Great Expectations

It has now been close to almost two months. I must say that i was very skeptical initially. We were all fresh people straight out of college eager and keen to take over the world. Some of us had just been working for a couple of months.

Through my parents practice i would hear dreary stories of working with the government, and governmental organizations! How they take soooooooooo ever so long to do the simplest of things.

Man was i WRONG!!

I had never anticipated in my stereotypical view of governmental work; that our two leaders Katy, and Lesedi would be so determined to get this thing off the floor. Within the first month we had made our presence aware. The first presentation that i went to with the team at USAID blew everybody outta the water. Between, " Great Idea," "I am happy to see such determined young people,""you look great!" we heard no other remarks.

It has now been close to two months and we are known by the Ministry of Health, BAPL, Baler Clinic, Mascom and VARIOUS other huge organizations. The software is already up and running. Pilot test was executed and successful. I dont mean to toot our own horn, but we got our shit together.

I guess thats the difference in just working, and working for something you believe in passionately. I would like to thank the whole team for giving me this Golden opportunity to help in changing the lives of some of the people in Botswana, and to tell you all how AMAZING it is working with you.

Southern Summer Sunset

Western Cape, South Africa January 3rd-ish

Views of Gaborone

Barney stands next to a statue of Seretse Khama, Botswana's first president after Independence from Britain. Botswana is set apart from other African countries because of its stability and peaceful transition to independence from colonial powers. Botswana gained its independence in 1969 and has had a stable democracy ever since. Mogae was the 2nd president and was recently awarded a prize for good governance. BBC has an article about it: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7679391.stm. Ian Khama, Seretse's son, is the current president. Although Botswana is starting to feel the effects of the global recession as the demand for diamonds declines, the new president was given funds for his projects which include increasing funding for youth sports and music.



Sunset at the Gaborone Dam. The Notwane River flows through Gaborone and the city gets its water supply from the reservoir created by the dam. Botswana is landlocked, bordered by Namibia, South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Zambia. Overall, Botswana is a dry country, home to the Khalahari desert, with the exception of the northern area. Up north is the Okavango Delta, the largest inland delta in the world. Years ago, the Okavango flowed to the sea, and now it stops in northern Bots. We'll definitely plan a trip up there when possible. The Okavango River, as well as the Cunene and the Zambezi all flow from Angola, to the northwest of Botswana. The Cunene and Zambezi create the northern boundary of southern Africa. Once again, when time and money permit, plans are in line for a hair raising trip to Vic Falls and the Zambezi. We're told it's possible to body board down the Zambezi, which is chock full of whitewater. That oughta settle the itch to get out of town.

Generating Logo Ideas

As we are developing our ideas and plans for our presence here in Botswana, Yasemin has been putting her artistic skills into play designing a logo for BAPL. Here is the preliminary image she drew, which we took to JJ, a graphic designer here in Gabs, to digitize. It's a baobab tree which is symbolic of longevity and found mostly in northern Botswana. I've seen pictures of these for years. They are quite cool as the branches look like the root system turned skyward and they have fat trunks that store lots of water. People chew stems of it during a certain time of the year and it gives a little buzz, maybe similar to sassafrass?
With BAPL, we intend to focus on technological solutions to distinguish our activities from those of other youth-focused organizations in Botswana. Yas is cookin up some more techy logos to get this point across.

24!!!!!

Just had my BDAYYY!!! This is the first time I've celebrated it outside of California since my one-year-old birthday in England. Who knew I'd be celebrating it in Gaborone, Botswana 23 years later. We all went to dinner at Ashoka, this awesome Indian restaurant and I had my favorite yummilicious dish, the mutton sagwala! We saved the rest of the celebration for the weekend:) I have to say, being away on my bday made me think of the fam and friends back home more than ever...Gosh do I love and miss you guys!

So I can't believe I'm 24, one year closer to menopause and saggy boobs..should I really be celebrating? JK of course...I'd still say I'm young and plus, every age has its beauty. 

It's funny, when I was in high school kids in college seemed so grown up to me and now that I've graduated I feel like I'm supposed to be some mature young woman and know all the answers. But really, I just know how to act mature at the right moments and pretend I know the answers when I'm actually just guessing them. I think we're all just kids with bigger toys and nicer wardrobes except we now have bills to pay...YUCK. Hey Mr.Gates, can you just adopt me? Money money money, sounds so funny, in a rich mans world~says ABBA... The thing is, I don't want to base my decisions in life on money and being able to pay the bills. Sure that's obviously important, but first and foremost you should be doing something that makes you happy, something that gives you a natural inner drive. Isn't life too short to be living as a lemming? That doesn't mean you can't be smart with your money and become wealthy. I'm just saying you should be able to do both and it's not worth it to forsake your happiness for a mountain of gold. The most successful people in life are the ones who do things they love. It seems like the hard part is finding out what that is. And how do we want to make that part of our path in life? So yeah..thats where I'm at right now. Like I said, I don't know the answers...just guessing...and I'm guessing there's probably more than one answer as well. 

Anyhow, I'm quite exhausted after this birthday weekend.

Tootles for now

Yas