Dumela!

Dumela! (Hello in Setswana)
I have finally set up my internet and got everything working! Lets just say that everything here is much slower and relaxed than the U.S. After a LONG travel, I got to the airport in Botswana expecting a nice welcoming face to greet me with a sign and tell me exactly where we were going. This was not the case. A group of international students all gathered together and sat around waiting for our representative. 45 minutes later, after we walked outside to the parking lot, two women showed up. We shoved all of our packed suitcases into the van, and then proceeded to wait for another 45 minutes while the women went inside to do who knows what. About 2 hours later we finally arrived on campus! This little story is an example of how everything works here: about an hour behind the times. At first it was pretty disorienting, however I am starting to get used to it. The people are all incredibly welcoming, however the organization is very poor. They did not do a great job of showing us around, or filling us in on much. When you do spend time with locals however, they are very helpful and excited that we are here to learn about Botswana.
  The campus is really cool. Some buildings are really old and look very broken down, and some are really new and modern looking. The university is relatively old, however they have been updating it in the recent years so all of the buildings look very different. The dorms are really simple, and have a wall that goes almost all the way to the door that splits your space and your roommates bed areas up (I will post pictures soon). To answer the question that I am sure all of you have, YES, it is VERY hot!! The locals said that it was around 98 today, however it rained for a little bit, and around 5 o clock we got a pretty nice breeze. The peak sun hours are SO HOT, you don't want to walk anywhere! But it is a great change from the freezing cold. And to answer your second question mom and dad, Yes, I have been wearing lots of sunscreen.
  Over the next few days we have orientation where we will figure out our schedules, learn the rules, and get a tour of the full campus. I am excited to actually know what is going on around me, because right now I feel like I am running around very confused! The food here is very simple: Rice, beans, meat and smashed pumpkin are pretty much the staple foods of the cafeteria. We are going to a traditional dinner on friday though, so I am very excited to eat some different foods. We even get to try fried caterpillar!! The students here speak very clear english, however it seems that many of the adults have less clear english. Many of the times people go between english and setswana, just like when people speak spanglish. The language is SUPER COOL, but seems very hard to learn.
  Today we ran into a couple of guys who are from Botswana who were just hanging around campus drinking, and they were flabbergasted to find out that we pay for our education. 95% of the students at the University of Botswana pay no money, because the government pays for education. How nice would that be?! We have international students from all over the world. Many from all over the U.S. but also students from France, Finland, Germany and many other places, so it is fun to not only learn about the culture here, but the culture where everyone else is from as well.
  Not much has happened so far, so that's about all I have for you all. I am starting to adjust, although everything is very new, so I am dead tired by the end of the day. I will write again as soon as possible. I hope all is well wherever you are reading this, and I send lots of love from Africa!