Yes, another country another blog about the logistics of what I am doing on the World Race. It’s been a while writing blogs and firstly, I would like to apologize for that…..AGAIN. The Race is a time when I get so wrapped with work during the week all I want to do on the weekends is relax, sleep, have fun, sleep, eat, and sleep some more! Also….WELCOME TO AFRICA, where everything goes on African time, including the Wifi access (aka slow and surely).
I am currently in Eswatini (aka Swaziland) – and have been here for about a week now, BUT I will write about all of that sometime soon. For now, I’m switching in reverse and talking about BOTSWANA, my first country in Africa. A place where I spent a total of five weeks – longest time in one place!
Country Overview:
Location – Mochudi, Botswana
Language – Tswana/ English
Currency –Pula ($1 USD = around 10 Pula)
Ministry Name – Youth for Christ International
Team Name –Team Spice Girls- for the fourth country!)
(Teammates: Codi Moore, Missy Leuthold, Katrina Chaney, Emalea Macinnes, Alyssa
Boss, and Vanessa Donnamaria)
Our Home: The village of Mochudi is our home for this month. When I saw village, you are probably thinking of a very small village in the middle of nowhere….Welp, you’re wrong like I was too when I heard I was going to the village of Mochudi. Mochudi is a village that houses over 10,000 people. So I suppose if Mochudi is a village than Denver, Iowa where I grew up with a population of around 2,000 people is a spec of a village. Here, I am living with my team (The Spicy Girls) and another team of 6 girls for the month. That means there were 13 girls all living under one roof. We were housed in Youth for Christ’s guest house which consisted of four bedrooms, two bathrooms, a living room, and a full kitchen (with an oven!). We created our own meals and so was able to spend time cooking and baking for the teams. The guest house (of which I called ‘the compound’) was beautiful and had a large yard surrounding the house. Here I was able to hang my hammock between two African trees and read while watching the sunset. The best part about Botswana is the weather change from every country I’ve been to prior. It’s cold in the morning and stays cool during the days. The first morning in Mochudi you would have found all 13 girls shivering in sweatshirts, sweatpants, and cuddling under blankets because of the climate change between continents. Mochudi is filled with hospitable people who are certainly willing to help and love having conversations with foreigners. Mochudi is located about 30-45 minutes away from the capital city of Gaborone.
Our Mission: This month we are working at Youth for Christ International. This organization is worldwide and works to present the Gospel to children around the globe. Through this organization, clubs at schools are formed, assemblies in schools are performed, health and guidance classes are given, a day care for at risk children and orphans existed, and after school programs exist. Youth for Christ also pairs with other ministries in the surrounding areas to offer tutoring to at-risk students, participate in prayer ministry, hospital ministry, and many other activities. During our time in Botswana, we served primarily in Mochudi and Gaborone, while also traveling to some surrounding villages to serve in schools and after school programs. The two teams that were serving hand in hand with Youth for Christ were given to work in every aspect listed above. During my time in Botswana, I primarily served at the daycare in Mochudi and participated in the prayer clubs at school and hospital ministry in Gaborone. The daycare was my favorite because I could play with the kids all day every day. The children were between the ages of 3-6 years old and wanted as much love as you could give them. I mustered up a lot to give them which was amazing. One particular boy, Airol, grabbed my heart and will always have a piece of it. Him and I became great buddies and I helped him adjust to preschool by teaching him how to go down the slide, swing on the swings, push tires like the big boys, eat with a spoon, and become potty-trained (didn’t completely accomplish this, but progress!). Our teams also were given the opportunity to buy and distribute teddy bears to the children in the children’s ward at the hospital in Gaborone. This was an amazing experience because we were able to see great smiles amongst sad circumstances.
How am I?
In the past “When In…” blogs, I have exposed you to different check-in activities that we do at the end of the day with our team. I’ve shown High Low Buffalo, Rose Bud Thorn, as well as ESP with you. Because we have gone through all the major check-ins, I will continue with this theme and simply choose the one that best suits the country I am in. This month I will be doing ESP. The activity ESP stands for: Emotional, Spiritual, and Physical therefore you would describe how you are feeling those three different ways that day.
– Emotionally — Emotionally, Botswana was a tough month for me. I felt a lot of stress being in leadership during my time there. As you could see above from my mission overview, there were many opportunities to serve this month (which was great!), however, someone must decide where everyone is going and creating a schedule for the ministry hosts. That person was Kathryn (the other team leader) and me. This led to a lot of stress during the month that was unnecessary but also present regardless. During this month, however, I also was working on self-control and taking a step back when needed to provide self-care and time to refresh and recharge. So, while the month was stressful in a sense; it was also very restful when it came to taking care of myself. What a paradox to try and explain!
– Spiritually — Spiritually, all is well. Actually, more than simply well, but good. Since leaving South East Asia, somewhere where I thrived and felt most comfortable in the race so far, and arriving in Africa, where I feel uncomfortable and realizing how different the culture is, the Lord has been teaching me so much about myself and who I want to become in the future. I have listened to quite a few podcasts about emotions (You’re Not the Boss of Me Series by Buckhead Church: Andy Stanley), and have dug deeper and deeper into The Word. I have finally (after a couple months’ break) gone back to the Old Testament and have been finishing 2 Samuel and digging into 1Kings. It has been fun to create a diagram that shows each King, of either Judah or Israel, how long they reigned, and if they pleased God or not. I have been able to feel close to the Lord. He is teaching me about patience, boldness, being quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger. I am excited to see how these lessons continue throughout my time in southern Africa.
– Physically– Physically, I’m okay. When I look at pictures from 7 months ago when I started the race and compare them to now, I know I have gained weight. Or at least lost allllll of my collegiate soccer player muscle and gained back that weight in fat. This makes me discouraged because I set a goal that this wouldn’t happen on the Race, but this is life. I am not working out 2 hours a day anymore. I don’t have access to the fruits and veggies like I did at home, I don’t have access to a treadmill and a safe place to run like I did at home. So, physically I’m okay. I’m determined to return home and kick my body back into shape like it was before the Race. Other than my own insecurities about my body changing, all is good. Since the weather is so much colder here than South East Asia, the mosquitos are not out and all is good for Elisabeth. I feel healthy.
I hope this helps give you an image of some of the things that my team and I are doing here in crazy Botswana. As always, feel free to reach out to me via email ([email protected] or [email protected]) if you have any questions or just want to chat.
-e
