First Border Crossing

As we drove the 400km North to Botswana and crossed the border, several things became apparent to us right away. First, we noticed that there were animals everywhere. I wish that I would have been able to photograph some, but I was too busy driving around them and trying my best not to create any fresh roadkill, and Reenie was too busy telling me to stop!-slow down!-watch out! Other than the Baboons, these are not exotic animals generally. They are Brahma bulls, horses, donkeys, and large herds of goats and cows. They were just everywhere. Another stark contrast to South Africa was the total absence of street hawkers and beggers in the towns and cities. They are on every corner in ZA, but not to be found at all in Botswana. The towns and city we visited were very poor, but also were very clean.

The temperature was another big difference. Once we left the high elevation (almost 6,000ft) of Johannesburg and drove North but down in elevation, the temperature rose significantly. Gaberone and Lobatsi are on the edge of the Kalahari Desert. It is very dry and very hot..Phoenix kind of hot...like putting your head in an oven type of hot.

White Egrets enjoying the bugs in the trees...

Games of chance are not unique to the US of A. There are many Casinos in ZA and this is the one in Botswana. What are we doing at this one?...well, this is where we are recommended to stay when we travel to other countries. We avoid the Casinos themselves of course, but the hotels on the grounds of the Casinos are considered the safest places to stay, with lots of security, clean rooms and good prices. Our room here cost 377 Pula/ night, which is less than $50, and the room was clean, very small, but it had AC! Whew!!

Here is the Lobatsi Branch building. The church bought property here that was a residential home, where they could use the existing house for Primary, other classrooms and offices and it had a kitchen and a bathroom, and then they brought in a portable building for having Sacrament Mtg.


Here are the members going to their classes in the house after Sacrament meeting. Thank goodness for the two big trees on the property that really helped to shield out the sun.

These are the first two students to have the opportunity to receive PEF loans for schooling in the Lobatsi, Botswana area. It was our visit there last week that launched the program in this area and as you can see, they are really happy. Cedric, who just returned from a mission in Kenya, will study construction and Lucy is going to become a nurse's assistant (like an LPN in America, I believe). They are looking forward to beginning school in March.



As I mentioned, this area is on the edge of the Kalahari Desert, so water is a premium. There are no lakes or ponds in the area, and the few creeks that exist dry up except for a short rainy season each year. Here you see a large agricultural water barrel that will catch water from any available rainstorms and store it for when they have baptisms...which are held.....(see below)


Here! This is another rain barrel, but this one has had the top removed to be used as their font. They bring two desks from inside the building, climb onto one while placing the other into the font, then hand the desk that is in the font, to someone outside the font while they perform the baptism, then someone hands them the desk back into the font and they climb out from the desk in the font onto the desk that is outside the font! Seeing this really made me feel like quite an ingrate when I remember how we used to complain about the temperature in our building being a bit too hot or too cold back in the US. It was 41 C degrees here on Sunday(about 103F) and the buildings are not cooled at all. These folks were happy to walk to church in their only set of church clothes and then sing the hymns accapella.

'After church' with the two Elders who serve this area. One from Zambia and the other from ZA.

...the future...

Incidentally, we are told that many of the clothes that are given to DI or Good Will in the US, end up coming to countries in Africa and other similar developing nations, so I have a hunch that this is where many of these children here get their clothing. These two just loved having their pictures taken and wanted to see the pics again and again, and I of course, complied. More on Botswana after our next trip there.



Below are some more of the South African nature shots that were not included in the prior post. Hope you enjoy.

Mom and the kids

Stay out of this grassland!

Reenie's favorite

African White Stork, standing about 5' tall.

Family of Blue Wildebeests

"I don't get it! I have wings...I should be able to fly!"

Angry dog!

...just because you can't see me, doesn't mean I'm not here...

...oh I know you're there! (male Blesbuck)

"I am only one,

But still I am one.

I cannot do everthing,

But still I can do something;

And because I cannot do everything

I will not refuse to do the something

that I can do."

Edward E. Hale (1822-1909)

Stay well