Kruger Park Couples Retreat

Elder and Sister Nichols arranged a mission couples retreat for 27 April 2012 in Kruger Park. Only eight couples accepted the invitation, four of them from Botswana - the Kimballs, Mosses, Taylors, and Rands.

Impala

Wildebeest

We caravanned in two cars from Gaborone to Kruger Park on Thursday, 26 April. We started at five o'clcok in the morning and eleven and half hours later arrived at our guest lodge in Komatipoort, South Africa. All the couples arrived at the guest lodge within fifteen minutes of each other even though we came from widely different locations.

Leopard

Leopard

That evening the Nichols had arranged a braai (barbecue) on the guest lodge patio. They served potato salad, pasta salad, bean salad, rolls, lamb, chicken kebabs, and chocolate cake. We used the guest lodge grills to cook the meat. It was great to get better aquainted with the other couples over dinner and hear about their varied missionary experiences. The areas in the mission vary so greatly that couples have experiences are very different but at the same time quite similar.

Kudu

Giraffe

We got up very early Friday morning so that we could be in line to get into the park at five o'clock. It was a holiday weekend so we were a bit concerned about getting into the park before they cut off entrance. While we waited for the park to open at six o'clock we had a tailgater breakfast. Our car was the third car in line and the other missionary cars were right after us. By the time the park opened the line of cars was quite long. We were very glad we were early so that we could get into the park at sunrise as this is one of the best times of the day to see animals.

Lion

Lion

Once inside the park each car of couples went their own way. We stopped first thing and bought a map with animal identification pictures in it. We would have been quite lost without the map for directions and would not have known what animals we were looking at especially the ones we ended up calling DLAs (deer-like animals).

Fighting Hippopotanus

Sunning Hippopotamus

We feel we had great luck seeing animals in the park. It is really quite the luck of the draw as to what you see. You may see something spectacular and two minutes later the animals have passed on and the next car would miss it entirely. We saw a lot of animals and most of them at a very close range. Some like the leopard were very close to the car. The leopard walked around the front and side of the car and we took its picture from less than two meters away. Most of the time we were driving roads without other cars in sight. We made a couple of loops and only covered the same sections of roads for less than twenty kilometers.

Waterbucks

African Elephant

We were surprised at how quickly the terrain and vegetation changes in the park. One side of the road can look very different from the other and in a few minutes of driving everything can look quite changed. The variety of the scenery was an added bonus to all of the animals.

Chacma Baboon

Warthog

We were lucky to see four out of the "Big Five" African animals - African elephant, leopard, rhinocerus, and lion. We missed seeing buffalo even though all of the other missionaries saw buffalo but they did not see any of the cats. We saw one leopard, one lion, two cheetahs very fleetingly, two Chacma baboons, two Vervet monkeys, five crocodile, ten warthogs, twelve white rhinoceros, twelve kudus, twelve to fifteen wildebeests, twenty-five to thirty zebra, about fifty giraffes, forty to fifty waterbucks, seveny-five to one hundred hippopotamus, and hundreds of impalas.

DLA (Deer-Like Animals)

White Rhinoceros and Baby

We left the park when it closed at six o'clock as did all the other missionaries. There is a big fine for leaving the park after six o'clock so we didn't want to be late. All the missionaries and a Peace Corpe worker who is a member of the church went out to dinner at at Portuguese restaurant in Komatipoort right after leaving the park. Saturday we spent the day driving back to Botswana.

Alders, Diana, Kimballs, Nichols, Hymases, Taylors, Mihus, Rands, and Mosses

Gasefete-Mogopodi Wedding

Two of our young single adults got married on Thursday and then went to Johannesburg on Friday to be sealed in the temple. All couples have to have a civil marriage in Botswana before they can be sealed in the temple in South Africa. The ward had scheduled a temple trip for that day so about thirty people were able to attend the sealing. It was wonderful to see them get married and everyone was very happy for them.

According to Botswana law the wedding cannot be performed after sunset. Traditionally, brides are one to two hours late to their wedding. The bride, Gabalape Mogopodi, was only half an hour late. Elder Rands spoke at the wedding. Bishop Matswagothata performed the ceremony.

