I got poop in my shoe

We had an absolutely incredible week and I really have no idea where to even start.

Most important information of the whole week: If an animal charges, don't run until I say so....as said by our guide Mr. Company

-If a hippo charges-run zigzag and run up a termite hill

-If a buffalo charges-run and climb up a tree

-If an elephant charges-run, run zigzag, and don't run up a tree because they will just knock the tree down with you in it

-If a lion charges-don't run at first....then at some point you are out of luck

We had an absolutely wonderful time in the Delta and were incredibly lucky to get one of the best guides around. We spent the night in tents...I did not sleep. It's kind of hard to when I hear heavy breathing, sticks breaking, and pots at our campsite being knocked over due to animals. I didn't even roll over the whole night for fear of the animals ripping my tent to shreds. Yeah, go ahead and laugh but I was scared. Actually I think I did so much praying for those 2 days I should be good for about a month. We did game hikes. This involves following our guide Company around out in the wilderness on foot for hours on end. No jeep, guns, spear, slingshot...nothing. I asked him why he didn't carry a gun and he thought I was talking about for people. No for animals. He seemed totally clueless as to why you would do that. You think he would though. I asked him to tell us some wild stories around the fire at dinner that night. He proceeded to tell me about how his brother was killed by a lion, his grandma's sister was killed by a lion, and his aunt was killed by a hippo. You would think the man would carry SOMETHING! Anyway, we followed tracks, poop, and their calls and saw many many animals. Elephants, zebras, warthogs, impala, wildebeests, baboons, giraffes, and water antelope. I also managed to get poop into my mesh sandal/shoe. Let me tell you...there really is poop EVERYWHERE so it's not like I was just a moron and wandered into it. I never was able to stop and get it out so I just walked for four hours with it in there. Fabulous. We rode in mokoros through the delta to get to our campsite. They are little canoes that sit just a few inches above the water and you have a poler who stands in the back and pushes you along. Oh and let me tell you, the sky is absolutely beautiful at night. Back at the backpackers the showers were little stick huts with no roof and you could look at the stars then. Actually everything at the backpackers was a stick hut. Ha.


After the delta we managed to get ourselves farther up north... We had incredible luck on getting to Livingston in Zambia because public transportation or transportation of any kind is extremely unreliable and inconsistent. We made it in incredible time though. In Zambia we went to Victoria Falls, did some hiking, bungee jumped (which was awesome and I would love to do it again), and we bartered our socks and other items to trade for crafts with the locals. We also went white water rafting down the Zambezi River. One side was Zimbabwe and the other side Zambia. I thought my rafting was over when we were "practicing" pulling each other in for if we fell out when he had us jump out and I jumped knees first onto a boulder. No worries though everything is A OKAY just some bruises and scrapes :) As we went down the river we saw a ginormous python and some crocs along the edge of the water. We also went on a day trip to Chobe where we took our "real" safari in our jeep. Much more comforting until the jeep got stuck next to a buffalo. ha. We added hippos to our list and also found ourselves in the midst of huge herds of giraffes and elephants which was amazing. It was wonderful.

Our trip of course had many other activities and stories which I could go on and on about but they will be told once I am home. haha. Our trip home was interesting. We honestly had no idea how we were getting home. Some people told us there were no buses...others told us to wait at the post office and a bus would come by sometime between 4 and 8 in the morning. ha. We ended up getting up at 4 and going to the boarder. We had to wait there in the cold for 45 minutes until they felt like opening the boarder. We then had to wait another hour for the ferry's to start so we could get across the boarder. We got to a bus station and got on a bus. It then headed a little out of the way down this terrible highway covered in potholes. You literally couldn't drive down the thing at all. So then we got to this town and everyone got off. Nicole and I were walking to the bathroom and I said gosh I hope the bus doesn't leave us. We came out and the bus was gone. Everyone else from the bus was at the gas station so we were all stranded together. After an hour we were told we had to walk down to the police station because our driver was arrested. HA! Apparently he didn't have a license or something. He seemed to be doing just fine to me. After a while another bus came and picked us up and took us the rest of the way like we were supposed to. It was an interesting day. We traveled and rode on buses, ferry's, and taxis from 4:30 a.m. til 10:30 p.m. We were so glad to be home. It was honestly one of the most incredible weeks ever.

Let's see....

