Botswana Bulletin – Twenty Eighth Edition

Botswana Bulletin – Twenty Eighth Edition

“Grutzi! (Hello in Swiss German)”                                                  

October 23, 2007

Greetings one and all from sunny Gaborone, Botswana!  It’s hard to believe it’s been almost a year since I’ve said those words.  Some of you may be wondering how it feels to be back and I’ll tell yah, it’s been great.  I’ve already reconnected with most of the Flying Mission family and have most recently been able to reconnect with some of my Batswana friends.  It’s good to be speaking Setswana again.  Some of my friends were surprised that I remembered any of it.  I’d say thats a good start.  I’ve been amazed at how the Flying Mission family has grown in just one year.  It appears we have doubled in size with all the new people I’m meeting.  I remember us praying desperately for more hands while I was here so it’s good to see God answering prayer in that way.  Actually, I guess me coming back has been an answer to that prayer as well.

To back track a little, the last time I spoke with you was back at the beginning of September while I was still in Canada.  There were a few cool events during that month that I’d like to share with you before I get into my trip. 

I had the privilege of attending one last concert before heading to Africa.  For those who don’t know I’m an avid concert attendee and its one thing I’ll really miss doing while I’m in Africa.  The band I went to see was a Christian band called “Mutemath”.  Don’t ask me what it means I have no idea.  Anyhow, the concert was excellent and it was great being there with a few friends (shout-outs go to Andrew & Paul Hanson as well as Joy Dodd and her old roommate…Jennifer, right?).

I feel the need to share with you a real blessing I had during my time in Canada.  When I arrived back in Canada I felt a little “out of touch” as far as being a part of a group of friends who I could really share things with and learn from.  I of course mean this in a spiritual sense for those who may not understand what I’m saying.  As a Christian it is my desire to grow in my faith and I find that works well when you have supportive people around you to help you through different stages in life.  Ok, so where am I going with this?  Well, I was blessed to be a part of 2 small groups during my time in Canada.  Now, I wasn’t always able to be around every week because of travelling and such but the times when I was at the meetings it was great.  I really enjoyed being able to be around people who genuinely cared about me and who I could talk to about spiritual matters.  I also learned a lot from both groups and appreciated the leaders and there hard work in preparing each week.  So, shout-outs go to the “Creed” group of Fort Saskatchewan Alliance Church (Josh, Ash, Natalie, Kelsey, The Drury’s, Cassy, The Johnsons, Jarrick, The Stroud’s and anyone else I’m forgetting).  You guys rock man!

The other group I gotta give props to is The Freedom Centre young adults group led by the one and only Joy Dodd.  You guys embraced me as a brother and I will really miss you guys and the family treatment I got from the moment I stepped into that ferociously hot room.  So shout-outs go to Joy, Candace, Amanda, Eric, Justin, Derrick, Blayne, Kaila, John, Scott, Jennifer, Jessica, Angela, Kaylee and anyone else I’m forgetting.  Thanks for everything guys!

I was pretty busy the rest of the month helping out various family members.  My brother Gord recently moved into a new house in Edmonton so I was helping him get stuff moved and such.  My other brother (brother-in-law Dave that is) took a week off of work to start developing the basement in his soon-to-be-built house.  Dave and my sister Lori are building a new house about a 5 minute drive from where my parents live.  Sounds like good baby sitting strategy to me!  J  Anyway, so I was helping Dave and his crew frame the basement, run the electrical, and eventually put up some drywall.  It’s a shame I won’t be around to help them finish the work but I’ll be looking forward to staying over at their new house when I return to Canada.  Especially if there will be a king size bed in the guest room!  J

The first week of October was a whirlwind of visiting and saying good bye to close friends.  I’m certain a few people got missed but I did try my best to see everyone before I left.  If you felt left out, sorry!  I tried!  J  Anyway, one of the highlights of the week was my last service at Fort Saskatchewan Alliance Church.  Pastor Dan had me called up to the front of the church and I was commissioned as a missionary to go to Botswana.  My parents, my sister’s family, and the area representatives of SIM (Jim & Vegas Dargatz) were all in attendance.  As sad as it was to leave, it’s great to know that my family and my church are behind me and supporting me each step of the way.  Thank you Fort Saskatchewan Alliance Church for such a wonderful service and for taking the time to commission me to the work God has called me to in Botswana.

