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As you all know by now, evenings in for me are always accompanied with candlelight and new ideas of entertainment. Honestly, living without electricity is not all that hard. It just requires more patience and more sleep time. I’m always down for more sleep but need to work on the former. Recent nights consisted of playing solitaire, shaving my head, drinking hot cocoa/tea, eating apples with peanut butter or Nutella, etc. As of late, evenings have forced me to think a lot...about everything and anything. Some nights I found myself feeling lonely and homesick. Other nights I am thankful and grateful for where I am and what I’m doing in my life. Everyone tells me how difficult it could get during the holidays when nostalgia kicks in and I start wishing the sweat on our bodies from the strong heat was rain or snow from the holiday season back home. Today I am wishing that.

I spy the smoothest peanut butter I've ever tasted, my iPhone, Trenton and me... (Does anyone
ever play solitaire with an actual deck of cards these days?)

But I talked to Trenton and he was able to make me laugh and feel better about things. I worked with the staff members at my school and taught them how to use Microsoft excel and how to be more efficient with data entry and that made me feel accomplished. I talked to my kgosi (chief) of my village this morning and he told me how fascinated he was at how I am integrating into the community and how I am speaking Setswana to people I pass by and meet. This made me feel extremely proud of myself. I am doing things day by day and slowly learning that I am here and I am doing what I am supposed to be doing.

So although I miss all of my family and friends back home, terribly, I am happy right where I am. The days I start getting lonely and sad pass and are filled with days of achievements and making new family and friends here. And I realize that I will always have people who reciprocate their love for me and that home is wherever I choose, any place that I can learn and be happy. And I will continue to be strong and remember that I am doing something I’ve been wanting to do, something great.

I hope all of you are filling your stomachs with great food and continue to be in the company of people you love. I wish I can be with all of you back home but know that I am doing well and I have established a kind of Peace Corps family over here, too, and they are great people. I hope everyone stays happy and healthy this holiday season and know that I am missing you so much it hurts sometimes. But, like always, I will be fine. J Much love.

Weekend Slumber Party

Dumelang!

I hope everyone had a great holiday and is continuing to have a nice Christmas season. I don’t have too many things to update everyone on other than still going around trying to meet everyone so I can complete my long and tedious community assessment report. I’m sure it’ll help me in the long run but complaining sounds better at the moment. :P What I did do this past weekend was hang out with some friends and had a grand ol’ time so I’ll tell you about that.

This past weekend 3 other volunteers and I decided to hang out, I was so glad to see them again and we were all very proud of each other for braving the transport situation. Let me tell you, when you are in a remote village transportation SUCKS. It is not very reliable to get in and out of your village and some days nobody shows up. We waited in the rain, cold and windy, for hours until we finally realized nobody was coming. Then I had to travel pretty far to a big village just so I can pay again to come back to my village, which was initially only 25k away. Not to mention the accumulated hours I had waited. I will definitely learn patience. Anyway, my friends and I had a blast cooking, playing Milles Borne (best card game ever), eating, laughing, and just being with each other. It was nice to get away from the loneliness that I feel when I am home during the week with nothing to do which I’m sure I’ll get used to. Eden cooked this great chicken and mashed potatoes dish with a meditteranean tomato Peri Peri sauce that was amazing and the second night we made a nice chicken rice broth with onions, celery, carrots and herbs. Oh my gaahhhhh. All our meals we ate in mugs, bowls, plates, and bread loaf baking trays of course. It wouldn’t be a true Peace Corps experience if we hadn’t. We sat around in a circle eating our yummy broth listening to the rain. We made simple things for lunch like grilled cheese sandwiches and we cut up some apples to eat with peanut butter and honey. On Saturday night, Liz played the Guitalele and we all joined in and sang along to songs like “Ho, Hey” from the Lumineers, “Make You Feel My Love” from Adele (Bob Dylan, really), and “Wagon Wheel” from an old country band whose name I forgot. We even sat in a circle and ate homemade cookie dough and spiced applesauce while we did it. It was really nice. We had to go to the restroom at night which meant scary bugs and terrifying winds in the dark. Good thing we stood outside of the latrine and sang to each other and made sure we were safe while we did our duty. We also attempted to tell scary stories in the dark but chickened out right when we started. We had so much fun this weekend and it made us all really tired but we were glad to FINALLY get home on Sunday to bathe, change clothes, and lay in our comfy beds – things that some of us were not able to do for the entire weekend. Sounds like a successful Peace Corps slumber party to me.

