In Preparation...

This week has been full of anticipation and excitement as we wait to find out our site placements on Saturday. Botswana is vast and bus rides between villages are long and hot. We are clinging to those whom we have grown close with and planning future trips in the event we are separated and won’t see each other very often. The maps that hang around the training room are almost daunting now. Yes, we all realize that we can, and will, make the most of whatever placement we get, appreciating that we hardly know the country yet and that our program directors are better suited at this point to place us (although we speculate about the criteria they are using to make this decision).

Our eagerness was magnified, however, when they released lists of potential sites for the different sectors. For those of you that are clinging to your seat, I thought I would share the list of potential places for the NGO sector placement (places where I could potentially go, subject to change*). The villages and towns include:

D’Kar

Molepolole

Otse

Rakops

Ghanzi

Khakhea

Mochudi

Kasane

Shakawe

Kanye

Tsesebe

Gaborone

Tlkoweng

Truth be told, this is a very good list. It has been comforting to me because I believe that I will be happy in whichever one of these places I get sent. I am lucky. (One of the other sectors is much more remote in placement and the list has worried a number of its trainees.) Until Saturday, we will just be taking deep breaths and continuing to find out as much information as we can…. Stay tuned to find out where I will be living for the next two years! This has gotten real folks!

*Peace Corps disclaimer because things constantly change and depend on a number of factors, including faltering logistics…