Author Archives: John Mark

Diamond Mines and Halloween – by John So I asked, how many men does it take to change a light bulb?  I was referring to the small, burned out light bulb in the diamond display case in the Jeweng Diamond Mine in Botswana that we visited today.   20.  Twenty people.  That is the answer, and … Continue reading »

Celebrations – by John: Each day is getting closer to the end of our training.  We finally had our big language test and although Carol and I feel we did horribly on the test, we know that we have gotten quite a bit of the language under our belts given the less than 40 hours … Continue reading »

While Life is Good, but not TOO Good…   by JM Life is good.  We are getting to the end of our training and more excited about moving to our permanent homes and starting real jobs.  Most of us will be within a day or two of each other, and four of us PCVs (PC … Continue reading »

New Home – By John Well last Monday was a really good day, indeed.  However, last Friday was the best day so far.  All 35 of us were told where we would be living for the next 2 years!   It was a well presented and well organized ceremony with a random drawing for who found … Continue reading »

We returned to our Permagarden project after 3 weeks and found it to be alive and well.

A random trip to the grocery store brought us past a typical scene:               In the grocery store there are some funny items.  The Special is more than the Regular!      

Carol Writes…. Great Week Shadowing! (For anyone who doesn’t know already, you can double clik on the pictures to enlarge them!) This week was has been very inspiring.  The Peace Corps sends trainees in to the field in the middle of training to try give the trainee a taste of what is shortly to come.  … Continue reading »

A long week; A new Chief and another wake – October 8, 2011 – by Carol Sorry we have not written in a week.  We had a first language proficiency test, safety test and Peace Corp Development tests this week and we just couldn’t get time to write a post, let alone get to the … Continue reading »

Language and Culture – by Carol Three or four days a week we are scheduled for language classes in small groups with a PC Staff local teacher. I am such a disaster!  I only understand the spoken Setwana when spoken at 5MPH.  I massacre the pronunciation of nearly every word, and I catch John cringing … Continue reading »

So far we have seen a bunch of new insects.   The Grasshoppers are about 4 inches long and rather fun to play with.  They actually respond to your hand movements and are quite harmless. The two Spiders we have found in our small room under our luggage on the floor have bodies the size … Continue reading »