Some of the funniest staff members

School children singing and celebrating their win on Fun Day

Picture from our Thanksgiving!

Woke up to these guys in my backyard. Thanks for dropping by and thanks a lot for the droppings, guys.

Holding your computer out the window means getting reception to go online

Sarah's creeper face

It was so hot Eden made me a toga/dress. Pretty fancy, ain't it?

Singing along to the Guitalele

Thankful.

Thankful

Before I get into all that I am thankful for, let me update all of you on what I remember during the past week or two. For those of you who wonder how I’m living and curious to see where I live, I am still in the temporary house. I don’t know when I will move into the actual house I should be living in but since we are in Botswana and I was promised that it’d be last week, I’ll guess 2-3 weeks from now. Here is what my typical day looks like:

• -   5:30 a.m. Wake up, brush teeth, go to the restroom and bathe (they say “bath” here)
• -   5:50 a.m. Get dressed and make breakfast AND lunch (no electricity means no refrigerator which means no dinner leftovers for the next day’s lunch)
• -   6:30 a.m. Pack lunch and eat breakfast
• -   7:00 a.m. Throw bath water out on a tree in front of my house
• -   7:05 a.m. Start trekking through the bush to get to my school (I walk 1 ½ km to and from school everyday which is about 1 mi each way)
• -   7:25-7:30 a.m. Arrive at Guidance & Counseling office
• -   7:30-10:00 a.m. Diddle daddle in my office since I just got here and school is now over. Sometimes I work on my Community Assessment Report that is due in January)
• -   10:00 -10:30 a.m. Tea Break (sit in my office)
• -   10:30-1:30 p.m. Read paperwork and books or walk around the school meeting and talking to new people
• -   1:30-2:30 p.m. LUNCH!!!
• -   2:30-4:30 p.m. Work on things with the Guidance & Counseling Teacher who is also my counterpart
• -   4:30 p.m. Start on my way home sweating like a hog in the sun and wish I could drive or get a ride on one of the donkey carts that pass me up
• -   5:00 p.m. Prepare and eat dinner
• -   6:30 p.m. Read, go online for a very short while, or visit neighbors and make new friends
• -   8:00 p.m. Debate whether I should go to sleep or not since it’s already dark and the candles don’t do anything for me
• -   8:10 p.m. Start running around my house killing mosquitoes and bugs while cursing them out
• -   8:30/9ish Lie in bed thinking about anything and everything
• -   10ish Fall asleep
• -   12, 2, 3:30 a.m. Toss and turn and eventually wake up because I am sleeping in a puddle of my sweat (Only when it’s really hot during the day. I always love the crazy rainy weather.) 

So for everyone that was wondering...there you go. Of course there are differences as every day comes but that’s what my week look liked last week for the most part.

My corner desk! :)

The temp. house I'm staying in. This was from a Tango call with Trenton.
If you guys download Tango on your smart phones we can talk for free!

Sweet affirmation notes that our group wrote to each other
to read on bad days. 

An awesome performance! For me!

Yay for Thanksgiving in Botswana!

