Home again, home again...

We have been home in Botswana for two weeks now and are re-settling into everyday life as we know it. Some of the high-lights and lesser-lights of our return include:

• Perfect gardening weather - Even though it is only Sept (the equivalent of March for you northern hemisphere people) the weather is starting to warm up nicely. Evenings and Mornings are still cool (around 60) but the daytime temps are back up in the mid to upper 80s and the sun is resuming its usual intensity. Last week we caught spring fever and planted a round of seeds. Now I have visions of lettuce, radishes, kale, cucumbers, and basil dancing in my head. Mmm.

Prescott hanging out on an old shower curtain while we work in the garden.

• Sunday School - I was informed by several sources that since I took a break from teaching Sunday School in April, the class has fallen apart. The church is sending teachers to our outdoor classroom but only a few kids are still coming. One woman told me last week, 'You must strap your baby on your back and resume teaching the children. They are refusing the other teachers.' It made me feel good but definitely reinforced the importance of encouraging new teachers.
  
• Puppy love - We left our dogs at our new house after only having two weeks to settle them in. They were in good hands for feeding and care but no regular behaviour supervision. Jon was a little nervous about how aggressive the dogs would be with the five small children who share our yard but we returned to find them best friends. When we first arrived home the dogs were no where in sight, after a few minutes of wandering and calling we found them laying on the ground, bellies in the air, sitting in a circle with our neighbor's kids. They were ecstatic to see us but still enjoy tearing around in dirt piles with the kids next door. Unfortunately, we also found that Tsana has taken to killing chickens. No one is too angry with her/us yet but we are keeping her chained until we can find her a new home in a less tempting environment.
• Serwalo - While we were in the US our good friend, Serwalo (the one with cancer), ended up in the hospital for several weeks because of digestive issues. She was back home by the time of our return but is really struggling with pain and fatigue. It has been several weeks since she has eaten more than a spoonful or two of food and she has lost even more weight. Their daughter ended her semester of med school in South Africa early to spend time with her mother and will be here until January. I don't know how much time we have left together, but every week is precious. Prescott and I have been walking out for a visit 4 or 5 times a week just to sit with her. We try to go in the mornings before she has left her bedroom so we can have some quieter time, if we arrive after 10am we are rarely alone. She has a steady stream of friends and family who come to sit with her for a few hours at a time.

You may be wondering why we have been so quiet since our return, its because we had a very difficult time transferring our internet to the new house. Our service provider couldn't get any signal at our new place (it is a wireless connection) and after four days of work and 20+ phone calls ended up installing an ~40 foot pole with our dish on top so that we can get signal. Thanks to their perseverance it seems to finally be up and running again.