Mom (Carol) and some of our fellow volunteers at the
Gaborone airport

September 15. We made it to Botswana, after a two year process of application!  It is amazing to be in Africa.  We expected it to be hotter when we landed in Gaborone; the weather was, and is, beautiful, dry, desert like, warm to hot but hardly stifling during the day, cool at night.

We spent the first night at a lodge in Gaborone, where we received rabies shots, medical kits, mosquito netting, and did some introductory training.  We met the staff, all of whom are very impressive.  Most are Batswana, that is, people from Botswana.

This is our room at the Gaborone lodge.  Very nice, with a swimming pool, although, between training and being in desperate need of sleep, we didn't use it.  Probably none of the volunteers did.


The next morning we bussed an hour to Kanye, where we will do our training.  The countryside along the way is reminiscent of Eastern Oregon, but with trees instead of sagebrush.  Lots of trees, mostly with no leaves, many, though, in bloom.  It will be the rainy season soon, and, no doubt, everything will turn green when that happens.   In Kanye there was a presentation by a number of dignitaries, many speeches in English and Setswana, after which we met our "host families" and had lunch.  Our host family lives a short drive from the training center.  Our quarters are very nice, certainly different than what John experienced in Panama 40 years ago!

Not far from our house.  

We've walked around Kanye a bit, went to church Sunday morning, and are feeling pretty good about settling in.  Tomorrow, Monday, we start formal training.  We are excited about the people in our group, and, really, everyone we've met so far.

Mma Baakang, left,  our host "mother" and a friend, in
Mma's house.  Our house is a roomy "studio" with a
bath, in a separate building on the compound