October 31, 2009

As you can see by the date posted for this blog, we have been working on this posting for a couple of weeks. We are not even going to try to explain all that we have been doing, but we will try to cover some of the highlights of the last month.

October began with a little neighborhood excitement for Colin when the children from next door came to him for help with a snake in their house. The parents were away, and the children had no phone to call them with. He gave their folks a call, and when they got home Colin and the Dad moved the refrigerator to uncover a poisonous Puff Adder. Colin had a heavy walking stick with him and killed it. Just a few days ago, Colin encountered another Puff Adder at the airport. It was on the airport ramp right where passengers come out to board the planes. Fortunately it was early, 6am, so the tourist missed this African adventure.

3.5 foot Puff Adder under the fridge.

Small 2.0 foot Puff Adder on the airport ramp.

Being away from our family and friends has been hard at times, especially now that we are using a less expensive internet service. Communication has been difficult and we particularly miss using skype to talk with our two sons. Zachary turned 27 years old this October and it was hard to even get a phone call to him. A little over a week later, we were able to share in a friend's 27th birthday with a small group of friends from church. It was not the same as being with our own son, but it was nice to feel we have a group of friends here in which close friendships have developed. It does help to fill some of the gap distance creates when missing loved ones back home.


The day after Tendai's birthday we drove to Gaborone for meetings and Julie had to get dental work done. The national elections had just been completed and all through the country people were celebrating the victories of their party affiliation. On the streets throughout Gaborone, cars full of people were wearing their party colors as they let their joy be known.

Are you old enough to remember when we could ride in the back of a pick-up in America?

The drive down to the nation's capital was interesting. We always enjoy the scenery and experiencing the unusual business and road side signs along the way.


On our way back, we decided to spend a couple hours driving through the Khama Rhino Sanctuary north of Gaborone. As always, the wildlife and birds were plentiful.

Mother and baby White Rhino resting in the shade.

Another mother and baby pair, along with Lappet Faced Vultures.

Springbok

An immature Martial Eagle

Crested Francolin

Crimson Breasted Shrike

White Browed Sparrow Weaver

Julie is getting very close to the end of the school year. Her students have made wonderful academic and social gains each term. They recently worked very hard on a small group cooperative learning project on the national parks and reserves in Botswana. They all felt exceptionally good about their accomplishments when the project was completed. The project display boards are up on the wall behind them is the picture to follow.

Julie is feeling that at the end of the term she should be more involved in direct care ministries in the community, so she has put in her resignation. We are trusting the Lord to provide for the missing income and will be tightening our budget belt so that she can follow this ministry direction. She will continue the Bible club at school, and hopes to do other children's ministry in a few other places.

Our local church continues to be a blessing, and we really enjoy the fellowship and diversity there. In the picture below, the Sunday school children are sharing a song with the congregation before going to their class.

A little girl born of parents from India with Julie at church.

Every week, there seems to be some special gathering to attend with people we have met through church. Julie was able to attend another baby shower and fellowship with the ladies that gathered for the celebration. This has been a month of babies to celebrate.


Our missionary friends living north of XaiXai were surprised by the birth of their son 6 weeks early on the 30th of October. They happened to be in another village for a mission gathering, so fortunately they had cell phone access. Julie received a call at 7 am that morning to see if Colin could fly up to get Ilse, who was in labor. Unfortunately, Colin was in Gaborone. Dries called there and Colin with a medic scrambled to get airborne. At 8:30, Colin was on the taxi way preparing to take off when the message came through that the baby was born at a remote and rugged hospital in Gamare. Our friends barely made it there by car, driving well over the speed limit. They decided to wait a day before moving the baby to a better hospital, but a torrential rain storm moved in that night and complicated things even more. Finally, early evening on the 31st, Ilse and the baby were airlifted to Gaborone where their new son (Cordre pictured below) is still in the hospital. Dries and the couple's three year old daughter spent a few days with us in Maun regrouping before going back to the bush to secure their home before rejoining Ilse and Cordre. Dries came back through Maun a few days later and the family is now together in Gaborone. Please keep this dear young family in your prayers and that little Cordre can grow strong quickly so that he can be released from the hospital.


Shortly after the cancelled mercy flight to help Dries and Ilse, Colin was still in Gaborone when a call came in to do a mercy flight from Maun to Francistown. He and the same medic took off to transfer a critically ill woman to the better equipped hospital in Francistown. Colin was not able to return home that day and ended up overnight in Francistown.

