Thanksgiving

 

On Monday, 26 November, the senior couples prepared a Thanksgiving dinner for the missionaries in the Gaborone East and West Zones - thirty-seven missionaries including couples. Some traveled two hours to get to Gaborone. Francistown missionaries had their own celebration.

Everyone crowded into the Kimball home. This will be the last gathering at the Kimball home because when they leave for home in December the church is going to put the next couple into an apartment instead of the house.

Elder and Sister Kimball cooked the turkeys, bought rolls, and made the gravy and the dressing. Elder and Sister Rands made fruit salad and mashed potatoes. Elder and Sister Gubler brought a vegetable tray on their third day in Gaborone; they are Kimballs' replacement. Elder and Sister Taylor went beyond the call of duty by preparing table decorations with the help of the young sisters, green bean casserole, candied yams, and eleven pies of nine different kinds!

Elder and Sister Kimball had Christmas decorations up and stockings stuffed with goodies for everyone because the Kimballs will go home before Christmas.

After dinner those who could stay watched the video "Seventeen Miracles". Some had to do their laundry and send e-mails.

Seminary and Institute Graduation

On Sunday, 25 November 2012, we held Seminary and Institute graduation for the Botswana Gaborone Stake. Four seminary students received Certificates of Achievement. Three institute students received Graduation Diplomas. We asked these students to quote a favorite scripture, say why it is important to them, and bear their testimonies. Forty seminary students received certificates and seventy-seven institute students received certificates for the courses they had completed. In total, about two hundred certificates were awarded.

The first counselor in the stake presidency conducted the meeting. The second counselor spoke. The stake president handed out the certificates and gave remarks. We had a musical number by seven young adults. The stake president thought that we might have up to one hundred fifty people attend. Two hundred twenty-five actually came. Last year the attendance at graduation was sixty. We felt really good about the attendance and the number of families that came. We had good attendance from units in the villages with some renting buses to come to graduation.

We made forty dozen cookies and the other senior sisters helped out by making fourteen dozen cookies for refreshments. With so many extra people in attendance we had to limit the cookies to two per person to start. No cookies were left. We had punch with the cookies.

Gaborone Public Transportation

There are many automobiles in Gaborone but the majority of people in Gaborone walk or use public transportation. There are only a half dozen members of the Young Single Adult Ward that have personal automobiles, all of them men.

Public transportation consists of buses, kombis, and taxis. Buses are used mostly for transportation into and out of the city. The most common form of transportation in the city is the kombi (minivan). There are many of these. They run on regular routes but are not scheduled. Because of this quite often people are late because they cannot catch a kombi - either they are full or are not going where they need to go.

We have a kombi stop behind our house which makes it convenient for people using the kombis to come to our house for Friday night activities. In the morning and evening kombis stop behind the house every three to five minutes. During the rest of the day there can be quite a period between kombis coming by. During the busy periods the kombis are packed full - four abreast, fourteen total. Some of the kombi stops have large crowds of people during the rush hours with kombis and buses constantly coming and going. most kombis quit running about 7:30 pm so everyone has to be careful not to stay too late at activities or institute classes if they are using a kombi to get home. Being late can result in a very long walk.

There is a central bus area called the bus rank. Often people have to change kombis at the bus rank in order to get where they need to go. Kombi fare is about seven pula ($1) per ride no matter how far you are going on a route but each route charges separately. The kombi owners are all independent.

When the kombis are busy they drive very aggressively. They will pull out right in front of traffic and just wave their hand out the window like that gives them the right of way. They will drive between lanes, turn from the wrong lane, drive over the curb, switch lanes constantly without leaving room between vehicles, etc. We even watched one drive between the pumps at a gas station to get a few cars ahead. When business is slow they drive about half the speed of all the other drivers and make everyone go out around them. Everyone seems to despise kombi drivers.

Taxis are also available but cost about twice the price of a kombi ride so far fewer people use them. The young single adults will use them if there are several going together or they know they will have trouble catching a kombi.

Somtimes the church units in the villages will rent buses or kombis to get to church meetings in Gaborone.

Scripture Bags

Sister Kimball invited Sister Taylor and us to help the Molepolole sisters sew scripture bags. Few if any of the sisters had sewn before. None of the sisters have their own sewing machines.

The ride to Molepolole is always an adventure. If you are not avoiding cows, donkeys, and goats you are avoiding cars coming at you in your lane when they should not be passing. In spite of the hazards it is quite a pleasant ride because of the scenery and villages. With the recent rains we have had the trees are starting to green up and flower. The trees come in all shades of green which look quite pretty with the red rocks.

Sister Kimball, Sister Taylor, and Sister Rands helped the Molepolole sisters with their sewing. Elder Kimball and Elder Rands helped set up chairs, tables, and sewing machines. They also glued cardboard in the bottoms of the bags. We all had a good time helping the sisters and they were thrilled with their finished scripture bags. At least a dozen bags were completed.

Sister Taylor brought cookies. We brought brownies. The Molepolole sister brought punch, biscuits, and chips. As usual, any food left at the end of an activity was piled on plates and taken home.