 This week I settled into my (temp) house to find running water. YES! I don’t even care if it goes off while I’m brushing my teeth and I’m running around my house, frantic, looking like I’m foaming at the mouth. Even if it was off for the next couple days and I secretly prayed that nobody tells me I smell, I’ll take that over none. I also attended the first of tri-weekly assemblies at my school and was able to meet 2/3 of the students who sang and danced for me because they insisted on me “taking a video of [them] and showing it to all [my] friends in America.” (I wish my internet speed would allow me to upload that video. The performance was amazing!) I was able to travel to the neighboring villages in a small khombi that felt like a moving sauna and met a lot of new people including hilarious coworkers I am excited to be working with once school starts up again in January. I got a great package from a friend back home and stuffed my little face with gross amounts of CHEWY chocolate chip cookies and Sour Patch kids. (Hey, I was being really healthy and being good the whole week, I deserve it. Plus, that makes up for not being home for Thanksgiving, right?) I was invited to Stephanie and Tom’s house, the sweetest married couple I have met since being in the Peace Corps, (let me remind you who they are here) for an American-style Thanksgiving dinner of our own which was so nice. I got to see them and 7 other volunteers that I hadn’t seen for a week! (It felt really long for us!) We may not have had turkey but we ate a pretty great meal with chicken, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, butternut (tastes like pumpkin) and salad. We said thanks and of course I got a little emotional and we talked and laughed and complained (or praised, depending on who you are. Lucky people...) about our houses. It was such a nice day and was glad I was able to still celebrate Thanksgiving over here in Africa.

I also realized the reality of hitching, what we refer to as hitchhiking. Many of our villages, including mine of course, are so small and rural that transportation is almost nonexistent. Up to this point I have been scared of doing it but knew that I would probably be forced to. I know you are all thinking that this is crazy and dangerous but in Botswana it is really just another form of transportation that is used daily and is not at all like hitchhiking in America. I keep telling you that the majority of Batswana are super friendly and welcoming. One day I had to take 5 hikes just to get home from my shopping village! Apparently nobody likes to travel on Sundays. That may sound scary, and it was for me, but everyone who picked me up was so friendly. I know most of you all are thinking, “What the hell are you thinking?!” but it is almost the only way I can get out of my village. For drivers, when a person is on the side of the road waving their hand, it is a way of making extra money since you are driving that direction anyway. For people like me who live in remote villages, it is the only way to get home when no other khombis are around and buses don’t even go into your village. Also, When you wait for hitches, you could be waiting hours on end and there is really nothing you can do. I have learned this the hard way. The other day I hiked to the main road (10 km) and walked down the road to the hitch stop. I waited for a khombi for 25 minutes and it took me to my destination. Easy, right? So coming home I thought it’d be just as easy. Wrong. I couldn’t get a taxi or khombi on this particular day and walked a mile to the bus rank. (Like a train station for buses, khombis, and taxis.) Nobody was there. I waited an hour for a taxi to pull in for the driver to tell me I had to wait for it to fill up or otherwise I’d pay 5x the price. I waited for 30 minutes and he took me to the next village over, really close. I walked down the road to catch a khombi to realize I was going the wrong way. The conductor told me what I needed to do so I got off and walked about a mile back. I arrived at a bus/hitch spot and waited. And waited. And waited. I must have waited 3 ½ hours before I saw one of the staff members from my school across the street, waving for me to come over. I got lucky. If he wasn’t there I don’t know how long I’d be waiting. So what I’ve learned from this is : Always carry a book with me and be thankful that I’ll be in great shape when I go back to America.

Back to what I am thankful for...This week I was most grateful for all my family and friends that I talked to in just this week alone. It is the most people I’ve had the pleasure to hear since being here. I was so happy! Both my best girlfriends called and one of them is now engaged and getting married in New York next June! I still can’t believe it. I wish I can be there and be with her but we’ll see what happens. (I’d love to go to New York again but better, a New York wedding!) I also got a call from my mom wishing me a Happy Thanksgiving and that was nice. I spoke to Trenton and practically his whole family! I talked to his parents, his sister, his aunt and uncle, his cousin (Hey Ty!!), and his grandma and got a warm wish from his grandpa on Thanksgiving Day. That really just made my week. I also got warm wishes from his tias and abuela from his dad’s side of the family. I am so thankful that I have people who love me and support me. For those of you who continue to follow my blog and are reading this right now: I love you with all my heart. I wish for your health and safety everyday and hope you are all happy and doing well.

