Goodbyes and Farewells

Last Saturday I had a going away party at my house. My parents kindly opened up my house for the day so people could come and go as they pleased. My mom made tons of food, shredded chicken, hamburgers, hotdogs, and fruit pizza were just a few of the delicious items on the menu. She was going to try to make a Botswanian (not sure if I spelled that correctly) dish but decided not to conquer that challenge. Maybe when I come home I will be able to show her how to make food from Botswana (like the mopane worm). Here's some pictures from the day:

These were cool contact cards I made for my guests so they will be able to keep in touch with me while I am gone.

Some of the delicous food!

The Cake my Mom  got me :)

The weather threatened rain but stayed pretty nice throughout the day.

People played corn hole.

My friends from Miami (Lindsay and Siesan) came to visit.

Me and my cousin Sara

David (my older brother) was able to come as well.

And so was Ben! I'm going to miss him a lot :(

So all in all the party turned out really well. Alot of my friends and family were able to come and see me before I left. This past week I've spend most of it packing and geting myself ready to leave. Yesterday I spent the day at the spa with my Mom and got to see my Grandma one last time. I still can't believe I am leaving tomorrow it doesn't seem possible. I finnally finished packing a little bit ago. I'm soo glad to be done. I spent most of Wednesday packing and got really frustrated when my one piece of luggage was waaaayyy overweight. After some reajusting and moving things around I was able to get everything packed and withing the restrictions. I'm trying to get around the one carryon by having a carryon and a huge bag purse as my "personal item". I hope it works or else I'm not going to have anything to read on the plane. That would not be a fun trip over. Now I can just kind of relax and spend time with some friends and family before I leave for the airport at 4am. The only thing I have left to do on my list is find some pictures to put in my little photo album and finish downloading movies into my external hard drive.

I'm sure you are probably curious as to what my traveling and next couple of weeks are going to look like. So heres the layout. Get on flight to Philly, PA from Columbus at 6:40am Saturday. Arrive around 8:10am. Check into hotel. Registration begins at noon with some ice breakers and turning in final paperwork. Have some lectures to sit through till 7pm. Then I am free to do whatever until 2am when we check out of the hotel and get on a bus to JFK airport. Flight to Johnasburg South Africa leaves JFK at 11:15am. Then we are on the for about 15 hours. We have a nice 8 hour layover in Johnasburg and get on another flight to Gaborone, Botswana. Will arrive in Botswana around 4:45pm Monday. Then we get bused to be in a lodge for 5 days right outside of Gaborne. There we will have a little bit of training, vaccinations and stuff like that. After the 5 days we go to our training villiage of Molepole (1 hour outside of the capital of Gaborone), where I will get to be with my host family for the next few months. So its going to be a very tiring week, but I am very excited to embark on this new adventure.

 As the time gets closer and closer to when I actually am going to leave and the more goodbyes I have to say it gets harder and harder. I am still really excited to go but I am going to miss everyone so much. I know I have a loving and supportive network of friends and family and it makes it hard to leave that here and go into a new place where I will know noone and be on my own for the most part. It's a little scary to think about and as the time apporaches I get more and more nervous and my fears are becoming reality. My Mom and I went to a Volunteer Send-off Celebration party at OSU campus last night, which helped me overcome some of my fears and reservations a little. There were a few Returned Peace Corps Volunteers (RPCV) who talked about their experiences in the Peace Corps. It was really cool to talk to them and hear some of their experiences. It got me super pumped for my journy I am about to take. One of the RPCVs had served in Botswana which was pretty cool as well. That said it still is hard to say bye to your loved ones. I will miss you all greatly.

Oh also to let you know, my internet access is going to be limited for the next few months during training. I guess the only access I will have is if I am able to go into the capital. Not sure how true that is or how often will be but I will find out once I get there. I will try to keep this updated as much as possible, and you can always write me. Letters are always a nice comfort. :) Well I probably should get some pictures printed off so I have some of my friends and family to look at when I get homesick.