Welcome to Africa!

Now this is what i'm talking about! Seeing an elephant beside of the road while driving! This is what i thought it was going to be all the time before i came here. The first of July we went to Chobe National Game Park in the Northern part of Botswana. Don't get me wrong i love going on game drives and everything, but I totally dig seeing animals out in their natural habitat and i just happen to come upon them. To have to stop your car while zebra's,buffalo,or ostriches cross the road is the best thing in the world! On our way to chobe we saw 2 elephants beside the road, just like you would see a dog. Then we had to stop the car in order to let some ostriches cross the road!!! On the way back home we saw an elephant by the road, maybe he wanted a lift some where?! hahahaha.....

Oh yes, i'm standing within a few feet of a huge elephant without a fence or anything!
How cool is that?!

Better view of the elephant.

Why did the ostrich cross the road? I don't know either, but it was still pretty cool to watch!

Brandy and I wanted to get the ostrich in the picture with us, but it didn't happen. So
it's just us!

Safari Lodge!!

Now this is the kind of camping i'm talking about! This lodge was awesome, we had color TV and a movie channel (from South Africa) and a romate control!! I don't think Laura was quiet as impressed with the television as Brandy and I where, but after being without TV for so long it was almost more exciting then the animals!! Speaking of animals we actually didn't even need to leave our room to see most of them, they would just come right up to our patio door! Although since Laura hadn't seen any "real" African wildlife, besides the goats and cattle that Masunga has to offer we did go out and find some.

Now i could do this kind of camping all the time!!!

Look i don't even need to leave my room to see animals! A warthog right outside my door!!

Here are a few mongooses invading the warthog's territory....hahahaha

I saw this monkey on my way to the dining room.

The view of the river from the deck.

Game Drive!

What African adventure would be complete without a game drive? I had heard a rumor that you are more likely to see more animals the earlier you go out. So with that in mind we made plans to go on the first game drive of the day. Little did we know that we would have to be ready by 5:45 am! We where up so early that we had to drive most of the way in the dark, but we where able to see the sun come up. If you ever plan on doing a game drive choose the second one of the day, because most of the animals aren't even up for breakfast at 5 in the morning!!

Sunrise!

Look at our nifty truck!

Water buffalo. I think their on their way to the water.



A momma monkey protecting her baby from all the crazy people with cameras....hahaha

Boat cruise!!

Later the same day we went on a boat cruise, which proved to be more successful in spotting animals then the game drive. It may have been the time of day that we went, like late enough for the animals to actually be out and moving!! It was so much fun, we saw tons of animals and plus being surrounded by that much water at one time was wonderful!!

Laura and I enjoying the view from the boat.

Folks, this really is a water lizard!! I'm so serious, it's a giant! It sure does make the ones here in Masunga look small....hahahaha

This crocodile is waiting for it's next attack!

Just eating some grub!!

Just cooling off!

elephants and giraffe's.

A whole hillside of giraffe's

My very first hippo sighting!!

More hippo's just swimming around!

Ah, what a beautiful sunset with the elephants out grazing.

Sunset!!

What can i say? The sun was just so beautiful that i kept on taking picture after picture. I can't really decide which one is my favorite. I think the first is, but then again the last one is nice also. Maybe you can decide for me. Although the pictures don't really capture an African sunset!!!

I think this one is my favorite but you choose.



this one is cool to, but so are the last two.

this one is good to....i don't know....

Um, maybe i like this one best....

Cool Pics!!

Ok, so Laura and Brandy made so much fun of me because i had like three cameras hanging from both arms and around my neck! Everything was just so beautiful and interesting that i couldn't help myself and each camera had a different role of film in it, so it wasn't like i was being totally unreasonable!! hahahaha....Anyway here are a few of the black and white shots that i took.

4th of July!

On way back from Chobe, we stopped off in Francistown for a 4th of July cook out with our friends. I also got to meet some GCC (Great Commission Christian) missionaries that i didn't even know where here. We all had a great time although it was the coldest we've every been in July! Although this is the same night that i got food poisoning, but getting food poison at the hand of your supervisor does make a great playing card later on! I wouldn't advise it though!!!

The cake was the handy work of Reema and Stacie, and it was great!!!

Here is the grill or as it is called over here a braai. It's a little pit with the fire inside and the grill over it. I think on this occasion the grill was to far away from the fire. My supervisor, Paul, the one in the red cap, is cooking the future hamburger that would later come alive in my stomach!!

Brandy, Stacie, me, Reema, and Laura (summer missionary) all huddled together to watch the fireworks. Yes, we all have on sweaters or jackets on the 4th of July!!! It was freezing!!

Teaching Together!

I get to work with a great guy named Smile. He is a member of our church here and even went to school at one of the Jr. School that we teach at. This is really a combined team effort to reach these students and give them God's truth about abstinence. I can only do so much in the classroom till where it comes to a point of "oh, you can do that because you're a woman and you're a foreigner." It has a whole another meaning when a man stands up and says that there is a way to remain abstinent, especially a Botswanan man! God really answered my prayers for more male teachers, but little did I know that it was going to come in the form of a national. Then it hit me, duh i'm going to be gone in two years, but Smile and all the other nationals that we are training are going to stay here. So what better role model for the students to look up to then Christian, abstinence minded, men and women from their own culture?! Sometimes i really i'm slow about such things.....

This is Smile and I posing for a picture after one of our classes.

Here are some of our students.

I'm trying to answer a question for one of my students but i don't really know how well i did...

Smile is really enjoying this lesson on character development.

Women's Conference!

The National Baptist Convention of Botswana held a women's conference for 4 days at a primary school in the south part of the country. It was a great time of fellowship and an awesome opportunity to for Brandy and I to get to know some of the women from our area. I am really looking forward to becoming better friends with these women.

Now this is how you praise the Lord!

This is my friend Beauty, and her name really matches her all together.

Here are a few of the women from some of the near by villages around Masunga with Laura, Brandy and myself.

Now this has got to be the cutest little lady at the women's conference!

Good-bye Laura!

Laura, our summer missionary, left the building this weekend although not the country due to an unforeseen airline strike! Hopefully she'll make it home soon. She will be dearly missed, the house will not be the same without her. Before she left we had a little going away party for her, where we (Brandy and I) even served some of our "American" popcorn! Now that's got to mean something, don't you think?

Brandy and I posing with Laura for one last picture.

Laura with some of the youth at her going away party.