Handy man in training

Hello beautiful people!

I know I'm a couple days late but happy labor day!  Labor day hints at the end of summer!  Is fall really that close!?  Fall is my favorite time of year so I'm going to sure miss it!

I've been keeping busy here!  Monday I spent the first part of the day at the vet clinic where I was able to observe 2 dentals, help take 2 x-rays, observe a bee-sting, and participate in several checkups.  I also enjoyed my first tea time.  I love how this experience is giving me the opportunity to interact with locals!
Monday afternoon I battled a setswana quiz and the start of a research paper.  I finally finished my paper around 11pm.  I am truly a procrastinator.  

Tuesday, I spent most of the day stressing over my personal statement.  I came here with a ps that I was proud to send off to vet school and now I've changed it quite a bit.  The thing stresses me out!  What gets me the most is they don't want to know that you have worked with animals for a long time. I've read in several places not to include animal experience before college.  UH HELLO!  I spent 8 years volunteering with my shelter, you don't want to hear about it???  Do you not think it is important?  Well listen her ps readers,  if I spent 8 years doing it, you can spend 2 minutes reading my paragraph about it!  I know I need to just finish it up and get over it.  I hopefully have a strong enough application that a school will like me regardless!

With vet school on my mind, I've been looking around at different blogs from people in vet school.  Yes, they make it sound intimidating, hard, and capable of inducing severe breakdowns, but I'm still so excited!  I've been wanting to go to vet school for as long as I can remember and now I'm actually applying!  Wow!  Don't get me wrong, I'm enjoying every minute here, but I also can't help be excited about my future! I've been thinking a lot about where to apply.  I really wish it weren't so expensive!  I'll let you guys know when I finally decide! 

Tuesday night, I finally decided that I couldn't think anymore about my ps so i sat down with a cup of tea and nutter butters (darn those things) to look up changing my return flight. It looks like I can change the date for $300, but they won't let me change the airport I leave out of.  I will therefore have to leave out of Gaborone.  The reason I'm looking is that my friend, Emma, is going to come up after she gets out of classes and we are going to backpack around.   Is this really happening? Could I be that lucky?  Yes, it will be expensive, but it will be a once in a lifetime opportunity.  I don't care if I have to a kidney on the black market.  I think we are considering coming back around the 1st or 2nd week of January.  I will then be ready to start my next adventure.  Not sure yet what that will be, but I've been researching!

As for today, I spent the whole day at Mokolodi.  My french class was cancelled, so I split a cab with a fellow student and got there on time.  We worked on putting a new roof on a snake enclosure.  We used large pieces of wire and stapled/nailed them to wooden beams.  We then used wire to interlace the large pieces together.  It was quite a job and we still aren't all the way done.  We also successfully convinced an employee to have a load of dirt brought to us!  Yes!  He dumped it at the door of the sanctuary.  We then took wheelbarrow loads to the future turtle enclosure and dumped them in.  We had dirt flying and we were sweating, so it was sticking to us in streaks.  I left there with a dirt beard down my face, grit in my teeth, and sand in my shoes.  Good times!  I tell you what, by the end of this I may be quite a little hand man.   I really feel like we got a lot done today.  It was nice to just have a project and be able to work on it!   I hope that we get to do some more things with animals, but I am happy helping with things I know they need!  I wanted a look into running a nature reserve, well buddy it's not all about taking care of cute monkeys, helping children color, and doing game drives!  It takes a lot to run a place! 

 The cage....

 Just look at that roof!

Moving dirt! 

Now, I need to go wash socks.  I've been running quite a bit lately and my sock supply doesn't last long!