First Full Week

Hey Friends,

So it was my first official FULL week of work including a Teen Club event on Saturday here in Gaborone. Overall, I have to say I am really enjoying myself here in Bots. I am up early every morning for work and that has transfered over to my days off where I cannot sleep past 9 am. Its actually not that bad, in fact it is quite amazing to see how long the day feels when you are up that early. haha. Also, this week I started running and workingout (told you I would Heather!). The plan for now is running 3 times a week at a track that is walking distance to my house and then situps, pushups and all that fun stuff in between. I am also going to check out the gym thats not that far from my place, because apparently they have a full sized outdoor pool, which in this heat would be awesome.

As for the weather it has been hot, but that has also meant some intense, INTENSE! thunderstorms. While I have seen some crazy storms before the sound of the thunder was as if the sky was ripping open. It was crazy, yet awesome. Maggali one of my roommates who also works across the street from me have been going out for lunch occassionally trying some of the different places to eat around here. So far we are impressed with the local food at the Main Mall, which is dirt cheap and you can fill your container quite full. The food mainly consists of rice, pap, stewed chicken or beef, fried chicken of beef, coleslaw, beets and cabbage and this thing called chakalaka...which I cant really explain but it tastes great mix of a bunch of stuff (beans, cabbage, carrots). Anyway its good. Still on the topic of food, me and the roomies have been cooking almost everynight barring we have power (it has been cutting out a lot the last week). We cook up pretty decent meals and its great.

Moving on...Some of you have asked me to put some pictures up of my house so here are some of them....I really havent taken enough pictures here yet, but its hard to remember when its just everyday life. However, I promise to post somepictures on Facebook, once I have enough pictures worthy of an album








Moving on...so besides working this week I also was at work on Saturday for my first Teen Club event...(if you dont remember what that is check out the links ------>)

The teens were split by age and I was with the younger group at the sports field. While waiting for the balls to show up the volunteers decided to play Red Rover with about 80 teens. It turned out really well and there were luckily no accidents. As I remember from when I was younger Red Rover had a tendency to turn ugly. After that it was free sports play. Tennis, Badminton, Volleyball and Football (soccer). I am still awful at volleyball but really enjoy it hahah. Luckily for us it was overcast which kept the weather cool and it didnt rain. Yet, somehow I still got a little bit of a sunburn. Nonetheless, the day was a success and you can read more about it on the Teen Club blog again over there ----->

After that we went to a BBQ (Brai) at our new friends from the German development agencies. Grilled some steaks, hamburgers...(I still cant get over how good the beef is and how cheap) Anyway, we had some great food (notice a theme) and swam in the pool.

On Sunday, I was up at 9am and some volunteers from Mochudi and Jwaneng came back for the weekend to be back in the city. After some French Toast and a trip to the grocery store we were off to the Botswana Premier League. Mochudi vs Gaborone. Sarah's friends from Mochudi got us tickets so we sat on the Mochudi side, which worked out best since they won 3-2 after being down 0-2. It was fun, not the greatest level of soccer, but everyone seemed really into it and it was 25 pula so you cant go wrong.

So that basically sums up the week and a bit since I last wrote. As of now some volunteers are heading to Chobe and Vic Falls next week, I have decided to pass, because thats where I hope to go when Johnny comes and visits!!! So he BETTER COME!! I am also looking forward to visiting some of the other Teen Club Satellite Locations and see some other parts of the country, because you can get far too comfortable in the luxuries of Gaborone.

So thats about it for now, I am sure I am forgetting something but....hope everyone is doing well.

the start of a routine...

Hello Friends,

So it has been a while since I wrote last. This is due to the hectic week of training that just ended. Everyone has more or less left for their placements throughout the country, there are a few stragglers leaving tomorrow morning.

I started my first day at work on Wednesday. It was a slow start, just getting oriented around the facility and figuring where exactly I will fit in. However, everyone is really nice and I am looking forward to really get into things. Seems like there will be some great opportunity to do some traveling in Botswana for work at the satellite projects for teen club. Here is the website to see what sort of things I will be doing. http://botswanateenclub.wordpress.com/

Apart from that there is also the morning play program for the kids who are waiting hours in line for their appointment to see the doctor. Between 9:30 and 11:00 volunteers come and play with the kids and run some activities and lessons. There are no appoitnment at the clinic, its simply fist come first serve, so naturally the lines and the wait are extremely long and the clinic lobby is always full with kids and their parents. I will hopefully be working on expanding this program and writing some proposals for some more funding. Should be interesting.

Aside from work, let me tell you what we were doing the last week and a bit. Most definitely saturday was one of the busier days. It began with us waking up at 4:30 am to get ready for a hike up Kgale Hill in Botswana. The reason for the early rise, was to avoid the heat, trying to hike any later would have been suicidal. The hike took about 2 hours to get up, and naturally I won the award for sweatiest person, however the other intern Tony came a very close second. The view from the top, was great. You could see all of the city of Gabs and also got to see the Gaborone Dam which surprisingly has a yacht club (at least thats what the sign said). Apparently you can go kayaking and such there, will have to check it out at some point.

The walk down was nice, and then from there we went back to the house and then off the lunch at river walk. The mall not far from our place. We all decided to eat at Nandoo's Chicken which is normally delicious and famous for its piri piri chicken/sauce. Well today I decided to be bold and order the Hot chicken wrap along with a few others. Basically the mild was what should have been the hot and the hot was as Jeff said "Lava in his mouth". It was a challenge to finish, but I was starving after the hike and got it down. My stomach was on fire!

