Institute of Religion Class

In Gaborone, Institute of Religion classes are taught on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. Each class is taught at two different chapels to reduce the travel distances for the students. On Tuesdays the class is "The Old Testament" for the whole year. On Thursdays the class is "Preparing for Eternal Marriage" for this term. We visit the Tuesday classes as often as we can and often take cookies. The teachers on Tuesdays are young-adult, returned missionaries and they do well at teaching the classes.
The students are very focused on learning and understanding what is being taught. They are very well founded in the gospel and many are returned missionaries. The class participation is always good.
We are teaching one of the Thursday classes and having a wonderful time. The other Thursday class is taught by a counselor in the young single adult ward bishopric. Each week we decide who leads the discussion for each part of the lesson. The students always make the class very interesting for us. We are just hoping that we can make the classes helpful for them. Finding a good mate and establishing a good marriage is difficult enough but there are few good examples for them to see and follow, and they really want to try as much as possible to have successful marriages. We just hope and pray that they succeed because they are doing their best to figure everything out.
We will be sad when this class ends about the end of May because we love the students and have fun teaching, but maybe we can teach another class next term. There are a number of good institute classes to teach in addition to the four primary classes of New Testament, Old Testament, Doctrine and Covenants, and Book of Mormon; we'll have to see what the local leaders would like to have taught next term on Thursdays.

Residency

We were granted a temporary ninety-day visa when we first entered Botswana. Within a few days of entering Botswana, we applied for residency.  The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints always wants their missionaries to be legal residents of the country in which they reside. The problem is that Botswana is taking longer than ninety days to grant residency permits for LDS missionaries. It seems that immigration and labor officials cannot comprehend that a missionary would support themselves and that they are not being supported by the church or the local members. They are sure that something is going on. This makes getting residency a big issue for the missionaries serving in Botswana. Many Elders have had to leave Botswana to go to serve in South Africa because they could not get residency permits in time or were rejected for unknown reasons. This is especially a problem for sister missionaries and couples because we are called specifically to serve in Botswana. If you overstay your temporary visa you are fined for not being legal; and if you leave the country, you are not allowed to return or apply for residency for a year.
We have been very concerned about getting residency because we were called to serve in Botswana and that is where we want to serve. Sister Rands is having carpal tunnel trouble and essentially has been unable to use her right hand. She needs surgery to fix this problem but cannot get it in Botswana. Because she could not leave the country and get back before her temporary visa expired, we decided to wait until we received residency permits before she would leave otherwise our mission in Botswana would be over.
It was stressful because we had no idea how long it would take before we were granted residency. We were told many times a decision would be made tomorrow only to they hear that a variety of reasons it was not made and would now be made "tomorrow".
Wednesday was a wonderful day for us; we finally got our residency permits. Tonight, Sister Rands is on her way to Utah to get the much needed surgery.
Through all this the Lord has really blessed us. The doctor in Utah told us not to worry about scheduling surgery and that he would fit us in whenever Sister Rands could get to Utah. Her hand has done better than we thought by severely limiting its use. We received our residency after being illegal aliens for only a week thanks to the persistant effort of Elder and Sister Kimball. Church travel did a wonderful job of being able to book airline flights at the last minute.
We are praying that the other missionaries who need residency permits can get them on time. It is really sad to see missionaries leave Botswana because of residency permits when they help the Botswana people so much.

Weed Wackers

Yesterday morning before it got too hot we opened our gate and worked on cleaning up the kombi (van) stop behind our house. It has been a smelly, junk heap since we moved in. The city keeps removing the garbage bags people leave there but they don't clean up the trash that is not in the can or bags. We threw dirt into the weeds and put litter in the garbage can. It looks better but there is still much to do. We will work on it more once the city takes away what is already in the can.

We often see work crews along-side the road and in fields cutting weeds, grass, and bushes with machetes. We try to take their photos but are usually not successful because we are driving by in the car. Today they were cutting behind our back wall so we were in a good position to take their photos. Janet went out to hang clothes on the line. One fellow asked her if he could have mangos because they could see them hanging from the trees. Janet handed him three over the wall. We then unlocked the gate and gave them five more so that eveyone could have one mango. They quickly rinsed their hands and stopped for a mango break. They obviously relished the fruit. We also gave them some chocolate candy which they quickly ate and threw the wrappers on the ground. We'll pick up litter tomorrow.

Valentine Dinner

The four couples assigned in or near Gaborone (Kimballs, Mosses, Taylors, and Rands) get together twice a month for an activity. One couple is in charge of each activity. Elder and Sister Taylor made fancy invitations for a Valentine dinner. The dinner was delicious. We started with shimp coctails, had pork loin roast with cranberry glaze, broccoli salad, rice with vegetables, homemade rolls, brussel sprouts and carrots, and apple crisp and ice cream for dessert. Considering how hard it is to find some of those things in Botswana it was quite a culinary accomplishment.

After dinner, we showed wedding photos and told about our courtships. We played Valentine bingo and the old-folks version of the Newly Wed game. We have a great time together. You can tell we are not working ALL the time.

