We made it!

So, it appears as if our attempt to post on the blog failed yesterday.
Don't worry, we did arrive safely, and were fine yesterday, even if
we didn't post (...moms.... :)

We finally arrived in Gabarone at 7:30 AM Tuesday, PST (somewhere
around 3:30PM local time). It's been incredibly hot, but bearable
(LOW HUMIDITY!!!!!). After an adventure with the local combie
transport system (apparently Route 6 is different from Block 6), we
even managed to get safely back to Tina (our gracious host)'s house.

Tscheus!

Yayyyyy!!!!

We're here!  We've dived into the adventure here, so we haven't gotten to a internet café before now. Our flight in London was delayed 2 hours because of a storm, so we arrived in Johannesburg 20 minutes before our next flight.. which means we missed it. So, we had to wait 5 hours for the next flight. Unfortunatly, we didn't have number to call Tina in Botswana who was waiting for us at the airport at 10 am.   Our new flight only left at 2:15 (and there were delays on that one too) so when we finally got to the Gabarone airport, no one was waiting for us.. Tina had no idea when we would come.   We had met a Motswana lady in line in Jo'berg, as she was in the same situation as us, and in the airport in Gabarone, she offered us a ride to Tina's place. So, we got in her car, and about to head out of the parking lot when we saw Tina!   She was dropping off a friend who was flying out. She had prayed for good timing, and it couldn't have been better!

 

So Wednesday we went with Tina to a village and hour or so out of the city to see a friend of hers.  Tina's church has agreed to   provide the money for this woman to build herself a house, so we went to tell her the good news.  We arrived at this woman's brother's house, and they were preparing for other brother's wedding next week, so the women were putting a new coat of mud on the round house, and all the family was around to see that the work was coming a long well.

 

We were there over lunchtime, so they included us in the meal, which was a great cultural experience. 

 

Today we are looking around the main mall, and my time is about up on the computer.

We're off

Here we go again.. leaving on a jet plane
our plane leaves Vancouver 6pm Sept. 24th. We will arrive in Botswana Sept. 26th 1am (Vancouver time. 10am local)

Pray for our safety as we go, and sanity for the 31 hours of transit!

Ganbaremasu
(We'll do our best!)

So it's been a while

Well, I've heard from a bunch of people that I haven't been carrying my weight when it comes to blog posts.  I suppose they may have something at that, but I know that I HAVE posted a whole lot more (well, 3 or 4 times more) than Rick (who, I think, leaves all the posting to Jen). 

Anyway, it seems surreal that we leave in 2 days for Africa.  In 2 days, I will then spend about another 2 days on airplanes and in airports - not sleeping.  Yay.  Anyway, we have pretty much everything together for the big jump, including, thanks to many generous friends and relatives, a lot of financial help with the costs.

A number of people had passed their concern on to me regarding the high rates of HIV in southern Africa, and their worry that by working in a medical field, I'd be in serious risk.  I had always figured that, while the risk was there, I'd be consistently vigilant in never allowing for any infection to occur (and I still will).  Then, on Wednesday, I got a call from SIM (the agency we're going through), that they're now suggesting that people going into Angola to work in the pre-med program bring along their own antiretroviral medication, in case there is some accident.  This is new, and I don't think it's because of an actual accident, however, it was a bit of a wake-up call as to the tangible possibility of infection with HIV.

So, I ended up getting a prescription, and eventually found the ONE pharmacy in Vancouver (Shoppers Drug Mart on Davie St.) that can provide the medication, and ended up getting a quarter course (meaning that if I did get infected, I'd have a week to hunt down some more drugs) for about $250 (meaning that the full course would be up around $1000).  There are 3 different drugs, and in reading the descriptions, they almost seem as likely to kill someone as the eventual AIDS would (well not quite, but it is quite bluntly dangerous).  In just getting the prescription and reading through the documentation, I can only begin to imagine what someone who actually was needing to take the medication would be thinking of.

Now, for all you worried relatives out there, I don't plan on ever needing to take any of these pills.  Instead, I'm planning on leaving them in Angola unopened.  Also, no-one needs to worry about Julia - she'll be pretty safe, as I doubt she'll be at risk of contracting anything while teaching English.  If anything those seminary students should be quaking in their boots at the thought of contracting her spelling!  (I'm ducking right now, because even though Julia is in the other room right now, I don't want her to see me type this....  - I'm joking, of course - I don't think spelling can be contagious)      :)

Anyway, that's all for now.  I'll stop before I get myself in more trouble.

it's like.. totally!

Hey.. shhh.. I'm not really here, I'm doing my University of Toronto applications, but I thought I'd come and say hi. don't tell Toronto or anything, but I don't like their application process.. I don't know how I will use all my vast knowledge and experiece to create a future of diversity, equality and social justice. Anyways, I hear that U of T used to have bad acne, and now she's all popular and what, but I don't like her.. but don't tell her cause I need her to like me.

New Things

Well, (Bekah) things that are new...
Ben is almost finished applying for med schools (in Ontario, Edmonton, and Vancouver). I just finished proofreading his last essays, so by tonight it should all be done.. and the rest is up to God and the committees that decide who gets in and who becomes a pharmacist (JK). The applications for my teaching degree in Ontario open tomorrow, so I can get started applying too. The rest of mine (Alta, BC) arn't due until next spring, so I'll be able to write about Angola as experience by then.

Right, Angola, we leave in 10 days!! We've piddled away at getting things ready-but we have a lot to do yet, like writing a will! I've arranged all our accomodations while in Botswana-we're going to travel around a bit and I'll play tour guide for Ben. We were woken up one night by Ben's brother. He said there was someone from Pensilvania (sp?) on the phone for me. Turns out the lodge in Botswana has a router there, and they were calling to tell us to turn on the fax. I enquired on an online form, and they faxed all the info... hmmm.. seems strange (archaic?). The lady on the phone greeted me with a cheery good morning. Lucky for her it was 1:30am, so I "good morning-ed" her back. We've gone from the land of amzing customer service (Japan) to decent service (Canada) and then the slow beuracracy of Botswana. I love it. I can't wait to be met by a blast of hot air and scrubby trees. (really, that was not sarcastic.. sooooo excited)

My job has been interesting too. I'm learning a lot about the body and how it's put together. Seeing all the x-rays that come through is interesting, especially when a bone is broken and offset! or when there is pace makers in the chest, or a 2 year old's hand-the bones don't touch and the carpols arn't there yet.. looked so weird! I have 3 more shifts there.