What Did That Sign Say?

A major road passes behind our house. We get a kick at how the trees planted for landscaping along this road seem to be planted at just the right spots to block the view of the road signs. You can see from the last picture that the trees that were already there were not doing a good enough job concealing the sign so an additional one has been planted.

 

We saw this stop sign by the church and got a chuckle out of it.

Square Dinner Dance

The Young Single Adult Committee decided that they wanted an activity where they learned to square dance and also had dinner. They thought calling the activity a Square Dinner Dance would be a good idea. They wanted something for dinner that matched a western theme and settled on chili dogs.We ended up with responsibility to organize the whole event.

All the young single adults in the wards and branches in and around Gaborone were invited to attend. A bus load of thirty came from Mochudi.

Because events like this have been very rare we were not sure how many to plan for and thought that if we were lucky we could get eighty to attend and decided that we would have enough food for one hundred just in case. We ended up serving one hundred and fourteen. We were blessed that we had just about the right amount of food.

Four young adults said they would come to our house to chop vegetables for the salad but only one came. We called in the other two senior couples in Gaborone to come to our rescue and they jumped right in. We served chili dogs, cabbage salad, Texas sheet cake, and punch for dinner. We made three cakes and Sister Kimball and Sister Taylor each made two cakes.

The young adults had a lot of fun. They did a line dance, the Hokey Pokey, learned some square dancing, and ended with traditional African dancing.

Katos and Kicks

The missionary zone in Gaborone invited us to join their zone activity on 5 November. Everyone met at the Taylor's apartment. We provided a cabbage salad, cupcakes, tables, and stools. The Taylors provided potato salad, paper products, cookies, and sauces. The missionaries provided French fries, eggs, hamburger patties, palony, bread, and soda. Everyone contributed ten pula per person to cover what the missionaries brought.

 

Lunch was katos, salads, soda, and dessert. Katos are a popular street-vendor food in South Africa. They are made to order with the fillings the customer requests and can cost between ten and sixteen rands depending on the fillings. The missionaries who had served in South Africa were so excited to make their own kato and said they were not nearly as greasy as those purchased on the street. A kato is made by cutting a loaf of bread in quarters (kato means quarter in Afrikaans) and cutting the middle out of each quarter. Fillings are added to the hollow and the cut-out piece of bread is placed back on top.

Inexpensive katos are filled with chips (French fries) and fried polony (bologna). More expensive katos can have lots of fillings. The choices were fried polony, fried eggs, chips, cheese, hamburger patties, all types of sauces (thousand island, ketchup, barbecue sauce, etc.). The elders chose to put everything on theirs. Getting all this in one's mouth to take a bite is challenging.

We had a lot of fun watching the kato-making process. We shared one and still did not eat it all. The missionaries did not seem to have any problem completely devouring their katos.

 

It was a hot day (98 degrees F., 37 degrees C.). We set up tables and stools outdoors in the shade of a thatched-roof gazebo to eat.

After lunch the missionaries played kick ball using a huge ball on a soccer field in the heat. They needed plenty of water. The school children watched them play what was a strange game to them. The senior couples judiciously watched from the shade of a tree.

Botswana Gaborone Stake Organized

The first stake in Botswana was organized today. We felt blessed to be able to attend this historic milestone and it was a wonderful experience we will always remember. The members of the church in Botswana were so excited! They have been working for several years to be ready to have a stake organized in their own country. Many of the members from the villages road chartered busses to the conference. At the same time the stake was organized it was announced that the Lobatse, Mochudi, and Molepolole Branches will be made wards. It was just twenty years and six months ago the country of Botswana was dedicated for the preaching of the gospel by Richard G. Scott.

Elder Dale Renlund of the First Quorum of Seventy and Africa Southeast Area president and Elder Colin Bricknell our area Seventy came to organize the stake.

The new stake includes the Gaborone Broadhurst Ward, Gaborone West Ward, Gaborone West Young Single Adult Ward, Lobatse Ward, Mochudi Ward, Molepolole Ward, Kanye Branch, and Mafikeng Branch. the Mafikeng Branch is located two hours away just across the border in South Africa.

The new stake president is Clement Motswagothata. His counselors are Geoffrey Tembo and Shaka Mokweni. President Motswagothata is currently the bishop of the Young Single Adult Ward and will be greatly missed in that calling. We have really enjoyed working with him in the YSA Ward. All of these brothers are wonderful men and current or former bishops and will do an excellent job in the stake presidency.

On Friday night the members of the Broadhurst Ward and YSA Ward got together to clean the building and set up chairs in preparation for the stake conference. About eighty people came to help. They were in a very happy mood. We helped clean and made ninety-four cupcakes and punch for refreshments for the workers.

In anticipation of the first stake in Botswana being organized the Broadhurst Building was remodeled and extra rooms added that could be used for high council meetings and classrooms. After the construction the landscaping at the front of the building was replanted.

After the conference Elder and Sister Renlund, Elder Bricknell, and the senior missionary couples had lunch at the Kimball's home before the visiting authorities caught their flight back to Johannesburg. All of the senior couples contributed to the meal.