First Congregational UCC - Platteville

Hello, friends and family.

I’m in Africa!!! It doesn’t feel entirely real just yet, because we have been coddled by the Peace Corps so far with nice hotels and little exposure to daily life in a town or village. These are a few notable things so far:

1. It’s hot. Not too hot, just wonderfully sunny and warm. At night it’s cool.
2. There are goats everywhere, crossing the street and bleating outside the hotel lobby door.
3. We drove on the left side of the road during our 6 hour bus trip here from Johannesburg yesterday.
4. The border crossing was so easy! Everyone looked delighted to have U.S. visitors and said “welcome to Botswana” about a hundred times.
5. There is a church at the hotel. Or at least, a place where people gathered to worship (mostly through incredibly beautiful singing) this past Friday night. Apparently we will most likely be invited to go to church with our host families and I can’t wait.

There are 43 people in our training group. We will split into three groups on Monday and move to towns outside of the capital, Gaborone, where we are currently staying in a hotel. The age range is 22 to 75. It is a diverse group in other ways, too. Training will last 8 weeks and then we will receive a site assignment. We move in with host families on Monday. Training consists of 8am to 4pm days of sitting in sessions with our host country trainers (wonderful people who are making a difference in their country) and current volunteers (also wonderful people and so helpful) as they try to prepare us for what’s to come. It’s hard for them to address everything. So much depends on someone’s site placement and we won’t know that for weeks. I will probably have electricity and water at my site. But maybe not. I will probably make Botswana friends easily. But maybe not. I will probably experience discrimination as woman and feel as if I’m treated as an object . . . but it depends. That’s sort of how the discussion goes.

I am so happy to be here. It is still overwhelming to think about being gone for so long and missing all of you, of course, but something I’ve already started to learn is to relax and be in the moment. I am exhausted. Wisconsin is 8 hours behind Botswana time.

This is a repeat for some of you, but since it would be so lovely to receive mail, I’ll tell you again. ;) My mailing address during training is:
Peace Corps
Leah Hart
Private Bag 00243
Gaborone, Botswana

I hope you’re all doing well and enjoying spring!

love, leah