Cornelia's Hospitality

Cornelia Rautenbach, a member of the church, picked us up at the Kasane airport on our trip with Richard and Brenda Vernon. She took us to Thebe River Safaris Lodge where we checked into our rooms. From there she took us to a Kasane Group family home evening. Twice a month the whole group gets together for family home evening. We were lucky enough to be there when the group met.

Three families, and ten neighborhood children were at a member's home when we got there. The families are members of the church but only one of the children is a member. The children meet for family home evening every week with Cornelia.

The family home evening followed the normal agenda precisely. It started with a song and prayer. One of the fathers of the families gave a very good lesson on following the prophet. We played a couple of games and had refreshments. It was obvious that everyone in attendance was used to the routine, even the children who were very well behaved.

The second night in Kasane, Cornelia took us on a braai (barbecue) in the bush. She picked us up at the lodge just before sunset and took us along the Zimbabwe border to a clearing where we could have the braai. Along the way we saw many elephants, giraffes, and other animals. The white post in the picture of the giraffes is a Botswana-Zimbabwe border marker.

We enjoyed visiting around the fire and then used the coals to cook chicken, Bratwurst, and vegetables and to warm French bread. It was delicious. Cornelia is quite the bush cook. We heard elephants and jackals around us while we were there.

Cornelia used a spotlight to show us animals on the way back to the lodge. We saw hyenas, elephants, jackals, giraffes, impala, etc. She surprised us by stopping at a camp that had a water hole with a light above it and we were able to watch elephants come to the water hole to drink in the dark. It was very interesting.