Life in Botswana

February 10, 2009

Passports and tickets in hand, we're off to Botswana. To our relief 2 suitcases, 2 duffel bags and 3 boxes holding clothing, books, batteries, assorted first aid items and household items, all get checked. And yes, we are carrying a laptop, camera, reading materials and banana bread baked by Deb. The most important item we carry is a baggie given to us by our 6 year old granddaughter Alexis. It contains sparkling fairy dust left by the tooth fairy on Alexis' pillow, when she lost two front teeth. The morning of our departure Alexis said, "Oma and Papa, I want you to have this so you won't forget me." Fighting back tears, we hugged her. "We won't Alexis, we won't." Never, we thought, so please don't forget us.



The journey:



The United Airlines flight took us three hours from Houston to Washington DC. From there we flew the next fifteen hours via South African Airways to Johannesburg, J'burg as it's called.



February 11



After a hectic hike from the state of the art new wing of the airport to the older section of the airport, we waited almost two hours at the gate. The city had been flooded with rain all day and there were many delays. We saw businessmen dressed in pressed shirts, dress pants and immaculate, shiny shoes. Most appeared to be in their mid thirties to forties. Laptops perched on their knees and cell phones pressed to their ears, they sat and waited. The one hour flight on South African Express took us to Gaborone, Botswana's capital. (Gaborone-pronounced Hchaboroneh, the g is pronounced as hch and the e at the end sounds like eh.) Below us we could see the lights. We've arrived in Gaborone, the city where we will live for the next two years.


We went through customs, and claimed our luggage in the single carousel, noting the airport is a compact, one story building, efficiently run and clean. We are met by Ivy, the Treasurer of the office of the Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Botswana (ELCB) and Rev. Morekwa, General Secretary of the office of the Bishop of the ELCB. They pack us, our luggage and themselves into an RV. Fifteen minutes later we are at the church office compound. They show us the guest house and help carry in our belongings, give us the key and bid us good night.



We look at the living room with our suitcases and boxes, strewn about. We see a wooden table and three chairs, a kitchen to the right with refrigerator, stove and sink and essentials of cereal, milk and buns for breakfast. We have two plates, two cups, two bowls, two spoons and two knives.



Off the living room to the left, is a bathroom with shower and sink, a separate toilet and lots of built in cabinets. There is no soap or towels. We dig through a box and voila, we find supplies.



Off the living room to the right, is the bedroom. We find a double bed made up with clean sheets, earth red colored pillows and a bedspread. Same colored curtains flare out in the breeze. There is a large built in closet. We rifle through another suitcase, find our pajamas, brush our teeth, using bottled water, and collapse. Good night all.



The next day, Ivy gave us a tour of the compound. It consists of a church, nursery and preK classrooms, a portable building for HIV/Aids staff, two guest guest houses, somewhat smaller than ours for seminary students, and two buildings housing Bishop Moenga and his staff of four, plus himself. The area is on a corner of a busy street and in a transitional neighborhood. The property is enclosed with a high brick fence. A gate is closed and locked around 9PM. The grounds are of packed dirt and gravel and dotted with a plummeria tree, a double red hibiscus bush and cacti. We have had a couple of good meetings with the Bishop. His approach appears to be to let us get settled in before we start the process of our 'jobs'. He is traveling this month and has been gone most of the time.



Saturday, February 21, 09 It's been 10 days since our arrival and every day is a new experience. They say you can't teach an old dog new tricks, but we hope to prove the saying wrong! Little by little we're learning.--



*We've learned to find our way about slowly, driving in a small borrowed Toyota Springer, on the left side of the road, on streets dotted with traffic circles and complicated traffic lights-(round abouts and robots). It's as complicated as it sounds.



* We're in the process of learning to speak and write Setswana and are learning about Botswana customs. (Botswana-the o is pronounced as in ooh or boat-) Our instructor, Phono, teaches us at her home every morning. We sit in a shaded area of her yard and twist our tongues around the consonants and say clever things like, "Dumal rra, o tsogile jang?" Hello, sir, how are you? "Ke tsogile sentle, wena o tsogile jang." I'm well and you, yourself? It's fun to learn and it the highlight of our mornings. When we get back to the compound we practice with Ivy, Julia and Elizabeth and give them many chuckles. Everyone in Gaborone speaks English, but they prefer Setswana.