So be very grateful for what you have and remember that all the basic necessities that are taken for granted everyday count, too. I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving and stuffed your faces with food I can only dream of. Especially a bacon-wrapped Turkey. Please tell me you stuffed your face with a bacon-wrapped turkey so I can live vicariously through you.

A Dedication to My Best Friend.

On a chilly Monday in November 2006, on this exact date, Trenton and I decided that watching 007 – Casino Royale in the theaters was far more important than completing our psychology of sexuality paper that was due the very next day. I’m so glad we did.

Only with Trenton could I email him about something I think he may be interested in to find out that he had already looked into it just a couple days before. These types of things happen all the time. Only with him could I get excited about stupid, useless things and turn to find him giving me a weird look and laughing at me, but excited with me anyway. And only with him, with thousands of miles separating us, could I feel the same excitement and happiness with him that I felt 6 years ago on that chilly Monday. Every year on November 20^th we spend time with each other. Unfortunately, this year is the first time we will not be able to. It’s okay though. The love and support he gives me while I’m chasing my dreams is endless. He makes it easier when life gets hard.

So Trenton, thank you for the ongoing patience, encouragement, love and support you continue to give me daily. Thank you for being right behind me whenever I choose to do another crazy thing. And thank you for always reassuring me and telling me I can do anything. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Cheers to 6 years! I love you more than I can ever describe. Counting the days I can be home again.

“Home…home is wherever I’m with you.”

It's official!

“I, Diane Phoolserm, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States of America against all enemies, domestic or foreign, that I take this obligation freely, and without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion, and that I will well and faithfully discharge my duties in the Peace Corps.”

We are required by law to swear or affirm an oath of loyalty to the United States. With that said,

I am an official United States Peace Corps Volunteer!

Today was the day I have been waiting for. It’s been a long 2 ½ months of intensive training but it also feels like our time together as trainees flew by so quickly. I will not miss Pre-Service Training at all but will miss all the familiar faces that I saw 6 days a week for the past couple of months. I’ve made friends and it will be difficult saying goodbye to them (for now) tomorrow when we all leave to our sites in different parts of the country. Thank goodness most of us spent the day together because although we will be seeing each other soon for Mid-Service Training and other travels, it will not be the same. I would just like to wish all my fellow volunteers good luck at their site and hopefully community integration and assessment will go well. (Not excited about that report!) I know we are capable of doing great things at our site and am glad to be with such a diverse group of volunteers (lawyers, doctors, social workers, nurses, teachers, etc.). We are an amazing group. Congratulations BOTS 13!

As for other news…I leave for my new home in Hebron tomorrow around 10:00 a.m. The feelings and emotions I am going through cannot really be described. I found out that my home that I will be living in is not yet ready (the ceiling needs repair) and so I will stay in a temporary house for about a week or so. This temporary place does not have electricity or running water or an indoor toilet but I am not stressing. When I move in to my actual home it still won’t have electricity but it will have running water (when there is actually water available), a toilet, bathtub and sink, decent kitchen counter space (also a pantry!), and hopefully a fixed roof. I didn’t have any expectations coming here so I actually think that I am lucky. From what I’ve heard, volunteers from other African countries live in a single unit hut. I am trying to stay positive and hope for the best and that’s exactly what I’m doing. My Head Master at the Junior Secondary school is amazing and I am also very grateful for that. She told me that she was able to put a fridge in my office so at least I’ll have something in place of no electricity. She is also fighting to get me a computer, fighting to have my roof done ASAP, and told everyone at the school and in the community that I am coming and apparently everyone is excited to meet me (eek!). I’m sorry I do not have many pictures to load but my internet is VERY slow now. I am trying to unlock my phone and hopefully then I can message and chat with people through various apps like WhatsApp, Tango, and other free messaging services that require me to be online. I will update everyone every so often but I am sorry if I cannot include pictures. To my family and friends, I miss and love you all so much and please do not worry about me. I am excited to start this new phase of my life and hope you will support me along the way. See you soon! Gagona matata!