I'm sorry for the long delay between posts. I know that there have been emails flying over the ocean during these past few months, but not much posted here. If there are items of prayer or celebration, let's get them up here to share with each other.
I also wanted to list the "official" email addresses so that we can keep in better contact with each other...
The Email for Old Naledi Baptist Fellowship is:
naledi_baptist_fellowship@yahoo.com
The Email for Harvest Fellowship is:
botswana@harvestfellowshipks.org
(Or, if you wish, you may also visit www.harvestfellowshipks.org)
Thanks for your continued prayers. Kevin will be posting here soon...
Because He lives,
"Moruti Dave"
Thursday, September 21, 2006
Beth Shanholtzer - 1
(Beth is from the Harvest family and is currently travelling the Botswana countryside with 4-H. She can be reached at: bshanholtzer@gmail.com
The following is an update from her adventures.)
Hello all and greetings from Maun, Botswana. A lot has happened since my last update so I will try to keep this email as concise as possible without leaving any of the important stuff out!
After leaving the Kalahari Desert, we were moved to the NW district where the Okavango Delta is located and where tourism is thriving. Let me tell you, the change was HUGE. First the climate change from the desert to the delta and then the change from small town with no tourists to large towns with lots of tourists. The first thing that Lindsey and I noticed here was the increased number of white people. In fact, Lindsey's host father was a white man who had been born and raised here in Botswana! He was great and took us on our first game drive into the national park here in Maun and also took us fishing in the delta. It was fabulous. It is amazing how clear the water is in the delta...you could watch the fish swim up to your lure and then watch them contemplate biting it and then actually watch as they took hold. In fact, I got too excited several times and ripped the lure away before the fish had time to bite! He also took us to his cattle post which is about a three hours drive from Maun and approximately 60 miles from the nearest village. It is beautiful there and we enjoyed three days of nothing. We sat and watched the birds, wrote in our journals, read our books, helped work cattle, helped milk cattle, and went on an 8km horseback ride through the desert! It was amazing! We fell asleep every night listening to the sound of crickets and jackals in the distance. He also took us to a cave near his cattlepost and we explored it for an afternoon. Geologists aged the cave at over 2 million years old and the stalagmites and stalagtites were gorgeous.
My family in Maun was also great. They lived on one of the rivers that runs through town and were a family of 10 so they kept me busy. They own a convienent store in the middle of Maun so they were always busy in town and it was great to be able to hang out with the kids while mom and dad were gone. Lindsey and I spent the entire two weeks together because Lindsey's dad had to leave on business so we stayed with my family for the first four days, then stayed with her family for six or seven days and then spent the remainder of the time back with my family. The schools were out on a month holiday so we couldn't work with the 4B program and enjoyed spending our time seeing the sights of Maun and the surrounding area.
From Maun we then moved to Kasane. Kasane is also a large tourist area and my family took advantage of that by owning a guest house (bed and breakfast) in town. They also owned a large camp site about 20kms from Kasane in the little town where they lived called Lesoma. It is located right along the Zimbabwe/Botswana border and booming with wildlife. Everyday on the drive from Lesoma to Kasane we saw elephant or some other sort of wildlife. There were many times on our way home at night that we would have to stop to let a herd of elephants cross the road! This family was also a large family and had sons and daughters that were around my age so I enjoyed talking to them and hanging out with them. Lindsey stayed with my family a lot due to her host mom who was lacking in hospitality and just a very busy person period.
After Kasane, we started our two weeks of free time out by traveling to Livingstone, Zambia to see Victoria Falls, one of the natural wonders of the world. The falls were gorgeous even though it was the dry season and there was only 20,000 cubic meters of water going over the gorge instead of 10,000,000 during the wet season. While in Livingstone we also went Jet Boating on the Zambezi River and floated down the rapids below the falls. After returning from Zambia, we stayed for three nights at a safari lodge in Kasane and pampered ourselves a little before heading back to Maun to go on a fishing trip with Lindsey's last host father. We went fishing for Tiger fish on the Kavango River north of Maun and camped in the wilderness for two nights. We then came back to Maun and are spending our time here just hanging out and finishing up things we need to get done.
