As many of you already know, this summer I am lucky enough to be working as a volunteer at True Men Trust, a non-governmental organisation in Francistown, Botswana, Africa! I have already have started posting to another blog, which the other members of the Queen's Project on International Development Team Botswana (Faisal, Thomas, Chloe and Lyndsay) will also be posting to all summer, but I thought it would be nice to have a more personal blog to let let everyone back home know about my travel and work adventures! For those of you who don't already have it, the address for our team blog is: http://botswanaproject.blogspot.com. Make sure to check it out!
Alright, now onto the updates! My summer wanderings officially started (after months of waiting) on Tuesday night at 10:45pm when our first flight departed from Toronto. By the time we actually get to Francistown, we will have been traveling for almost two whole days!!! Already we have spent 21 hours flying. The legs of the trip look like this:
Toronto-Abu Dhabi (13hours)
4 hour layover in Abu Dhabi
Abu Dhabi-Johannesburg (8hours)
9 hour layover in Johannesburg (that's where I am now!!!!)
and finally Johannesburg-Francistown (1.5hours)
So.Much.Traveling. But totally worth it!!!
Basically it is still pretty surreal to me that I am actually here. We have all been waiting for so long to actually get to Botswana and start working, but now that it is actually happening it kind of seems like a dream. Haha that sounds so cliche. But its true! We all just keep saying how cool this is, and I don`t think anyone has stopped smiling for more than a minute at a time!
The next couple of days are probably going to be pretty hectic. We will arrive in Francistown this evening, and Thomas' home-stay dad has hooked us up with a hotel to stay at for the first two days while we go around town, get cellphones set up, and Thomas, Faisal and I meet our boss at True Men. Then we are all going up north to Kasane for a few days (another 8hour trip!) to get Lyndsay and Chloe set up with their home-stay and work. Then it's back to Francistown where we finally meet our home-stay families and start work!!!
I'm am so so excited to start meeting people and exploring Francistown. I'm still a little worried about starting work and how life is going to be with my home-stay family, but at this point the adrenaline is kicking in and I'm sure I will soon forget my nervousness. Keep tuned to this blog to hear more updates and check out my pictures! I'm going to try to post as often as I can.
Sala sentle (stay well),
Is
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