Around Gaborone with Lisa and Heather

While Lisa and Heather were visiting us we tried to show them some of the sights around the Gaborone area and also a little of what life is like for us.

We started Monday morning, 5 March, by taking them to the Gaborone Game Reserve. It does not have the largest animals but it has a wide variety of animals that we often don't see other places, such as ostrich, rock dassie, warthog, monkey, red hartebeest, steenbok, zebra, impala, and kudu. We all enjoyed watching the warthogs run with their tails straight up.

We took them to the main mall so that they could experience the outdoor vendors and see some of the African crafts, foods, and goods they sell.

Next was the bus rank with all the buses, kombis, taxis, tuck shops with their eclectic mix of goods and services for sale, and the hustle and bustle of people.

We went shopping at a grocery store so they could see how that differed from shopping in the United States.

Tuesday morning we hiked Kgale Hill, a two-hour round trip, before the heat of the day. (Note the tree growing around the rock.) After the hike we went to Mosetlha Bush Camp at Madikwe for a safari experience.

Thursday when we came home from the bush camp, Lisa and Heather went with us while we taught our institute class so they got to meet some of the Young Single Adults. When we came home from institute the power and water were off at our house. Having the power or water off used to happen only occasionally but has become quite frequent the last few months due to power shortages which also affect the water availability.

 

Friday, we went to Kanye so they could experience a little of village life. Kanye is about an hour and a half outside of Gaborone. They got to wander through the shopping district seeing the shops selling goods and services. We ate lunch outdoors under the shade of trees at Sanitas once we were back in Gaborone. That night we had a Friday Night at the Rands activity in the yard at our house.

 

 

Saturday 9 March, we showed them the Broadhurst chapel and took them to the SOS Children's Village where they gave the orphanage dolls and toys they had brought from the United States for the children. They brought mostly black dolls because we cannot find those in Botswana. We next toured the National Museum. The water was off again for about three hours.

Sunday they went with us to church at the Young Single Adult Ward. We went to Mochudi and showed them the school where the branch used to meet and the house and tent where the Mochudi Ward now meets. They are growing so fast that they already cannot all meet in the tent for sacrament meeting.

Monday we drove the five hours to Johannesburg, South Africa, to take the girls to the airport for their flight home and so we could attend a CES couples conference. This let them see some of the differences between Botswana and South Africa. We stopped at Chameleon Village on the way so they could purchase African crafts to take home.

We really enjoyed their visit and were very happy that they would come and see us in Africa!