Moving (home again?)

In general, I haven’t reflected too much on the fact that being here in Botswana is coming back to a place that I once would have called home. In some ways, since the memories I have of this place are so dim and more attached to physical places than feelings of home or comfort or identity, it seems like it hasn’t made much of a difference in my experience here. I know that I’ve been here before…it was all I knew of life for the first seven years…but haven’t attached a whole lot of significance to that. This past week, though, we (the short-termers) moved from our home to a new house across town, which happens to be the same house that I spent the first two years of my life in. It’s changed quite a bit since then, but it’s odd to be able to point to corners and say “that’s where that couch was in all those pictures of me in a diaper trying to walk,” or “along this wall was the cabinet that I used to crawl into and play ‘airplane.’” It’s like I’m an intruder on my history or something. But I guess it’s kinda neat to be living in the same house again under such different circumstances. Anyway, it’s made me think a bit more about my history here in Botswana.

In other developments, two weeks ago Matt and I took our written tests in Joburg to get our South African licenses, and just last Sunday we flew down to take our flight test. Luckily we both passed on the first try, and it feels great to have that over with. That process has been hanging over my head for the past two months, and I’m ready to be done with all the stress and studying that goes along with it. That’s been keeping me busy, along with all the flying that I’ve been doing. January was a particularly busy month, and I logged the highest number of hours in one month that I’ve had since I’ve been here (78, for those who care). So that’s the update for now….standby for more one of these days soon. Love,

Travis