This past week I left my humble abode for the past two months and packed up my backpack and left Botswana. Leaving looked a lot different this time around, Botswana was the first country I spent longer than a month in, and the first country I worked closely with the community and village I lived in. Relationships were built and were oh so sweet, the people of Kumakwane(that’s the name of my village) made my heart smile, and will continue to do so. Anyway, this blog is a glimpse into what a common week looked like in Botswana, because everyday was a little different!
Monday:
DAY OFF!
Although Monday was our day off, lots had to be done! My team and I would still have to roll out of bed around 7:30 to eat breakfast and get ready in order to walk to the bus stop at 8. We would usually catch an over crowded bus around 8:30 to go into town. Once in town we would head to one of the local malls.(crazy, I know, I didn’t think I would go to the mall once a week.) At the mall we would snag free wifi where ever we could find it, only wifi opportunity we had all week! Update our families, post blogs, check on fundraising, what ever our heart desired. Then after using that for about an hour, it would be grocery shopping time! We would head over to one of the grocery stores in the mall buy our weekly bundle of groceries. (Let me tell you, buying groceries for 8 people on a $4 a day budget is interesting, but a lot easier than most would think.) After grocery shopping and stuffing as many groceries into our backpacks as possible(bags of apples, 5kgs of rice/pasta, frozen veggies, cans of sauce, jugs of milk, potatoes, etc…) We would hop back on public transport and head a half an hour back to our village, praying milk wouldn’t explode or go bad. (One time it did in fact explode over Noah’s backpack, poor guy.) Once we were home we would walk a mile home from the bus stop, usually in the blazing heat. Then we would arrive at home put away the groceries, eat a very late lunch(it’s 3pm by now), some may take a nap, some may shower, basically there’s just people everywhere. By 6pm we would have family dinner. And after people would hang out with each other around the house.
Tuesday:
DAY OFF x2!
This day off was truly a day off. We would spend time resting how we rest best. Napping, listening to podcasts, reading, watching a movie, hanging out with each other, whatever we wanted to do that day.
Wednesday:
7:00-8:00: Roll out of bed. Grab my bible and journal and head to the kitchen/common room. Every morning I would do what I like to call “eating breakfast with the Lord.” I would grab a bowl of cereal, granola and yogurt, fruit, eggs and toast, some days we were lucky and someone would make pancakes or French toast, whatever I was in the mood for and sit down and journal and read.
8:00: Ministry starts! Ministry was all over the place. Most mornings I would either work in the aquaponics green house, help April(one of my ministry hosts) bake for the cafe her and her husband Jeff ran(will explain later.) Make compost by picking up cow poop from a field. Help raise and feed 207 baby chickens. Whatever we were assigned that morning is what we would do!
12:00: Around 12 morning ministry would wrap up. And we would head back to our house to make lunch. We all would be running around our kitchen preparing lunch and helping each other. We all would mainly eat different things, grilled cheese, tuna salad, salad, sometimes ramen noodles…, whatever we had available and wanted! My favorite things to have for lunch was cucumbers with tuna salad, or salad with peppers, carrots, cucumbers, many veggies basically. Yum yum!
1:00: Lunch would wrap up. We would then spend about 2 hours resting. Ministry was slower in the afternoon. Most people left the village during the time we were there for the holiday. It left us a lot of time to spend with the Lord.
3:00: We would head out for afternoon outreach. We would walk around the village promoting our weekly events(will explain more later, once again.)
5:30: make our way to the cafe our ministry hosts run. It’s a cafe and christian book store. All titles are christian and they sell bibles as well. But also nightly we would host events! Wednesday night we held a worship service. Many different people had the opportunity to led worship, including myself! It was my first time singing in front of people since 5th grade, but it felt so good!
7:00: Head back home for dinner! And then we found ourselves hanging out laughing, anything until we wandered off to bed.
Thursday:
7:00: wake up and eat breakfast with the Lord once again!
8:00: gardening in aquaponics.
9:30: Preparations for our weekly children’s event/kids club at our house.
10:00-12:00: Weekly children’s event! My favorite thing about the week. We often times had 50 kids show up at our gate an hour early anxiously waiting to hang out with them. During this time we told different bible stories, colored, played games(their favorite was drip drip drip), had dance parties (shoutout to the church clap), and sometimes we even gave them a snack! It was a time filled of laughter and love.
12:00: Lunch time!
1:00-4:00: Time in prayer and solitude. Literally one of the most incredible parts of my week. It was time of silence and stillness, with just your self and the Lord. During this time I covered ministry and events in prayer, heard the Lord reveal so much to me about myself, listened to the Lord speak over other people in my life, worship, pray for friends and family, and much more.
4:00 and beyond: Night off, dinner, and team time!
Friday:
Friday’s look exactly Wednesday’s, except we hold bible study instead of worship at the cafe.
Saturday:
7:00: roll out of bed and eat breakfast with the Lord once again!!
8:00-10:30: relax, sometimes work out, shower, read, whatever my heart desires.
10:30: start walking to the cafe for my day off ministry there!
11:00-7:00: Working at the cafe! Cooking meals, making coffee, talking to costumers, selling books! Oh the joy!
7:00: head home for the night, other than myself and the other person I worked were excused from the event that night. Movie night! When I got home I would chillax relax! Eat dinner and have a jolly ole time!
Sunday:
8:00: I would roll out of bed, late start on Sundays. And get all dolled up for church. Makeup, hair, pretty clothes, all that jazz.
9:00 or 10:00: Head over to African church! Worship and prayer, and then a sermon. Every week different people from our team preach. Their wisdom, amazes me!
11:30: Church ended, and we walked home for lunch.
1:00-4:00: Another afternoon in prayer and solitude. So good.
The rest of the afternoon, was always restful and full of great times!
Botswana was filled with so many good times, laughter, growth, and intimacy with the Lord. Thankful for the opportunities I have, the Lord is doing some beautiful things, and I’m only half way through!
