Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Got a Cell Phone and Other "Exciting" Things

Good, busy, busy, busy day. For some reason, it took me forever to fall asleep last night, so I am going off of about 4 hours of sleep. Praying that won't happen again tonight, or ever while I'm in Africa. However, I survived the day! Hallelujah! Really, it was a good day.

We are starting a bible study based on John Bevere's workshop A Heart Ablaze. I've never read the book, but so far it seems that it's going to be a pretty sweet study. I think its theme is based on Moses and the burning bush. Looking forward to seeing how it influences me!

What else did we do today? Let's see...we went into town for the first time since the airport. Lots of donkeys, goats and cattle roaming the streets. My favorite thing that I saw was a small herd of donkeys wait at an intersection for traffic to pass, then crossed the road. It looked like a group of pedestrians. Too cute. Also too cute? The children in this town!!! We saw lots of toddlers and babies at the marketplace and in the grocery stores. I really wish that there was a cultural custom that would make it ok for me to just pick up any child I see and carry him/her for as long as I wanted to. Seriously, I haven't even had contact with the kids here and I'm ready to adopt. Heads up, Rog.

I have a Botswana cell phone now! It would cost me close to $2 per minute to call home, but incoming calls are free :) (hint: please call me.) I can also text for about .15 to the US, so I can text from time to time. My number is 011-267-75248055 (the 011-267 is our country code or something like that)



We went over our food budget today- it works out that we each get about 30 pula a day (roughly $5) for food. So, we have to be very careful when we're grocery shopping and planning our meals for the week. We were treated to a can of pop while we were out, which cost 4.70P- that's the amount we have to budget for breakfast. So...the cereals, eggs, yogurt, etc need to be utilized wisely. I know this will absolutely be doable, but today we were all a bit stressed when trying to get groceries. We did well, though! We are pooling money for most things, but there are certain things I really wanted that no one else did, so I had to bite the bullet and pay for it myself. FYI, care packages with granola bars, NesCafes, candy, etc will be greatly appreciated :) Those are things that are very pricey here and are definitely a luxury. Ice cream is sadly 70P, so that's just out of the question. Also primarily out of the question? Pop. Sad about that. The Coca Cola Light is just sitting there, teasing me.

We ended up being in town for almost 4 hours instead of the scheduled 3, so we had 10 minutes to try to eat lunch back at the house before we went to meet with Linda, the COO of Love Botswana. We took some personality and spiritual giftedness tests yesterday and she gave us the results. The personality test we took was the DISC test, which I'd never done. I am a very strong "I" which stands for Influencing. Basically, I am very relational and an extrovert. She's going to do a personal assessment for each of us, and I'll have more to report after that. The spiritual giftedness results came out with my top two gifts being Mercy (93%) and Exhortation (75%). I would love to tell you all about what that means, but it's pretty in depth, so if you want to know more, shoot me an email.

After that, we had about 10 minutes to rest, then came another cooking lesson. It took TWO HOURS. That's right, people. We cooked from 6pm-8pm. I hope we don't have those marathon cooking sessions ever again.

Ok, now here is what I am REALLY excited about. We were given our options for shadowing assignments on Monday. I am going to be the Okavango International School Reader. I get to listen to the students as they read and assist them as needed. I'll be working with the kids from Std2 through Std 6, which is ages 7-12. The other interns have some sweet assignments too, so I'm excited to try all of those out as well. But I FINALLY get to work hands-on with the kids!! I can't wait for Monday to come!

Tomorrow should be an interesting day. We have driving lessons. I've never driven a stick, which is what we'll be doing. Dreading it already. Pray that Kevin has patience and that I am given a supernatural ability to pick up on this much faster than I normally would.

Ok, that's all for now! Go Siame! (goodbye in Setswana...see what I'm learning already??)

3 comments:

  1. We are going to end up with one of those kids...aren't we?

    Keep the updates coming...so fun to read what you are doing. The donkeys crossing the street. Are you kidding me? Who does that? I guess donkeys do.

    I so would have done the school reader, 7-12, those kids are going to be so easy to love on! You are going to have to take a ton of pictures of them if you can, I can already see those smiling faces. Be blessed Ash.

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  2. I can't wait to see the pictures of the animals. Are the buildings raised up so the snakes don't have to travel all the way around the house to get to the other side?

    Please keep us updated on your John Bevere series. I am interested in what you are learning.

    What is the best time for people to call you so that we do not interupt a more valuable time?

    Keep those Blogs coming! DAD

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  3. Hi Ashley! I'm loving your blog. I'm sorry for the crazy schedule you guys have had...hoping things slow down for you soon. We're SO glad you are here! I look forward to hanging out more soon.
    I had to comment on this post and tell you that our personality tests sound exactly the same! Mercy and exhortation were also my highest. Looking forward to some fun chats with you!
    Andrea

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