Activities at Our House

On the first and third Friday of every month we have an activity in the yard of our house that the young adults have come to call "Friday Night at the Rands". The young adults can come anytime between 5:30 pm and 8:00 pm. We have games for them to play and serve refreshments. We also try to teach a new game they can play each week. We have been having about forty people attend the activity each time.

Khumbulani Mdletshe, the CES area director, visited Gaborone on the second weekend in June and wanted to see what an activity was like so we had an extra "Friday Night at the Rands" activity this month making three Fridays in a row.

On Saturday, June 23, the Young Single Adult Ward Relief Society had a baking class at our house. The sisters learned how to make chocolate chip cookies, brownies, Texas sheet cake, and ice-cream-filled oatmeal cookies. Sister Kimball helped with the class. Because there were so many things to cook, she and some of the sisters took some of the goodies to bake at her house. The sisters had invited the men in the ward to help eat their goodies at the end of the activity. Few men showed up so the sisters ate their creations and took the rest home. They had a fun time making the treats and playing games while things baked. Fourteen sisters came to the baking class. It was held during the day.

That evening we helped with a braai (barbecue) for the recently married couples in Gaborone at Bishop Matswagothata's house. We took tables, stools, and chocolate eclairs for dessert. We had games for them to play before the meal. After the meal each couple told about what qualities they liked in their partner which was a very nice activity.

On Friday, June 29, the Ward had a cowboy-themed bonfire activity in our yard from 6:00 pm to 9:30 pm sponsored by the Sunday School. As the young adults arrived we had a game where they were given a list of cowboy activites (ridden a bucking horse, herded cattle, attended a rodeo, ridden a bull, shoed a horse, etc.) and had to get the signature of someone who had done that. There were about thirty items on the list and we thought that it would not be possible to find someone who had done these things but many completed their lists. The first five to complete their lists got prizes.

We had a bonfire and braai (barbecue) where they cooked hotdogs on sticks and sausages. We also had salads and baked beans. They also roasted marshmallows over the fire. The marshmallows were not as successful as we hoped because they do not brown and puff up like American marshmallows but just melt and drip off the sticks. Though not as successful as we hoped the young adults had a great time trying to roast marshmallows. The Sunday School presidency planned on forty to fifty people attending but over seventy came. They had planned extra food but we had to dip into our supply of paper products.

They enthusiastically line danced to "Cotten Eyed Joe" and did some African group dancing. We then sat around the campfire for songs, stories, and cowboy jokes. We ended the night with a spiritual thought.

This coming Friday we will have the next "Friday Night at the Rands", so we are really enjoying activities with the young single adults.