October 11th, 2015

Stepping off the bus in Gaborone (the Capitol) Monday morning put me instantly at ease. The tension my body had been holding released and my stress decreased. I sighed with happiness as I took in the booths lining the streets and the people bustling about. There's something about a city that soothes me. I was lucky enough to go in for the day to set up my bank account and get lunch. Lunch consisted of a magnificent chocolate milkshake and all the sushi I could handle. It was a little slice of heaven. 

The week was more or less just hot. It's averaging high 90's every day and the sun is relentless. As we wind down training I'm struggling to fall asleep each night and desperately missing the cold. Wish me luck. It's only spring, after all! 

At training we had a couple last presentations, early off days, and sessions with our country director. Including a policy session in which we had a pop quiz on very detailed policies and I came in first place with 90%... Reading the entire manual the weekend before clearly paid off in the form of a bag of Hershey's candy! We also had our final language exams, which went more or less okay. As long as I do as well as I did last time I'll be all set to swear in. Friday between language exams and round table interviews with our CD, I cut ten different peoples hair. This all started a few weeks ago when I volunteered to cut one persons hair since I had scissors, and slowly more and more people have been asking me for a trim. Since we swear in next week and don't see each other until January, everyone wants one last cut before they let it grow for awhile. It's been a lot of fun, and I haven't messed up yet! Except when I tried to use the buzzers. So we're sticking to scissors for now. One of my other friends is on clippers duty so it works out perfectly. 

I took my last weekend in Moleps to relax at my host family's house. I certainly needed it. I've been around so many people lately that I've needed to spend time alone relaxing and being productive. I've started organizing and packing some of my things since I'll be moving next Thursday. I also was lucky enough to receive three letters this week!! So I've been trying to get together another stack of letters to mail out. I'm enjoying being around my host family for some quality time before I move. They've done so much for me and I'm so grateful for them. Not to mention, all my time at home meant I could read Harry Potter! No matter what is going on in my life, Harry Potter is always the perfect solution to help me destress and revitalize my energy for whatever task is set in front of me. As long as I'm not saying "just one more chapter!" 

I'm ready to move into my new place. This will be my first time living completely on my own and my first time living in one place for this long since I moved out of my parents house. I'm excited to build my new home to make it mine and to really begin to dig in to my work here. It helps that I have so much support both here and back home. The journey is only just beginning.