Sports Contest in Khudumelapye

So I already ruined part of this blog post by putting on Facebook how the girls’ soccer team I am coaching did at the sub-zonal sports contest, but I am going ahead with this anyway. 

For those of you who missed all of that news, I coached our girls’ soccer team this year at school.  At the contest our team got 3^rd out of 5, and one girl was picked for the regional team.  Not too shabby for the first year of a girls’ team!  Unfortunately the two teams they beat were the other two Peace Corps volunteer schools in the sub-zone.  Sorry Corey and Mia!

Now for the other boring parts (the results).  I only say this is the boring part because I always think random stories are better than statistics.  Boys Football: Team took 1^st place and qualified for the next level, great job boys!  Boys Volleyball: 3^rd place (out of 3 teams).  This one slightly disgusted me.  I don’t care that they lost, but the coach took some of the boys’ football players after they were done, and swapped them into the volleyball team.  Boys that came to play volleyball did not even get to play while some of those kids got to do two sports.  I was asked if I wanted to swap in some Netball girls into the girls’ soccer team and I told them no since I wanted those kids who came to play soccer (and practiced for weeks) to have the chance to play.  Girls Volleyball: They were the only team.  Seriously.  Netball: Ladies sport, kinda like basketball but with no dribbling, you can only move the ball by passing.  The girls rocked this one taking 1^st place!

Story time!  I am going to split story time into 4 sections: accommodation, transport, bathing and interactions with the kids.

Accommodation: You ever sleep in a classroom for 3 days with a few other teachers and about 30 students?  It is a strange thing to say the least.  And like every kid ever did on field trips, they NEVER wanted to sleep.  Between that and the three desks with a sleeping bag on top that was my bed I am stunned I actually slept at all.  Most of the kids were in groups of 3 or 4 so they could share the blankets (it is winter time here after all).  The girls’ room was more crowded so we actually had two of the female teachers crashing with us in the boys room as well, which was funny since them and the one male teacher who is dating someone all shared an area the size of a twin bed.

Transport: First of all it was expected at any time during the day on Monday.  Of course I should have known it would not arrive till 6pm.  We loaded 64 kids, 1 cook, 1 PTA member, and 6 teachers into the cab and back of a giant truck (basically almost like a semi, but the back is not enclosed).  Along with this all the luggage came too.  It was packed back there (luckily I got myself one of the 4 cab spots).  The kids treated the community to songs as they left Kaudwane and arrived in Khudumelapye (as well as on the return journey too).  I was able to ride in this truck many a time that week as due to only one field for two days the girls played at Metsibothloko (Mia’s village and the closest to Khudumelapye). 

Bathing: All of the kids bathed outdoors.  In the wide open.  In the cold.  That must have sucked.  I actually only bathed once during the 3 day contest (although I did wash my face and head each day).  The teachers had set up in the girls’ room a “privacy area” with a metal wash tub.  Basically it was bookcases pushed together to make a fake wall.  It did its job, but me being taller than all the rest much more of me was visible than all of them.  Hence the one day only.  Luckily the teachers did not know I only took 1 full bath.  They thought I was weird enough for not bathing twice a day.  I am sorry, but in the winter time there is no way you are getting me to bathe twice a day.  That is just ridiculous!

Interactions: I had two moments with the kids that really stick out.  One of them was when I spent the evening with about 15 boys.  They somehow got bit by the learning bug (seriously, what kid tries to learn while on a field trip?)  It started with a book they found on HIV and that led to questions about opportunistic infections like TB.  After that we moved into riddle contests.  These kids are clever!  I could not think up anything to stump them.  And they got me a few times.  I thought about doing some American specific ones (like what has 4 eyes but can’t see) but I didn’t think that would be fair. 

The other moment was when I was trying to take a few pictures of some of the kids.  They saw the camera.  As I am sure almost any PCV in Botswana will tell you, as soon as one kid sees your camera, they ALL know you have it.  And the ALL want pictures taken, MANY PICTURES.  Head over to the pictures page to see some of them!  As someone who is a fan of candid shots, it is really hard to get those once they see the camera for the first time. 

