Botswana Update

Never the same. I suppose it’s cliché to suggest that after a trip like this I am forever changed so I won’t say it…but it’s true! I am fresh off the plane from a couple of weeks in GABORONE, BOTSWANA in Southern Africa. I went with 10 of the most powerful, confident, and creative STUDENTS I’ve ever met. We were all scared sometimes, out of place and trapped behind a language barrier (even when they were speaking English). But I watched these students rise to what was expected of them. They fell in love with the people of Botswana; both hurting with them and hoping for them.

Our days included time at an AIDS orphanage outside of town. Some of the children seemed to bounce around as though completely insulated from their circumstances. Others carried the obvious weight of their own mortality; eyes too young to bare such a load. Slowly, there was change, there was the light of recognition in their eyes when we walked onto the campus. We began to see in their eyes the hope of a moments’ joy. I plotted ways to sneak sweet little Katlago into my guitar case when we left. A selfish wish.

Our afternoons were full of school visits and rallies. 500-700 students at a time would crowd into large open rooms and we would share with them a message of hope about a revolution of purity that was sweeping across Southern Africa. AIDS/HIV have descimated THIS REGION OF THE WORLD but the revolution has begun and a new generation is choosing abstinence as the radical solution, the greatest weapon in this fight.

Maybe I will post more pictures and more ramblings later. In the meantime, after 19 hours on planes, I am going to sleep for a while! Thanks again for all of your prayers and messages of support.