*We're trying to open a personal bank account and discovered such necessities as an introduction letter by a client of the bank, a letter showing employment or showing income and separate forms for each signer on the account. Each form needs to be correctly signed and officially stamped by the signers. We're working on getting this done along with obtaining work visas. Again, a story of special forms and signatures and official stamps. Julia helps us with all this. Thank you Julia! Thank you friend Pat, friend Sue and cousin Christa and daughter Deb for all your help stateside. We REALLY appreciate it. We will be making our fifth trip in an attempt to open the account!!!



* In the way of history, the ELCA (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and ELCB (Evangelical Lutheran Church in Botswana) have had mutual exchanges in the past but this is the first time someone from the ELCA has come to Botswana to work with the ELCB. As a result many of the logistic's are a first for both countries and we're all learning.



* The ELCA is providing funds for the ELCB to purchase a new Toyota Hilux truck. We will use this vehicle while in Botswana. The truck will enable the church staff to visit the outlying churches scattered throughout Botswana. The advertisement for the truck is, "Africa is not for sissies." We're in the process of procuring the Hilux. Ron will drive it, Heda will not, Heda is a sissy! :)



*We're looking to rent a two bedroom house, clean but humble, in a safe neighborhood. Rev. Morekwa has called agents and taken us around. So far, no success. We have since met Maria, a church volunteer and Pastor Marjo, both from Finland who are also helping us find housing. The search continues.



*We're learning to be patient. At present we do not have a land line phone and as a result are not hooked up to the Internet. We've come to an arrangement with Elizabeth at the ELCB office, who graciously let's us use her computer and Internet access, while she takes her lunch break. So we do have limited access. We welcome your email! Our cell phones work. Imagine our surprise when Heda's cell phone rang yesterday and her sister Margaret casually said, "Hello, it's Margaret." It was like a voice from heaven. Isn't God wonderful!



*We loved the worship last Sunday, at the Cathedral of The Good Shepherd, ELCB. We drove with Pastor William to the cathedral and attended the 8:30AM service which was in English, followed by the 10:30AM service which was in Setswana. The first sermon lasted 40+ minutes, the second sermon a full 45 minutes. We've emailed Pastor Boldt and explained that he needed to lengthen his sermons. We feel sure that everyone at Hosanna, our home church, agrees. Both services were joyful, interspersed with traditional and African hymns by the the Capella voices of the choir and congregation. When we shared the peace, the congregation wound through the aisles, shook hands, hugged and sang, 'the peace, the peace, the wonderful peace, the wonderful peace of GOD.



After each service, we were warmly greeted by the members, who formed a semicircle outside the church door. The people here in Gaborone easily switch from Setswana to English and back. They shared with us their stories of trips to the US for studies and other various visits. One woman doctor and her husband have been to Houston, where she spent a month at the Baylor Medical Center.



In closing, Gaborone is a city of about 200,000 population. It was built in 1966, following Botswana's independence. It is one of the fastest growing cities in the world. Except for very beautiful, tall, stately government buildings, the remaining structures are one or two story. The spaces are generous and the city is spread out. It's very clean. The people are accommodating and very willing to help if you ask. The side for the city, only 15Km from the South African border, was chosen because of it's proximity to a river and thus source of water. Presently, it's summer here, about 100 degrees and we do not have air conditioning. It's only rained once for a short period since we've been here. The city, at 3,000 feet elevation, has a tall sky. The air is clear and the horizon is bordered by hills in the west, south and east. The edges of the roads are lined with tall grass and red earth, pedestrian walkways. There are mostly scrub trees dotting the landscape.



We've heard stories of funerals and orphaned children and poverty and hardships in the city and in the country overall. We see HIV prevention posters and large buildings marked with a large red bow like insignia, similar to the yellow, 'we care about our troops', in the States.



We bid you good night. Tomorrow is Sunday, February 21, 09. It's time to get a good night's sleep so we will be rested and alert for the long sermons.



Take care, dear family, friends and church friends. We embrace you in love.



Hugs and kisses to our grandchildren, Alexis, Audrey and Tegen. 000xxx



Blessings, Ron and Heda