Quick Birthday Update

this is gonna be a quick post.... i have to finish my final paper by tomorrow but i just wanted to post real fast.... so here it is!

first of all, IT'S MY BIRTHDAY!!! and i'm so exctied to spend it in Bots! Last night, we all slept at the program house because we had an early morning today. we left at 6.30 for the diamond mine. it's a two hours drive, we went on a tour for a few hours, had a quick buffet lunch and drove the 2 hours back. the mine was interesting, but we were all super tired and hungry. it's literally just a big hole in the ground, but a wonderful hole. there are dump trucks at least five times as tall as me. their tires alone are almost twice my size. we got to climb up the stairs (yes, there was an actual stair case on the front of this thing) to sit in the driver's seat. can you say power trip?

tonight we're all working on our papers, but a few of us are far enough along to go out to dinner to celebrate. so we're going to a portugese restaurant down the street. since most people are working tonight and can't go out, we're going to all get dinner together tomorrow night, our last night all together in Bots.

tomorrow's schedule is pretty insane. i have to leave my house at 6.30 to walk to the program house. then we're driving to somewhere to give our presentations until probably 5.30pm. then it's dinner time! on saturday i fly to joburg, where i'll spend the night in the airport. saturday i fly to malawi for some down time before january sesion starts!

in other news..... while i've been in gabs, i went back to visit Manayana, the village we did our first homestay in. it was beautiful because it's all green and fresh from the rain. i didn't get to see april because he was playing soccer and brian was with his mom, but it was great to see masa before leaving. it was fun to walk down the central street again and say hi to people i remembered from august and september say hi. i've also spent a lot of time working on papers and hanging out with ame, my host sister here in Gaborone.

that's just about it. more to come soon!!!