Service Saturday

We went to Caravella's Restaurant in Gaborone with the Taylors and Kimballs, the other missionary couples serving in Gaborone. We ate outside in a garden area in the evening. The weather was perfect and the food was delicious. We decided that we were going to get together twice a month to do some activity. We are in charge of the next one in early February.

Today we helped clean up a childrens' park across the street from the Gaborone West chapel with the Young Single Adult Ward. We cleaned up a lot of broken glass and trash, put up a chain-link fence around the park, repaired a swing, and removed weeds. Though we did a lot of work there is much more to do. We were amazed that the neighborhood children played in the park in their bare feet despite the glass. They had a great time playing in the park while we worked and really wanted to have their picture taken by Sister Rands.

We left early from the service project to give training to Seminary and Institute of Religion teachers. Sixteen teachers, bishops, and branch presidents attended. They seemed grateful for the training and want to have training sessions once a month during the school year. Sister Rands made scones and muffins to go along with the fruit and juice we purchased for refreshments and then we gave them candy bars after the training. It all disappeared. The stake leaders and we are encouraging everyone to move towards Seminary five days a week instead of one day a week. We are sure they will have to overcome challenges to make the change.

Life Gets Busier - Hurrah!

Things have really picked up for us now that people are back from the villages after the holidays. The first of the seminary and institute classes have started. We have been busy distributing cirriculum materials and setting up teachers and classes on the computer. We will have training this week for seminary and institute teachers.

We drove five hours to Johannesburg for Church Education System meetings and training. We took the fun shot of the donkey cart and driver on the way. These carts are fairly common in the countryside. We left early enough in the morning that we had time in the CES office to ask a lot of questions and pick up materials. We went out to dinner with several missionary couples which was really fun and stayed over night with a missionary couple there.  A heavy thundersorm came through while we were eating dinner and the rain came down hard enough to run under the doors and across the floor. Several diners had to move to keep from having wet feet. The next day was full of meetings and training.
We hoped to leave early enough in the afternoon to get home before dark but got away late enough that we drove the last hour in the dark. Missionaries driving at night is discouraged because of animals, potholes, and wreckless drivers. The roads between Gaborone and Johannesburg are generally pretty good but there are a couple of sections full of very large pot holes big enough to swallow cars. You literally cannot drive around them; you have to drive slowly through them. We were glad we could drive through those sections of South Africa when it was still light.

The mission president came to Botswana for interviews. We had him and his wife and the other senior couples in Gaborone to dinner afterwards and played a church-leader game after the meal.

We attended the wedding of a couple from the Young Single Adult Ward. The wedding ceremony was in the chapel. The bishop and his counselor gave very nice talks - mostly in English but with some Tsetswana so that the family could understand. It was very nice. After the ceremony everyone retired to the Relief Society room where there was a "signing ceremony" and all the legal documents were signed. Then everyone sang traditional songs and danced. Everyone looked like they were having a fun time. Many of the women joined arms in a circle with the bride and sang in Tsetswana about the mother-in-law not having to cook any more for her son because the bride would do that.

We have been getting mangos that dropped off our neighors tree into our yard for about a week now. They are small but we pick several up every morning. We call them our manna from heaven. Our trees have now started to produce and give us big mangos. They are really delicious right off the tree.

Francistown

We traveled to Francistown, Botswana, on Thursday, January 5, to give Seminary and Institute training and meet with the local leaders to discuss Seminary and Institute needs. The trip to Francistown is about 440 km and takes about five hours. The roads were good except the last bit where there were some potholes. On the way we drove past villages that are still the old Botswana - mud houses with thatched roofs and stick houses. There were lots of cows and goats. We passed over the Tropic of Capricorn so we were officially in the tropics. Along the road many people were selling mopani worms. They stand by the side of the road holding up a cup which is the sign they have worms to sell and had buckets full of worms to sell. By the number of people selling worms they must sell well. A cup full of worms cost 10 pula or about $1.50 unless you want to buy them in bulk and get the bulk rate. These are big caterpillars the size of tomato hornworms that live only in mopani trees. They are harvested in December and again in April. When they are alive they are white, green, and yellow and have small spikes. Once harvested the insides are squeezed out, they are boiled, and then dried. Many people in Botswana look forward to these and they are all consumed before the next crop comes on. When we arrived home we both tasted mopani worms - Janet one taste, Bob a few worms. We ate them dry, many people like them fried.

In Francistown we met with Elder and Sister Woolf and Elder and Sister Riser and gave them some institute training. We met with two group presidents, one couselor and one institute student ( President Mosweswe, Brother Gorata, Mooketsi, and President Mabote). We had a really good discussion about seminary and institute needs in Francistown and the surrounding area. The Risers hosted for the night in their house. On Friday morning they gave us a tour of the Monarch section of Francistown where many members live. It is not as prosperous as Gaborone. The people are very happy and enthusiastic about the Gospel but are poor. We visited President Mabote at his home. He lives in crowded conditions with few of the conveniences many of us are used to. His family cooks outdoors over an open fire because it is less expensive than propane. They have many families living in a very small compound. They have one outdoor water tap for everyone. They do laundry by hand. It is like camping out under difficult conditions continually. Even with all that they dressed nicely and are always clean with pressed clothes even though they press them with an iron they put hot coals in to heat. It was a wonderful experience to get to see President Mabote at his home.