busy as a bumble bee

This week has been very busy with Ethelene's presence, full of meetings and outings and discussions concerning the internship and the libraries here.

Yesterday we headed into Gaborone to try to plan our trip up north at the end of our stay. Angelina had recommended a travel agent that we went to see, and it looks as if we've got most of the important details ironed out. Now we're just waiting for some confirmation emails and then we can go purchase our flight tickets and pay for our accommodations, yay! On account of our financial situations we've decided to skip the Okavango Delta and instead just visit the Chobe district and do a day trip to Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe. I think it will make for a much more affordable and relaxing trip. Going to the Okavango would have been very expensive and would have required a lot of additional travel.

Then we met up with Ethelene, Angelina and her husband at Botswana Craft for lunch and souvenir shopping. Always very pleasant at the outdoor courtyard at Botswana Craft, and I had a delicious chicken and vegetable wrap. Cara is the adventurous eater and tried an Impala stew that I had a bite of, very good! (although I think it gave her an upset stomach that was not pleasant, so I'm glad I only had a bite) Also dining at Botswana Craft was the former President of Botswana! That's what happens in a small country, I guess.
The rest of the afternoon was spent in hot, crowded combis getting from Botswana Craft over to Riverwalk Mall in order to meet Ethelene and Angelina after a meeting they thought they had, but was canceled. (Funny because we actually saw the man they were supposed to be meeting with at lunch and his wife came over and said hello to us...but then there was supposedly a "family emergency"). Teehee!

We picked up some ingredients at the grocery store for a stir-fry and made that for dinner. Another successful meal. We spent the night at Angelina's because we had an early morning meeting this morning with the director of BNLS.

We didn't know exactly what was expected to happen at this meeting, but I think we did a decent job overall of explaining what we have been up to the past 9 weeks and also presenting some of the challenges we've encountered at home and at the libraries. I made sure to mention that it's really important they keep on pushing for the new building to be finished, and also that Internet and computer training will be available in the new building. We found from our user survey that something like 93% of patrons wanted free Internet and training, so it's crucial if the library is retain their users. We also mentioned the lack of relevant materials in the collection and the adverse affect of the current lack of periodical subscriptions.

Tomorrow is our last day with Ethelene and we're going to a small game reserve right outside of Gaborone. I'm hoping that we'll get to see some wild animals.