Today, after having crazy fun at another school, I got some computer training :-)  Yup, I said that right… Michael taught me how to use a professional audio package called Pro Tools LE to do some studio recording.  The studio was a small room with an exercise mat draped across the table to isolate the microphone, and some plastic chairs to hold the laptop microphone amp, but it was all we needed.  A native Setswana speaker named Pokolo then read from the Community Health Education guide.  It has chapters on Cleanliness, Tuberculosis, Diarrhea, Smoking, etc and basic information about prevention and HIV/AIDS.  Michael recorded Pokolo reading the first 3 or 4, and then turned it over to me to do the remaining half.  Whoohoo!  I even got to give that exaggerated finger pointing to cue up the recording for each track.  We spent the rest of the afternoon stopping and starting and recording tracks as needed.  The material will eventually be added to the solar or hand crank audio devices OneWay is distributing to the local villages.

BTW, yes, they do say “Hakuna Matata” here.  Emily and I nearly burst into music from The Lion King when we heard someone use it this morning.  It was great fun.

-Pete

Beth Bounds, OneWay Intern:

Oh today was an amazing day for sure! It was my favorite and the fullest. We awoke at 6:30 to be at the school by 8 am and finally making it out to a village from the sand roads by about 10 am. On our way we found some elephants! They were massive and majestic. I was so happy to have seen some wildlife. I’d been praying all morning that we would see something.

Once we got to Sankoyo, we played some games with about 100 children from the school and told some Bible stories. They seemed to really enjoy what was going on. After a couple hours there, we parked over at a soccer field across the road and pulled out our food and enjoyed. We played with many kids that came over and one in particular stood out to me. She was beautiful and held a coin of some sort. She was wearing just a pair of pink underwear. We played “patty cake” and she just seemed to really enjoy the attention. It was a beautiful sight to see these wonderful children playing out on the dusty field. They came with just a tiny ball and we left them with a soccer ball.

Many people went out to do outreach at the different houses around but a couple of cars went exploring. While exploring, we found about 7 giraffes! They were absolutely amazing. We hopped out and climbed onto the car to get a better view. They were breathtaking. (As is almost everything here!)

We made it back and attended the storying service just like the one a few nights before. We weren’t allowed to be wearing pants so we wrapped a blanket around ourselves and went to participate. Three girls and I sat on the bottom part of a tree. I really love that Africans have no personal space. This is just my style! I had one girl with her arm resting on my back, another her elbow resting on my lap, and Kelly (who I’m living with next week) holding my hand.

They finished telling the stories and we piled back into the cars for another drive back. On the way back we spotted a giraffe really close to the side of the road! It was amazing!! All in all, we saw like 8 giraffes and 5 elephants and many many beautiful children.

The people here are so receptive and loving. I feel so welcome. I’m finally over my jetlag and almost slept through the whole night! I woke up twice but refused to open my eyes and finally fell back asleep. The rain has stopped. Today was such a wonderful day. It was very warm and not a cloud was in sight.  It was just amazing to spend more time with the people from the missions school and spend some time with some random kids playing. The African animals were breathtaking too. I can hardly believe it all! Please keep praying. The rest of the team leaves some tomorrow, and some Saturday. God is good. He has provided more than we could possibly ask for. Thank you for being a part of that. And thanks for tuning in. The intern’s bedtime is sadly approaching.  Hakuna Matata.

~Beth Bounds AKA Betty
(Thank you to my beautiful African friends who find Bet much easier to say that Beth)

Yesterday was a very full day.  Sorry I didn’t get a chance to post, but the Internet went down, at at 11:00pm, we were just too tired to try and figure out another way to upload.  Here are some of my pictures from the day.  I’ll let them tell the story.  Pretty clear actually :-)

Tomorrow, most of the group here goes home.  Emily and I will be staying and going on a safari into the bush.  We have a 4×4 and will be camping on top of the truck.  More details later.  We love you and miss you.

-Pete

The Maun city school has several hundred kids.  Of those, some have special needs.  Some have Down’s Syndrome, some have more severe issues.  We traveled to the school and met the headmaster.  She told us we were late, and they had panned for us to take the kids for 3 or 4 hours.  I secretly thought to myself, “how in the world could we manage a work with the class that long?  The headmaster was very polite, but clearly the schedule for our planned visit was not corect.  We would however have time for about 90 minutes with the kids.  After many introductions, the headmaster took us to a classroom with about 12 kids.  The children were sitting at tables.  Many were smiling at us.  Some were looking down.  They seemed about 10 to 14 yrs old.  I took a deep breath.

