Saturday

well today was the first day that sam and i explored the city of gaborone.  sam got here yesterday so i found myself messing around in our apartment and getting accustomed to everything here before she arrived.  with that being said, i didn't make it outside of our apartment so by the time today rolled around i was quite hungry.  for those who have traveled outside of the us, you all know how much jet lag can be a pain in the rear.  last night i fell asleep around 4 am and didn't wake up until noon.  hopefully tonight will be better because we start work monday and have to be up at 7!

so, our adventure first started by leaving the compound and walking about a quarter of a mile to a cafe called fresh cafe.  it was a different sort of cafe then i am used to but doable.  we both had smoothies and a water to start our day.  we then came back to the apartment to look at our phones for directions to river walk center.  we say that it was about a three mile walk from our place so we thought it would be a good idea to get some fresh air and a little bit of exercise so we decided to walk.  about thirty minutes into it we noticed that we weren't recognizing anything that we were supposed to.  we realized we were supposed to turn a ways back so we had to retrace our steps and make the turn.  oops.  no big, mom, we are safe.  everyone walks here and says hello.  especially to the two foreign girls.  many people told us they loved us and we were offered many rides, which we respectively declined.  so we finally found the center that we were looking for.  we first went to the mobile store to buy airtime on our local phones so we can be in contact with our doctor that we report to.  while we were there a strange young woman came up and asked to be our friend.  it was clear she was not in her right mind.  she would not leave us alone and followed us for a while until we said that she had to leave us alone and she ran away.  we found ourselves a quaint pizza place.  the people down here absolutely love pizza which is funny to me.  so sam and i each had an individual pizza which we brought the rest home for lunch and dinner tomorrow.  we got some groceries and called johnny to pick us up.  he is the taxi driver that we were told to use and he was right on time.  we saw many roaming cows along the side of the road, but nothing to obscure. so, we are now back at the apartment treating all of our blisters before it is time to go to bed.  hopefully we will be able to sleep more tonight!

thank you Jesus for allowing us to remain safe and find our way back to our route.  you are so faithful!

on monday we will report to the hospital for a few hours then catch a flight to joburg for the regional meeting.

until next time,

natalie