Headlines: Independecnce day mask turns girl into demon!!!! and .... Be thankful for what you've got.

Here's a pic of Maura dancing in her Botswana Independence Day Mask.. Don't worry, it didn't really turn her into a demon, she's fine... But for a brief moment she was speaking in tongues and foaming at the mouth, but that happens every other day...

On a side note, the other part of the title was to remind myself that no matter how rough things seem, others(most of the people we encounter here)

have it worse and still find joy and peace in what they do. Take for example our securty guards Steve and James. Steve is a huge (football star material)Botswana man from Francistown who was once in the army. He now is our security guard and has worked for at least the past 8 days from 6am -6pm probably for a minimal fee. He is working through the weekend as well, and the holiday. The security guards sit in our front outdoor area and that's about it. They sit, read the paper, sit, sit and sit... But every time we see him he greets us with a great smile and a warm hello.

Our other guard James is an older man who works 6pm- 6 am, same as Steve, for the past 8 days at least. We give him tea and a bite to eat every night. He doesn't understand a lick of English, but is always very nice and smiling.

At the resaurant we go to, there's a manager named Chico, who just like most restaurant managers is there every night. He's from Zimbabwe, is always great to our kids, but because of the situation in his country, hasn't seen his 3 children in 7 months.

Things are getting exciting around here.. Most weekends this place is a ghost town, but there are sporadic fireworks and about 10 people on the street. Independence day is going to be rocking. Down at the stadium tomorrow is a big celebration with dancing, singing, a football match, and lots of drunks I'm sure.. We plan to go down for a part of the festivities, hopefully get some images. We'll see. Today, nothing scheduled.

Fear Factor!!!!!

In honor of Independence Day, Jacob and Kate's school had a major celebration where they had local food and dance. Jacob was brave enough to try all of the local food....(Jacob is dictating) This included cow stomach, a dried centipede worm, some sort of spinach with spices/salt, kettle corn, beans made with veggies in soup that had a mystery animal meat in it and pap(whipped rice) and sweet bread . Jacob says he feels like he's going to puke and so do the rest of us. More about local food, check this site out. http://www.kidcyber.com.au/topics/botswanfood.htm

Kate has Birthday Party to go to today at our favorite establish "THE APACHE SPUR". Video games, trampolines, face painting, it's a good time. We'll have to take a cab to the party, drop her off and them come back at the end of the party and stay for dinner.

That's all for now, we're very proud of our son.

We got rain!!! and lots of it..

We experienced our first rain/hail storm here in Botswana. Apparently, it was a doozy. The rain was no different than at home, but the thunderclaps caused you to soil you pants.
Check out the footage as Jude and Frances take it all in.This occurred as Michelle was walking up to the school to pick up Kate and Jacob.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0O2Pb7538s
Nothing else new, except that the president of Botswana decided to extend the celebration of Independence day here an extra day, for some unknown reason. President Bush could learn a few things from this guy. What does this mean? That the city will be shut down completely from Saturday- Tuesday. Kate and Jacob will have a 4 day weekend, and we still have no car. Lots of movies for us this long, long, long weekend. Happy Independence Day Botswana!!!!

Kate receives award!!!!!!

Well, today was a banner day for the Eckerle clan. Kate received an award today at school for...."Settling into life in 1A with a wonderful smile and happy nature." The Headmaster informed me that they don't give these awards out to anyone. It is a very limited group. We are so proud.

Check out a brief clip of the ceremony, plus Jude and Franny walking a bit. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zhKkCJuAxg

Nothing to else to report except that it is cloudy and windy for the first time since we've been here. It 's a nice change of pace from the sun constantly beating down on you. Tonight is social night for the ex-pat community. At a great bar "The Bull and Bush"there is trivia night. Michelle and I are an essetial part to our group. We seem to specialize in the categories of"pointless information" and "classic rock." Basically you have a team, they ask you a series of 20 questions, you answer them, the more you get , the better your score. The highest score at the end of the night wins.
Michelle travels to a village today for work, I believe it is called Lobatse. We are still awaiting our car, now they say we should get it next Thursday or Friday.
The sun just broke through the clouds.