We have been teaching the groom, Onalenna Paul Gasefete, keyboard lessons for the last few months. Both the bride and groom have been attending our weekly Preparing for Celestial Marriage Institute of Religion class. We had them to dinner at our house this past month and had coconut cake for dessert. They asked us if we would make two coconut cakes for their reception. We made two coconut cakes and one chocolate cake. They were definitely not fancy wedding cakes. When we asked the woman in charge of the food where she wanted the cakes, she had us put them on the head table with the bride and groom.

After the ceremony there were comments by the bride, groom, best man, best lady, and relatives. There was also a very tasty meal. It was traditional Botwsana food - beef with mixed vegetables, chicken, rice with vegetables, baked beans, pumpkin, beets, potato salad, and macaroni salad. We waited for the cake to be served but it never was. Even the single adults who were serving were anxiously waiting for the cake. First one cake was taken away and we thought it was going to be cut. Then a second cake disappeared. The bride finally cut herself a piece of the remaining cake with her fork and then some people went up and she cut pieces of cake and plopped it in their hands to eat. We don't know what happened to the other two cakes.

Labola, bride price, is an African tradition of an arranged payment between the groom and the bride's parents for their daughter. It is based on the price of cattle and can be thousands of pula. It causes many couples outside the church to never marry or wait many years to marry. It delays many marriages of church members. The church very much discourages this practice. Onalenna said that he negotiated to have the labola delayed and will be making payments on it for many years.

Baptisms

Our granddaughter, Katie, was baptized 14 April in Issaquah, Washington. Lisa flew up to represent us at the baptism. This is our first grandchild to be baptized and we missed being able to attend the baptism. Katie broke her arm almost two weeks before her baptism so she had to wrap her cast in a towel and plastic bag closed with white duck tape. The Lamberts, her other grandparents, were at the baptism.

We had a busy day Sunday. We picked up Elder and Sister Webb at their hotel at 9:15 am and took them to watch general conference with us at the Broadhurst building from ten o'clock until noon. The Webbs came from Johannesburg to Gaborone to present a Perpetual Education Fund fireside. After the morning session of conference, we attended the baptism of Isa Alidi and Tshepiso Alidi, the father and sister of one of our young single adults - Kabo Alidi. Another of the young single adults, Celeste Sibanda, has been living with the family for many years. Kabo joined the church fourteen years ago when she was twelve and has wanted her family to join her in the church. She returned from a mission to England about eight months ago. Her mother, Elizabeth, was baptized six months ago. Now the whole family are members of the church. The baptismal service was very spiritual. Their home teacher from nine years ago was one of the speakers and Celeste was the other speaker. Kabo sang a beautiful song.

We hurried home after the baptism to quickly eat a lunch of salads and rolls and then went to the Gaborone West building to view the last session of general conference. We then drove back to the Broadhurst building for the Perpetual Education Fund fireside. We had cake and ice cream at our house and then took the Webbs to their hotel.

National Museum

We were in charge of the semi-monthly couples activity this past Wednesday.  We decided to tour the Botswana National Museum in Gaborone, eat a picnic lunch there, and then walk through the Main Mall to visit the vendors selling Botswana crafts and local foods, etc.

The National Museum has a combination of history and natural history displays. All the couples found it very interesting to learn more about Botswana. For a small country it was really quite well done with a surprising amount of interesting information such as Otsi Mountain which we drive by each time we drive to Lobatse and has nest sites for some rare vultures.

After touring the museum we ate a picnic lunch under a thatched roof on the grounds of the museum. We also got to watch workers re-thatching one of the roofs. A surprising number of building still have thatched roofs in Botswana. We provided the fixings for hoagie sandwiches and everyone brought something to add to the sandwiches and something to share. We bought fresh rolls at the bakery that morning. We also brought ginger lemonade. Ginger drinks are common in Botswana.

After lunch we walked a block to the Main Mall which is an open plaza surrounded by stores. Local vendors put up their tables or lay goods on the cement and sell their wares in the plaza. It is a fun place to see local crafts such as baskets, wood carvings, leather sandals, traditional clothes, etc. People also sell unique locally grown foods such as beans, peanuts, traditional grapes, mopani worms, bean leaves, fruits, etc. Vendors also set up booths and sell hot traditional foods to the office workers and shoppers. There are also a lot of vendors selling all types of goods local people would like. This all makes for an interesting Botswana experience and we had a great time. We bought an eland to add to our wooden menagerie of Botswana animals.

