Botswana, Oct. 2011

In the beginning of October I went on an outreach trip to the north-western corner of Botswana. To get there it is a long drive on the Trans Kalahari Highway to get there. The Kalahari Desert covers about 70 % of Botswana.










The road just goes on and on with few villages and even fewer town. You always know when you get close to some form of settlement, because all along the road there will be donkeys, goats and sometimes horses. This country seems to have more donkeys than people. BTW, Botswana is about the size of France or the State of Texas, but has only 2 million inhabitants.





In a lodge in Kang where we spent the first night.















One of the towns we drove through is Ghanzi, and it seems to be a happening place! Donkey Derby, yay! too bad we missed it!











I love baobab trees! We stopped for lunch under this one close to Sehitwe.












 One of the villages we visted is Kajaja with people from the Mbukushu tribe.










This is the local court where they still have public flogging
















The Adventures4Christ team had been here before to show the Jesus film, so we showed the follow-up film called 'Walking with Jesus'. According to a pastor we worked with Kajaja has maybe 1 % of born-again Christians.







Shaikarawe to me was a fascinating place. To get to it it's like driving in the sand on a beach. The people in this village are San (Bushmen), and they speak Afrikaans aside from their local dialect that has a lot of clicking sounds.
The San people have been relocated from the central kalahari where they used to live as hunter-gatherers.
On the right you see the only water tap in the village. The Batswana people don't like the San people, so sometimes they'll take away a part to the pump which leaves the village without water for weeks.



The kids are so cute (and dirty!) The ground there is deep sand, and a long time ago they had a fire in the area and the ashes mixed with the sand. My feet were so dirty after a few hours there. Plus they don't have much water., which makes for dirty looking kids.













I had a great time playing with the kids.













Aren't they adorable? They don't have anything, but they are a happy bunch.












Here is Sanette telling a story about a catarpillar that turned into a butterfly.

One of two teachers at a little nursery school. We spend the afternoon with the kids; singing, Bible stories, games and an art project.

We had brought for each one of the 50 kids a folder with stationary for them to use in school

To go along with the story we did a butterfly painting

At dusk we set up the equipment to show the film 'Walking with Jesus'. We played African Chrsitian video clips over the loudspeakers to let people know that something is happening. The sound carries far, and people come walking long distances to see the film.

Here we are at the Sepopa Nursery school. We were very impressed that this school was very neat and clean.
I'm telling the kids the story of Joseph with Annetjie illustrating it. Sophie was a big help with translating for us.

Monica (on the right) runs the school. She really loves the kids.

We had brought lots of Christian educational material sponsored by Activated Ministries, and they were so thankful for it. They said that in the remote areas they have primary, but the government doesn't do much for nursery schools, so there is not much material available. The STEPS Program is going to be a big blessing to them.

Here are Henk and Johan, who were part of our team, putting up mosquito screens on the veranda at the house of missionaries Leon and Annetjie in Sepopa. We had put up our tents in their yard. Oom Leon and Tannie Annetjie are amazing people, giving a lot to work here in this part of Botswana. They have been here for years, and I tell you, physically it's a tough life! And I am sure spiritually as well.

It looks like this donkey is smiling for the photo, but actually he started braying very loudly when I took out my camera.

Having a quiet moment under a shady tree. October in Botswana is called the suicide month because it gets so hot.

Some wonderful people in Pretoria gave me 3 big boxes full of stationary and toys to take for the children. Annetjie and I are sorting the toys to make sure there is enough for everyone.

These are the kids from the Sunday school in Sepopa. All the school aged kids got a folder with lots of goodies they can use for school, as well as coloring books, play dough and more for fun projects.

The little ones got some cute toys.

Writing a dedication into some inspirational books for Sophie.

Annetjie is working with kids and care givers in 5 villages. I was happy that we were able to leave her with a box full of great Christian books, CDs and DVDs to use in her ministry.

A little piece of Sepopa.
I'll be posting a few photos of a boat ride on the Okavango River and a visit to Kubu Island..

Zambia Trip, Part 4, Hot Springs

The distance from the river camp to Hot Springs is not that far, but it took us a good few hours to get out of the bush.


Our last stop for this trip was to be Hot Springs, a village that some of the team had vistited before. There were clusters of huts, long skinny palms and the hot spring. Beautiful, but almost surreal.









Adventure4Christ's mobile unit for showing the Jesus film with attached screen and built-in projector and speakers.














Here I am with a couple of kids who followed us around everywhere. So cute! I took close-ups of them individually and showed it to them, which they thought was hilarious.
The water comes out of the ground almost boiling, runs in a little stream and forms a few small ponds which get progressively cooler.






Bath time!!! It was fun watching the kids enjoying the nice, warm water. We camped right next to the pond......