Now for a quick general update.  Term 2 is winding down.  Towards the end of the month I kick off basically one month away from my site.  It all starts with a meeting to help plan a Life Skills PCV retreat with the Min of Ed.  Following that is the next Youth Forum (this time looking to be in Salajwe which is the closest village in all Botswana to my site).   After a few more days is vacation in Durban with some others from my group.  Then I come back with just half a week before the actual retreat with the Min of Ed.  Oh, and somewhere in there is PSDN training.  PSDN is the Peer Support and Diversity Network which I was accepted to along with 2 others from Bots 11.  Busy month coming up (but most if not all should be fun) and it kicks off in just a few weeks.  Because of that, not quite sure when the next blog post will be, or what it will be about, but I am planning to do at least one more before Durban.

And with that, hope everyone is doing well.  Happy belated birthday to Katie, Kaylynn, and Dad!  And happy early birthday to Kesselring! 

Apology

Sorry I have been MIA for a bit over a month.  But this coming week expect 1 (maybe 2 if I am adventurous) and many pictures.

Pics are up!

Hey, check out the pictures page.  27 new pics from Commonwealth Day.  All are taken at the school and show some traditional dancing and skits by each grade.  So you get to see my students.  Hopefully a video will come in a few weeks with some live action of the material.

Hitching

Of all the things I have done in Botswana that I would not do in the US I think hitching has to top that list.  If only because it is going to be such a hard habit to break.  It is it the only way to get to my village, and even when there is public transport in other places, hitching is usually faster.  But, not all hitches are created equal.  So for this blog post I have decided to describe the different types of hitches that I have seen.  This list only concerns rides between Kaudwane and Letlhakeng, this is because during this stretch hitching is the only option and the hitches between places like Gabs and Moleps can be very different from these. 

Note: several of the different types of hitches can overlap.  Especially in the areas of speed, comfort, and amount of people.  So there are several different combinations available. 

Type 1: Having the appropriate amount of people

This has happened to me a total of once.  Just once.  In 5 months at Kaudwane.  And this was only because it was in a car, and not a pick-up truck.  Unless the vehicle you are in is only seats and without a truck/bed to fit more people this never happens. 

Type 2: Undercrowded

This type means that there is plenty more room for people to fit, and it is only due to the lack of passengers that you have space.  Not as rare as type one, but still fairly rare.  I have only encountered this between Kaudwane and Salajwe (the first or last step of my trip depending on direction).  Once you start that trek between Salajwe and Letlhakeng this type ceases to exist in favor of….

Type 3: Overcrowded

“Excuse me ma’am but you are sitting on my foot, and have been for the last 50km.  It is alternating between being asleep which means I just know I will fall over when I stand and pain spasms.  Please be getting out of this vehicle soon.”  While I have never actually said this (at least not in this words, especially the last sentence), I have thought it an awful lot.  There is the stereotype that Mexicans can fit a lot of people in a truck.  Bullshit.  That award should go to Botswana.  It is simply fascinating how many people and things they get in a truck.  Honestly I think these hitches break at least three laws of science, yet they happen all the time.  I will never have space bubble issues in my life since I always seem to be constantly touching people due to these rides.

Type 4: Going a respectable speed for the conditions of the road

Not real.  Next.

Type 5: Going painstakingly slow

Unlike the undercrowded/overcrowded distinction, this one is about 50% of the time.  It would be one thing if the slowness made the ride more comfortable, but the drivers of these hitches always seem to be in the worst part of the road, making it so bumpy I can’t even read.  So instead I get to lazily watch the landscape go by and wonder if I shouldn’t have waited longer so I could have gotten on that truck that just passed us.  Worst offender: a red truck belonging to an old man in Kaudwane, but I always take it because I know he will take me the whole way.

Type 6: “You have a brake pedal, please use it”

Let me clarify that the general speed these hitches go is not necessarily unacceptable…if it was a real road.  But you have no reason to go as fast as you do on a paved road when we are on loose sand.  Please slow down.  Just a little.  Every time we hit a big bump everyone gets air.  And then I alternate between thinking I might fly out of the back or coming back down at the wrong angle on the paint bucket I am sitting on and bruising the left side of my butt for 3 weeks.  This last one happened to me about 4 weeks ago.  Yet I do prefer it to the slow ones for the reason that I get where I am going quicker, if only because…

Type 7: Comfortable

Also not real.  Next.

Type 8: Uncomfortable

Remember my foot story from a few types back?  Well between too many people jammed in to give adequate space, the driver always finds a way to pick the worst part of the road.  I don’t know how they do it.  And I know there are better parts, because when they swerve to avoid cows the other part of the road is always better.  STAY THERE!  But this has given me a glimpse into the reason why about 95% of the people here have big butts, they have nature’s padding for these uncomfortable rides. 

