botswana pace.... Maura's tea party

Maura and I had a great time at her school's tea party. we had cupcakes, tea, egg salad sandwiches and blew bubbles.. she's really digging school and i hope her time at Dipeo continues to be a good experience.

I have been thinking most of the day how different this place is from home. Besides all of the obvious things, the whole way of life feels different.. There's facets of life here that are truly surreal... like the fact that you can be 10 minutes out of gaborone and be in a true african village, or the fact that i heard a marching band practicing in the middle of a field as I was dropping Maura off for school. But the one thing I will always remember about living here is the feeling of never feeling rushed.. We truly are loving our time here, and I think it is strictly for that reason. People are kind, they wave to you and acknowledge you when you do the same in return, when a traffic light is broken, people yield for each other, and apologize with sincerity when they accidentally go out of turn.. Being a foreigner with 5 kids with a set of mawelanas(twins), brings an onslaught of stares, but beside that, people are wonderful.

the schooling structure here would be inviting(my opinion) to anyone from the U.S.. all extra activities are in the day and there's no serious pressure put on the kids with sports... i have learned to take athletics in stride and honestly, enjoy them 3 times more than at home.. wait, except for baseball..

the pace is awesome and I think it will be difficult to return once we get finished with our time here... People, children especially, are patient... They will wait in lines for days. And they don't mind. We've learned to do the same... I was reading old blog posts during the time when I was waiting for the car to arrive,, and now... If i receive something within 5 months, I'd be happy.

Most Botswana find work to be highly overrated, and enjoy doing nothing during the weekend. They entertain themselves by sitting under a tree on stumps or plastic chairs, braiding hair or just talking..

Michelle and i keep up the discussion of what we feel we will change about our lifestyle when we return... I'm still not sure.... Probably a better appreciation of the simple things... I sound like a promo for "It's a Wonderful Life" , but it's true..

Why am I writing this today? Because I have nothing else to report....

And even though I've become a true believer in simplicity, let me just say how psyched I am about the fact that we will be watching the opening round of March madness on our cable television on Thursday night.. Michelle is going to a botswana wedding, I am going to be able to see Xavier play in the first game... don't care too much about XU, but hopefully I'll be able to check out the C_A_R_D_S soon..

Ok, enough pontificating about nothing.. here's one of my favorite photos I've taken since we've been here....