Language School

For two weeks me and 3 other j-girls went down to Lobatse, a town in the south part of Botswana, for a crash course on language and culture. We survived and even learned a "little" Setswana and along the way we had lots of fun!!

Charissa, one of our favorite mk's (missionary kid), me, Brandy, and Reema striking a pose after we just conqured this awful hill in Lobatse!
Ok, now we all know that no dancing and all study makes for a very dull and sad Carmel. So i decided to break it down at language school!!! yeah baby!!

learning a few new moves!!

Museum Day!

After our many hours and days of long hard work (we did study some of the time), our teacher decided that we should go into town and go to a museum to get a real feel for the country.

Stacie, Brandy, Reema, and me with our teacher and his son at the museum experiencing a little culture of the past!

AMTM

One of the perks of the job, is getting to go down to South Africa for our cluster meeting each year. This time the meeting was held at this place where they used natural hot springs for their swimming pools. How cool was that? It was like the first time i had seen water in months!! Plus it was the perfect atmosphere to discuss matters like financial statements and of course how to improve on ministry. I think we should go more often as long as the hot pools are there!!!

worship service Sunday morning.

The funniest, craziest, wackiest, bunch of jounreymen, or should i say journey girls around. Sorry William....i guess your stuck with us...hahahaha...

Mission Team!

We had a mission team from Maryland come to Botswana to help evangelize the Blocks, the area where our new church was opening that following Sunday. They also help to tell all the kids in the neighborhood about our sports camp!

Gorata, my favorite student, came as our translater to help Lindisey and me.

New Church!

This is the long awaited new baptist church in the blocks. We had our first worship service there on Sunday May 1, 2005, with tons of people from all over. It was wonderful!

Great Commission Baptist Chruch!

me and Brandy.

What else would we be doing inside the church except playing battle ball before youth group starts!!

Sports Camp!

The same week the mission team was here, we had a sports camp. To help reach out to the youth and feed them into the new church. We had lots of help from the Francistown Baptist youth group and area journeymen (and girls). Yes, even yours truly shared some of my vast knowledge of sports (yeah, right) with the next generation!

Stacie and a girl that came to Sports Camp.

Everyone knows you have to streach before you begin!

Doing more streaches...now turn your head down to the right....

Get ready, get set.....Go!!

Come on, come on, you can do it!!

Every good team needs a good coach!! Mgu and I cheering on our respective teams!!



He is just chillin' whising that he could play!!

Ok, new game. The kid is thinking "you want me to do what?"

the boy:"ok, now i've got it!"

now their all ready!

now run!

This was the little kids favorite thing to do, play with the parachute

Where did all the kids go?

There they are!

Game skills!!

Just doing my part, i unveiled my secertly held athletic skills to the amazement of all!! Yeah right i wish, but i do think the kids had a great time laughing with me in my many awkward moments of trying to decided what i should do. Although i really did catch the soft ball in my glove to the bewilderment and joy of myself and all those around!! It was a lot of fun!!

I'm thinking of going pro after this!

I told you I had skill!

just thought i would share this with you, since Stacie thought it showed my personality through and through. Although i will say in my defense the bat did get my hands all sticky and dirty!

Closing!

At the end of each day we would gather the children together to tell them how to be on the #1 team of all time.......God's team! Each time was complete with a Bible story, memory verse and song!

Gathering time.

The all-star performance by Matt in David and Goliath. Can you guess which one he is?

All the kids ran over to see if "Goliath" was really dead!! How funny?!

Mgu leading the kids in the memory verse for the day.

Village stay in Marapong!

This was my second village stay experience while i've been in Africa. This time though i got to stay in a male dominated household, which allowed me to see the vast difference between the male and female role in the family and society in general. Plus this time i got to stay with two of the girls from our church in Francistown and 3 other journey girls!! What an experience, it was great!!

Me, Lorato and her grandfather.

Lorta's grandfather's compound where we stayed

Goat Herding!

While in Marapong, we took part in the lives of the people there. So when the goats broke into the only water source for the entire community, what else could we do but go and try to get the goats out ourselves??!! hahahaha...

Look it's water! Not a very common sight in Botswana, it looks like the garden of Eaden.

The invaders in the garden!

The mighty, mighty, warriors!! L-R, Gorota, Lorta, Stacie, Reema, and me.

Brandy : "Now, if I could only find those stupid goats this would go a lot faster!" Me: "Hey Brandy, look behind you!" hahahaha

Brandy: " Ahh, look now i've found you. You can't get away now!" run, Brandy, run!

Here are the goats finally leaving. I would run too if i had four white girls with sunglasses and purses running after me!! hahahaha

Donkey Cart Ride!

To get to the family cattle post we had to take a donkey cart, which was pretty cool but a whole new experience. First we took this big donkey cart that was powered by a V3 "donkey power" engine. Although there is a price to pay for taking the "luxury" cart, because the engine was just not working very good. At one point we all got out of the cart and where actually moving faster then the donkeys where walking!! After 3 1/2 hours it was decided that the donkeys needed a rest and so did we, for we had only reached our half way point! So after resting it was decided to try a "faster" donkey cart with 4 donkeys instead of 3! So we finished our journey in half the time of the first cart, but only after taking out some thorn trees and totally catching some air on most of the bumps!! I totally recommend everyone try riding a donkey cart at lest once in your lifetime!

Here is the first cart : The long luxury limited edition!

This is the point where Stacie took the rains and we all decided that we could get out and walk faster then the donkey's where moving. Hence i'm in front taking the picture!!

The sports edition. Come on we only have 8 people in here, there's always room for one more!!

Cattle Post! Moo

We finally arrived at the cattle post in the new and improved compact V4 sport donkey cart!! The cattle post provides most of the income for the family, and usually all the men of the family work there, i.e. fathers,brothers, uncles, and even like 4th or 5th cousins!! It was pretty cool to see that farming is pretty much done the same way all over the world!!

Stacie looking for the cattle.....

The water well for the cattle

I wouldn't drink that if i where you. Hint it's for the cattle!

the man is dipping us out some sour milk to take home as a gift!!

Cooking Time!

We went to Lorato's aunt's rondavel (house/hut) where we learned how to make traditional bread and cook over an open fire. Watch out Betty and Maratha Stuart here i come!! hahaha

I'm a natural cook, huh ??

me and Reema learning how to make bread balls from Lorato.

The kids decided to chill in the wheel barrel while the bread baked.

He was just to tired to wait for the bread.

umm, he must have smelled the bread!

Splish, splash, it's bath time!!