.....but had to share it with other creatures.












Another breath-taking sunset! It was like God putting on a show for us every morning and every evening. The same sun, but a different painting every time.










Many people believe that everywhere in Africa it's always hot, but that is not true. In most parts of Southern Africa the winter nights are very cold. During our trip the temperature went down to 6 degrees C., and when you are camping that is cold!

I took this photo early in the morning. You can see the steam rising.







Old mokoros at the Itezhi-Tezhi dam













We spent the last night in Zambia at this beautiful spot at the Zambezi gorge at Overland Mission in Livingstone.












The Zambezi Gorge at Rapid 14. It was a bit of a misty morning, so the photo didn't come out very clear, but take my word for it - it is absolutely magnificent! This is also one of the spots where they do white water rafting.






From Livingstone we still had 2 days of traveling through Botswana. The drive is not very interesting, but we were rewarded with sights of elephants, giraffes, sable antilope and ground hornbill.
It's always hard to leave the bush and get back into civilization, but there is the anticipation and planning for the next trip.

Zambia Trip, part 3 - River Camp

After 2 days in Mumbwa and breaking camp early we had another long and bumpy ride to a little piece of paradise along the Kafue River. On the website of Kaingu Lodge, which we saw signs of a couple of hours before we got to our destination, it says, 'A Paradise Livingstone Never Found."

It was a long, tough ride with the wheel bearing on one vehicle giving out, and some cars getting stuck in a shallow river, but it sure was worth it. Such beauty!

The view of the sunset from my tent on the banks of the Kafue River.

Can it get any better than this?

This is where we set up camp for 2 days. About

1 km from this place was the river camp of a hunting concession.

They graciously let us use their ablutions, but that meant we had to walk through bush land with wild animals to get there. We never saw elephants or lions, but there were lots of tell-tale signs that they are around.

Here I am with Corrie, inspecting a piece of land along the river where there will be a missionary training camp. We had some local guys with us to protect us. You never know what's lurking in the bushes!

One of the guys showed us the spot where his grandfather was fishing in a canoe when a crocodile jumped out of the water and pulled him under.

Joey is making fried eggs and pap (a starch made from maize flour) for breakfast. I was helping for a while, but mainly so I could get my picture taken. Still learning about outdoor cooking! For this trip I kept it to washing dishes after the meal.

Until I heard the crocodile story I went to fetch water from the river for coffee, dishes etc. Yikes! Crocodiles can jump 3 meters out of the water, and here the water is quite deep, so you can't see them. There have been instances where people where grabbed from the river bank.

From then on I'd get the water from a little stream that flowed into the big river, just to be sure!

Pastor Daniel and his wife Florence came with us to the river camp for a little time away from their busy lives. They told me that they had been praying for someone who would be able to teach some people from their congregation to feed the kids spiritually. They were so thrilled when I gave them the STEPS program and some other faith-building materials for kids, and thanked me over and over.

Thank you to Activated Ministries in the US who sponsored the books.



Staff quarters at the river camp

These guys are pulling a hippo that had been shot early in the morning. When a hippo gets shot it will sink to the bottom, and after many hours the gases in the stomach will make it rise. It took 3 canoes and 6 guys to pull the hippo through the water, and then a Landcruise to pull it out of the water. This happened right next to our camp.

I was quite disgusted by the fact that this hippo was shot by German hunters, and that, other than the head which they will keep as a trophy, the meat will be hung in trees as bait to shoot ...leopards!

But I couldn't resist taking a photo of it. The next morning some of the staff came to cut it up, but I won't post any photos of that!

The next post will be of a place called Hot Springs.

Zambia Trip, July 2011 - Mumbwa, Zambia

Mumbwa is in the Central Province of Zambia. I was going to look up some info online about Mumbwa, but there is hardly anything other than that this used to be a copper and gold mining area, but most mines are closed now.
We put up our camp by a school near a township in a very dusty spot under a few trees. It was to be our home for 2 days; no water (the nearest pump was about 500m away), 2 long drops, and extremely windy. The wind blew the dirt into our tents; it got into everything, and after 2 days I was longing for a shower. But as soon as my thoughts turned to the people living here under these conditions all the time, I was quickly very thankful for all my blessings.

Here is part of our team dancing with the locals. Lots of fun! The Africans have such rhythm and passion, it's beautiful to watch.

One day went to visit people in their homes. Not many white people venture out into these areas, so most people pull up a little stool or crate for you to sit on. I really enjoyed meeting and talking with these wonderful people, hearing about their lives and struggles.

Somehow it is difficult to get them to smile. We had a great time talking and laughing together. I was shocked when I looked at the photos later to see their serious expressions.

Since we camped in a public place, our every move was watched. From the time we pulled into this place until we had said our good-byes we had some spectators around us.