pretty country, from what I've seen. Driving down the main roads you see a lot of donkeys, cows, and chickens. The first time I've ever heard a rooster crow in person was here in Africa, which I think is funny. Now I get to get woken up by that pretty much every morning. At night, you can often hear the soft tink of cowbells nearby. And the night skies are beautiful- very clear and starry.

The food is kind of hard to describe. One seemingly common meal is a maize meal called poleche that kind of reminds me of mashed potatoes. It's served with a side of vegetables and sometimes a meat. So far in this village I've only had chicken, but at Big 5 Lodge I got to try kudu (thought I was eating beef) and a maopane worm.

During the days we have Setswana lessons (the other main language here besides English) and PC meetings about safety, HIV/AIDS, etc. On Monday we get to head into the capital for immigration paperwork....all for now! 

-S