Type 9: The ideal hitch

You would think this is a combination of types 1 (or 2), 4, and 7.  But you would be wrong.  It can be any combination of types as long as it is one thing.  Free.

BONUS FEATURE!

The worst hitch ever!  So this happened to me today actually.  I find a free ride leaving my village going all the way to Letlhakeng around 6:30am.  Awesome.  “Oh we just need to go pick up something from where we are camping.”  No problem.  “Oh we are just going to wait to eat breakfast first.” It was already being cooked, so no problem.  I had plenty of time.  FOUR HOURS LATER!!!!  “Oh we aren’t actually going.”  SCREW YOU!  The only progress I made was four kilometers in the WRONG DIRECTION, waiting for you useless wastes of space.  So I am now outside my village, in the bush, in the wrong direction.  I hear cars coming by.  So I literally run out of the bush to find….

THE BEST HITCH EVER!  So I have no idea what the South African tourists first thought when they saw a white man run out of the bush and flag them down.  But they gave me a ride.  A ride all the way to the door of the place I am staying in Moleps.  They even waited for me to pick up a package in Letlhakeng.  And they fed me.  FOR FREE!  Seriously, weird day with my two ultimate hitching extremes.

The passage of time

Between sitting under a tree the other week for 5 hours waiting for a ride in Letlhakeng (a time which Rose and I used to come up with a complete social order to all the animals in the village) and spending a quiet Easter at home drinking wine out of a peanut butter jar (this classy moment brought to you by Peace Corps!), I have had a lot of time to think about…well time.  More specifically how quickly it passes.

Over the Easter holiday I also had some free time to update the décor in my house.  This was mostly done through a few calendars and pictures sent by Tori and Erika.  There were a few pictures that really sparked this line of thought about time.  The first was a picture from a wine tasting trip in Zamora about 2 and a half years ago where Casey and I were drunk enough to sing Spice Girls on the bus.  This picture is not of that moment but from early in the day.  Conveniently located next to my map of Salamanca it made me realize that it had indeed been years since I had been there.  It still seems so recent, yet also much longer than that at the same time.  Just like this Peace Corps experience.  I have been gone a long time, but some days it feels like no time, and others I wonder how I still have so much left.

From that picture I moved on to a few that brought back fond memories: rock climbing in IL with Brandon, Halloween parties at Aunt Jackie’s, raising money for Peruvian orphans in Queen’s Pub,  or my first ever trip to Cedar Pointe for Ashley’s 21^st birthday.  These got me thinking about the fact that even though I do keep in touch with many people even though I am a continent and an ocean away, there are at least some people in my life that I consider friends that I won’t see again.  First of all, this is not on purpose.  Secondly, I do not think that most of the people reading this will fall into that category.  This is just another mystery about the way time works.  Even at Aquinas there were people I liked perfectly fine that I would go a year without seeing.  And that was a small school.  Without being confined to a small campus it just stands to reason that there will be people I lose touch with.  At first I was depressed about this, but I realized that nothing I can do will reverse this fact; it is just the way of life.  Even if I spent all my energy just trying to maintain contacts, I know I would accidentally forget someone.  So I have already made peace with that, and as I said, I don’t expect to lose contact with most reading this.  Again, the quick passage of time at work.

And there was one category of pictures that brought about my last wave of thoughts on time.  This was some that I got from Tori and Erika that showed things I did not remember.  Nor could I remember because I was not there.  These things all happened since I have left.  I have been over in Africa for 7 months, so naturally a lot has happened (even if EVERY TIME I ask for news from stateside everyone assures me nothing is going on).  But it is strange to see pictures of things and think that you will never really know what is going on.  Sure, I am smart enough to figure out what are pictures from a Halloween party, or people picking pumpkins in a field.  But I will never completely understand how it felt to be there.  And that made me realize it is going to be the same the other way around.  I can post pictures and blog posts all I want, but no matter what the people reading this will know what happened, but they won’t have the experience.  And in just 19 short months from now everyone I see again will have years of experiences I did not have, and vice versa.  This is not a bad thing, and won’t stop me from blogging and putting up pictures and such, but just another of the many intricacies concerning the rapid passage of time.  There is nothing you can do against it, despite how hard you might try, but it is something interesting to reflect on (if you find yourself drinking wine alone during the holidays you should give it a try).

