Return Tickets

The past three months I have been basically living out of a backpack.

The Peace Corps deemed March (and also a little of May) as months for additional hands-on trainings. While it is always great to gain tangible skills, take a real shower and hang out with other PCVs, I think everyone is a little relieved to be done with this training season and anxious to apply these skills in their work at site.

Except for me because I am the luckiest girl in the bush and in between trainings I was able to meet my mom in Cape Town, and then embark on a multi-country road trip with four friends from home.

Besides catching up and talking about EVERYTHING, we saw a variety of beautiful places, a natural wonder of the world and some adorable animals. Highlights of Cape Town included Stellenbosch, the wine country on the outskirts of the city, sushi and penguins along Boulder Beach. Road-trip highlights included Victoria Falls, copious elephant sightings from the road, the crazy landscapes of Namibia, sunrise dune hikes and also more sushi.

It’s weird to think I went many, many months without being in the same room as someone I knew before last July, to have such an even split in my life in America and my life here. Seeing familiar faces (some of them INSIDE MY HOUSE) was an odd and amazing collision of worlds, weird and normal at the same time. I cannot express how grateful I am to have been able to experience little pockets of this diverse and unpredictable continent with the people I love most in the world.

a crazy situation here

When the trips ended (more sad goodbyes!!!) I didn’t feel jealous of their return to America, the land of drive through coffee shops and movie theaters and all those other non-negotiable amenities. Instead, I felt validated in my decision to come to Botswana, and ready to return to my cotton-candy colored home and thorny, overgrown yard. I was excited to show my coworkers photos from the trips, share the spices brought back from South Africa and Namibia and to seek their advice in finding the proper dress pattern in order to turn my new fabric into something wearable.

As my house becomes a home, as friendly faces become friends and as project ideas start to become projects, I’m about ready to let my backpack gather some dust.