Then the headmaster led us to another classroom, with another group of even older kids.  After another set of formal introductions with the classroom instructor, we were shown a final room, with yet another set of kids.  The headmaster informed us that some of the kids were 25 yrs old, because the country had no place to put them.  She also apologized for how the kids looked.  On Fridays, the kids are allowed to dress themselves, and so they were not wearing their “proper uniform”.  She then proceeded to combine the 3 classes.  Soon we have about about 42 special needs 10 to 25yr olds sitting in a room awaiting our instruction.  Beth Bounds (OneWay Intern), Hannah, Emily, Jake Johanik Derek Johanik, and Cynthia, Ray’s wife, looked at each other.  The headmaster and the 3 teachers looked at us.  Emily whispered to me “what are we going to do?”.  I said, “I don’t know, I’m still praying”.

We started with a Bible story, with exaggerated hand motions.  I REALLY exaggerated.  We got the students doing the hand motions, soon the room was laughing and cheering.  The teacher translated.  The headmaster was smiling.

Emily told me later the headmaster then turned to her and said “I’m heading back to my office”.  Then we started telling David and Goliath to the students.  Once again, totally overacting the parts, Jake Johanik (at 11 yrs old, he makes a good David) and I (Goliath) started acting while Beth Bounds narrated and one of the teachers translated.  The headmaster then turned and said “Maybe I’ll stay a bit longer” :-)

I snorted, and I growled, and I flailed my arms.  I stomped.  At one point, after a narration setup by Beth Bounds, I said “Isn’t there anyone brave enough to fight me?”.  4 or 5 of the students’ arms shot up as volunteers, not waiting for the translation to Setswana.  The room erupted in laughter.

We spend the rest of the time doing craft activities with the kids.  It was tremendously rewarding.  The kids were so sincere.  Our hearts went out to them, even if we only had 90 minutes in their classroom.  Below are some of the pictures of our new friends.

PS. “Wofa” rhymes with “Sofa”. It means “Uncle”, and is a term of endearment. Friends here call each other “Wofa” when they are like a family member.

Also, tomorrow morning Emily and I head into the bush with our LandCruiser with a tent on top. We have 3 nights camping in the Moremi game preserve in the Okavango Delta.  Wikipedia can tell you more

I will try and set up the Satellite internet for some experiments, but can’t promise anything. If you don’t hear anything, don’t worry. Tech is fragile, LandCruisers are not.

-Pete

I’m exhausted, but decided to walk up to the lodge to get an Internet connection so I could share some of the wonderful pictures and events.  We started the morning with a brief stop to a small school class room where the kids were just 2 and 3 years old.  We had spent 2 hrs with the older kids from the school, and they wanted us to return to spend some time with the younger kids.  Once again, it was just a joyful time.  We colored pictures with them, sang songs, giggled, and told stories.   The pictures help tell the story… the kids really are that cute! See pictures below.  Of course, from the pictures, you would think the kids are living in Siberia.  While the evenings are chilly here at about 3000ft altitude in the winter, the daytime is hot.  Nevertheless, the kids here are completely bundled up, some with knit gloves.  Just like I can’t imagine surviving the heat of the Kalahari Desert, just a few miles south of here, the Botswanians can’t fathom the snow.

The kids did not suffer from HIV/AID.  They were happy and excited to spend time with us.  Our job, to just spend some time with them and tell stories and sing songs and draw pictures was really relatively easy.  However the next school challenged me (see post below)