From there we got our own Combi take us to the Mokolodi Game Reserve in Gabs. Which is an animal sanctuary, housing a few domesticated elephans, kudu, rhino,zebra, giraffe, 3 cheetahs and leopards.

It is a small and mimimal park in comparison to Ngorongoro or the Serengeti in Tanzania, but its still awesome seeing these animals. (unfortunately the Rhinos and Leopards have eluded me yet again). If Johnny comes and visits we will head to Chobe national park where there are a plethora of Rhino (hopefully).

Then from there it was off to the expat bar Bull and Bush, which was hosting a University of Botswana dj party, but we just stayed for dinner and a dance or two.

Another component of this week was the plethora of MEAT! Beef here is in abundance and is really REALLY good. On Sunday Kathy Stiles, the regional director of WUSC invited us over to her house for a Brai (bbq) and a swm in her pool. The steaks were delicous, so were the burgers and the sausages. She also had an awesome newfoundland dog.

Besides that it was two days full of Setswana lessons, and workshops on HIV as well as speakers form a number of local NGO's and governemnt agencies. Overall, it was a productive week, kind of tiring but great. Everyone has gotten along great and as much as I am excited to have some routine, the house will seem a bit empty for a while. However, we will see each other again in a few months for our mid term work/training in Maun (near the Okavango Delta). Work holiday SWEET!!! Besides that the only other traveling, is probably a trip to Cape Town over the Easter long weekend.

So thats it for now

Go Siamme (ho-see-a-meh)

2 days later...

Dumela! (setswana greeting)

Hello everyone,

So I finally made it to Gaborone and I have to say its surreal. After two days of relatively smooth traveling, despite having to take 4 flghts, there were no serious delays and all my luggage made it to Gabs even though I came a few hours late.

I arrived early morning on Wednesday and it hadnt really hit me until I saw the trees from the airplane and all the memories came back of first landing into Tanzania a few years ago. The airport in Gab was the smallest thing ever, but they were building a new terminal, which looked like it was a chinese company that had the contract, because all the construction workers were Chinese.

The weather here is hot, as expected but its a nice and dry heat, not crazy humid like Dar. Me and another intern who arrived at the same time were taken to our house, which is SO NICE. Its a 3 bedroom house, Air conditioned, full kitchen, two bathrooms (HOT WATER!!!), living room/dining room, front and back yard. Right now there are 10 of us in the house, but next week there will only be three as the others will be heading out to their placements throughout the country. It is a little weird living in a house with an electronic gate and brick wall, alarm system and electric fencing along the tops of the walls. All the houses in my neighbourhood have it, despite the fact that its a really safe neighbourhood, but its just standard with nicer housing in the city. Met with the other interns, began training and went to an awesome Indian restaurant buffet for lunch, which I am sure I will be visiting often.

So basically, as I am writing this I am struggling with how different it is here than Dar. Every car on the road is a luxury sedan or suv. Range rovers, BMW's, Mercedes its crazy! Your allowed to drink the tap water and it tastes well. I live walking distance to work, which I will start next week. The WUSC head office is also just around the corner, where there is internet access.

That being said there are definite similarities. The Cobi's (mini buses) are just like TZ Daladala's, except they only allow one person per seat and no one is allowed to stand (kind of nice). The bus routes are kind of confusing right now, but I am sure I will pick it up in a few weeks. There are also tons of fruit stands, pop stands and things being sold along the road, but Botswana love their malls or shopping centres.

I just quickly stopped by my work yesterday and the centre looks amazing. Really new since it just opened in 2002. So I am excited to start. I am going to get a cell phone today and will be sharing the number for whoever wants it. TEXT ME!!! Also, I get free incoming, so grab a calling card once and a while!

I have already found an expat bar in the guide book that had satellite TV that plays sports, so I will be there for two weeks straight during the Olympics Im sure. Go Canada Go!!!

Anyways, thats all I can think of right now, I am sure I am missing some things, but I will try to update this as much as possible, as long as I have something interesting to say. A few more days of training until Wednesday then I wiill be on a regular schedule. So hope everyone is doing well, enjoy the cold! hahah

talk to you soon.

Pavlo

Botswana Bound - Cancelled

So I have decided to start one of these blogs as a way of keeping everyone up to date with my happenings in Botswana and thought that I should start.

Yesterday I was scheduled to leave Pearson International Airport at 9:05pm. It was a hectic morning, finishing off MA applications, last minute stop for some extra socks and underwear and a trip to the hospital to say bye to my Baba (grandma) who is not doing so great these days.

Nonetheless, I got it done and was on my way to the airport and arrived exactly 3 hours before my departure time as an obedient traveler to walk into the terminal and check the screen where beside my flight was a blinking word 'Canceled '. Great! So off to the counter to find out what to do. Im advised to call British Airways directly and get rescheduled. Turns out England received a little to much snow for them to handle (cough 2 inches cough) NOTHING!!!! Canada couldnt have handled!!! Anyways, lines were busy for a while finally got through today to learn that I will now be leaving on Monday with an added stop over. Toronto - Chicago, Chicago - London, London- Johannesburg and finally Johannesburg - Gaborone...I will get there wednesday morning!!! Its going to be fun times!!!!

I have to say though, that I am not that upset, I have a few more days to relax and make sure I've got all that I need one more time and say bye to a few more peeps.

So thats it for now, just a short intro to the blog thing....just getting a feel for it. I will be sure to update once I actually leave Toronto.

Have a great weekend!