Car coming soon!!??!!??

Michelle's clinic



Food stalls by clinic







Apparently our vehicle should have arrived in South Africa yesterday, but we have not yet received word. We have a clearing agent here in Botswana working out everything for us so that there are no holdups at the border, etc. We should receive it by the end of the week, but I would hope for the end of october. In the meantime, we'll continue taking cab rides and walking to everything...

We live in a somewhat convenient spot in the town. Michelle can easily walk to work and the kids can walk to school. But the school day is so screwy that it becomes very labor intensive to go back and forth to their school everyday for afternoon activities, etc.

Maura goes to school on M-W-F til 1 pm. Kate and Jacob go to school til 1 as well, but Jacob will have afternoon activites scattered throughout the afternoon til 4 or 4:30. Kate has afternoon activites from 2-4 on Mondays and THursdays, but can't be left alone at school on those days between the hour of 1-2. Therefore, we have to pick up Maura(carting the twins as well), walk to Kate and Jacob's school, eat lunch with Kate and then leave, walk back and pick them up at 4 when finished. And that's only on Monday and Thursday. The other days, we have to walk up to the school to get Jacob every day when he's completed at 4 or 4:30. It's a lot, but the afternoon activities are neat. Kate takes Music, Drama, Crafts, Setswana games and cricket and ball skills, while Jacob has enrolled in chess, Softball, night softball on Fridays and swimming. People keep telling us to get domestic help, but I think we are dragging our feet on the issueb/c it is such a foreign thing to us, that I don't know if we'll do it.

Everyone here is sick,caught a flu bug of some sort, but slowly on the mend. Michelle's workis going well and the kids are adjusting to school. Kate will be receiving a recognition award tomorrow morning @ 7:30 for something(they won't tell us) and we're invited to see her receive her award tomorrow @ 7:30 am at the all school assembly.. Another thing to walk to.

The school is really cool...very wide open and tons of space for the kids. When the kids get there early, today we got there at 7:10, they can play all over the campus until the bell rings (7:30).

michelle's wellness checkup!!! and check out circus pics below

In order for Michelle to be Board Certified in Botswana, she had to undertake a rigorous wellness check. Here is the receipt of that checkup by a local physician here in town. The pics are (1) of the actual document and (2) a closeup of the document highlighting possible "disabilities" that would bill her as unsuitable to work/practice here in the country.

My personal favorite is (b). If you can't see it very well, click on the image to enlarge it. How they determine this, I don't know.

Circus trip

Pics include a freaky clown, an elephant tamer(notice the name of the circus in the back) Jacob and Kate after the show. Jacob and Kate with our friend Refilwe and her cousin and the Setswana Dance Group.

Well the circus was a smash. It was totally surreal, straight out of a Fellini movie. Lawn chairs as your seat and a dust filled, 150 degree tent that lacked any ventilation. But the show was good, the kids enjoyed it. There was this clown though who was totally freaky. He scared Maura each time he came out on stage (pictured) . When he was off stage, he would smoke as he watched the other performers. There were elephants, tigers, clowns, cotton candy, port-o-lets that couldn't be used because they were overflowing (Kate had to pee in a bush) which is something that happens all the time around here. Anyway, it was alot of fun. The highlight was a traditional dance group came out during intermission and danced a traditional Botswana number. The singing was beautiful.

Happy Birthday Grandma!!

Tim

Happy 30th Birthday Grandma!!!! Hope you enjoy your day with everyone..

Yesterday our babysitter Tebogo came to watch the kids while Michelle and I attended a "Teens Club" . This is a support group for children suffering from HIV and is run by the Baylor docs here. We sang a bunch of songs and played games, grilled hot dogs and had a DJ play the latest hot tracks. This was my first experience interacting with many of the kids Michelle sees on a day to day basis. Many of the kids travelled long distances by themselves to be a part of it, and they were about 50 children that showed up. It was an eye opening experience for me, simply because of the similarities between the children here and those at home. They played, danced, joked with each other just as you would see at home. I couldn't believe they were all sick. We had small group discussions about HIV and many were very eager to talk about their situation. But some seemed extremely insecure and unwilling to discuss anything about their life. But the kids seem amazingly strong, independent and intelligent. Michelle had told me that the teen club is pivotal because the teenage years can be the time when a child will stop taking medication or hide the medication and shut down altogether. This club tries to bring them to a place where they can deal with their problems and surround themselves with others who can relate.