Medic Colin with the patient in the C207 headed for the hospital in Francistown.

Tail of the C207 and the FMS ambulance in Francistown, Botswana.

The following weekend while Misheck was over doing the gardening, when Debra called him to let him know her water had broken and their baby was on the way. Colin was flying, so Julie and Misheck jumped in the car to go get Debra and take her to the Maun hospital. The picture below is of the couple entering the maternity ward.

Their baby boy was born that night and was so big (over 9lbs.) that an operation was needed to deliver him. The picture to follow is of Debra and Briane the next day.


Misheck's sister-in-law and Julie were allowed to see Debra and the baby in her hospital room, but because she was sharing the room with five other mothers the men could not come in.

Misheck and his brother were allowed to hold baby Briane in the lobby of the ward. As you can see, Misheck is a very happy and proud father. Colin was able to help the couple take Braine home from the hospital four day later. When leaving the hospital Misheck carried the baby while walking beside Debra. Colin carried all the bags and blankets a few steps behind which enlisted many stares. Colin just smiled proudly saying, "I am the grandfather!"

Unfortunately, the work permit papers for Misheck will not be approved so we are still praying for a way he can get the proper documentation so that he can bring his other two children still in Zimbabwe here. He so wants his family to be together. Please keep his situation in prayer also. Both Debra and Misheck have to live here knowing that any day they could be picked up and deported without the proper paperwork. Just when you think Zimbabwe couldn't get any worse, the meltdown continues. There is a real possibility of open warfare which would mean a horrendous genocide by the insane President Magabe. Please pray for the long suffering people and recovery of Zimbabwe.

Most recently, Colin offered the services of FMS to support one of the other local mission groups. They were motivating young people to raise money for an old man that had been living in a tent for the last ten years in Maun. The two young people pictured below raised the most funds to by bricks to build the man a house. They were given a two hour flight see trip for their efforts.


Colin continues to fly consistently and the airport is still humming with tourists coming and going from the Okavango Delta. One day while getting the plane ready for a flight, he heard a grinding crunch sound. Just before stopping on the ramp the retractable nose wheel collapsed on this C210 seen below.


When hand painting the stripe on the taxi way at the airport (below) it helps to have a deft touch with a paint brush and good hearing. With the dry air and 100 degree temps the paint would dry as fast as it was put down, all the painters had to do was jump out of the way occasionally. Does your back hurt looking at this picture? Ours does.


As a continuation of last months blog showing the identifying tail numbers of the planes here, we decided to included a few more.








And of course we can not forget SAN, the C210 that is the second plane Colin flies for FMS. Pictured below, Colin is in the shade of SAN as he waits for the next flight.

Our rental house is feeling more and more like a real home these days. We seem to be gathering more keep sakes from our time here. Colin is pictured with his "road kills" below. (Actually, friends gave us some unwanted horns and Colin had them put on plaques.)

We are still not sure what our future holds, but one thing we can say is: "By day the Lord directs His love, at night His song is with us..." Psalm 42:8

September 30, 2009

Clouds, rain (pula), and cooler weather have temporarily arrived here at the end of September. Before that, the days were hot and dry with ground temperatures up to 107 degrees Fahrenheit. Last year we did not see rain until the first week of November, with October being extremely hot. This cooler weather will probably be short lived, but enjoyed while it lasts. The picture above was taken on the road coming from the school Julie teaches at. When it has been hot and dry, gathering rain clouds are a welcomed sight.

This blog posting should be a bit shorter as we have been far too busy to do any major outings. Also, most of our days have been filled with work related activities. The second week of September, Julie started back to school for the last term of the 2009 school year. The school year starts in January and is structured with three terms of three months with a month break between each term. The students all seemed happy to be back and felt one month was plenty of time off.

During the first week Julie was back to school, FMS got a charter to do scenic flights for 45 students (ages 6 to 12) and 5 teachers from a school in Francistown. It was a big field trip for them, and they wanted to see the Okavango Delta from the air. Colin was scheduled for an overnight at Jack's Camp with the C210, so Keith was left to fly the group in the C207. It took ten flights of about 15 minutes each to take all of them on a scenic to fit the budget of the school. With Colin away from Maun, Julie took the morning off from school to help Patricia and Robert with ground support. The group filled the waiting area of the terminal and Julie brought books, paper, and colored pencils to help keep the students entertained as they waited. The teachers and students were all very happy with the experience as you can tell by the smiling faces pictured below.
Colin has continued to be busy flying, as the flight schedule remains consistently full. One day while on a holding pattern he was circling over our house and snapped the picture below. Our house has the large white roof almost in the middle of the picture. Next to it with a smaller white roof is the flat rental. Then our neighbor has the brown roof and the open lot right on the river. If you click on the picture, it should enlarge to get a closer look at the snapshot below.

