Last Wednesday, I got up really early to go with the YfC daycare/preschool teachers, Corine (from Holland), who drives the YFC combi (big white van) around Mochudi to pick up all the little orphans/vulnerable children who attend the YFC daycare. They are cute 2-6 year-old kids, some of whom have HIV or full-blown AIDS. Then we went to the daycare/preschool which is run in conjunction with a local church. It is very well run with a curriculum, including lots of teaching, learning, singing, playing, and breakfast and lunch every day for the kids. Lunch there was my first true Botswana meal of their food. I can’t tell you what exactly it was, but afterwards I learned that it involved sardines. I could tell it was fishy, which surprised me seeing that Botswana in landlocked in a desert, but I ate it all. Not gonna lie, that night I didn’t feel so hot though, haha. The daycare/preschool model (as opposed to an orphanage) allows the kids to live in a home with a family (extended family or caretakers) and the daycare enables those caretakers to go to work. The Botswana government is much more supportive of this strategy than orphanages. The government has a lot of standards for places that are taking care of orphans, which is good to ensure they are being adequately cared for. One of the regulations is to have a “tiny toilet”…a toilet that is much smaller and lower to the ground to accommodate the little orphans. If a toilet could be cute, this one would be it!
That night all of us from the staff house were invited by E.J., the YFC national director, and his wife Koekoes to come out to their house in a nearby village for a braai (a barbeque). So we grilled out some massive pieces of beef and sat out under the stars. We saw the Southern Cross constellation. Stellar…ha…literally!
Weather-wise, I’m adjusting to the heat. I went running again this morning along the dirt paths of Mochudi. We’ve actually had some ‘cooler’ days where wearing pants was actually comfortable. We had a couple days of heavy rain. On Thursday I had to walk home in the pouring rain, so it ended up being me running home in the pouring rain. I was completely soaked when I got home (a 20 minute walk) and this was the impetus for buying my umbrella, which is festively the Botswana flag colors (Blue, black, and white) and even has a few Botswana flags on it. I am just thankful I got here when I did…the week before I came it was 108 degrees Fahrenheit!!! That would have been quite the shock coming from the Michigan snow!!
Thursday nights we go to a bible study at a Motswana woman (woman from Botswana)’s house. Friday morning was my first trip into the capital city, Gaborone to turn in my residence permit papers --- Pray that I get it quickly with no complications! Once I have that, I can apply for a Botswana drivers license. It looks like a great used-car has pretty much fallen into my lap – an English couple who supports YFC who have lived here for years are moving away and they are offering their Toyota Corolla at a very reasonable price. So I went and looked at it Sunday and might be purchasing that soon! Friday afternoons we have our hour-long staff prayer meeting and then a staff business meeting. After that, I went grocery shopping with Patricia to pick up food – it was my turn to cook the Saturday dinner for all 7 of us who live in the staff house. I decided to be true American and go with hamburgers and fries…as well as tasty chocolate chip yogurt and a big swiss cake roll thingy for dessert (which I bought from the bakery of course). No one died from my cooking…in fact, everyone really liked it. Let us thank God for that miracle, haha.
Earlier Saturday, 4 of us drove into Gaborone to go shopping at a mall. It almost felt like I was in America...similar to our malls but on a smaller scale. That’s where I bought my Botswana umbrella and a cell phone. My phone is also true Botswana—it has blue Zebra stripes on it in support of the Botswana football (soccer) team, the Zebras. It even came with a sticker of some of the football players. I was super excited to find a bookstore there with lots of Christian books in English! Philip Yancey made it across the ocean…and lots more authors I like have books there too! The books are quite pricey (more expensive than in the States), but at least I know I can buy them if I really want to. A lot of things are quite comparable to U.S. prices, but many things are actually more expensive. Some things are cheaper though. We had pizza for lunch, and rode the bus back to Mochudi. By “ride” the bus, I mean stand in the aisle the whole time (1 hour) in a packed bus. Oh, that reminds me…on the way to Gaborone, we pass fields of crops and there are actually human scarecrows…people who are paid to stand in the fields all day and wave at the birds to keep them from eating the crops!! Can’t say I’ve seen that before. Oh…another thing I saw in Gaborone—a billboard for the first ever Gaborone Marathon. Now, I am not stupid enough to try a Marathon in a month in a half, but they also have a 10K and a 4K race. So…I am probably going to enter the 4K. Woo hoo!
Sunday I went to church in Gaborone with 4 other YFC missionaries and then went to look at that used car for sale, and then went to the home of George, one of the YFC staff who lives in Gaborone with his wife and kids. They have unlimited wireless internet, so I went there to download Skype and try to create a blog. This plan was foiled because you need to have a gmail account to make the blog, which I don’t have, and it’s impossible to set up a gmail account from Botswana because they cannot send the verification code to Botswana cell phones. So…I will try to have them text the code to my bro in the States who can email it to me. But now (Tuesday), I still have not been able to get back online because Sunday and Monday were days of fasting and prayer for all the YFC Botswana staff…and today in the office the power went out just before I got online! So I’m typing on my long-life battery laptop! So thankful the battery lasts up to 8 hours!! Yeah, so we had 24 hours of prayer and fasting, starting and ending with a prayer meeting all together and then being able to just spend time alone with God in between. It was a very refreshing time for us all. Prayer is a vital necessity and foundation for all our ministry here. We know we cannot face the challenges in our own strength. We start every morning at the office with a prayer meeting. Here are the words of our national director, E.J. –
“It is important that everything is based on prayer. This is very, very important. We will not do anything without prayer. Whatever ministry you do, pray and fast. Get people to pray for your ministry.”
E.J. also shared this quote from Billy Graham, who actually was the first full-time YFC evangelist:
“If you want to succeed in your ministry, the first thing you do is pray. The second thing you do is pray. The third thing you do is pray.”
I had a great time Sunday night worshipping God outside in our sand “yard” with guitar and singing as I watched the sun set…and then the moon rise. Besides playing guitar with E.J. during the Friday staff prayer meetings, I hadn’t had a chance to really worship with guitar yet (I still need to buy one here or in South Africa…I borrowed Corine’s on Sunday).
This afternoon, I will go to another school with Clive (English) and Sara (German) to observe them leading a weekly Scripture Union club there. Tomorrow I will go with Kyra (German) and Naomi (Motswana) to the Kids Club for elementary aged kids. These first weeks I am just going to see all the different ministries as I pray and seek how exactly I should get involved right away. March is the month of Youth Against AIDS in Botswana. Koekoes asked me to help her organize an abstinence rally later this month…and I will be going to any of the meetings of the board of government, NGOs, and organizations working to fight AIDS in Mochudi. I haven’t seen the taxi driver, Kagiso, whom I shared about last time. It is a big place – there are 70,000 people in greater Mochudi…about 40,000 in the village limits. So that’s why it was pretty remarkable that Kagiso and I crossed paths again so quickly last week. Well, that’s about all for now…I just hope the power comes back on sometime so I can send this to you all! [time elapsed]...power was off for about 5 hours, and now I'm sending this from an internet cafe.
Blessings from Botswana,
Em
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