Happy Days!

Sunday, Monday, Happy Days.
Tuesday, Wednesday, Happy Days.
Thursday, Friday, Happy Days.
Saturday, What a day,
Groovin' all week with you…

One of the most challenging ‘mental shifts’ I have made during my time in Botswana has been accepting the fact that, unlike in the US, where I can plan and organize my social and professional calendars weeks in advance, here I cannot even anticipate what I will be doing from one day to the next. Two very common questions I get from people (both expats in Botswana and friends/ family in the USA) are, ‘so what does a typical day/ week look like?’ and ‘what are you up to tomorrow/ in the weeks ahead?’ My typical response is, ‘I have no idea, but if you hear anything, please let me know.’ So, I thought I would provide a few snapshots of each day THIS week:


This Sunday, like most Sundays, my friend Wemmie picked me up and we went to church. Here is a picture of me standing outside the sanctuary. After church, I usually go home or do errands. On Sunday afternoons I also like to Skype with friends and family back in the US. Since Gaborone is nine hours ahead of Pacific Standard Time, my Sunday afternoons are their Sunday mornings—I usually Skype my Grandpa Joe in Nebraska first because I am only seven hours ahead of him (and he wakes up early anyway).














This is me on Monday sitting at the desk I usually use at BHP. I don’t actually have an assigned spot at the office, but Onalenna, our administrative assistant- extraordinaire, usually lets me sit here in her office. When Onalenna took this picture, the power in the building had gone out, so I was only using my laptop. Usually I use both the desktop and my laptop at the same time. Having two computers going helps me cope with the slow internet.

















On Tuesday, I met with one of the Mochudi Prevention Project collaborators at his office on the University of Botswana campus in Gaborone. This is me outside the Faculty of Health Sciences office ‘port-a-camps’ (which are what we call ‘modular’ or ‘portable’ buildings). Later that day we had our weekly Mochudi Prevention Project conference call with Boston. I wanted to take a picture of this meeting because it is one thing I actually DO attend every week, but we were cramped so tightly in a small office around the speaker phone, I didn’t dare ask someone to come in to take our picture.











This is me working from home on Wednesday afternoon. I am working on an ‘inventory of prevention messages’ as part of the Mochudi Prevention Project and earlier in the day, I had had two very successful meetings at the Ministry of Health collecting data for the inventory. Later that afternoon was our first Fogarty Scholars meeting via Elluminate Live!























I look forward to Thursdays because I am in a ladies’ Bible study that meets on Thursday mornings. The women in the study are from all over Africa, Asia, Europe, Australia and the US. It is amazing to listen to their stories about what brought them to Botswana. In addition to wonderful fellowship, the Bible study and discussions have been a source of spiritual enrichment and inspiration for me. This Thursday (before and after Bible study) I worked on administrative ‘stuff’ related to the Mochudi Prevention Project. After work, I made the mistake of trying to go grocery shopping during the afternoon rush. I got so frustrated that I was near tears when I left the store (without everything I needed and having been charged for a case of mixed vegetables when I only bought one can).




















On Friday we were having our work-load analysis done at the Mochudi site as part of the continuous process improvement effort going on at BHP. These are some pictures of the home-based counselors picking up their supply bags before heading out on home visits in Mochudi. When I came home from work on Friday we were without power and it was not restored until well after my bedtime- more about this in a future blog.




Saturday, what a day! As I work on this posting, I am doing laundry and just finished baking a tuna-noodle casserole (like tuna-helper from scratch).

I am sure next week will be slightly (or completely) different from this week just as this week was different from last week. But, at least this gives you an idea of ‘what a day/ week in the life of Katie in Botswana looks like.’ Thank you for 'groovin' all week with me!'

"Happy Days" by Norman Gimbel and Charles Fox accessed at: http://www.sitcomsonline.com/themesonglyrics.html