-Paul bungee jumped in the fetal position because he was scared and everyone watching made fun of him

-We never saw lions. Boo. But I didn't really like the idea of seeing them while I was on foot either.

-Our tent in the delta was right next to a big pile of elephant poop

-I am extremely angry at my camera because I took many videos of animals for my momma (because I wished that she was there the whole time) and then when I downloaded them on my computer they only saved as pictures. Yeah and everything is deleted from my camera. I'm an idiot.

-I was peed on at school today. BK came sat on my lap and got up 30 seconds later and my pants were soaked. I am not a toilet. She laughed when I told her she was in trouble.

-We missed the kids SO incredibly much I hate to think what it will be like when we actually leave....

-I am getting really good at frying chicken at the feeding project

-Hippos kill humans purely for fun. They don't eat meat. I made sure Alex our poler was constantly on the lookout while in the mokoro

-I successfully lived out of a book bag for an entire week. I know I know, no one thought I could do it. I actually think I had the least stuff out of everyone.

-No one in Africa has heaters. I think I slept with literally all my clothes on every night and still managed to get a cold.

-Warthogs were so cute to see. Haha they are one of my new favorite animals.

-The buses like to play rap/club music and blare it at 6:30 in the morning for a few hours. It's not like I wanted to sleep then or anything.

-The whole trip we talked about home in Gaborone. Crazy to refer to it as home. We missed it and its "structure" so much

-We stopped at a gas station in Zambia in our taxi...it was the side of the road, had a tree, and a few cans of gas. They kept referring to us being in the "real" Africa now.

-I took out a million quatchas at the bank. Ha. Dinner cost me 25,000. That is 5 dollars.

-My body felt like it had been hit by a bus for a few days due to our "extreme" activities

I suppose I can stop here. I have many many stories for when I get back. It was beautiful and incredible and I am so thankful we had the opportunity to take some time off to go see it all.

I am an expert at stapling...

-Peanut butter can be eaten on anything, we just started on our 6th jar.
-I was never much of a coffee drinker, but Paul and I are definitely enjoying the instant coffee.
-Avocado's are a regular purchase and we have been making lots of guacamole. They are about 7 cents apiece. It's wonderful.
-Tshube told me there are snakes on Khali Hill. I asked how big and he said they don't have anacondas. Cool. I guess it was a good thing we climbed in the dark because I would have flipped had I seen one.
-I miss home and everyone there :)
-My left bicep is much stronger due to excessive test stapling all week. They are FINALLY all done and printed.
-The copier is FIXED! Thank goodness.
-Some days we don't have water at the UB.
-Some days we don't have electricity at school.
-We saw a young boy pooping on a magazine in his front yard on the way to school one morning.
-We are enjoying Wednesday night bible study with the flying mission group.
-We have been working on our traditional dancing in between grading tests and at break time. Ha. That's a sight to see.
-Nicole has so far been celebrating her birthday for 2 straight weeks. Her birthday is not until next week...

Well it has been more of a low key week. At school we basically just finished copying, printing, and stapling the tests. Esh it's taken a long time. We have since begun grading them. I honestly don't know how they would have ever gotten that done if we weren't around to do it. It would have taken weeks. Paul and I went to the copier store to buy more ink one day. The lady working told me I looked like I was 5. I know I look young, but really? She then proceeded to tell me that I wanted to get married while I was here in Bots and pointed to my fiancee seated at his desk at the store. Then she told me he would only beat me when he's drunk and told me to go say hello. I waved and we left. It was pretty humorous, and she was quite the character.

BK and I are still tight. It's amazing to watch how lively she has become. She makes more noise and tries to talk a lot more as well. She still calls me mama. I think that's kind of stuck. The worst is when she cries, and whales mama mama and buries her head in my legs...yeah. Sooo I think I'm just going to bring her home. That's okay, right mom?

At lunch one day, I was talking with one of the girls, while my hair was being braided. ha. Through our broken conversations she was asking me about home, my family, my church and why I was here. She finally stated, so you're just here to help? I replied yes. She then said some word that I didn't understand and then she said, it means thank you. It was unexpected and I was also very touched. To most of these kids we're just here to play with them and wash their dishes when they're done. To be honest I haven't really expected to really be "thanked" for anything, so for a 12 year old to do so was kind of special.