Sundays here are tough. As much as we have enjoyed our adventure here in Botswana, there are days when you simply miss everything about home...(friends, family, your kids friends, sidewalks, grass, and college football.) Being a foreigner here is a lonely experience. There aren't any outlets for the kids, all homes are walled off with barbwire and electric fences, you can't even see what your neighbors look like. I don't know if the kids feel it as much as us, but it's a rough day. We kind of sit around looking at each other wondering what to do . But, we've got a circus to see and a some nice weather .

A side note... Here's a photo of our first friend in Botswana.. His name is Tim.. He's been our cab driver for the past month and has helped us tremendously. He helped us go grocery shopping for the first time, negotiated a price for a mattress with me and has picked us up whenever we call him. He has an amazing story as well. Tim is originally from Uganda where he was a child soldier in the army. I won't go into more detail but he's been through alot. The funny thing about this picture was that it was taken in front of our home, right after he drove me and the twins to a local playground to meet a bunch of moms and their twins!!! A twins group in Botswana, never would have thought I'd see that. Anyway, I asked if I could take his picture. We were laughing and playing with the kids and as soon as I prepared to take his photo he got very serious and his demeanor changed completely. He posed very stoically and his smile was gone. I didn't ask, just found it really interesting.

Hope all is well at home...

It's Friday. Maura gets her props...

Moon @ 4:30 yesterday

Since I did the slideshow of the twins in their soiled diapers, I felt it necessary to do the same for little Maura .So here it is... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vaWnkJkmTOU

She's doing great here, and just overcoming a sickness. Maura does a hell of a job entertaining herself here in Botswana. She plays Memory with stuffed animals, goes in and out of character like nobody's business.One minute she's a mother with 2 babies in her belly, the next she's a damsel in distress, searching for her "Prince Phillip", this is usually Jacob. She can play polly pockets for hours. Lately she's taken playing a real game called "kids on stage". She does great impersonations of birds , frogs, elephants and cats. Her renditions are all very similar, but brilliant.

Big weekend here in Gaborone, the circus is in town!!!! Who knows what that means, but we're going to try to go and I will surely get pics, if we're not mauled by some animal. I hope they use cges. I don't think Barnum and Bailey tours Sub-Sahara Africa, I'm thinking it's going to be just as good though..

Tonight we're going out for happy hour at the Gaborone Sun(kids going), and then a mean round of Monopoly. Tomorrow night we're hosting a movie night here in the backyard(hopefully). We have a large wall, and the docs have an LCD projector we're going to try to use. What movie remains to be seen.

your twins fix for the week!!!!

Not much to report for today. 3 out of the 5 kids are sick, but Maura is on the mend. I thought I'd put together a montage of photos of the twins, simply because I'm bored and it's fun to do.

Maura's montage will be next... I owe it to her.. She's been neglected long enough. If you like babies in diapers(or nappies as their called here) then this slideshow is for you. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7pd7uS3EYs

Hope all are doing well.

cute picture of jacob and kate in their new uniforms!!

School started today, everything seemed to go very well. The school they are attending here is beautiful with manicured gardens, outdoor reading areas, large chess boards printed on the ground and murals on the walls. There is a huge playground area, swimming pool and cricket field. The other great thing about the school is that there are no hallways, children must walk outside to their other classrooms. This may not seem like a major thing to most people, but for someone who is used to being inside the whole day at school , this was really exciting for both Kate and Jacob. Here's a brief slideshow of some photos with these pics and a few of their school.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFYqXzbShyc . That's all for now. Another quick video for my brother kevin. Here's a video of a bird, don't know the type, that tweet- tweets his way into my heart every morning @ 5 to 5:30. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWibQmZfXKo

tomorrow... SCHOOL!!!

