Dumela! Welcome to Africa!

Dumela! or Hello!

Welcome to my little corner of the Internet. I decided to write this blog to keep all my friends and family back home updated during my time in Botswana, Africa this summer!

So where on Earth is Botswana?

Botswana is a landlocked country in the southern portion of Africa, bordered by South Africa, Namibia, Mozambique and Zimbabwe. It's approximately the size of Texas but has a population of about 2 million (even less than Kansas!). Most of the people who live here live along the south-east corridor or in the north, as the country is mostly desert.

During my time in Botswana, I will be living in Gaborone, also fondly referred to as Gabs.

It is the capital city of Botswana and is composed of 27 different wards, or areas. I am living in dorms at the University of Botswana, which is where I will be taking all of my classes, with the exception of my Public Health practicum, which entails traveling around the city to the different wards to shadow doctors in the clinics there!! I'm extremely excited to get to spend time in these clinics and gain experience in health care in a different country! I won't bore you too much with the details now, because I'm sure I'll be writing about them later.

So why did I choose to come to Botswana? Well, the first reason is obvious: I wanted to travel. As much as I love Kansas and all my friends and family there, it's a rather limiting to just stay there for the rest of my life. I wanted to wander, to explore, to meet new people and continue to learn new things! Secondly, I've always wanted to come to Africa. I would love to explore Europe and I love reading blogs from my friends who are over there, but I just had this persistent desire to explore an area that's just a bit off the beaten path. Thirdly, I wanted to study within the medical field. As mentioned before, my program includes 100+ hours spent interning/volunteering in local clinics, providing me with invaluable experience in understanding the public health care system in place here, as well as learning more about myself and what sort of medicine I want to study.

I'm just so excited to be here and I cannot wait to share more of my journey with you all!