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Madikwe Game Reserve

O.K. to read this blog and get the feeling of being in Africa, you have to scroll down to my music list and play the Lion Sleeps Tonight, by The Lion King soundtrack. I think It's the first song!!

Last Wed. was a public Holiday in Botswana, so the Mahars, fellow AoG missionaries, and our family went over the border to Madikwe Game Reserve in South Africa. Madikwe is the 3rd largest game park in South Africa. It has over 30 lodges on it and some of them are exclusive 5 star accommodations! We are privileged to live close enough to drive there and enjoy a morning or night safari drive without needing to spend the night and pay the very expensive prices!

Madikwe has the Big 5 which is the Elephant, Lion, Rhino, Cape Buffalo, and Leopard. We were really excited to be there because we had only been to one other park that has the Big 5 and only saw Elephants. Not that that's a bad thing!! Matt has always wanted to see a wild male lion close up and he got his wish!! We ended up seeing 4 males and 1 female. It is an awesome experience to be that close to a ferocious, man eating, animal, and a bit scary! Our guide had been warned over the radio about one of the lions we were close to. He had been growling and showing his teeth as game vehicles went by!

During the morning we saw 9 Rhinos, a herd of around 40 Elephant, 12 Giraffe, Wild Dog, A spotted Hyena, and lots of Kudu, Wildebeest, Impala, Springbok, and Zebra. It was a lot of fun!!

Since our time here in Africa we have seen 4 of the big five all we have left is the Leopard!!

The first rain....

We had our first rain last night and it was wonderful...wind, thunder, lightening, the works!! It didn't rain nearly as hard or as long as we wanted it to, but it was a sign of things to come!!!

Hannah

Last week Hannah and I were driving somewhere and I talking about going home for furlough. I was telling her that I have been praying for her and Zach to be filled with the Holy Spirit when we get home. She responded very openly.

This Sunday at church our pastor, spoke on the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. At the end of his message he asked all those seeking the Baptism to come forward to pray and for those that had already been filled to come and stand behind them. As Matt and I started to walk forward, Hannah moved quickly to walk with us. She walked straight up front to pray and be prayed for. I have to admit I was surprised and shedding a few tears as I watched her, hands raised, seeking after the Lord. This was a HUGE step for her. We are always the only white people out of about 200 people at church every week. Everyone knows us there and we are no longer stared at which is nice, but as a teenager you are self conscience by nature, and don't like to be or look different or be the center of attention. When you are one of only 5 white people there and are blond haired at that, you are going to stick out!! She didn't care, she was wanting all that God had for her.

She wasn't filled in that service but made a huge step forward in so many areas. She is learning to step out in faith and learning to hear God as He speaks to her. She is still praying and believing God to fill her.

We are so excited and encouraged about this. There is nothing as exciting as seeing your children loving and serving God!! We are expecting GREAT things while we are home on furlough and our kids are in church services in their own language and culture. It's going to be an awesome year!!

I'ts the little things....

We have realized that living in Africa has helped us be more thankful even for the "little things" We have been having power outages for months now. At the beginning they were very frequent and unpredictable. That made life very frustrating to say the least! The past few months the outages have been predictable, every wed. night we can count on an outage. We never know exactly when or how long it will be off but we know it's going to happen. So we make sure we get candles ready, have dinner cooked and hopefully eaten and have as much homework has possible done.
Last night as usual the lights went out. It was actually a bit earlier than usual and stayed off quite a bit longer. It was 100 degrees here yesterday and did not cool down much by evening so we were using the ceiling fans to help cool it down. It was a bummer when the power cut! We were sweating and only have 1 window in our living area to open. It doesn't have a screen and since we saw a rat climb down the bars over the window, there was no way we were opening it up in the dark! We played Uno by candle light until we put the kids to bed. They fussed a bit about being hot and not having the fan but fell asleep fast after a long day at a game reserve.
Matt and I stayed up, talked, and sweated about an hour longer and decided to head to bed. I made sure all the light were off and all the fans were on before we got in bed. As we layed there and talked, trying to fall asleep but too hot and sticky to, the ceiling fan started to whirl!! It was such a wonderful feeling! A feeling of pure joy and thankfulness! I told Matt how crazy it was that something so simple could evoke such feelings. It felt wonderful to be so content with something so simple and yet something that would seem extremely luxurious to so many living here in Africa also.

Driver's training...

