I made it here!!!!!

I'm here and I must say that it is camping, but harder. Cyndi and Tina would HATE it, but I'm pretty happy as some of you will know. There are 42 in the group now, 4 have already quit. There are 6 married couples, about 10 people my age or older, and the rest are 30 and younger. There are lots of really experienced teachers of whom I am not one. We are learning Setswana and cultural and historical type things. My Setswana sucks, but isn't as bad as some--not as good as others either.

We live in dorms, but although there is a comfortable bed, there is no heat (it is winter) so my warm clothes are getting used. There occasionally is hot water and occasionally there is a toilet that flushes. Talk about water conservation...if a guy doesn't pump the water, then there is no water in the lines. If he does, then there is. Like I said, camping experience is a must. There are plenty of warm blankets and I've got a desk.

This is the first time we've had any type of internet access and it is slow. In the future I'll have it through a phone, but that will be a while so in the mean time it will be VERY spotty about when I can send something so you should just talk amongst yourselves and don't copy me back.

The people are great and I'm having a great time with them. There is lots of laughing and very few are unhappy at the present time as near as I can tell. We go this weekend to a village near our training and move in with families there. Naturally, I'm working on my survival language skills. I'm sure I'll be fine, but that there will be lots of laughing and sign language. We are in total information download mode so we study from sun up to sun down. I go walking for exercise, but I usually get in only about 45 minutes a day. For that reason, I've cut back to two meals and tea instead of eating all the time.

The food is good, mostly starch and meats. Water is fine. We are getting shots from the medical staff (who are fabulous) pretty much every day. So all in all, it is great so far. It is warming up by the day and I'm pretty sure I'll be complaining about the heat pretty soon.

Hope you all are well. Thanks again for taking care of all my stuff! I miss you, sort of--as much as I ever have, but rest assured that I'm having a great time.

Love, Karen

PS, in the way of holidays if you are planning something...looks like I will have a month off mid-Dec to mid-Jan, a week off end of March, a month off mid-Jun to mid-July (world cup in SA so flights might suck), a week off in September, then a month mid-Dec to mid-Jan, etc.

I'll write more when I can, but don't expect anything regular for quite a while!

Setting Off For DC

I leave for orientation and staging in Washington DC on Wednesday, June 22 at 6:20am. I'll head off to South Africa from there on Thursday, June 23. I've spent the week at goodbye parties and packing, but I'm very excited to be leaving so soon.