"I love this crazy, tragic, sometimes almost magic, awful, beautiful, life"

Crazy:
- We had a thunderstorm on Wednesday afternoon that knocked the power out... and I'm pretty sure I saw sparks from when lightning hit a power pole at my school. Good things my stuff was unplugged!

Tragic:
- I saw a goat almost hang himself. He (or she) was in the back of a truck that passed us. He was tied up but jumped out and was hanging there twitching. Our whole truck starting yelling PUDI!!! (Setswana for goat) And the luckily the truck pulled over and hoisted him back in. I think he was okay, but it was terrifying to watch.

Almost magic:
- I went to a really good workshop in Gabs on Monday and Tuesday. It's called the virtue project, and it's basically a positive discipline strategy based on acknowledging virtues in people instead of pointing out failures. I really hope I can bring the concepts back to my school. In addition, I got to hang out in Gabs for a few days with friends, air conditioning, hot showers, and good food.

Awful: It's hot. And buggy. And sandy.

Beautiful: Friendships with teachers at my school. Sunsets. Letters and packages from friends back home.

Life: One more week of school, in which I'm trying to run a mini camp for like... 200 kids. Stayed tuned for how THAT turns out ;)

A little more normal

I realize I've been bad at blogging lately. And then I realized that one of the reasons why, is that a year into my service, I think things are finally seeming quasi-normal to me. Not that I like everything, or don't have bad days, but I'm learning to shrug at things, roll my eyes, and be assertive when I need to be. And normal amounts to less blogging, because I tend to write when something stirs an emotion, whether it be happy, sad, angry, or whatever.
It's also the end of the school term here and not a lot has been going on. So when big shiny things aren't happening, I forget to write sometimes.
So I'm going to attempt to try a weekly post on random things that happened during the week, no matter how big or small.

Mid-Service Musings

I've been reminded that it's been almost 2 months since I posted. Oops? As they say here, sooooorry.

Several milestones have passed since I last updated. September 11th marked one year since I left home. September 13th marked one year in Botswana. October 14th (ish) is my official halfway point through my time here, and in a few days, I'll have one year left in Country (November 14th, 2014 is my last day as a volunteer).

Generally, volunteers have a slump around the one-year mark. I've sort of been going in and out of a slump the last month or so, but nothing like June. I think mostly I've been happy, as in, I've made it this far! I've made it more than halfway! Woo! I can also look back on the past year and sometimes that's helpful. While I really don't feel like I've done much, when you total it up, it's not nothing.

- 2 GLOW camps

- 2 Teacher workshops

- Teaching some Form 2 and 3 classes

- Making friends with teachers at school

- Attempting clubs, and having an end of the year party for my PACT club this past week

- Working with a young woman in my village trying to help her start a small business

- Helping at a health fair in another volunteer's village

- Helped count out a lot of pills at my clinic

I've also got a lot planned for the rest of this year and next year:

- More teaching

- Compiling lesson plans to make curriculum more easily accessible for teachers and volunteers

- Coaching volleyball again

- More camps

- More workshops

- Trying a different approach to a club

- Working on some gender-based-violence (GBV) initiatives

- Possibly a safe male circumcision campaign in my village

- Collaborating with other volunteers whenever possible

I've also just been able to do a lot of cool things personally this year:

- I've learned some Setswana

- I've learned how to cook more things

- I've read 91 books (and am in the middle of another 3)

- I've watched a bunch of movies and TV

- I've done a fair amount of writing- blogging, fiction, and nonfiction

- I've traveled to 4 African countries- Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa

- I've traveled lots of different places within Botswana, including the Okavango Delta and Tsodilo Hills

- I've seen a lion, a leopard, giraffes, elephants, impala, hippos, crocodiles, amazing birds, buffalo, and tons of other things in the wild

- I've made new friends

- I've learned a lot about development and behavior change

- I've learned a lot about myself

In the next 12-14 months, I'm planning on more writing, reading, traveling in and out of Bots, backpacking after my service is over, and whatever else I can fit in. 

Most of all, thank you to my friends and family back home. Without your love, support, e-mails, phone calls, letters, packages, prayers and visits, there's no way I would have made it this far. <3 div="">