Botswana Bulletin – Twenty Ninth Edition

Botswana Bulletin – Twenty Ninth Edition

“The Christmas Car Epic”                                                    

December 26, 2007

Greetings one and all from a very hot and sunny Gaborone, Botswana!  A belated Merry Christmas to you all as well.  I should start first by apologizing for my delayed response.  I am typically quite good and sending out monthly updates but as most of you know life hasn’t exactly been “typical” these last 2 months.  Most of you have been e-mailing me wondering what the deal is with the car so I’ll start off by telling you about that.

I’ll give a brief review of the events thus far for those who may have forgotten.  I had just bought a car and went to get it insured.  In order to insure the car the insurance company requested that I take the car to an assessment agency to assess the value of the vehicle.  On my way to the assessment agency I was in a head on collision with an oncoming vehicle.  At this point I had no insurance on my car and the police blamed me for the accident.  I was in jeopardy of losing all the money I had spent on my car and possibly having to pay for the repairs on the other vehicle in the accident.  In other words….AHHHHH!

Last time I spoke with you I was explaining that I was hoping to get a quote from a trusted mechanic for the price of fixing my car.  Shortly after sending out my prayer letter a quote was sent to me.  P46,000! (about $7700 Canadian Dollars).  The total price I paid for the car….P26,000 (about $4400 Canadian Dollars).  Basically this quote was telling me it wasn’t worth fixing the car.  I got another 2 quotes from other recommended mechanics and they all said about the same thing.  One mechanic didn’t even give me a total he just said it wasn’t worth fixing.  If you wanted to know what the worst case scenario could have been in this situation, this was it.  Time for Plan B.

You may remember that I had also talked to the insurance company that was going to insure me about possibly covering the cost of the accident.  When I called the insurance company they said that once I got the police report from the accident I should go and talk to them and they would see what they could do.  I had also found out that 2 of the employees of the insurance company were Christians.  Hopefully this would mean they would sympathize with a poor missionary in a tough situation.

One week after the accident I went to the police station to pick up the accident report.  I immediately went to Aon (that’s the name of the insurance company) to see if there was anything they could do.  Now, frankly I felt that this was a pretty futile thing to do.  Lets face it, I had not signed any documents which would make this company liable for any damages.  I had not paid one cent to the insurance company showing intent to insure.  The only thing I had against this company, if anything was that the only reason I was driving the vehicle without insurance is because they told me too.  They requested I take the car to be assessed so that’s what I did.  I think we can see that in a court of law my request for coverage would be easily shot down.  However, morally, we could say that covering me would be the right thing to do, right?  I obviously was intending to buy insurance with them.  Otherwise I wouldn’t have taken the car to be assessed.  Morally, covering me would be the right thing to do.  So, with nothing but that I walked into Aon Insurance and pleaded my case. 

Shockingly, Aon agreed.  The man I spoke to said there shouldn’t be a problem covering me and he requested that I fill out the proper paperwork, pay my yearly premium of P2300 (about $400 Canadian Dollars) and fill out a claim.  Are you kidding me?  This is an insurance company isn’t it?!  How many people reading this letter right now could tell me a story about an insurance company that sympathized with you after an accident?  I have heard nothing but horror stories when it comes to claiming insurance.  Here I am, I haven’t paid one penny of insurance and the company is willing to cover me?  One word people:  UNBELIEVABLE! 

I’ll admit though that even after paying my premium and filling out the claim form there was still doubt in my heart.  Would the company really cover me?  Would they cover the full amount?  It seemed too good to be true.  And you know what they say about something that is too good to be true, it probably is.  So with doubt in my heart I patiently waited, and waited, and waited.  I called 2 or 3 times a week to see if there was any progress on the claim….nothing!  I was now beginning to wonder if my claim was ever going to be processed.  And then it happened. 

A call came from Aon Insurance for me and I was told the cheque was ready.  After paying a small deductible and some admin fees I was handed a cheque for P23,500 (about $4000 Canadian Dollars).  This meant I had lost about $300 dollars off the original price of the car but hey, I wasn’t complaining! 

So, thank you to all who prayed for this situation.  You may remember that I had asked to pray specifically that God would be glorified in and through this event.  I think that prayer has been answered.  When I tell people this story, whether they are Christian or not their answers have always been that only God could have arranged such an outcome.  It reminds me of the verse 2 Corinthians 12:10:

“That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties.  For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

I take zero credit for this incredible turn of fortune.  To God be the glory!  Great things he has done!

However, this situation is not quite complete yet.  I still need to find a car to replace the one that was written off.  So, please pray that a suitable car would be found for me to use.

So, with that aside it’s time to review a little of what has happened over the past 2 months.  In early November my boss, Richard Wheatley departed for the UK for 3 or so months of furlough.  He should be returning in February.  So, this has left me the lone wolf of the IT department.  For the most part things have been fine but it does result in a lot of work for one person.  Please pray that I would be able to keep things running and that I would have time to help all those in the mission requiring help with their computers.  Also, please pray for Richard as he has been suffering through health issues and has even spent some time in the hospital since arriving back in the UK.  Pray for complete healing that he may be able to return to Africa at full strength.

When Richard returns from furlough the plan is for him to move to Zambia to help setup and develop an IT infrastructure up there for Flying Mission Zambia.  With this new development, Richard no longer needed his house in Botswana.  So, when Richard left for furlough I moved into his house.  A few weeks later, a fellow Canadian and Flying Mission co-worker, Luke Saffarek, arrived and moved in with me.  We are both enjoying having our own place to live as we have both been short-termers in the past and had to cope with moving around a lot.  Pray that Luke and I would settle in well in our new neighbourhood and that we would be able to form relationships with our neighbours.  We have already begun building relationships with some of the children playing in our neighbourhood and we have become friends with our neighbours across the street.  Pray that these relationships would continue to grow and that we might have the opportunity to shine the light of Jesus into our neighbourhood.

