Best day

Hi! Yesterday was definitely my best day here so far. We did the village drop-off and had so much fun. I was in a group of 4 who went to a village about 45 min. outside of Gaborone. It was actually a lot larger than any of us expected. We first went to the pottery, which is sort of the tourist attraction of the village. Sure enough we ran into 3 people from texas there. They have been coming here every few weeks for the past year because they work with a diamond company in Botswana. It was sort of upsetting though because when we were speaking the little setswana we know with the employee at the pottery, they said they were so impressed, and we knew more setswana than they did. Seriously, it makes such a difference when you're a visitor and you make an effort to know the native language. People are so much more welcoming, and I even felt offended that they weren't even making an effort to know how to say hello, especially wheen they are such frequent visitors to Botswana. I can't imagine how offended Batswana (natives of Botswana) feel. But you can get away with only speaking english because most people do, so a lot of times people just think it's acceptable to not make any effort. But anyway, the pottery was really beautiful and had traditional designs on it. We even got a tour of where they make the pottery.

We met a young woman at the pottery who works for the village daycare who was so incredible. She ended up spending probably an hour and 1/2 with us. She told us the history of the village and helped us with our Setswana a lot. People really love to help us learn the language. They are so amazed that we are even trying to learn it, and even though we often have trouble pronouncing words and quickly forget how to say phrases, they are so warm-hearted and generous.

We ate lunch at the "restaurant" which was sort of just a kitchen with pre-made food. I had pap (a starchy food like grits) and beef, with beets and coleslaw. It was so much food none of us finished, and it only cost P11.00 which is less than $2.00. Crazy. We met another woman later who also loved talking to us and helping us with Setswana. She was pretty funny. She was amazed that we were all 20 and 21 years old and had no children. Yikes! Let's keep it that way. Although she's convinced that Peter, someone in our group, is going to get married in Kasane, a city in northern Botswana:) She also gave each of us setswana names, 3 of which mean thank you. I think she chose that because we kept getting confused about when we use each form of thank you. My name is Ke itsumetse. On that note, a lot of times when I introduced myself to people, they would break out in laughter or at least giggle a little bit. We couldn't figure it out and asked Matts, our setswana teacher, when we got back. he decided it must be because Katie (spelling?) is a common Setswana name, so they thought I must have a setswana name.

We also got to talk to a lot of school kids. They were so funny. They love talking to white people and had so much fun teaching us words. They walked with us for probably about45 min. and finally we realized that they walked past their homes to stay with us.

On the white person note, it's sort of awkward sometimes. People will blatantly stare at us, especially when we're in a large group. It feels really awkward sometimes, sort of moreso in the city because in the village people are especially friendly and really want to talk with us. In the city, we're just a bunch of faces that stick out. It helps as we get to know the city better though because we can look more confident, like we belong there and know exactly what we're doing.

Ok, I think that's about all I have for now. Bye!