Hannah (Michael Thompson’s daughter) is an accomplished blogger at almost 12 years old.  Give her some spare time between activities and she can crank out pages and pages in her journal.  Check out her pictures and perspective on the trip here

We went to another school today. Singing, storytelling, and crafts with the kids went much smoother today as everyone knew routine. I had one cute little girl stubbornly refuse to smile for me. It is precisely those kinds of challenges I love…

Yep. We’re basically pros :]. Today we trekked down the muddy roads in our four wheelers to another school. This time around, we were even more prepared with our songs, games, crafts, and stories. I think we accomplished the same number of activities in half the time! Although… this could be mostly attributed to the fact that these kids spoke English.. hah. One of the most memorable parts of our two hour stay was the story telling. We told (and once again.. got the kids involved with hand motions) the story of Jesus calming the storm and chose one of the children to tell the story back to us. All the other days, the kid would stand there looking confused with maybe a hint of stage fright; but today, a little boy popped up and excitedly told each part of the story, including the motions! It was so amazing to see a little kid learning and remembering stories that show the power of God :]. Also, the Jesus bracelets were a highlight. There was pure joy on the each child’s face as they proudly held their bracelets up to our faces, just wanting a simple “woah!” or “good job!”

Alright, well if you know my lovee for blogging then you know I could just go on foreverrr (sarcasm :P). Therefore, I’ll end this here :]. You know.. more later and thanks again for the prayers! It has been rainy and cold the last 2 days, so our outreach trip to the bush, which was supposed to be today, was postponed to tomorrow. But, the weather is supposed to clear up, so pray we can go!

lotss of love,
emily

ha p.s. (I always seem to forget something) this morning we went to worship and listen to a short sermon again with the local Botswana missions team. As I said before, it was just so amazing. I realized one of the reasons I like it so much is that it’s like everyone IS the band since it’s all a cappella, and everyone is participating with their whole heart. They made an entire song that lasted at least five minutes out of the simple phrase “number one” sprinkled with “not number two” and “not number three” (and of course with lots of clapping and dancing :]). Also, because of all the rain, the speaker could not make it, so someone from the group was just called up on the spot to make a short sermon. Seriously… it had power, direction, and passion.. and it was completely impromptu. I just think that’s so incredible. Each morning we have heard an equally impacting sermon and decided we could sum them up with “If you love me, obey me. So, let’s be a new generation who goes deeper.” The way the say “go dee-pa” just makes it all the better :]. Ok, so for real this time… ttyl.. it’s time for bed.

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