Day 1/Day 2

June 25/June 26
Welcome to Africa! Today began my trip to Botswana. Well, "today" is sort of a loose term, seeing as this entry represents days 1 and 2. I am so excited, I don't think I can fully express my emotions in words. I'm finally in Botswana! At home, I was counting down the minutes to this moment. The day started off at the airport. My parents and my sister dropped me off at the airport. I didn't let them stay for very long, as I already knew from last year's trip to Belize that good-byes are the most difficult part of any trip.
This is my second trip with EIL, the Experiment in International Living. EIL takes small groups of students from all over the United States on trips to 30 different countries around the world. Last year, I went for 4 weeks to Belize. This year, I will spend 5 weeks in Botswana. The first 3 days in Botswana will be spent in an orientation, where we will learn more about Botswana and begin our lessons in the most widely spoken language in Botswana, Setswana. The next two and a half weeks will be spent in a homestay in a local village called Mogobane (pronounced mo-ho-BAH-nay) completing a community service project. We aren't sure what that project will be yet, but I know it will be rewarding. We will end the trip spending a couple of days in Gaborone, the capital city, before moving north for our safari and trip on the Okavango Delta.
From the minute I arrived at the airport, I knew it was going to be a great trip, and so far, so good! My group leaders, Louie and Carson, seem very nice and my group is already very close. I just met them, and already it feels like I've known them forever. There are, including myself, 6 students from New York (Shane, Anahi, Thomas, Olivia, Brandon, and myself), one from Belmont, MA near Boston (Amelia), one from Pittsburgh, PA (Ian), one from Seattle, WA (Rheame), and one from the Florida Keys (Sarah). We are from all across the country, and still we are friends, and will remain friends, thanks to this one trip bringing us all together. We played ice-breaker games in the airport to get to know each other better. The games were silly, but a great way to pass the time, as we had about 5 hours in the airport before takeoff. The trip to Johannesburg, our first stop, was rather uneventful, as I spent most of the 15-hour flight sleeping.

Landing in Johannesburg! Yes, this is really my plane. :)

As soon as we landed, the trip got interesting. Walking through security, Shane forgot his sleeping bag on the conveyor belt. As a sleeping bag was one of the few required items on our packing list, he had to go back to get it. The airport security decided to have fun with him, and they said that his sleeping bag had a gun in it. They even showed him an x-ray picture of a sleeping bag with a gun inside of it. It wasn't his sleeping bag, but it rattled him all the same. They couldn't stop laughing, but Shane didn't find it as funny as they did. In the midst of all this trouble, we neglected to check the time of our connecting flight, and we ended up missing our flight into Gaborone (pronounced ha-bo-RO-nay). Luckily, flights to Gaborone are frequent, so we easily secured another flight a few hours later. Let's just say we were relieved to land in Gaborone. At the airport, we met Banki, our in-country coordinator. She'll be with us for most of the trip, and she'll teach us Setswana. When we finally arrived at Mokolodi, where we will be staying for orientation, we were exhausted. It's taking a lot of will power to finish this entry. I am so excited for tomorrow: our first game drive and our first Setswana lesson! 

My team