My Botswana Family...

“I just miss the noise of tv, you know what I mean?”

Enjoyed the African sun this afternoon from the pool.

“Yeah…” I respond to my housemate, “I totally get it.”

It’s Sunday morning. The morning of the big day.

If you are Canadian, you know what I mean.

We are dying here at “Casa Maria”.

The big game is on in 3 hours and the tv’s in our house are NOT working.

Why?

Because, although we were told the cable bill has been paid until the 14 of March, it is not.

We have found a solution.

But unfortunately the solution includes using a vehicle to get to the furthest mall in Gaborone, to pay the bill directly at DSTV so we will immediately be able to watch Team Canada win Gold.

And therein lies the situation.

Our one housemate TOLD us (rather than ask us), that he was taking the car to climb a hill.

The other house, Mecca (named because they have a newer home with working everything AND two lemon trees and an avocado tree), where they are not using the car, has asked that we walk 30 minutes to their house if we want to borrow “their” car. I say “their” because truly, it’s a company vehicle…

WHAT is going on here?

We are supposed to be one team.

We are certainly not feeling like it.

These are daily little frustrations that make living and working a bajillion miles away from the people you care about, difficult.

Because, at least in Casa Maria, everything else is awesome. I mean, just this morning I woke to my housemate sending me a text message that said, “Come downstairs, I will feed you.” How much more lucky can I get?

Yesterday we said goodbye to one of our housemates. He is only going home for 3 weeks, but right now it feels like eons. After only having lived together for 4 weeks, we have become a family in a way. We fell into a routine almost immediately. And while the details of our routine are not sexy, they make us feel good. And even though it sometimes feels like we’re “complaining” about little things here and there, we remember that we have each other. And it feels good to talk to people who know what we are going through.

This in no way means we do not miss our IMPORTANT people at home.

We miss them greatly. And we talk about you ALL THE TIME!

We do share some of our frustrations with you, but you need to know, we censor them a bit.

We don’t want you to be worried about us or become frustrated that you can’t help.

We want you to know that, while there are daily frustrations, we are loving our time in Africa.

And we understand that you too may be censoring things at home.

This is ok, we’ll catch up when we get home.

And all the little things that seemed SO BIG at one point, in fact are not at all.

And all that will matter, is that we are together again.

If you’ve been following along, you know that there are amazing, amazing things we are seeing and experiencing in southern Africa. (In fact, later this week I am venturing out to the Okavango Delta!)

But it wouldn’t be true or real or honest of me, not to say, that life isn’t perfect.

But what I’m getting to do here is truly amazing and as always, I am truly a very lucky lucky girl.

And in case you were wondering…

We DID get the tv working and we watched the GOLD medal game!

And WE ARE SUCH PROUD CANADIANS!

was kinda weird watching the gold medal hockey game
in 30 degree weather but hey! we were victorious!
GO CANADA GO!
WE ARE WINTER!