Arrived!

After 19 or so hours (more for Annabelle who came from Portland) we finally arrived in Gaborone (pronounced by the locals as Hab-or-on-ay). The Johannesburg airport was ritzy and fancy and had lots of very modern shops and restaurants. The Gaborone airport is a bit more simple with a few runways and mostly small planes. Our flight was on a two propeller plane from Johannesburg.
After a second's hesitation, we accompanied Ernest who greeted us at the airport only with a sign saying "Baylor Botswana" to his pick-up. He kindly stopped at the local "Chickin Lickin" which seems to be a local rendition of KFC. It'd been a while since we'd had Chicken nuggets, but hey, food was food at that point. Then on to our little house, known as "Baylor 1."
Our house is a cute little rambler with a living and dining room and kitchen, 3 bedrooms, and a bathroom with shower/tub and a separate room for the toilet. They claim you can drink tap water...after my days in Mexico...I'm a bit skeptical. I'm going to get a few confirmations before I start imbibing. We share the house with Sam, an undergrad @ Harvard who's taking some time off to hang out in Botswana and work on an education outreach project. He seems cool and laid back so far and has been generous with his pula (local money) as we've yet to exchange any! Really, what more can you ask! :o)
The morning began at 7:30 am "Botswana time" which today meant 7:45, but apparently can be up to several hours later. I think I'll feel right at home! :o) We went over to the "Centre for Excellence" which seems to serve as both a clinic and administrative center...or centre. Talk about first impressions...after never having knowingly laid eyes on a child with HIV/AIDS, it's a bit of a shock to walk into a waiting room filled with around 50 people and to know that all those adorable little smiley kids have HIV or AIDS as do most of their parents/guardians.
We jumped right in and started rounding on the pediatrics ward. Sick kids here means something a bit different than back in Rochester...While some kids here have simple issues, most have complex infections from being immunocompromised. We saw a 12 year old who weighs 18kg because she has "wasting" from HIV. Another 8 yr. old has been here for weeks with cryptococcal meningitis and has to have daily increased cerebrospinal pressure. So sad. It is reassuring to see attentive, caring parents at the bedside of all the kids, although often it's an older sister and not the mother, who stays home to take care of the other kids and/or to work. Quite a reality check, and it's only been a few hours! More to come soon...