So, once all the good byes were said, it was off to the airport and back on the trail of adventure!  My first flight took me from Edmonton to Montreal.  I wish I would have had more time in Montreal.  It was my first trip to Quebec and it would have been nice to leave the airport and see some sites.  This wasn’t possible though as I only had 45 minutes before my next plane left for Frankfurt, Germany.  Actually, I was a little concerned when I arrived in Montreal because I wasn’t sure how quickly they would be able to get my bags moved from one plane to another.  I checked with the gate agents to see if my baggage got on the flight before I boarded but they said that they weren't able to confirm that.  Instead of worrying, I said a quick little prayer for my luggage and got on board.  I can’t think of anyone I’d rather have handling my luggage then God himself.

During my first flight I didn’t have anyone sitting beside me so there was no social entertainment during that flight.  However, during my second flight I had a nice woman sit beside me.  When I first sat down I wasn’t sure if I should try to speak with her or not.  After all, this was a flight to Germany and from Montreal to boot, so English is no longer a given.  When the flight attendant passed by the lady beside me spoke to her in French making me believe she was from Montreal.  However, when the flight attendant welcomed us on board over the speaker system in German I heard the woman beside me give a little snicker.  I asked her, “Did she make a mistake in her German?”  In slowly spoken broken English the woman explained to me the mistake she made in her grammar.  This got us to talking.  We spoke for a good hour but not much was really said because her English was quite poor.  I found out she was from Germany and on vacation in Canada.  She had learned French while in Germany so she decided to go to Quebec to live in a French community and develop her understanding of the language.

Wow.  This really made me think.  This whole "travelling the world" stuff has really made me feel like an ignorant person.  For almost all of my life the only language I’ve ever spoken is English.  I learned a bit of French in school and learned a few words in German from movies and video games but that’s about it.  Here is a girl from Germany sitting beside me who can speak in 3 different languages.  Travelling internationally has made me feel like a minority for only knowing one language.  So what am I saying?  If you are at all interested in travelling don’t start by surfing the net for sweet deals, start by learning another language.  If only I had taken more French in school I could have had a deeper conversation with this woman, perhaps even shared the gospel.  I’ve heard the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.  I believe the way to a foreigner’s heart is through their language.  This is why language learning is so important in missions.  Anyway, I’m getting sidetracked now.  I’m trusting you understood what I meant so lets carry on now. 

Upon arrival in Germany I had a few hours to kill at the Frankfurt airport.  I had never been in the Frankfurt airport so I wasn’t sure what it would be like to spend a few hours there.  Well, frankly, it was boring.  I was always able to find something to do in Heathrow but Frankfurt was just dull (sorry Germany!).  And I’m sorry, but what is the chair shortage in Germany all about?  Almost everybody was sitting on the floor or sitting on something that didn’t even resemble a chair.  And then when people did sit in chairs some security people came and told them to leave!  I didn’t understand.  Well, low and behold I finally found a chair.  Part of me is wondering if it was no accident that this seat was not taken.  As I looked to my right I realized I was sitting beside a man from Iraq.  Don’t ask me how I knew, he just had the look.  Shockingly, shortly after I sat down these words came out of the guys mouth, “Are you from Canada?”  I guess I had the look too.  Actually, I was carrying my Hockey Canada sweatshirt in my hand.  J  As it turned out this guy was on his way to, of all places, Calgary!  His English was excellent although his accent was still quite thick.  He introduced me to his mother and brother and we had a great little chat right there in the airport.  Most of the conversation was comparisons between Iraq and Canada.  They all love Canada very much and are applying to become citizens.  They all agreed that with at the moment Iraq is simply too dangerous and decided to leave.  Unfortunately, both of these brothers had to leave there wives behind in Iraq.  This was the purpose of their trip, to visit their wives back home.  I didn’t get the rest of their story because I had to board my plane but I would have loved to hear more from those two guys.  Good luck to you both in getting the rest of your family out of harms way.