One thing I have learned in Peace Corps is how to spend a lot of time alone with your own thoughts.  I do that a lot.  It is just part of life being the only person who natively speaks your language in the surrounding area.  And that is what this post has been.  An attempt at making some coherence out a mind’s ramblings about the passage of time. 

Now to give a very quick update on general stuff.  I am doing well.  Term 1 is over, and Term 2 starts next week.  My counterpart and I are planning to start 2 girls’ soccer teams, one for at school youth and one for out of school.  We are also looking at reviving more clubs at the school since the PACT Club revival has been effective so far.  Finally starting to get close to chilly in the mornings.  Not to that point yet, but getting there.  And working on a putting together a video from our Commonwealth Day celebration (showing traditional dancing and such done by the school kids) as well as figuring out what pictures to upload next.  That will all be coming down the line in anywhere between a few weeks and a month or two.  It all depends. 

And with that peace out.  Happy belated birthday Heather, and happy early birthday to anyone who has a birthday before I post again.  

Triple Six

It doesn’t taste as good as Triple Sec, but looks better than typing 666.  But anyway this post is all about 6.  Three of them to be exact.  6 lists.  All of different top 6 things about my Life in Peace Corps Botswana so far.  With the intention of celebrating the 6 month mark of my time here!  Yeah, officially the 6 month mark is still about 2 weeks off, but unless some technician actually came to fix the internet since the November lightning strike I don’t anticipate having internet then, so doing this now.   You might have heard some of these things, but assure you there is something new for everyone.  So without further ado, let’s jump into the lists!

The Top 6 Animals!

6.  Goats.  Annoying, everywhere, and they hold up traffic.  Because of all of this goats make the list just because they have an impact on my daily life.  And while donkeys and cows do the same things goats do, the goats won the spot since they have learned how to break into my yard and I have gotten good at herding them.

5.  Walking sticks.  These are technically bugs, but the look cool, are huge, and generally just awesome.  My dog in Kanye fought with one once, and at this workshop I am at one was just hanging out on my door to the lodge.  And the thing was bigger than my hand!

4.  Monkeys/baboons.  They look cool, will steal from you at hotels in Gabs, walk around in the strangest places (I have only seem them in Jwaneng at a diamond mine and in the capital), but they are aggressive little buggers and a little scary for that.   So monkeys, the number 4 spot is an offering so you do not attack me.  I recognize your ability to scratch my face off, and say please don’t. 

3.  Ostriches.  You don’t impact me that often.  But you are the only animal that I have seen in broad daylight both inside and outside the reserve (aka walking around my village limits).  So for your sheer resourcefulness in getting out of Khutse just to chill, and giving me something to look for from time to time, you get the bronze for this category.

2.  Dogs.  I love dogs.  Bobi ran with me in Kanye most mornings.  They are generally friendly (minus the pack of wild dogs killing cattle around the village that have since been caught) and brighten my day.  But dogs, a message to you all.  The reason you don’t win first is because almost all of you look like you belong in one of those adopt an animal commercials with sad music playing.  Your owners need to feed you more or else I will be spending a ton of money I don’t have trying to get you to the states.

1.   And the winner is…..SNAKES!  I mean how can it be anything else?  You probably read about my black mamba killing.  Well in addition to that I also got to ride in the cab of a truck where the back was a cage with a 15 foot python that had swallowed a baby goat.  They were taking it out to the Game Reserve to release it.  So snakes, you win since you have the most impact on my life.  I refuse to go to my pit latrine across the yard at night for fear of you.  And I would say that you make me piss myself, but you really stop me from being able to get to my bathroom…damn you.

The Top 6 Foods!

6.  Phaleche (papa).  General starch fill in.  Not overly impressive on its own, but nearly any sauce can be added on top to make it much better.  So way to be the base of a lot of my food (well at workshops, I still don’t have the desire to make you at home over pasta or rice).

5.  Tomato Sauce.  Think ketchup.  But then not really.  Has the same consistency and purpose but tastes better in my opinion.  And when you are poor in the Peace Corps, there is nothing like tomato sauce to add to your plain noodles in a pinch.

4.  Samp.  Samp is another food base like papa, but just so much better.  Papa has a firm, fairly dry texture, whereas samp just has so much more in regards to texture.  It also has much more going for it in terms of taste, it doesn’t need nearly as much doctoring as papa, hence the number 4.

