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...