I have seen more accidents in my last 3 years here in Botswana than the entire 36 years I lived in the U.S. Maybe these pictures explain why....
Driver's training here is done on any vacant piece of land the instructor found to set his orange cones up!! I'm being totally serious. In the first picture we are driving down one of the busiest roads in town and on the dirt that would be the shoulder of the road, or median area, someone has set out their orange cones and is teaching someone to drive. Most of the areas are about the size of a tennis court! It's crazy. All "learners" those who are learning to drive have to have a large, red, L on the back of their car to alert everyone to the fact that they are a "learner" if you get behind one of them on the road it is extremely painful. They are never going the speed limit or with the flow of traffic. It's a miracle they don't cause more wrecks. Elliott says the L is really for Loser!

Fast Food...Botswana Style

This is a sight we see everyday, everywhere. It is usually next to the University or a business area, or just in a dirt field where there is a lot of foot traffic. These ladies set up tables and cook food to sale at lunch time. Some of them even set up BBQ's or braai's as they are called here and grill steak and sausages! I have even found one place that fries chips(french fries)!! Sometimes the person brings all the food already cooked at home and sets up a mini buffet on the hood of their car. It's a funny sight to see and also quite enterprising!!!

Zach's Adventure

Zach left this morning for a class trip to Camp Nelu in South Africa. We are really excited for him to get away and have his own adventure...without his Sister or Brother along! We know he will have a lot of fun and can't wait to hear his stories and see his pictures.

We are missing him already!! I have had a lot of anxious feelings about him being in another country without us there to protect him( and make sure he doesn't lose his passport or residence permit). He is one of our three most precious possessions and it's very hard to let go and let soneone else watch over him!! Thankfully I know he is in the best of care with our heavenly Father watching over him....and I will be constantly reminding Him of Zach's need of protection and covering!!

PULA, PULA, PULA!!!

Pula is the Setswana word for rain. This is a chant that is done here in Botswana, like after someone makes a speech, they say, PULA, PULA, PULA and everyone joins in.
In this desert nation rain is a vital resource. It means life. The rainy season here is very short. Only a few months, usually, Nov., Dec. and Jan. though it can start a little earlier or go a little later. We are waiting in great anticipation for the first rain. Everything is so dusty, dry, and dirty. The air is hazy with dust and every morning there is always a fine layer of dust over everything.(thanks to the dirt road we live on)
This is a major contrast for us, coming from the rain capital of the world, Washington State. We love how green and lush Washington is but have come to love some things that only come from living in a desert nation. The kids keep talking about loving the smell of the first rain. How you can even smell it in the air before it gets here. The fun of running out in a torential rainfall, being scared by the first thunder and lightning strike and running inside to not get struck by it! Opening the windows to let the coolness in even while it's still raining. Running to unplug all the appliences and computors when a storm comes, then sitting, listening and watching as the wind, thunder, and lightening hits.
These are things we love about our life here in Botswana, and are so glad for the memories that we will always have when we smell that first rain in the air, no matter where in the world we are!

Beginning to get HOT, HOT, HOT!!!

It's that time of year again. Just as everyone at home in the States is looking forward to fall and the crisp cool weather, we are pulling out the shorts and swimming "costumes"! It has been in the low to mid 90's here the past few weeks and we are starting to feel it. We have taken all the heavy blankets off the beds and are sleeping wth just sheets and our ceiling fans whirling away. It won't be long and we will need to be taking cool showers before bed to be able to sleep!
I know all of you in the Northwest are rolling your eyes and thinking "poor things" but I remember how grumpy everyone there gets after a few days of 90+ weather! We have months of it...and while I do admit I love waking up to sunshine everyday, I would like it to be 70 degree sunshine instead of 100 degree sunshine!
The fact that we know our "hot" season will be cut short this year because we will be leaving in the middle of it, is getting us through...that and coming home with a nice tan while everyone else is fishbelly white!!

And maybe a little therapy.....

In desperate need of a dentist!!

As you can see the kids are in desperate need of a dentist after 3 years in Africa!!

More funny sayings...

The other day I was walking by Elliott and he says, "Mom, you smell like Sunday." I was just a little puzzled and asked what he meant. He said, " You always wear that perfume on Sunday when we go to church. So, you smell like Sunday.":)

The Rapture..

I just finished putting the kids to bed. I prayed with them and they were waiting for Matt to pray with them. It was taking Matt awhile so Zach came to look for him. Matt asked him why he was out of bed, and Zach said he needed to come check because he was afraid the rapture had happened and we were gone! As Matt is putting him back in bed, Elliott says, "Anyway Zach if the rapture would have happened, you would have seen Mom and Dad flying up in the air."