3.  Veggie Curry Pies.  Now if you ever come to my house, odds are the food I will have the most of are cans of curried vegetables.  These have to be my biggest staple food.  Add in some garlic salt, paprika, thyme, and cayenne pepper and we got a meal.  But as much as I love veggie curry cans, there is just something magical about getting it in a pie.  Whenever I am in Moleps shopping I look for this since it is a great lunch on the go, really cheap, delicious, and I don’t have to cook it.  The fact that I can’t get you outside of Moleps keeps you at three.

2.  Fatcakes.  Warm balls of fried dough.  Sweet but not too sweet.  Filling, but you can eat more than one.  You will hate yourself for it.  But you will do it all over again.  The fatcake is just amazing.  And some are as cheap as 1 pula.  For fried dough.  There is no nutritional redemption to these magical creations.  And I don’t care.  I just love the warm sweet bread balls as you eat them piece by piece.  And I really should have wrote this part AFTER dinner.  But as much as I love Fatcakes, they cannot even hold a candle to my number one (although a lot of people will disagree with me).

1.   And the winner is….Chips!  Not like potato chips.  I mean the English version of chips.  Aka French Fries.  But that doesn’t do them justice.  When I think French Fries I think of those pathetic little crispy McDonalds potato sticks.  No, these are a bit thicker, oily, warm, and best of all….mushy.  Yes.  I like my chips mushy.  You all can keep your crispy little fries.  I want chips that still remember that they used to be a potato just smothered in tomato sauce.  And on that note, definitely ordering those as part of my dinner.  And thankfully this list is done before I drool on my keyboard.

The Top 6 Words/Phrases!

These can be in English or Setswana, but they are all phrases that I see used (and some I have started to use) everyday. 

6.  Ke kopa 2 pula! (Give me two pula!)  This can be said in either language and I have heard it in both.  I don’t like it.  At all.  But it happens a lot.  Well in the larger villages.  No one in Kaudwane has ever asked me for money.  But it is usually kids in big villages (like Kanye).  But the thing that really gets me?  It is ALWAYS 2 pula.  What can buy for 2 pula that is worthwhile? 

5.  That side.  GAH!  THAT IS NOT A WAY TO GIVE DIRECTIONS!  GIVE ME A BUILDING COLOR AT LEAST!  Ahem.  Anyway, that side is the favored way of describing where anything in Botswana is.  That side can be any distance between just a few minutes, or even across the country.  And it always has a little hand wave that gives you absolutely no idea exactly where something is.  So be prepared to hear that side a lot in one trip when you stop every ten minutes to ask more directions until you realized you passed what you were looking for 2km back because nothing is labeled. 

4.  What what.  I have used this one.  It is the Botswana version of etc.  That is the best way to describe it.  You can use what what for describing people, talking about steps to complete a form, and what what.  See what I did there?

3.  Lekgoa.  I don’t hear this in Kaudwane (thankfully), but everywhere else I do.  Lekgoa is a white person.  Literal translation is “one who is vomited by the sea.”  Yet it isn’t meant offensively at all.  Which seems strange.  But this funny literal translation and the usefulness of knowing the word is why it gets a nice spot at 3.

2.  The tongue undulation.  This isn’t a word or a phrase.  But it is awesome so I made an exception, and at number 2 no less!  All of the women here do this tongue thing instead of clapping.  The noise is loud, awesome, and you really need to hear it to believe it.  So for being way more awesome than clapping you get the silver.

1.  And the winner is…now now.  This wins for being the most useful and least useful phrase in my current vocabulary.  I use this one all the time.  Now now means now.  Now just means sometime (maybe soon if you are lucky) in Botswana.  If you want something to happen now, you have to say now now.  Yet no matter what, it is never now now.  NEVER!

The Top 6 Things I have done!

6.  School Garden.  As you can see on the youtube video it isn’t done.  But just starting the ball rolling is an accomplishment so I am counting it.

5.  PACT Club.  When I got to Kaudwane the PACT Club had fallen apart.  So this year I am working on putting it back together with Mr. Pule the teacher assistant.  And we actually have 13 students in it and started meeting.  So far a successful revival!

