On our first full day in Botswana, Liz Poston provides an inside perspective on what lies ahead for us.
“We crossed the border into Botswana last night, and while the terrain of this new country was not visible by daylight, the night sky was incredible! It looked as though God scattered billions of diamonds just above Botswana. We arrived at our lodging, and those from last year’s trip were not joking when they said it was nice…it’s amazing.”
“After a comfortable night’s rest (with the exception of crowing chickens and barking dogs), we awoke to see what exactly we had driven to. The land here is definitely different from that of Cape Town. Since Botswana is mostly desert, we can finally dry our hair and clothes in about an hour flat. There are goats and chickens wandering about the sides of the road and hardly any green grass to be found.”
“We started out the day by visiting a couple of the places that we will be volunteering at over the next week. The first stop was the Kamogelo Orphans, a day-care program for children ages 2-6 which is run by a dear nun named Sister Margaret. She showed us around the four different classrooms where we interacted with the children. The children speak only a tiny bit of English; their primary language is Setswana, which is the native language of the majority tribe here in Botswana. Next we visited S.O.S. Children’s Project where they showed us around. Here we will be getting our hands dirty clearing plots of land and helping to plant vegetable gardens. We also saw the playground that Belmont Students cleaned up and repaired last year. That was really exciting to see the finished work that these students had done. We are all excited to get to work tomorrow and explore more of Botswana!”
Liz is correct in saying that all of us are excited to continue serving and learning in Botswana. We will also see the third organization, Holy Cross Hospice, which we will work with as well starting tomorrow.
Stay tuned until next time.
Bernard Turner