Missionary Bake-Off

The missionaries in the Gaborone West District invited the senior couples to judge their dessert bake-off contest. Sister Blum made macaroons; Sister Hadlock made apple crisp with vanilla ice cream; Elder Epstein made wedding cookies; Elder Richardson made peanut butter bars. All the creations were very delicious and the senior couples really enjoyed them.

We made award certificates and Elder Epstein won Most Flavorful, Sister Blum won Best Presentation, Elder Richardson won Tastiest, and Sister Hadlock won Most Enticing. Sister Kimball awarded them prizes of a knife for the sisters and cookie sheets for the elders to help them with their cooking.

The bakers were very enthusiastic and had a lot of fun. The judges enjoyed the yummy treats and had a great time analyzing all the creations.

This week Elder and Sister Moss gave us wild cucumbers from their yard. They came from volunteer plants, and Mosses had to ask the locals what they were. We used them to make tomato and cucumber sandwiches for lunch today. They tasted very much like the cucumbers we are used to eating but they have quite a few more small seeds. As you can see from the picture they are wicked to peel; the spines are very sharp.

Tonight we attended an Institute of Religion class like we usually do on Tuesday nights. It was nearing the end when the power went off so everyone turned on the lights on their smart phones and cell phones so we could finish the class. Sister Rands give them cookies as they left like she usually does. The power was also off last night for a couple of hours in the evening so we worked and got ready for bed by candle light, and it went off during the night the two nights before that. We have not experienced that many power outages so close together since we have been in Botswana.

Friday Night Young Single Adult Activity

Who is Going to be the Janitor?

We have started having young single adult/institute activities on the first and third Fridays of each month in the yard at our house. The first one was yesterday. We start at 5:30 pm and end at 8:00 pm.

Pretty Colorful for Brown Eggs!

We had dyed forty-four brown eggs (the only kind available in Botswana) using food coloring because Easter egg dyes are not available here. They ended up being very colorful. We had an Easter egg hunt before dark at the activity. They do not have Easter egg hunts in Botswana so this was new experience for the young single adults and they loved it! They also enjoyed eating the eggs - all of them.

There Must be an Egg Here Somewhere

We played table games, some of which were new to the young adults. We taught them how to play Mexi-train dominoes, Rummikub, and Janitor. They also played 30 Seconds and Uno. 30 Seconds and Janitor were the obvious favorites of the group. We will try to teach them a new game at each activity.

It was 70 Degrees F. but Some were Freezing

For refreshments we served two-layer bars, Rice Krispy Treats, and floats. We were supposed to have orange floats but the fellow who was supposed to bring the orange soda waited too long to buy it and the stores were closed for the Easter holiday. The Kimballs had some soda at home so we made do with what they had, raspberry, pineapple and caffeine free cola. We also had candy to eat while the games were being played.

30 Seconds Became Very Noisy Competition

We had forty-five attend which was very good. The bishop thought we would only get twenty to thirty because many people travel to the villages for the Easter holiday.

Everyone seemed to have a great time including Elder and Sister Rands. It was busy and noisy the whole time. Almost no one left before the eight o'clock end time. We are very excited about getting these going. The young single adults have been starved for activities and were anxious to get together.

Easter Celebration

On Monday, 2 April, the senior couples put on an Easter celebration dinner for all of the missionaries in Gaborone and the surrounding areas at the Kimball home which is the mission home for Botswana. There were thirty-four in attendance. The dinner was ham, scalloped potatoes, banana Jello, mixed vegetables, hot cross buns, and cake. Our assignment was to make hot cross buns.

There was s musical program after dinner put on by groups of missionaries with three vocal numbers, one of which was accompanied by a flute and ukulele. They were all very nice. Testimonies were interspersed with the musical numbers. We then watched several short church videos of the life of Christ from the Last Supper to the Resurrection.

All of the young elders and sisters were given missionary bunnies filled with candy that were made by the senior sisters. They can be used as pencil holders after the candy is eaten which probably did not take long. Felt is hard to come by in Botswana so Sister Rands brought felt for the bunnies back from the United States.