4.  Game drive on New Years.  This one isn’t work related, but it was the first time I got into the Khutse Game Reserve right next to my site.  So that alone was cool, but got to see some game I had not seen before too (no lions or leopards).  All in all a very awesome way to ring in the New Year.

3.  Teaching Life Skills lessons.  This is my biggest work success so far.  We finally started teaching the Life Skills curriculum in every Standard.  Major improvement over not using the materials at all.  Next step is getting the teachers to do more of the teaching and me more of the support role (right now that is reversed for this lift off phase).

2.  Playing soccer with kids.  This is the most personal success so far.  I mean, I don’t even speak the same language as these kids yet everyday (that I am in Kaudwane at least) I play soccer with them for about an hour outside my house and we have a great time.  Yeah I am super tired afterwards, but always really happy.

1.  And the winner is…surviving!  Hey, that alone is pretty damn impressive.

The Top 6 Things I Want to do!

6.  Learn the name of everyone in my village.  I want to do it.  But we all know how bad I can be with names.  That is why this is number 6, very unrealistic.  But something to shoot for.

5.  Be fluent in Setswana, Sekgalagadi, or Sasarwa.  All three are spoken in my village, so I don’t care which one.  But they are all hard languages so this will be another pipe dream.  But not as hard as the name one, hence why it ranks higher. 

4.  See the Big 5.  The Big 5 are the main 5 animals that you want to see in Botswana.  Wildebeast, Elephant, Lion, Leopard, and Rhino.  Right now I have 1 out of 5.  Only 4 to go!

3.  Garden.  Yup, this makes this list too.  While the ball is rolling on the garden I want to make sure it can work each year.  So garden gets on this one too.

2.  PACT Club.  Another carry over.  As I said in the other list, the PACT Club had been stagnant before I came.  I don’t want it to fall back to that when I leave.  So that is another of my big goals.

1.  And the winner is…organizing soccer tournaments!  The kids love to play.  The parents love to play.  The school wants more parental involvement.  And the school has a soccer pitch.  It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that there are possibilities there.  I am hoping to start on this as soon as this workshop ends this week.

The Top 6 Stories!

My final top 6.  In these stories I have labeled 2 as learning moments, 2 as uncomfortable, and 2 as just plain embarrassing. 

6.  Learning moment.  Hitching.  In the US I would have been terrified to do this.  Here it is not an issue.  In fact I have to do it.  I have learned really fast how to just blindly trust drivers.  But it is what you need to do to get around, and it affects my life so often that it had to make the list.

5.  Learning moment.  Teaching Standard 5.  I have a hard time calling this a learning moment.  That week felt like a lifetime.  While it was uncomfortable, I did learn a heck of a lot.  Mostly classroom management techniques.  The fact that I am still alive after teaching kids with that colossal language barrier I view as a huge success.

4.  Uncomfortable Moment.  Seswa.  Ugh.  I already wrote about this one, but it still comes in at 4.  The first week in the country more or less and I have to serve meat to 50 men then at least try a taste myself since the chief is telling me to.  And I use the word meat very, very, very loosely.  Ugh.  Never again.

3.  Uncomfortable Moment.  Oops, I forgot your name.  Man if this doesn’t happen way too much to me.  The most embarrassing was the first couple days at school when a couple of the teachers’ names just wouldn’t stick.  Names are very important here, so not being able to remember is very uncomfortable, hence thing I want to do number 6.

2.  Embarrassing story.  Falling in Kanye.  Most of you know about my running issue in Kanye.  You know, the day I trip, gashed open my hand, and to top it all off lost my house keys?  Yeah, that day sucked.  Hard.  But I am almost positive I covered it elsewhere so that is enough of reliving that.

1.  And the winner is…another embarrassing story!  Yeah, these things happen too often.  Falling that is.  Yeah, another I fell story.  Although this one was in front of about 20 people.  And out of a truck.  It is so embarrassing to fall out of a truck.  Luckily it was stopped.  I was hitching to Letlhakeng and when the truck stopped I was getting out when I got bumped and fell out the side.  Not as bad a wound as the time in Kanye, but definitely harder on my pride. 

And there you have it!  6 lists of top 6 things for 6 months in Botswana.  Been a great half year so far and I hope it just keeps getting better, despite all the challenges (damn falling).  

New video!

Hey all!

New video up on the Youtube channel.  Click the link at the top of the page to go straight there.  And sometime this coming week will be a post dealing with 6s.  See if you can guess why that is the magic number before it goes up.