Final Weeks/Finals Week (part 1)

This part of the semester was really the only part I can call "school"...why? Because I sort of studied. And I took some tests, and I stressed out about school a wee-bit.  My finals were spread over a two week period and those two weeks were sadly my last in Botswana- since that was the case we didn't stay in once place for very long.We spent the better of our evenings out to eat, at clubs or exploring. And honestly I can't really remember the sequence of all of these last few events so I will just recap random stories.

I went to my little kiddo's after school program one more time and took more pictures than were probably necessary but we did it anyways. It was so sad to say bye to all of them because I don't think they quite understood that when we said bye, this time we didn't mean for just the week- this time we meant forever... but I literally spent the whole time that day cuddling with all my little minis.  And it was pretty cool, we got the opportunity to ride on the bus that takes all of the kids home after school which meant we go to go through lots of the more poor neighborhoods of Gabs.  It was interesting because we watched these toddlers get picked up from the bus stop by siblings that couldn't have been more than a few years older than the kids they were picking up but it was so sweet to watch them pick up their little sibs or grab their hand to make sure they got home okay.

A few friends and I went running during a brown out (which means no electricity) and once we finished the run we all were in desperate need of a shower but guess what? No power and no water...so what did we do? Ehehehehe... we broke into the University pool and went skinny dipping. Now usually there is an electric fence that surrounds the pool but again-no power. No power=no electric fence :) So we hopped the fence and went for it! Once we got inside the fence we were all excited and decided there was no turning back so we stripped and jumped in! Didn't even get caught. Boom.

One night for dinner we went to the "rich people" Yacht Club that is right next to this lake where the sunsets were just unreal. I can't say I particularly enjoyed the actual club but the view was nice.

And just for traditions sake, we had to go out dancing just a few times before we all jetted and so we got just about our whole group together and we went dancing at a place called the Sports Bar, which we had actually never been to and was not quite as fun as Zoom but we got a whole bunch of our local friends to come with us which made it entertaining because then we had people to dance with that we knew.  This place is a whole lot smaller than Zoom or Bull-n-Bush but we still got our dance on and actually a few of our local friends had their car with them and got just a little tipsy while we were out so guess who drove home?  Me, driving on the wrong side of the car on the wrong side of the road is confusing but it was strangely fun and it was sort of nice because then we didn't need to worry about calling a cab or anything.  We also went to Zoom one more time because that is where my closest group of friends became close so we figured we needed to finish just the way we started and it worked.  It was one more amazing night of fun and dancing and getting proposed to/ held on to by every guy there but it sort of makes me smile to look back at now because no matter how many people tried to bother us, we found a way to make it a joke and have a good time anyways! Rage Rage Rage.

Played a whole bunch more pick up soccer and ultimate frisbee.  So I played pick up soccer almost every night with a group of local guys out in the pavilion, its a square and to score you have to hit these skinny poles ( I can't remember if I already mentioned this since I did it for like half the semester) which is really fun and the ball is tiny which made it twice as hard- always always fun though.  It was generally me and like 8 guys. But anyways people started getting busy and couldn't play anymore but we still wanted to be outside playing a game so a group of exchange students started playing Ultimate Frisbee for a few hours before the sun set every night and it got pretty intense.  I learned that a frisbee are really hard to throw but lucky for me I am okay at catching the thing so generally that was my job.  I sort of learned to love this game, and plus it is a great work out.

We took a drumming lesson.  It was the most bizarre but cool thing ever.  So a few of us got dropped off at this local rasta guy house.  This guys is in a band and "lives to the rhythm he finds in his music."  Anyways we each got a drum and he made us follow along with him through different beats and pattersn, each of us had to do a free style routine and then we practiced for a while to learn one song that had words with it too.  I always thought I was pretty good at rhythm stuff but when you try to play with a pro-rasta dude AND sing along at the same time, I was surprised at how distracted I kept getting and then I would have to stop because I was off beat and wait until I controlled my laughter and figured out the drumming pattern again.  All in all I would say I am probably about as good as a professional after that hour long lesson.  Another really cool thing about this guy is his attitude, everything is okay and everything is going to be okay as long as people are relaxed and find joy in little things.  He also believed that once you find something that you love and are passionate about, you better share it with the world to make it a better place- that is why he teaches music lessons. Its fun to see all of the small things people are doing to make a difference and make the world a better place, even something tiny- you may never know the impact you could make on someones life.