Clinic #1

Today the team and I coached the first of four volleyball clinics we'll do here in Botswana. We were up and out of our hotel at 07:00 and went down the road to The Ministry of Education and Skills Development (Department of Secondary Education). It was a such a fun and special experience. The kids ages ranged from 13 to about 16 years old. They were so precious, and a little shy at first but by the end we had them all laughing and making TikTok's. We started with a tour of the school. My favorite part was seeing their big field of agriculture. Third year students and up, take a yearlong class where they're responsible for planting and caring for their own plants. We ended up walking into an examination and saw students watering their thriving spinach and onion plants. That's a class I wish I could've taken in third grade.

Onto the volleyball portion of things, today was their first-time playing volleyball, so it was an exciting honor for my team and I to be the people to teach them our sport and be part of their first volleyball experience. We taught them all the basic skills. Serving, passing, setting, and hitting. They did amazing, so engaged, patient, and took direction well. There were smiles and giggles galore, so I knew they were having a great time right along with us. At the end we gathered in the shade, and they learned some things about us as a team and about Howard. Then we ended things off right with some good old selfies and TikTok's. It was a fun time and I loved helping the kids so I'm excited for the other clinics.

Mall Shopping:

After the clinic we had some downtime, so we went to a local mall and went shopping!! I exchanged my U.S. dollars for some Pula and got to work. I loved the structure of the mall. It was open with lots of fresh air and sunlight coming in. There were some jewelry stores, shoe stores, clothing stores, a movie theater upstairs, and more. Some of my teammates and I went into a store that reminded me of Bath and Body Works. The store smelled of scented perfumes lotions, and body butters when you walked in. The employees saw our Howard volleyball shirts and wanted to see our whole team. They were so sweet and excited to see us, and they weren't the only ones. There were about four souvenir stands at the mall. At one of them, one of the ladies wanted to play volleyball with me so we ended up passing one of her fanny packs back and forth which was so funny and wholesome to me. At another, two girls walked up to me saying they were familiar with Howard and our team, and they wanted to say "hi". I love these kinds of interactions. It's so cool knowing that we are known internationally. Speaking of the stands I love the things they had to offer. You can tell a lot of it was handmade or hand painted. Something that fascinated me were these four small rhinos made of cut up recycled soda cans. Very innovative.

Now onto game day!

Game One

The first of three. We got to the court around 5:30 and the vibes were already set. The energy was high, and a lot of people were gathered around the court since there was already a game going on before ours. The court is outdoors and there's a big stage that's behind the court. Most of my teammates and I sat up on the stage, had a great view of the game and watched the sky turn scarlet, a beautiful view. While we watched, we enjoyed seeing the other team's cheers after they got a point and how much heart they had when they played. They we're clearly having a great time. Once the game was over it was our time to shine. We ended up gaining some fans just from warming up. During hitting lines, we had the crowd cheering already. After that we shook hands with the other team then let everybody know that Howard was in the building!! We let out a loud "HU...YOU KNOW!" three times, making our presence known. We played a game best three out of five sets, and we won all three sets straight which was super exciting. In the midst of all that we had a blast! Whether you looked on the court or off the court everybody was having a good time. We even came up with some new cheers on the fly which might bleed into next season. At the end we had people coming up to us asking for pictures, asking us questions, and hugs for everybody. Everyone we've interacted with has been so sweet, so wholesome, and so kind. I can hardly wait for tomorrow's match!

Dinner

Ending our night off, we ate at a restaurant in the same complex that the volleyball court is in. We barely took our seats before we were drawn outside to some karaoke. There was a lady singing River by Bishop Briggs and we knew all the lyrics, so you know we had to hype her up. All that did was add fuel to the fire because after that she gave a performance. After that a few of my teammates decided to hop on the karaoke wave too naturally as their teammates we had to hype them up as well. So, before we ordered our entrees, we got a free appetizer of dancing and a side of karaoke. The first full day here in Botswana I'll have to rate an 8.5 out of 10. And it's only the beginning so I'm excited to see what else this trip will hold.