Arriving in Gaborone

Welcome back to our blog

After arriving in Johannesburg, we had one more flight before we actually arrived in Gaborone. Unfortunately, security took too long and boarding closed just as we arrived. After that, it became a bit more complicated to actually get to Botswana. Thankfully, Mr. Manolo got us a bus to drive us to Gaborone from the airport.

(Context for Mr. Javi's photo: he just tried a Hershey's Kiss, and he doesn't approve.)

While waiting for the bus, we had lost suitcases and a long wait in the airport, but eventually everything worked out–and we got the suitcases back! We had lunch at the airport before the bus arrived to drive us to Gaborone at 18:30.

During our five hour bus ride, there was a lot of good music and some not-quite-as-good singing among the team. There was also a thunderstorm in the distance when we first set out, so we got to see a lot of really cool lightning. We also had to go through border control to depart South Africa and get into Botswana, so all of our passport stamp collections have grown rapidly over the past two days.

After a long ~36 hours we arrived at our hotel in Gaborone at about midnight. Mr. Javi gave us a quick rundown for tomorrow and then we checked into our rooms. Although small, the rooms are very comfortable, and we all fell asleep very quickly.

Tomorrow we will be presenting our plans to the Embassy of the United States, the Ministry of Justice of Botswana, and the European Embassy.

Now, our 2024 Botswana service trip officially begins!