Yet another lovely week in beautiful Botswana
Was yet another lovely week...
Monday we participated in a mission-wide evening devotional. Since we're spread out across two large counties, it was done all on Zoom. These kids are priceless. Several of them are still 18, especially the American elders. The Africans are older, as old as 27. They mature later, they graduate from high school older, and some of them didn't come to the gospel until they were already young adults. I love to see the seamless mixing of so many cultures as even the Africans can differ quite a bit from each other relative to their backgrounds, languages, and cultural influences.
Not sure if this is a dung beetle, but he's massive. Nasty! We also encountered a exquisitely colored locust about 5-inches long, the stuff sci-fi movies and nightmares are made of.
On a morning walk, a herd of about 30 Botswanan cows crossed the road. Shortly, I saw the cowboy herding them dangerously across and through the streets of town; he was on foot running and waving a plastic bag at them. I can only shake my head and marvel. Soon after this, I watched as middle-aged women hacked the weeds from alongside the road, hand whacking all day with machettes in the 100-degree heat under a blazing sun. It's amazing how much of modernization has not reached this country despite Botswana being one of the more affluent in Africa.
We stumbled upon a Thai Restaurant run by a man who immigrated here from Thailand many years ago, married an African woman, and set up shop as a chef. He's not bad, either. In fact, Kasper was so excited that we visited him for dinner twice this week, once with our trainers and once with the office elders.
Our P-Day was spent exploring some of the markets around Gaborone including the Botswana Craft Market which is well apportioned with exquisite and expensive hand-made crafts and the Main African Market which caters to the locals and is much more affordable. Sometimes the poverty overwhelms me; I want to fix it all for everyone. But as my mission presidents wife reminds me, we are offering something of infinetly more value than coinage, and that is the saving Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Random local curiosities consist of goats roaming the streets and neighborhoods freely, roadside barber and beauty salons of which there are countless, the neighborhood mosque, and chicken coops along the road along with a plethora of other goods (and lot of junk) for sale.
Looks like such an interesting place! Do happy for you to experience this wonder!! Love you and miss you!!
ReplyDeleteI love Elder Kasper's cap! I hope you guys are being careful with your "hootering". That made me laugh. Thank you for all the photos. I hope you bring back some of those beautiful baskets. It's so hard to pack those things. You're going to have to buy another suitcase. Toni, you look well and happy, as always. You have lived your life on your own terms and you have done so much good in the world. I'm sure you are well loved already in Botswana. I know what you mean about the poverty. I never could "unsee" how sad it was, all around me. It was impossible to help the beggars in India. They were so plentiful, if they saw you helping someone, there was a real chance that they would overwhelm and endanger you. So sad.
ReplyDeleteTake care. Aaron needs to buy some more of those caps. :)