First couple days

Wednesday, February 17, 2010


4 am – pretty sure every rooster in Mochudi woke up and crowed, all at once. Holy smokes. It was wicked dark still. And I had just finally gone to bed! (it felt like 9 pm to me)

This morning my housemates had set out a platter of breakfast food for me with sweet little notes. Jungle Oats baby…chocolate flavored!! (like Quaker Oats instant oatmeal)! And chunky peanut butter!!!

1:00 pm -- I am melting. It said yesterday it was 32 degrees Celsius when I arrived in Gaborone…and it was a lot cooler than it is now. I don’t know what it is now, but I am sweating just sitting here. There is no AC and the fan doesn’t work. So acclimatize my Michigander/Minnesotan body, acclimatize!!!

[time elapsed]

This afternoon, I rode a taxi into town with Simone (Dutch)…the cabbie talked to us the whole way…very nice guy. Went to the Chemist (pharmacy), exchanged my US dollars (6.50 pula per American dollar), and went to two grocery stores… perhaps one of the more glorious discoveries of the day -- they had a whole end-cap at the grocery store devoted exclusively to Cadbury chocolates (I am home!!—this is my favorite chocolate in the world that I had during my trips to England throughout life)…bought a Bounty coconut chocolate bar too (my other favorite English candy)… came home…went for a run (yes, in this heat…but it was “cooling” down) along the main road out of town. Took a ‘shower’ if you can call it that…It was refreshing and I’m thankful for it (went 9 days without a shower on my last trip to Botswana!).

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Today was more like a normal day. Out the door by 8:05 am to walk with the others 25 minutes down the dirt/sand paths to our YFC office. There I met E.J. and his wife Koekoes, who are the national directors (they had been at a conference in South Africa until last night). Very sweet, down-to-earth people with such strong, inspiring faith. After the daily prayer meeting, E.J. shared with Kyra (who’s only been here a week) and me a lot of the things we need to know about the Botswana culture. Went to a school in the afternoon, bible study in the evening...I’ll share more later.