Saying Goodbye

Over the past few weeks we have been, fortunately, saying a lot of goodbye's. We started out saying goodbye to Denver and the great co-workers and friends we have there which was very hard and fast. Then we made a 19 hour drive in a U-Haul truck (Mark had to drive the whole way!!) back to Michigan. We have been having a great time catching up with our friends and family here in Michigan, but it has been a bit sad for us too because we know that soon we will be leaving. We took a trip up to Traverse City, MI to spend the weekend with some good friends (Brenden and Kelli). We went wine tasting (one of our favorite things to do!) and talked a lot about our plans to meet up again in Africa next year. We hope to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro together (hopefully I won't be too big of a baby to do this!!) and spend some time in Malawi, South Africa, and Botswana together. We are really looking forward to having some visitors during our service and would like to invite anyone who is willing to make the long trip!!

For the next three weeks we will be packing and finishing some last minute paperwork (it seriously never ends with the Peace Corps!). Other than that we have been eating A LOT and sleeping in while we can (while since Mark used to wake up at 5:30am anything is sleeping in for him!). We heard more about our training in Botswana and what we can expect. We will probably have a 'bucket' bath situation and a pit toilet for anyone who is wondering what the bathroom situation is but we can hope that we will the lucky few with indoor pluming! So we will probably be getting smelly fast, but instead of summer it will be winter soon in Botswana which is still pretty warm compared to Colorado/Michigan winters. Well we hope that you are all doing well and look forward to keeping in touch through this blog or our emails and hearing about life here in the States.

Take Care!
Mark and Lindsey

Moving home to Michigan

Wow what a crazy couple of weeks! We have been moving non stop ever since we first found out we were finally going to receive an invitation. Botswana here we come... the country of Botswana sounds like an amazing place, with the Kalahari Desert to the west, the Okavango Delta in the north west, and Victoria falls just across the border in Zimbabwe. We will probably be living in a mud hut with a thatched roof (which is what I wanted all along.. Lindsey not so much), but we will survive and have one hell of an adventure!

It is really sad for us to be leaving Colorado. We have had so many wonderful adventures here and met some incredible people. We will carry you all with us in our hearts where ever we go and look forward to seeing you again soon.