Walking to the dump

Some of our friends after the run

School officially starts tomorrow. We went and picked up uniforms yesterday, had to buy hats, jumper, shorts and shirt, bathing suits and bathing caps(Jacob wasn't digging the Speedos, opted for the full body suit.
Nothing much to report today, we received our first package from home.. (Thanks Grandpa Dixon, it was the highlight of the day and the new videos bought me a few minutes of sanity, until they began to fight over which one to watch.)

Here's an excerpt of an email of Michelle's that describes some of the local flavor and how efficiently everything works here. Pics of the first day tomorrow. \
Things move slow here. One of the wives of one of the other doctor's is trying to get her residence permit and needed to get a date put on some piece of paperwork that hadn't originally been dated. She went to immigration and they told her they only put dates on papers on Fridays. And you can't throw a fit, because if they don't like you, they just tell you to go to see someone else (who doesn't actually know about what you want) just to get rid of you. Kissing butt is a valuable skill here.
As far as food, the groceries are fairly well stocked. We can definitely get spaghetti, cheese and onion. No oyster crackers. By all means, send the chili. Jacob would be in heaven. No chocolate chips either, but I don't think those would ship well. The girls are missing Ovaltine and breakfast syrup -they just have this very sugary version of Karo. Lots of things are hit or miss. Andy found a soft taco kit one day (like the old el paso kind), but it was nowhere to be found the next day. Also, they import everything from South Africa, and sometimes they just "run out." For example, I have not been able to get cans of the equivalent of Diet Coke for 2 weeks, because the country is out of it. So stuff like that. You have to weigh and label your own produce. Also, have had to look a little harder for some things - powered sugar is "icing sugar" and comes in a small paper sack - took us a while to figure that one out. We did find crackers that are a combination of saltines and Ritz crackers called "Salticrax", Andy calls them "salty butts" which the kids find amusing. As far as recipes, here you go: if it walks, kill it, grill it and call it meat. We no longer eat anything that is ground - bones are included. I say all this when the reality is that very few people here can afford to have meat or eggs as part of their diet, so please understand that I am thankful for the options. The staple of the diet for most people is "pap" which is like a maize based version of mashed potatoes. If you're lucky, you get to have meat with it. I am definitely headed in the vegetarian direction. This is partly because many of the dishes are covered in "monkey gland sauce" - I haven't asked, I just eat it and try not to think about the possibilities. When you do want some meat and are willing to temporarily forget about the preparation process, the sausages are awesome. To grill is to "braai" and its very good - I think the sausages are called boers, so you can see the South African influence. There are some game dishes on most menus that I haven't ventured to try yet....we'll save that for when you visit.

a run through the dump ?

Braai-in' it up!!

lots of dirt

Drive to Molepolole, this is rest stop for goats and cars

A nice weekend here in Gaborone, although I must admit, it is still very difficult to relax with no friends around and 5 screaming kids that have been stuck in a walled off house for 4 weeks. Yet, we're getting used tothe luxury of Michelle having every weekend off. Saturday we had our new friends over Arthur and Frances Caplan and their 2 children Ella and Sutton. They are from the states as well (Utah). Arthur is here on a Fulbright scholarship as well as sabbatical from his teaching position at Utah State. They have a great blogsite as well. http://www.caplansmobotswana.blogspot.com/ .
I met Arthur on our first morning here in Botswana. I was walking Jacob and Kate to Northside school for their assessment tests, he was driving his children to school and pulled over and gave us a lift. He knew upon seeing us on the side of the road that we were Americans and looked like we needed some help.

Sunday we woke up early and I was invited to go for a run with the local "Hash Harrier(sp?) Club." From my knowledge, this is a club basically made up of ex-pats that get together every weekend and run the local trails, streets, etc. It begins sort of like a game where initially the whole group ventures out in search of the starting point. There are markings on the ground that may or may not lead you to the trail head. It is your responsibility to find the proper trail. Once you find the trail head, you have the option of going the long route(3-6k) or the short route(?).

I went with a group of Docs from the Baylor clinic.. Well, this was the most surreal experience I have yet to have as a runner. The trail led us around the local garbage dump, which holds all of the city's garbage, 1 rotting cow, 1 rotting antelope, 1 rotting something, a group of runaway Zimbabweans camping in the woods and acres of waste, garbage and well organized piles of tires and lots and lots of cow poo. I ate at least 25 flies and almost threw up due to the lack of fresh air and the stench of dead ...... somethings.

