It's been awhile, huh? But my squad has been in Africa where the wifi is limited but the bush life is great!
We've been living in Botswana working hand in hand with a ministry outreach called Love Botswana. They are home to the Okavango International School, Lorato House, and sponsor the Village Church and it's branch churches.
Our time with Love Botswana was split into three locations, Maun, Sehithwa, and finally XiKao.
Each place was unique with it's own personality, ministries, and new people to meet.
My group spent our first 3 weeks in Maun living at the base of Love Botswana. Maun is very westernized, the students' attitudes reflected those of Americans back home. Which really wasn't what I was picturing when I knew I'd be going to Africa.
I pictured elephants, desert dry lands, traditional garb, and naked African babies with distended bellies.
But never the less I was blessed in ministry. I got to teach a class of first graders and spend time with the older students boarding at OIS. We were involved in youth group and acted as interns under our lovely contact Elonte. I spent time in the Lorato House where 12 of the most precious orphans live and whom I fell in love with.
Maun changed my view on Christianity. I realized that no, not everyone believes what I do and that's fine. I was stretched and grew in my knowledge of The Lord. It was great.
My group then ventured out into the bush for 40 days. 40 days in the wilderness…sounds familiar.
However we did not fast but we did eat a lot of dough. I felt like a giant dough ball by the time we were through.
Our first stop in the bush was Sehithwa, an hours bus ride from Maun. We lived inside the branch church there working with Pastor Batsille.
The people of the village were difficult. At any point in the day house visits were near impossible because people were either drunk from the night before or already drinking for the night ahead. The attitudes of the children were an exact reflection of their parent's treatment which made ministry with them very difficult for me. We experienced a lot of spiritual darkness here.
We found a woman of 73 named Galakake who was caring for 2 children ages 12 and 2 who weren't hers but her sister's grandchildren. She was hard and bitter, like many of the people in this community, but I wiggled my way into her heart and she in mine.
Our last stop and my favorite out of all the rotations was 7 hours into the bush in a village called XiKao. With huts lining the dirt paths and various livestock grazing in every direction my expectations of Africa were met a little more.
We were hosted by amazing people, Pastor Mmeke and his family took care of us. We were involved in the village church branch there and made hut to hut visits. I spent a lot of time cooking meals over a fire I built myself or laying under the single tree for shade for time with Jesus and teammates.
I was especially called to the pastors wife, mamaruti (meaning pastor's wife in the bush language) or Evelyn. We had numerous conversations asking each other about faith, the bible, culture, testimonies, basically nothing was off limits.
I also spent a lot of time visiting Wirea, a 74 year old woman who possibly weighs 80 pounds, if that. She can't move her arms or her legs but her shy smile makes you smile instantly. You couldn't hold it back even if you wanted to.
Africa is beautiful. The sky is endless. The culture is relaxed, there's no rush.
I'm going to miss those African sunrises and sunsets, the sand between my toes.
I'm even going to miss the roosters crowing at un-godly hours and the donkeys that sound like they're dying.
I'll miss being corrected time after time on my cooking.
I'm going to miss these people who don't know what personal space is.
I'm really going to miss the African constellations that took my breath away, looking up at thousands of stars.
I'm going to miss fetching water and carrying it back on my head.
I'm going to miss swimming in the river and discreetly looking around to make sure a crocodile isn't going to attack me.
I'm going to miss Africa a lot. The people I've met, the culture I've fallen in love with, and the beauty it holds.
