Gaborone Botswana

Last Saturday we were in Gaborone to do a stake audit and to meet with our newly called Assistant Area Auditor.   On Sunday Chris & I were asked to share our testimonies in sacrament meeting.  I was touched by the members who have been preparing to go to the JoBurg Temple on Tuesday and their talks were focused on the temple.  I was particularly excited because Tuesday is the day Chris & I serve in the temple.

A brother spoke of his grandmother who raised him and how excited he was to go and do her work. He bore a beautiful testimony of the Savior saying:  "I don't think He lives, I know He lives.  Gone are the days when I feel He lives, I know."  He looked at Chris and I and said "I look forward to my hair turning gray & I'm still serving the Lord with my wife."

A sister who spoke said "If you knew you were going to go and meet the Lord next week, what would you do this week to prepare for that experience?  We should do that same preparation for our visit to the temple, the Lord's Holy House."

Saturday after our meetings we went for a drive.  Last time we were here we drove around trying to find the set for Number One Ladies Detective Agency but never found it.  This time we tried finding some other things....ha ha...same luck...but I did bring home some Kalahari sand.  I'll give some to my sand saving friend Lisa, in Sequim.  :)

Chris asking directions

Weaving a wall hanging

Woman's weaving workshop

Stopping for lunch

Mmmm - this was my lunch!

Creative re-purposing

Keeping out of the warm sunshine

We passed hundreds of baboons on our way home

Here is a description from Chris:  

The guide book said “The Batswana regard the Matsieng Rock Carvings as one of the four ‘creation sites’.  The footprint and rock carvings belong to the Matsieng, who marched out of a hole followed by wild and domestic animals.” This sounded fun.  

The guidebook went on: “The site lies at the end of a well-signposted 1 km-long 2WD track that starts about 6 km north of Pilane.”  We found a single sign about 12 km north of Pilane.  The sign led us to a gate that said that there was an airshow in progress and we were not permitted to enter.  

Our car was sinking in the Kalahari sand so we gave up and went back to town.  We asked the stake president about the site: the airshow was 3 weeks ago; they forgot to take the sign down.  Was it worth going back up and braving the sand to get to the site?  “No, not much to see”, he said.

We decided to visit the museum in Mochudi.  We found a few signs but no museum.  The GPS even had it listed in its “historical” sites.  No museum.  

We decided to visit the weavers in Oodi.  Hooray, we found them after repeatedly stopping to ask questions.  They wanted $100 for some of their weavings.  (We didn't buy one)

There were hundreds of baboons lining the road on our way from Gaborone to Zeerust today.  They were waving and cheering as we drove by.  I felt like we were in a parade!