We are leaving Monday for a week up north. I am sooo EXCITED! We tried to get bus tickets...yeah you can't buy a ticket to get on the bus. You just show up that day and get on it. We figured this out after meandering all over town one day. Luckily, Tshube is getting up with us at 4:45 Monday morning to take us so that we make sure to get on the right bus. Ha. He told us to sit by the window and we would probably see some elephants or ostriches and what not on the drive. I told him I would be taking pictures out of the bus window. He laughed at me and said that everyone else on the bus will think we are ridiculous for getting so excited. I'm not worried. On our trip we are going to the Okavanga Delta, Chobe Wildlife Park, and Victoria Falls. Our activities will include tents, lots of water, mokoros (canoe boat things), rivers, bridges, long cords, and jungle jeeps :) I'll leave it at that for now. Mother, don't you be worried. I will be just fine and safe. BUT I did tell Jonathan if something happens, he can have my CD's from 6th grade and my rollerblades. Ha KIDDING KIDDING. Don't freak out. And Dad I will be taking my malaria pills daily so don't fret about that either.

Another American group showed up this week at the UB. How disappointing. I think the total of Americans staying here now is up to something ridiculous like 60. We've definitely been enjoying meeting lots of people from many different places. Ohio and Pennsylvania don't count as new and interesting. Sorry. No, they are all really nice and fun to hang out with though.

I guess that's about it for now. I have to figure out how to pack a weeks worth of stuff into my book bag. Ha. This is going to be VERY interesting. Be sure to check out my post next week and read about how a hippo attacked our tent and other stories from our adventure :)

Happy Father's Day Daddy :)
Ha I know I know...it's this weekend...last weekend it was flag day (Thanks Grandma)

We were not prepared for rain...

The boys out at Gamadubu.

Baby BK :)

It was so cold, this is what preschool consisted of some days.

It is finally done raining! Today has been such a beautiful day, I even got to wear shorts outside for the first time yet! It rained for pretty much 3 days nonstop last week. After that it was ridiculous everywhere because all of the dirt roads were then turned into swampy mud pits. My jeans are officially permanently dirty. I washed them today and there are still dirt streaks all over them. It was also freezing all last week. We all did not bring enough warm clothes for that weather. A lot of the little ones didn't come to preschool last week and when they did they spent at least some of the time under blankets on the floor, like in the picture. I have also been trying to teach me the song Jesus Loves Me. I think I have sung it for them at least 35 times so far.

Over the past weeks we have also come into contact with a mother who is 18 and has 3 kids. All with HIV, they are homeless, and don't have much food. Teacher Shirley has been bringing the little 2 year old, Bokusimo or BK, to preschool. She doesn't talk, interact with others, and is pretty weak. We decided to bring her home one night to get her out of the cold. She now calls me Mama. haha whoops. But she is a much happier little girl now than she was 2 weeks ago. She smiles.

At school they are doing a bunch of testing this week. They are testing in 7 subjects so we have been getting the tests ready. 130 copies for each subject and each test is about 8 pages long. The copier is broken. We have been using one tiny little computer printer to do all of this. Ha I'm waiting for the printer to explode...and then we're are going to be SOL.

Saturday we went out to Gamadubu. It is a little village place about 45 minutes outside Gaborone and Teacher Shirley goes out there to cook and counsel about 120 kids every weekend. Two girls, Jess and Ana, came with K-State 2 years ago and have since come back and done a LOT of work out there for them and have set up sponsorships and what not for the kids. They have really given the kids a great place to come. It's wonderful. We went out there and helped cook and hang out and what not. It was more out in the country than we have been yet. It was so beautiful and peaceful. I think it was the first time that I REALLY felt like I was actually in Africa. I wish we could be out there every weekend to help out, but I'm hoping to go out there at least one more time.

Oh also, no one here calls me Liz or even worse Dale :) No. I am Elizabeta, Leza, or my new name Tamelo which means faith. I got it from the ladies we were cooking with when I was peeling carrots at Gamadubu. They wanted to make sure I would not forget where I was when they gave me that name haha. Also, we went out to a restaurant place last night and hung around for a while. Made a bunch of new friends. Paul of course made good friends with some guys from China who picked him up and took him to KFC for breakfast this morning and then out to this fancy golf course where they drank tea and hit some balls. Haha he is ridiculous.

That's about it for now...

Zebras for Life!

On top of Khali Hill over looking Gaborone at sunrise

At the national soccer game. GO ZEBRAS!

Me and the crazy little lady.

