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