So after my conversation with the Iraqi/Canadians it was on to Switzerland!  Once again I was alone on the plane, but the flight was short and by this time I was getting really tired.  I must have slept through the entire flight because I woke up just before we landed.  I’m telling you, for those of you who have never seen Switzerland you are really missing out.  What a beautiful country!  Green lush grass, rolling hills, tall mountains, and it’s so clean!  I really felt privileged to be there.  However, my hardest task of the journey still laid before me.  Oh, by the way, passport control in Switzerland was a joke.  I greeted the officer and handed him my passport.  He literally opened in for 2 seconds and immediately passed it back to me.  He didn’t even stamp it!  I found myself wanting to complain but quickly realized that one should never complain to a customs officer that just let him into his country.  So just like that I was in Switzerland.  Now, my friend Matthew had called me before I left to inform me that he wouldn’t be able to pick me up at the airport.  Sigh.  So I had the task of getting from Zurich to someplace called “Aarau” where Matthew would meet me.  He kept assuring me it was easy but after I received his detailed instructions which consisted of “walk until you see a yellow sign with the departure times, get a ticket, then get on the train to Aarau”, I knew I was gonna run into trouble.  However, being a “seasoned veteran” in international travel I walked confidently to the ticket booth to get a ticket to a town I couldn’t pronounce.  At least I didn’t realize I couldn’t pronounce it until I was asked where I wanted to go.  I gave it my best shot.  “I need a ticket to Ah-Ray-Oo.”  The woman looked at me in stunned silence.  “I need to get to Ah-Ray-Oo.”  She told me she doesn’t know where that is.  Ok, what now?  Maybe I should just spell it for her.  “I need to get to A-A-R-A-U?  And can I buy a consonant to go with all these vowels?”  Well, as luck would have it spelling the city brought a smile to her face and she pronounced it back to me correctly.  Now I was the one in stunned silence.  If I had to spell it phonetically it would sound something like AH-ROW, except um, totally make the “row” sound weird.  Does that make sense?  Anyway, somehow I had to find my way to a city I couldn’t pronounce.  This should be fun.  Well, the lady gave me my ticket and pointed me toward the tracks.  “What train do I get on?”  She wasn’t sure and directed me to the yellow sign for departure times.  Great.  I take one look at the yellow sign and realize I have no idea what it says.  So I decide to look at the map showing the train routes.  Ok, now to be fair I want everyone to know that I’m used to the LRT in Edmonton which runs on only one track.  I have taken the subway in Toronto and found my way and I’ve even been on the tube in London and found it easy to get from place to place.  The train system in Switzerland looked like it had been designed by Albert Einstein.  The fact that everything was in German didn’t help, departure schedule included.  I decided to abandon deciphering what the map was trying to tell me and tried asking the locals to see if they could help me.  I’m glad I learned the phrase “Spraken zi English” somewhere because it came in very handy.  After asking a few people and finding nobody who spoke English I finally came across a gentleman who spoke English.  To my horror the man ended up making no sense whatsoever.  He told me to take the next train to Zurich Station.  Uh, I am in Zurich?!  I had no idea what this meant.  However, trusting that the next train was in fact “my train” I decided to get on and see if someone on the train could tell me when to get off.  This is where the challenge became a little harder.  Up to this point I had all my luggage on an airport trolley.  Well, as luck would have it, the trolleys can’t go in the trains!  So I now had the privilege of carrying my two 50lb bags and my carry on everywhere I went.  Good times.  So, after dragging my luggage on board it was time to find someone who knew some English.  I spoke with a woman who explained to me that the stop I needed to get off on was Zurich HB (which I believe stands for hub).  It’s the main station in Zurich and is the place I need to find my next train.  So once we arrived in Zurich I found another gentleman who directed me to another train which he assured me went to Aarau.  Once on the train I spoke with another gentleman who quickly told me I was on the wrong train.  So I got off that train and found someone who directed me to another train….in all I think I got on and off 4 trains before finally arriving at Aarau station.  When I got off the train I was relieved to see that my friend Matthew was there to meet me.  I think I was like 2 hours late arriving so he was a little bit concerned but glad to see me nonetheless.  For those who don’t know, Matthew is the son of the Director of the Flying Mission.  We met in Botswana during my first year there and became friends through our mutual love of computers.  He was nice enough to host me during my stay in Switzerland.

After getting on yet more public transit (a bus) we finally arrived at Matthew’s house and I was able to drop the 100lbs of luggage I’d been carrying for the last couple of hours.  After settling in and meeting Matthews Aunt, Uncle, and cousins, it was time to eat!  Matthew wanted my first meal in Switzerland to be a traditional meal so I was served something called “Raclett”.  Raclett is simply melted cheese spread over potatoes.  Not too fancy sounding, but the fun part is the process of eating it.  The…”machine” they had to cook the raclett kinda looked like a waffle maker.  It was electrically heated and basically what you do is cut cheese into squares and stick them on these little trays and then put them in the little raclett oven.  On the top of the raclett oven is a hot plate used for frying vegetables you may want to add to your raclett.  It was a really fun process and kind of reminded me of a Fondue which is also a traditional meal done by the Swiss.  After the meal I was exhausted so it was straight to bed.