Well first of all I can't believe how much time has already flown by. sheesh! I have been keeping busy in the daycare making worksheets for them to write their names and help with the alphabet and what not. I have also been in standard 6 helping out with classes. It took Paul and I an hour and a half to get through 2 paragraphs for them to be able to understand what was going on in the story. So it definitely does get frustrating sometimes but we are keeping with the kids. We are still working on the computer lab hoping to get some typing programs set up so they can learn to use the computers. We also have an organization coming out starting tomorrow that are going to work with students on life type skill kind of things so we are excited about that.

Our dear many friends from Face the Nation left this weekend to go into cities, towns, and villages across Gaborone so pray for them that their preparation and hard work goes to good use to spread God's love and help with AIDS/HIV prevention. They said they learned one day that 50% of women between 30-34 have AIDS. Crazy. But we miss them, and their loud ridiculous singing that went on all day and every night. I have been making up for them though, singing the same songs so I think Nicole is really glad and really enjoying that ;)

We had a busy weekend. We spent Friday with some kids from Flying Mission. They are here from 6 months to a year and are just doing some missionary volunteer work at various places, so I think we are going to spend a week here soon going with them to different hospitals and orphanages so I am definitely looking forward to that. Saturday we went to the ZEBRAS soccer game. Definitely a good time. We even got FREE Botswana flags. We stood in the wild section that danced and sang songs. Sunday we woke up at the ripe old time of 4:30 to go climb Khali Hill. We went with the guys from flying mission. It was pitch black and I thought we would be taking a path. No no. We were going directly straight up the mountain thing. Literally rock climbing like boulders. They were also pretty much running up this thing. It was ridiculous. Someone else told us they climbed it in 1 hour 30 minutes to 2 hours. No, we climbed it in 45 minutes. After I was done wheezing and wasn't dizzy anymore. It really was beautiful. We set up camp at the very top and proceeded to make a fire and cook breakfast. We brought sandwiches and they brought eggs, toast, we had coffee and tea. They were prepared. It was a really great time and we plan on doing it again. We have to go back because I did not see the BABOONS that are around the mountain. That's right, real live, wild monkeys. I HAVE to see them. And I will for sure let you know when I do...

Rule #25 Never sell your sister for less than 2 cows.

Lunch time at the Tlamelo Project

Me and the boys.

Well it has been a good week. We are finally settled in and comfortable with the city. We had a big dinner with some girls upstairs and hung out with them for the most part on Friday. We spent Saturday at Paul's roommate Tshube's track meet. It was an international meet so many countries from the southern part of Africa were there. Let me tell you, these people can run, and many of them do it without shoes on. He got 2nd in the 4x100 relay and 3rd in the 100. It was a lot of fun watching him. It was just a nice day. The crowd was into what was going on, and we watched the sun set over the mountain/hills in the background as the day went on. It was beautiful. Sunday we made it to church in Naledi and I'm pretty sure we were at church for 3 hours. But it was still a good time.

I talked to my mom a little bit about church here so I thought I would write it here as well. The people have such passion for God. You can tell by their singing and dancing, because it would easily move you to tears. They are the kind of church services that the women wept during the prayers. I was talking to someone about people and church here and they said that sometimes when people have nothing left that's when they turn to God and the church because that is the only thing to get them through the day which is what makes them so passionate. It is definitely different because back home people obviously don't go to church just out of thanks because they physically made it through the week.

We have been keeping busy working at the school. The Canadians that have been working there for weeks left yesterday so now we are picking up and continuing with the work that they started, so that has been nice. Nicole has been working on the computers while the rest of us have been in and out of classrooms and the daycare helping out. Man I have never appreciated what copiers can do until now (They have one but it doesn't work) I have to make work sheets for the 5 year olds written by hand so they can trace their name every day. There are 39 of them so it takes quite a while. ha.

Oh I also did some laundry today...in the sink and in the shower. So I think that is just going to turn out great. Who needs washing machines, really :) I was harassed on the combi today by a drunk man with no teeth and who was carrying a purse. Everyone else on the combi was laughing hysterically at what he was saying to me. It probably would have been a lot funnier if I had any idea what he was saying. Paul is asked somewhat regularly which one of us is his girlfriend (because he is the only guy) he simply replies that 2 he are not dating are his sisters. That is kind of how the "Never sell your sister for less than 2 cows" came about. Because he jokes that if we act up he'll sell us to the next people that say something.

I suppose that is enough nonsense for now....