Botswana Bulletin – Eighth Edition

Botswana Bulletin – Eighth Edition

“An African Winter”

May 18, 2005

Greetings again from Gaborone, Botswana!  Well, I believe it’s officially winter here in Botswana.  All over the place you see people wearing thick jackets and sweaters.  Believe it or not I believe the drop in temperature has even affected me.  I remember wearing nothing but a t-shirt in 0ºC weather back home in Fort McMurray, but now if it gets down to 10ºC I’m freezing.  However, I’m still able to endure the cold mornings on the motorcycle.  I usually just put a hoody on overtop of my t-shirt and I’m good to go.  My hands are usually pretty cold by the time I get to work but hey, you do what you gotta do.  It’s a different kind of winter than what I’m used to.  Its like its winter in the morning and at night but during the day its summer again!  It warms up to at least 20ºC by midday so your in a constant state of putting on and removing clothing.  Teenage girls would love it here.  They get to change outfits so often!  For me it’s just a big hassle carrying around the extra clothes.  I'm still wondering what I’m gonna do when I get home.  Feel free to laugh at me when I return in September all bundled up and freezing to death in fall weather.

Anyway, enough about the weather.  Its been quite a while since I’ve e-mailed you all so I’ll do my best to get you updated on whats been happening out here.  We’ve had a ton of people coming and going the last month or so.  Unfortunately, its mostly been goings.  There are a few people gone on furlough but we have lost a number of people who have decided to return home for good.  I was going to list all the people who left but you don’t know them anyway so I figured I wouldn’t bother.  The one person I will mention is our Initial Ministry Coordinator Tina Kort.  She has left for 9 months of furlough and will definitely be missed by me because shes my Setswana teacher!  I haven’ figured out how I’m going to replace her yet.  Her absence will definitely affect my language learning. 

With all the people leaving we have had to do some shuffling to keep the work going but luckily God has sent replacements for some of the more major positions.  We know all to well that God is in control and has a plan for Flying Mission so we will carry on the best we can.  Our director put it well when he stated, “The one constant in the Flying Mission is change.”  The only thing we can do is react well to the change and trust that God will provide.  And so far he has!

Speaking of goings, I had the unfortunate duty of attending a funeral to someone close to me here.  My friend and co-worker, Lilian Moyo (she is our receptionist) lost her brother last month so I went to the funeral to support her.  It was my first Botswana funeral so I wasn’t sure what all I was in for.  Besides the fact that the funeral started at 6AM on a Saturday, it was still quite western.  The major difference is that the funeral is usually done at the home.  The casket is brought out and they have a ceremony where members of the family, and friends speak about the person and then they sing a few songs (pretty typical of Canadian funerals).  After the ceremony the body is taken to the cemetery for burial.  Fortunately, her brother was a Christian so the mood of the funeral was generally positive.  It’s tough to lose a brother but knowing he is in a better place brought comfort to the family.  Arriving at the cemetery woke me up to exactly how many funerals they have here in Botswana.  The funeral took place in the village of Kumakwane, a small village just outside of Gaborone.  From this small village there were 2 funerals going at the same time.  I’d never been to a cemetery where multiple funerals were going on at the same time.  Apparently they have to do that in order to fit in all the funerals.  A sobering thought indeed.  Lilian's brother was only 31 years old.

On a more positive note we had some Youth For Christ missionaries come and stay with us last month.  My friend Benjamin (short-termer from Germany) had met one of these YFC missionaries at a conference in Germany and was invited to visit them while he was down in Johannesburg on vacation.  They had mentioned that they would love to come up and see Botswana so he invited them to stay with us for a couple of days.  It was a packed house!  7 of them came from South Africa and there were already 3 of us living in the house so all together we had 10 people living in the same house.  It worked out pretty well in the end.  We gave the girls the living room to sleep in and the boys split up into the 3 bedrooms the house has.  We spent some time touring Gaborone and then took them up to our favourite lookout point, Kgale hill.  We had a great time getting to know each other.  There was a bit of a language gap however.  Most of the YFC folk were from Germany so their first language was German.  There were 2 people from Holland so they both spoke Dutch and there was one guy from the United States.  It was great to talk to a guy my age about some of the cultural experiences he’s gone through in South Africa.  I’ve wondered what its gonna be like coming home having experienced all I have and have nobody to talk to about it who would truly understand the experience.  Will people understand how I’ve changed?  Will I be able to cope with the change that has happened during my absence back home?  Tough questions to answer at this juncture. 

Anyhow, the very next week was only a 3 day work week so me and Benjamin decided to head down to Johannesburg, South Africa and visit the YFC team that came to visit us.  It was great to see more of Johannesburg.  All I had seen when I arrived there 8 months ago was the airport so it was cool to see some of downtown.  I found a cool African market downtown and was able to haggle the price down on a cool African drum that caught my eye.  I’m hoping to start playing it in our church services.  I think it will help bring a cool African feel to the music during the service. 

A really cool opportunity came to me during the second week in May.  Every Friday morning a local pastor leads a devotional in the waiting room of a medical clinic here in Gaborone.  Can you believe that?!  They would hang you on the 11 o’clock news if you tried that in Canada!  I thought that was the craziest place to do a devotional!  In a doctors office!  It shows you just how open people are to the gospel here though.  What a wonderful opportunity to speak to people about Christ.  The pastor approached me and wondered if I would come and give the devotional on Friday.  I accepted and the next thing I knew I was in a doctors office at 7AM to give a devotional.  Let me tell you, it was really cool.  The pastor translated for me and together we had a chance to speak Christ to these suffering people.  It was a very cool experience.

The next big thing happening in my life is…some time off!  That’s right the Flying Mission has allowed me and two other short-termers to take some time off to go to….Namibia!  For those who don’t know Namibia is the country just to the west of Botswana and borders the Atlantic Ocean on its west coast.  We plan to be gone for about 2 and a half weeks and hope to see a lot of the country in that time.  We are going to travel to northern Botswana first and step into Zimbabwe (the country to the east of Botswana) and visit the famous “Victoria Falls” we’ve heard so much about.  We are also planning to spend some time in an area called “Chobe” which claims to have one of the richest areas of wildlife in Africa.  One of our Flying Mission pilots have even agreed to take us up in one of our planes and do a “game flight” for us so we can see the animals from the air.  It should be an exciting time and I look forward to telling you about the adventures we’ll have.

Well, I hope this has been an adequate update for you all.  I appreciate the e-mails I’ve been receiving from individuals who have been trying to keep me updated on there own lives.  Keep them coming.  I love to here about whats going on back home.  I apologize that I’m not always able to reply to you each individually but I’m sure you all understand that.  Thank you again for your investment in taking time to pray for me and support me financially.  Its such a privilege to be out here, thank you so much for making it possible.  Till next month, take care and God bless.

Peace and prayers,

Graham Crawford <><