Our students are entrenched in exams. While I have certainly experienced exam intensity, as I served at highly competitive schools like the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon for many years, this intensity is still foreign to me. As a student at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, I found finals week to be the most enjoyable week of the semester. Throughout the semester, I did my work and went to class so finals week was generally the easiest week of the semester... just a few tests and papers. Easier than a regular week because there were no classes. There were a few killer courses that brought stress, but I found a balance. I'd stay up late hanging out with friends, playing games and going to parties and gathering all of the free food offered around campus, and study or write papers at odd hours. I loved it! But the two full weeks of exams at UB (which are also held on Saturdays and Sundays) are really intense. Students are highly stressed, as the final exam often counts for 50% or more of the course grade. Few students can be seen on campus, and even our friends fail to respond to calls and texts. Pray for our sweet students! Many of them are struggling to deal with the stress in healthy ways. Pray that they would be diligent but trust God. Pray that they would find their identity in Him, not in their performance.
Because students are unavailable and our national director is preparing to leave the country, we had lots of staff meetings this week. We spent time evaluating the semester and worked on plans for our upcoming mission trip to Swaziland and next semester. We talked through future possibilities for the movement and the nation.
The highlight of the week, though, was awesome time with friends and family, near and far. Each night, I got to video chat with dear friends in the US. Plus, some of our dancer friends came over just to hang out for a while. There were two big social events that I just have to highlight, though.
Thanksgiving is not a holiday here, so we had a normal work day. I worked on adminitrative things at home so I could baste our tiny turkeys throughout the day. We invited our whole staff team to join us to celebrate, and at 6pm, Four of them and the Chifamunas' kids showed up with their parts of the dinner. It was such a joy to share this day with our BotsFamily. We ate really good food (which mostly tasted like our traditional Thanksgiving Day foods!). Turkeys are hard to find and expensive here, but the Lord allowed us to find two tiny turkeys, enough to feed everyone until their buttons popped. We went around the table, sharing what we're thankful for this year. It was far less loud and crazy than my usual celebrations with my gigantic extended family, where everyone is laughing and talking over each other. But it was good, nonetheless. We even added a photo shoot and dance party to the celebration, in true Batswana form.
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| Part of our BotsFam celebrated Thanksgiving with us |
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| Awkward family photos |
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| Ninjas, as requested by Zayne |
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| Serious dance party. |
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Candy corn from the US. I don't
like it, but it was nice to have. |
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Turkeys and stuffing. Yum!
(It was really, really hot, hence
the fan pointing at me,) |
The beauty of being seven hours ahead of my family is that I can work a full day of work, celebrate in my home, and then catch them as they celebrate in their own homes. I got to video chat with my family, and my cousin, Jeni, caught some of our conversation on camera. (Thanks, Jeni!) It made for a loooong day, but I loved it!
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| Video chatting with my sister Sara, brother Brian, and mom. |
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| Football and laughter. That's me on the phone. |
The other really exciting event of the week was a singles dinner at a local church, Open Baptist. Having experienced PLENTY of terrible singles events in my day, I decided to have fun no matter what. We convinced a bunch of our friends to come so that even if the event was a dud, we would be surrounded by fun people. (I have learned some tricks over the years!) So, eight of us rolled into the church a few minutes late (but actually way before the event would start). We laughed a lot and had several photo shoots while we waited. We bumped into some acquaintances and met some new people. Then we strategically spread ourselves out at a table so that we would be together but other people would be forced to join us. It didn't work really well at first, as our table was still just us until dinner. The emcees were not good; we had a lot of issues with their inappropriate comments and worldly viewpoints. We shot looks at each other often. Then they made us play a game that was strongly reminiscent of junior high youth group. But it did force us to mix. We met new people and laughed some more. The worship, speaker, and dinner we spot on... even though they didn't start until after 10pm. (We arrived at 6:30). After dinner, the program went way downhill, but our teams from the game were forced to sit together. We got to know some more great people, and I shivered for maybe the first time since arriving in Botswana. It was awesome! At the end of the night (12:30-1am), we helped tear down. We put on some fun dance music and made even the messy job of clearing tables fun. Even with all of its faults, it was by far the best singles event I have EVER attended. Praise God!
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| We have awesome friends! |
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| Goofing around with Mpho |
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Some of our fave girls in Botswana, all dolled up and
ready to mingle. |
