14 July 13: Sarah Has Sexy Talk with the Wrong Man and Gets PC Trail Magic

I was planning to write this post about the kindness of strangers, and I still intend to do that, but something just happened that I can't not write about first.

My best friend in the whole world and soul mate, Amber, used to joke with me that I was like a modern day Lucy Ricardo because of the outrageous and hilarious situations I'd get myself into. It's no coincidence that my blog used to be lifelikelucy before it became lifelikesarah, and maybe I should even change it back. I mean, really, the two are synonymous. I'll tell you the whole story later but for now I'll shorten it. So...I have been expecting a phone call from my new lust interest, a man I call "SJ" but whose real name is Mothusi. He works for the government and lives in Gabs. He was visiting the area for a few days and on Friday morning he went home having promised to call me when he got to Gabs. Friday passes and most of Saturday and I accept the fact that this guy isn't gonna call. At 11 p.m. my phone rings- I don't know the number. I answer it and it was him! I immediately recognize his voice and his crazy laugh. He asks "Do you know who this is?" My response "Of course I do!" We leave it at that. First mistake.

We have some romantic talk and he tells me that he misses me. Goodnight. This morning he calls me and asks if I'm going to church. Odd question. Whatever. I asked him if he was going to be off work for the next few days for the public holiday. He is. I invite him to come visit during the holiday. To be more specific, I tell him that he can come visit whenever he wants. Second mistake. He says "Well, I gotta drop some chicken at the prison, but then I'll come over."

HOLD UP. WAIT A SEC. Drop some chicken at the prison? Who is this????? This whole time I have been exchanging sexy talk and inviting over some RANDOM VILLAGE GUY THAT GAVE ME A RIDE ONE TIME. Really Sarah? I immediately try to explain that I had mistaken him for someone else. No, I don't want you to come over. No, I don't miss you. So sorry.

Now I can't even be disappointed about the fact that my new dude never called because I'm MORTIFIED that I just invited some random weirdo from the village to come stay with me for three days. How do I get myself into these situations? Moral of the story: just because somebody calls you "baby," don't assume that you know them. EPIC ROMANCE FAIL.

Now that I have put my shame into writing for all the world to read, back to the topic at hand. When I last wrote, I was sitting in Gaborone ready to enjoy some relaxing days, hot showers, good company, and great food. And I did! I stayed in Gabs for a while, downloaded lots of podcasts, met up with Diane, and slept in a real bed. On July 4th, we met up with some other PCV's and made the journey to the tiny village of Ranaka for an Independence Day party! We arrived at Lisa's house in the late afternoon and were greeted by at least 10 other volunteers! By the end of the day, there were probably 15 of us celebrating America's birthday with wine, the most competitive game of UNO ever, and a dance party (of course.) I spent two days enjoying the company of awesome PCV's. We watched The Sound of Music, played cards, and snacked.

Oakley

After spending four awesome days in civilization with Americans, I wasn't ready to go home. Just then, my friend Herb, whom I met in Maun and lives in Gabs, invited me to come and stay at his house Saturday night and have a bbq! YESSS!!!! Saturday morning, I took the bus back to Gabs and waited for Herb to pick me up. He and his girlfriend took me out for cocktails, and then we went back to their mansion, which he calls The Ritz. Not only was I able to take a shower in their glass shower-you can see the mountains while you're in the shower-but I got to meet their two parrots and iguana, eat RIBS!!!!!!, and watch a movie on their 3D TV. Let me be clear that I didn't do anything to earn this treatment. It was all out of the goodness of Herb and Elaine's hearts!!! As I lay in their cushy bed (one of their many guest bedrooms with its own bathroom!) I spent a long time thinking about the kindness of strangers.

Me and Oakley

Most of you probably don't know that when I come home, I'm going to hike the Appalachian Trail. There is something that exists on the trail called Trail Magic. Trail Magic is when a hiker receives random kindness from someone in the form of food, a ride, or anything else like that. People that perform these random acts of kindness are called Trail Angels.

Banjo loves him a shoulder sit!

Herb and Elaine showered me in the Peace Corps version of trail magic even into the next day. I woke up on Sunday to the smell of bacon and sausages. BACON!!!!! MEAT!!! PROTEIN!!! I haven't had bacon since I left the good ol US of A! Elaine packed up a picnic breakfast complete with cappucinnos and juice and we set our in their Land Cruiser on a game drive in the nearby game reserve! We saw lots and lots of wart hogs, impala, zebras, and some tiny little deer lookin things called dykeir? Afterwards, they took me to buy groceries and then dropped me off at the bus. Not at the bus rank. AT THE BUS. They took me literally to the bus. Elaine, who runs a charity that teaches financial management skills, gave me 50 budgeting books to use for workshops in my village.

I am still amazed at how Herb and Elaine just swooped me up, without even really knowing me, and showered me with generosity! How many people do you know would pick up a dirty stranger (I was dirty-there is no water in Ranaka so none of us PCV's had bathed for two days,) feed her, let her stay in their house, and then take her on a safari! They didn't ask me for anything. I didn't pay for my cocktail. I didn't contribute money for all the food. Nothing! And on top of that I got to snuggle with their parrot, Oakley, all evening! Herb and Elaine are truly Peace Corps Trail Angels.