He also sees wildlife daily while flying across the open bush country such as these zebra and an elephant at a water hole.

Before the recent rain, there were a lot of bush fires that created a layer of light ash on the C210. Pictured below, Colin and Robert did a one step auto wash and wax on the plane to get the ash off. After a hand wax by Colin, the airplane was five miles an hour faster.

For those of you reading this that are part of the aviation community, it is always interesting to hang around the airport and see the variety of planes coming in and out of Maun. The DC3 pictured below is part of a classic safari outfit coming through Botswana from South Africa.In addition, the airplanes registered in Botswana have an A-2 country designation just as the US has an N registration, but here in Botswana there are letters instead of numbers for the plane identification.
In Africa the letter "Z" is pronounced as the word "zed" as in most English influenced countries, which makes sense of the above registration (A t0 Z). Below are some more creative registrations.

Note that the above aircraft "PIG" is a diesel engine aircraft and appropriately registered. Also note that the A2-TEN is a Cessna 210.


And of course no matter where you are in Africa, there are always incredible sun sets.


The last week end of September, we were invited to a birthday braii (B-B-Q) with friends from church. They live about 30 kilometers from Maun on the Boteti River. It was a lovely evening, with great food and fellowship. Julie was even able to take a sunset boat ride with some of our wonderful friends here.




All through term 2 at school, the primary (elementary) students were learning songs and speaking parts for a special concert presentation called "The Giant Slayer." The concert was quite involved and it was decided to wait until the beginning of term 3 to complete the musical production. All the primary teachers helped the music teacher with the final preparations, and the last week before the show there were two practices daily and two dress rehearsals. The final performance was on the evening of September 28. Two of Julie's students had key roles in the story of David slaying the giant Goliath. Pictured below is one of her students who played David. He not only did the acting extremely well, but he also sang a lovely solo song. Many of her other students were either part of the Philistine Army (in black costumes) or in the Israelite army (in white costumes).


One other student was Goliath, and he sat on the shoulders of one of a tall secondary (high school) student so that he would tower above all the other students performing in the play.
The concert was outside in a small amphitheater at the school and it was a lovely evening for all who attended. To prepare for the presentation took everyday of the scheduled afternoon activity time. Now that the concert is over, Julie will start having Bible Club one day a week at the school again in the afternoon.

We continue to see colorful plants and birds everywhere here. Below is the FMS car, affectionately referred to as the "Jelly Bean", in the airport parking lot parked under a blooming bush.
Next is a Black Necked Barbet in a tree in our yard eating Papayas.
We are thankful for our continued friendship with Misheck and Mmatshimo who help care for the house and property where we live. They have become like family to us. Misheck takes such good care of the plants in our yard and is pictures below in the vegetable garden he planted for all of us to eat from. We are still waiting for Debra to deliver any day now. Please pray for a safe delivery of the baby and also continue to pray that Misheck's work permit paperwork will go through successfully.

An additional praise is that Innara has safely returned to Zimbabwe. She has tried to call a few times from there, but we have been disconnected each time. Our hope and prayer is that she will continue to grow in the knowledge of God's love for her and Gift. We trust they will remain healthy and happy there with her mother. Please pray that the Lord will continue to provide for her physical and spiritual needs.

Another praise is Daniel, our next door neighbor. When the Kowalskis were living in the flats, Daniel and his little sister were always over playing with Abigail and Jacob. When helping with the Bible camp in August, Cheryl invited him to come with us and he did. On the last night at camp, an alter call was given to see if there were any children that wanted to accept Jesus as their Savior and Daniel raised his hand. Since then, he has faithfully been attending church with us each Sunday. Cheryl and I were able to get him a youth Bible that he could easily understand, and he has been reading through it regularly ever since it was given to him.

As for us, we are so thankful to the Lord for the opportunity to be here in Botswana. We continue to seek direction and wisdom in ways we can help and encourage others that the Lord has placed in our lives. It is our hope that those we have been drawn to, "May be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may know the mystery of God, namely Christ." Colossians 2:2.