The Big Five

Many people talk about the big five animals in Africa - lions, buffaloes, rhinocerous, leopards, and elephants. We have not seen any of those yet but we have seen a couple of BIG animals. We see lots of BIG millipedes in our yard. Today when we were at the chapel for a Perpetual Education Fund interview something on the side of the road caught our eye. It was a BIG snail. We are glad we don't have some of these in our yard in Spokane. We don't think they are even very common here because it caused the sister we were interviewing to stop and take a good look at it. We'll have to start our "big five" list and see what we come up with.

Two of the missionary apartments have been fumigated for cockroaches this week but luckily we seem to have avoided that problem so far.

We had two twin beds delivered this week for the extra bedroom so now we are in a position to have guests stay with us. We are sure they will be used by senior couples visiting Gaborone and we hope others.

African Children

African children are adorable and we have fallen in love with them. When they are young their mothers carry them on their back using a stretchy cloth. The children always seem to be very happy being carried this way. We have yet to figure out how the mothers get the children on their back and swaddled without any help. The children all love to have their pictures taken. They are also very well behaved; Primary and sacrament meetings are much quieter than in the United States.

They can make fun with just about anything. The young boys have fun making push cars out of cartons. They add wheels and all sorts of decorations. They can be quite elaborate. In the picture two of the cars even have trailers attached. The boys then push them up and down the sides of the roads with sticks. We are amazed at how well they can control them.

Umbrellas are put to good use in Africa on rainy days and sunny days. Many women carry umbrellas to shade themselves from the hot sun. Because we are close to the tropics the sun is very intense. On a sunny day you can see many umbrellas. Some of the umbrellas are quite creative. People often comment they like Sister Rands’ umbrella because it looks like two umbrellas in one. It is supposed to be wind resistant with its two layers. Africans are very good about finding shade to keep out of the sun and it is amazing how much cooler it feels when you are not in the sun. The difference is much greater than in the state of Washington.

#1 Ladies' Detective Agency

When we found out we were coming to Botswana for our mission quite a few people asked us if we had read "#1 Ladies' Dectective Agnecy" books. We had never heard of the books and were surprised at how many people had read them. Maren Longhurst lent us a DVD of the HBO series based on the book because her mother was serving in Johannesburg. We watched the videos to try to get a feel for Botswana.

The four missionary couples serving in and around Gaborone have decided to get together to do something twice a month. It was our turn to decide what to do. We met at our house and watched several of the episodes of "#1 Ladies' Detective Agency". We ate popcorn and mango soothies during the video which we projected on our wall with a video projector that we use for seminary and institute training. We made hamburgers for lunch. We went to the location used for filming much of the series. It is located in Gaborone near Kagle Hill, a mile from our house. It is badly run-down but still fun to see. We enjoyed the videos and realize we are now familiar with many of the places and behaviors shown - things we totally missed when we watched the videos before our mission. We found it much easier to understand the dialog now that we have been here a few months.

We have been teaching keyboard lessons to six students including a mother of three, high counselor, missionary, and young adults. We have been having a fun time doing this. They are all enthusiastic and pleased to be able to take piano lessons.

Botswana Fruits

We are getting busier all the time and love it. We have been busy getting Seminary and Institute students registered in the computer. It would help if we could tell a first name from a last name and which names are female and which are male. It would be even better if we knew proper spelling. Names here are a BIG challenge for everyone, particularly non-natives.
We substitute taught an Institute of Religion class this week and had a great time. Janet made chocolate chip cookies for part of her lesson which was a hit. The teacher went home to his village for a long weekend and the bus he was returning on was stopped by the police. He said the trip home was going to take a VERY long time. We taught a keyboard lesson Tuesday and a group lesson tonight to three students. We start teaching a Preparing for Eternal Marriage weekly Institute class tomorrow night. We should enjoy doing that too. As of today we have been given responsibility for the Perpetual Education Fund for all of Botswana. We have been helping but now get to do everything. We wish that we had been trained while we were in Provo.

Marula Fruit on the Ground

Lately while we have walked, we have found trees with lots of yellowish to green fruit on the ground underneath them. While we were out one day we saw people eating them so we asked a woman about the fruit. She showed us how to eat it and said it was "marula". It has a thick skin, large pit which the flesh sticks to so you don't get much benefit out of each fruit but it tastes pretty good. It was fun to try and experience. We have collected more for the other couple missionaries to try. Marula is native to southern Africa. Interestingly, watermellon originated in Botswana. It is very good but rather expensive here.

Marula Fruit

We have been getting a steady supply of mangos from our trees and the neighbor's tree which fall on our side of the fence. Today we hit an all-time high and harvested twenty-one mangos. We eat them every day and share with others. Our mango trees are just getting going so we will have lots to share. We made mango milkshakes for a snack this evening. We have pretty much figured out what fruit trees we have in our yard - guava, orange, pomagranate, peach, apricot, fig, mango, papya, and lemon. The peaches and apricots are very different from what we are used to but taste about the same. We have planted a small garden with chard, carrots, and zucchini so far. The grass that was planted is starting to look pretty good. We'll soon have to mow it.

One Day's Harvest of Mangos