hey right now it is very hard to email and talk on the phone from our homestay. on june 21st life goes back to normal so expect to hear from us more often and know that you can call anytime you want as of june 21st. be patient. we are very excited for this freedom come june 21st....

Oh- we thought of something we want sent.....

if anyone has time to do some internet research for us and print out what you find that would be splendid. you can send it via air mail to the address listed in a previous post. and it goes without saying jolly ranchers are always needed!!!!!

Topics of Interest:

1. with all of the chickens running around we really want our own chickens. I try to get info but with limited language skills, i can only understand so much of what is said. so if anyone can research the following topic it would help greatly- how to raise and take care of chickens so that they produce eggs.

2. any info about the millennium development villages. i would love to visit one and hopefully get the funding to travel to one as part of training- so i need all the information you can get.


all is well. glad it is the weekend. getting my haircut from a fellow PCT ( peace corps trainee) tomorrow. we will see how short it is- i am giving him creative freedom....

have a good weekend.

laura

Same same but different.... kinda

Hello Everyone. Just a short note to catch you up on our lives. We are starting to get the feel of how things are going to be in Botswana over the next two years. Slowly, slowly is what we have to come to realize. The projects are going to be exciting and the work is going to fulfilling. All of this will come at the cost of great patience and learning to following the protocol of this country, that is so different then ours.

This past weekend we got to go camping in the great Kalahari desert. It was great and truly in the middle of no where. We got to hang out with some friends, the incredible full moon, and or course a baby giraffe. Oh did i forget to mention all the impala and crazy wildlife that i do not even know the name of.....

The weather is absolutely amazing. The day is sunny and warm and the night cools down to about 60. The lack of humidity is so great. The sun is warm but not hot. If you ever feel to hot the comfort of the shade is amazing. We hear summer is terrible here (Jan) but it is hard for me to believe considering that they do not even have the least bit of water in the air. It definitely will not be the swamp like feel you get in Indiana or say NYC.

We have obviously made many cultural observations up until this point- yet we are going to wait to comment until we have more time to fully analyze what we think.

The other Peace Corps volunteers are great. WE live near three people that bring laughter to our long training days. One of the volunteer is 72 years old and I absolutely adore her. I keep telling her I want to be her when I grow up. Every Sunday we meet at this lodge down the street to take back some beers and vent about the boring aspects of training. We also get to reflect together and talk about what we all think the inherent problems are associated with development. It always makes for a very passionate conversation, considering many of us have studied development theories in school.

That is all for today. I am heading to the grocery store- this is always one of the big excitements here for the day. I hear they have feta in the store today. YEAH!!! Matt is off to play basketball with all the local Batswana ballers!!!

Hope you are well and would love to hear what is going on in your lives. don't forget to update us on your lives. Hearing about you guys and your lives is truly the only reason to come to internet at this point- since are lives are not yet fascinating. If you email me , Laura, send to the hotmail account it has an easier time loading.

Robert happy birthday!

Bryn thank you for the pictures- it was so good to see nubs.

jamie- thanks for the email. first one i have gotten from anyone in a while. It was magical being transported back to carlton ave and malik.

Can’t wait to get all the surprises everyone is talking about. I can’t wait to make everyone jealous on mail day. I love you all- my friends and family!!!!

For all of you that have questions of what to send- wait until we move into our own house. It is not easy thinking about what we want, when we do not have any of our own stuff or freedom for that matter. Also, I have gotten reports of tons of people sending magazines. This is great, considering the only news we get here is WWF. I hope you keep sending them throughout the two years here. A Sunday edition of the NY Times would be a dream come true!!!!

We love you and think of you often.

Laura

We are in Botswana- It seems like for longer than TWO weeks!

Hello to all of you out there. This is going to be short due to time restrictions yet I finally have some information to share and something positive to say. Training is long and somewhat tedious. We are living in with this lovely family in Molepoloe. They are very old and it is refreshing to hear about their life and the changes that have taken place in their life time. I am still learning to deal with my role in the house as a women. But overall no complaints about them and our living situation.

We have met same great people and they have really been helpful with the processing and reflecting of our new life and surroundings. I am traveling with my friend, Jillian, this weekend to another volunteers site and home. It is really nice to see what our future home might be like and what a typical work day is like. As much we like our host mom and dad, it will be great to live and cook on our own.

There is so many stories and insights to share but all of this will have to wait- as the Internet time is running out. When we get our computer back from the PC headquarters- we will definitely be able to write things at home and them upload at the archaic Internet station in Molepoloe.

Miss you all and would love to hear from you. any news is welcome as there are days when the missing home is worse then others.

Matt's Number- 011.267.729.455.36
Lauras Number- 011.267.729.455.34

Our Address for the next six weeks- we sent our selves a packages and it only took two weeks. So the packages can start coming.

Matt Jefferson/Laura Caito
Peace Corps
Private Bag 00243
Gaborone
Botswana

* these phone numbers and address are not going to be posted for long. I need to maintain some privacy.

We will definlty send a more secific list of things we need sent when we get settled into our new home.

matt is at another site and we are hoping to meet up this weekend.

miss you all and kisses from bots


laura