The best quote on the trail I heard was after passing a group of men sitting around a tin can of something in the middle of the trail was.... "this is where all the criminals in Gabs live."

It was AWESOME!!!

But after the run, we met back to the parking lot of the local mall where they had coolers full of beer and sang songs and told jokes. That made running through a landscape of poo worthwhile.
I'll be back, or I'll have Michelle go in my place. Apparently the motto of the group is "A group of drinkers with a running problem."

It's now Monday morning. Babies are sleeping, Maura stayed home from school(running a fever) and is now playing with Kate on the floor beside me. They are playing "Flood". Basically setting up animals to board Noah's Ark. Jacob is in the dining room playing, no, throwing LEGOS on the floor.
Don't worry, they haven't been engaged in activity all morning, there was a scooby-doo marathon on the TV that I forced them to turn off after a few hours of viewing . Those Scrappy Doo episodes were horrible and I refuse to let them watch it.
I saw the Cards lost to the Cats on Saturdy, thank God I wasn't home to see it. The Bungals lost to the Browns and the Reds are hopelessly in some place in the standings that doesn't matter.

I ran on Saturday morning as well and was almost bitten by a dog. Highlight of that run was finding a fast pitch softball game going on near the National Stadium. There were umps and uniforms and everything you wanted. Except the men were not throwing overhand. I might try to join a team..

Alright, all for now, I'll have photos of the run up later. They're beautiful.

It's Friday!!

Everything still well. Maura had a b-day party at school today.. She had cake and celebrated with people who she can't understand. She apparently has made a friend named Bubby. If it's a boy or girl remains to be seen. I don't think she knows. She starts Monkeynastiks and swimming on Monday. It's getting very hot during the day, but cooler at night. We have a gardener name Ambrose who waters our plants and lawn every monday, wednesday and friday. He's cool. Don't know what he says, but he's cool.

A side note about the flight.... We were not the biggest family on the flight over to Africa.. There was a family of 13 children making their way over to Senegal.

That's enough for now, I'll be taking the older kids out to eat tonight to "Apache Spur". They have trampolines, video games, neon pink hotdogs and burgers that would instantly turn you into a vegetarian. But, it's a great place for the kids nd they have a nice patio with cold beers.

One last thing... Everyone burns everything here. I thought our house was on fire this morning but apprently the man who lives behind us thought it would be a good time to burn a slew of tires. Nice... Fresh... Air... In Botswana, they seem to enjoy piling up garbage and burning it. One of our friends mentioned that he's never seen so many advertisements for matches.

First month here...

Hello all, we have arrived and are slowly getting settled. We finally got out of Atlanta, and the plane ride was surprisingly painless. The worst part was touching down in Senegal 2 am, having them come onto the plane while all the kids were sleeping, wake them up and then spray the plane with bug spray?

We arrived in Johannesburg the next day (flight was about 19 hours) stayed the night in some crazy hotel and flew to Gaborone the next morning..

Michelle's cousin Kristen came over with us and was wonderful to have here while we situated ourselves. The first week was awful.. No one slept at night, Kate rode her scooter through our empty house at 5 am. Jude and Frances were up all night, but they eventually got with the program.

The home is very nice and the neighborhood is great as well. People have been very kind and without a car, we have relied mostly on a cab driver named Tim, who helped with grocery shopping, buying a mattress and picking us up whenever we needed a ride somewhere.

We celebrated Kate's b-day, have taken several game drives at the local game reserves and made new friends with the other PAC doctors. We have been introduced to Wimpy's (awful fast food burgers), monkey gland sauce and some phrases of the local language (Setswana). Jacob has played golf with warthogs in the fairways, kicked soccer with our security guard Eric, and watched "Spaceballs 600 times. Maura started pre-school at "Tiny Bubbles" and the kids start school at Northside School next Wednesday..... I CAN'T WAIT.

More to come, it is getting late... Much to go over from the last month and some things to write about the culture, people, etc.