Week 10 - A Walk Through My Neighborhood

We live on a very happenin' street full of foot traffic and bustle and shopping and trading and just the plain living of life.  Usually we simply drive slowly along this fascinating and highly entertaining road so to avoid colliding with any number of locals who cross the street with reckless abandon.  They anticipate the speed of your car and calculate their walking speed using that higher level of functioning unique to humans so as to cross the street safely without collision. Safely, that is, until I as the driver either slow my speed so as not to connect bodily with the person passing within veritable centimeters of my front bumper or until I increase my speed so as not to make contact with the guy on the other side of my car who is within a hair's breadth of the rear bumper.  It's a tense street to drive along, especially at night because of course there are no street lights nor illumination of any kind and these people are, well... dark skinned.  So unless they are wearing a white T-shirt or reflective markings on their clothing, it's a dangerous proposition to drive my street at night. So far we have successfully avoided any bodily contact, and I literally pray each day for our streak to continue. 

Yesterday, we dropped off the car for a wash at one of the numerous impromptu business ventures strung along the entire length of this popular thoroughfare, and we set off on foot to visit close up with the locals and to snap pics so you can envision the vibrant life exchanges which happen day and night in our neighborhood.  We met lovely men, women and children along our walking route and spent a couple of wonderful hours mingling with the colorful locals.  Too much fun!

The highlight of our week was the arrival of four new young missionaries to the Botswana Namibia Mission.  They were exhasuted after having flown overnight from the Ghana Missionary Training Center to Johannesburg South Africa and then on to our mission headquarters in Gaborone, but they are young and held up much better than I would have.  One sister from Paraguay speaks only Spanish, and another sister lives here in Botswana and was called to serve locally because she has passport issues (a long story) which prevent her living elsewhere. One young elder came from Angola where his native tongue is Portuguese and another elder came from Tanzania whose native tongue is Swahili.  Three of the four newbies have been learning their new language of English for only a couple of months, and they are already speaking and understanding amazingly well!  Was a busy week what with welcoming these new arrivals and also because it was transfers, that magical time every six weeks when missionary assignments are jostled and young elders and sisters congregate at the mission office with all of their luggage to join their new companions and wend their ways to their new flats.  It's a chaotic hustling bustling noisy energetic time, and we absolutely love it!  I so adore working with these fine young men and women.  Each morning I pinch myself awake just to make sure it isn't a dream, that I am actually living and serving here in Botswana.  Our time is flying by much too quickly.  Senior missions are the best!

P-Day this week was spent driving some supplies to young missionaries in Molepolole about an hour north of here where we enjoyed the scenery, the donkey carts, the bush, the cows, goats, and donkeys along the roadside, and the vibrant bustling commerce of the city of Molepolole.  Afterwards, we visited a village where local pottery and baskets are made, and we came home with some fine African treasures.  In the heat of the afternoon while driving home, I was suddenly quite hungry and desperatived craved for either a Burger King Jr Whopper, a Costco dog, or a Chick Fil A chicken sandwich, none of which I will be able to satisfy my cravings with for another 16 months.  Still, senior missions are the best!