-Pete

:). So.. I’ll admit that about half way through the day… I was pretty annoyed. We started off with our last Maun Lodge buffet breakfast with the group. And, once again, the chef misunderstood my omelet order haha. After packing up, we said our goodbyes to everyone except Beth, who is staying another week, and they headed to the airport. Dad and I did some last minute stopping before heading off into the bush. I basically slept until we hit the dirt road… where it’s just a taddd too bumpy to try sleeping very well :). Soon enough, we passed through the park gate (we had already seen giraffes, zebras, and an elephant!.. but I’m pretty sure it just wet our appetite for more hah). The roads, which I thought couldn’t get too much bumpier, created a trampoline out of our chairs. We soon realized that large puddles were the norm and we splashed through them, muddy water covering the wind shield. Turning off the air conditioning to save fuel, I soon got hot and tired of the constant bumping through the trees. We started to see how long it would really take to make it to our camp site. I’ll admit, I may have complained just a tad (i know!.. its just not like me…ha). Finally, we broke out into the plains, were it was much easier to spot animals. Gazelle-like animals called Impala were everywheree. And, once we saw more giraffes (three babies and their mom :)), some warthogs, a little mongoose thing, and lots of birds (including tons of hornbills… which is Zazu from the
lion king :)), I was really enjoying our long ride through the savanna. The huge puddles became to me less of a threat to get stuck, and more fun haha. Eventually, we made it to the camp site, set up the tent (with lots of laughs at dad from our neighbors and me as he tried to figure out how to get it up :)), and had some pasta dinner. Tomorrow we plan to get some good sunset pictures :). Hopefully more later on my dads crazy endeavors. The first half of this trip went absolutely amazing so thank you again for the prayers! Love, MLE (the way the oneway botswana missions team wrote out my name in the sand so that the kids at the school in the bush could understand how to say it :))

p.s. everyone in botswana is sooo friendly! a wave immediately brings on a smile and a wave in return.. no matter where you are.

(from pete: BGAN Sat device working well. Pictures uploaded. GPS coordinates: S19.23887 E23.35665)

Last night the milky way was a broad hazy river against the inky black sky. Emily and I climbed up into the tent platform above the car. I wondered how this simple precaution could possibly protect us. Thankfully it seems lions and leopards have not learned how to operate zippers.

From our beds, Emily and I were able to stare up and the stars through the screen and chat. It was a moment to cherish. The moon rose slowly, like a false dawn. The tall grass was silhouetted against the marsh near our campsite. During the night I woke several time to lions roaring in the background. I also heard an occasional grunt. I don’t think warthogs, which we saw earlier in the day are nocturnal, so I have no idea what it could have been.

After an oatmeal breakfast and some instant coffee we fired up the Toyota LandCruiser and headed northeast, toward the area where lions had been spotted. We saw none, but did see more giraffes and zebra. We stopped for a break near a small lake where some hippos were grazing underwater, only an occasional ear or head popping up to look around. The morning air was still cool, and the shade provided by the tall trees near the pond made the spot perfect for a picnic. We munched on dried fruit while a troop of very small monkeys passed. The baby was still occasionally nursing, and would then scamper off on its own. Em kept repeating, “ohhhhh! he is so cute!”. Indeed he was adorable.

We proceeded toward the northeast we passed some wildebeests. Cool. I was getting more adept at making my way through 2 ft water and mud, only needing to drop into 4L and then locking the differential to get unstuck a couple of times. Em laughed at me as my heart raced and my clutch-foot got jittery when we got more seriously wedged a couple times.

While driving near some swampy area we saw a vulture circling. As we neared, a hyena scampered away. We never got a glimpse of the kill, but kept twisting our heads around, looking for lions. A bit later, as we drove on, I thought I saw a rhino. As we approached, we realized it was a hippo. It was out of the water walking around. He was shy, but we snapped some pics as he wiggled his ears at us.

We continued on, running into a pack of 30 to 40 elephants. They were on the move, and we stopped the car as they passed. The baby elephants were indeed cute and adorable. The larger elephants stayed close as they ambled by. We were naturally both excited and scared, since only an elephant could really hurt the car and bother us. We snapped dozens and dozens of photos. digital is great.

On the way back to camp, we asked people if they has seen an lions. Folks told us they had been on the move, a pride of about 12, near Third Bridge, our campsite. Emily and I quickly headed toward our campsite. At 2:00, we found the lions laying in the shade, trying to stay cool. They were not going to budge. We proceeded to camp and showered. By 3:45, it was beginning to cool off, so we went in search of the giant cats. We found a film crew parked by a grassy field. We pulled up. They told us the lions were moving, and they were hoping to catch them. We turned off our truck and checked and double checked our cameras.

A group of small grouse-like birds started hooting wildly, and we knew the predators were approaching. Slowly a female emerged from the tan grass. Then the rest of the magnificent family. There were 2 males, 3 adolescents, and 7 females. One had blood up its fore-paw from a previous kill. They slowly walked by, within 8 feet of our truck. I snapped pictures out the open window. When they had passed, we both looked at each other, our hearts were pounding, and we were both grinning and revealing that look of “oh my gosh, did that really just happen?”.

We followed the pride slowly with our truck as they passed withing about 30 feet of our campground bathroom. Em and discussed how we would have reacted if we had strolled out of the bathroom to see a pack of lions. We kept telling ourselves that the key would be to NOT run, it triggers their chase reflex.

