Hard to believe that the ten weeks is coming to an end. We spent the last day at the library going to Anne Stine, the center for mentally disabled children. It was nice. The kids are always so excited to see us! We played with the learning toys for a bit and then watched a video of traditional Botswana dancing and music, a lot of the kids really like dancing. Unfortunately, Max wasn't around during the morning, and there was no special event to mark our leave. There wasn't even electricity today so we couldn't enjoy tea time with the staff. Yesterday we bought some plastic chairs as a gift to the staff for the break trailer. They are always sitting on little wooden chairs from the children's room, so we thought it would be a nice gift that everyone could use.
Also yesterday Professor Mnjama came to give us our final evaluation. We had a nice opportunity to review what we had accomplished during our time here, and also our thoughts and suggestions for future internship programs.
Tomorrow BNLS is having a party for us and our host families. We've finally received confirmation of our travel plans up north, so we've also got to stop by the travel agent and pay for our trip. I am so happy that after two weeks of uncertainty the trip is going to work out.
Tonight I'll just spend packing up my stuff and saying my goodbyes to Molepolole.
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Friday, August 6, 2010
wrapping up in Molepolole
Just one week left of the internship! Times flies. Today at work we were visited by the head of Public Libraries at BNLS who offered an apology to us for now being in touch with us over the course of our time here. It seems that management at BNLS is undergoing a lot of changes, but she made sure to say that there was no excuse for their negligence. That was nice to hear; although I think we ended up managing okay in the end, support and guidance from BNLS would have greatly improved our work. We always went with her to meet with Kgosi and Mma Kgosi where she continued to offer apologies to them. BNLS is supposedly having a good-bye party for us next week, so then we'll be able to make our final rounds there and finish the internship on a positive note.
Our northern travels are still not secure! We still have to hear confirmation of our plans and pay for the trip. This is slightly stressful, as we're supposed to be leaving a week from today. In the end I decided to drop out of the Okavango Delta trip due to lack of funds. I'll still be heading to Kasane and Victoria Falls though, so hopefully I'll get a good dose of wild animals and luxury lodges there. Then I'll be back to Gaborone for a couple of days before starting my adventure in South Africa!
Our northern travels are still not secure! We still have to hear confirmation of our plans and pay for the trip. This is slightly stressful, as we're supposed to be leaving a week from today. In the end I decided to drop out of the Okavango Delta trip due to lack of funds. I'll still be heading to Kasane and Victoria Falls though, so hopefully I'll get a good dose of wild animals and luxury lodges there. Then I'll be back to Gaborone for a couple of days before starting my adventure in South Africa!
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
It's been a couple of days since I last updated, so I'll try and remember what happended over the weekend.
Last Friday turned out to be a very enjoyable day spent with Ethelene at the Mokolodi Nature Reserve right outside of Gaborone. We went on a little mini safari, and were lucky enough to see some kudu, impala, wildebeasts, warthogs, ostriches, giraffes and cheetahs! We were sad to see Ethelene go, but we had a wonderful time with her and it was nice that it provided a much needed break from our routine, just in time to refresh us for our last two weeks here!
It's hard to believe that we're getting ready to leave Moleps next week already. Just as I was really getting used to things. The library staff was chatting today about what they were going to do for us before we leave, and I tried to discourage any gifts. Still, the taller cleaning lady (still never got her name, I'm so bad) gave us each a wooden statue today, which was very, very sweet and unnecessary. Rachel and I are thinking that getting the staff some chairs for the break trailer and some tea and sugar might be a good farwell present.
We still haven't solidified our travel plans for the north. We've gone full circle after trying to find affordable alternatives (which don't really exist, it being the high season) and are now back to forking over our money for the whole tour of Vic Falls, Chobe and the Okavango.
At work we are finishing up our projects, like writing the analysis and report for our user survey. I've also started making some notes/outlines for my final reflection.
Last Friday turned out to be a very enjoyable day spent with Ethelene at the Mokolodi Nature Reserve right outside of Gaborone. We went on a little mini safari, and were lucky enough to see some kudu, impala, wildebeasts, warthogs, ostriches, giraffes and cheetahs! We were sad to see Ethelene go, but we had a wonderful time with her and it was nice that it provided a much needed break from our routine, just in time to refresh us for our last two weeks here!
It's hard to believe that we're getting ready to leave Moleps next week already. Just as I was really getting used to things. The library staff was chatting today about what they were going to do for us before we leave, and I tried to discourage any gifts. Still, the taller cleaning lady (still never got her name, I'm so bad) gave us each a wooden statue today, which was very, very sweet and unnecessary. Rachel and I are thinking that getting the staff some chairs for the break trailer and some tea and sugar might be a good farwell present.
We still haven't solidified our travel plans for the north. We've gone full circle after trying to find affordable alternatives (which don't really exist, it being the high season) and are now back to forking over our money for the whole tour of Vic Falls, Chobe and the Okavango.
At work we are finishing up our projects, like writing the analysis and report for our user survey. I've also started making some notes/outlines for my final reflection.
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