WORLD RACE MONTH 6
Where:
Kumakwane, Botswana
When:
June 2nd – June 27th
Who:
The Thunderbirds (Abbie, Jackie, Jillian, Lindsey, Lauren, and Britney)
PLUS Anna Street!
Ministry:
This month we are working with an American couple named Jeff and April Sukup. They have been serving in Botswana for 7 years. Together they work throughout the village of Kumakwane spreading the gospel.
Hosts:
Jeff and April Sukup
Currency:
Pula (which means rain)
Language:
Setswana & English
Dress Code:
Why is it so dang cold in Africa?!? This isn’t the type of weather I was told Africa had growing up. So once again, I’m completely underdressed everyday. I wear same grey sweatpants and black jacket 24/7. During the day, we usually do a lot of manual labor so we all wear “work” clothes for a majority of the time. A couple times a week we do have to dress up for Scripture Union and church, but regardless of what we are wearing, 99% of the time it is covered up with our “warm” jackets.
Food:
This month our team has been half cooking for ourselves and half being fed by the Sukups. Both Jeff and April have backgrounds in the restaurant industry, so our food has been pretty darn delicious. This is the first time I’ve had to kinda of cook for myself on the race and it’s actually pretty great. Several people on the team are really good cooks (not me), so we’ve been eating like African queens. #NoMorePorridge
… P.S. April is an amazing baker!!!
Lodging:
Tenting! I finally get to use my tent that I’ve been lugging around for the past 5 months!
The Sukups are in the process of constructing several dorms for future teams to be hosted in. So currently the Thunderbirds all have their tents set up in one of the rooms in the “construction site”. Right now, the dorm is just a concrete slab with cement walls and no windows or doors #cozy. It’s freezing at night, but we have perfected the warm sleeping routine (sleeping with the least amount of clothes actually makes you a lot warmer).
Bathrooms:
Our bathroom is called the Ablution (even though I still have no clue what that means). It is a nice wooden and vinyl structure with two showers and two toilets. Most days the water works and you can get hot water when both showers are running. The water heater runs on propane so you need enough water pressure to kick it on, therefor shower buddies are a must.
Laundry:
Once a week, the Sukups graciously allow us to use their washing machine and then we hang dry out clothes out on the line.
Ministry:
• Manual Labor:
Prepping Cafe (the Sukups recently acquired an empty storefront in a local plaza with the dream of starting a Christian bookstore and cafe.)
– painting: we picked out colors and painted the inside of the cafe with an accent wall and everything #fancy.
– building patio furniture: one of our biggest projects was constructing patio furniture for the cafe out of old pallets. We had to hammer, saw, pry, screw, drill, sand, and paint relentlessly over and over. We all got at least 100 cuts and bruises, but the furniture turned out great, so it was totally worth it.
– building cabinets: for a couple of days some of us helped Jeff build the cabinets and counters for the cafe. It was really frustrating because everything had to be perfect and lined up correctly and that kind of stuff isn’t my strong suit…BUT we did it!
– pallet wall: while constructing the pallet furniture, we also had the task of deconstructing the “bad” pallets to use for the pallet wall. The Sukups wanted a cool wall decoration inside the cafe so we decided that this would be it. After we had about 50 pieces of wood sanded, stained, and painted we strategically laid out on the floor, we began nailing them to the wall.
• Agriculture
– picking green beans: everyday a couple of us traveled to the back of the Sukups property to the “tunnel” to pick green beans. I never knew green beans grew so quickly, but they do. It took 2 of us about an hour to pick about 3lbs of beans.
– pollinating corn: we also had to make sure the corn was growing healthy. So… Everyday 2-3 people would spray the corn silk with water and someone else would follow behind sprinkling pollen onto the silk. This had to be done everyday because since the corn was in a tunnel with mesh walls not much wind could get through. So the corn was unable to pollinate itself effectively.
– strawberry aquaponics: the Sukups had this amazing greenhouse type structure for the aquaponics garden (which is basically soilless farming). Our job was to prune and move over 200 strawberry plants so that they would be able to grow bigger. It was honestly a terrible job, but the strawberries were so stinkin delicious! #SaveTheStrawberries
• Scripture Union
Every week several of us led the local school’s Christian club, called scripture union. The club had about 15 members and included prayer, a study, songs, and games. It was so fun getting to hang out with teens and learn from each other.
• Church
Our team attended the Apostolic Faith Mission Church of Kumakwane. It was a tiny church in a tent, with a congregation size of about 15 people. While there, we were able to form some relationships with the adults and children. Our jobs included teaching Sunday school, singing, and sharing testimonies every week. It was a fun church and everyone was super welcoming and it was only about 2 hours long, unlike the 5 hour South African church…
Adventures:
– Gaborone mall (movies): several times we ventured out to the local mall to hit up mug&bean (equivalent to Starbucks) to use the wifi and see some movies!
– Hiking Kgale Mountain: one day, several of the t-birds climbed up a mountain behind a mall. It was kind of sketchy, but we had a lot of fun. After the hike, we somehow ended up in a quarry AND we saw baboons!
– Victoria Falls trip: best adventure day ever! We left really late on a Wednesday night, hopped on the overnight bus, drove 14 hours to Zimbabwe and arrived Thursday morning to our hostel. While in Zimbabwe, we bungee jumped Victoria Falls, got soaking wet in the mist, and went on a sunset safari cruise. It was an awesome trip full of spontaneous decisions and spending too much pula. Plus, we got another passport stamp! #12n11
Thank you sooo much for your continued prayers and support. It means the world to me.
If you want to reach out to me, please do! Even just to say hi! Facebook is the way to go and I’ll reply as the the wifi allows.
Love you all!
Cheers, Abigail Sheckells
