tuesday night blackout

As planned by the government, our weekly power outaged occcurred, right on time.. right around 6 pm every Tuesday, we have our power turned off.. I knew it was coming, but they caught me off guard by starting it about 15 minutes early this week.. The photo at the top is one of Jacob rotatin his head around while doing his homework via headlamp. We had dinner for the final time with our friends the Westers.. They head back to Nashville on Saturday... they've been here for 8 years..We are sad to see them leaving, they kind of took us under their wing one day, and reassured us that picking up our kids and moving them across the world to experience a whole other culture was in fact, a wonderful thing. They came on a year contract like us, fell in love with the place , and stayed for 8 years...

With the death of my dad, I have been struggling to really enjoy this experience lately... It is has been hard to pick it back up and be happy. My dad is in my thoughts constantly and at times the only thing I want is to do is get on a plane and head back...But this place is such a warm and simple place, and life is amazingly relaxed here and I don't want the experience to pass us by.. We have loved all of our experiences here. But, it's not home.. and i think the kids are yearning for life to pick up a bit and get hectic again.... at times, It's hard as Americans to live on african time.. We have no patience. .... We will be back home in December, but i can assure you, we'll be back here..... We'll just settle for a while, raise the kids and then perhaps retire in Africa..... or perhaps work something out where we can come periodically. the place kind of gets to you and sticks.. In a very good way...

We had a bit of a rain storm last night, all the locals talked about how strange that was... "It never rains in June". here's photos from a walk I took yesterday.... One note.. the man with the condom sign above his head... condoms are everywhere!!!!! Even in the airport as soon as you arrive here... They are everywhere... The other photos are children obviously eating some lunch. A woman prepping herself for a photo shoot... Thembi at her tuck shop/hair braiding business... and so on.. Ok... not much more.. big plans this weekend... Cornhole night on friday.. Michelle is going to see "Sex and the City" and then i think on saturday... we're going to see the new "narnia" movie.

One last note... I mention Joyce the woman who ran the shop that made the dresses... A few posts back... I gave her the photos i printed out of her, she is making me an authentic Botswana shirt and hat.... for free!!! I pick it up on friday.. I can't wait.. i'm sure i'll wear it all around town and be the biggest poser there is.... She said i'll look truly Botswana. I laughed and she said.. "why are you laughing?" i told her to look at my skin...