So my parents arrived on Sunday and spent a few days with me before shipping out to Chobe, the Okavango and Vic Falls. Hope they're having an awesome time right now! They will be back in Gaborone this Sunday and will stay until Thursday and we've planned some trips and tours around the city. It was really really really nice to see them, as I had been getting a little homesick. Also, kind of funny to see what was new and interesting to them, like the thorn trees, or the fast-moving biting ants, or the reddish color of the dust. Also they can't really understand the accent, which I also found difficult at the beginning, but I don't even think about it anymore.

Other than that I am doing lots of school work. I just took a Setswana exam (past tense, possessives, numbers, noun classes, body parts...it was awesome). In about a half hour I have a test in History of Christianity and I am scared because it is the first time I will be taking a legitimate exam in a University of Botswana class in which I am the only US student in the class.

I also have to outline my independent study project for my program director tonight, but I am actually getting more and more excited about my project. I really love SOS and wish I could just spend time there researching and playing instead of doing work here. I have been interviewing a volunteer, the national director, and the kindergarten principal and I have SO MUCH information, which I guess is better than none. Also the babies are adorable. The teacher I work with is named Janet and she is so funny, she has stock phrases she says to the kids in English every day, because repetition is how they learn the language. So they know "tidy up," "go and wash your hands," "Out you go," "Close your eyes and go to sleep," "Eat," and "Hands together, let us pray." And she has such a stong accent that sometimes the kids don't understand me unless I imitate her accent when I say these things. There is also one tiny girl named Angie, who is maybe a little over one, and Angie is always in trouble, so Angie has learned, "No, Angie, naughty girl." But I also know it's because Angie is everyone's favorite.

I will have a very busy week in the coming days, I have three assignments and a test, my parents are coming back and I have to entertain them, and I also will hopefully be heading up to Victoria Falls next weekend. It will be my first trip in over a month, which is weird because for a while there I felt like I was going on trips all the time.

It's really hard to write things down in here anymore because life has settled down so much that I don't really know what is interesting or different from the USA anymore. Maybe I'll list just some cultural differences I have noticed in the next post.

Miss you all! Hope you are having good semesters.