Warthogs!!! Mokgalodi Game Reserve

After spending time with my peeps and experiencing Trail Magic, I was NOT thrilled to get back to the village. I was in a bad mood for a couple of days, which included a lot of sleeping and moping around the house. On Wednesday, I went to the prison to teach yoga and got turned away because they were doing a "random search for contraband." Uggh. I walked back to my house feeling discouraged and took a nap. As usually happens when you try to take a nap, somebody woke me up. Three somebodies actually.
I heard "Koko!" That's "knock knock" in Setswana. I looked out the window and there were three random guys standing in my yard. I threw on some pants and went outside to find out what was so important that they had to wake me up from my nap! They introduced themselves, told me that they were from the Botswana version of the FCC (called BOCRA), and said that they had come to Tshane to help plan the event that is taking place in August. Apparently there is going to be a 3-day event in my village to commemorate Vision 2016. Vision 2016 is Botswana's goal that by 2016 they will have zero new HIV infections, zero AIDS-related deaths, and zero stigma and discrimination. The gentleman wanted to know if I wanted to help them build a knowledge center! Well sure! We spent the next couple of hours getting to know each other, which was really a bunch of laughing and joking around. They invited me to accompany them on a trip to visit the surrounding Basaarwa (Bushmen) settlements the following day. Yes!

When people introduce themselves to me here I can't remember their names. Who can wrap their mind around a name like Tisoyaone Morongwakgotla? Too complicated. So I gave all three of them nicknames: Skinny Jeans (because he was rockin skinny jeans), Jelly Bean (because he reminded me of a jelly bean), and Cabernet (because he likes to drink Cab.) SJ (short for Skinny Jeans) is a 25 year old communications graduate, Gemini, funny as hell. Jelly Bean is an older guy, world traveler, and boss of the operation. Cabernet is a Kalanga man from up north, sweet as can be. And they are hilarious. Back to the story... SJ, Jelly Bean, and Cabernet picked me up at 7:30 on Thursday morning and we set out on our adventure. We had planned to return to the lodge where they were staying in Hukuntsi, eat dinner, and have drinks at the end of the day. We visited Monong, Ncaang (took me all day to learn how to say because it has a click,) Hunhukwe, and Ukhwi. At each village, we met with the chief and then toured the local school. I was really just tagging along but the guys were assessing the villages to see how they could help in terms of computers, communication, etc. We went to a RADS (Remote Area Dweller) hostel, which is a place where Basaarwa children from deep in the bush are brought to attend school. I couldn't talk to the kids because I don't speak Sesaarwa (too many clicks!) so we just played together. It was amazing. Ukhwi, the last village we visited, was so remote that it took us two hours on a deep sand "road" to get there. By the time we finished and headed back to Hukuntsi it was 6:30 and we were beat.

deep sand road to Ukhwi

Cabernet and Jelly Bean decided that we should take a "shortcut." The shortcut landed us on a barely used, I wouldn't call it more than a path, through high grass. Three hours and much talk about getting eaten by lions, starving to death, etc., we came out of the high grass onto a tarred road. We had made it to Hukuntsi, barely. We went to the lodge, ate a late dinner, drank some beer, and passed out.
The whole day, I rode in the back seat with SJ. At one point we were actually piled on top of each other in the trunk because the village chief was taking up the back seat. Needless to say, we really hit if off. Maybe because he is a Gemini and I'm a Sag. Who knows. But it was fun. We talked about the possibility of romantic involvement and he told me he would call me when he got back to Gabs. And that is how I got into the situation of expecting a phone call and blah blah blah that I told you about at the beginning of this post. SJ, Jelly Bean, and Cabernet are coming back here in a few weeks to do some more work for the event. Having spent 15 hours driving through the bush with these guys, I consider them my friends. I also consider them Peace Corps Trail Angels because they swooped me out of my village just in time to avoid an emotional breakdown. They are all educated, speak English, and of course-a good time! I am looking forward to seeing them again as we are planning a bbq at my house. They are talking about staying with me- who knows what kind of shenanigans we will get into!

School is out until August 6th so I'm doing a lot of nothing. I am still teaching yoga and doing health talks, but that's about it. I've tried to motivate the police officers to let me do a workshop with my new financial planning materials. We will see. I'm reading A LOT. I've almost finished The Bhagavad Gita. Highly recommend it. Also doing a lot of gardening. And making plans for my kids when school starts. This week I received a hundred handmade teddy bears from the Motherbear Project, a charity in America. When school starts, I'm going to pass out bears to the preschoolers, first, second, and third graders. I CAN'T WAIT. Diane might come out here for a visit later this month, which will be awesome. She is in America right now for her best friend's wedding and I am extremely jealous.

So to wrap it all up what have I learned from the last few CRAZY weeks? 1. Apparently I am a pro at networking. Two hours into the bush, I saw somebody I knew. What are the chances? 2. Just when you feel like you are alone in the world and you are down and out, someone will lift you up out of the muck that is your emotional state and shower you with kindness. I received more trail magic in the last two weeks than I have in the whole year that I've lived here. Why? BECAUSE I NEEDED IT. My job now is to pass on the karma to someone else who needs it. Or maybe, as Marshall suggested, I was passing out karma for 9 months and then somebody else passed it back to me. Who knows? But one thing is for sure: if I can keep this is up for another 1 year, 4 months I just might make it out of Peace Corps with my sanity (as least not any crazier than before I came here) and my heart! So for all of you who are still reading these posts, to the people who have sent me care packages, thank you! You all are my Trail Angels and I love you!

Namaste!