I celebrated my 3^rd birthday in Botswana on the 15^th of November.  Friends of mine from Switzerland were here in Botswana at the time which turned out to be a great Christmas present.  Thanks for the lovely night out Barry and Karin.  Danka shun!

One thing people are always saying to me is how much they love my stories.  So, with that in mind, I have a few funny stories that happened during the month I’d like to share with you. 

One of the things you have to deal with as a missionary no matter where you choose to go is immigration.  For some this can be a painless procedure, for others a complete nightmare.  My experience at immigration has been nothing short of amazing.  For the most part I have had very few problems.  However, I’d like to tell you a story regarding my last trip which will hopefully give you some insight into how confusing and potentially frustrating a process it can become. 

Upon arriving in the country I began working on getting my resident permit renewed.  You are only allowed a certain amount of days in the country and then if you need to stay longer you have to apply for a residence permit.  In order to do this as a missionary you first need to get a work exemption certificate.  Since I am working as a volunteer I need this permit which states that I will not be working for money in the country.  After this you can then renew your residence permit.  During the process of getting my work exemption certificate I was asked to come to the immigration office because they wanted to ask me “a few questions”.  Hmmm, I wonder what they want to ask me?  To find out me and one of our local staff members Lilian Moyo headed to immigration to be questioned.  Lilian Moyo often helps our missionaries with getting through the “red tape” of immigration.  She grew up in Botswana so her knowledge of the local language of Setswana is invaluable.  Her calm but authoritative voice is invaluable during times like these.  So, encouraged by Lilian’s presence we walked into the immigration office.  A large Motswana woman greeted us and after we had properly greeted each other she began to flip through some of my files.  A serious look came upon her face and she asked me the question, “When did you first come to Botswana?”  “September 2004”, I replied.  She flipped through a few more pages so I decided maybe it was time to turn on the charm.  Behind her there was a picture on the wall of a small boy peeing into a large toilet.  The toilet was much taller than him but he was somehow managing to keep his stream in the bowl.  I can’t remember exactly what it said on the picture but it was something like, “In order to reach the top, set your goals high.”  I asked the woman if she was following the advice of this picture.  This immediately broke this woman’s serious demeanour.  We spoke briefly about the picture and shared a few laughs together and then the miracle happened.  “Ok, you can pick up your certificate tomorrow”.  Only one word could describe that:  WOW.  I drove all the way down to immigration and waited in line for 30 minutes for 1 question?  This may seem absurd to some but I think she just wanted to meet me and see what type of person I was.  Who knows.  All I know is that I may have just gotten over a major immigration hump by talking about a picture of a boy peeing.

I believe I’ve explained to you all the dangers of driving in Botswana in the past.  I see terrible driving on the road each and every day.  Accidents here are commonplace.  However, as dangerous as the roads are here in Botswana, I love being on them.  There is always something cool to see on the roads here.  I was driving down one of the major roads here in Gaborone called “the western bypass”.  It’s about as close as you’ll get to a freeway here in Gaborone.  The speed limit on the bypass is 80km/h but it’s not unusual to have someone blow by you doing 140km/h.  Well, one day I was driving down the bypass and one such driver blew past me like I was standing still.  The part I thought was funny was the sticker he had on the back of his car.  Appropriately written across the back of his car window was the word “AAAAHHHHHH!”   I’m sure if I was in the car with him that’s what I would have been saying!

Some of the communication you see on the roads can be equally amusing.  For instance I was driving home from work one day when a man drove up beside me and began waving at me.  I simply waved back and tried to ignore him.  When this didn’t appease him he sped up, got in front of me and began to negotiate me into the ditch.  Not exactly sure what the intentions were of this madman I pulled over and got out of the car.  “What are you doing?!” I asked plainly.  His response was, “I want your car”.  Now, had I been new to the country this response may have made me a bit nervous considering the way he negotiated me into the ditch.   However after having spent 2 years in Botswana I realized that this was not a serious demand for the car but a beginning into negotiations on a price.  The man had seen the car, followed me, and was now asking if I would sell it to him.  Since the car was not mine (it was owned by the mission) I explained to him that I couldn’t sell it to him.  Then he wanted the cell number of the owner.  Not wanting to give out cell numbers to complete strangers I eventually go the point across that the car was not for sale.  So I guess the lesson is when someone waves at you and runs you off the road in Botswana it’s simply because he is interested in buying your car (hopefully).

So, with that I think I will bid you all farewell.  Before I do there is one last piece of business which is as always, the prayer requests.  I will list them down here for you in no particular order:

1)     Car – praise God that the insurance company has covered the cost of replacing my car.  Pray that a suitable replacement may be found.  Also pray that the insurance company from the other driver will not come after me for money.

2)     Work – Pray that while Richard is on furlough that I would be able to “hold the fort”.  Pray also for Richard as he recovers from his health problems.

3)     House – praise God that I was able to find a suitable house to rent.  Pray for me and Luke as we develop relationships with people in the neighbourhood.

Thank you for being patient with me during these last 2 busy months.  I’ll try to be more punctual in the delivery of my prayer letters in the future.  Thanks again for the prayer and financial support each of you give so generously.  I feel so blessed to have such a great support team behind me.  It encourages me through the good and the no-so-good times.  So, Merry Christmas to you all and a very Happy New Year!

Peace and prayers,

Graham Crawford <><