We returned to camp after some photos of the sun going down over the savanna. Chandra Masala for dinner, with appetizer of olives and cheese. What an amazing day. Tomorrow, our last full day in Botswana can’t possibly compare.

Right now we’re just sitting on top of the truck under the shade of a huge tree, snacking on fruit and waiting for the perfect sunset silhouette. Our last day has been great. well… we had a rocky start.. but obviously it all worked out :). As I worked on the scrambled egg breakfast (it turned out pretty much terrible haha) and dad folded the tent back down, I heard some yelling from our neighbors. Turning around, I saw half of a huge furry tan thing sticking out of the side of our truck. My mind was racing from the initial shock, so once I realized it was a baboon that had hopped into our car through the open door, I kind of just backed up softly saying “uhh.. dad… dad.. baboon…” My dad leaped down from the other side of the truck and saved the day!! hahaa. Actually, he yelled, scaring the baboon enough to get out of the truck and back 10 feet…. but he took something with him. Afraid that it was some expensive computer gadget, we craned our necks to get a good look. Luckily, it was the string I had brought to make bracelets with.. and a couple finished products.. so I wasn’t too thrilled ha. Since it wasn’t food though, he eventually dropped the mangled bag. After seeing those sharp fangs, my dad yelled at me to get into the car and we grabbed our breakfast and headed off to finish it somewhere else. There were about 30 baboons closing in around the camp as we sped off. (my dad was realyyyyy scared for me and started rolling up his window every time we saw baboons after that and repeated “nasty. nasty.. nasty. my nemesis.” :))

Our first loop was mostly beautiful savanna. We swished down the road with tall grass on both sides. Dad kept saying how wonderful the color was, and he was right. Our first sighting of the day was a group of elephants. The little ones are just so adorable.. I can’t believe dad put up with how many times I repeated that :). With another elephant sighting, this time with them playing in the water, we were excited for more.

Sleeping lions were next :). We came up to the film crew from yesterday that was following the lions. Sitting on top of the truck for about an hour, we watched what looked like just a tangle of paws just visible above the grass. Every once in a while, a lion would sit up and yawn. again… I thought it was really cute ha.

Moving on, we started heading for south gate, were we will camp for our last night. We spotted more elephants and their babies… :). But, after that, there seemed to be a lack of wildlife other than impala, which started to become part of the scenery. With all the twisting back roads we had somehow managed to find, we started to get a little bit lost. We could see on the gps the direction we should be heading, but as for the map, we had no idea where we were. Once again getting a little hot and sleepy, I almost jumped out of my seat with excitement when we came upon some zebras that were pretty close. Snapping some pictures, we moved on, seeing another giraffe and also making our way back to the main path. This brings us back to now, were we are sitting in the savanna atop our truck, uploading photos and making this post with plenty of crazy bird noises to add to the ambiance :).

I can’t believe this trip is almost over.. it went by so fast. Although I wasn’t too sure right after we arrived, the longg journey is definitely worth it :). I miss you all and will see you pretty soon! God has really blessed this trip!

Sincerelyyy, emilyyy :P

(From the BGAN Inmarsat, that my dad says is working great.  Good st reception)

We are in London, awaiting the last flight home. One last wild adventure in Botswana before we left. Only one picture of the event (I tried to limit the embarrassment). Details will follow later. We will be back in Chicago in the morning.

-Pete

Well, Emily and I are back home and missing Africa.  The 30+ hr return trip home was uneventful (meaning uncomfortable and long).  We have finally slipped back into our regular schedule.  I had to laugh at myself — I as pulled my car out of the garage I killed the engine with clumsy clutch action.  A low-geared LandCruiser in 4H on a dirt path has a decidedly different touch than an Audi on a paved road. However, I’m getting ahead of myself.  There is the matter of the end of our trip…. Our unique exit from Moremi.

Emily and I decided some sunset photos would be great way to end the trip.  We stopped about 10km from South Gate, and as the sun fell we climbed atop the truck with the sat gear and posted about the baboons.  With the sun hovering just above the trees the tan grasses of the savanna turned orange and I thanked God for his blessings — this unique beauty of Africa and a daughter who felt comfortable doing so many things:  on Safari in Africa, singing praise songs and hugging school kids in Maun, calculating logarithms for chemistry class, or writing poems or python programs.

