Thankful Saturday, 3 weeks edition!

 My summer had kind of a crazy end to it, and so I haven't posted regularly. I hope I can get back in the habit next week with less travel and more weekly activity stuff. So much to be thankful for!

1. I ninjaed down to Edisto on August 27th for an extended family member's funeral. It was wonderful to see so much extended family that I haven't seen in probably 10 years. 

2. I'm thankful for Okie, my dad's cousin's wife who passed away. She was 89, kind of like an aunt to me, and a very sweet lady. She had an amazingly full life and she would have loved all of her family getting together to celebrate her life like we did.

3. Family laughter. There were 7 of us staying at Betty's and even though the occasion was sad, we still had a lot of time to hang out and get to know each other better and laugh.

4. A dog fix. There were 4 dogs at Betty's including the 1 year old lab puppy Indigo. He is hilariously excited, clumsy, still in shark phase, and the best dog ever. At one point 10-year old Maddy tried to hold him when we opened the front door and he half dragged her outside. I had to physically pick up his rear end and pull him back inside. We were both laughing so hard and I really wish someone had that on video.

5. A quick visit to see Meghan in Charleston

6. Friends and coworkers willing to step in and take over some things so I could go to SC. Babs came over and coordinated a furniture pickup, my girl scout co-leader started the year without me, and coworkers worked around my travel schedule to get some things done.

7. I went to Minneapolis for a week! My friends Sandy and Stephen have been inviting me to come visit so I finally did. We went to the Minnesota State Fair, hiked around a lake near their house, went to the Minnesota Renaissance Faire, and visited some local parks. We also caught up on life and played some board games.

8. I got to hang out with my friend Deb that just moved to Minneapolis. She's now my MN mom, and it was wonderful catching up with her. We went to the arboretum, 2 indie bookstores, and a near cupcake place.

9. A new phone... So I lost my phone, got a new one, and then someone turned in my old one at the arb where I dropped it. I desperately needed a new phone and I'm very happy I have a new one, and I'm also very glad someone turned my old one in (which I picked up a few days later) so I can transfer things and not worry about identity theft.

10. Minnesota State Fair!

11. Minnesota Ren Faire! This is the 4th Ren Faire I've been to, at least of the big ones.

12. I got to see the Mississippi river!

13. I got to have dinner with my cousins who were in town yesterday.

14. I went to a cool local festival with Babs today, Boonsboro historical days. Lots of food trucks, tons of handmade crafts, and we toured a local museum. We picked up a bunch of info on Boonsboro historical sites and now have lots of things to explore in the future. We also stopped by another indie bookstore that I've been wanting to check out in the downtown area.

15. Life gets back to normal a little next week. I have loved gallivanting the second half of my summer, even though I'm still so sad that the reason I can travel is because I no longer have Luna.  That said, I've had lots of adventures the last 6 weeks and am looking forward to a little more routine for a bit. Girl Scouts, bells, church, maybe some regular board game nights. 

16. It's almost fall! Fall is one of my favorite seasons- it's crisp, its cooler, its festival season, and its great for being outside. 

PCV life scattered on my table

As I’m preparing for my last few classes and activities with my students and teachers, I’m chuckling at the contents strewn across the desk (okay, large table) in my house.

• Colorful lists of emotionally healthy and emotionally unhealthy behaviors
• Boggle and Bananagrams (for the English club that never really materialized)
• Toilet paper
• Hand drawn diagrams of the male and female reproductive systems
• Corresponding labels for above diagrams
• Several books of lifeskills lesson plans
• Hand sanitizer
• A hand made dice that has potential consequences of alcohol abuse (car accident, injury, late for work, etc.)
• Name-tags for a mini camp
• A fly swatter (bc holy moly the bugs lately!)
• A stack of index card sized papers with sticky tack on the back that say things like doctor, nurse, weak, strong, etc, for a lesson on gender
• Various pencils and markers
• A hella lotta sunscreen
• Condoms (male AND female) and a wooden penis
• A loose ball of various colors of embroidery floss for bracelet making
• Scissors, a pocket knife, and string (for making those name-tags)
• Duct tape
• In Her Shoes, an activity to talk about Gender Based Violence
• Chalk
• My external hard drive
• Tennis balls that I need to label for a game  
• Peanut butter and a spoon (cuz ya know, dinner)
• A clean sock, bc I’m debating making a puppet
• A water bottle
• A screwdriver (my light switch plate decided to jump off the wall earlier for no reason)
• Gin

You know you’re a PCV when… 

House guests and potential roommates

Living in the bush, I get a fair amount of creatures in my house. By far the most common are ants, spiders resembling daddy long legs, and house flies. The latter is the most annoying by far. I've also killed 2 scorpions and a few bigger spiders, without stopping to photograph them ;)

But some of the larger things that have tried to move in with me include: 

Curious baby goats

Setotojanes, or corn crickets

various lizards, possibly living in my suitcase

a preying mantis

a bat

a non poisonous whip snake, which involved calling my neighbors to help me find it and get rid of it

a mouse

and a bird that got lost in bathroom, with lots of resultant flapping.

All creatures made it out alive except the snake and the mouse. People here kill all snakes, and the mouse had already died because I sprayed too much doom trying to get rid of some ants. Most things I was happy to live and let live, just you know, not in my house. 

Aileen's Wedding

Aileen, the PCV in the village next to me and my good friend, got married to her American non-PCV finance Adam last week in Letlhakeng.

We hung out at the Rural Administration Commission (RAC) for the officiant.

The actual ceremony was very Batswana in a room at the RAC, but they are MARRIED!

The happy couple and the officiants. 

They got serenaded  by everyone in the offices on their way out.

They had a nice reception at a little restaurant in Letlhakeng.

The bridal party. 

Speechifying in true Botswana style.

The only bummer was the bridal party hit a donkey on the way back from the wedding, which dented the rental car and caused a few hours of insurance and police report stress.

But we celebrated  more back at Aileen's place, including Jess making us all multiple smoothies. Congrats to the happy couple, who had to jump through a LOT of bureacratic mess to get married. PULA!

"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 ;)