Hey everybody,

This is Ethan and I am finally in Jo Burg. The last week was awesome… as soon as we were off the plane in Botswana a member of each team was blindfolded, and that member for my team was me! We were then lead from the airport to begin the time of orientation, our luggage was taken from us to be prepared for situations of living out of a Go-Bag for weeks if need be. The training that we received was like super intense lecture period followed immediately by trips into the markets for application. This was the first time that I had ever hailed a public transport (called a kombi) and the trip was interesting, the fare to anywhere along the route was 3.5 pula (exchange rate of around 10/1) so that means that transport fare was 35 cents to get across the city.

We were instructed to go to the outdoor market and talk to people as well as to find certain items. One of these items was toilet paper and another was mpani worms. These worms are actually caterpillars that are harvested and then prepared either by frying them or boiling them as the main ingredient in a dish. The style that I took part in consuming were the fried type. After the mind over matter issue, they tasted similar to corn nuts or bugles and had a really great crunch. The people in the market watching this tasting demonstration went wild when I ate the first one and then started to open up and talk as I continued to eat them casually. Truth be told the idea of eating worms was odd, but after I broke through that first aversion it was much like eating snacks while watching sports.

We spent much of that time last week in training for the upcoming months and to get acclimated to this continent. Our whole group went to our separate countries where we’ll be at for the next several months. Part of that training was a short “homestay” we were taken to a village and dropped off with a local host and were told to lie and learn as much as possible during the next few days. While at the homestay I was challenged by the life that our host was living in this rural village. Kevin, was our hosts’ name, and he was devout and on fire to share The Message as well as being one of only 3 or 4 adult age men in that congregation. While staying with this young man I realized that even without having much in life, as long as you have that relationship with Him then your purpose has meaning and you can have joy in your life.

In the village we learned how to make pap (the “a” has an “ahh” sound), which is a main filler food for this part of Africa apparently. The area of Botswana is a desert, less so where we were but still a desert. So, that being said, bathing was with a bucket and a washcloth! Also in the village I had the opportunity to share a story out of Mark with an individual during a day of door to door “Sharing interactions”, in addition I was also given the opportunity to share the story during the Sunday morning worship time.

Once we left the village we went back to the city of Gaborone (pronounced haberonee) (“g’s have a ha sound.) The lecture style training recommenced. On the next to last day in country we were afforded the opportunity to climb a boulder mound that was shadowing over our hotel. There were Baboons living on this hill/mountain, and other wildlife. It took the group of us nearly an hour of hill climbing and rock scaling to reach the top of the rocks, at places the climb was vertical, and at the summit we were rewarded with a view of the whole city.   On the trek down the mound we stumbled across an animistic ritual site among the trees and rocks. The ground had been cleared as well as swept, geometric designs had been built out of piled rocks and there were remains of fires from the day before. In some animistic beliefs, there are spirits in the mountains that are worshipped. Our group stopped to pr@y over the place, and then we left.