Our roof-top picnic felt like a gourmet banquet.  We cut up our fresh pineapple, snacked on green chili cashews, and had granola bars.  We soaked in the sounds and smells of Africa one last time.  We knew that after the sunset, darkness would rapidly fall.  We would break park rules driving back to South Gate after dark.  To protect park visitors, night travel is prohibited. We figured 10km would not be so bad, and it had been days since the unseasonable rains had flooded parts of the road.  Most of the bad sections were now just puddles.

Unfortunately, we didn’t get as many good silhouette shots as we had hoped.  One issue was the sky was not so colorful this time, the other were the sounds of nearby animals.  We were in the grass, 100 yards from the forest line.  As I set up the tripod we heard loud raucous growling and snorting from the woods.  In the dimming light of dusk I suddenly felt a bit vulnerable standing in the grass 50 feet from the car.  I dashed over to the truck and climbed on the roof.  Emily and I discussed what could be in the woods.  Emily pledged to watch for movement as I walked back to the tripod and set the timer for a couple pictures.

After we packed up, we bounced along the 4×4 path with the truck’s hi-beams on.  I sang “in the jungle, the mighty jungle, the lion sleeps tonight” in a horrendous falsetto.  Emily pleaded with me to stop.  We plowed through muddy tracks and splashed through sections…. Then it happened.

For the first time in my 4×4 career I beached a truck.  A LandCruiser is designed to handle most any muddy, rocky, or sandy condition.  However the surest way to thwart its combination of excellent engineering and mighty power is to beach it’s belly on a mound of mud.  That’s exactly what I did… 8.5km from the park exit.  The water was only 1 or 2 feet deep, and we had driven through some sections that were much higher.  However when the truck’s tires are not touching the mud, there is little more to be done.  I kept playing over and over what I should have done… had I gone left or right we would have been fine, but I tried shooting for the spot that looked shallower.

I took off my shoes and asked Emily to keep watch while I donned a headlight and begin planning our escape.  Using the shovel (every good safari vehicle comes with a shovel) I tried digging the muck out from under the truck.  I spent quite a bit of time trying that and finally gave up.  If only we had a winch.  Emily later told me “I didn’t think digging under the truck would work, but it seemed you needed to try for a while anyway”.  I laughed and complimented her understanding of men.

I worked on plans to use the hi-jack to create a system that could use the nylon tow straps to winch us out of the mud.  However I decided that the kinetic energy I could generate tightening a nylon tow strap with approximately 3 feet of hi-jack ratcheting could be deadly.  I pondered turning one of the wheels into a winch.  Finally I had to admit defeat.  Something that I find tremendously difficult to do.  I apologized to Emily, who found my frustration with the situation somewhat amusing.  “People think you are this laid back guy, but I know better” she commented.

At about midnight we finally gave up sleeping in the cold car, and I unfolded the tent atop the truck.  Since the car was stuck in the mud, pitched by about 10 to 15 degrees, it was a strange arrangement, but Emily and I crawled out of the windows and clamored up to the tent for about 5 1/2 hrs of sleep.  I tossed and turned, my brain continuing to race all night.  I’ll let you use your imagination for how we managed bathroom breaks.

In the morning, Emily’s nightmare came true.  A truck full of tourists were the first on the scene.  They all got out and started taking pictures of Emily and I in the mud as the driver tried to pull us out to no avail.

We used the sat phone to call the rental company and let them know we might need more serious help.  About an hour later two South African safari SUVs pulled up.  The two familes got out and greeted us.  They assured us they could pull us out.  They then huddled and worked out their plan in Afrikaans. Using my “kinetic” (stretchy) strap, they hooked up and gave us a tug.  The first attempt failed.  They added slack and gave it a running start.  I was pretty worried.  A kinetic “snatch strap” is a weapon.  If one component fails a deadly bungee slingshot is created.  I asked Emily to bend down below the dashboard.  I ducked my head into the truck.  On the count of three we both gunned our engines and the South Africans snapped the nylon strap tight.  The truck lurched and suddenly was free from the mud.  Yipee!!!!

I tried to convince Emily that we needed to go through the puddle to prove we had defeated it, but she would  have none of it, and we took a small detour around the bog and headed toward the South Gate.  There we showered and headed back to Maun.

Once in town we visited Ray and the Checkers one last time before returning the vehicle and hopping on the flight to Jo-Burg.

It was a fantastic trip.  We made new friends and hopefully provided some help to the OneWay mission in Botswana.  We thank everyone for their prayers.

-Pete