The next day after getting better instructions on how to use the train and buses I headed out to meet my friend Barry Fraser in a place called “Amrisvil”.  This time Matthew gave me very specific instructions and I was able to find the place with no problems.  After picking me up Barry took me to a place called St. Gallen where we attended a traditional festival called an “Olma”.  If I had to sum up what an Olma is, I’d say it’s a mix between a trade show, Klondike Days and the Calgary Stampede.  For those who don’t know what that is it was like being at a trade show, a carnival and a rodeo all at the same time.  It was a great day and I was glad Barry took the time to take me there.  I even had another taste of some of Switzerlands fabulous food.  I started off with a “Bretzel” which is just a big puffy pretzel covered in salt.  After that I tried “Marroni” which is simply roasted chestnuts.  And yes, it did remind me of the song, “Chestnuts roasting on an open fire…”.  I’d have to say the chestnuts didn't taste very good after my first bite but after eating a few more I got totally addicted to them.  The last thing I tried was something I could get in Canada but is just pronounced differently.  What some would call a “Donair” in Canada is called a “Dönor” in German but said “Dun-er” because of the 2 dots above the u.  The meat isn’t quite the same but a delicious meal nonetheless.  After the Olma it was back to Barry’s place where I met his wife Karin.  I had met here before while in Botswana so it was good to see her again. 

The next day we travelled to the Swiss Alps to take in the sites at a place called the “Santis”.  An absolutely beautiful site!  If you ever go to Switzerland I strongly suggest you see the Santis.  We rode a cable car to the top of the mountains and just soaked in the view.  At the top of the mountain was a nice restaurant where I enjoyed some more Swiss food.  This time it was “Bratwurst” (sausage) and Roshti (shredded potatoes, basically hashbrowns).  It was some of the best sausage I’ve ever had.  I was surprised at how lean the sausage was, very tasty!  After the Santis it was time for me to say good bye to Barry and Karin and head back to Aarau. 

Since everyone I knew in Switzerland was busy the next day I decided to head off and see the sites myself.  Luckily, Matthew’s aunt (Rosi) was nice enough to arrange a day pass for me.  This day pass allowed me to go on almost every bus, train or boat in Switzerland.  There are only a few of these given out each day and I was lucky enough to get one thanks to Rosi.  You rock Aunt Rosi!  So with ticket in hand I headed out to see the sights.  I first headed to Bern, then Thun, then on to Interlaken, to Brunig, Luzern, Olten, then back to Aarau.  It was getting dark by the time I got home but it was a beautiful trip and well worth the time. 

Then the inevitable came, it was time for me to head to Botswana!  As much as I loved Switzerland I knew it was not my true destination so off I went back to the Zurich airport.  I was glad Matthew’s cousin was available to drive me since I wasn’t looking forward to hauling my bags back on the train.  From Zurich it was on to London, then a long 11 hours flight to Johannesburg, South Africa, then finally I arrived at my destination, Gaborone, Botswana!  I was warmly welcomed by some of the Flying Mission family and it was great to finally be back. 

I’ve been back for less than a week so not much has happened yet.  I’m temporarily staying in a family’s house who are away in the United States.  I already have plans to move into a house in a few weeks so I should be getting settled soon.  Richard Wheatley, the IT Manager for the Flying Mission, will be moving out of his house before he goes on furlough making it an ideal place for me and my soon to arrive roommate Luke Safferak.  Luke is a fellow Canadian who lived with me briefly last year while we were both short-termers.  He is coming back to work full-time with Flying Mission so we will be sharing Richard’s 3 bedroom house making the price of living very reasonable. 

I also was able to get my cell phone working and…I bought a car!  Once it’s registered and ready to be driven I’ll see what I can do about getting some pictures up on the internet.  I’m planning to setup a blog for picture viewing so stay tuned for more info on that. 

Anyway, this is starting to get a bit lengthy so I think I’ll leave it at that.  I know all of you have been wondering whats going on with me so I thought I’d give you the low down.  Sorry, if it ended up becoming a dissertation.  Anyway, as usual I would like to leave you with a few prayer requests so here they are in random order:

1)     Settling in – I’ve gotten a few things done already during my first week but there will still be challenges in getting my house, car, immigration and whatnot settled.  Pray for a smooth transition as I get things settled.

2)     Cultural transition – I’ve had to remind myself what its like to be in Botswana (the importance of greetings, bad driving, weird food and water, etc).  Although Botswana is beginning to feel like home its been a while since I’ve been here.  Pray that I would adapt to the shift in culture.

3)     Work duties – Pray that I would be able to settle back into my duties at the Flying Mission.  My manager, Richard Wheatley, will be away for 3 months leaving me to run the IT department alone.  Pray that Richard and I would have time together to discuss things before he goes.

4)     Church duties – Pray that I would settle back into ministry in my local church “OBC G-West”.  I had the privilege of playing with the worship team this Sunday which was great.  A few commented on how they missed me playing my African drum.  Pray for me as I decide how and where to serve in the church.

Thank you everyone for your support and prayers during my time here in Botswana.  I would not be able to be here without you.  So, I hope you enjoyed this letter as much as I enjoyed writing it for you.  May God bless you as we continue to serve him together.

Peace and prayers,

Graham Crawford <><