Emily is friend who is currently serving as a PCV in Palapye, Botswana. After spending a night in the Botswana capital city, Gaborone, her place was our next stop.
Emily is working for the local office of the District AIDS Coordinator and has a secondary project teaching people affected by HIV/AIDS how to make beads and jewelry out of magazine pages as an income-generating activity. The beads are lacqured and end up being pretty cool looking.
Apparently the Botswanan government has more money than it knows what to do with and gave Emily her own house. The house also comes with a carport and small front yard which Em must shovel regularly. Otherwise any accumulated debris is likely to attract snakes. I find the mental picture of small, chain-smoking Emily clearing away snakes with a big-ass shovel very amusing. 
We were also introduced to Emily’s friend Colin, an Afrikaans man who owns the nearby Bush Camp and bar (read: Emily’s favorite watering hole). We had alot of fun hanging out there and Colin was a great host, giving us lifts back and forth from Em’s place.
At the bar we met numerous people; one of which was a guy who looked almost exactly like He-man Master of the Universe – except for the Afrikaner booty shorts he was wearing the night we met him.
This particular night also happened to be Meghan’s birthday and He-man generously bought her a very big, very frothy, very pink drink in honor of the occaision.