We move to our 7th host family on Monday in Maitengwe (I think I spelled that correctly) which is also right along the Zimbabwe/Botswana border. It is amazing to think our trip is over half way over and we will be returning to the states in just two short months! I hope everyone is doing well back in the states and keep me informed on any new happenings.
Love,
Beth
The following is an update from her adventures.)
Hello all and greetings from Maun, Botswana. A lot has happened since my last update so I will try to keep this email as concise as possible without leaving any of the important stuff out!
After leaving the Kalahari Desert, we were moved to the NW district where the Okavango Delta is located and where tourism is thriving. Let me tell you, the change was HUGE. First the climate change from the desert to the delta and then the change from small town with no tourists to large towns with lots of tourists. The first thing that Lindsey and I noticed here was the increased number of white people. In fact, Lindsey's host father was a white man who had been born and raised here in Botswana! He was great and took us on our first game drive into the national park here in Maun and also took us fishing in the delta. It was fabulous. It is amazing how clear the water is in the delta...you could watch the fish swim up to your lure and then watch them contemplate biting it and then actually watch as they took hold. In fact, I got too excited several times and ripped the lure away before the fish had time to bite! He also took us to his cattle post which is about a three hours drive from Maun and approximately 60 miles from the nearest village. It is beautiful there and we enjoyed three days of nothing. We sat and watched the birds, wrote in our journals, read our books, helped work cattle, helped milk cattle, and went on an 8km horseback ride through the desert! It was amazing! We fell asleep every night listening to the sound of crickets and jackals in the distance. He also took us to a cave near his cattlepost and we explored it for an afternoon. Geologists aged the cave at over 2 million years old and the stalagmites and stalagtites were gorgeous.
My family in Maun was also great. They lived on one of the rivers that runs through town and were a family of 10 so they kept me busy. They own a convienent store in the middle of Maun so they were always busy in town and it was great to be able to hang out with the kids while mom and dad were gone. Lindsey and I spent the entire two weeks together because Lindsey's dad had to leave on business so we stayed with my family for the first four days, then stayed with her family for six or seven days and then spent the remainder of the time back with my family. The schools were out on a month holiday so we couldn't work with the 4B program and enjoyed spending our time seeing the sights of Maun and the surrounding area.
From Maun we then moved to Kasane. Kasane is also a large tourist area and my family took advantage of that by owning a guest house (bed and breakfast) in town. They also owned a large camp site about 20kms from Kasane in the little town where they lived called Lesoma. It is located right along the Zimbabwe/Botswana border and booming with wildlife. Everyday on the drive from Lesoma to Kasane we saw elephant or some other sort of wildlife. There were many times on our way home at night that we would have to stop to let a herd of elephants cross the road! This family was also a large family and had sons and daughters that were around my age so I enjoyed talking to them and hanging out with them. Lindsey stayed with my family a lot due to her host mom who was lacking in hospitality and just a very busy person period.
After Kasane, we started our two weeks of free time out by traveling to Livingstone, Zambia to see Victoria Falls, one of the natural wonders of the world. The falls were gorgeous even though it was the dry season and there was only 20,000 cubic meters of water going over the gorge instead of 10,000,000 during the wet season. While in Livingstone we also went Jet Boating on the Zambezi River and floated down the rapids below the falls. After returning from Zambia, we stayed for three nights at a safari lodge in Kasane and pampered ourselves a little before heading back to Maun to go on a fishing trip with Lindsey's last host father. We went fishing for Tiger fish on the Kavango River north of Maun and camped in the wilderness for two nights. We then came back to Maun and are spending our time here just hanging out and finishing up things we need to get done.
We move to our 7th host family on Monday in Maitengwe (I think I spelled that correctly) which is also right along the Zimbabwe/Botswana border. It is amazing to think our trip is over half way over and we will be returning to the states in just two short months! I hope everyone is doing well back in the states and keep me informed on any new happenings.
Love,
Beth
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