Driving in Botswana.

Christmas Tree's aren't quite the same...





Just a day in the life of a driver.




Beware of moving obstacles!



what a darling little boy. Hayden <3

Day two of Africa,

welllll, I managed to make mama stay up and watch definitely maybe with me on Saturday night and then somehow I awoke at 6am my time, about midnight everyone else's time. This called for some serious conversations and pointless information.

Side note, do not begin a serious conversation at 6am or at 12am, they turn into lengthy conversations that you don't want to be faced with.

Anyways, I stayed up from 6am onwards and chatted away until about 8ish, then Shirley woke up and she disappeared and I began to watch The Great Mouse Detective. Eventually, after 2 cups of coffee and a piece of toast for breakfast I got dressed and we ventured onto the roads of Botswana to make our first trip to the shopping centre. Shirley claims she knows how to drive standard, based on yesterdays driving, I’m a little sceptical about it, but I am alive, so it’s better than I could have done. We were given directions from Jane about where to go but soon began to doubt our memories and used the GPS (who I have yet to have named, but will be doing shortly).

We eventually managed to make our way there and tried to find a currency exchange booth so we could get some poola, the local currency. The first stand wouldn’t take Canadian, the second bank didn’t have any cash on premises, and the third bank Shirley claims took Canadian, but after waiting in line for 15 minutes, and after I repeatedly said they didn’t take Canadian, they didn’t, No where would take Canadian, so we used the bank machine and got the money out, something I had originally suggested.

Side note, 100 poola is equal to about 10 pounds, which is about 15$ Canadian.

The mall consisted of some department like shops, and then a few other shops, nothing incredible, there was one store called Mr. Price where they had this cute dress I liked, but had ZERO sizes, and by that I mean the small was essentially a large, therefore I think shopping might be an issue while I’m here.

We then wound up going to Mug&Bean this "posh" coffee shop where they have not only all types of coffee and espresso drinks but also a variety of food, AND best of all, there were two employees, Vicky and Chris, who Nan knows very well, therefore we were greeted with hugs!

Side note, I've been very confused about Chris because Nan kept calling her, an "it" and a "person"; I guess she/he is a transvestite?

Anyways, we had coffee and muffins, which were served with jam and cheddar cheese, weird!?

After our snack we went to "Game" a walmart type of a store. We wandered up and down the aisles picking up little things we didn't really need (well I managed to throw a bunch of stuff in that was unnecessary, but that some of you will be benefitting from when I get home ). We finally decided to leave the mall and head to the gas station to fill up Collin's Truck, which was HUGE btw, we told the man we needed 200 poola worth of gas, then he told us the truck took diesel, so therefore we got diesel, Nan said we had to tip the man, so we gave him 204 poola

Side note, the minimum wage in Botswana is 15 poola per day, so we basically just added a third to his day.

After we finished there we were off to head home, only to realize that at the light there had JUST been an accident, gas was pouring out everywhere! I obviously took advantage of this and snapped some photos. Apparently that was NOTHING compared to normal Nan assured me.

We were driving in full on traffic, not ideal for someone that was driving standard who doesn't normally, but we did fine and got home alright. Last night Mom and Jane decorated the Christmas tree (refer to pictures), very different than ours, and I napped, dinner was late as usual, we wound up leaving the table at 11pm and mom and I watched 500 days of summer, "what a lovely movie" was her impression. I then frantically Skype chatted with Elyse to make her buy me a Group on for the day as my internet wasn't working properly (hence the late blog post), thank goodness that girl loves me :)

This morning I awoke once and then fell right back asleep, it was raining, again.

I was brought up a cup of coffee and then I started some online shopping, lovely morning. Finally got out of bed at about 2pm and had the remainder of my muffin from yesterday, painted my nails, spoke a bit with patience

side note, Patience is Jane and Collin's maid, she comes Monday to Friday from about 6:50am to 5pm, Patience is about 33 and her birthday is the 22 of June, she has two children, one is 14 and one is 10, a boy and a girl, they live in Zimbabwe which is where she is from, she lives in a little building beside the house during the week.

Read a magazine, talked with Moses a little bit

Side note, Moses is Jane and Collin's handy man? I don't really know what to call him? He comes everyday and handles the garden, and the patio, and does any handy man type of work that is necessary, he doesn’t really come on the weekends unless something is really needed to be done, for example this past weekend when we got here Moses was here fixing the roof. Moses is in his 40's and has been with Jane and Collin for 11 years, he lives not too far from here and is married with one child, who Nan helped name, Hope.

After finishing the magazine mama and I called Emma and chatted a little bit and now here I am, finishing up this post and going to jump in the pool, if it’s not sunny then I’m at least going to swim.

Were going out to dinner tonight, earlier than usual, thank goodness, eating late makes me unable to sleep, and not to mention it’s not very good for you!

Tomorrow Jane is taking the afternoon off of work and we are going to see some animals, I desperately want to see an elephant, but I don’t know if that possible?

I guess we'll have to wait and see!