A traumatic experience

Today, as I was on my way to pick Hannah up from school, I saw a little boy, around Elliott's age, get hit by a car. It was a scene that I will never be able to forget. It happened on one of the busiest thoroughfares in town. The road has 2 lanes of traffic going in each direction with a median dividing them. I was stopped at a stop light with about 4 or 5 cars ahead of me. Right next to me was a turn lane for cars to turn right, go through the other 2 lanes of traffic, into a shopping area. If that sounds confusing, remember we drive on the opposite side of the road. Anyway, To my left there is another lane of traffic, going the same direction as me, and to the right of them is the side of the road. There are always people dodging through the cars to try to get to the other side of the road. It happens every where here. When you drive down the road you constantly have to watch for people that might be standing in the middle of the 2 lane road, waiting for you to pass so they can cross. It is crazy.
As I was waiting at the light, I see a little boy, around 8/9 years old come from the left side of the road, through the cars if front of me. As I see him start out into the turn lane next to me, out of the corner of my eye I see a car come whizzing past. I say out loud, " oh no, your not going to make" as I see the car hit this boy, as he makes it to the middle of the lane. The car didn't have time to slow down and hits the boy full force. A direct hit to the body. I can still see his little face as he sees the car. He went flying through the air and lands under the car, 1 car ahead of me. I am in total and complete shock. The man who hit him gets out and slowly walks back. The man in the car that the boy is lying under slowly gets out and they begin to argue. Neither of them even checked on the boy. People start running up to see what happened and still no one ever gets down to check on the boy. I put my window down and yell at someone to call the police. Everyone keeps arguing, not caring about the boy. I am able to go around the car, and start to yell at other people to please stop arguing and staring and call the police to help the little boy.
At this point I don't know what to do. I want to get out hand help but, as lame as it sounds, really needed to be on time to pick up the kids because of certain circumstances. So, I drive on in tears. It was a horrific thing to see happen, but I think what hurt the most was the lack of concern for the boy. Not once did the man who hit him get down to check on him. We have seen this happen before. We have come on to the scene where a person was lying in the middle of the road, unconscious after being hit by a car and everyone is standing around him staring. None is kneeling next to him, checking on him. It horrifies us. Life is not treated as precious as it should be. We don't understand it. Maybe they see death so much it doesn't phase them anymore. I don't know, but my heart is broken for this little boy and his family. It would surly be a miracle if he lived. I'll never know. They don't report that kind of thing in the paper here, like at home. But he and his family, have been, and will be in my prayers and heart.

Growing up, earrings, and fainting...

During the school break we spent some time in South Africa to relax and just have some family fun. While we were there Hannah got her ear pierced up on top. She was very excited and did really well until it was time to stand up...then we started to lose her! She said she felt dizzy and she was looking at me but not focusing at all. I told her to look at me and she tried to come out of it. The lady who had pierced it was trying to help me get her into a chair but Hannah was dead weight by then and it was all I could do to hold her up!! Some how I got her into the chair and she sat there until she was feeling good enough to walk out. While she was waiting I ran out and got Matt so he could help me with her. I'm sure it was a comical scene to every one in Claire's at the time.

Our little girl is growing up...she has changed so much in the last 3 years. I think everyone will be shocked when they see her in person! We are so proud of her and how she has adjusted to life here in Botswana. She really likes it here and says she will miss it when we come home...even the school uniforms!!

The boys start their 3rd and last term at school tomorrow. We let them grow their hair out during their one month break and they were really shaggy!! There are rules at the schools here on how long boys hair should be. In Francistown it had to be over the ears and above the collar. You would definately hear from the headmaster or teacher if your hair was not regulation! The school the boys attened now is not as strict and Elliott has been wearing his hair longer because of it. But even he thought he needed a haircut...wish I would have taken a before and after shot...

They are both getting older and think they need a "style" now. Zach took a picture of Zac Efron from High School Musical, to show the stylist how he wanted his hair cut!

Wish I would have had a camera because there were monkeys playing on the grounds of the hotel where we get our hair cut! They were so cute and fun to watch! And by the way..we get out hair cut at the fanciest place in Gabs and it only costs around 15 dollars!!

Here we go!

I've been wanting to do this for some time now. I wanted a place to share the more normal day to day stuff that happens here in Bots instead of the ministry stuff. So this is for family and close friends who want to be more involved with our life.
I guess I should have started it earlier, not 3 months before we leave!!